White Chocolate Cake

A couple of weeks ago was my hubby's birthday, which gave more then enough reason to bake a cake.  My initial plan was to use the cake pan that I bought Valentine's Day, but he didn't want me to do use it.  So, it was to Plan B.  (Why do they need to make things difficult?)  Anyway, off to think of something else.

With it only being three of us, I didn't need to make anything too big.  I decided on a two-layered round cake.  Since he isn't to fond of regular chocolate, I decided to make a White Chocolate Cake instead. I was able to find a recipe on one of my favorite sites allrecipes.com.  Here is the link to the recipe if you would like to check it out for yourself... http://allrecipes.com/recipe/white-chocolate-cake/detail.aspx .  The recipe also has the how-to to make a icing, but I didn't use that.  Because hubby really like white chocolate mousse, I decided to try something with that instead.  There was the hard decision to make in whether or not cover the whole cake or not.  After some thought I decided to got with just a layer of mousse in between the layers and on top of the cake.  It was just enough icing for the cake.

Mmmmmmm!

The cake itself is bit more dense then most cakes I have made, but it was not heavy and sit in your stomach.  It did look like a regular White Cake, but definitely had the light chocolate taste to it.  And of course the best thing about the cake was the birthday boy loved it.  That is all that matters, right?

Until next time.... Happy Baking!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

In my last post I had told you that a dear friend's birthday was coming up and she wanted red velvet for her cake.  This weekend was the first trial run of a recipe.  I thought I would start with a recipe from someone whom I believe is the epitome of Southern cooking.... Paula Deen.  I did not have to look very far on her website to find a recipe.  This is the one I used..... http://www.pauladeen.com/recipes/recipe_view/red_velvet_cupcakes_with_cream_cheese_frosting/ .  I found it to be a very easy recipe.  I would honestly recommend it to anyone who is an amateur baker.  There is a few more things about it, but I will get to them in a minute because I know all of you want to see the cupcakes.  I know it is the only reason anyone reads my blog is to look at all the pretty pictures.  It's ok.  I don't blame you.  I love looking at things I wish I could eat too.  So, no more stalling.....

YUMMY!

Well, what do you think?  I know looks great and it was good too.

Ok, now onto some of the other stuff about the cake.  I will be honest I have no idea what a red velvet cake should taste like.  I have had it before, but I will admit I thought it was a bit dry.  These cupcakes to me just tasted like any cake.  It did not have any real distinct flavor to it.  The birthday girl tried and thought they were ok.  They were good, but not what she was looking for.  After some discussion, this version is not exactly what she is looking for in the cake.  So, it is back to oven for me.  I have a recipe from one of my favorite websites... AllRecipes.com.  There is a few tweaks that I will need to make, but I think it will work.  Of course, I will let you know all about it when I make them.

Until next time...... Happy Baking!!!

A New Year.... A New Beginning

It is a new year and I finally have an idea what other posts I want to make besides letting you know about my baking adventures.  I am planning on writing about different baking topics.  This topics could be about recipes, baking techniques, baking tools, or just fun ideas I come across.

This one is going to be a little mix of both.  

A very good friend of mine is turning 40 this May.  She is already starting to make plans for it.  She wants a red velvet cake for the party and of course she thought of me.  Why wouldn't she?  Well, we talked about it and she has a few requests about the cake.  They are simple things, but for me they could be a challenge.  Even though I have had made red velvet before, it is still a little foreign to me since I didn't grow up in the South.  So, for the next step I need to start looking for recipes and try them out.  My first try-out will be this weekend.  After a suggestion from B, I found a Paula Deen cupcake recipe.  The picture makes it look so good.....

Can't wait to try it!

Don't worry my faithfully readers..... I'll will let you all know about how they turned out and how they look.

But, this whole thing got me thinking.  I never heard of a red velvet cake before I moved to Texas.  I had no idea what it was.  A cake that was red?  I know I know you could make a cake any color with the magic of food coloring, but this wasn't a colored white cake.  It was its own thing.  Then it made me think.... 

What other desserts, sweets, and pastries that are out there that I never heard of because they are a regional thing?  

I need to find out.  I am truly curious about this.  One way to solve this problem will be to travel around the country or maybe even the world going from bakery to bakery.  Ummmm, no.  Not really a feasible idea.  (Very nice thought, though!)  Ok, I guess I can go with option 2.... surfing the web.  This will be my next step.  I going to do some research and let you know what I find.  This is going to be fun!

Until next time....... Happy Baking!

Doing things for fun!

I have not had any orders recently which to a part is good because I have been working overnights the few weeks.  But, I did do some things for fun.

I currently work with a small group of people.  We are part of a bigger team, but because we work overnight we tend to miss some of the fun things going on during the day.  So, I decided to be nice and bake some things.

The first thing I did was make my famous chocolate cookies.  I hate to sound egoistical, but they were a hit.  I wanted to try something new.  It needed to be easy to bring in and also easy to divide up.  I thought about it for a bit and realized that I haven't really made any muffins.  I knew that was the answer.  The decision was made Applesauce Muffins it was.  Here is the link to the recipe that I used http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mothers-applesauce-muffins/detail.aspx .

A co-worker also had a birthday recently.  I made him a chocolate two layer cake with chocolate fudge buttercream icing.  The icing came out a little pudding like, but worked very well.  I plan on making a black forest cake for another co-worker.  I think that will be fun since I have never made that before either. I promise I will have pictures of that.

I don't have any details yet for either of them, but I will have an order for my microphone cupcakes and some cookies.  I'll let you know when I know.  If nothing else the cupcakes will make me write another post about how to transport them.

