Snowflake lollipops.

I’m really digging the beautiful candies I’m seeing lately.  My baking instincts are being deprived this holiday season! Time to get started…

Just so pretty! via Etsy shop Andies Specialty Sweets . Now if only I could afford them…

Coconut and Cardamom Zucchini Muffins
Yield: 12 muffins

The last of the zucchini bombardment is bouncing around the produce markets, and I couldn’t resist trying a few more recipes before Fall takes full effect. You can always substitute a different flour than what I’ve used, I prefer multigrains with texture.  Even better, sprinkle a little turbinado sugar on top before you throw these suckers in the oven.

What you’ll need:

• 2 heaping cups of shredded zucchini
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 
• 1 tsp  cardamom
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp lemon extract and a splash of lemon juice  
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1 tsp baking soda 
• 3 eggs, slightly beaten 
• 1 cup granulated sugar 
• 1/4 cup melted butter —
• 1/2 cup coconut oil—
• 1/4 cup whey—-, add more if looking too stiff.
• 1 cup coconut flakes!, (optional)

     —-We love to make feta, and keep the leftover whey to add to all our bread products.  It adds an amazing amount of flavor and moisture. I like to think of it as a healthier version of adding cream cheese to everything. Seriously, try it!

Directions:

Hot off the Presses! The Cake Girls new adventure…

Well, not really. I just haven’t been scouring the web until just today to see what some of my favorite bakers were up to.   I will admit, I’ve sort of been news-stalking the Cake Girls of Chicago to see what they were up to.  After having an explosive couple of years thanks to their talent and Food Network, the ladies adorable bakery in Chicago burned down.  To nothing.  No kidding.  I can’t imagine how exhausted they were from all the  publicity of their competitions, and then to have that happen to your business, well, I guess I understand why they laid low for a really long time.  

But!

Now they have a new venture.  Still being built, so it’s really just a landing page, but I believe they are selling individual products through other sites until they are up and running. Nevertheless, I’m so excited.  I already tweeted them.  Please support them! Those ladies are sick with talent.

Cake Test(Blast) #3

So, if the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, I thought I’d give myself a reprieve from going bat$h!+ crazy…

I switched up the cake flavors testing. I didn’t focus on the construction of the cake.  That’s ok. I was exhausted from making cakes that served 24-30 people, and it’s alot of moolah!  I decided making cupcake-sized stacks with the flavor combos I wanted would be the least overwhelming, least painful, and to be honest, quickest way to get it over with. I got stuff to do, and it all ain’t obsessing over cake!

The Test: with notes

1.  Pecan cake, with Apple Honey Butter Filling and Honey Buttercream(honey liquor/honey)

Justin’s second favorite. Very tasty!  Used Trader Joe’s candied pecans, a jarred apple honey butter filling, and my own recipe of honey buttercream with honey liquor, some honey, and a dash of maple syrup. Really a perfect cake, just not The One. 

2.   Almond Cake, with Black Cherry FIlling(Justin’s homemade Cherry Jam), and Honey Buttercream

Cake was great, very sturdy.  Black cherry filling was subtle and overridden by all the almond. Icing was great.

3.  Pumpkin Cake, with Apple Honey Butter Filling and Honey Buttercream, alternating layer of cream cheese icing.

Very homey.  Best of the pumpkin bunch! Cake is very sturdy. This was a very close contender, but was concerned about the flavors being a little too unique for sharing in a range of taste palettes.

4.  Pumpkin Cake, with Caramel Pecan Filling and Honey Buttercream, alternating layer of cc icing

Cake great. Caramel Pecan taste was amazing, but this cake may have been too rich. Alot going on.  Fall flavors, for sure! 

5.  Pumpkin Cake, with Orange Marmalade Filling and Honey Buttercream

Couldn’t taste the marmalade!  Use better one next time? I didn’t make my own marmalade, and this one was very runny.  Even worse, I couldn’t taste it!  I’ve never experienced a marmalade so bland.  Maybe the pumpkin was just that strong? This Honey buttercream could make dirt taste good.

6.  Lemon Poppyseed Cake, with Blackberry Jam Filling and Lemon Buttercream

Lemon buttercream was kind of meh.  Cake was awesome, sturdy on its own. This was sort of a repeat test from our first cake test, to make sure we didn’t want it.  We didn’t want it…

7.   Blackberry Buttermilk cake, with Blackberry Jam filling,  and Honey Buttercream

WINNER!!! Cake is great.  Used lemon buttercream by accident. Will definitely use Honey Buttercream on final product.  The One.

