Unicorn Cake

I started planning to make a nice red velvet cake for a birthday girl and it turned into THIS.  Well, she really loves horses and unicorns too, so I thought I would try to make it a little fancier than just a typical layer cake.  We have all seen all kinds of these unicorn cakes and they are sprinkled all over Instagram if you follow some of the bakers out there. I was not too sure how this would turn out, but was quite pleased for my first try as an amateur.

I was not sure where to start, so I researched different cakes on Instagram and online and came across this YouTube tutorial that was both entertaining and helpful. In the tutorial they made a funfetti cake, but I stuck with red velvet and followed other recipes for my cake, buttercream and made my typical marshmallow white chocolate fondant.

I made three layers of red velvet cake and a simple vanilla buttercream to put in between and then spread on top and the sides to get the fondant to stick. 

I made the white chocolate marshmallow fondant and cut out the ears, horn and used the rest to cover.  For the horn, I wrapped a piece of fondant around a plastic chopstick to hold it in place and affix to the top of the cake. 

After the cake was wrapped in fondant, it was time for the fun part - the flowers to shape the unicorn's mane. I also used little sugar pearls to put on the center of the flowers and the detail around the base of the cake. 

She looks like she's closing her eyes to avoid the sparks.  What a fun birthday cake! 

German Chocolate Cake

German chocolate cake is my dad's favorite dessert.  So, when he visited for Thanksgiving, this had to be on the menu -- along with pumpkin and apple pie, of course. I researched a lot of recipes and ended up using the recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch. It does taste better than any other German chocolate cake I have ever had and this was confirmed by my dad who has tasted for more variations of this cake than I.

First I baked the chocolate cakes in spring form pans and then made the chocolate frosting. I just put chocolate frosting between the layers, but in the future I will try using the pecan coconut frosting in the middle in addition to the top as I had extra (and it's SOOOOOO good).

This chocolate frosting recipe was so nice and smooth. 

The pecan coconut frosting came together nicely. I thought it was going to be too runny at first, but it thickened nicely when it cooled down. 

I put the chocolate frosting between the layers and on the outside. I spread the pecan coconut frosting on top and then used the extra to pipe a little design around the sides.  

I typically do not like chocolate cake as it's drier than other cakes, but this cake was moist and flavorful. It was unlike any other chocolate cake recipe I have tried. 

America's Birthday Cake

There are all kinds of themed 4th of July desserts, many using various fruits to emulate the American flag on a pie, sheet cake or other. I got a newsletter recently from Food 52, which I adore, and they had this amazing looking American Flag Cake recipe that I thought I just had to try. 

It was SO much fun to make. It wasn't quick or easy to make, but it was a lot of fun. I realized how time consuming it would be when they indicated it was five separate cakes to build this flag inside all these layers. 

I started on July 3rd in order to have this bad boy ready for America's birthday and finished it up in my day off on the 4th of July for us to enjoy after dinner that evening. 

I'm not used to using so much food coloring. I used Americolor gel food coloring and probably used a few drops more than the recipe even indicated. I felt like I was making Sesame Street cupcakes all over again. Such pretty colors though! 

Look at how vibrant the red cake is! 

You have to cut each cake in two.  When I did this it seemed as if my cakes were not tall enough to cut, but I carefully did so without breaking them, thankfully. 

I followed the instructions in the recipe carefully to ensure I was layering hte right colors properly to make the flag. It started with red followed by a layer of buttercream. 

Red, white, red white to make the stripes. 

Then came blue. I should have cut the circle in the middle out less on an angle, but it still worked out ok. 

I filled in the blue circle with more red and white cake and it was ready to frost. 

It took me a whilte to frost with doing a good crumb coat layer, then I put it in the refrigerator for a while and did another layer.  I spun it around and put pressure down with the offset spatula to make a swirl on top. 

Then I did some fairly easy and simple decorations with red sprinkles and red hots.  After, the real reveal with this cake is on the inside!

When I cut into it and cut out a slice, the kids were amazed!

Not bad for my first attempt, but the blue layer was a little tilted with how I had cut the center out. 

Happy Birthday America! 

Rosy Birthday Cake

I'm known to go a little overboard for Miss A's birthday. For birthday number seven we had a lovely girly pink afternoon tea party at the Tudor Place Historic House in Washington, D.C. This rosy pink birthday cake was what we enjoyed along with other treats at the tea party. 

I used the same chocolate cake batter to make this two layer cake as I did for the ice cream cone cupcakes. I a lighter pink buttercream to place between the layers and frosted a thin layer all around the cake. 

It's quite easy to make the rose buttercream decorations around the cake:

1) I used a round cookie cutter to place the round outline for where I wanted to place the roses around the cake.

2) I used a Wilton 1M tip to create the roses in each circle. I started in the middle and went around to create my messy yet pretty roses. 

It was a fairly easy cake and design, but it made for a very happy birthday girl.

Lemon Curd Layer Cake

I went a little crazy this past week with all kinds of baking projects, but it was such fun. My husband was traveling and I used nap times and evening to try out some new things. I was originally intending for this cake to be my birthday cake. However, I really wanted to try using fondant and fondant just didn't sound good on a lemon cake with lemon curd, so I made this cake in addition and we enjoyed it the day after my birthday when we visited family at the lake.

I wanted to make lemon curd anyway and found this recipe for a lemon cake with lemon curd layers and a lemon swiss meringue buttercream frosting in the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. It sounds like lemon overload, but it was a great combination. I don't have very many nice photos of this, unfortunately, as I forgot my nice camera and we were away from home. But, it was a lovely cake and I wanted to record making this.

The cake itself was a very nice texture and it wasn't too lemony at all. The cake was moistened by including creme fraiche that was mixed with the lemon zest and lemon juice.

It was meant to be a four layer cake, but I was short on time, so I chose not to cut the layers and just did two layers. However, I think it would be worth it to trim the layers the next time I would make this as the additional lemon curd layers would make the cake even more moist and flavorful.

The swiss meringue buttercream was nice and smooth, but didn't seem to refrigerate and keep that well for the next day. I did beat it to soften it for frosting the cake, but it didn't seem to come together as nicely as a traditional buttercream. I had some extra lemon curd and used it to roughly pipe on the outside of the cake.