Pretty in Pink Confetti Cake

 

Doesn't this Pretty in Pink Confetti Cake just bring a smile to your face?  It just screams Festive! and Fun!, right?  I made this beauty for my friend's birthday using Cake By Courtney's white vanilla cake recipe and then adding rainbow sprinkles to the batter.  Note: I baked the cake layers using three 6-inch round pans and had enough batter leftover for six cupcakes.  For the frosting I used my favorite Swiss meringue buttercream recipe. 

 

Petits Fours

 

This Petits Fours post is long overdue and I mean REALLY overdue.  We're talking more than a decade people!  When you put it that way it sounds so bad, right?  My fascination with petits fours really started when I saw them made in this video, Martha Stewart Living Cake Decorating.   I was immediately drawn in by how beautiful and elegant the little cakes were.  They've been on my baking bucket list forever and I finally got my a%$ in gear and made them recently for my Easter table this year.  I packaged four petits fours into clear plastic boxes and placed a favor at each place setting.  I think they look absolutely darling and fit the Easter decor beautifully.

Essentially petits fours are small pieces of pound cake that are filled (I like jam or curd and buttercream) and covered in a glossy fondant.   I started with this recipe for the pound cake from the blog Rose Bakes which is nice and sturdy and holds up really well.  One recipe of the cake makes a half-sheet size pan and yields a lot of petits fours.  I made half of the cake into raspberry petits fours and the other half into lemon petits fours.  I'm  a sucker for fruit flavors and I think the tartness from the raspberry and lemon would be a nice counterbalance to the sweetness from the fondant. 

 

Now let's talk about fondant because that's the Archilles heel of these pretty treats.  The fondant used to coat petits fours is different from the rolled fondant you've seen covering wedding cakes and the like.  Petits fours use a poured fondant.  You can make certainly make it yourself but I was too intimidated (and lazy!) to do that so I bought some premade fondant from Amazon and it worked great.  The only thing I had to do was melt it in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until it was thin enough to coat.  Two tricks I learned from the Martha Stewart video were to have simple syrup on hand to stir into the fondant or put it back on the heat when it got too thick. 

 

 

The main caveat I have when it comes to making petits fours is that it's NOT a neat and tidy process.  The poured fondant can be very finicky to work with and downright messy.  It took me a while to get a feel for what was the best consistency for the fondant and even more time trying to figure out the best set up.  In the end I'm happy with my first attempt at petits fours.  I don't have the time to make them often so I'll save it for special occasions. 

 

Packaging Details:

4" x 4" x 2" clear plastic boxes

4" x 4" x 3/8" raised bottom box insert

3/8" grosgrain ribbon

Swedish Princess Cake (Prinsesstårta)

I'd been looking for a cake to celebrate spring and Easter and the first thing that popped in to my head was a Swedish Princess Cake (or Prinsesstårta).  It's been on my baking bucket list for what seems like an eternity so it was finally time to have a go.  Fittingly, I think my introduction to these beautiful cakes was at IKEA many, many years ago...ha!  What could be more delicious than moist vanilla genoise sponge cake filled with layers of raspberry jam, diplomat cream a gorgeous dome of whipped cream and then covered in verdant colored marzipan?   Nothing, I tell you!

For the recipe I turned to Mary Berry, of The Great British Bake Off fame.  Princess cake was the technical challenge in the Continental Cakes episode of Series 5.  At first glance this recipe is daunting, there's a lot of ingredients and a lot of steps!, but don't be deterred. While the contestants were given just over two hours to complete their cakes I made my life easy and decided to make it over the course of a weekend.  Some of the components (pastry cream, jam, marzipan and fondant rose) were made on the first day and the sponge cake and assembly were done on the second day.   

  

I passed on the chocolate decorations from Mary's original recipe and kept it sweet and simple with a light dusting of powdered sugar.  I just think it looks so stunning in an elegant and understated way. I don't know about you, but I seriously love all the spring feels this cake is giving me.  The beautiful pastel green marzipan exterior and cream and pink interiors are just so refreshing and light.  No doubt this beauty will banish any wintertime blues you may have.  

Happy Spring!

Happy Bee-Day Cake

How cute is this Happy Bee-Day Cake?  I really love how it turned out.  The occasion was for Laura's birthday party and her mom Julia had sent over some ideas with a bee theme.  I've been making celebration cakes for Laura even before she was born so I was happy to continue the tradition and make one for her second birthday.  Here's what baby shower and first birthday cakes looked like.

The cake is comprised of Stella Parks' White Mountain Layer Cake and Swiss Buttercream in vanilla and strawberry flavors.  Stella's white cake recipe is one of my absolute favorites.  The crumb is so moist and tender.  If you haven't already bought her cookbook you need to!  The buttercream is a traditional Swiss meringue style.  I flavored half of the frosting with ground up freeze-dried strawberries which gives you an intense fruit flavor without the additional moisture.  The perfect balance of sweet and tart. 

Happy Birthday Laurita!

Black and White Cookies

"Look to the cookie!"  Who would have thought that a simple black & white could evoke such wise and thought-provoking words from Jerry Seinfeld?  Seinfeld aside, these iconic New York cookies will bring about harmony to your taste buds...guaranteed! 

If ever there was one cookie that I always bought and never considered making at home it would have to be the black & white.  Why?  Mainly because if I was eating one most likely I was in NYC enjoying it.  Not a bad thing if you ask me. 

Considering my budget can't support flying to the east coast on a whim I had to find a cheaper alternative to get my cookie fix.  America's Test Kitchen came to my rescue with this recipe.

These cookies seriously taste like the ones you'd find in a NYC deli.  It's got the authentic taste of the slightly lemony cake/cookie frosted with chocolate and vanilla fondant.  I swear you'll feel like you're back in the Big Apple!

A Baby Shower...and a Baby to boot!

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of co-hosting a baby shower for  my very close friend Evelyn who was expecting her first baby (a boy!).  I was in charge of food and drink.  Considering that the party was scheduled just three days after I got back from Hawaii I wasn't able to make as many of the munchies as I would have liked.  But I made sure to set time aside to make the treats.

For the dessert table I made brownies and three kinds of cupcakes: red velvet with cream cheese frosting, french vanilla with blue-tinted swiss meringue buttercream and gluten-free devil's food with chocolate buttercream.  As a cupcake topper I rolled out fondant and cut out little ABCs with mini alphabet cutters.  This was the first time I've used fondant and I found it really easy to work with.  It was a bit tedious to remove the rolled out fondant from the mini cutter because they were so darn tiny, but with a toothpick I managed to get them out.  Luckily my friends (and helpers) Angel and Christine corrected any misshapen letters.   

As favors I made iced sugar cookies shaped in the letter "P", which represents the baby's last name.  Evelyn wouldn't disclose the first name she and her hubby had chosen...darn!!!

The shower was a success..especially the food and games.  Apparently it was so much fun that someone else decided they wanted to join the party...three weeks ahead of schedule!  Early the next morning Evelyn started having contractions and wouldn't you know it baby Micah made his debut later that afternoon.   What could be a better shower gift????