I'll Have My Cake

What a busy week! I started a new job and by the design on Ina's cake, you may guess that it is teaching 5th Grade. In the midst of all the craziness, my lovely mother offered to make the cake since this is only the third day of school. What on earth would we do without our mothers, even when we are old enough to fend for ourselves?! The only issue she had in the process was that the pan she had on hand was smaller than the one Ina called for in the recipe. You can find the recipe at the Food Network website, or on page 216 in Family Style. I apologize for not going into further detail or providing more links, but this dial-up business is for the birds!

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

Since we knew time would be limited on the Fourth, we thought we would get together with our good friends Timm and Faith and celebrate early. We went for simple, picnic style food and came up with the following menu:

Burgers with all the fixins'
Corn Salad
Potato Salad
Strawberry Shortcake Cake

The Strawberry Shortcake Cake came straight from my favorite down-home gal The Pioneer Woman, and like all the other recipes I have tried from her collection, was delicious. It was beyond moist and the cream cheese frosting complimented the berries beautifully. I will certainly make this again to share with family and friends.
And P.S....if you haven't tried goat cheese and caramelized onions on your burger, you are really missing out!

Graduation Cakes

OK, definitely not my best photography work here, but I wanted to get these pics up without having to move the cakes around a great deal. I made these for a friend whose son is graduating from high school and will be attending MSU this fall. I used the Sprinkles Vanilla Buttercream recipe and liked the taste much better than any other I have made to date. There is no Crisco, so it has a better texture and the clean up is a breeze. Maybe not the best to have outdoors on a blistering summer day, but certainly a winner in the taste category.

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy I Have Cake In My Tummy

In case you haven't noticed, I surf the internet for recipes often. I stumbled upon a gem for a flourless chocolate cake and after reading the description, I was compelled to make it as soon as I possibly could. I actually started it last night and let it set up without the ganache overnight. This morning I got to work on the topping and threw it into the fridge to set up. The ganache sets up quickly and as you can see, I put a piece on top so you could the the interior. That piece was promptly eaten and let me tell you, if this cake was a song, it would be named You Make My Dreams (Come True). Hall and Oates weren't talking about just any 80's hussy. No, they were speaking of this smooth piece of dark chocolate that makes makes your mouth water and come back for more. And, thanks to Tish Boyle my dreams have come true!

Final Cake

Tonight was the final class in Course 1, so we were able to decorate our cake however we wanted. I chose Spring colors and was actually really pleased with the result. We did learn sweet peas tonight, but since they were pretty easy, I stuck with roses to get a little extra practice. I think I will enroll in the next course so I can learn more flowers and borders, but I am still deciding. I have posted a picture of the cake prior to smoothing so you can see what a difference it makes. I just used a fondant smoother and placed some parchment paper on the cake and lightly smoothed my way over the cake.

before smoothingafter smoothing
final product

When we head home this weekend I am going to make a cake with my mom so I can show her some of the techniques I learned throughout the course. She just celebrated a birthday, so we'll have to pretend it is her birthday cake!
After arriving home from class, I found Matt had already started shredding cabbage for dinner and he had a salad put together. I jumped in and finished off the cabbage and carmelized some onions for the polish sausage. All in all, it was quite a productive day and dinner was delicious!

Splurging Sunday

With Matt on WW, he usually chooses one splurge day per week where he can enjoy whatever dishes he feels like without the guilt. Today we decided Martha's Shepherd's Pie would fit the bill along with a Lemon Coconut Cake for dessert. We also had a mixed greens salad with goat cheese and Sauteed Cabbage as a side dish. I adapted the Shepherd's Pie recipe by adding some Merlot that we had on hand, and definately gave the dish more depth of flavor than the previous times we have made it. As for the Lemon Coconut Cake, I knew we would have a winner because my mom had fixed it for Sissy's birthday a few years ago and received rave reviews. It did not disappoint!!