A Succulent Wedding Cake

I made another wedding cake this weekend, would you like to see?







It was for my friends Ian and Ashleigh (their story was featured in Style Me Pretty!), who can only agree on red velvet when it comes to cake, so I made a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. I’ve loved the look of two tiered cakes for awhile now, it feels casual but still special. And Ashleigh selected a perfect garden rose and two pretty succulents to top it off. I loved it!

Sprinkles

Sprinkles make everything better, right? I made this cake for my friend Tracey’s birthday last week and when the plain white (carrot) cake didn’t look festive enough...sprinkles to the rescue! There may or may not be sprinkles in my future since today is my (eek!) 30th birthday. I’m terrible about my own birthday (remember last year, when my friends had to tell me about my surprise party?), but looking forward to celebrating with friends tonight.

Happy Thursday! I hope there are sprinkles are in your future :)

A Gender Reveal Party

My friends Chelsea and Trae are expecting their first baby late this summer, and just last week were able to find out the gender. A few days after their sonogram (it must have been killing them!) they invited friends over for a little party to find out "Wat" color icing would be inside the cake. They asked me to make the reveal cake, and I was honored and excited to be the first to know if little Baby Wat would be made of slugs, snails and puppy dog tails or sugar, spice and everything nice.

Thankfully, friend and ridiculously talented photographer Trent was in attendance to capture everything in these lovely photos.

{The proud-papa-to-be bought out the pink and blue decor section of the local party store.}

{Big sister Pippa looks a little nervous}

{both sets of parents watched the reveal on Facetime}

{pink icing!!}

For some reason, it surprised me when they knew what it was after making the first cut. I had pictured the blog-perfect moment of them pulling the slice out and then knowing, but they got a little sneak peek when the knife came up with pink frosting (everyone screamed!). At that point, Chelsea couldn't even finish cutting the cake, she was so elated to find out that it's a girl. Friends had to remind them to keep cutting, their parents couldn't tell what it was yet! You can see it in the video on their cute baby blog.

It was such a fun night, and so special that Trae and Chelsea wanted all their friends to be there with them to find out. Hurry up, Baby Girl Watlington, we're all ready to meet you!

All photos courtesy of the talented and generous Trent Bailey.

A Triple Pink Cake

I know, I know. January is supposed to be about leafy greens, juice fasts and resolutions, not cake. But I made another Very Pink Cake for my friend Bethany's birthday and I couldn't not show it to you just because we're all supposed to be eating salads right now.





Last year's cake was pink inside and out. This year, I knew I had to top it with something pink-er. After the rainbow cake this summer, I started thinking about making the inside three different shades of pink.



I bought three different shade of pink gel food coloring, but as you can see (in the pic I stole from my friend's Instagram...thanks Murph!) that resulted in three pretty different colors of pink cake, not the three shades of the same pink I was envisioning. I corrected that with the frosting, just using varying amounts of the one shade of pink food coloring and attempted to get sort of an ombre look to the frosting.



With the addition of some sparklers, the triple pink cake was quite a hit at the party. Now, let's all dream of cake while we eat our kale salads.

Making a Wedding Cake: Part II

After months of planning, worrying and buying way too much butter, Wedding Cake Day was upon me. My biggest concern was getting the tiers there without anything cracking or breaking. Oh, did I mention the reception was being held in another borough? It was. The cake had to get from the west side of Manhattan to the east side of Queens.

Thankfully, I have very good friends who helped me get all three tiers into a cab, and also kindly flirted with the cab driver to get him to drive very slowly and smoothly (a major miracle, if you've ever ridden in an NYC cab). I put the crumb-coated cakes in individual boxes and then we held the cakes and our breath in the back of a cab. We arrived at the reception site with the cakes still perfectly intact. Hooray!



After the cab ride was over and I could breathe again, I set to work assembling and frosting the cake. I love frosting cakes, but frosting a giant one was more fun than I thought it would be. I kept exclaiming, "this is so fun!" to no one in particular.



