Mo's birthday cake

In April Mo turned 1. Doesn't he look so happy in his little hat?!

Of course being who I am, I decided that Mo really needed a birthday cake.

This cake is entirely dog friendly and he only got a small piece. I cannot remember the ingredients that I used, but a lot of research went into making sure that I wouldn't be cleaning up after the party for days to come.

Not only was the cake doggie friendly, but it was people edible as well. I tried a bite and I'll assure you, although not gross by any means, this cake was rather bland. Not a super sweet treat or something scrumptious, but you'd never know by the way that Mo begged for more after his little slice. I'll have to try to figure out the recipe and post it sometime.

Almond cheesecake with coconut almond crust

Although still a work in progress and not a recipe I'm ready to share, this cheesecake turned out a lot better than the mint lime flavor. I added almond extract and almond slivers to the cheesecake mixture. Someone told me that crunchy things in a soft thing sounded funky, but the texture turned out really nicely!

To make the crust I used:

1/4 cup crushed almonds

1/2 cup shredded coconut

2 tbs flour

1/4 cup sugar

3 tbs melted butter

mix all ingredients and press into the bottom of your pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes before pouring your pie filling on top of the crust.

Another thing I did for this cheesecake was a water bath. I tried making my first cheesecake about a month or two ago and it ended up with lots of cracks so I did a little research about how you can avoid them.

A couple things of note:

*cracks form due to uneven cooking

*cracks form due to shrinkage upon removal from heat

To combat each of these things:

*if using a springform pan, wrap the outside of the pan in aluminum foil to prevent water seeping in through the bottom

*Fill a larger pan with hot water that reaches half way up your cake pan and place the cake pan in the larger water filled pan.

*Bake your cheesecake for about 45 minutes on 350

*After 45 minutes turn off your oven, but do not open the door or remove the cake for one hour

*After one hour remove cake to a cooling rack and allow to fully cool before refrigerating for at least 2 hours

Following these steps will increase the moisture and moderate the temperature within your oven so that the entire cake will cook at the same rate. Allowing the cake to cool within the oven keeps the cake from cooling too quickly.

As you can see from my photo above, no cracks and the entire cake was cooked to the same consistency throughout.

Mint lime cheesecake

I made two cheesecakes yesterday, the first of which were mini mint lime cheesecakes. I baked mint leaves into the cheesecake mixture and the flavor spread pretty strongly. Really not sure that this was my best idea ever. I like the flavor, but others may find it odd.

I still have a long way to go on cheesecake so I'll wait a while before I post any sort of advice or recipes.

Second cake I ever decorated!

I dunno what I was thinking with this one.

What I do know after this cake is that red was incredibly horrible to work with. I'm not sure why, but any time I have red frosting it turns into a huge mess. Maybe that's just for me, but it NEVER fails.

I've tried various types of coloring and my favorite is Americolor Soft Gel Paste. I'm not far enough into my baking adventure to know the difference in tastes and results from color to color within the reds, but I've read that tulip red has the least amount of flavor. I currently use Super Red, but will be trying tulip red out next time I make something that needs to be this annoying color.

My first cake!

I have always loved the basket weave cakes.

Please forgive the photos... This is the first cake I ever decorated. Actually, the first anything that I ever decorated.

It was really much easier than I had anticipated. I'll have to do another basket weave sometime soon so that I can do a tutorial on it.

I survived my first day of school

One of the classes I am taking is Public Speaking. This is most definitely my weak point in life; My hands go clammy, my body turns tomato red, my voice takes on a mouselike tone and the actual words come out in stuttering bursts of sound and exasperation. Really not a pretty sight...

I sat through the entire class trying to mentally prepare for the moment I knew was coming, I was going to have to be the center of attention and I was going to have to speak in front of everyone. I can't remember at all what I said, nervous amnesia I call it, but I do remember a little about the other people within the class. There is a 3 time American Idol tryout failee who "isn't one of the crazy ones who just thinks they're good", a sanitation engineer, many new high school graduates, a high school dropout who went into the construction business until it crashed and subsequently realized an education just might be important, and a self proclaimed "wealthy" retired investment broker. This is bound to be good people watching.

I did share my opinions and express my fear openly, but when faced with the imminent certainty that I will have to stand up and give a long winded explanation... I cannot think of anything worse. Maybe being trapped inside a burning building with no possible manner of escape... maybe... but probably not. This is exactly why I am taking this class when I don't "need" the grade or the credit. I don't want this to stall me in life any longer.

A wise man once said, "People have a really hard time going through something painful for a short time to reach the great end result". I like to tell this wise man to shut it on a daily basis, but for once I am listening and I'm making an effort. So shut it!

