I am still cooking

Ok, so I have failed on this blog. Work and school took over for a long time, and they are going to be taking over again soon. But for now, I have a minute or two to post some of the things that I have made since June.
First in April actually, I made a birthday cake for my nephews first birthday. A tradition for my family is on the first birthday the birthday child gets to dig into the birthday cake. So I also made cupcakes, because we knew that not much cake would be left to eat after Cooper got his hands on it. For the cupcakes I made Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes with Reese Peanut Butter Cups on top.
Here are pictures of both of those. Coop's cake was a simple chocolate cake with buttercream frosting.

Then is September I made another birthday cake for Bronson. This was a dinosaur cake with a really volcano on it. This was a rather large cake, but lots of fun to make. A common conversation I have with Bronson is what kind of cake I am making for each person's birthday. He always knows what kind of cake he wants for his birthday. This was he gave me very specific details about what it is suppose to look like.

The rest of the year past with not much baking. I did an occasional cupcake for a birthday- nothing to fantastic. Then the other day I made some of the best cupcakes- ok the cake was kind of generic but the frosting was amazing. I don't have a good picture of them. But I made chocolate cupcakes with Oreo Cream Cheese Frosting (this is my new favorite frosting now) and I made Strawberry cupcakes with Strawberry cream cheese frosting and a chocolate dipped strawberry on top.
I am hoping to have more time to bake soon and I will take more pictures this year and to take more pictures of those baking adventures

Audrey Hepburn Cake

This cake was extremely frustrating. I had a million ideas of what I wanted it to look like. I had these grand images in my head that would turn out so awesome, that I just could not quite put into action. I just need to improve my skills, and that takes time and patience which I don't always have
Well, here is what it turned out to be




The pictures of Audrey are completely edible. They are printed with edible ink, on a frosting transfer sheet. My local bakery does this for me. One day I will have an edible ink printer thing.
The top of the cake is black frosting that I did a gel transfer of the design on top and then frosted over. It is the same floral design from Audrey Hepburn's dress in Sabrina.
If I were to do this cake over again, I would probably do the floral design all over the cake. I liked that method.

I am a slacker.

I am an all time slacker. I have just not had a lot of oppurtunities to bake lately.
I have some stuff coming up and I will for sure take some pictures.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

Or Nutella Cake. I made this cake for my brother and sister for their birthdays that are two days apart- so we did one celebration.
I made a Yellow Cake, with Vanilla Pudding. The filling is a nutella mousse (whip cream and nutella) and then it is covered with a chocolate Ganache, topped with chopped Hazelnuts.
I will give my cake "recipe" in another post- cause I want to go into that a little more.
But here is the Ganache recipe

Ganache:
4 ounces whole hazelnuts
1/2 cup half and half
1 tablespoon rum (I used rum flavoring)
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate


Toast the hazelnuts in a dry skillet, or toaster oven shaking them around frequently. Do it for about 4 minutes, or until they are lightly browned, then let cool completely. If hazelnuts came with skins on, put them in a towel after toasting and rub around; this will remove most of the skins.

Chop chocolate, and add to sauce pan with half and half and rum over medium-low heat. Once chocolate is melted and components are combined, whisk until mixture reaches desired thickness, then cool. Remove rim of cake pan and pour cooled ganache over, spreading lightly to create a smooth, shiny surface, and apply hazelnuts all over.

For the Filling, I did a crumb coat layer of Nutella, then the mousse layer.
The mousse is 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, and 1/2 to 3/4 cup of nutella (depending on how much you want the flavor of the nutella to come out.) First, you whip the cream till it is stiff, then you gently fold in the nutella. When it is done it should be a mocha color.
This is the first layer with nutella and mousse filling



All the Layers together before the crumb coat of nutella on the outside



Put all the layers together, then cover with the chocolate Ganache and toasted hazelnuts. I Drizzled a little extra ganache on top for a little decoration.

The Finished Project


This inside of the finished project

MIA for Christmas

I got razzed tonight that it has taken me so long to do the B cupcakes. So I am letting you all know- to those of you who are interested, and even those of you who are not interested- that I will be doing them begining (maybe on New Years eve) but I will get too them.
For the time being, I want to know if there is anything that you all would be interested in me making. This does not just mean cupcakes- anything goes. Well anything except something with shellfish because I am allergic. But other than that they sky is the limit.
If you havea request let me know by leaving a comment.

The B winner is

BUBBLEGUM! I will be posting the results soon. This will be interesting to figure out.

Cupcakes for B

I posted then new poll for the theme for cupcakes for this month.
Take a look and vote! It is between Boston Cream, Banana Split, Bubblegum and Berries. Excited to see what wil come of it!