Greetings from the East Bay!

Why hello there my wonderful readers! Today is Friday!! Hope you have something great planned for the weekend ahead, if not being couch potatoes and homebodies are fine because I am one too!

Sorry for the lack of updates, but this post should get you all up to speed on my fabulous life. Ready? Okay here goes!

As you can probably tell, I have really moved (its about time right?) from LA to the East Bay (for those of you that aren't familiar, I'm east of Berkeley). The transition has been tough, since I tend to reminisce way to much, and eat sandwiches all day long. I'm sure the reminiscing will stop once school starts on Monday (woot, woot!). But the sandwiches, will probably stick around for a while. You know I've never been so sick of sandwiches, but Subway and the local grocery markets sure make it easy and lets face it quite affordable! Don't even talk to me about rice, I just miss it so. Oh and one thing that will always remain, I still drink Coke and plenty of it. 

Just 2 days, and the start of my culinary journey begins. Since I don't have any of my bakeware here, I thought that I would share my adventures in schooling (and whatever I bake there, in the process). I also hope to share some stories and give some insight and advice to those who might be interested in taking this route (getting their culinary certifications at a Community College).

Also, a big thank you to my amazing family, and wonderful friends (you know who you are) for your endless support and great advice! Just know that I will be there for you as much as you were for me and I hope to make you proud! I love you all so much!

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I would also like to share with you the only picture that was taken at my very first event, yes it was really that cool. I was invited to be a vendor at an event, Hot & Bothered in Hollywood, Ca. To sum the whole day up, we sold out! And that is really all you need to know. 

Also, I received an order from another high school friend, for her sister's birthday. It was butterfly themed and to be honest I'm never pleased with anything I ever make, but I've learned that if the client is happy and enjoys it...that is really all that ever matters. 

*My tip for this post? Using the AmeriColor Gels! They are flippin' amazing for coloring your fondant (no toothpick required). The colors you get are what you see on the bottle, mixing the different colored gels will give you some colors that you never knew you wanted (granted I only used blue in the photos below). I've tried using the ever so famous Wilton brand, but its messier, and you waste a whole lot of toothpicks. 

If you are in the LA/OC area, you can pick it up in-store at Hobby Lobby or online if you don't live near one. 

Thank you for reading! Happy August! :)

Greetings from San Francisco!

1 month folks! I'm excited beyond belief to go back to school, something I thought I'd never ever hear myself say in a million years. But DVC is just literally around the corner and I'm finally ready.

Oh gosh, how long has it been since I blogged? Sorry about that. Procrastination, I know.

Now, I don't have any pictures for you BUT I do have a great recipe to recommend to you.

Chocolate and fudge lovers rejoice! This frosting is pure amazing chocolately fudgy goodness (no buttercream lovers to be found here). In all seriousness, this is really the easiest recipe to make. No creaming of the butter and sugar, and no whisking egg whites til your arm hurts. For this lovely recipe you will need, a non-stick pan, whisk, and spatula.

You will find this recipe at this dessert blog, Desserts for Breakfast.

This frosting is purely for icing a beautiful layered cake, or cupcakes with a spatula. I wouldn't recommend using this frosting to make your fanciful swirls on cupcakes. I would also recommend that you make the frosting first (as it needs hours of cooling time to thicken up) and your cake batter second. It really is a time saver : )

Early next week, I'm going to be putting up an official website for T-Cakes! Super excited, stay tuned and I will link you to the website in another post. 

As always, thanks for reading. Enjoy this wonderful weekend! Happy Early June : )

Cheers.

Crunch, Crunch, Carrot Cupcakes.

Carrots. Carrots. Carrots.

To be honest, I've never ever been a fan of this vibrant, crunchy, sweet vegetable. Adding it to cake was something that I was afraid to do. But no longer am I a carrot cake virgin. In all seriousness, putting carrots inside of a delicious cake is the only way you will ever get me to eat carrots. I mean it.

This post is dedicated to my sweetest friend, Lisa. Happy Birthday! Wishing you the best for another wonderful year! Love you : ) 

Her favorite is carrot cake, and I can't believe I've been making her everything but carrot cake for the many years I have known her. But finally, the day has come!

Enjoy my readers, this a super delicious, not-to-sweet but moist cake.

