Easter Bunny Cake

My Gammie turned 81 on Easter Sunday! My family celebrated her birthday on Friday evening with a delicious butternut squash & Fontina cheese lasagna, some Italian sausages, my favorite apple & walnut salad (recipe HERE!) and a fun cake!

Technically, there is nothing new about what I'm sharing today - I've shared the cake before (recipe HERE) and the chocolate icing before (recipe HERE), and I used store bought fondant. So, I won't be sharing a new recipe today but more so a concept, and I'll talk about how I made my cake making process.

Most of my cakes start out with a drawing. I had so many ideas about this cake - pastel colored icing for Easter, flowers, bunnies on top of the cake, bunnies on the side of the cake, a banner on top of the cake... I have never made a cake for Easter before so I was full of new ideas and Pinterest was filling my brain with so much more! I ended up deciding on icing the cake to look like a tree trunk, having a little bunny bum made of fondant sticking out the bottom of the cake, some little pieces of green fondant to look like grass along the side of the cake, and a little flag banner on top supported with 2 paper straws.

Pancakes & Pajamas Party - The Food

The Bean's birthday was last Saturday and it was the biggest success! Yesterday, I talked all about the games and today and talking all about the food! We did a pancake bar for the girls and had some french silk pie instead of cake - it was all a hit! Let's start with the pancake bar!

I made my favorite pancakes. You can find the recipe HERE. The link to the recipe is actually for blueberry pancakes, but if you want plain pancakes like these, just leave out the blueberries. The pancakes without the blueberries are just as delicious. 

Sending love (& cupcakes)

A family member recently had cancer related surgery. My family has gotten updates every so often and after the most recent update, we knew we wanted to send love in a big way! In the past, when supporting a loved one from a distance, we've looked up bakeries/flower shops close to them. That works great but it can get a little pricey. This time we thought we would try baking at home and express mailing it. I volunteered to make the cupcakes and my dad took care of all the packaging and mailing details.

Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

One of my favorite ladies celebrated a birthday last week and I made cupcakes to celebrate! I have a chocolate cupcake recipe that I love, but I don't have a white cake recipe that I can rely on every time! This recipe is from Sally's Baking Addiction and it's good, but it's sweet! I'm going to try reducing the sugar in it, but until then do any of you have a white/yellow cake recipe that you love? I would love any recommendations!

I frosted these cupcakes with my go-to chocolate frosting, you can find that recipe HERE. I baked the cupcakes in pink wrappers and topped them with pink sprinkles, but you could use whatever decorating scheme you like on these!

St-Patrick's Day Cupcakes

My family went to a St-Patrick's day party on Saturday evening so I'll be talking about some recipes and crafts from that party this week. Today, I'm talking about the cupcakes I made. Tomorrow, I'll share the shirts I made and on Thursday, I'm sharing a recipe that the Bean found for the Party! She made Cheeseburger Balls and they were fabulous!!

I made my all time favorite chocolate cake recipe, and frosted them with my favorite buttercream frosting - this is my go-to for cupcakes! It's easy and it tastes good every time! I stick to the same recipe but I dress it up differently depending on the event or holiday! I made some green sprinkles to top these cupcakes with!

I made the sprinkles by putting 1/4 cup of granulated sugar in a ziplock bag and adding in 5 drops of green food coloring. I am not a fan of dying food, so I always try to minimize amounts of dye. However, if you want to add more food coloring for a darker green, go for it! Work the color into the sugar until it is evenly distributed - I did this by sealing the bag and shaking it around.

Apple Crumble Cheesecake

The Bean turned 13 on March 2nd - which makes me feel like 90! We celebrated her birthday with our family this past weekend and she had a special request for the cake... an apple crumble cheesecake! I think I've made cheesecake before, probably when I was 13! But I am not well versed in cheesecakes so I took to Pinterest and found the most delicious recipe from cakescottage.com! You can find the original recipe HERE.

One little thing before we get going - this cake was very fall! It smelled like fall while it was baking, and it tasted like fall! I love fall, but I might hold off on making this again until October/November-ish because it is the most perfect fall cake!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Happy February! I made these cupcakes this past weekend and they were scrumptious! They were a little long a complicated to put together but the end result was so worth it! I started by making my favorite chocolate cupcakes and when the cupcakes were cooled, I cored them and filled them with eggless cookie dough. Then, I iced the cupcakes with my favorite buttercream frosting recipe and stuck a mini chocolate chip cookie in the top.

A couple of things before I start...
1. My mom helped me make these - so there was a lot going on in the kitchen at once and I wasn't able to take pictures of every little step like I usually do. I have some general pictures, but I will do my best to explain how everything came together.
2. The 4 different components of this recipe - the chocolate cake, the eggless cookie dough, the buttercream frosting and the mini chocolate chip cookies come from recipes that I got in four different places. So, before I talk bout each part, I will link to where you can find the original recipe (if applicable 😃).

