Friendly Rose Cake

Yellow roses are suppose to represent friendship and I believe this cake is very friendly.

I mean, who would not want to be friends with a chocolate cake with light yellow buttercream? The chocolate cake was one of my favorites-One Bowl Chocolate Cake. I'm not sure why it's called "one bowl" because you really use 2 but I don't question Martha's methods. I modified my favorite buttercream recipe and it is now my FAVORITE favorite buttercream recipe.

Basically it was this:

4 sticks of unsalted butter, softened

8 cups of confectioner's sugar

6 tablespoons of heavy cream

4 teaspoons vanilla (I used clear for this recipe)

Blend the butter until smooth and add one cup of confectioner's sugar at a time. Add heavy cream and vanilla and blend until smooth.

Of course these "rose" cakes have been all over the baking blogs lately but I hadn't seen one quite like this. Most were one color and I thought it would look lovely to do a variation of the same shade. Yellow and chocolate seemed to be a good combination and I'm glad I chose it instead of something more predictable (ahem, pink). Only having one 1M tip made it a little difficult since I couldn't alternate the colors and had to do one at a time. I went back and filled in what I could with the tip and added a few more roses to hide some holes. This is my new favorite tip and I'm excited to use it next time I make cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes with yellow roses would be lovely too!

Baking Lust: Fresh Florals

I've been saving these up for a while now on Pinterest. I know edible flowers are impressive but they still don't beat the real thing in my book.

Source: 100layercake.com

This cake is pretty much perfection. And the glass cup holding the flowers?! Great idea.

Source: weddings.theknot.com

Buttercream and Baby's Breath.

Source: lunaandchloeweddings.com via Taylor on Pinterest

Love this one!

Source: stylemepretty.com

Another pretty purple arrangement.

Source: stylemepretty.com

Love this small cake surrounded by flowers on the glass cake plate.

Source: weddingchicks.com

So rustic and pretty!

Source: weddingchicks.com via

Chocolate ganache with peach flowers makes a lovely combination too.

Source: stylemepretty.com

Source: mariahinafrica.blogspot.com

Love the yellow with the bright pink and orange flowers.

Key Lime Pound Cake

I was so excited to try it this morning when I woke up that I couldn't even wait til after I went running or to take a photo.

Spring break has finally arrived and I promised myself that with spring break would come more baking. It's not that I haven't baked anything since my last actual baking post (was that the Caramel Cake in January?!) but just not managed to put baking+photos+blog post all together.

When I first saw this cake in Southern Living magazine I knew I had to bake it. Key Lime Pie, well let me rephrase that, Good Key Lime Pie is one of my favorites and you know Southerners love their pound cake so it was a win-win scenario. It's very springtime. The cake has just a hint of lime and the glaze is very tangy. The best part: not dry at all! I hate a dry pound cake.

The cake is easy to make, that is if you like juicing key limes. It's been a while since I've made a Key Lime Pie so I had totally forgotten how annoying that is. After about the 15th lime and maybe 1/8 cup of juice (half of the total) I tried to imagine I was a giant and was juicing regular size limes with my giant hands. That really didn't make it any more fun. Then I was overly anxious to see how much juice I had so I poured it in my 1/4 measuring cup. Halfway there. So I kept on juicing. A few limes later I was overly excited again so I picked up the halfway full measuring cup of lime juice. I hit it on something sitting nearby and juice spilled everywhere. Ahhhh! A few expletives and dozen key limes later I had enough and thus ended my juicing. Well, until I had to make the glaze...

Key Lime Pound Cake

~Southern Living Magazine

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lime zest
• 1/4 cup fresh Key lime juice

Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh Key lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• 1. Preheat oven to 325°. Beat butter and shortening at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.
• 2. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla, lime zest, and lime juice. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch (12-cup) tube pan.
• 3. Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack.
• 4. Prepare Key Lime Glaze, and immediately brush over top and sides of cake. Cool completely (about 1 hour).