While I was in my own little world of frosting joy, a few engaged couples were wandering around and looking at the venue. One of them looked at me and said, "Oh, the baker would know! How many people are they expecting tonight?" I was thrilled that they thought I was a professional! But then, a little later, another couple came by and the groom asked for my card. Eeee! I probably should have been a little cooler about the whole thing and given him my email address or something. Instead, I smiled like a goof and told him I wasn't a professional, just a friend of the bride.

After the frosting was done I cascaded some yellow & white ranunculus, baby's breath and greenery down the front of the cake and called it a day! Well. Actually, I went home, showered, and changed from Nervous-Cake-Baker to Happy-Wedding-Guest-Who-Needs-A-Drink.





All in all, making a wedding cake was (honestly!) really fun. And I'm really happy that my friends could have a cake they liked and that it tasted good (why is that so rare in wedding cakes?). So, congratulations to the Kings! Thanks for trusting me to make a giant cake. I loved it.

Farewell, With Chocolate

I made a cake yesterday for a farewell party for a friend of a friend leaving New York to move back home to Indiana. Since a farewell party is bittersweet, I thought the pangs of saying goodbye to a friend could be eased with chocolate cake, chocolate icing, and cheery yellow cake flags. Chocolate makes everything better, right?

Red, White, and Blueberry Shortcake

I was asked this weekend if it would be cheesy to wear a red dress to a 4th of July party. I was a little confused by the question because, for whatever reason, I think the 4th of July is the perfect holiday to embrace the theme—wear stripes, wave a flag, make a flag cake. Maybe because it's sort of big and loud, like our country, but I'd accept themed outfits and desserts more readily on the 4th of July than Valentine's Day or Christmas.



Or maybe, I'm accepting of it because the red and blue berries of summer are so easy to bake into a cake, it doesn't feel that theme-y or contrived. Either way, I carefully layered red strawberries, fluffy white whipped cream, and purple-y blue blueberries into a shortcake cake this weekend.



This cake combines the best parts of traditional shortcake into a towering cake. Not too sweet, it's the perfect palate for fresh summer berries and lightly sweetened whipped cream. So, even if it's a little cheesy to make a red, white and blue dessert for a 4th of July party, this cake will look (and taste) terrific with any kind or color of berry, for the rest of the summer.

Groom's cake

Remember the trial run I did for a friend's groom's cake a few weeks ago? This past weekend I made the real deal and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. When I first talked to the bride, my friend Angela, about the groom's cake she immediately said, "It should have a beard!" I hesitated. I pitched the idea of a simple white cake with a pair of gold spectacles, like the kind Bryson, the groom, sometimes wears. But the beard idea kept popping up, so I gave it a go. For the test run, I did a white beard on a white cake.



It was nice, but as Bryson and Angela were leaving my apartment after tasting the cake, Bryson sweetly asked if the beard could be brown. Well, of course it can. Who am I to turn down a groom's wishes on his wedding day? Plus, it really would be more "him" with a brown beard.





I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The brown beard was definitely the way to go, don't you think? I don't think the groom's cake tradition is for the cake to actually look like the groom, but this one certainly does. And that makes me smile.

Sour + sweet

A cake covered in Sour Patch Kids for a friend's birthday a few weeks ago. The inside was
vanilla cake with strawberry filling. And the outside was sour, then sweet.





Happy Birthday, Chris!

Marshmallow "cake"

I've said before that making homemade marshmallows is, in the world of baking, as close as you can get to magic. And I have one friend in particular who is particularly devoted to my brand of magic (well, not just mine. give her a marshmallow from just about anywhere and watch it disappear). So for Kate's birthday, I decided to attempt a marshmallow "cake."



She's been subtly (and also not-so-subtly) hinting that she'd like an almond marshmallow for quite some time. So I mixed up a batch of my standard marshmallow recipe (this one) and added almond extract until the kitchen started to smell like what I'd imagine an almond grove might smell like. I topped them with toasted almonds. Never one to leave well enough alone, I made another batch and flavored it with salted caramel sauce.

