Cake Madness - Cake Survey Results

Since the vast majority of my cakes ended up at my workplace and I left out a comment jar every day, I thought it would be fitting to let my coworkers vote on their favorite cakes at the end of the month. Here are the Survey Sheets that I made to remind them of each cake:

I asked people to cast a vote for their favorites in taste and appearance (there are only 21 cakes since the weekend cakes were not included in this survey):

 The adorable Dragon Cake won Best in Show for Appearance, not too much of a surprise there :) The scrollwork mint chocolate cake was a close second though.

In the taste category, we have a tie - the Boston Cream Pie "Cake" is evenly matched with the Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake (although I feel the Mousse Cake had the unfair advantage of being fresher in everyone's memory). 

Thank you to everyone who voted. Here's one more look at the most memorable cakes of the Month of Cake Madness:

The lovable Dragon Cake

"Heaven in a bowl" Boston Cream Pie Cake

Extravagant Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

And the final comments on this month:

• I never got to taste or see any of your famous cakes so I was thrilled to see these pictures. You are so talented - how cool. Those look absolutely awesome. I hope you had fun doing it. 
• I see I missed a lot of good ones there. Congratulations for making it through the month.
• I love the blog and am willing to be a sponsor/tester any time . . .
• Thank you again for doing this! It made the month of February much more fun this winter. It was very hard to pick my favorites. (This type of reaction is exactly what I was going for with this cake challenge . . .I'm so glad I made someone's dreary winter a little bit happier) :) 
• Now we all have to wean ourselves of the cake-a-day diet. Seriously though good job! And do you do wedding cakes? :P (To the anonymous comment-er:  Sure, I'd make a wedding cake, I'm so glad you have that much faith in my cake baking skills). 
• Choosing perfection among perfection is very difficult.
• Thanks so much for the month long treat. Can you recommend a good addiction counseling service?
• Turn into a 60 or 90 day challenge :) 
• I only tasted ~ 2/3 of them, but all were good - some great!
• All in all - wonderful job :) 
• Thanks for the great cakes
• Great job on all the cakes!
• So what is your next challenge?

Good question . . . I think this final comment about Cake Madness month might be the perfect lead-in to my March Challenge :

• It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . .

Cake Madness - Day 29

Cake of the Day: Lemon Poppy Seed with Raspberry Curd Filling "Present" Cake

Well, it's finally here, my final cake. Since I had exhausted most of my cake ideas (I've made so many different kinds), when I found this recipe: Lemon Poppy Seed Cakes, it was unique enough to be a possibility. I didn't settle on the cake idea right away however, thinking that something better would come along (as I'm not that big of a fan of lemon poppy seed), but nothing did, and I was rather intrigued by this one, so I decided to try it. I had also found this decorating idea: Pretty Present Cake and I thought it was very fitting to use as a "thank you" present for all of the people who sponsored my cakes or left feedback about them.

Unfortunately, Wal-Mart was out of Fruit by the Foot, so I bought the organic, real fruit version. I was happy that was going to be healthier than the Fruit by the Foot, but disappointed to find that real strawberries turn a brownish shade when turned into fruit leather instead of the bright red of the processed kind. Oh well, it was too late to go back to the store to find something else, so the bow was just going to have to be brown. I thought Dots (with the tops cut off) would work just as well as Sprees and taste better with a lemon poppy seed cake, so I got those instead.

When making this cake, I ran out of both "Baker's Joy" (a flour & oil spray that is a super quick way to "grease and flour" your pans) and cake flour. I think it must be a sign . . .time to be done with cake baking. My husband helped out once again and zested and juiced the lemons (and then proceeded to eat one of them . . .he says it's good, but I can't imagine how sour that must have tasted). I made a lemon cream cheese frosting instead of the lemon buttercream in the recipe as Annie (of Annie's Eats) suggested.

I think on a whole, the cake turned out pretty good.  It was not a "big finish" like I was hoping for, but after all those cakes, I was tired. The raspberry curd was escaping while I was trying to frost it, and the cake appeared to be dry, but the combination of the lemony cake with the raspberry curd and the cream cheese frosting was really yummy.

I only got one comment about today's cake (mostly because everyone was busy filling out my cake survey . . .results of that to follow):

• I was dubious of the lemon/raspberry combo, but it works really well - delicious. Thanks! 