Start by making 1 recipe of my favorite chocolate cupcakes - you can find the recipe HERE. One recipe makes 24 cupcakes. When the cupcakes are bakes leave them out to cool completely while you make everything else...

Reese's Pieces Cake Pops

These cake pops turned out so cute & so yummy, but I have to say, I have a love-hate relationship with making cake pops. I'll expand a little more later, but if you have any advice for me, I would love to hear it! If you have any cake pop making knowledge, please leave me a comment!! Here is how I made these Reese's Pieces Cake Pops:

Start by whipping up some peanut butter frosting by combining 2 tablespoons of butter with 1/4 cup of peanut butter using an electric mixer.

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Last week was a little nuts, and by the time Friday rolled around, I needed some Christmas in my life! These adorable, festive cupcakes were perfect! Today, I am going to share the recipe for the gingerbread cupcake & the cream cheese frosting and tomorrow, I am going to share how I did those little gingerbread men on top because they were quite time consuming and I figured they deserved a post of their own! You can find the recipe for the gingerbread men HERE.

I found this recipe on Cooking Classy and if you are interested, you can find the original recipe HERE.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

These cupcakes are chocolate perfection! I have shared the recipe for the cupcakes before, so what I'm really sharing today is the frosting! You can find the recipe for the cupcakes HERE! This recipe makes A LOT of icing - it definitely makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes and I always have a little left over.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

I have always been apprehensive about pumpkin flavored food - I mean why would we add a vegetable to something that is supposed to be sweet!? I have only ever had pumpkin pie once in my life and I have never ever tried a Pumpkin Spice Latte! However, after trying these cupcakes I might just be brave enough to try some other pumpkin treats because these cupcakes were DELICIOUS!! These were served at the birthday party I went to this weekend and they were perfection! I got so many compliments on these tasty cupcakes. I highly, highly recommend whipping these up for fall because you will not be disappointed!

**I got this recipe from Nina Hendrick's blog & you can find the original recipe HERE.

Samoa Bundt Cake

I got this recipe from Spicy Southern Kitchen, you can find the original recipe HERE. This cake was delicious but it was tough to make it look good! One of my favorite things about cooking & baking is making the food look as good as it tastes... well, on that note, this cake was frustrating!! I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you have that might improve this cake! Regardless of its appearance, this cake was spectacular to eat! It was the perfect blend of chocolate & caramel with little hints of coconut!

Orange & Cranberry Bundt Cake

I made this Bundt Cake for Mother's day brunch way back in May, before I started blogging! Well, this recipe has been on my 'to post' list since the very first day I started blogging! I FINALLY got around to whipping this cake together again & now I'm here to share it with you! :) I got this recipe from That's My Home & you can find it HERE.

Start by prepping your bundt cake pan - do this by spraying it with cooking spray or buttering it and lightly flouring it. Next, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar into the bottom of the bundt cake pan and 1/4 cup of frozen or fresh cranberries (I use frozen cranberries).

In a medium sized mixing bowl, cream together 1/2 cup of butter and 1 cup of granulated sugar.

Add in 3 eggs, one a time - stirring well between each added egg. Stir in the zest and juice of one orange. [After zesting 1 orange, you should have about about a tablespoon of zest. I recommend rolling your orange around on a counter top before juicing it - this makes juicing the orange easier!]

Once the orange zest and juice are stirred in, mix in 1 cup of sour cream.

Next, add in 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Once the dry ingredients are well mixed in, stir 1 1/4 cup of fresh or frozen cranberries into the batter. When the cranberries are well incorporated, Pour the batter into the prepared bundt cake pan.

Bake the cake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 - 55 minutes. When the cake is done, let it cool for 5-10 minutes before removing it from the pan and transferring it to a wire cooling rack. When the cake is completely cool, you can glaze it. The glaze that I use is - 1 cup of icing sugar and 2 tablespoons of orange juice mixed together. Drizzle the glaze over the cake and enjoy!

ORANGE & CRANBERRY BUNDT CAKE
ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
zest of one orange
juice of one orange
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cranberries (frozen or fresh)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

for the glaze...
1 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice

directions
1. Prepare bundt cake pan by spraying it with cooking spray or buttering it and lightly flouring it. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar in the bottom of the pan, then pour in 1/4 cup of the cranberries into the bottom of the pan.
2. Cream together butter and sugar. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing well between the addition of each egg.
3. Add in orange zest and juice and 1 cup of sour cream.
4. Once the orange zest, juice and sour cream are well incorporated, mix in flour, baking powder and salt.
5. Finally, stir in the remaining 1 1/4 cups of cranberries and pour the batter into the prepared bundt cake pan.
6. Bake the cake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50-55 minutes. Allow the cake to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing it from the pan.
7. Mix the icing sugar and orange juice together in a small bowl to make the glaze, wait until the cake is completely cool before drizzling the glaze over it.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Lemon Bundt Cake

This Lemon Bundt Cake disappears fast in my house! I found the recipe for this Cake over at Simply Suzanne's Blog & I made a couple of changes but if you are interested, you can find the original recipe HERE.

