Red Velvet Engagement Cake
So you’ve found a swell girl, and bought a swell ring. You want to pop the question? Why not let a cake do all the heavy lifting in the question department? Even if a cake asks the question though, bended knee is still essential. Essential!
Pop the question with this Red Velvet Engagement Cake. With this two-tiered, cream cheese frosted cake, I’m sure any lady would say yes- even if only to get at the cake faster. I’m kidding… she loves you too.
Cakes, Wedding | Comments (14)Old School Fudge Brownies with walnuts
There are countless reason why I love making brownies. All they require is a bowl and wooden spoon. They’re moist and satisfy that deep chocolate craving. But more sentimentally, brownies are one of the first things I remember making with my sister growing up. We’d take out one bowl, one pan, follow the directions on the back of the unsweetened chocolate box, and about 45 minutes later- warm brownies! We’d burn our fingers trying to get the hot brownies out of the pan. But it was worth it to sit down with a plate of warm brownies and cold milk to watch episode after episode of I Love Lucy. Those were the days. These old school Fudge Brownies with walnuts and chocolate chunks were made in an effort to reach back to those days eating brownies on the living room floor with my sister. The amazing thing is that one bite into the warm chocolate took me right back to being 10 years old, baking with my sister. It’s pretty remarkable what a brownie can do! Continue reading »
Cakes, Recipes | Comments (24)Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake
Chocolate and orange are like a dream to me. Although my dream last night had nothing to do with chocolate and orange, and everything to do with watching some bizarre alley cat trying to eat giant hissing grasshoppers, or something. I woke up wanting a thick slice of this cake for breakfast. You know, to make everything right in the world again. It’s that simple.
Cakes, Recipes | Comments (26)Gooey Chocolate Cakes
It’s Tuesday and I’m back with Dorie. She and I had broken up for a few weeks- some misunderstanding with snails and flan, but we’ve got it all sorted out. A love like ours, afterall, couldn’t be denied for long. So we’re back and better than ever with a gooey chocolate love to show for it!
Cakes, Cupcakes, Recipes, Tuesdays With Dorie | Comments (33)How to Frost a Cake- in 10 pictures.
Frosting a two layer cake doesn’t have to be daunting. You don’t have to be a math genius, or an abundantly creative person. It’s just cake! You’ll just need a plane cake, some frosting, a smile on your face, and a few basic kitchen supplies.
Ok, the smile is optional, but it generally helps.
Make the jump and let’s frost a cake!
Cakes, Tips and Tricks | Comments (18)Red Velvet Whopper- the cupcake
How do I describe the taste of Red Velvet cake? Well, it’s not vanilla cake, but it’s certainly not all chocolate. Red Velvet cake, for lack of a more creative vocabulary, tastes like sweet red cake. Without rich and decadent frosting, this cake is light, moist, quite tasty and yes, red. My favorite Red Velvet cake is relentlessly smothered in brown sugar cream cheese frosting. The recipe for both just a jump away.
Cakes, Cupcakes, Recipes | Comments (24)Russian Grandmothers’ Apple Pie Cake
The title to both this post and this dessert is a little hum drum. Russian Grandmothers’ Apple Pie Cake… it just doesn’t set off fireworks in my head. And frankly, I always feel a bit off put when apostrophes are in strange places (here I am considering s’ strange). I was an English major in college, and I still just feel put out with the apostrophe after the s. I actually have to think about the Pie Cake, and who, and how many Grandmothers it belonges to. It’s a lot. I know! Well let’s just clear things up right now and say that this Apple Pie Cake belongs to many Russian Grandmothers. That’s what the whole s’ was trying to tell us.
I would also like to informally change the name of this recipe to The Apple Pie Cake that belongs to Many Russian Grandmothers. I don’t think Dorie will mind.
Grammar lesson, over.
Recipe and more cake talk after the big jump.
Cakes, Recipes, Tuesdays With Dorie | Comments (25)The Sweetest Week Ever- Cakes
The Whopper. The Red Velvet Whopper is a three layer red velvet cake with brown sugar cream cheese frosting. The sides are decorated with dried red velvet cake crumbs and royal blue dots. She’s a beauty. But this post isn’ really about the Whopper, it’s about all of the beautiful cakes in blog land this week. Here are a few of my favorites!