I am grateful this month is over with. I am so proud of all the cakes that I made, but this was a ton of work. Thank you again to all of my cake sponsors, I couldn't have done this without you! I only went a few dollars over my cake budget (all of the money supplied by the cake sponsors), but I will say that budget was more than $200, so cake baking is not a cheap hobby. I feel much more confident in my cake baking skills and I now have an arsenal of yummy cake recipes :) I think I will give myself another gold star this month!

p.s. For all of you who were concerned about my oral hygiene, I did manage to floss every day this month too ;) 

Cake Madness - Day 28

Cake of the Day: Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

My cake sponsor for today instructed that I make something "extravagant". He then suggested something with cranberries and kumquats . . .hmm. I asked if chocolate would be okay instead, thankfully he agreed :) This is one of the most extravagant looking recipes I could find: Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake. I've seen things similar to this at fancy restaurants and I figured it was extravagant enough to qualify, so I tried it.

The bottom cake layer turned out much taller than I thought it would and took up about half the spring form pan . . .I was a little worried I wouldn't have enough room for all of the mousse on top. Annie (from Annie's Eats, the blog where the recipe came from - I highly recommend her stuff) said that the edges of her cake fell and it only looked like a two layer cake from the outside, but I didn't have that problem. My edges looked a little wrinkled as they sagged under all of the mousse, but it definitely still looked like a three-layer dessert. 

I was a little disappointed in the middle chocolate mousse layer which turned out more chocolate-chippy than I think it should have. It didn't have the smooth mousse texture that I was going for. Perhaps my cream was too cold and made the chocolate harden before it was fully incorporated? But hey, it was still chocolate mousse, so it was still good :) 

The white chocolate mousse was definitely the most perfect part of this dessert. I've found that white chocolate is probably my least favorite chocolate, but this came together so well and was oh so creamy that I couldn't resist. The white chocolate took a little longer to dissolve (maybe because I used a little lower quality of chocolate?) but it did eventually dissolve (unlike the bittersweet chocolate) and turned into a really nice mousse. I didn't have enough time to make chocolate curls again, so I found the idea for the swirl design here: Mousse Cake Design (second picture down). I used the same serrated serving tool that I used to make the ridges on the Chocolate Raspberry Birthday Cake. It worked out very well. 

I think this cake set a record . . .it was gone in 25 minutes! I also got called "Betty Crocker" for the first time today :) Here is what people had to say about this cake:

• Darn, its good (they didn't use the word darn though)
• Great cakes, endless perfection
• Great looking cake. But why did you put raisins in there?? (that's just one of my friends being silly . . . he doesn't like raisins)
• Rats, wish I saw this one before it got eaten.
• Excellent job!
• Delicious cake
• Wow! Gone in 30 seconds. Thanks for a memorable month.
• The best one that I've had yet this month.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the final cake of Cake Madness month!

p.s. Check out the cool twin yolk egg I got - I guess they are rather rare, occurring in about 1 of every 1000 eggs! (although I feel like I've used that many just this month) ;)

Cake Madness - Day 27

Cake of the Day: Chocolate Covered Strawberries Cake

February is winding down, and I've got quite a few cakes under my belt now (figuratively and literally), so I decided it was time to make up my own cake. I know, the Bear Claw cupcakes were my invention too, but they were cupcakes. I wanted to make my own real CAKE. Instead of trying to come up with my own recipe though, I took my favorite parts of many other cakes and put it all together to make one ultimate cake. 

I couldn't get those Penguin cupcakes off my mind, and since the original recipe was for a cake, not cupcakes, I decided I had to make that as my base cake. Next, I had a little bit of the "Strawberry Dream" frosting from the Neapolitan cake left over and it was definitely calling my name as a filling. I am not even that big of a fan of strawberries, and I think I could eat that stuff every day, forever, it was so good. Now, since chocolate and strawberries go so well together, I didn't think I needed too much more for this cake, but it could only be better if I covered the whole thing in the chocolate ganache from the Boston Cream Pie "cake". Yes . . .epic. 

 The "Strawberry Dream" frosting was a little hard to spread, so I microwaved it, for a little too long. Then it was a bit too runny and as you can see, there was a real danger of my layers sliding off each other, but thankfully, it held together (even if it was a little crooked).

 I think it could have used a little more filling, but then it probably would have fallen apart, so it turned out pretty perfectly, if I do say so myself. Here is what other people had to say about it:

• Best cake so far IMO ("in my opinion", for those of you who don't speak text-ese)
• Best 1 yet
• M-m-m-m-m Scrumpdelicious!
• Excellent cakes. Exceeds perfection.

