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Thursday, September 23, 2010
Anna's 2nd Birthday Cake
I don't know why, but over the past two years our little girl has acquired a plethora of nicknames...most of them ending in 'bees'. These include Annabees, Wigglebees, Stinkerbees...sometimes she even calls me mommerbees. So, I thought it only fitting to make her a bumble bee cake. She absolutely loved it!
My First Wedding Cake
After, many hours of practice, the messiest kitchen I have ever seen and just a few tears, I completed my first wedding cake. It was scary and so much fun at the same time. I have to thank Heather and Ethan, the bride and groom, for taking a chance and letting me make the cake in the first place. I don't know if I ever would have done it if not for Heather telling me that she was sure that the cake would be perfect and she trusted me. Crongrats Heather & Ethan and much thanks to you both!
This cake has so much story, mostly because I had it on my plate for such a long time, that I'll make it short.
The hard parts of this cake for me were:
1. Finding a cake recipe that tasted good but was still dense enough to hold the weight of fondant, decorations and smaller stacked cakes.
2. Getting the largest of the square cake pans to fit in our oven.
3. The cakes were square. Who knew that a square cake would be so much harder to fondant than a round cake?
4. Driving the cakes to the event space where the wedding was held.
The best part of making this cake:
The bride cried...in a happy kind of way.
Here are some pictures of the cake, although these pictures aren't very good. I am hoping to get some better ones from the wedding photographer that I can post at a later date.
This cake has so much story, mostly because I had it on my plate for such a long time, that I'll make it short.
The hard parts of this cake for me were:
1. Finding a cake recipe that tasted good but was still dense enough to hold the weight of fondant, decorations and smaller stacked cakes.
2. Getting the largest of the square cake pans to fit in our oven.
3. The cakes were square. Who knew that a square cake would be so much harder to fondant than a round cake?
4. Driving the cakes to the event space where the wedding was held.
The best part of making this cake:
The bride cried...in a happy kind of way.
Here are some pictures of the cake, although these pictures aren't very good. I am hoping to get some better ones from the wedding photographer that I can post at a later date.
My Favorite Birthday Cake
It was my birthday a couple of week's ago, and many of you asked who makes my birthday cake. Well, I do. My husband is the best cook ever, but he does not bake and that's just fine with me since I love to do it.
This year I was thinking back and remembering the birthday cake my mom used to make for me. Oh, how I loved that cake. It is a chocolate cake piled with the best chocolate frosting you have ever tasted. So, I called my mom to see if she could dig up the old recipe and she found it!
The cake and frosting were simple enough to make and it tasted just as I remember it. I loved it. Now, if I take a step back and really try to critique it, it is not the best cake ever. It is interesting because for the large amount of liquid the cake recipe called for the cake is actually really dry and crumbly. The cake also lacks an intense chocolate flavor. But I must say, the chocolate frosting is still the best chocolate frosting that I've ever had. It is a milk chocolate frosting and although I usually prefer the cake over the frosting in most cases, this frosting you might just be able to eat all by itself (although probably only in small quantities :)).
This year, although I made the cake, my 4 year old son, Austin, was in charge of the decorating. The thick sugar "crust" lent and interesting and unique spin to my favorite chocolate birthday cake.
And that's just what it is. My favorite chocolate birthday cake. It may not be perfect or to anyone else's liking, but it is the birthday cake I love and will always love because it is the cake I have always had on my birthday.
Overall rating: 5 out of 5
All for sentimental reasons
This year I was thinking back and remembering the birthday cake my mom used to make for me. Oh, how I loved that cake. It is a chocolate cake piled with the best chocolate frosting you have ever tasted. So, I called my mom to see if she could dig up the old recipe and she found it!
The cake and frosting were simple enough to make and it tasted just as I remember it. I loved it. Now, if I take a step back and really try to critique it, it is not the best cake ever. It is interesting because for the large amount of liquid the cake recipe called for the cake is actually really dry and crumbly. The cake also lacks an intense chocolate flavor. But I must say, the chocolate frosting is still the best chocolate frosting that I've ever had. It is a milk chocolate frosting and although I usually prefer the cake over the frosting in most cases, this frosting you might just be able to eat all by itself (although probably only in small quantities :)).
This year, although I made the cake, my 4 year old son, Austin, was in charge of the decorating. The thick sugar "crust" lent and interesting and unique spin to my favorite chocolate birthday cake.
And that's just what it is. My favorite chocolate birthday cake. It may not be perfect or to anyone else's liking, but it is the birthday cake I love and will always love because it is the cake I have always had on my birthday.
Overall rating: 5 out of 5
All for sentimental reasons
Monday, September 6, 2010
High Hat Cupcakes
These are awesome cupcakes! I finally did it, even Morgan loved them...and how did I know this? Well, at first I wasn't so sure. He ate his first cupcake and seemed like he really enjoyed it. He even said it was one of the best ones yet. However, I know he really liked them because the following morning our little lady woke up at 4am and Morgan went and laid in her bed with her to get her to go back to sleep. At around 6:30am I went in to wake him up so that he could get ready to go to work and he jolted awake and looked like he didn't know where he was. then he asked me if he had been downstairs already. I explained that as far as I knew he had fallen asleep in Anna's bed with her and that was all. He told me that he must have dreamt getting up from Anna's bed and going downstairs to have one of the cupcakes...that's how delicious they are...so delicious he dreams about them. Yeah!
This cupcake has a delicious dark chocolate cupcake bottom which I topped with a wonderful marshmallow meringue type frosting. The frosting was not as light as I thought it would be, which I found was because it had to withhold the weight of the topping. The marshmallow creme was perfect, not too sweet and not too sticky.
The best part was the chocolate coating. Completing this part of the cupcakes reminded me of my first job working the Dairy Queen drive thru..and who doesn't love a chocolate dipped cone? I made the chocolate coating in a double boiler on the stove and once it had cooled, I carefully dipped the top half of the cupcake in the chocolate and set them out to dry.
I wish I had taken a better picture of this cupcake,but they were so delicious that most of them were gone before I even got the chance to take photos of them!
Overall rating: 4.9 out of 5
This cupcake has a delicious dark chocolate cupcake bottom which I topped with a wonderful marshmallow meringue type frosting. The frosting was not as light as I thought it would be, which I found was because it had to withhold the weight of the topping. The marshmallow creme was perfect, not too sweet and not too sticky.
The best part was the chocolate coating. Completing this part of the cupcakes reminded me of my first job working the Dairy Queen drive thru..and who doesn't love a chocolate dipped cone? I made the chocolate coating in a double boiler on the stove and once it had cooled, I carefully dipped the top half of the cupcake in the chocolate and set them out to dry.
I wish I had taken a better picture of this cupcake,but they were so delicious that most of them were gone before I even got the chance to take photos of them!
Overall rating: 4.9 out of 5