Carrot Cupcakes

Yields: 24 regular sized cupcakes, 12 jumbo sized cupcakes, or  (1) 13x9 One Layer Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups oil (vegetable preferred)
• 4 room temperature eggs
• 2 cups of regular all purpose-flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon 
• 2 cups of grated raw carrots (I used about 4 medium sized carrots)
• 8.75 oz. can of crushed pineapple (drained)
• 1 cup of golden raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 F Degrees. Mix together all the wet ingredients: sugar, oil, and eggs. Set aside. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Combine with egg mixture, until well combined - be sure not to over mix the batter. Next, add in carrots, pineapple (drained), nuts, raisins, and blend. Turn into greased and floured pan 13x9x2 pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Cool on wire racks. For cupcakes, line with paper liners and fill three quarters of the way up. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. For jumbo sized cupcakes, it took 25-27 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting: This is a pretty simple frosting because you don't want to overpower the cake.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 8oz. package of cream cheese at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 2 cups of confectioners sugar, sifted

Combine the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy for about 2 minutes. Slowly add your sugar, until it is well combined with the butter mixture. Add in vanilla and mix. Make sure cake/cupcakes are cool before frosting. (For piping onto cupcakes, you might want to double the batch of this cream cheese frosting)

*This recipe is credited to my Mom's dear friend, Nell. Thanks so much for sharing with me your book of delicious recipes! : )

I Heart Basketball!

I really do. You probably haven't noticed that I'm a huge basketball fan, and that I can cheer EXTREMELY loud for such a small person. I'm told my neighbors can hear me quite loudly when I'm watching a Laker game at home. :)

So far this has got to be one of my favorite cake requests EVER. A basketball cake for a fan, not just any fan but I'm sure a hardcore Laker fan such as myself.

For the cake, I used the "Sports Ball Pan" from Wilton. Here are my tips (for anyone who is interested in tackling a project like this) :

• Grease the pan with shortening (not butter, really such a difference!) and dust the pan with flour generously.
• The directions that come with the pan say that it will take about 40 minutes, which is completely false in my case. I might have a really crappy old oven from the 1990's, but it took me about twice as long. So when baking this cake check your time at 45 minutes (then continue to check at increments of 10 minutes). Total time it spent in oven? 1 hour and 30 minutes!
• Wait at least 10 minutes before removing cake from pan. It should slide out like butter if you grease and flour it well.

The cake I made was chocolate (with just a hint of coffee) and lovely vanilla buttercream, that was excellent for piping! You can get the recipe by clicking here. 

I debated using black licorice, black sparkly glitter gel, and black butter cream frosting. 

The winner? Black Licorice. I know it probably doesn't taste as good as those yummy Red Vines, but it makes a deep, edgier, clean-cut black line for a basketball. So what I did was cut strips of black licorice and lined them like a basketball.

Frosting Color? I used Wilton Orange, and a hint of Copper and Brown.

I also created a scoreboard of his birthday, and for the time I used the couple's anniversary date! How cute :) 

As always thanks for reading! Hope you all enjoy your weekend and we have another Laker game tomorrow night! Woot woot!

Italian Cream Cake!

This weather we've been having is just wonderful! All that sunshine makes me want to go out and exercise... seriously! Now, if only I had a dog (like my cousin's) I would be in tip top shape! A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to walk and take care of a dog named "Squirt". I can still hear his paws following me wherever I go. Oh boy, I miss him already!

Today, I am posting a recipe for an Italian Cream Cake. It did receive great reviews, not too sweet and it paired nicely with the light vanilla cake. If you like shredded coconut please add more than a cup, but don't over do it! I would suggest if you want more coconut flavor and crunch add about 1/4 of a cup extra :)

Italian Cream Cake (This recipe is from Southern Living Cookbook: Classic Southern Desserts)

Makes about 20 servings

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup of shortening (if you keep yours in the refrigerator, its best if you take it out to get it at room temperature)
2 cups of sugar
5 large eggs at room temperature, separated
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Directions:

1).  Preheat oven to 350 F. Beat butter and shortening in a large mixing bowl at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar beating well. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Add vanilla; beat just until blended.

2). Combine flour and baking soda (set aside); add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in coconut.

3). Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; fold into batter. Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans.

4). Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks, cool completely (about 1 hour).

5). Spread the nutty cream cheese frosting in between the layers. Add garnish, as desired. I used blackberries, white sprinkles, and store bought lady fingers.

Nutty Cream Cheese Frosting!

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped pecans (I'm sure walnuts will taste just as delicious!)
1 8oz. package of cream cheese (at room temperature)
1/2 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 (16oz) package of powdered sugar, sifted

Directions:

1). Preheat oven to 350 F. Spread pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan. Bake them for 8-10 minutes until fragrant (you may stir occasionally). Let cool.

2). In the mean time, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until blended. Beat frosting at high speed until smooth; stir in the pecans.

Enjoy!

Have a lovely week everyone! :)

Happy Spring!

