From Failure to Success

One of the technician's in our lab recently had a birthday so I decided to make him a birthday cake at the last minute. I had a recipe for a filled genoise cake that looked super yummy so I started mixing and baking. A genoise cake has no leavener (baking soda or baking powder) so all of the volume comes from gently heating and then whipping your eggs until they are really fluffy. My batter turned out perfect and when I put my cake into the oven the batter was at the top of the pan. After 28 minutes in the oven I was so excited to see the results...




As you can see, the cake didn't do too well! This is the third time I have made a genoise and I have never had one work. If any one out there has advice for a genoise, please send your comments my way.

For my second try, I made a simple sour cream vanilla cake. I sliced off a little of the top and then hollowed out the middle.

I filled the cake with strawberry and cream cheese/whipping cream.

I put the top back on to hide the yummy filling!

And then topped it with more of the cream cheese/whipping cream mixture. I sprinkled on some of the cake I hollowed out from the middle and topped it with a strawberry. The result...a deliciously light and refreshing summer cake!

Brownie Cookies

I made some super yummy cookies this weekend. They were very easy to make and everyone loved them. They taste a lot like a bite-size brownies...give 'em a try.

Chocolate Drop Cookies
Adapted from "The Essence of Chocolate"

Beat together with a paddle attachment at medium high speed 2 eggs, 1 1/3 cups sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla for 10-12 minutes. You want the egg mixture to be light in color and very fluffy (don't skimp on the mixing time). Meanwhile melt together 4 oz of unsalted butter and 6 oz 99% chocolate (unsweetened chocolate). Also, sift together 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/3 cup all-purpose flour. When you egg mixture is whipped turn the mixer to low and slowly drizzle in the chocolate mixture. Mix for 2-3 minutes on low and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Then fold in the flour mixture by hand. I also added 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips but you could add more chopped chocolate or nuts or nothing at all. Drop tablespoon size balls onto a parchment lined baking sheet and cook for 10-12 minutes or until the tops are just starting to crack and cookies have lost their shine. The cookies will be really soft when done (don't over cook them or they will be hard). Let cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. And then...enjoy!!!!

Clogging Fun

Last fall I participated with a few of my friends in the ward talent show. We put together a "production number" to the song The Devil Went Down to Georgia. We had two girls fiddling, two girls lip sinking, a few more playing random instruments, and then Amy and I did a bit 'o clogging. We had soooooo much fun!

I was going through some of my pictures last night and remembered that my dad recorded it for me. (The camera accidently stopped in the middle so it is in two parts.) So here it is. I hope you enjoy it!

Pink Lady

This cute cake was made for my friend Heidi. Her colors were pink, pink, and more pink.

I love the Gerbera Daisies. They are one of my favorite flowers!

But probably the best part of this cake is what was on the inside. The top and bottom layers were dark chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and the middle layer was a tangy lemon cake with vanilla-bean frosting. The chocolate cake uses four different kinds of chocolate. I loved seeing all of these chocolate bars lined up in my cupboard before I started baking. It just made me happy to look at them!

Straberries, strawberries, and a little bit o' chocolate

I think all of the practicing paid off. The cake turned out great. Most importantly, the bride and groom loved it.

One of the bride's friends made the strawberries.

Yes, it was super tricky to get the ganache to drip...but not drip, drip, drip too far. The ganache had to be just the perfect termperature.

I loved the table-scape with all the strawberries around the cake...soooooo cute!

Practice, Practice, Practice

My old roommate and good friend asked me to make her wedding cake. She wanted to have a strawberry theme so her idea was to make a little twist on a Boston creme pie. This would include (from bottom to top): vanilla cake, strawberry filling, vanilla cake, Bavarian creme, vanilla cake, strawberry filling, vanilla cake. Then the outside would be covered with a layer of buttercream frosting, royal frosting and ganache. Yummy!

But with a cake this complicated I needed to make a couple of practice cakes to make sure it would all work out. The first practice cake I made wasn't too good. The cake was too crumbly, the frosting tasted like marshmallows, and the ganache was way too thin (depicted in top picture). I took it to a party and everyone said it was way too sweet. So I tried a second cake (depicted above). I used a different cake recipe with sour cream and an Italian buttercream. This cake was perfect. I love to decorate with the Italian buttercream (I think the flowers are sooooooo cute in this pic) but it is very very very gross to eat. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to make another practice cake so...I just had to hope everything would work out during crunch time.

Just Dinkin' Around

A few weeks ago I went down to Provo to hang out with my sister's kids. Jenny and I ran to Wally-world to get a few things and decided to try on some glasses while we were there. I took a few pictures on my phone but it has taken me forever to figure out how to get them off my phone and onto the blog. I FINALLY figured it out...and here we are...

These are my dorky glasses...or are they?

Just a little too "buggy"Jen.

These are a little better...maybe?

Jen looks great in these ones. They even match her jacket!

Maybe we should just stick with a la naturale...much better!