Until next time...... Happy Baking!!

PS... Only 5 days until in is completely legal to sell baked goods made in your home in the state of Texas.

Graduation Cakes

I was lucky enough in the last two weeks to be able to make two graduation cakes for a wonderful person. The first one I told you a little about before.  It was the newspaper design that I came up with.  The graduation girl loved it and even asked if I was making the cake for her party that was on a later date.  So, that is where Cake #2 comes in.  First here is the Newspaper Cake:

It is a red velvet cake with buttercream icing.

This cake was actually very fun to make, except for the red food coloring.  (Anyone who has worked with red food coloring in anything should know what I mean.)  It was very exciting to see what I had sketched on paper come to life.  All the decorations on the cake are done in icing except for the graduation cap which was done in yellow chocolate.

The second cake was much simpler.  It only needed to half the size of the first one and didn't need to red velvet.... (thank god!)  Did I mention, red food coloring and I are not getting along at the moment?  Anyway here is the second cake....

This is a Vanilla White Cake with buttercream icing.

As you can see this is a much simpler cake then the first.  Just like the first one, I made the cap and diploma of out white chocolate.  To make the cap black while the chocolate was still melted I covered it in black sugar crystals.  I also got play a new toy that I bought.  It was the letters.  I know my writing is not the greatest, so I knew I needed some help in that department.  I bought a letter press.  I am able to create any word with the letters and then just press them into the icing.  Then use the impressions as a guide to your writing.  I think I did pretty well, if I say so myself.  I can't wait to try it out again.

My next big project will be for my daughter's 4th birthday.  I still have several ideas running around in my head, so I can't really tell you much yet. But, I promise I will tell and show you all.

Until next time....... Happy Baking!

OMG!

I know it has only been two days since my last, but I thought I would honor you with my presence again this week.  Sorry had to poke fun at myself.  I am really going to try to get back into the swing of things again.  Which means, you my faithful readers will be seeing more of me..... (I just hope I can come up with things to talk about).

Obviously, I haven't baked anything new, but as always I am searching the web for new ideas.  Nothing has jumped out at me recently.  Maybe I need to find some new websites.  I just keep seeing the same things over and over.  And I know my husband will never get tired of my chocolate chip cookies, but even he has to admit we need variety.

I did get some new toys to try out.  My mother decided to send me some baking tools for Christmas.  She sent me some of those silicone cake molds.  I now can make a giant cupcake, a three tiered present, a house and an American flag with little stars.  But, the best thing I got was a pan where I can make every letter and number just by moving pieces around.  The first thing I said was when I opened it was, "What letter can I make?"  But, I wasn't allowed.  I guess I need to wait until someone needs a letter cake.  So, anyone out there need a cake?  LOL!

I did find out one thing though.  The cake that I will be making next month will be another Transformer cake.  So, I will need to get out those star tips again.  Lucky for me I find decorating a cake that way therapeutic.  The only details I need now are what kind of cake and if they will need cupcakes or not.

Well until next time....... Happy Baking!

Microphone Cupcakes and Other Things

I feel like I am always apologizing for not posting a blog.  So, again I am sorry.  I just have been really busy working a job in retail and of course the holidays.  I hoping now that things are calming down at work, I should be able to get back into blogging and baking.  I did do a little bit of baking over the holidays and I will tell you all about them.

First, I made my PB and J snack bar for my Christmas holiday party.  They were well received by everyone.  I did have few that were disappointed that I didn't make my angel food cupcakes again, but they got over it.

This year I didn't have as many "gift" baskets to make this year with different things in them.  So, this year I only made about 6 dozen chocolate chip cookies and gave them to a few people.  But, because of them I will be making a birthday cake for a little boy next month.  I don't know what yet, we haven't worked out the details yet.  I also sent a dozen cookies to a dear friend in the Netherlands, unfortunately because of a bad winter storm here in the States and few storms that had parts of Europe shut down, after almost  two weeks she still doesn't have her cookies.  I just hope they are still edible by the time she gets them.

Lastly, I got to make some microphone cupcakes for a little 5 year girl who was having a Justin Bieber theme party.  She asked specifically for my strawberry margarita cake because it was "SOOOOOO good and it was Pink!"

There are not to hard to make.  It is just any cupcake you want to use, some icing and sprinkles.  As I already said the cake was strawberry margarita, the icing was butter cream tinted black, chocolate sprinkles and then sugar ice cream cones.  The hard part was trying to figure a way to get them to the party without incident.  It took some time, but with few of my ideas and my husband's ideas, we were able to come up with something and it worked out perfectly.

I'll let you know as things come up.

Until next time........ Happy Baking!

My Latest Creation

This past weekend was a friend of mine son's birthday.  She asked me to make the cupcakes for his party.  I, of course said yes.  The request was for a white cake and Iron Man theme.  This was my first time making a white cake from scratch.  I think I did pretty well.  I was also asked to make a icing that was not as sweet, so I went with a cream cheese icing.  I was able to find both Iron Man paper cups and cupcake picks.  I decided to have two different color icings.  One was red and the other was golden yellow.  Here is the final result.......

Everyone was happy with how they looked and tasted. (Hopefully, I'll be able to do her daughter's birthday cake next month.... hint hint)

This weekend I have several things going on.  I have Mom's Night, Breakfast with Santa and a work holiday feast.  I have decided to make a strawberry margarita cake and apple enchiladas for the Mom's night.  I am making a quiche for the breakfast.  And lastly the work holiday is still up in the air.  I have a few ideas, just not sure which to do yet.  I'll let you know when I do.

Until next time..... Happy Baking!