I think they liked it too :)

Cake Madness - Day 26

Cake of the Day: Bear Claw Cupcakes

To start off with, this is was I was originally going to make, Cub Cakes. They are so cute, and would be so easy, just store-bought frosting with some York peppermint patties and Junior mints on them. And mint chocolate is so good, so why did I change my mind? Simple . . .I realized I had made the Penguin Cupcakes only a week ago, and they were also chocolate cupcakes (and since the recipe turned out so well I was planning on using it again) with vanilla frosting and mint chocolate toppings. This seemed too similar to me, so I wracked my brain trying to see what else I could come up with. My thought process went something like this: "Hmm, cub cakes, grown up cubs are bears, bear claw cupcakes would be fun. I think that is an ice cream flavor. What is in that ice cream? Chocolate, caramel swirl, and chocolate covered cashews? I think I could do that". Thus, Bear Claw cupcakes.

Rawr

I found this idea for how to make my chocolate cupcakes have caramel in them: Chocolate cupcake with caramel filling. I didn't have a lot of time to make these, and since I thought the chocolate cupcakes that I made before had a batter that was too thin to put the caramel in, I just used a boxed cake mix. I had the hardest time finding the caramel dip, and ended up having to buy the individual containers of it . . .oh well, it worked out. I didn't know what to make the pad of the paw out of, but turtles made out of cashews sounded good (and easy) so I used those, and bought whole cashews for the claws. I think they turned out pretty well (oh, and cashews with homemade cream cheese frosting = win).

Here are the comments these received:

• I liked the "surprise" in the middle
• I broke my month rule of not eating any of your evil cakes. I must repent, but it was delicious

I got mixed reviews on the caramel filling, one person told me it was too slimy, and another loved it but wished there had been more in the cupcake. I thought it was just right. Does this sound like Goldilocks and the Three Bears to you? How fitting.

Mmm, caramel

Cake Madness - Day 25

Cake of the Day: Neapolitan Cake

My three cakes for today

Mmm, this cake turned out great. I would have to say it's been one of the best so far. It was super yummy and looked really impressive without being too difficult to make. Here is the link for the recipe: Neapolitan Layer Cake. (My cake doesn't look exactly like hers, but I'm still really happy with it.) I whipped up two of the three cakes (vanilla and chocolate) in the morning, then made the third cake (strawberry) and frosting and did the assembly in the afternoon. I know, one cake out of three cakes, pretty crazy right? Well, it did turn into one very tall cake!

The frosting with this cake was very interesting, I have been making quite a bit of frosting this month, but never anything like this. I really liked it, I called it "Strawberry Dream Frosting". In between the layers I spread homemade strawberry freezer jam. This worked very well as it was sort of runny and added an extra moistness to the cake (the vanilla cake was a little dry without it). 

Very tall 6-layer cake

Since this was such a complex cake inside, I kept the decorations simple on the outside. The frosting didn't pipe like the others had and my little stars looked more like plumerias, but that was fine by me. I encourage you all to try this cake, I know the recipe looks a little intimidating, but it really wasn't difficult, and turned out very yummy :) Everyone at my Bible study group really liked it, just don't tell your eaters how many sticks of butter you used!

So good, and I'm not even all that crazy about strawberries.

Cake Madness - Day 24

Cake of the Day: Red Velvet "Chess" Cake

Red Velvet is not a type of cake that I eat often. Maybe because I don't live in the South, but it's just not very popular around here. So, I really had no idea how it was made and it required quite a bit of online research. As I started browsing possible recipes, I was a little disgusted with how much red food coloring was used in these cakes, 1 to 2 OUNCES . . .really?!? That's like pouring an entire bottle of vanilla extract into your cake (to get a rough idea of the amount) . . .to me, that seems a little gross. And for what? Just to get a red color because it's called "Red Velvet" cake. Originally, the reddish color came from the reaction of the cocoa powder with the acidic ingredients (buttermilk, etc.) but nowadays people have decided the color needs to be more pronounced . . .thus the overabundance of red dye. Well, I didn't want to do that, so I figured there had to be another way . . .there is :)

This is the recipe I found: All Natural Red Velvet Cake. I baked my "secret ingredient" the night before: three fresh beets! My husband was a little confused when I told him they were for a cake, but he knows I'm a scientist and like experiments, so he was okay with it. Though he did tell me "it looks like you killed somebody", when I cut the beets up and got their amazing red color all over everything . . . oops. Who needs food coloring when God has given us such amazing colors in nature to use instead; I was impressed.