Cake and Dress: Hydrangea

Source: iammommy.typepad.com

Source: anthropologie.com via Taylor on Pinterest

Banana Pudding Cake

Years ago, probably in high school, I made banana pudding for my dad. It was a baked banana pudding which is apparently the proper way to make it. Well, don't tell that to my dad. He straight up told me he preferred my grandmother's instant vanilla pudding, cool whip, refrigerator version. Not sure if I've ever made baked banana pudding since then! I learned my lesson. When it comes to something my grandmother makes and my dad likes, don't mess with it.

So it makes no sense that when my grandmother called me on Saturday to see if I was going to make my dad a birthday cake I decided to make him a banana pudding...cake.

I've never made a banana cake and even though I love bananas, I've never loved banana bread/baked things. This cake changed my mind though. Very good. Very. Very. The vanilla wafer toffee was made but I didn't like the look of it so much (although it tasted yummy) so I just used vanilla wafer crumbs. Oh, and the vanilla whipped cream? What isn't there to love about that?

Banana Pudding Cake

from Sugar Plum~Makes 10 servings

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large bananas, mashed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large egg yolks
3/4 cup buttermilk

Vanilla Wafer Toffee
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups coarsely chopped chopped vanilla wafer cookies

Vanilla Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour bottom and sides of a 10-inch springform pan.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, oil, sugar and banana until creamy - about 1-2 minutes. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla until combined - about 1 minute. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually beat in flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, until combined.

Place batter in pan; bake 30 minutes or until well risen and golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the Vanilla Wafer Toffee, melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat; whisk in brown sugar, cream and salt and bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Keep whisking and cooking for a minute or two, until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and stir in vanilla wafers until well coated. Scatter wafer pieces over a greased cookie sheet. Bake 8 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Cool on waxed paper, breaking toffee into smaller pieces.

To make the Vanilla Whipped Cream, beat cream, sugar and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on high speed, until stiff peaks form.

To assemble the cake, first remove sides from springform pan. Pipe or spread whipped cream over cake. Sprinkle vanilla wafer toffee on top of cake.

Caramel Cake: Revisited 1 Year Later

Friday, on the way home, I had a baking craving. I love baking cravings. I had no idea what I was going to bake but I was going to bake something. Somehow caramel cake popped up into my head. I thought of my first and last caramel cake attempt. It was a good cake but thinking back on it it was a little cakey. I should have split those 3 layers into 6 and upped the caramel to cake ratio.

Here is the sappy, sticky, sweet part:

Last year when I made the cake it was a random baking event and ended up taking it to a small engagement party for two friends who had just recently gotten engaged. I'm thinking about all of this driving home and I remembered a conversation I had that night with newly engaged Heather about how I had a date the next night with an art director in Charlotte. That's what I called him I think. Our first date was January 10th. So, I'm making caramel cake the same weekend as I did last year. The first weekend in January. The weekend of my first date with Jon. That is why I had caramel cake on the brain (or heart).

Here is the recipe I had saved and forgotten about. It was okay. Didn't quite live up to my expectations. The cake was ever so slightly dry and the caramel was good but maybe because I forgot to add the vanilla at the end it wasn't as good as it could have been. Oh, and the presentation...I had to tell Jon it was supposed to look like that! Jon and I took it to poker night and when he told the sad story of how I didn't make him a birthday cake we turned this into a 5 month late celebration. I told him to look sad in the photo.

Farm Birthday Cake

Baby Maddox is growing up! Last weekend he celebrated his 1st birthday party. Stephanie had the most adorable decorations and party food.

Here is his farm birthday cake. The top tier was vanilla butter cake with buttercream and buttercream fondant. The bottom tier was chocolate cake with buttercream and buttercream fondant. I used a new vanilla cake recipe which I'll have to share very soon because it was delicious! I managed to cover both tiers and make all the "accessories" with one tub of fondant. My favorite addition was the tiny ears of fondant corn! I also worked extra hard on the cow and pig's ears, ha.

