Minion Cake and Cupcakes

Red velvet cake and chocolate cupcakes decorated as Stuart the Minion. These were birthday desserts for a 7 year-old's party.

Inspiration taken from this one on the Betty Crocker website. The main change was baking a cupcake for the eye in a silver foil wrapper.

The cupcakes are decorated with frosting, with a necco wafer for an eye to make it a little more 3D.

Flag Cake 2015

Happy 239th Birthday America! I made you a cake.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

I wonder if someone in the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia company has Celiac Disease or another gluten intolerance because the few gluten-free recipes I've tried from the website have been pretty good. They actually taste like baked goods and not some no-flour concoction. This recipe was baked in a springform pan, which was exciting since I don't use that tool often enough. 

Bunny Cake 2014

I know these posts are very belated, but I thought last Easter's bunny cake was especially cute so I'm posting it. Ditto for the future July 4th flag cake post.

Sugar-filled Thanks

Apple pie with crumb topping, which was one of my contribution to Thanksgiving 2014.

The other was the Pecan Cake with Rum Frosting pictured on the top right below.

It was kind of a monochromatic palette. It was fall.

Darth Vader Cake

I got a chance to implement my newly minted skills with this challenging cake! The cake pan came with directions of what decorating tip to use with each section in order to achieve the various textures and look. My cake was more challenging because I used chocolate frosting (which I darkened with some black dye) which is harder to control than buttercream. If I did it again, I might use chocolate buttercream or regular buttercream dyed black.

I was very proud of how it turned out. I forgot to take a picture before I delivered the cake so I had the party organizer take a picture for me. It's a little fuzzy, but it still looks awesome!

The Wilton Method Course Two: Flowers and Cake Design

I took the second Wilton Course to build on what I learned in the first one. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from the first three classes because they didn't end with anything worth shooting. Mostly, we practiced making flowers from royal icing and tracing patterns with buttercream icing.

For the final project (class four) we had to decorate a cake with the techniques of our choosing. I made some royal icing flowers the night before but didn't really have a plan for the entire cake. Here's what I ended up doing:

I really like the basket weave white-on-white look, but I'm not sure the cake works as a whole.

I'm glad I took both classes. I would recommend the in-person classes to anyone who likes to bake but isn't innately good at frosting and decorating. It helped to have an instructor guide me through each flower and border. Plus, each class ends with a snack!

Plants vs Zombies

These cupcakes and cake were for my littlest nephew's Plants vs. Zombies themed birthday party. I frosted and my sister decorated with the rolled buttercream fondant made (and dyed!) by yours truly.

Sunflower, Peashooter & Corn Gunner vs. Zombies & Conehead Zombies

My nephew made the paper decorations that topped the game board cake. He is a very talented artist!

Dem Bones

This cake was a commission for a teenager's birthday. I don't think it was part of a larger pirate-themed party, but you could certainly adapt it for that use.

I found a template online and used the transfer technique I learned in my Building Buttercream Skills class to decorate it. I thought it turned out really nice and I heard that the birthday boy loved it!

Flag Cake (Blueberries and Cherries)

The Fourth of July Flag Cake was a little different this year since I used buttercream frosting and cherries instead of whipped cream (or Cool Whip) and strawberries. There was no substitute for the blueberries. I also gave it the right number of red and white stripes, which came out crooked even though I made hash marks. Maybe we'll try it again next year.

Building Buttercream Skills, Class Four (Final Project)

I chose to make ribbon roses for my final project cake. We learned leaves in an earlier class (which are harder than you think!) so I put a few near the roses to give the cake a more "bakery" look. I also practiced my lettering skills and wrote an early birthday greeting on the cake.

Overall, it was a fun class and it made me more confident in using a decorating bag and frosting tips. I will definitely be experimenting with the techniques I learned in this course!

Building Buttercream Skills, Class Two

In the second class, we learned how to torte, fill and frost a cake. I chose strawberry jam to go inside my yellow cake. The cake was a sugar bomb since the Wilton recipe for buttercream icing is so sweet!

Bunny Baking

I was ambitious this Easter and made a bunny cake, Easter egg cupcakes and assorted Easter-shaped cut-out cookies.

I left the bow tie coconut free. Need help assembling your own bunny cake? Click here for video instructions!

My tia gave me some Easter egg cupcake tins that she bought at a garage sale. This was the first time I used them, and they were cute so I might make them again next year. 