I had the hardest time figuring out what
to use for the squares . . . it turns
 out chocolate wafer cookies worked
perfectly, I fit all 64 squares on the cake :) 

Even though I was really excited about this experiment, I was still rather unsure of how this cake would taste. Also, I'm getting really sick of washing dishes, and cake making is getting to be a chore. But I can't stop now, I'm almost done with this challenge! One thing that kept me motivated with this cake was the venue that I was taking it to, a "Saturday Morning Musicals" party with some of my favorite girls. We were planning on watching "Chess" and "Les Miserables", both awesome musicals, so I had been looking forward to this party for quite some time. I decided I should make a themed cake and a Chess cake seemed easier to make than a Les Mis cake, and here is the idea I used: Checkerboard Cake. I only had 2 square cake pans, so the bottom layer was actually a circle with the rounded edges cut off, but I put so much cream cheese frosting on it, no one could tell the difference :)

The chess set from the Dollar Tree completed the look

Red as can be, with no artificial dyes. Yay!

One side note: Blogspot lets me see where my "audience" for my blog is coming from, and a little while ago I noticed quite a few page views from Russia. Since Russia plays such an important role in "Chess" I thought it proper to give a shout out to my readers in Russia, whoever you are. Thanks for reading my blog, and feel free to leave comments! I'm so happy there are people all around the world who have taken an interest in my crazy experiments, it's really a good motivation for me to keep going. I've noticed readers from other countries as well, so THANK YOU :) 

Cake Madness - Day 23

Cake of the Day: Oreo Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

I know, cheesecake is technically a pie, but Boston Cream Pie is technically a cake, and cheesecake still has "cake" in its name, so since I make the rules, I say that cheesecake counts as a cake, if only for today :) 

This was the first cheesecake that I've ever made. I never had to try before because my aunt makes the most phenomenal cheesecakes in the world (trust me on this, anyone who has had her cheesecake is really ruined for anything else). I don't know what sort of magic she puts in her cheesecakes, but they are amazing and I could never endeavor to rival them. That being said, most people, including most of my coworkers, have become so used to (may I say "cheesecake complacent"?) those no-bake impostors, that a real cheesecake was sure to please, even if I knew it wasn't as good as it could be. 

Before I began making this, of course I called my aunt to gain as much cheesecake wisdom as I could. She told me that simple was best, so I decided on a chocolate chip cheesecake with an Oreo crumb crust. I had no idea how many Oreos I would need, since I couldn't find the pre-crushed Oreo crumbs, so I bought the five bag "Family-Sized" package...mmm, Oreos are so unhealthy but so tasty. I had to scrape the filling out because she also told me that my crust would turn out funky if I didn't. 

(Side note: while making this cake I was also having a video chat with two of my good friends who are living overseas right now, so I was a little distracted. This may have played a part in this cake not turning out as well as I had hoped.) 

Sad, cracked cheesecake

The crust was good, but I was so worried that the cheesecake was still too wiggly (it turns out that it hardens up quite a bit as it cools) that I think I over-cooked it a little bit. Also, despite baking it in a water bath, I still got many large cracks on top. It didn't look very pretty. This made me appreciate frosting a little bit more . . .it sure is handy for covering up ugly spots. Anyways, I did what any self-respecting baker would do and covered up the mistakes with more sugar :) I took the non-filled side of the Oreo off (and proceeded to cover those with the leftover whipped cream and eat them, mmm, good breakfast) and alternated Oreos and whipped cream to make it look a little prettier . . .I think it worked. It tasted good (but not as good as my aunt's), and I think a lot of people liked it. 

All  better

Here are the comments for the cheesecake:

• Oreo Cheesecake . . .No words to describe . . .mmm :)
• A true paleo diet breaker - awesome (Look up "Caveman Diet" if you're curious about this one)
• Your cheesecake was wonderful 
• Excellent (Said sort of in the style of Bill & Ted)
• The cheesecake looks great and tastes great. I liked it because it wasn't too sweet, it was just enough!

I'm pleased that I've finally made a cheesecake, but from now on, I'll leave the cheesecake baking to my aunt if at all possible :) 

Cake Madness - Day 22

Cake of the Day: Thin Mint Cake

It was another early morning for me again. I knew I wouldn’t have enough time tonight to make the cake (it’s Ash Wednesday so there is church and then choir practice after church), so I got up early and made it before going to work to allow myself plenty of time after work to decorate it. And plenty of time I would need . . .I may have been too ambitious again.