Amanda of Slow Like Honey made a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Peanut Butter Cups on the inside and outside. It’s outta control. I think it might be criminal. Amanda’s got a great site, fun pictures, and she loves Fionna Apple as much as I do.
Gigi of Gigi Cakes made a Banana Dunce De Leche Cake! Think banana bread with deliciously sweet caramel and mascarpone icing. It’s inspired! Gigi’s is one of my favorite sites, her treats are always perfectly gorgeous!
Deeba of Passionate About Baking created a Chocolate Orange Almond Gateau! Her cake decoration style is very unique, and just a delight! She posts everyday and always has great stories about her adventures in the kitchen feeding her kiddies.
It’s been another sweet week! Now get in that kitchen and make some cakes!
Cakes, Week's Best | Comments (6)
Strawberry Vanilla Cake Bites
This spring- green is the new pink, and navy is the new black. Trust me, I just know these things.
Are cake bites the new cupcake?
Cupcakes are all the rage, but these cake bites, they might just have something to em. These Strawberry Vanilla treats were inspired by Hilary and Bakerella. I fell hard for their Red Velvet Cupcake Balls and had to create my own.
So here you are! Cake shaped candy! What a wonderful world!
Cakes, Recipes | Comments (14)Blackberry Jam Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream
I come from a food lovin’ family, so nearly all of the treats I bake are an effort to rekindle a fond memory from my past. My sister and I are so fixated on food, that all of our family vacations growing up are remembered soley for the food we consumed. About 15 years ago, we took a 2 week long family trip to Washington DC. It was a big deal for our middle class family, and my parents even took us out of school for the two week period with the gaurantee that we would write a full report on our educational trip upon our return. After a tour of countless museums and battlefields, the only two things my sister and I remeber are- Uno Pizza and Cheetos.
Criminal isn’t it? We ate at an Uno Pizza somewhere along the trip. It was delicious. Obviously. And one day in DC, my parents let us buy a bag of Cheetos (we didn’t get to eat a lot of junk food) and my sister and I followed my parents around the city sharing our Cheetos with little brown birds on the street. My sister and I now call those little brown city birds Cheetos…. still. The school report, was probably a glowing review of Uno’s deep dish pizza crust. Oh my.
What does all of this have to do with Blackberry Jam Cake? Have patience and continue reading.
Cakes, Recipes | Comments (9)Mocha Coffee Coffee Cake
This breakfast cake is a bad influence. Not possible, you say? Well, when chocolate and coffee join forces against me, I crumble. This cake made me want to call in sick to work this morning, and just spend the day on the couch with cake. I didn’t, but oh, oh the temptation! Maybe it’s the coffee and chocolate combination or maybe it’s the fact that I’m eating cake for breakfast, but it just makes me want to indulge in every other part of my life. These days, my indulgence involves my pajamas, the couch, The Gourmet Cookbook, and well… this cake. It’s cake for breakfast! Try it and indulge.
Breakfast, Cakes, Recipes | Comments (17)Simple White Wedding Cake
Some wedding cakes are more flash than flavor. This simple white wedding cake was definitely not one of those cakes. It was all flavor, no flash. Joe and Jen had a simple, but elegant wedding in a beautiful old hall in downtown Los Angeles. They wanted to keep the look of their wedding cake simple and clean. We settled on a white buttercream frosting with a buttercream pearl border. The cake was decorated with fresh roses, lillies, red raspberries and bright mint leaves.
While outside was simple and elegant, the inside had a wallop of flavor.
Cakes, Wedding | Comments (8)Cake Mix Couture?
I think I’m supposed to hate cake mix. I think, once you get a chef’s coat, you are supposed to turn you nose up at all things packaged, pre-mixed, and all around too good to be true. Well the truth is, I don’t hate cake mix, or at least I don’t hate it as much as I should.
I could bore you with a pro and con list detailing my love hate relationship with cake mix, but I won’t. I’ll just say this- I love cake mix because my Mom buys it for 35 cents and then passes it along to me, with that oh-so-great-I-found-a-bargain feeling. Cake mixes are easy beyond belief, moist every time and really hard to screw up. But the truth is, even easy to make, 35 cent cake mix isn’t really a bargain. It’s filled with loads of oils and sugars that I can’t even pronounce. If I can’t pronounce it, there’s a good chance my insides that don’t what to do with it either. So, you win and you lose. Sounds a lot like life, doesn’t it?
