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Posts Tagged: cake

cake — No Comments
15
Dec 09

Happy National Cupcake Day!!!

Today is National Cupcake Day (thanks Helen!) and so in honor of that, a post that combines this holiday with a recent one in our household, my sister Aubrey’s 21st Birthday!

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Aubrey is a notorious cupcake fan, both as an eater and a baker. So for her 21st we wanted to bake her a truly special cake. We also wanted to show her one use for one of her gifts, the large cupcake pan.

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My mom didn’t put enough batter into the top of the pan initially, but it wasn’t totally unfortunate. The pieces fit together pretty perfectly, and although the decorating required a ton of attention to detail, it was all worth it to see the look on Aubz’s face

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I also made her small doggie cupcakes in honor of her dog Jasmine (Shitzu). They’re not quite Jasmine lookalikes, but they come pretty close. A bit of clever piping, working with marshmallows and cinnamon red hots. Voila! Pup-Cakes!

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These little guys were so fun to make. The frosting has to be a bit stiffer than normal, in order to form the “fur”. I really wanted these guys to be two-toned, which kind of worked, but not quite the way I wanted.

Media — No Comments
12
Dec 09

My Foray into Fondant, or Mediaite Gets a Cake

There are a few things in this life that I find difficult to pass up. As it happens, two of them are sales, and cake making. Which led us to today’s post:

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The Mediaite Cake!

Ever since I began work at my office I have wanted to make a cake for the Mediaite crew (birthdays were the original inspiration, but there was never enough time to pull one together). So to honor the success of the people I share my office with (and the announcement of three very cool new websites to come), I decided a cake was in order. That paired with a fabulous Jo-Ann fabrics sale on fondant (SCORE!) meant that there was only one type of cake I could make: A computer.

This was my first time working with fondant in a cake setting. I had worked with it a bit, making small cutouts to put on top of cupcakes when I worked at Georgetown Cupcake in DC, but I had never done a cake. I was really nervous for how it was going to turn out. Cakes with fondant are normally beautiful, but when you’re trying to make something look more life-like, it’s difficult to capture all of the details with fondant.

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The key to this cake was sculpting. The inside is three square cakes stacked vertically, bound together with layers of frosting and then cut into the shape of a computer. A fourth cake was the keyboard, cut on a downgrade using string. Rolling the fondant was one of the most stressful parts of the process, because it is so delicate and I was so afraid that it was going to tear as I folded it over the corners. Frosting markers made the customized screen possible. It was one of the most fun cakes I’ve made to date. Congrats Mediaite!

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I am not a Birthday Cake

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This weekend was Nate’s birthday, and he’s not the biggest fan of cake. Nate is, however, in love with George’s Doughnuts. And while I was trying to figure out what kind of birthday cake I should make for him this year, I had an epiphany: A Monkey-Bread-style cake made out of doughnuts from George’s. This is how it happened:

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Accomplice 1 (Nate’s Mom) acquired 2 dozen doughnuts from George’s (she pre-ordered them, because they usually sell out by 9am). We used all different kinds of doughnuts, so in any given slice you could have jelly, cream-filled, glazed, cake doughnuts, sprinkles, etc.Using a greased bundt pan, a little home-made glaze (powdered sugar, water, and a hint of vanilla) we chopped up the doughnuts into fours, and then started placing them into the pan, sealing each layer with a little glaze.

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The final layer was topped off with a layer of glaze to seal it all in. We then baked the whole thing at 350°F for 5 minutes, just enough time to melt the glaze and have the whole thing meld together. After it came out of the oven, it sat for only a few seconds (we didn’t want it to stick to the pan) and then we inverted it onto a cake plate. After a bit of hand molding to ensure that it wouldn’t fall apart, the cake was ready for candles. We used all different kinds of doughnuts, so in any given slice you could have jelly, cream-filled, glazed, cake doughnuts, sprinkles, etc. We also added a few extra sprinkles, for a bit of birthday flair.

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Score for LVKakes.

Around NY / Bakery / Breakfast / Food — 1 Comment
1
Nov 09

Sugary, Industrial, Morning Bliss

Good Morning, (or in my case, Evening) Sugar High!

I received my first Doughnut Plant doughnut about four weeks ago when they were brought to me in a simple, industrially reminiscent box with a bow of kitchen string tied around. The box is simple and is not made to impress with it’s good looks or withstand extreme conditions. It has a singular purpose: to deliver sugary breakfast pastry.

My favorites so far have been the Trés Leches (with a sweet, creamy filling) the Carrot Cake (with a cream cheese filling, that happens to be my very picky father’s favorite) and the Pumpkin Cake. I am not normally a cake doughnut kind of person, but the crispy outer glazes and moist light cake inside make these irresistible. The yeast doughnuts have a very different character to them. First, they are very, very large. While the variety of flavors is impressive (coconut creme with coconut filling, chunky peanut butter icing with raspberry jelly, pumpkin, etc) they are overall a bit too sweet and sugary for my sensitive teeth. The taste is great, but I can only eat about a quarter of the whole doughnut. Although the glazes tend to be too heavy on the sugar, the dough itself is light and chewy.

One of the best flavors available is the crème brulée. It is a smaller doughnut with rich creamy filling and a crispy burnt sugar topping. They are best eaten right in the shop, as they are not nearly as much of an experience the next day. If you are only buying one doughnut, everyone recommends trying this one in particular.

Although I’m not sure you could go wrong with any choice at Doughnut Plant. The exceptionally helpful staff will be sure to steer you in the right direction based on mood.

Doughnut Plant Doughnuts best paired with: a bottle of the local milk they sell in-store.

cake / Food — No Comments
22
Apr 09

Clash of Cake

About two years ago for one of my classes, I read Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations. The basis for this theory is the idea that cultural and religious identities will unite people and be the source of conflict among these differing groups. Huntington theorized that the world would be divided as follows:

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At the time, my speciality among my peers in this class was cake making. So I created a “Clash of Civilizations Cake”:

Asia and Oceania

I made two bundt cakes and used home-made frosting to seal them together. The bundt worked out well because the top is not completely rounded, so proved a good base to hold the other half.

Africa and Europe

Frosting the cake turned out to be not as difficult as originally intended. Once the countries were outlined, all that was left was to pipe in different colored frostings based on Huntington’s new civilizations map.

Americas

While I did not make the actual cake mix myself, the fun in this project was the decorating, and Betty Crocker makes great yellow and chocolate cakes. I made the cake half yellow cake and half chocolate cake so everyone in my class would have something to enjoy. This cake was especially frosting heavy, so some loved it and others peeled some off to enjoy the cake. Everyone loved how it looked though!

GrumpyWhenHungrySo eat, and be happy.