A long time ago...

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...

Oh wait that's a different story.

As you can see, I have not posted a blog in over a year. What happen? you may ask. Grad school happened... in Mississippi.

So here is a blog about a cake I baked for a few of my favorite people before leaving Massachusetts. Two of my best friends were going to have their first baby! So a baby shower was in need. As the party planner I am, I planned the event and threw a fantastic event that all the women loved. I think I may have had a few offers to become a party planner. That all said, he dad LOVES chocolate an I needed a cake big enough to feed 60 people. So I made Deep Chocolate Passion. This cake was a chocolate cake with a milk chocolate syrup, covered in chocolate ganache, with everything enrobed in a dark chocolate. The theme was frogs because the mom LOVES frogs. so here is what was created.

This really was probably the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten. Definitely the best chocolate cake I have ever baked! It was a mess and took a LONG time... but was well well worth it. Who knows the next cake I will bake from the book or the next time I will blog... I like to keep you all guessing. Actually I really have no clue. My research ends this week and then analyzing and writing will be happening until summer. That is when I will be a Master of Science! Who knows where I'll go from there.

Two January Birthdays, One VERY Overdue Blog

So January brings about an awesome woman's birthday at work (ok so this blog is so overdue I don't work there anymore) and my friend Brian's birthday. I needed two cakes since one was for work and another for Brian's game night party. I chose a German Chocolate Cake and a Chocolate Party Cake. Brian has a slight allergy to chocolate, but it is his favorite... I try to force him to take benedril with each chocolate cake I bake him.

The German Chocolate cake I already knew the chocolate cake part was good since it was the cake base for the Ice Cream cake I had made before. The filling/toppping I was not sure about. AMAZING! The toasted pecans were the highlight of rounding out the sweetness of the sugar and coconut. Rave reviews from the scanning room

Next was the Chocolate Party Cake. This was a bundt cake with a chocolate base and a chocolate laquer painted onto the cake as it cools. This cake was slightly dry, but not in an unpleasant way. Also it was very dense and worked well with ice cream. The chocolate glaze was really good. It was the perfect sweet to bitter ratio of chocolate. Well received and enjoyed after dinner while playing some board games. One of the other highlights of that night, the shake weight. Even kids enjoy it.

(Another well over due blog will be on the way shortly. It's an exciting one for the 3 tier baby shower cake I made)

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A Cake For One of My Loyal Readers

Since I was traveling home for the holidys I thought it would be great to surprise one of my loyal readers with a cake. Who is this reader? My grandpa Don! He reads and comments on all of my cake posts, and always says how he would like a piece. I figured, what about a whole cake rather than just a piece.

So before I left I decided to find the recipe and photo copy it so I wouldn't have to lug the entire book to Ohio. I decided on a Whip Cream Cake. Basically it is what it sounds like, you take your dry ingredients and fold them into freshly whipped cream. This cake does not require adornments, just a small dusting of confectioners sugar. The outside of the cake is slightly crisp. Contrasting perfectly with the moist sweet inside.

This is defintely a recipe I will be keeping on hand for the future. I think it would be the perfect summer picnic or weekend brunch dessert.

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The Cherpumple

So this cake is NOT in the book... but everyone showed interest in the fact I was baking it so here it is. Back around Thanksgiving people kept talking about this cake with the pies in it, the Cherpumple. I read a few posts on it and found it interesting. A month later I decide this is going to be the talking piece of this years work holiday party as the bacon explotion was last year. For time sake i did break down and buy frozen pies and cake mix. Also I planned enough ahead to bake the pies two days before the party, that way i only needed to bake the cake layers and make frosting. No problem right? Cakes don't take that long to bake...well apparently with a pie inside cakes take double the cook time and sometimes still don't set properly on the top of the pie. This was discovered after i flipped out the first two layers: white cake with apple pie and yellow cake with cherry. The cherry pie yellow cake stuck. Never in my life have i had a cake stick! Nothing some cream cheese frosting won't fix though, right? Then the chocolate cake bottom was way over cooked, not happy with that. In the end, cream cheese frosting was the saving grace. Might not have come out pretty, or perfect by any means, but according to the men folk it was tastey!

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I scream, You scream...

