Spring Petal Cake

Last year, around this time, I was reading The Pioneer Woman's blog like it was my job. Every morning I would open up Safari (yes, that's what I use!) and would go to her blog and gawk at all of the delicious recipes she would post. Every now and then she would give a shot out the other bloggers by featuring their posts. She did an Easter round up post, and that's when I fell in love with the Easter Egg Cake. A beautiful cake with pretty pastels and perfect for the beginning of spring.

Homemade Funfetti Cake

It was one of my friend's birthday at work today and what goes better with a birthday celebration than homemade funfetti cake? ( I know, liquor, but it was the middle of the day people!) I had gotten some inspiration from this awesome cake, but decided that may have been a little too much so I scaled the sprinkle percentage down. I used this white cake recipe that I've been in love with and just included the addition of about 1/2 cup sprinkles. I folded them in at the very end and then baked the cakes like any other recipe.

Chocolate Confections

I'm halfway through my last semester of pastry school and this last class taught me a lot about chocolate. I learned about tempering, how to cook sugar, how to mold truffles, and I learned that I have little to no self-control when it comes to candy. Luckily a lot of our production was used to fill an order made by the Governor, so I wasn't taking home EVERYTHING I made (which I totally would have, if I was allowed). Among all of the different candies and chocolates we made, there was one recipe that stood out from all the rest. It was amazing and unbelievably easy! I've already put it on my Christmas baking list because everyone in my office was falling over themselves to get the last piece.

Mini Strawberry Pies

With all this warm weather I have already started making fruity desserts even though it's only the first week in February. I just can't make something pumpkin or chai when it's 65 degrees and sunny out, it just doesn't make any sense! So I went a little crazy with my strawberry purchases last week and I was left with a pint of strawberries and no recipe. I searched the blogosphere and landed on the cutest looking strawberry pies known to man. Of course I didn't have any pie crusts in the fridge so I had to make that, which isn't all that hard, but still. However, I did have a mason jar of lemon curd so I decided to use that to give the dessert a little tartness. I simply spread a little of the lemon curd across the bottom of the pie and then piled on the strawberry filling. It kept the dessert from being overly sweet and turned out perfect.

Strawberry Tall Cake

This weekend I received my monthly issue of Southern Living. I usually browse through it quickly then toss it onto the coffee to remain untouched for about two weeks, until I finally muster up the strength to toss it in the recycling bin. However, this month had a article about the best southern bakeries, this peaked my interest, so I sat down and read about the different bakeries below the Mason-Dixon line.

One cake that I saw looked amazing. It was a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and piled with strawberries. Now maybe it's because we've been having unusually good whether, or maybe I just needed a break from chocolate (crazy, i know) but I decided immediately that I would make this cake. So I went to the store and picked up some strawberries and started baking.

New York Style Crumb Cake

I was having trouble deciding what I was going to make last night. I had thought about making sticky buns because my grandma had made them over Christmas and they were amazing. But then I started thinking about the time it would take to make a proper yeasted dough and having to scrape the delicious sticky goodness off one of my pans and it quickly got me out of the mood. I still wanted to make something in the breakfast/dessert category, but it needed to be quick. That's when I landed on coffee cake. You can have it in the morning with a cup of coffee and in the evening with a big bowl of ice cream, or at least I can... and will.

Cheesecake Factory Cheescake

Cheesecake is a very interesting dessert. It seems like it would be easy enough, just cream together some cream cheese, sugar, and eggs, right? Not so much. You have to worry about the texture of the filling, the crunch of the crust, the heat in the oven, the jiggle! I've made a couple of cheesecakes and while I've been able to avoid the infamous CRACK I have yet to perfect crust... I put the cheesecake in a water bath (to ensure even cooking), but no mater how much foil I wrap it in, water always seeps in. I'm at a loss. I mean the texture is perfect and the taste is amazing, but the crust doesn't have that crunch that I want. Oh well, maybe I'll just have to forgo the water bath and live with a cracked cheesecake...