It's finally time for Spring! Some delicious fresh fruit and some sunny, vibrant desserts are calling my name! I can't wait to see what this wonderful season will bring. Hopefully a job? Yes, any will do! Please keep crossing your fingers for me. :)

Every time my mom needs a dessert made she always comes to me. Our arrangement which I absolutely love is that she buys all of my ingredients and I get to create anything that I want (99 percent of time). What a sweet deal right? Now, if I can only get paid for doing this... then life would be really that perfect!

Her only requirement this time was that it must be chocolate. Chocolate Lovers rejoice, this one's for you.

Now do you remember my last post, the Candy Cake made out of Kit-Kat's and M&M's? If not, just scroll for the post below. Anyway I told my friend Stephanie about it and she was just as crazy about the idea as I was! Although her one request was that I use Twix to surround the cake instead of Kit-kat's.

So this post is dedicated to my die hard Twix fan, Stephanie! Cheers.

Same method as before, but different flavor of cake this time. Want the recipe? Here you go!

Chocolate Layer Cake (From Southern Living "Classic Southern Desserts" Book)

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups of semisweet chocolate morsels
• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 (16oz) package of light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 (8oz) container of sour cream, at room temperature
• 1 cup of hot water
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Melt chocolate morsels in a microwaveable safe bowl at HIGH 1 1/2 minutes or until melted and smooth, don't forget to stir at 30 second intervals. Set melted chocolate aside to cool slightly. 
2. Beat butter and brown sugar and medium speed until its light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Add melted chocolate, beating until just blended.
3. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to chocolate mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition. Gradually add 1 cup of hot water in a SLOW but steady stream, beating at low speed until blended. Add in vanilla and stir.
4. Spoon batter into two greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans (2 inches deep).
5. Bake at 350 F. for 40-45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks and cool completely for an hour.

This cake is super moist and delicious! It can also give off a few crumbs so be careful when you remove them from the pans.

*Note: This recipe also makes fantastic cupcakes too. Just be sure to reduce your baking time. 

For the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, I went and grabbed this gem of a frosting. I would suggest that if you have almond extract, use it! It makes such a difference in comparison to using just the vanilla. Thanks to Savory Sweet Life for sharing! :) Your blog is amazing!

After adding the chocolate buttercream to the filling of my cake, I added a lovely ganache on top to drizzle over the sides! If I only had the picture...then you'd be drooling. 

To make a ganache is the easiest thing ever! Take a cup of heavy whipping cream, heat it on the stove until bubbles start to form around the edges. Remove it from the heat, then pour it over 12 ounces of any chocolate (chopped of course!). Wait for about a minute, then stir until the chocolate has completely melted into the cream. There you have it a simple, tasty ganache! 

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Candy Cake!

I'm calling it early, March is going to be a fantastic month!

Nothing is better than creating a cake that is a success (since last week, my other cake project was a complete disaster. OK well for me it was. Any little mistake tips me off. If I'm not pleased with the way it turns out I secretly want to destroy it with a baseball bat in an alley and start over. When I tell my mom that she tells me that I shouldn't waste cake or "insert other dessert term here" because you shouldn't just waste food. I know, I know I shouldn't waste food...its a hard habit to break but I'm trying :)

Also, I should mention that finishing a cake successfully AND watching the Lakers play (and beating the #1 seed Beat the Heat!) completes an awesome day in my book!

My source and inspiration for this "Candy Cake" came from pinterest.com, which is an extremely addicting website where you can make individual boards and pin awesome pictures of your favorite things from arts and crafts to scrumptious dessert recipes! Love, love, love.

So back to the Candy Cake, here is what you will need to make it:

-A frosted layer cake (can be square, round, oval etc.)
-Kit-Kat bars (the number depends on how large your cake is. I ended up using 3 large bars for a 6 inch cake)
- M&M's or any chocolate similar in size (again, the number of m&m's depend on how large your cake is).
-Ribbon, one that is long enough to wrap around the cake.
-Any other decorations you use to decorate your cake with (sprinkles, melted candy melts etc.)

I love that this cake is super simple AND that it hides any mishaps you have with the cake. Amateurs welcome!

Directions:

Once you have successfully frosted the cake, start breaking your kit kat bars into increments of 2 wafer bars. Use the frosting as an adhesive and attach the kit kats on the edges of your cake. Sprinkle the M&M's to outline the cake. Then take a ribbon and wrap it around the cake sealed with a pretty bow! I've also seen this done as a wedding cake, so it works well if you plan to make tiers. Enjoy!

Awesome, no?

Well I should also mention that this post is dedicated to my cousin Kelly! Happy Birthday, here's to another amazing year! Love you! :)

Happy Monday!