I'm Still Here!

I have no good excuse and I'm not going to try to make any. I just keep forgetting to post. Well, I'm going to show you two cakes that I've done recently. They're not the best, but I'm still learning. The first one I did for a lady who wanted to thank the auto body shop that was working on her car. Yes, it's pink. That's what happens when you don't have any red icing and you try to make your own.

The next one I made last week for a lady's birthday. She loves lighthouses.

I have to make a three-layer coconut cake this week for another lady. I'm kind of relieved that it's just a simple cake like that. I want to do more character/shape cakes, but it's alot of work and I have to bake brookies for two restaurants this week.

Last weekend was E's and my 10th anniversary! Wow! I can't believe it's been 10 years already. Actually, it feels like I've been with E for all of my life, but in a good way. I'm so happy that he is a part of my life. We couldn't go away for long because of the turkeys, but we managed to get a night away and stay in Staunton. I've never been there, even though it's only about an hour away. I'm so glad we went because it is beautiful. Todd and Carrie gave us a gift certificate for one night's stay at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel for Christmas, so we used it for our anniversay. We have to go back next weekend to pick up an antique buffet that we are buying. I can't wait to get that in the house.

Anyway, I'll try my best to post more often. Have a good day!

I Know......

Yeah. It's been awhile. I've thought about posting many, many times, but just never got around to it. I want to try to post every day, but I forget. I've been really busy lately. I've been baking up a storm, but I haven't been to the farmer's market since mid-October. I've been baking brookies for the restaurant, cakes for people, and cookies and other goodies for people. I've even been baking things just to try new recipes. Sadly, I haven't taken many pics. I just baked a pumpkin pie last night, so I'll have to take a pic of it before I slice into it and post it, along with the recipe, on here.

To get myself started for the month of December, here is a pic of a frog cake I baked for someone two weeks ago. It took all day to decorate it and it was really heavy. I was told to make it for 25 people, but I think I made it too big. I was going to use smaller pans but E insisted that I use a bigger pan. I have to research and find out how big to make a cake for the amount of people that it's for.

**Well, apparently the pics don't want to upload at this time. I'll have to try later....**

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween! We had a costume contest at work yesterday. I wore my trusty old Civil War re-enactment outfit. Well, one of them. It's the first time I wore it to work. I don't take the best pictures, but I'll show what I have.

I did win a prize! I won "Best Fit to Personality". Hmm... I wonder what that's really supposed to mean. I was told it's because I'm so quaint and quiet.

I had another order for a cake! Yay! This time it was a trout cake. I had so many ideas buy my tools and equipment are still limited. If I keep this up I'll be able to buy the things I need.

I wanted to do the entire cake as a trout, but I didn't have a pan big enough so I made a standard size sheet cake (two layers) and carved out the trout on another cake. I made two trouts just incase I messed up, and sure enough the first one didn't turn out like I wanted. I changed gears and came up with this. E helped out with the blue icing and cutting the trout. He won't admit it, but he liked it. :)

Monster Truck Cakes and the 70s

I've been so excited this week because I was asked to bake a birthday cake for a friend's grandson. He wanted a monster truck cake. I looked up ideas online and found some pics that I liked. The pics used cake molds, but I didn't have one so I had to make my cake by stacking loaf pan size cakes. For the wheels I used my mini bundt pan. I wanted to make the truck black, but I didn't have time to run to C'ville to pick up any supplies, so I had to make do with what I had. The truck ended up being gray. It took a lot of hours and a lot of work, but I think it turned out pretty good for my first 3-D cake:

It was supposed to be Grave Digger. I needed more supplies to be able to decorate it correctly, but I think you can tell what it is.

Last night we attended a surprise birthday party for a friend. The party was a 70s theme so E and I got dressed up. I had a black dress that was his mom's from the 60s/70s and E bought an outfit from a party store in C'ville. It turned out great!

Gotta love the afro!

Farmer's Market Treats

Last Saturday was our first day at our new venue. We moved to the back parking lot instead of the park. There's so much more traffic now. It only made sense to move back there. We've been wanting to for a long time but the last market master didn't want us to for some reason. We now have a new market master and he was all for it. I had a table full of delicious goodies including our Indian Fry Bread which always sells out and Praline Brookies.