First Day of school

It has been nearly 10 years since I have done anything for a grade. I'm judged, critiqued, guided and educated on a daily basis, but all for a paycheck. As I load my book bag and prepare for what is going to be a very long day I can't help but wonder, what was I thinking?!

Today is the first day of school.

Hydrangea Cake

From the first moment I saw the tutorial for the Hydrangea cake done by Amanda at Iambaker I knew I HAD to try this. I gathered all of the items I'd need and kept the thought in the back of my mind. Because I am insane, this last weekend I decided to try two cakes, the toasted coconut pineapple cake and this beautiful cake. She's by far more talented than I am, but I was overall pleased with how my own cake turned out.

I will not lie. I had a tough time getting the hang of the flower petals from the start. By the end of the first color I had a semi decent technique going. I've never used this tip and I've never made anything aside from flat flowers on a cake.

The texture and colors are highly appealing and I cannot believe how easy it really was; Pretty sure I iced the entire cake in about 20 minutes tops including my initial struggle with the petals.

If you'd like to try this out for yourself Amanda has a great tutorial here. She's truly an amazing artist and I plan to try out many MANY more of her ideas. Take the time to check out some of her interior designs on cakes! Who thinks of that?! She does!

Pan Release

I mentioned a pan release recipe in my post yesterday. It's super easy and highly effective.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup vegetable oil

*you may prepare a smaller batch by decreasing ingredients to smaller equal parts

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together completely. Thoroughly coat the sides and bottom of baking dish or pan using a pastry brush. After the cake has cooled for 5 minutes, gently turn over onto a cooling rack.

Note: do not allow cake to cool more than 10 minutes before removing from pan.

The original recipe can be found here Wrenscottage.com

Toasted coconut and pineapple cake tutorial

This cake is pretty straight forward and simple. Lets just get this out in the open, I used a box vanilla cake mix. My main focus with this cake was the frosting rather than the cake itself. Now that I am satisfied with the frosting I'll begin focusing on cake recipes. I hope I'll master some good ones and I pray it won't take me as long as the frosting did... With that being said, prepare your cake mix as directed on the box or use your own personal favorite recipe.

On a side note, I did make a delicious vanilla bean cake using vanilla beans I got from my local coop, but I thought I was so smart I didn't need to write it down. Yea, not that smart...

I found an easy recipe for cake release that I'll put up soon. I like the springform pans, but I don't want them to stick so I cut a square of parchment paper and cover the plate of the cake pan. I then insert the plate of the cake pan into the outer ring from the bottom and fasten in place. Once fastened I cut off the excess parchment paper from the underside leaving my pan level. I then use a pastry brush and coat the side edges of the pan to the top with the cake release mixture.

Now that I have a good stick free pan I layer the pineapple in the bottom of one pan. You could do pineapple in both pans, but I didn't want to overdo it so I stuck with just the one.

Pour your cake batter mixture over the pineapple layer in the pan. The pineapple will not float.

Bake your cake according to the directions on the box taking into account your environment including any peculiarities of your own oven.

If you baked pineapple into only one layer you should end up with two cake halves like mine. Cool completely on racks before frosting cakes. If your cake layers are uneven you may trim them using a knife or a cake trimming tool.

While cooling your cake layers mix your frosting.

Once your cake layers are cool, smooth frosting on top of the pineapple layer, with the pineapple facing upwards. Place the second layer of cake on top of the pineapple layer and coat the cake in a light layer of frosting to secure any crumbs creating a crumb layer.

This layer of frosting doesn't need to be pretty or even hide the cake beneath the frosting as you can see from my photo. This layer is merely meant to hold in the crumbs so that your final layer of frosting will go on smoothly.

Once your crumb layer is complete, place your cake into the refrigerator for one to two hours to allow the frosting to set. This will create a firm layer of frosting so that you can apply the outer layer more easily.

While waiting for your crumb layer to set, lightly toast shredded coconut. Watch carefully while the coconut is in the oven as it goes from toasted to burnt incredibly quickly.

Once your crumb layer has set, remove cake from the refrigerator and frost it fully. I do not know how to get a completely smooth top layer as you can see. I have the outer edge mastered, but the top still eludes me so I have done a nice flower design on top to hide my lack of true skill.

Once the cake is fully frosted apply the toasted coconut mixture to the side edge of the cake by pressing it in. You'll make a mess so you may want to do this on a large cookie sheet or layer of foil.

You may use whichever design you choose to top your cake or no design at all.

For my design I chose a #22 tip and did small swirls around the outer edge. To make each swirl I started from the center looping outward and pulled the frosting back toward the center to swirl it upward over my starting point.

When you're done you should have something that looks like this! You'll probably have something that looks a lot better than this, but whatever it looks like, I hope it tastes great.

I'm told my cake was a success today, but I may have to make it again myself to find out. Perhaps with my own cake recipe!