You will need 3 lemons for this recipe. Start by zesting & juicing the lemons. When I juice lemons, I put a strainer over the bowl I am juicing into to catch all of the seeds and pulp.

Mince the lemon zest down - I did this by pushing the lemon zest against the bottom of the dish with a spoon (I had about 3-4 tablespoons of lemon zest after mincing). Mix the minced lemon zest with 4-5 tablespoons of lemon juice. Set aside the remaining lemon juice for the glaze. [*NOTE The original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of lemon zest mixed with 3 tablespoons of lemon juice BUT I was hoping a strong lemony flavor so I used a little more of each and it still didn't end up being all that strong!]

Set the lemon zest/juice mixture aside as you mix the dry ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl. Mix together 3 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of salt. Once I had the dry ingredients combined, I transferred them to a smaller dish because they would be added later and I wanted to re-use the same mixing bowl to minimize dishes.

After the dry ingredients are mixed, stir together 3/4 cup of buttermilk, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and the lemon zest/juice mixture you made before. I did this in a small mixing bowl.

Whisk together 3 eggs and 1 egg yolk and set aside.

Then, using the medium mixing bowl you had previously used to mix the dry ingredients, beat together 1 1/8 cups of softened butter and 2 cups of granulated sugar using an electric mixer.

After my butter and sugar were whipped together, I set up my other prepped ingredients next to me as there is a sort of pattern at which they get mixed into the butter/sugar combo. In the picture above, I have the buttermilk/vanilla/lemon mixture in the bowl with the green spatula, I have the 3 eggs/1 egg yolk beaten together in the small teal dish and the flour/baking soda/baking powder/salt mixture in the white dish.

Add half of the beaten eggs into the sugar/butter combo and mix until smooth, add the remaining egg and continue to mix until all the egg has been well incorporated.

Once the egg has been added in, add about 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix with the electric mixer until smooth. Then, add 1/3 of the buttermilk/vanilla/lemon mixture and mix until smooth. Continue this process until all of the ingredients have been well combined. Once I was done mixing with the electric mixer, I used a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and give everything one final mix.

Prep your Bundt Cake pan by buttering and lightly flouring it or spraying it with cooking spray.

Then, pour the cake batter into the pan and use a spoon or spatula to even out the top of the cake.

Bake the cake for 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The cake will most likely need closer to 50 minutes but I recommend beginning to check your cake after the 40 minute mark. Once an inserted knife comes out clean the cake is good to go! Leave the cake to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before using a knife to gently pull the cake away from the sides of the pan and turning it upside down onto a plate.

For the glaze, stir together 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of milk and 2 cups of icing sugar. Pour half of the glaze over the cake as soon as it has been removed from the pan.

Leave the cake to cool completely for about an hour, then drizzle the rest of the glaze over the cake.

LEMON BUNDT CAKE
ingredients
for the cake
3 lemons, zested and juiced (3-4 tablespoons of lemon zest and 4-5 tablespoons of lemon zest)
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup battermilk
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/8 cup butter, softened (2 1/4 sticks)
2 cups granulated sugar

for the glaze
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon milk
2 cups icing sugar

directions
1. Zest and Juice lemons into 2 separate small bowls. Mince the lemon zest (I had about 3-4 tablespoons of lemon zest after mincing). Mix the minced lemon zest with 4-5 tablespoons of lemon juice. Set aside the remaining lemon juice for the glaze.
2. Set the lemon zest/juice mixture aside as you mix the dry ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set the dry ingredients aside.
3. Stir together buttermilk, vanilla extract and the lemon zest/juice mixture in a small mixing bowl.
4. Whisk together eggs and egg yolk in a small dish and set aside.
5.  In a medium mixing bowl, beat together softened butter and granulated sugar using an electric mixer.
6. Add half of the beaten eggs into the sugar/butter combo and mix until smooth, add the remaining egg and continue to mix until all the egg has been well incorporated.
7. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix with the electric mixer until smooth. Then, add 1/3 of the buttermilk/vanilla/lemon mixture and mix until smooth. Continue this process until all of the ingredients have been well combined.
8. Prep your Bundt Cake pan by buttering and lightly flouring it or spraying it with cooking spray. Then, pour the cake batter into the pan and use a spoon or spatula to even out the top of the cake.
9. Bake the cake for 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Once an inserted knife comes out clean the cake is ready. Leave the cake to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before using a knife to gently pull the cake away from the sides of the pan and turning it upside down onto a plate.
10. For the glaze, stir together lemon juice, milk and icing sugar. Pour half of the glaze over the cake as soon as it has been removed from the pan. Then, after about an hour of letting the cake cool completely drizzle the remaining glaze over the top of the cake.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Chocolate Cupcakes & Butterceam Frosting

