Nostalgia Baking, the 'Hostess' Cupcake

Recreating childhood favorites is a fun little subset in the baking world right now, and what better place to start than the classic Hostess Cupcake.  Though these are that classic cupcake in appearance only--a scratch chocolate cake with American vanilla almond buttercream, dipped in Ghirardelli dark chocolate ganache and finished with a loop-de-loop white buttercream trim. The cakes being made with butter and not a hi-ratio, trans-fat laden shortening aren't as moist as the original, and the butter based frosting isn't as marshmallowly and airy either. But there is something just lovely about the design: looping and looping, like spinning circles on the lawn.

Plain Jane Carrot Cake

Let's start with apologies to Jane for the modest moniker, but those in the know, know that a simple carrot cake is nothing less than complex.  Well, make that a good carrot cake: extremely moist, spicy notes of cinnamon and nutmeg, and a crumb just dense enough to hold together the tender carrots, raisins, and coconut. Top it all off with a fluffy cream cheese American buttercream.

Sunday night's carrot cake was frosted 'homestyle'-- on a plate and with a butter knife. And this one is just as lovely. Plain and simple.

Whoa... It's a Happy Birthday for Hannah

My best friend, Hannah gave herself a fabulous present for her 30th birthday: a 3 year old APHA filly.  Hannah I met at the barn where we were showing horses together nearly 10 years ago, but when she sold her last horse she also sold most all of her fancy tack. What I really would have loved to do was to give her a pretty new show saddle, but I settled on a tooled-saddle leather cake instead.

This cake is an 8" and a 10" sour cream coconut cake finished with buttercream and coconut filling.  A layer of white chocolate ganache gave a smooth base to the light-oil leather tinted marshmallow fondant. The "tooling" is royal icing applied with a stencil. Buttercream rope border and fresh flowers in posy picks complete the cake. (I had plans to make conchos and a trophy belt buckle of royal icing and paint in silver luster dust with "Happy Birthday 30th Hannah" on it, but being Mother's Day weekend a present of spending the morning at the spa won out and I ran out of caking time.)

I really love this cake and think this idea could be expanded into a stunning western wedding cake. Maybe add some gum paste red roses or yellow sunflowers...and silver conchos for sure. Next time.

A Sweet Mistake

I know it doesn't make sense to call this cake a 'mistake,' but that's what this was while intended for the original project. This was supposed to be the chocolate layer of the birthday cake I did this weekend, but it was a new recipe and the 'milk chocolate' of it came out much to mild for a kid's birthday cake.  (That required some major chocolate!)

But it was perfect for a German Chocolate Cake. I split it and did a layer of left over Ghirardelli dark chocolate ganache I used under the fondant of the birthday cake, and a layer of pecan coconut filling. (this is a secret now: I usually keep a tub of the pre made stuff in the pantry and add fresh brown sugar, chopped pecans and sweetened coconut to it. Scandalous, I know. )

I ended up with this lovely 10 " that went with my husband to his office, and a second 6" made up and waiting in the freezer for just the right time--or special guest to drop by. Maybe there are no mistakes, just different cakes waiting to be frosted.

Zoinks! Rebecca and Zachary Had a Birthday Mystery.

This groovy cake went to solve the mystery of the Twin Tikes Birthday Bash today.  Luckily this brother and sister both love this goofy hound and his spooky adventures. I love the Mystery Machine color palette--this cake was a blast start to finish. And I did get away with it, even with those meddling kids!

The cake is a 10" & 6" with one layer each of sour cream devil's food and white almond sour cream. The filling was vanilla Swiss meringue butter cream and under the marshmallow fondant the cakes were dressed in a layer of dark chocolate ganache. Scooby and the spooks are fondant gum paste over-painted with Americolor food painting and food safe marker (my husband used his  illustrating skills to really bring those fine details to life). Almond flavored buttercream finished the borders.

A Pink Princess Cake

I am lucky enough to have friends with fanciful little girls who delight in all things princess. This gave me a great opportunity to make a princess cake for a pretty princess party.

This cake was 10" and 6" and frosted in all buttercream. The top tier was quilted using a mat pressed into the smoothed frosting, then small sugar pearls were applied with tweezers to complete the look. Fondant (and fondant/gum paste) was used for the stripes and daisy accents. The tiara was made from royal icing and finished with silver and pink luster dust. It rested on five hand painted fondant hearts. The cake was white almond sour cream with lemon filling.

I was so happy to have helped contribute to this little angel's Princess Birthday. (isn't she just precious?)

Happy Easter

Nothing says spring like the hint of citrus blossoms in the air, unless it's the decadent thud of lemon sour cream pound cake after an Easter dinner.  I have figured out the secret of this fine crumbed, yet heavenly moist undertaking: creaming the living daylights out of it until it begs for mercy in it's fluffiness. (If that sounds a little melodramatic, that may be because I'm still in a food-coma)

We served this one with fresh strawberries sprinkled with sugar and let to chill for a sweet strawberry sauce.  My cousin Katie finished the cake with a lemon glaze and a generous sprinkling of sanding sugar.












"Man Catcher" Sour Cream Pound Cake recipe from All Cakes Considered by Melissa Block

1c butter
3 c sugar
5 lg. eggs
3 c AP flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c sour cream
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp orange (but really who keeps orange extract? i used more vanilla)

The trick really is in the mixing; and this one takes a full 20 minutes on the KA stand mixer to do it right. If anyone is interested, I'll elaborate on that later. Once the digesting has completed.