Apple Spice Cake the Recipe

• Finally, the recipe I used for that delicious apple spice bundt cake that tasted just like pie.
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• 4 apples (I used gala)
• 5 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
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• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

dash nutmeg, cloves

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut apples into small thin pieces. Mix apple pieces, 5 tablespoons sugar and ground cinnamon in medium bowl. Combine 2 1/2 cups sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, orange juice and vanilla extract in large bowl; whisk to blend. Stir flour, baking powder, cinnamon, other spices and salt into egg mixture. Fill the bottom of the ban with 1/3 of the batter and top with half of the cinnamon apple mixture, cover with more batter, add the remaining apple mixture and top with the rest of the batter.

Bake cake until top is brown and tester inserted near center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 15 minutes. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen. Turn cake out onto rack. Cool at least 45 minutes.

You can just cover the cake with powdered sugar or I made a simple powdered sugar glaze to drizzle over the one I made. Of course, if you can stand waiting, this cake is so much better the next day.

Zucchini Failure - seriously.

Why: Internet, I have a confession; I struggle with zucchini breads, especially chocolate zucchini. Baking has always been easy to me. In my mind it's just following instructions. How hard can that be? I've made some of the fanciest desserts without issue but when it comes to a gosh darn zucchini bread, I get my butt kicked most of the time. My problem is that it falls! I've done well with a regular spice zucchini but I have yet to make a successful chocolate zucchini. Wanting to give it another go - today I made both.

What: Determined not to fail this time, I made the chocolate zucchini into muffins and the regular spiced zucchini bread into a loaf. I put the loaf in the oven first and when I opened the oven to put the cupcakes in I wasn't being careful and the oven moved and my loaf sunk. BAH! My muffins turned out ok but still fell a little bit. Overall, the chocolate zucchini wasn't chocolate enough, I could definitely still taste the zucchini. Back to the drawing board for me.

Cinnamon Spice Cake

Why: When I got married my mom gave me a recipe book full of her most popular recipes that she made for us. It's really been invaluable. My little brother's birthday was this week but my sister was out of town so we slightly delayed his birthday party for the next weekend. Not wanting to leave him high and dry on his birthday, I invited him over for a solid home cooked meal. I knew he would love anything out of my moms cook book so I made him his favorite, ribs and cheesy potatoes. For dessert I chose a cinnamon swirl cake. I haven't had it since I've moved out of the house and Michael has been dreaming about it ever since his fork hit the plate. It appears that it's going to become a staple around our house which is great because it's super easy and quick.

What: This cake is pretty much a cinnamon roll without all the fuss and work. Also known as the best idea ever. I don't know about you, but around my house growing up all cakes came in a rectangle pan. I halved the batch and it was the perfect amount for 3 people with a little bit for leftovers. Once the cake had been cooling for apx 1 hour I did a simple powdered sugar glaze which was so necessary. Next time I make it I'll increase the cinnamon mixture a little but overall, mom knew what she was doing.

Apple Spice Cake

I had a sinus infection last week which meant that I spent the entire weekend sleeping it off. Hopefully I'll be baking more and posting more soon.

Why: I have this pipe dream of doing upside down cakes so I bought apples with the intention of doing an apple spice upside down cake. The problem is, upside down cakes are best fresh out of the oven which means that it's a crappy idea to make one when you have guests over because you'll be in the kitchen making it. I got sick of looking at the apples in the crisper and decided that something needed to be baked.

What: My new favorite thing ever is the bundt pan. I never had one growing up so I was missing out of the magic that is baking with a bundt pan. It's already molded into a pretty form and frosting is a subtle flavor addition, not smothering the whole cake. I find that most cakes have too much frosting so the bundt cakes is usually my desired route. Quick, easy and well balanced. This cake was like an apple pie. It was so-so right out of the oven but the next day it was amazing. The apples get coated in brown sugar and cinnamon and then layered within the batter so it's evenly distributed.

Recipe to follow in a few days.

Okkie monster!!

Why: A friend of my sister asked if I could make a cookie monster cake for her little one's birthday.

What: My sisters friend has a gluten allergy so I'm going to be perfectly honest and admit that I totally cheated and used a gluten free box mix for the cake. I'm great with making gluten free brownies and meringues but gluten free cakes and bread are still foreign to me. The cake was a yellow cake with real vanilla bean, the filling was chocolate mousse and the frosting was vanilla buttercream. It took a lot of food coloring to get close to the right shade of blue and I hope it didn't turn her kids face into a blueberry! The eyes were cupcakes that I cut into a dome shape (because really, a giant blob of frosting for the eyes just repulsed me) and the pupils were unsweetened chocolate pistoles. With the extra batter I made cupcakes and what I didn't use for the eyes I made into little cookies.

April showers bring May flowers

Why: Awhile ago I saw a cake on www.cakewrecks.com (it was an example of a good lookin cake) that I really really liked. I decided to work on my gum paste skills and make a display cake that was inspired by the original.

What: The original cake was all daffodils which was beautiful but I felt that it need a slight variety in color and type of flower. I made all the flowers out of gum paste (over 2 days! Way more intense than I thought it would be) and the green stems is marshmallow fondant. I am so very pleased with the results and now have a greater appreciation for gumpaste flowers ..well.. gum paste anything! I am so glad this was just for fun and practice because I severely under estimated the amount of time it took.

Adding a little color to my life

Why: I wanted to do something fun and a friend had mentioned her love of rainbow cakes/cupcakes. Since her super bowl party was quickly approaching, I thought it would be the perfect time to give it a go. I also thought it would be a great opportunity to break out my new light cube for the photos.

What: I did a simple white cake batter that I split up and colored with my gel food coloring. To get the layer effect I careful dropped some into each muffin cup and made it level. Towards the end I lost my patience and just did a mishmash of colors. For the party I did half with lemon curd and buttercream on top (a requirement for my sister) and the other half was a orangesicle frosting. I hate all things orange flavored but the orangesicle was still pretty tasty.