Little Penelope turned one in September and the theme of her party was ladybugs! I made a strawberry cake with pinkish-red raspberry frosting and black chocolate frosting. Her cake turned out super cute!
Penny’s birthday
Blue doughnut?
The CEO was retiring and going back to Japan, and of course I HAD to make something special for his departure. I brought in a 2 layer vanilla cake with sprinkles baked inside, and made blue soy-vanilla frosting with rainbow sprinkles. I didn’t have “The Simpsons” in mind, but it ended up looking like a big blue doughnut. It was a bittersweet moment… I was really glad everyone liked the cake, but I was very sad to see one of my biggest baked goods fans go.
Little Pat’s birthday
Vin’s nephew Patrick was born shortly after our wedding last year, and for his first birthday I wanted to bake something. Ice cream cone cupcakes seemed like a brilliant idea for a little boy’s birthday! Vanilla cake was baked inside and then I filled them with vanilla frosting. I made blue frosting and tried to make Mr. Softy-like swirls, but I still need to work on the technique. Even so, it was a huge hit with all the little kids!
Pineapple upside down cakes
Another one of my coworkers was leaving the company and so I asked “What kind of going away cake would YOU like?” The response: pineapple cake. So I looked up about five different recipes for pineapple upside down cake and read people’s comments and suggestions and ended up drafting my own recipe. My version had coconut flakes AND coconut milk, and the sugary crust at the bottom (err… top) was superb. I made 2 cakes, but there was still extra batter so I grabbed the cupcake pans and made…. *drumroll please* coconut-pineapple upside down CUPCAKES! These were a bigger hit than the cake, and the cake turned out tasty, moist and damn good. It’s not much to look at, but tastewise…. definitely one of my best.
Summer family parties
This past June was big. We finally had our housewarming party, and just for sh*ts and giggles we threw in my brother’s high school graduation, my cousin’s birthday and my parents’ 30th anniversary. I wasn’t able to take a photo of the strawberry cakes for my cousin’s birthday, but here’s the freehand Pikachu cake (my brother loooooved Pokemon when he was little… I guess he still does hahaha), and I attempted to recreate a tier from my parents’ wedding cake, but I was rushing and the frosting was not cooperating and it didn’t come out so well. A baby made a swipe @ the cake before I got a cell phone shot of it. At least it tasted good. =)
My parents’ cake was a 2 layer vanilla cake with white vanilla frosting and pink raspberry flowers. The Pikachu cake was one layer of coconut cake with all coconut frosting.
Red velvet mania
One of my coworkers was leaving the company and I asked what kind of cake she’d like (I missed baking for her birthday so I felt extra bad), and she requested red velvet. I didn’t realize how much red food coloring was required, and the batter didn’t quite taste right so I kept adding some of this… a little of that… and by the time I was done baking, I ended up with several small cakes, a dozen cupcakes, and a crapload of mini cupcakes. Crapload. And the homemade cream cheese frosting came out great! (Thank you, Alton Brown.)
I filled my coworker’s cake with cream cheese frosting and a layer of pecans. Not much to look at, but it tasted delicious!
