Season of Cakes!

Long nights, short days, rain it all makes me want to play with my oven. So I've been doing exactly that. Here are some commissioned cakes, for no reason cakes, and oops I have leftover frosting in my fridge cakes. Also a vegetable tart that was too pretty to not include.

More treats in the works for Valentine's day!

We had some friends coming over to babysit Roslyn so I made them a mini cake. This was a lemon cake with buttercream frosting decorated with rose petals, sprinkles, and marzipan hearts. 

Commissioned for a 2 year old who likes owls. This guy is a white cake full of lemon curd. Topped with some marzipan, white chocolate and pocky stick details.

I had leftover frosting in the back of my fridge and we had friends coming over for dinner so I made a chocolate cake and just used each color until it was gone. I also have a jar of all the sprinkles that are in a pan after I add them to a cake all mixed together so I added the chaos of those sprinkles as well.

A weeknight veggie and parmesan tart. So good!

Little Sis wedding

We drove our van to Salt Lake City, put it in airport parking and prayed heavily it would be there when we got back, put Roslyn on her first flight, and headed back home for my sister Erika's wedding. It was a whirlwind of a trip. We fit in some family time before all the wedding festivities started and then we drove down to Louisville, KY.

First up Mallorie and I threw Erika a bachelorette party. We had dinner, met all her friends, and played a few silly games. It was also the first night I was away from Roslyn which was lovely and sad and very odd all at once.

Next it was time to set up for the wedding. The whole family was in on it and it turned out beautiful. Roslyn was however not helpful and enjoyed it most when we let her play in empty boxes.

The wedding was beautiful and it was fun to celebrate Erika & Justice and to spend time with my family. My sister Mallorie and I gave speeches. I got to make them a very tasty chocolate peanut butter cake and a bunch of cupcakes. We danced together, sweat together. I also didn't know where Roslyn was most the evening. She was being passed among all my extended family and they were not willing to return her. It was really beautiful to experience that as we are so far from family most of the time. I knew she was safe and being loved on and I loved that they all wanted to spend time with her. It was a blessing to get to have that if only for an evening.

 Then we were back on the plane headed to our Walter. But first - airport bathroom baths in a her basin for miss Roslyn so she was cozy and drowsy for her flight. She flew so well both ways, barely a peep. This baby constantly steps up and is perfect when it counts.

2017 in cakes

Lots of fun baking this year!

I had so many lovely repeat clients and a few fabulous new ones.

Can't wait to make our 30th birthday cakes this year!

Month of Cakes

October is oddly my busiest month of cakes. I have 1-2 every week. Luckily they all have a lot of variety to keep it fun. This year I made a Care Bear birthday cake, Flower Baby shower cake, Fiesta 1 year old smash cake, and I have an upcoming Daniel the Tiger cake. Plus United way bake sale at work is coming up so my freezer is quite full.

I really enjoyed the differences in each of these cakes. I even got to try out a few new techniques.



The flower cake was my first time trying buttercream roses. They were far from perfect but when I made a whole field of them they looked really spectacular. I loved all the texture they created. Plus it was a bonus that it was tons of frosting for the buttercream loving momma!

 The Care Bear cake was nerve wracking for me because you have to make the characters so perfect. Luckily I think my cheer bear turned out pretty darn cute. He's also totally edible- marzipan.

The fiesta cake was fun because they didn't give much direction. I got to doodle on the cake with bright colors. I like the textures the frosting took on and how it feels additive to the white background of the cake. I really hope she digs into it!

 Side note: I made a falafel waffle this week! It was so cool, also sooooo tasty!

A cake about wheels

I was asked to make a 1 year olds birthday cake last month, I asked for a theme and she said "he likes wheels" haha. I went back and forth on what to do and then I remembered his dad has a truck, so I really wanted to make his smash cake a truck. I think it turned out quite cute. Sadly he wasn't very into the cake. For the main cake I did things with wheels and some cute chocolate road signs to give it more depth and texture. I like the simplicity of it.

The truck cake was gluten free and the main cake was white cake with lemon curd filling.

Lucky Charms Marshmallow Cake

Last week we had a little birthday party for me. 29! We had some friends over, played records, made pizza, ordered extra pizza, ate cake, played salad bowl game. It was exactly what I wanted and I'm so thankful for everyone that came.