When I first saw this recipe (Thin Mint Cake) I was interested because I really like Thin Mint cookies, but then I read the ingredients and became very intrigued: olive oil, banana, and cinnamon??? Really? I decided to try it and find out. Making the cake was relatively easy and I discovered a new trick to help keep my beater from squeaking against the sides of the bowl so badly . . .use the butter wrapper to wipe the spatula blade parts before starting to mix. (I have this Beater Blade attachment for my KitchenAid mixer and use it almost exclusively as I despise having to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl after every ingredient addition.) It doesn’t completely eliminate the squeaking, but it helps a bit, and any little bit helps when you have neighbors and you are making a cake at 6 am. 

Another thing I noticed this morning . . .I need to buy stock in dairy farms. I have gone through so much butter, heavy cream, and eggs this month, it’s crazy. (I know eggs aren’t dairy, but they still come from a farm, so you know what I mean.) Anyways, the cake went together easily, and when I got home I made the frosting and filling (I used the buttercream recipe from Just A Cake), frosted the cake, and set about on my decorations.

I didn't like the Daisy design the original recipe used, so I decided I should do something else. I wanted to try making the “pretty wedding cake squiggles” that I had in my head, but had no idea how to go about doing that. I did a little research online and eventually discovered it was called scrollwork. There were multiple ways of transferring patterns to the cakes and even some presses to help make lines to follow. I decided to stop by a few craft stores on the way home and found these (Wilton Presses) that I used as a pattern for some of them. I also found a few more patterns to copy here: Wilton Scrolls that I just practiced and then freehanded onto the cake. I used these fancy Pampered Chef squeeze bottles my mom gave me: Pampered Chef Squeeze Bottles and practiced a bit on a plate before starting on my cake. I just warmed a little chocolate frosting in the microwave and used that . . .it worked great. 

My concentration face . . .yes the clock does say 11:11 pm

Behold my masterpiece: 

It was so pretty, I couldn't bring myself to cut it. I made the cake sponsor (you may know her as the Ganache Queen) cut it . . .she did a great job. I thought the cinnamon flavor in the cake was a bit too strong, and it didn't taste as much like a Thin Mint as I would have liked, but it was still good. Here are the comments received today:

• Excellent - Very impressive decorating too. 
• Really yummy. Great chocolate and mint flavor. Plus it looked beautiful!
• I have seen curtains (technically, the reviewer wrote "curtins") that look like this cake. Guess who?
• From cupcakes with Thin Mints to a cake that is the personification of them. Magnificent. Delicious. Minty flavor very good - did you use Creme de Menthe? (Nope, peppermint extract)
• You are an awesome baker!
• Very beautiful decor. Great job.

I think this is the prettiest cake I've ever made, I'm proud of it :)

Cake Madness - Day 21

Cake of the Day: Black Forest Cake

Today was my triumph over conventional cakes. We had Service Awards at work today (people who have been with the company for a “milestone” number of years, 5, 10, 15, etc. get a small gift and recognition from their boss) and there is usually cake and ice cream afterwards. So when I walked in to work this morning with my cake carrier, the HR lady laughed and told me I should have brought my cake in on a different day (she didn’t know I was making a cake every day) because there were three large sheet cakes today. I wasn’t deterred, and put my cake out anyways. Now, I don’t know if people were spurred on by the cakes they had to wait to eat (Service Award cakes) and then saw mine and ate it because they could have it right away, or if it was just better, but my cake was gone by 9:30. The service award cakes (I know, there were three of them so this is not quite a fair comparison), but they were served at about 10:30 and there was still some left at 1:30 (I figured people would eat the remainder very quickly after lunch). So, I was happy about that. Not that the other cake wasn’t good, it was (yes I had more than one piece of cake today . . .oops), but mine got eaten faster J

Here is the recipe I used for today’s cake: Black Forest Cake. I had maraschino cherries left from the pineapple upside-down cake and was planning on using those, but as I went to start making the cake, I looked a little closer at a few recipes and realized I had made an error. Black Forest Cake is made with canned sour cherries (not maraschino cherries or cherry pie filling), so another grocery store run was required. Luckily, my husband went for me while I started working on the other aspects of the cake.

