Happy Birthday Michael! 02/21/2015

Andrea and Michael approached me about doing another cake for them and I was certainly delighted and honored to do so.  Michael was very specific with what he had envisioned for his big day!

This was a chocolate cake filled with a thin layer of dulce de leche (milk caramel).  It is frosted with a thin layer of chocolate buttercream and encased with chocolate ganache.  The outside has organic grated coconut and written on with white chocolate.  All of the chocolate used was Lindt.

 Michael did not want any fruit on the cake, but with my piece I ate loads of those gorgeous strawberries pictured here.  Those complimented things very well.  

I love this photo because it shows you the contrast.  The top very dark chocolate ganache, the bottom the dulce de leche, milk caramel, that I used for the filling inside the cake.

 These photos are provided from my friends and are absolutely beautiful.  

Cross-section photo of the cake.

A helper in the kitchen 02/21/2015

It seems I have peeked the interest of a young student in the making!  Not hard to believe my daughter is ready to get her hands in the chocolate.  Here we are writing on a cake together.  Hopefully the first of many baking endeavors.

Just Because 01/25/2015

I was feeling inspired in late January to try something new.  My family member's favorite cookie is something I hadn't made before, even in school you don't make everything.  With some help from my brother with home made jam/jelly from his garden, I think these Rainbow Cookies were fairly successful.  After a little prep work, these are actually fairly straightforward as long as you have three cake pans that are the same size.  I didn't have that, so I did my best.  Lesson learned.

The Newest Member of the Kitchen!!!!!! 2014

I've only had this a few weeks, and it's already been operated twice!  I'm such a fan of the Hobart mixer.  This is a 12qt. and weighs in close to 200#.  Thank you Mom and Dad for a great contribution to this mixer in my work-in-progress kitchen. 

Scones 2014

As a 'thank you' to our friendly realtor for helping us find our wonderful new home I finally got around to asking him what type of dessert he would enjoy.  These may not look like much, but scones are fairly unique.  Not understood by all, scones are made to be dry and crumbly and appreciated with a cup of tea or coffee.  They are not a cake or a muffin...but their own slice of yumminess. 

Also, I couldn't find my rolling pin or biscuit cutters (most things are still in boxes around here), so they are a bit more rustic looking and larger than I normally would make them.  But tasty none-the-less! 

Here are my Pecan-Mixed Berry Scones:

Veteran's Day Instructional Cake 2014

Becca got to plan and build a cake for her Dad to celebrate Veteran's Day.  We worked together and made a chocolate cake.  She chose strawberry bavarian cream as her filling and chocolate buttercream for the frosting.  She added chocolate dipped strawberries to the top for decoration.  I was very impressed with her determination to practice her piping for a while before putting her application on the cake.  I taught her how to comb the sides and smooth the top of the cake.  She also wrote 'Dad' on the cake with melted chocolate.  This was a fun project to teach a kiddo how much hard work goes into creating a cake.  I am very proud of Becca!  

Megan's Baby Shower 2014

Andrea ordered a cake for her friend Megan who is expecting a baby girl.  The mother's requested no pink for the shower, so the colors were decided to be purple and yellow.  Other desserts that were also served were pies and cookies, not provided by me.  This cake is a traditional white cake with vanilla buttercream, a raspberry mousse filling and pressed against the outside are toasted sliced almonds.