More cakes!

It's been a cake-y couple of months! Nothing too revolutionary, but I figure I'll post the pictures and let you be the judge.

For Nicole's bithday I made her a chocolate buttermilk cake (it really is my stand-by recipe for chocolate deliciousness!) with cream cheese icing and fresh strawberries. Learned a very important lesson that day... strawberries bleed! The cake was yummy, though, and the filling between the layers was cream cheese with smashed up strawberries mixed into it... le yum.

For my birthday my sister and I made my favourite, carrot cake... loaded with carrots, topped with cream cheese icing, and with pecans for decoration (extra on the side for people like me who wanted tons, but minimal on the cake for those who don't like them!)

Red velvet cupcakes for the wedding shower of some dear friends whose wedding I am in this summer! (Red being one of the key colours in the wedding!)

And last, but not least, a cake for my coworker Mackenzie's sister's engagement party! Far from perfect (that dent above the heart DID get fixed!) but it was short notice, and my first tiered cake. More importantly, however, it was well received, and that's what really matters right?I

So there we go. Some cakey highlights from over the past month!

Birthday Cake Fit for a Best Friend

Monday is my best friend's birthday! He's turning 25... wow... so we're celebrating, but in a low key kinda way. I've kind of hijacked making his birthday cakes for the last couple years (last year was Deanna Troi, the year before was a Pokemon ball... before that I forget, but maybe I didn't make it that year). This year is a more "grown up" cake, no theme, just flavour fusion! So I made him this chocolate peanut butter marble cake from Sugar Plum, and topped it with some makeshift chocolate buttercream.

Not-really-Easter Baking

Made a strawbery rhubarb pie for the first time, and though I botched the lattice it still looked kinda neat, tasted pretty good (my first time trying it too!), and was well received. Got the recipe from Canadian Living, here.

These cute nest cookies are just my usual haystack recipe with a few Cadbury's Mini Eggs on top. They were also well received, but I've gotta be honest when I say I preferred the components separately. Haystacks don't need to be messed with, they're perfect on their own... though they are cute this way.

So that was my non-Easter baking... barely celebrated the holiday, and now it's on to more fun things.

A Merry Starbucks Christmas!

So have I mentioned how awesome it is to work at Starbucks? Because... it's awesome. I started at the end of November, and we discussed Christmas party plans, which were to be post-Christmas celebrations. Christmas happened, New Year's happened... and then all of a sudden it was February! So we decided to have the party this weekend, and me being me I decided to make barista cookies!!!

Chocolate Cupcakes

I am on a cupcake kick. I've always loved them - they're so cute and individual - but I'm especially into them at the moment. Possibly because we sell them at Starbucks so I see/sell them almost every day? Plus I know that mine are better, hehe. So on Sunday I made red velvet cupcakes that were so last minute, and so delicious, they didn't last long enough for me to take pictures of. Today I made chocolate ones with vanilla icing, and they are almost as awesome. These are the ones you will see/hear about today.

In Defense of Cake Mixes

 Fast food is popular for a reason... not that McDonald's necessarily makes a better burger than you can at home on your barbeque (obviously!), but that they're cheaper, easier, and foolproof. By the same token, cake mixes can be incredibly valuable. Tonight I just wanted to make a cake. I don't feel like eating it, I don't have anyone to share it with until tomorrow or the next day, but I don't care... just wanted to slab some pretty coloured icing on a cake and squiggle on some decoration.

So here we go... a 6" round French Vanilla Betty Crocker cake mix, with purple-tinted vanilla icing from a can! Luckily cutting a cake mix in 1/3 is pretty easy... 1/3 of the mix, 100mL of milk/water, 25mL of oil, and 1 egg. Done! A quick mix and I walk away, and come back to a perfect cake, ready for me to ruin with icing doodles.

Cakes

I have always loved making cakes, but have especially gotten into it over the last year. It went from being something I thoroughly enjoyed doing for special occasions to being something I now do just for fun and to relieve stress. Luckily no one complains about having extra cake! I've been meaning to post these for a while, so read on after the jump for the the pictures of cakes.

Carrot Muffins, and More Christmas Presents

Carrot muffins are a weakness of mine, carrot cake one of my favourite treats... with or without cream cheese frosting, and especially with walnuts, I am a sucker for a good bite of carrot-y deliciousness. It's also one of my favourite things to make, so when boyfriend commented I had no good breakfast food on hand I immediately decided that this is what I would make to accomodate him, and indulge myself. I also was looking for a chance to display some of the beautiful new plates my sister got me for Christmas. So voila - carrot muffins! (Recipe after the jump)

Birthday Baking

Wednesday was boyfriend's 24th birthday, so you know what that means... birthday cake! Also, with my beautiful shiny new mixer, I decided cake from scratch and delicious buttercream icing were both in order. So boyfriend got a 6" double layered dark chocolate buttermilk cake with chocolate buttercream and caramel ganache. There was also what was supposed to be caramel buttercream in the middle... but that ended up more like a weird butterscotch fudge and we'll just pretend it didn't happen, because the rest of the cake was oh-so-good.

Baking Catch-Up

So although the blog has been quiet, my kitchen has not. Well, quieter than it sometimes is... but you get the point. So here's where I get you up to speed, completely with pictures and blurbs and all that fun stuff. Shall we go chronologically? I think we shall. (After the jump!)

Had a Holly Jolly Christmas...

It's been a while, but I'm back.. hopefully with a vigor this time! Hope you all had a very happy holiday season... I sure did! First I will sum up my holidays, and my newfound motivation to bake, in one picture. Next, in a future post, I will get the ball rolling with recent baking adventures! Yay!