I also made Maddox a little cake to tear up. It was just butter cake with vanilla buttercream. The ducks of course are fondant and I used piping gel for the water. Maddox enjoyed chewing on the ducks.

Not the party hat!!!

Cake makes everything better!

Too cute!

Happy 100- Lemon Madeleines

I've been holding out posting forever. One reason (besides never uploading photos) is because I was at 99 posts and I wanted to do something above and beyond fancy for my 100th. But...that never happened.

However, I've had this madeleine pan for over a year. I found it while walking around the antique store down the street and believe I paid $2 for it. So what has it been doing the last year? It's been hanging on the wall in my kitchen. Several people have commented on it then asked, "Wait, is that some kind of baking thing?" Yes, but I just haven't used it yet.

So finally over spring break, or maybe the week before I can't even remember, I made madeleines.

Lemon Madeleines

~Adapted from Martha Stewart

3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks) melted, plus more for pans

1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted (not self rising)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

3 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla

2 teaspoons lemon zest

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons)

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter madeleine pan; set aside. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl; set aside.

2. Put eggs, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and juice in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and thickened, about 5 minutes. Mix in butter. Using a spatula, fold flour mixture into egg mixture. Let rest 30 minutes. (I think I forgot that last step!)

3. Pour batter into buttered pans, filling the molds 3/4 full. Bake cookies, rotating pans halfway through until edges are crisp and golden, 7 to 8 minutes. Let cookies cool slightly in pans on wire racks. Invert, and unmold. Dust with confectioners' sugar, if desired. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 1 day. (Umm...sorry Martha I think they can stick around at least 2 or 3 and be fine)

The cookies were sort of like a lighter pound cake. The lemon was just right. I never got around to the powdered sugar step but I'm sure that would be a nice touch.

Rainbow Birthday Cake

My cousins Allison and Amy have birthdays 2 days apart. They asked me to make their cake. Amy wanted chocolate cake, Allison wanted vanilla. They did agree on light blue frosting.

So I kept it simple.

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but only on the outside!

I used Magnolia's Birthday Cake recipe with Cream Cheese Icing.

And it was reallllly good.

I'm way behind on my baking posts.

In the mean time, here is a lovely cake topper!

@ togetherforever on Etsy

Gender Neutral Baby Shower Cake: For Sale!

Update! The cake has been resold to it's original buyer and will be enjoyed by many teachers on the first day back to school in nearly a week.

For Sale:

Listen to this:

Two weeks ago I was asked to make a cake for a co-worker's baby shower. She doesn't know what she is having so I was slightly perplexed at how to go about making a gender neutral baby shower cake. I probably looked through 1,000 photos on Cake Central before finally deciding on an idea: a slightly boyish pattern on the bottom tier and a more girly pattern on the top tier. It's been since the summer since I took on such a cake and had the entire weekend (+ 3 snow days) to work on it. The shower was originally supposed to be on Monday but was postponed to Thursday (tomorrow) since we were out because of the snow/ice. Since I hate dried out cake I waited as long as I could to make it and have been working on it off and on yesterday and today.

Tonight I finished it up and was happy to be done before 10:00. I was thinking of getting ready for bed and worry about how I was going to get it to work in the morning. Then...I decided to check my work e-mail. As of 9:00 p.m., the baby shower has been postponed again...UNTIL THE BABY IS BORN!!!!!!!

This cake isn't going to wait around for that!!!!

Now, what to do for my gender neutral baby shower cake that I was going to get $30 for? Will I still get that $30?!?!?

I'm planning on finding out that soon, but in the meantime, if you are in need of a cake (and a lot of it!) feel free to take it off my hands! Well, not "free" but maybe at a reduced price.

Easy to assemble!

Beatty's Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream!

Homemade Marshmallow Fondant!

Since it's "gender neutral" it'll work for any occasion!

Caramel Cake

For the new year I've decided that I need to try out a new recipe each week. At least one. Last week I actually tried out 2 new recipes but being busy with so many other things (and because I didn't put that much into the recipes themselves) I never got around to blogging about them. I'll do better though.