Cakes, Recipes | Comments (7)Almost Fudge Gateau
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie delight is Almost Fudge Gateau. Don’t know how to pronounce Gateau? Luckily that’s not a prerequisite to eat this cake. The cake is an intensely chocolate, dense yet moist chocolate bomb. It’s the kind of cake you might serve to your guests after a fancy dinner, and wonder why you didn’t just serve the cake itself for dinner. Yea… this dark chocolate cake is worthy of being the main course.
Cakes, Recipes, Tuesdays With Dorie | Comments (30)Baby Shower Cakes
I made these Baby Block Cakes for a baby shower. The expecting mom and dad didn’t know the sex of their little one, so they requested pale green and yellow, with their two initials ‘A’ and ‘V’ to top the blocks. Inside the pale green and yellow fondant is moist yellow cake with strawberry buttercream.
Want to know more about fondant!? Of course you do!
Cakes, Tips and Tricks | Comments (11)Brown Sugar- Apple Cheesecake
I can’t leave well enough alone. Nothing illustrates this fact better than my adaptation of Dorie Greenspan’s perfectly great recipe for Brown Sugar- Apple Cheesecake. If the recipe says round spring form pan, I want to use a square baking pan. If the recipe calls for apples inside the cheesecake, I want my apples on top. Call me a rebel. So in the world according the Joy, this cheesecake is served in bars, with browned apple and sugar goodness adorning the top. It’s delicious any way you slice it. Oh yes it is.
Cakes, Tuesdays With Dorie | Comments (21)Backyard Wedding
I think there is something so special and intimate about backyard weddings. They’re my favorite kind of wedding to bake for. The food, the family, the friends, and someone inevitably jumping (or falling) into the swimming pool. I suppose that every wedding is full of laughs and love, but I find extra joy in the relaxed celebration of a warm and breezy backyard nuptial.
Cakes, Wedding | Comments (14)Whole Orange Bundt Cake with Poppy Seed Madness
This is one of the recipes in my collection that invariably makes me raise one eyebrow in suspicion. It’s a Bundt cake that’s is not only flavored by orange juice, it’s flavored by the whole darn orange- pulp, pith and peel. I’ve made this cake twice now. It not exactly the effortless Bundt cake you might expect. But a dozen eggs, and two pounds of butter later, I think I have figured out it’s little quirks. Once the little hiccups are managed, this turns out to be a delightful cake with loads of kick-you-in-the-mouth orange flavor.
Cakes, Recipes | Comments (4)
Lemon Pound Cake with Warm Blueberry Sauce
I come from a family of proud home bakers. I developed my love for baking helping my father put together delicious desserts in our tiny, pea green family kitchen. This recipe for pound cake came from my father’s sister. My Aunt DeeDee loved two things in this life: Jesus and baking. Even after being blinded by a brain tumor in her mid thirties, she would still insist on baking every family members’ birthday cakes. Even without her sight, she still had the touch for the perfect cake. This pound cake recipe came from her very old Kraft cookbook. I’ve doctored it up with a bit of lemon and blueberry, but at its heart, it’s still my favorite of Aunt DeeDee’s masterpieces.
Cakes, Recipes, Tips and Tricks | Comments (5)Pink Hawaii
I was recently asked to create a Hawaiian themed cake for a girls first birthday. Children’s theme cakes usually run along a spectrum: from Sesame Street designs to Yo GabbaGabba characters. I somehow can never find my creative voice in tracing an Elmo onto a cake. It’s just not my style. Imagine my excitement in having free reign with a Hawaiian cake!
What I came up with is a three layered devil’s food cake with coconut cream cheese frosting. The hot pink dye seemed to call out to me, so the cake became a girly pink with toasted coconut dressing up the side. On top I fashioned a gum paste (and paper) palm tree with shredded coconut sand, gumpaste coconuts and flip flops. Yea… flip flops.
I’m so pleased with how this cake turned out! I was able to satisfy the desires of the customer and still create a colorful, hip design. A little pink Hawaii for one year old Miss Lilly.
Cakes, Recipes | Comments (2)