I think it turned out okay, even the homemade chocolate curls (I followed these instructions: Chocolate Curls). Here are the comments about today’s cake:

• Great cakes. Always good. High quality!
• Very good cake, I liked the whipped topping and cherries.
•  This one is probably one of the Top 3 so far.
• Wonderful. Light fluffy frosting. Nice cherries. Perfect!

And my favorite comment, made by my friend from Kenya:

• “Tamu Kabisa” – Swahili for “So tasty”  J

I’m not usually a big fan of chocolate and cherries, but the chocolate cake with the whipped cream on it was really yummy. I’d call this a success J

Cake Madness - Day 20

Cake of the Day: "Zebra" Marble Cake

When I saw the idea for this cake here: Zebra Cake, I thought it would be fun to try. Her pictures didn't look as much like a zebra as some that I had seen online, but I trusted her recipe, so that's the one I decided to use (I learned my lesson after the Peanut Butter Cup Cake). Of course, while I was pondering how to make this cake special, my mind went into overdrive and I got way ahead of myself because of my childhood (and beyond) love of Little Debbie "Zebra Cakes". I figured if I could make a "Zebra Zebra Cake" that would be just amazing, so I set my mind to it, and failed :( 

It's not that this cake wasn't good, it tasted just fine, but the Zebra part of the Zebra Cake sure didn't work. It started out looking okay:

Zebra rings

Maybe it was due to me being impatient and pouring the alternating batters into the pan too quickly, but when I cut into the cake to add the cream filling (inspired by Little Debbie, recipe here: Vanilla Cream Filling) it was clear it did not look like zebra stripes (or rings considering the direction I cut it).

Mottled marble cake

Oh well, too late now, so I proceeded to add the vanilla cream filling (I'm sure glad I did otherwise this would have been one boring cake), and make the decorations on the cake make up for the lack of zebra on the inside:

"Zebra" frosting

 So, needless to say, I was a little disappointed with this cake (it didn't help that I was already tired, hungry, stressed, and had a headache while I was making it . . .maybe that's why it didn't work, not enough love went into this cake?). It was kind of dense, and just okay, but cake is cake, and my coworkers were still appreciative. Here are some of their comments:

• Good. Cake was dense and almost tasted like a good bread
• LONG LIVE FEBRUARY

You win some, you lose some. At least in my case, I get to try again tomorrow :)

Cake Madness - Day 19

Cake of the Day: Penguin Cupcakes

Before I say anything else about these cupcakes, I must immediately stress that this is the yummiest chocolate cake I think I have ever had . . .go make it . . .NOW. (I cut the recipe down from 12 servings to 9 and baked for 15-20 minutes as one of the recipe reviewers suggested). Here's the link: Sandy's Chocolate Cake, go bake, and then come back to read this while you are eating the magnificent chocolate goodness you just created. 

.     .     .

How's the cake? ;) Anyways, even if you didn't go make a cake, I'll let you read about my adventures with these cute little friends. The recipe was easy to make, although I was a little concerned with adding all of the boiling water and how runny the batter was. I shouldn't have been worried, as they turned out incredibly moist and tender. I used a large cookie scoop to put the batter in the muffin tins and that worked out great. For decorations, I just used a store bought whipped vanilla frosting and topped them with halved mint chocolate cookies, cut up pieces of dried apricot, and mini chocolate chips for the eyes. The idea came from this site: Penguin Cupcakes 

Here they are:

Did you know a group of penguins has many names? On land they can be called a rookery, colony or waddle (my personal favorite :)) and when they are in the water, a raft . . . fun huh?

 These adorable little guys were gobbled up pretty fast at work, so fast in fact, I've pretty much given up trying to judge the cake quality based on the time it takes for the cake to disappear. I think people are starting to catch on to the "cake in the break room every day" idea.

Here are the comments these received:

• Cute and tasty.
• Super cute.
• So cute and yummy. Loved the mint cookies on top.
• Very cute and tasty.
• Very good, the thin mint makes it. 
• Aww - so cute :) 

I think "Cute" was the word of the day. 

How adorable :) 

In other news, today I was told I was in the wrong profession, and a coworker told me I've inspired his wife to make a different kind of cupcake every week for a year! I might be getting tired out from all this baking, but I still like cake, and this project is yielding some very fun results :)

Cake Madness - Day 18

Cake of the Day: Chocolate Raspberry Birthday Cake

As it is a good friend's birthday tomorrow, I was honored to be asked to make his birthday cake. I was planning something multi-layered, but was waiting to hear back from his wife as to which kind of cake he would want. She requested something chocolate and raspberry, so I turned to "Chocolate Cake" by Michele Urvater. I found a recipe for raspberry mousse filling, Sweet Devil's Food cake, and of course with Devil's Food cake, I had to use the recipe for "Wicked Chocolate Frosting" . . .yum. 