Joshua made me a vanilla cake and we covered it in white chocolate ganache frosting and then covered it in lucky charms marshmallows!!! Then I made a few white chocolate, sprinkles, and marshmallow shards and of course added a few pocky sticks. The cake was so tasty!

Also since Joshua was making the cake I wanted to make it an easy one. This definitely fit the bill. He was even surprised how fast it was to make. I'd make this one again. It's a bit dense and holds it's moisture.

photo by Megan

photo by Megan

Vanilla cake:
recipe from here

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 1/2 flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup canola oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup water

1   preheat oven 350 degrees F and line 2- 8" cake pans with parchment

2   in large bowl mix sugar, flour, soda, powder and salt

3   in another large bowl beat together eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla

4   pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix only until incorporated

5   pour in the boiling water and stir in

6   pour batter into the 2 cake pans and bake 25-30 minutes.

White Chocolate ganache frosting:

3 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup butter; room temp
4 cups powdered sugar

1   heat the heavy cream until boiling
2   remove from heat and stir in white chocolate chips
3   cover with lid and let sit 5 minutes
4   stir chocolate mixture until smooth and set aside to cool to room temp
5   beat butter until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes
6   beat in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time
7   once white chocolate has cooled beat in white chocolate
8   ice the cake

Curious George Cake

Had the pleasure of making a very cool little boy both of his birthday cakes. This year we went with a yellow cake slathered in chocolate frosting. Characters scare me a bit so I took to the laser cutter to help me out with Curious George riding a bike. Hope he had a fabulous birthday.

Easter Cake

I had a request for a gluten free cake with bunnies. I was teetering on how to make the bunnies when I stumbled upon these ridiculously cute, high quality, marzipan bunnies. I had to have them! Then I found licorice strips in this happy yellow that screamed "cut me into flowers," and I obeyed. I love the way this cake turned out, and I love that the bunny on top always appears to be looking up at whoever is looking at the cake.

Also I had enough cake left over, I doubled the recipe, to make a one layer cake to bring in to share with my GF coworkers. They are going to love me :)

Gluten-free chocolate cake

from here

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups gluten free flour (I use King Arthur Gluten-free multi-purpose flour)

1 cup cocoa powder

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthan gum

2/3 cup canola oil

4 eggs

1 1/3 cups water

2 tsp vanilla bean paste

1   preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease 2 - 8" cake pans

2   in a large bowl whisk together eggs, oil and water

3   in another bowl mix sugar, flour, cocoa, powder, salt, xanthan gum

4   beat dry ingredients into egg mixture 1 cup at a time

5   add in vanilla and mix on medium speed for about 30 seconds

6   pour into cake pans and bake 30-35 minutes, toothpick should come out clean

filled the cake with this caramel frosting

iced it in a vanilla rum buttercream

decorated it with white chocolate, marzipan bunnies, and a licorice I cut up to look like flowers

I snuck a duck on the back of the cake

Matcha cake with Rosewater pudding frosting

Matcha cake Monday! 

I've been wanting to experiment with matcha in baked goods. I love that it gives them a natural green color all on it's own. I also don't love overly sweet things so I felt like it would give a good earthy flavor while playing well with the almond and vanilla extracts. This cake was moist and amazing, big hit. The rosewater pudding frosting was a light simple flavor that played extraordinarily well with the matcha cake. Joshua declared it one of his favorite cakes!

I did some organic "sketching" on the cake with dried goji berries, bee pollen, matcha tea, and poppy seeds.

Matcha cake:

from Molly Yeh

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 1/2 cup flour

2 tbs cooking grade matcha

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup canola oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

3/4 cup boiling water

1   preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2   grease cake pan, will make a sheet cake or 2- 8" cake layers

3   in a large bowl mix together sugar, flour, matcha, soda, powder and salt

4   in another bowl mix eggs, buttermilk, oil, and extracts

5   whisk the wet ingredients into the dry until incorporated

6   stir in boiling water

7   bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean

Rosewater pudding frosting:

1 vanilla pudding packet, make pudding ahead of time

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp rosewater

1   bring already made pudding from fridge and whip for a minute

2   slowly add in powdered sugar and whip

3   whip in rosewater