Usually cut-out cookies require frosting and decorating, which I've complained about before. I didn't think I could enlist frosters and decorators like I can at Christmas so I sprinkled them with assorted colored sugar before I popped them in the oven. The decorating was complete as soon as they came off of the baking sheet. And they were still pretty and tasty!

Valentine

My eldest nephew's Valentine's Day birthday cake. This year his little brother helped me put some heart-shaped sprinkles on both the main cake and the cupcakes. I thought the fresh strawberries would give it a bakery look. 

As usual, the cake was Double Fudge Chocolate Cake with raisin-size pieces of dried strawberries. The frosting is Mrs. Milman's Chocolate Frosting. The cupcakes don't have any dried strawberry pieces for the crazy few guests who don't like that delicious combination.

The center of the two-layer cake (not pictured) was diced fresh strawberries in a strawberry glaze. I've been looking for a homemade strawberry glaze recipe for years, and it only occurred to me to look for one in a strawberry pie recipe this year. It was sweet and delicious, and I'll never use store-bought glaze again!

Thanksgiving Treats

I've fallen a bit behind on my posts. Hey! Remember Thanksgiving? It's my favorite holiday and not just because of the four desserts we served this year. The goodies are pictured below.

From left to right: apple pie with a crumb topping, pumpkin roll, cheesecake topped with pomegranate arils, and pumpkin pie. I made the apple pie and the cheesecake.

We have a "family" recipe for cheesecake, but I wanted to try a recipe that used a springform pan since I bought one ages ago but have never used it. After reading a few recipes, I chose the Classic Cheesecake recipe because I liked the inclusion of sour cream in both the main cheesecake and the topping. It produced a silky smooth texture in the dense dessert and gave the topping the right amount of tang for a nice contrast. I believe I followed the recipe, but I might have omitted the orange zest (sorry, it's been a while.)

The apple pie recipe came from my King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the crumb or streusel topping so I might try a different version next time.

German's Sweet Chocolate Cake

I had never made a German Chocolate Cake, or as it's called in the linked recipe, German's Sweet Chocolate Cake. So after a funny exchange with my Tia about what to make for Memorial Day, I decided to make one for that holiday's dessert.

I don't have three 9-inch round cake pans, so I did two layers and had a lot of frosting leftovers as a consequence. Still, it looked and tasted like classic German Chocolate Cake (I should have taken a better side picture to show the filling between the layers.) The gooey frosting was a perfect match to the sweet and light chocolate cake.

Cake And Cake

The last two cakes I made were not new recipes, but I'm posting pictures because they were decorated with the help of my littlest nephew. 

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

decorated with green sanding sugar and shamrock sprinkles for St. Patrick's Day

Yellow Layer Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

decorated with red and blue sanding sugar, fresh raspberries and white chocolate chips

And the Award Goes to... Chocolate Lava Cake!!!

Chocolate Lava Cake

I first made these cakes for New Year's Eve. I stretched the batter to make five cakes that night since there were five people, which worked out fine since we had eaten a lot before dessert. This picture is from my latest baking on Oscar night. This time I stuck closer to the original recipe although both times I cut down on the amount of sugar.

I wanted to try my hand at this type of dessert for a while, but I never had the occasion since most recipes make a small batch and call for the cakes to be served warm. For such a ubiquitous fancy restaurant dessert, it was remarkably quick and easy.

I'm not a big chocoholic so I don't have a lot of experience with soft-center chocolate mini-cakes, but these were very good. They were rich and decadent and worthy of Oscar night! I found this recipe on The Pioneer Woman site, which links to the original recipe on the Tasty Kitchen site.

Chocolate Heart

Another Valentine's Day birthday cake for my oldest nephew's golden birthday. Double-fudge chocolate cake with dried strawberries inside. Chocolate glaze and fresh strawberries for decoration.

I had to improvise a container to hold the cake since it was too big for any of my normal carriers. I used a cardboard shoe (boot) box. It's a good thing I don't have delicate feet!

Bûche de Noël

This year's New Year's Day dessert was inspired by my sister. She mentioned it more than once while she was home. I guess she and I made a Bûche de Noël in French class when we were in high school, but I don't remember baking one. I do remember that we made brioche rolls that were très jolie. 

Yule Log

Chocolate-filled

There were plenty of recipes from which to chose, but I thought the yellow cake/chocolate filling/chocolate icing combo was the most appealing. I followed this recipe, but I switched the darker frosting to the outside and used the fluffier lighter-colored frosting for the filling. It just made more sense. I didn't have time to make any marzipan mushrooms, but I think it looks like a log, nonetheless.