My adaptation of an ice bath since I didn't have any ice. I used this to cool the raspberry mousse. 

Assembling the layers

Putting it all together

The Devil's Food cake wasn't as cake-y or chocolate-y as I would have hoped (it turned out a little flat), but it was still tasty and worked well with the frosting and filling. The layers split easily which aided in a nicer presentation. The decorating took a long time to finish and we were a little late to the party (everyone thought we had a "cake emergency") but I'm just too picky when it comes to the appearance of my cakes I guess. 

My husband tried to fashion a tool out of a ruler and some plastic to get the ridged edges, but the zig-zag scissors we have made too shallow of zig-zags, so I ended up using an old Pampered Chef  "Slice 'n Serve" which had deeper grooves on the edges (meant for cutting pies, etc.). It isn't perfect, but I think it worked out okay. 

In the end I thought the presentation looked pretty professional, the cake tasted good, and everyone at the party (including the birthday boy) liked the cake. My best comment (from a sweet little 4 year old) was: "Can we borrow one of your cakes?" Cute :)

Happy Birthday Bill

Cake Madness - Day 17

Cake of the Day: Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

When doing research for this cake, I found that the most accepted way to make it was in cast-iron skillet. Well, I don't have one of those, but luckily a coworker was kind enough to lend me one, even though this was a weekend cake (don't worry, I saved a piece to take in on Monday to show my gratitude). The first thing I realized was that the skillet is really heavy! (Side note about that . . .for those of you who have seen the Disney movie "Tangled", there is a clip where she twirls the skillet around her dainty little finger . . .yeah, not possible. But anyways, "frying pans, who knew?" :)) Next, I set about figuring out exactly how to use it without ruining it. There are so many dos and don'ts out there for using, washing, and seasoning cast-iron that I was sure I was going to either wreck it or wreck my cake, but luckily, neither of those things happened. 

I made this cake for a friend who invited us over to see the new house he is living in and he also got a new 3-D TV (which we watched "The Lion King" on . . .good times). He was excited about Pineapple Upside-Down cake, so I decided to give it a try. I had forgotten to buy a pineapple and cherries on my most recent grocery trip, so I literally ran to the grocery store closest to our house (and ran back no less . . .it's difficult to run with cans/jars of liquid things in your hands) to pick those items up. Once I had all my supplies, I started on the cake. Here is the recipe I used: Old-Fashioned Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. 

Sauce and fruit in the pan . . .I left the cherries whole, I think they look prettier that way

Right after it came out of the oven

Although I was really not in the mood to make a cake today (perhaps because it's Friday?), I'm still glad I made this one as it was another first for me. It ended up being pretty tasty, and everyone liked it

 :)

Finished product

Cake Madness - Day 16

Cake of the Day: Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake

I will admit I've made this cake before, but not this exact cake, so it was still sort of a new experience. As you may have guessed by now, I like to bake, so when my husband asked for a boxed cake mix as his birthday cake last year, I was a little disappointed. I thought, "Does he really like boxed cake better than any other dessert I make?". I was determined to make it a little bit more special than that, so I made his requested "Funfetti" cake but topped it with homemade frosting and put a surprise inside . . . ice cream! I found the cool idea here: Ice Cream Tunnel Cake. Needless to say, he was very surprised when he cut into his cake (and very confused about where it was (hiding in the freezer) when he couldn't find his birthday dessert anywhere) :) 

For the ice cream cake this time, I decided on a boxed marble cake mix (since I love marble cake with ice cream) and filled it with mint chocolate chip ice cream (as requested by my cake sponsor). I wish I would have gotten mint chocolate chip ice cream that was actually green, because I think the white confused people and didn't contrast as much with the marble cake, but it still tasted good. Here are some pictures of this cake's progress:

Hollowed out cake

Topped with ganache, notice the seam where I cut the cake?

Unfortunately, I got a migraine at work today, so I was very thankful that I'd gotten up early and baked the cake in the morning (and that my husband was a dear and took it out of the oven for me after I had to leave for work). So when I got home, I just had to tunnel out the cake and throw it in the freezer and then go try and sleep off the migraine. It was one of the weirdest migraines I've ever had...I've never seen an aura before and it was a little trippy . . .I thought I was going blind. Luckily, I felt better after my nap and was able to finish the cake. I topped it with the remaining ganache from the Boston Cream Pie Cake (oh so yummy) and it was complete. I think it looks a little better covered in frosting so the seam is hidden, but I wanted ganache with the mint ice cream . . .it still worked.

