Time for the Olympics!

I LOOOOOVE the Olympics!!! And Cake. We'll get to the cake later, but first, let's talk about those London games!

This year the Olympic-watching is even more exciting me due to this girl (#7), right here!!!

Seriously, Courtnay is my hero. Tom and I woke up super early (6:00am) to watch her play for Team Canada against Russia.

Needless to say, I had a little motivation for my 8 mile run after. I love the Olympics in general, but when you know someone who's actually there and you get to watch them play on TV it is just that much more inspiring. This girl has worked her butt off to get there and we are so proud of her! Gosh, it almost sounds like we're her parents and she's our little girl that has grown up *sniff*

You can bet that Tom and I were watching the Opening Ceremony last night, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. We had a few people over to watch as well, including a friend from Milton who lives in the area! It was so great to see a familiar face. We whipped up some pizza and sangria, then spent the night in front of the TV making predictions about what would happen next in the ceremony.  


Oh! And we ate cake, of course!

A little chocolate deliciousness frosted with some vanilla buttercream!

I tried to add gold dust to the side, you know, to be all glitzy and stuff, but it ended up just looking like I spilled a bunch of brown sugar on it. Oh well, you live and learn!

It is safe to assume that I'll be spending many hours with the TV watching these summer games. I'll be cheering on Team USA in each event except for one. I'll let you take a guess at which one that may be :)

July Anniversary Cake 2

Our friends, Ben and Liz, celebrated their 1 year anniversary yesterday and before I left Vermont, I made sure to make them a vanilla-frosted lemon anniversary cake to enjoy on their special day.

I decorated it the same way that I decorated their wedding cake last year, however, instead of feeding 150 people, it was baked for just the two of them. 

It was missing the fresh fruit that decorated last year's cake, but frozen fruit is never as good as fresh fruit, so it was a sacrifice I decided to make when decorating the cake.

They certainly are a terrific duo and I wish them many more years of happiness together!

Notice Something New?

This is almost a year and half too late but alas, it is here!!

Last March (2011), Tom secretly asked Torrey from New Duds to create a logo for Dani Cakes for my birthday. We love Torrey's drawings, and each year we are excited to have him design and print the t-shirts for the Milton Freedom 5k. 


Torrey drew three designs with different colors and fonts so that I could pick which one I wanted. I was very surprised when Tom brought out the cake after dinner and on it was a possible design. He then presented me with a card that contained the other designs Torrey had drawn. I cannot tell you how excited I was at that moment. I had never thought of creating my own logo before and this ended up being one of my favorite birthday gifts of all time!

It took me a while (um, about a year) to choose which one I wanted because I loved all of them. However, I did manage to pick one and you can now see it on the banner at the top of my screen! Honestly, I wish I hadn't taken as long with the decision and banner because I could not wait to show you guys the new Dani Cakes look. 

I love the little runner hidden behind the cake and the colors are so cheerful and happy!

Thank you Torrey and Tom for such an awesome creation!

One Year Anniversary Cake

Last July I made two wedding cakes for two pairs of dear friends. I'm not sure about you, but I think it would kill me to keep the top of a cake in the freezer for and entire year! For one, I have no self control and I fear that it would be demolished by month three, and second, who wants to eat a cake that has been frozen so long?

When both couples asked me to make their cakes I told them that I would make an anniversary cake for them this year, free of charge, and fresh for their anniversary. However, I did not anticipate moving to DC.

Instead of leaving them cakeless, I decided to bake and deliver their anniversary cakes early.

Last week I delivered Kat and Anthony their lemon anniversary cake. They celebrated their one year anniversary this week!

Congratulations!

Hunting Groom's Cake

Last week, in the midst of packing for our DC move, I was able to escape the boxes by baking and decorating three cakes. One of them in particular was so much fun to create. 

I was asked to make a surprise groom's cake by a high school friend, who got married on Saturday. I love surprises, but it is tough to keep them a secret!

Her request was a to create a vanilla hunting cake. The inside is filled with chocolate buttercream, and the outside is frosted with both chocolate and vanilla.

The bullets, antlers, and leaves were made out of fondant. Cool looking, but definitely not delicious-tasting. 

The tree trunk was fun and easy to create. A swirl on the top for the inner tree, followed by a messy frosting with a knife for the bark.

I looked on a lot of websites to see how to do camouflage frosting. The technique I chose was to pipe the border of each color, fill it in, temporarily freeze it to crust the frosting, then to smooth it flat with wax paper and a fondant smoother. 

The grass, although simple, is probably my favorite part of the cake!

To make the antlers I colored some fondant a light brown then shaped them and let them set. I used a knife to create markings and lines, and then used a paintbrush to dry-brush brown food coloring onto the outside.

Congratulations to Elyse and Ryan!!

Gender Reveal Cake

For weeks I anxiously awaited last Wednesday, the day that I would receive a sealed envelope from Tessa with the gender of her little baby. 