8.   Strawberry Yellow Cake, with Strawberry Filling and Lemon-Vanilla buttercream

Disaster. Too much processed strawberry(jam and gelatin).  That’s a no-go. Don’t use lemon extract in icing again. It’s gross. This cake was such an afterthought.  For shame.

So for the recipes, I used CakeCentral’s White Almond Sour Cream cake that you can adapt to whatever flavor you want.  Though I substituted quite a bit, and didn’t use a box mix. It’s so sturdy! And tasty.  And I went with a new buttercream recipe with the hopes that we would rectify the overkill of my first recipe.  Good instincts! Onto the next challenge!  Getting all my equipment to the town I’m getting married in.  It’s not very cost-effective to buy that stuff all over again….

Wedding Cake test, take 2!

I was utterly convinced this was The One.  

Dresses?  It was amazing to shop for my dress with the perfect company I had, but it wasn’t stressful for me.  Now, the cake, that’s another story….

So this was the second go-round.  Pistachio cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese buttercream, and alernating layers of pistachio cream/blackberry jam.  I bit into it, ready to be floored… and, hmm. Nothing.  It was good?  

The cake itself was delicious, good crumble, sturdy.  I shouldn’t have listened to the instructions for the size of the pistachio pieces, as when you are leveling a cake, the pistachio pieces will get caught on your cutter and tear through the cake.  Fortunately, it was sturdy enough to handle even this.  

The fillings were a mixed bag. The pistachio cream was fantastic. A beautiful avocado green. Light but still hoppin’ with pistachio flavor.  But once it soaked into the cake?  Made it look like a very convincing and utterly disgusting green moldy cake. Hrm.  The blackberry jam was just me making some homemade jam with berries from the Sunday market. That has a couple jars left over in the cupboard, just for my hoarding. Jam is so good. 

The Icing.  Sigh.  I held onto this recipe from the first cake, and I don’t know why. I’m not some white chocolate fiend. It was a very good crusting buttercream, which for cake tiers and avoiding fondant is perfect.  It was just, sooooooo sweet. And rich. Once Justin helped me isolate what we weren’t liking in the cake, I was relieved.  And so very disappointed. I thought I was finished with my search!

Oh, and the decoration!  It’s all buttercream. Once the buttercream had crusted(and been refrigerated) on the cake, I pulled it out and whipped out my trusty big painter’s brush. Used some Wilton’s brown food gel and a mini-bottle of grand marnier(it’s the only alcohol I had on hand) to dilute the coloring, I painted layers onto the sides of the cake.  So easy! And I was very happy with the result.  Not bad, just not the winner in all categories!

**I’ve referenced all the recipes I’ve started from.  I never keep to a recipe these days, unless it’s really tricky!

Wedding Cake Test, take 1!

So I’ve decided… no. It was never a choice. I’m going to make my wedding cake.  I’m super excited about it. To the point where I had about 20 tabs open at any given point researching the how-to’s of stacking cake tiers, what the best recipes are for sturdy cakes, whether I should even attempt a homemade fondant when I’m not a fan of the icky sugar clay in the first place….

So lo and behold. Cake #1. I was testing for flavor as well as the sturdiness of cake and also the crusting of the buttercream recipe. It’s alot to test all at once. Not very much following the scientific method, if you ask me…

And because of this, I ran into a number of problems. First being, when you don’t have controls in place, you can’t find the error!  So it was tasty, but it just wasn’t quite right…

The first loser of this Wedding Cake Battle Royale?   Lemon Poppyseed cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream icing and a Blackberry curd filling.  Say that 3 times fast! The cake should have used a moistening syrup which I forgot.  The icing was really strong and sweet, but had no idea until after cake test #2. I was REALLY pushing for that sucker!  And the blackberry curd filling? I still have a little hidden away in the fridge for a lonely night. Mmm…

Recipes deviated an egregious amount, but can be partially credited to Cake Central, MyRecipes, and Martha Stewart .

Gummy…worms.  Awesome and eerily realistic.  Full instructions at the jump via Instructables!

I love these inventive, affordable techniques.

Raspberry & Cream bars , recipe via EatingWell.  At 100 calories per serving, it’s pretty hard to refuse that flat of raspberries you see sitting so beautifully in the market, taunting you. So I may have eaten 2…