Ice cream center

Here are some of the comments for this cake:

• Va-Va-Vooom
• I finally got a piece :) Good, I normally don't like mint.
• Very good. Nice flavor with the mint chocolate chip ice cream - not overwhelming. Yum
• HOW DID YOU DO IT?!

So, although it was a little melted by the time I got it to work, it was still well received and I think I'm starting to get into a cake making routine :)

Cake Madness - Day 15

Cake of the Day: Cranberry Almond Coffee Cake

This is the first day of this challenge that I felt like my cakes were black market items. There is no doubt that they are tasty and draw many people to them, but when I made an ingredient exchange out in the parking lot (the frozen cranberries were delivered to me by the cake sponsor in a cooler like some black market organs), and people have frequently been giving me cash, so it's been kind of weird :) 

The recipe and the frozen chopped cranberries were provided by the cake sponsor, so this was a pretty easy cake for me to make. Also, I've never made a coffee cake in a springform pan before which made this an interesting experiment. The cake came together pretty easily, but unfortunately I baked it a little too long and the edges got a little over-done. It came out very dense, but still moist, and the decorations of fresh whipped cream helped lighten it up a little bit and made a pretty tasty cake. 

Here are the comments for today's cake: 

• Moist, dense, awesome. Perfect sweet to tart ratio. Excellent :) 
• Excellent: I will be asking for the recipe. 
• Good cake . . .adding the raisins was a great idea, way to go. (Hmm, there were no raisins . . .)
• I've always been a big fan of coffee cakes so I really enjoyed this one. Loved the cranberry/almond combination. Yum. 
• Very good!!
• MMM very tasty. Need more coffee now . . . :)

The finished product:

Cake Madness - Day 14

Cake of the Day: Peanut Butter Cup Cake

This cake was inspired by a picture a friend found online. She posted it on Facebook and suggested that I make it as one of my Cake Challenge cakes. I thought I had all of my cakes planned out, but it looked way too good not to try, and one of our other coworkers decided to sponsor it, so it worked out great. 

While doing my research for the cake (since my coworker just had a picture, not a recipe), I found two options: Dulce Dough Peanut Butter Cup Cake or Annie's Eats Peanut Butter Cup Cake. While I liked the looks of Annie's Eats cake better, I've been using her recipes a lot and wanted to branch out a bit. Also, the Dulce Dough recipe was all on one page, where Annie's was separated into cake page and frosting page, so I went for simplicity and decided on the recipe from Dulce Dough with Annie's decorating scheme . . .bad idea. 

I really should have known better. When I started making this cake I thought, "this isn't how you make a cake . . .I think I should know by now". I thought that the way it was put together was a little off and when it came time to add the chocolate (only 2 oz. compared to the Annie's Eats recipe with 4 oz. plus 1/2 C. cocoa powder) I was scouring the recipe for the cocoa powder, but there was none. I decided to just trust the recipe and hope for the best. Let's just say it came out more of a chocolate chip cake than a chocolate cake, very bland and dry in my opinion, I will not use that recipe in the future. 

The frosting couldn't make up for my disappointment in the cake, but it really tried. Come on, can a combination of peanut butter, butter, and sugar really be bad? ;) Overall, the presentation was nice (although I have my husband to thank for that as he handled the unruly frosting and chopped up the Reese's for me), but the cake was not all that I was hoping for. 

Here are some of the comments from this cake: 

• Can you fit any more peanut butter flavor into a cake? p.s. I love peanut butter
• I like the base cake but it was a little bland. I've found that ginger works well with peanuts. It would be fun to try.
• Great presentation, next to the dragon this was the best yet. 
• Delicious
• This is another one of my favorites
• Amazing! Need a glass of milk now. Thanks.
• It's Delicious! I'm a sucker for Peanut Butter Cup
• A little rich for my taste, but very good and presented well.
• Yummy YUMMY YUMMY!!!!
• The frosting is absolutely amazing, wow. You're right about the cake . . .but maybe it balances out the richness of the frosting? I think it works. Yum. 

So, I guess it went over well, even if it wasn't exactly what I was planning on :)

Mmm, peanut butter cups :)