So despite getting 5 new cookbooks for Christmas with hundreds of baking recipes, I went to my old Paula Deen Just Desserts for this one. I've always wanted to make it and think about making it all the time. I'm pretty sure that that makes me weird but that's okay. Surely other people walk around and constantly think about things to bake. I know they do.

Week One- Caramel Cake (technically "Bobby's Caramel Cake")

I can't remember ever having Caramel Cake before but that being said, this cake is pretty delicious. The filling was so good (I made a slight mistake of adding too much milk to mine so it wasn't as thick as it should be, but still very tasty) and there is more than enough for the cake. I just kept pouring it on so it ran all over the place. I put my cake in the fridge overnight and made the frosting the next day. The only problem with this was the frosting was warm and the cake was cold so when I was frosting it so it sort of hardened immediately and was difficult to make pretty. But prettiness aside, I took it to Heather and Ashley's joint engagement celebration and it got good reviews from everyone!

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

3 cups sifted self-rising flour

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the filling:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 cups packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/3 cup heavy cream, or more if needed

1 (16 ounce) box confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Directions:

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 35o degrees. Grease and flour 3 (nine inch) round cake pans.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and milk, adding alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4-inches above counter and dropping it flat onto the counter. Do this several times to release the air bubbles and assure you more of a level cake. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown.

For the filling:

While cake is baking, in a saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar, and milk. Cook and stir over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Remove cake layers from oven and allow cake to remain in pans as you prepare to stack and fill. Remove first layer and invert onto cake plate. Pierce cake layer with a toothpick over entire surface. Spread 1/3 of filling mixture on cake layer. Top with second layer, repeat process. Top with last layer and repeat process again.

For the frosting:

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat and stir in brown sugar and cream. Bring to a boil, and transfer to a mixing bowl. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Beat with a handheld electric mixer until it reaches a spreading consistency. At this time it may be necessary to add a tablespoon of heavy cream, or more, if frosting gets too thick. Just be sure to add cream is small amounts because you can always "add to", but you can't take away. Frost cake and sprinkle top with chopped nuts, if desired.

Luau Birthday Cake

Sarah, daughter of a friend who used to work with me at Koontz, had a full out well decorated Luau 10th Birthday! When I dropped the cake off by the pool she was decked out in a grass skirt and everything!

For the bottom I was going for a sort of tiki-hut look after seeing some cakes on CakeCentral.com. The seashells and starfish were made using candy melts and a Wilton candy mold. The sand is brown sugar and graham crackers (and very tasty!).

I hope Sarah enjoys it for her Luau party :)

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Another Barefoot Contessa recipe from her Parties cookbook.  After typing up this recipe I realized I put in more sour cream than called for but it's very tasty.  I also doubled the streusel recipe which I think worked out better.  

The weather is forecasting 2-4 inches for Inauguration Day so I'm already looking forward to sitting on my couch with my cup of coffee and coffee cake to watch Obama take his oath of office.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

~Ina Garten - Barefoot Contessa Parties!

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 extra-large eggs at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups sour cream

2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self rising!)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For the Streusel:

3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 ground cinnamon

1/4 kosher salt

3 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter cut into pieces

3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

For the Glaze:

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

2 teaspoons maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a 1o inch tube pan.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for 4 to 5 minutes, until light.  Add the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla and sour cream.  In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined.  Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.  

For the streusel, place brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl and pinch together with your fingers until it forms a crumble.  Mix in walnuts, if desired.

Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread it around with a spatula.  Sprinkle with 3/4 of streusel.  Spoon the rest of the rest of the batter in the pan, spread it out, and scatter the remaining streusel on top.  Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.  

Let cool on rack at least 30 minutes.  Carefully transfer the cake, streusel side up, onto a serving plate.  Whisk the confectioners' sugar and maple syrup together, adding a few drops of water if necessary to make the glaze runny.  Drizzle as much as you like over the cake with a fork or spoon.