My assignment: to bake a cake that would reveal the gender of her baby once the cake was cut.

Oh. And to keep the gender a secret. From everyone! 

Tessa's request was to make it as natural as possible, without artificial dyes. To do this, she asked that if she was having a girl that the cake be made out of strawberries. If she was having a boy, the cake would be blueberry. 

Tessa added a bunting cake topper that she made herself. I fell in love with it!

It was so much fun to be part of this event and now I'm even more excited to meet the little man when he arrives this fall! Check out Tessa's blogpost for the party, found here.

Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream

I had corn beef and cabbage on Saturday for the first time ever. Ever! It was quite enjoyable, and so far has been the only way I'll eat cabbage.

Tom and I were at our friends' house on Saint Patty's day for some March Madness and to celebrate the holiday of course! With our insanely warm weather (we may break into the 80s today?!) it felt like we should have been celebrating Memorial Day instead.

I'm sure you're going to fall out of your seat with shock when I tell you that we brought the dessert! Who would have thunk!

Since it was a holiday, our dessert needed to be something special. It needed to have some green. It also needed to have some beer. Irish beer. And Irish cream.

And that's when the chocolate Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream was born! I followed the recipe on Brown Eyed Baker, omitting the ganache portion of the cupcake.

These cupcakes were awesome. Like, really super delicious, and very rich. They will most certainly be reappearing at future St Patty's day celebrations!

Cake Order: Berry Birthday

I took on a cake order last week for a vanilla birthday cake with berries. 

It felt so amazing to be working with an icing bag and frosting again. We had been separated for too long!

It's no surprise that the berries had me reminiscing about berry picking in the summer, especially with the insanely warm temperatures that we have had this week. 

Champagne Cupcakes

Happy New Year everyone! Tom and I went up to Winooski last night to welcome the new year with good friends of ours. It was a fun time and we even got to see a few old faces from high school and college.

We couldn't go to the party empty handed and I knew exactly what I wanted to bring: champagne cupcakes!

A year ago I discovered champagne cupcakes on some blog (I don't even remember which one at this point) and have waited patiently for the appropriate time to make them myself. I mean, you really need something to celebrate with these bite fulls of deliciousness. Actually, I just forgot to get a bottle of champagne every time I went out and that's definitely a key ingredient.

Since I couldn't remembered what blog I found the recipe on, guess where I headed? Pinterest.com (I need to get paid for the advertising I'm doing for them). I found a recipe from Culinary Serendipity and only made two modifications: I added 4 cups of sugar in the butter cream and 5 tablespoons of champagne instead of the 3. The frosting was too think with only 3 tablespoons of champagne and would have made piping difficult. Fortunately, I can't imagine anyone complaining about having more alcohol in the frosting. 

The verdict? They were a major hit! It was so hard to keep myself away from them before the party, and even harder to stay away this morning. Does anyone else eat dessert after breakfast? Oh dear, I do have a sugar addiction... The cake was drier than I'd like, but I think it actually worked with the amount of frosting that was on each cake.

I got this fabulous new apron from my college roomies, Meghan and Courtnay. I absolutely love it. And them!

Christmas Dessert: Whoopie Pies

I don't know if Tom would have ever asked me out (way back in high school) if it hadn't been for my mom. She won him over with her whoopie pies. I make her recipe at least once a year (to make sure Tom sticks around) but lately haven't been happy with the cake portion. They just weren't chocolaty enough for us, especially once I perfected my recipe for chocolate cakes.

My dad asked me to make whoopie pies for Christmas dessert so I decided to test out a new cake recipe. I headed over to epicurious.com and made a few changes to the recipe I found there. Epicicurious said the cakes are better on the second day and I have to agree with them. They immediately reminded me of Drake's Devil Dogs, only better.

I discovered how much easier (and cleaner) it is to fill a piping bag just by putting it in a tall glass. Why didn't I think of this sooner?!

Whoopie Pies

Adapted from Epicurious

Cakes

2 cups AP flour

2/3 cups Hershey's special dark cocoa powder (or Dutch-process)

1 teaspoon espresso powder

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 egg

Filling

2 egg whites (use powdered egg whites with warm water)

1/2 cup Crisco

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cakes:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

1. In a non-mixer bowl whisk flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix buttermilk and vanilla together in a separate bowl/measuring cup.

2. Beat butter and brown sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until combined. Turn the mixer onto low. Add flour and buttermilk alternating between the two, and starting and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape the sides of the bowl before adding each. Mix until well combined. 

3. Scoop batter onto baking sheet (use 1-2 tablespoons of batter per cake). Bake 11-13 minutes. Tops should pop up if slightly pressed at the end of baking. Cool completely on wire rack before frosting

Filling:

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add shortening, vanilla, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add to piping bag and frost cakes. Allow frosting to harden a few minutes before placing cake on top (otherwise cakes may slide). Store in an air tight container.