raspberries and lemons

the other day i started to make a cake for a very special little girl. i am not done her cake yet but i will show you pic's when it is finished. she is getting baptized and i am so excited to make this cake for her as our gift to her on her special day.

so, making her cake inspired me to make a quadruple batch of batter so i unfortunately has some left over.... YA RIGHT!!! the cake is a white cake so it was easy for me to add freshly grated lemon zest, and whip up some raspberry buttercream icing. once i was finished with that i made some lemon curd from the box because i didn't have 6 lemons on hand at home and i did not want to go to the store.

my boy decided early in the morning he wanted to have a lemonade stand and i told him that i would make him some cuppies to sell along with his lemonade. he did really well and ended up making $19.50. so i had enough left over from the cake batter to also do up 2 dozen of these lemon raspberry cuppies.

after madly finishing the cupcakes, i started on the cake. it was four layers high, three layers of lemon curd and covered with raspberry icing. it was one of the of the best cakes i have ever made. so good i could have eaten it without the icing and that is usually my favorite part!!

butter and sugar

there is something amazing about butter and sugar. when you put them together, they always make wonderful things. i know they are not good in the quantity that i eat these two food groups in (yes i know they are not a food group), but they always make something warm and delicious.

i love how my house smells when i bake. i love the feeling of being able to make something that people enjoy. i love watching my kids eyes light up when they see the Gert (remember, that's my mixer's name) come out, or a beater being released from the mixer. i love watching them try and lick of every part of their sticky little fingers and i am sure if they could, their head would be in the bowl... i know mine you. right now would be a great time too because i don't have any hair to get dirty in it!

this afternoon after church i decided i needed to make a treat. so after investigating a few options i decided to make whoopie pie's. have you ever had them? they are so easy and SO good. i made some plain vanilla with vanilla icing, vanilla with raspberry buttercream, and sprinkled ones for the kids with the two different fillings. i tried quite a few to make sure they were ok to eat... they were!!

some cuppies!

i really want to be able to have more posts on this blog than my other blog, but i am sadly catching up quickly with the other.... wish i had more energy for cakes. but i am happy that i was able to crank out a few cuppies this time!! it felt so good to do something creative again. not so good to clean up the mess which is still pretty much a mess... i'll do what i can. my babe will eat the left over and probably lick the counter clean so i think i am covered.

i wanted to do something fun for my hubby's work so i made some gold themed cakes this time. i thought they turned out ok. i love how i always learn something(s) when i am doing this, like next time my flag poles will have to somehow be stronger. or the flag be lighter. all i know is when i went to bed there were 6 erect flags, and when i woke up this morning there were three, and two of them broke after i took some pic's. whatever... there are better things to worry about.

this time i tried a swiss something buttercream (freakin' chemo brain!!). it is not as sweet as the other buttercream i make, but ken thought it was really good. not my fave because it wasn't sweet enough, but it is b.e.a.u.-tiful to work with. i am excited to try it a bit more often.

so i decorated them with gold tee's, flag poles, golf balls and that little circle thing is supposed to represent an argyle print of a golf shirt... didn't really turn out how i had planned but i have a better idea for next time as to what i will do!

my birthday cake!

i had a few people offer to make my birthday cake. it was so sweet! but i honestly needed to do it. i had a few cakes that i was supposed to do before i found out we had cancer, my girlfriend's baby shower cake... it was going to be so cute, and my boys 7th! birthday cake. but i was not in the head space to do it. so, before i start chemo, i wanted to do to my cake.

i wanted it to be bright and girly. i think it turned out that way! i loved it!! it was three layers of vanilla/oreo cake filled with oreo buttercream and a vanilla custard. the best part of it was making it with my mom and dad even got his hand in there.

cake

i am making a birthday cake for me!!! i am so excited... you'll have to see what i come up with. but i just wanted to let you know that despite all that is going on, i still have the cake bug!

do you like nuts??

the request for the cake at one of the office's in town this month was a butter pecan cake. i hope it turned out ok. i thought i burned the pecans, and then i burnt one of the cake. i asked Ken to taste it and he spit it out on the floor and then laughed and said it was really good. SIGH of relief. i didn't want to be starting it all over again at 10pm! it was three layers high and had a butter pecan frosting. you most certainly do not want to encounter this cake with a nut allergy of any kind! i thought it was pretty good though... as i did sample the cake tops and some icing! you know me. :)

wanna play?

i was asked to to a toy story cake for a girlfriend of mine. he little man turned 5!!! she was a life saver as she had a plan as to what she wanted AND.... AND, this is the best part, she was supplying the figures for the cake! don't get me wrong, i love to make things and such, but such detailed characters would have been very expensive and would have taken FOREVER. so i used the figures.

i loved how it turned out! it was one of my faves to do. :)