My friend turned the big 3-0 today! And I had the honor of making her cake. She requested carrot cake with a buttercream frosting. I found a great recipe by Alton Brown (of Good Eats fame) and proceeded to make the cake. But when I took it out of the oven, I realized it was way too small to for the importance of the event! 🙂

So I quickly made a second one (luckily I had enough of everything to make it). Admittedly as a four-layer cake it was rather imposing!

While the second cake cooled I made the vanilla buttercream and planned my decorations. The buttercream is simply butter – lots of butter – confectioner’s sugar, a little heavy whipping cream, and a vanilla bean.

I decided to pipe carrots onto the cake and reserved some of the buttercream to color orange and green (carrots and leaves). I had a little extra orange and green, so I decorated the bottom edge of the cake as well.

The end result was pretty impressive, and one of the tallest and heaviest cakes I’ve ever made!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RHIA!!

… without actually making a chocolate cake, did you? However, since it is just the two of us at home, we really don’t need a whole cake (we would eat the whole thing!). So I made half of a chocolate cake recipe (and used dark chocolate cocoa powder) and made two small cakes, one for us and one to share with a friend:

Instead of just making a chocolate buttercream, I made a chocolate honey ganache, borrowed from another chocolate cake recipe I made over the summer (recipe here – this cake is AMAZING too!).

I put the cakes on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet and carefully sliced the very tops off, so I’d have a really flat top. And then I poured the ganache over the cakes. The cookie sheet collects the excess (and you can save it for another day, and trust me, you won’t want to waste a drop) and keeps the mess off the counters.

Once the cakes were completely enrobed, they went into the refrigerator, still on their cooling rack/cookie sheet contraption, for a few hours to chill and allow the ganache to firm up and get a nice shine.

I can’t wait to dig into this one. Happy Chocolate Cake Day everyone!

OK, this isn’t an “official” holiday, but it is recognized as a funday. And what’s more fun than chocolate cake. So I urge everyone out there to find some chocolate cake at some point today. Make it if you have the inclination, but just get some CAKE!

To celebrate, here’s a picture of a chocolate cake I made a few years ago, decorated with macadamia nuts and chocolate shavings:

And here’s one (I believe this was another Jinny birthday cake!) garnished with fresh raspberries and almonds:

These were early RedHead Bakery cakes so not quite as polished looking, but they still tasted really good! Enjoy Chocolate Cake Day my friends!

As often – and happily – happens I am responsible for dessert at family functions. And I admit to using my family as guinea pigs for new recipes.

For Thanksgiving 2008 I really wanted to use the flavors of the season, but didn’t want to make a pumpkin pie. So I made a pumpkin roulade – as seen on Food Network, recipe stored here. Instead of ginger, I made an orange-vanilla bean filling, which was light and complimented the spicy pumpkin cake perfectly.

I also made a double crust, apple-pear-fresh cranberry pie. And cut little leaves out of extra pie dough for special holiday ornamentation. Both were delicious!

Who needs presents when you have cinnamon rolls! On Christmas morning, my mom and I made cinnamon rolls from a simple brioche dough (recipe here). Instead of making brioche, we rolled the dough into a long rectangle, smeared it with butter, and covered it with cinnamon sugar.

Then we rolled the dough into a long tube, cut it into 12 rolls. We let them rest in a 9×13 inch pan for about 15 minutes and then baked according to the directions. Oh, and we added the zest of one large navel orange to the dough along with the egg yolks.

Then we took the juice of the orange and whisked it with confectioners sugar to make a glaze – which was poured over the rolls while they were still warm (but not hot). Mmmmm!!!!!

My father-in-law celebrated his birthday (in 2008) at the Mariner’s game with a group of family and friends. The stadium allows outside food, so I offered to make mini-cupcakes for the event.

I couldn’t choose between coconut and lemon (can you tell I’m a fan of lemon??!), so I made both …

These are lemon cakes with lemon frosting. And they had a surprise inside: a tiny squirt of raspberry jam!

The coconut version was ALL coconut: cake, frosting, and topped with more coconut.

They were all gone by the 7th inning stretch!

My first foray into fondant (I admit, I was initially scared of it) coincided with my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary. Not only did I throw them a surprise party with all the local family – and one surprise guest – but I made a small three-tiered wedding cake as well. I knew they’d had sugar bells on their original wedding cake, and was lucky enough to find some at a local cake decorating shop.

I added small, pearl beads one by one by one all around the seams of each layer.

Then topped it with a retro-looking cake topper.

The cake was a yellow cake with lemon zest and juice and covered with a vanilla buttercream . Each tier was a double layer, with seedless raspberry jam between the layers. “Bride and groom” were suitably surprised and the party was a lot of fun. Plus, I got over my fear of fondant! Here’s one more picture, because they turned out so well!

I started my writing “career” when I was very young. One of my first forays into the world of words was actually a cookbook that got me into the Young Authors finals (I think) when I was in maybe first or second grade. It was called The Learn to Cook Book and included recipes like:

Apple pie (bake at 2 degrees for 1 minute)
Chicken (cook 80 pounds of chicken at 10 degrees for 9 hours)
Grapes (wash and eat – YUM!)

I was nothing if not creative! And was lucky enough to get the first draft and the final versions back at my cook book-themed bridal shower (thanks mom for keeping it all those years!).

This was the first time I was able to use fresh apricots for my frangipane tart, on a visit to Phoenix in 2005 … and I won’t ever use canned ‘cots again!

Instead I adapt the tart to whatever fresh fruit is seasonally available (and preferably local, too). The crust is a pate sucree, filled with an almond frangipane, and then “stuffed” with fresh apricots. The tart fruit is tempered with an apricot jam glaze, but still retains that wonderful apricot flavor without being too sweet.

Recipe can be found here

I adapted the fabulous apricot almond frangipane tart for all seasons, and – apricots aside – the pears might just be my favorite.

The trick is to slice the pear really, really thin. For one tart I usually only need half to two-thirds of one pear. Use fruit that is really ripe.

This tart is made with a pate sucre (a cross between a pie dough and a sugar cookie) and filled with an almond frangipane (basically ground almonds, sugar, and butter!). The thinly slices fruit can then be arranged however you want. I like the fan/flower presentation for pears (or any other sliced fruit like apples or peaches) best.

Recipe can be found here, just replace your favorite pear for the apricots.