oldie - wedding shower cakes

Why: Word has spread about my tasty cakes and I was asked to make something for a bridal shower. The colors where black and white and they wanted buttercream. This was my first time working with black frosting and man, it was no fun. I learned that no matter how much black coloring I mixed into the frosting, the best I could get was a dark grey. I ended up having to run out and buy black frosting in a tube – for shame. I can’t imagine it was terribly attractive to eat this cake either as your gums/tounge would probably turn purple. Yikes.

What: The cakes were almond flavored cake with fudgy chocolate frosting between the layers. Because it had to black and white I did the outside in buttercream that had a slight almond flavoring to it. I had a grand vision of what I wanted to pipe on the cakes and it was a harsh reality when I first tried to pipe on the vertical sides. It’s all about pressure on the piping bag which was very hard to do because it was actually coming out of a plastic tube. Honestly, I kinda freaked out mid decoration but I think the result wasn't too horrible.

pumpkin cinnamon roll

Why: Again, the food part of apartment therapy was calling my name and I just had to make these.

What: Fall baking is sure to include pumpkin so that wasn't too exciting but pumpkin cinnamon rolls? Hell yeah! The dough was pretty sticky/difficult to work with but all in all it was a pretty simple recipe and the results are deeeelicious. I ended up baking off just 4 of the cinnamon rolls and freezing the rest. Now when we feel the need for a comforting treat we can defrost and bake some off. Even so, I know we'll burn through these and I'll have to make some more soon. And I am totally ok with that.

last minute wedding cake

Why: A coworker was getting married in a very casual setting and was having a potluck reception. I offered to bring treats and when she went down the list of what was already being made, I asked about the cake. She didn't have a wedding cake - at most she was thinking about going to a discount grocery store to get one. I wasn't about to let that happen so I offered to make a simple cake for her - with 6 days notice! Ah!

What: I asked my coworker what kind of cake she wanted and the only guidance I received was "chocolate". To keep things quick and easy I made a chocolate take for the top and bottom layer with chocolate mousse in the middle. Because the cake had to be white I frosted it with white buttercream and then covered it in white marshmallow fondant. Her wedding colors were fall centric so I made flowers out of the marshmallow fondant to put around the tiers. All in all, a major success. It wasn't perfect (I wish the bottom tier was 1" taller) but considering the short notice and lack of planning I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

about to pop off

Why: While surfing the food portion of apartmenttheropy.com there was a post on popovers and they looked too tasty and seemed super easy.

What: Popovers with gruyere cheese. This was the first time I've ever had/bought gruyere cheese and man does it pack a punch. It's smoked so it almost smells like bacon. I got the cheese sliced at the deli counter (silly!) so I couldn't shred it like I wanted so I did itty bitty cubes. They looked perfect and we were super excited until I lifted the pan and they were bricks. Definitely not the light and fluffy popover I was expecting. I made the again a few days later and not only were they still flour-based bricks but they didn't rise! I'm not giving up but we've taken a break to give my ego a rest.

oh baby baby

Why: For my sisters baby showers I was on cupcake duty. There was the usual, lemon but we also mixed it up and did some chocolate.

What: Because I was so sick of doing the typical lemon cupcakes I decided to mix it up and put the lemon curd in the center of the cupcake. For the chocolate I chilled some ganache and put it in the center. I was pleased with the results but not sure if it's worth the extra effort of cutting out holes in each cupcake.

I had leftover chocolate cupcakes so I brought some into work. I didn't have enough ganache and frosting to do them exactly like the baby shower cupcakes so I just dipped the tops of the cupcakes in the ganache. Quick, pretty and oh so tasty.