I whipped these for an extra long time so they'd be extra tall and fluffy, and make a nice tall marshmallow "cake." Happy birthday, Kate! I'm glad you're so easy to please :)

Banana Coconut Cake

Baking for a fellow baker is always a treat. Most understand the desire to try out a new recipe or, at the very least, they're unlikely to request a combination of flavors one could get at the local bakery (yellow cake, I'm looking at you). So I was happy when my roommate Megan said I could make her anything I wanted for her birthday cake.



I had been want to try to turn this everyday cake into a layer cake, and having made a salt-less version of the cake the weekend before at a friend's apartment (seriously, who doesn't have salt?), I knew exactly what I wanted to make with my "make whatever you want" free pass.



The frosting in the original cake is on the thin side, so I knew I couldn't cover the cake with it. Instead, I brushed the cake layers with cream of coconut and made coconut cream cheese frosting for the middle to maintain the lovely coconut-y-ness of the original. The frosting on the rest of the cake is regular cream cheese frosting.





Topping it with shredded coconut, candied banana slices, and edible gold star glitter might be gilding the lily, but it definitely elevates it from "everyday cake" to "birthday cake." And, as is becoming tradition, the cake was served at a dimly lit bar and then schlepped home for a few
2 a.m. forkfuls, eaten standing at the kitchen counter while trying to figure out how to Dougie. Happy birthday, roomie!



Banana Coconut Cake
Adapted from this cake.

For the cake:

2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 ½ cup brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

2 cups banana puree

½ cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:

2 blocks of cream cheese (8 oz. each) at room temperature

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 can cream of coconut (not coconut milk. I like Coco Lopez brand)

1-2 tbsp dark rum (optional)

Optional toppings:

shaved coconut

2 bananas

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

Make the cakes:

Place a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar on high speed until pale and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the eggs and beat until well combined. Add the banana purée, sour cream, and vanilla, and beat to combine well. Reduce the speed to low, and add the flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Finish mixing by hand to avoid over-mixing.

Evenly divide the batter between the cake pans. Bake until the top is pale golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-27 minutes.

Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Then carefully remove the cake from the pan onto a wire cooling rack.

Glaze the cakes:

Mix ½ cup cream of coconut with 1-2 tbsp dark rum (or water) to thin it a bit. Brush or pour the mixture over the warm cakes (you can also poke the surface of the cakes with a fork to allow them to absorb more). Allow the cakes to cool completely. 

Make the frosting:

In a large bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese until well combined. Slowly add in the powdered sugar a little at a time and continue mixing until all the sugar is incorporated.

Into a smaller bowl, scoop about 1 cup of the cream cheese frosting. Add 1 tbsp of cream of coconut at a time, tasting as you go until you like the coconut-y-ness of the frosting (I used about 4 tbsps), being careful that it doesn't get too thin.

Assemble the cake:

If either of your cakes are uneven on top, even out the tops by slicing a thin layer off with a large serrated knife until the top of the cake is as flat as possible.

Place one cake layer on a cake board or platter. Tuck scraps of waxed paper under the edges of the cake for easy clean up. Spread the coconut-y cream cheese frosting over the layer, spreading it to the edge. Add the top layer and frost with the remaining plain cream cheese frosting. Remove the wax paper strips when finished. Top with shredded coconut and candied bananas.

Candied banana slices:

Slice two bananas. Melt butter and brown sugar in a sauce pan on medium-low heat. Add bananas and toss around carefully to coat. Cook 1-2 minutes per side. Allow to cool before topping the cake.

*Note: The middle layer of coconut cream cheese frosting makes this cake a little delicate, and prone to slipping around on that thin (but oh-so-tasty and coconut-y) middle layer of frosting. It slid a little on its subway ride to Brooklyn. So, I'd recommend eating this in the same location you bake it, or asking the subway driver to make the train less jerky.