So there should have been a blog before this as I had baked cupcakes for myself for my birthday, but I forgot to take pictures!!! Since no pictures I decided no blog. I'll just have to make those again and blog some other point on them. Now for what you've all been waiting for....

Cassie turned 1 year old in the beginning of November! (yes I know I should have written this weeks ago) She had a smash cake for herself, but the adults needed a cake to celebrate with her.

At this point I was going to put pictures... I can't find where on my computer the pictures from my phone went. *SOB* There were like 400 pictures I uploaded from my phone and I can't find a single one. OK I shall move on... if I find them I'll edit this. FOUND THEM!!!

So I decided to make an ice cream cake for the party. Days before a couple of us sat around debating what flavors of ice cream to use. The cake is a german chocolate cake, minus the coconut icing. More to come on the cake. So in the end it was narrowed down to people thinking Mint Chocolate Chip or Cookies And Cream would be best. I decided to use both.

So I went to bake the cake portion. This is where reading an entire recipe through comes in since I did not. I made the German Chocolate cake recipe as it said to use. The thing is I did not read to replace the half of the flour that was the Cake Flour and only use All Purpose Flour. It also said to make one layer not two and to use more batter in the one pan than normal to make it thicker with the intent being to cut it in half and put the ice cream as filling. So here I am with a lighter cake than intended and two thin layers. But I was determined to make it work.

So the next step is to take a spring form pan and place one layer of the cake in the bottom of the pan. Next the ice cream. I covered half the cake with softened mint chocolate chip and half with the softened cookies and cream. Then the other layer of cake. Next you cover with plastic wrap and push down on the cake so it all goes together. Then into the freezer it goes over night.

 Then comes the best part... a chocolate syrup!!! Wow was this good. Best chocolate syrup I have ever had in my life. I think that was the general thought of all who ate it. Just before serving you heat it up and it makes it even better.

I really need to find the pictures... really sad I can't find them. I'm going to go hunt some more... but I don't know if they'll ever show up. I swear I verified they were on my computer before deleting them from my phone...FOUND THEM!!!!

A double fairwell requires two new recipes

Two guys from work left us for greener pastures. One happened to be a fan of my baked goods and so he requested a carrot cake for his good bye. The other said he did not care what was baked for his departure. In the end I decided on the Carrot Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting and Yellow Cupcakes with a Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.

The Carrot Cake was so good. An entire lb of shredded carrots went into this cake. It was moist and spiced just right. Not being a huge fan of cinnamon, I was a little worried 2tsp would be a little to much. But it was just right. The White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting we already knew was fantastic.

The Yellow Cupcake was really good for a simple yellow cake. It was extra moist and very buttery. There was no butter in the batter so that baffled me, but butter if what it tasted of. The Chocolate Buttercream was good, but a little to sweet for me. Others, on the other hand, found the frosting to be the best part.

Mud Turtle Cupcakes

Last Monday I had a bad day at work. I needed something to relax me... I turned to baking therapy. I didn't want to have to go to the market, so what did I have on hand? Well I had leftover chocolate ganache from the chocolate banana cake, what recipe could I make with that? Flipping through I found something I had everything for that sounded just up my relaxation alley.... MUD TURTLE CUPCAKES. A chocolate cupcake with a turtle candy created on top. The batter was so good when I tried it there was no way this cupcake was going to be bad. Bonus was skipping the step of making the ganache. I did have to make the homemade caramel, but that's just watching the thermometer until it reaches the right temperature.

While I let that cool I did the dishes. The not so cool thing that happened, when I was washing the candy thermometer it broke in my hand. No harm, no foul.

Back to the cupcakes. The cakes did fall and ended up being quite small and dense. But they were so moist that the denseness added to the character of the cupcake. Now was the fun part. With a piping bag of carmel and a piping bag of ganache I went to constructing the turtle on top. Chocolate, caramel, pecans, caramel, chocolate... and quickly into the fridge to set.

I brought them in to work the next day so I wouldn't DESTROY them all myself. ( I was upset it was a possibility) The key is to let them come back to room temperature. If not the caramel is not soft and the entire topping comes off with the first bite. All together the tastes melded perfectly! Sweet, slightly salty, chocolate.... YUM. Did I mention they tasted amazing? Well received by all who had one. The only down side being the recipe only makes 16 cupcakes. These 16 cupcakes will be eaten VERY quickly.