I made these cake pops to sell. The tasted wonderful, but the chocolate coating started melting because it was so hot. Everyone that saw them was impressed, but I only sold 3, go figure! The recipe is very simple (Thanks Bakerella!) Just bake a cake (any flavor). Using a 13x9 sheet pan is easiest. After it has totally cooled, shred cake into a big bowl. You can use a food processor if you like. Stir in 2 cups of cake icing (any flavor) and mix well. I had to use my hands. form into balls and place on a wax paper-covered sheet pan and pop into the refrigerator until set or freezer. Once everything is nice and firm, take out balls and push sticks in them. Dip them in melted candy coating (any flavor) and let dry standing up. I turned an egg carton upside down, punched holes in it and dried the cake pops on that. Worked wonderfully.

These are Sugar and Spice Donuts I made. I threw away the recipe because I decided I wasn't going to make them again. They were okay, but I have a killer Apple Cider Donut recipe that's much better. These were actually really good the next day after I heated them in the microwave for 30 seconds. I might try another donut recipe or I'll make some scones for this weekend. I have a couple of scone recipes I'm dying to try along with one that was a really good seller last year.

Dried Cherry Coffee Cake

This was okay, but I think next time I won't use dried fruit. Fresh or canned fruit would be way better. Maybe this weekend I'll work on a rhubarb coffee cake, even though my rhubarb is the green kind and not the red kind.

Dried Cherry Coffee Cake

2 cups brown sugar
1 cup dried cherries, chopped
2 tsp cinnamon

Batter:
1/2 cup butter, soft
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups sour cream

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, cherries, and cinnamon; set aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until crumbly. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture and sour cream to the butter mixture, beating just until combined.

Spread half the batter evenly into a sprayed 13x9" baking pan. Sprinkle with half of the reserved sugar and cherry mixture. Repeat layers; cut through batter with a knife to swirl.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 28-33 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack. Cut and serve.

Coffee Lovers' Coffee Cake II

This is a recipe I got from Taste of Home. I accidentally changed it because I didn't pay attention to what I was doing and added too much butter. Nonetheless it was awesome. I think I'll keep the butter amount because I can't imagine eating it with any less.

Coffee Lovers' Coffee Cake II

adapted from Taste of Home

1/3 cup granulated sugar

4-1/2 tsp instant coffee granules

1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Batter:

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup sour cream

2 Tbsp walnuts, chopped

In a small bowl, combine the sugar, coffee granules and cinnamon; set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until crumbly. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; add to butter mixture along with sour cream. Beat just until combined.

Spread half the batter evenly in a sprayed 9-inch square baking pan; sprinkle with half the reserved coffee mixture. Repeat layers; cut through batter with a knife to swirl. Sprinkle with nuts.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 28-33 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack. Serve warm.

These are the ones on the left.

Carrot Cake

I have been terrible about keeping up with this blog this month. I just completely forget about it! I'll try to be better. I promise. For Easter, I made this yummy carrot cake. I got the recipe from http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/. It is good, trust me. I made a regular one and E took it to work where everyone gobbled it up. I then decided to make a lower-fat version for us. It tasted fabulous, but I made one mistake. I substituted all of the oil with applesauce. I should've used SOME oil, maybe 1/4 cup. If you make this low-fat, please, please, please use some oil. The texture was a little rubbery-ish. Very edible, but just didn't like the texture.


Cake:

2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (I use canola)
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups grated carrots

Icing:

1 stick butter, softened
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese
1 pound (16 oz) powdered sugar
1 cups pecans, finely chopped
2 tsp vanilla

Cake:
Mix together the sugar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda and powder, and cinnamon. Add to egg mixture, stirring until combined. Stir in carrots. Pour into a greased and floured pan (I used two rounds). Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 - 50 minutes, depending on which pan you use, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pans, then remove to a wire rack. Cool completely.

Icing:
In a large bowl, cream butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and vanilla and blend; mix in nuts. Frost cooled carrot cake.

Enjoy.


I have several recipes to post, hopefully, in the next few coming days.