Back in June, I shared my all time favorite chocolate cake/cupcake. I cannot say enough good things about this recipe - it is so easy to put together and it tastes great every single time. Well back in June, I neglected to provide icing options for these cupcakes, so that is what I'm doing today! I can promise that there will be more to come because this cupcake is such a great base for so many different icings. Today I'm sharing my go-to buttercream frosting recipe & how I frosted these cupcakes.

First, you can find my chocolate cupcake recipe HERE! One of the reasons I love this recipe so much is it transitions so well - I have used it for cupcakes, cake pops & just plain old cake and it works out great every time! If you follow the recipe I posted, you will end up with 24 cupcakes or 2 full 9" cakes.

I usually make my cupcakes the night before I need them so they have ample time to cool over night. I always ice the cupcakes on the same day that they will be eaten so that everything is as fresh as possible! I make the icing by whipping together 1 cup of softened butter*, 4 cups of icing sugar, 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract and 1-2 tablespoons of milk or heavy cream with an electric mixer.

*It is key that the butter is softened and not melted because this will greatly affect the consistency of the icing. I soften butter by pouring some boiling water into a bowl, allowing the water to sit for a minute, pouring out the water then placing the butter in the warmed bowl.

Once the frosting is light and fluffy, I prepare a piping bag with a larger star tip. I am not very adventurous with piping tips, I tend to stick with what I know. I love the result the star tip gives - I love that it's easy and consistently looks presentable.

I piped the frosting on in a circular motion, then I added some sprinkles and they were good to go! This icing also works great dyed - I have dyed it several times using Wilton's gel dyes but I have never used a liquid dye on this icing so I don't know how that would turn out. 

Happy Monday!

Whippet Cake

This weekend a family friend celebrated his birthday and I got to make the cake! I always find coming up with a concept for cakes a bit challenging because it's so hard to capture and represent a person and what they love in a cake. That being said, after brainstorming with my family, I knew Whippet cookies were the way to go! This turned out to be a great idea, everyone at the party was so excited about the Whippets!

I started by making two 14 inch cakes with my go-to chocolate cake recipe. You can find that recipe here! This cake was being made to feed 50+ people, so I tripled my chocolate cake recipe and split it evenly between two 14 inch cake pans. You'll notice that I lined my cake pan with parchment paper, I did this because I hate trying to pull cakes out of their pan and it seems that no matter how carefully I grease the pan, the cake always sticks! The parchment paper leaves little indents in the sides of the cake which is not a problem if you'll be icing over the cake because the icing smooths out the indents.

Next, I made I double recipe of my favorite buttercream frosting. Here's my recipe: Mix together 2 cups of softened butter and 6 tablespoons of vanilla extract using an electric mixer. Once the butter and vanilla are well combined add in 8 cups of icing sugar, mixing with the electric mixer between every cup. Next, whip in 2-4 tablespoons of milk and continue to whip for about a minute to add air to the icing.

I didn't take any pictures of how I assemble the cake because my hands were otherwise occupied :) But, I place the first layer of cake in the center of the board that will hold the cake. Then, I ice that layer. Because it will be the middle of the cake I am not cautious at all about how it looks, I'm just careful to put about a 1/2 inch layer of icing all over the cake so that it doesn't end up lopsided. Then I place the 2nd cake on top of the iced bottom layer, being careful to keep everything centered.

Once my cakes are stacked, I do a crumb layer of icing. This helps me to not have crumbs of chocolate cake in my top layer of icing. The crumb layer is extremely thin and I spread it using a regular knife.

I usually let the crumb layer sit for about 5 minutes. I don't think letting it sit does anything, I just think the longer I let it sit the more crumbs will get locked in - hahaha! I put on a second layer of icing quite generously, being careful to cover ALL of the crumb layer.

Once the second layer of icing is on (this is like the 'top coat'), I use a bench knife to even the icing out and try to make it as smooth as possible. At this point, a lot of icing comes of on the bench knife and I try to re-distribute it over the cake where it is needed. On this particular day, it was ridiculously humid, so my icing was not smoothing out as nicely as it usually does, I recommend keeping all of your work tools as cold and dry as possible while you are working.

I whipped up a little chocolate buttercream frosting to pipe along the edges. I also used the chocolate frosting to stick on the whippets. I recommend keeping the whippets in the fridge until you are ready to work with them - it makes them easier to secure onto the cake! I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of this cake, it looked great and it tasted even better!

Enjoy!
Kenzie