I made my hubby a heart-shaped Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for Valentine’s Day:

He has never tried Red Velvet cake until I made this for him and now he says it is his favorite I guess he always thought it was cinnamon flavored, not cocoa. He has been missing out! I normally make it for Christmas every year but I thought it is a perfect color for Valentine’s. Don’t you?

Here are pics of mini red velvet cupcakes I made for a dear friend for Valentine’s Day:

I hope you had a wonderful <3’s day

Here are pics from the zebra cake I did. It really did turn out well! I am def going to be using this technique again. I am throwing a double baby shower next month and plan to make the cakes with pink and white The pics are not great since I just have my cell phone camera to use but I think you get the idea:

I also made this cake using a fondant that I made from scratch, a rolled butter cream fondant. I am so excited because it tastes soooo good and it is vegan! I have been searching so long for a fondant that is made without egg or gelatin! Woohoo!

I found this great blog called AZ Cookbook, Food from Azerbaijan & Beyond. There is a cake which is well known in Eastern Europe called Zebra Cake. I think it is traditionally served with hot tea or coffee. YUM! It is called a zebra cake because of the beautiful pattern you create with the cake batter:

 I LOVE the look of the cake so I thought I would try and do my own version. The recipe calls for a white and cocoa cake but I wanted to make mine with the two contrasting colors of blue and white. It is a really simple concept to do and ends up being gorgeous. I thought that I might have trouble because I was not following the recipe and using the thicker cocoa batter. I just added color to the white batter. Anyways, I followed the directions on how to make the pattern. The only downside to doing this recipe is you CANNOT tap your cap pan to make the batter level lest you ruin the pattern. Being a perfectionist, how can I NOT tap the pan?! It took great resolve on my part to not do it! I ended up with a bit of a dome on top but I just trimmed that right off. I normally have to trim a cake anyways before I torte it so it is not a big deal. Peanut loved eating the scraps too Here is what I did:

1. Divide the cake batter in half. Color the cake batter two different colors. Mix well.

2. Using a 1/4 cup, scoop and pour alternating batters into prepared cake pan.

3. DO NOT TAP YOUR PAN or SPREAD BATTER It will spread on its own. Keep alternating colors until you are finished with all of your batter:

4. Bake according to cake and pan directions. You can have the cake as is and get the awesome zebra pattern. I torted (is that a word?) the cake since I want to add a frosting layer in between. LOOK:

Isn’t that cool? I think it is a very neat twist on the traditional marble cake. I want to make another one and not torte it to see the effect. The best part will be cutting into the cake to see the very cool design! The inspiration was wholly from AZ Cookbook and the Zebra Cake. I plan on making fondant for the cake and finish decorating it soon. I will show it when I am finished

Ok, how wicked cool/creepy/intriguing is this?

Lukka Sigurdardottir

This creation was made by Lukka Sigurdardottir and you can see more pictures at this blog HERE. It reminds me of the first music video I had ever seen when I was in grade school: Tom Petty, “Dont Come Around Here No More” . Right?!

So instead of dwelling on things that are kind of crappy right now and how some things are just plain weird, I am looking for inspiration. I broke out all of my cake supplies this morning and realized I made a total of maybe 3 cakes this year. Sad! I have been depressed, too busy, lacking inspiration and motivation. I need to see the world as beautiful and inspiring and not so ugly as it can be at times.
I made these mini lemon cakes with a creme filling and thought it is a good pic to post for self inspiration.

I have been a strict vegetarian for a little of a year and a half now. I don’t eat eggs, but I do eat cheese and milk products on occasion. This time of year is my favorite becuase I have an excuse to bake. Not that I need one but the recipes are fun and the atmosphere seems to scream for time in the kitchen. My dilemna now is taking my tried and true recipes and attempting to make a tasty edible vegan version. To say the very least, this has not been easy.

My current mission is to try and make my pumpkin bread without eggs.  I thought I had a good chance but tasting the bread right now: it just does not have the right texture. I am replacing eggs with tofu and that seems to allow for a great rise but the flavor is bland and the texture is mushy. GROSS. I am not sure what to do to fix it. Other recipes that I have have found and tried make too dry of a bread and little rise.  I sure miss eggs in baking! They add so much flavor and texture; it is a shame that I do not own a crew of egg-laying hens! At least then I would know they are treated well and the males not killed. I digress

I will try and replace the water in my recipe with soy milk to see if that helps. Any ideas out there in cyberspace?

Here is my first gum paste figurine, a high heel shoe cake topper:

 I suppose it turned out okay for my first time but I am not happy with it ::sigh::
I know I just need more practice and I have definitely learned a lot. I sound like I am 12 – LOL! I made the gum paste from scratch and I can see where it got too dry and cracked. I found great instructions and a template at www.cakecentral.com . I made this shoe for my mom’s birthday cake and it turns out the topper is too big for the cake-
I should have made a 9″ round instead of an 8″. Oh well, better luck next time!

psssst….It’s vegan 

Here is a pic of a cake I made for my niece’s birthday party this past weekend. It was very easy as most of it was a plastic kit (for the turrets). It was a vanilla cake with an almond butter cream frosting.

I also have been experimenting and I have finally been able to make a vegan version of fondant! Woohoo! This is a huge success because for so long now I have felt that I could not use fondant because it is made with gelatin and I want to avoid any animal ingredients. By using agar powder instead of gelatin I am able to get the same effect.  I tweaked the recipe a bit and I made a batch of vegan fondant from this excellent recipe from Epicurious.com. I made my niece a smaller cake using the vegan fondant. I don’t like how amateur my cake looks but considering it is the second time I have worked with fondant and I don’t really know what I am doing I guess it is okay. I am going to take a fondant/gum paste course next month and I cannot wait to learn!