Wedding Cakes

I'm preparing to make my roommate's wedding cake. We're looked at lots of pictures and made a few decisions multiple times and now I just need to get the ingredients. But while I've been thinking about that, I remembered that I never posted pictures of the wedding cake I did for my boss' wedding last year. This is the pictorial explanation of how I went from this:

to this:

The cake was a basic stacked tiered layer cake without separators. Each tier was a different flavor (white with raspberry filling, red velvet with chocolate filling, German chocolate, and lemon with cream cheese frosting) and covered with my go-to butter cream frosting, almond flavored. (We decided to forgo the fondant because she wanted the cake to taste really, really good.) The bottom layer was German Chocolate and since it was going to be the "load-bearing" tier, I hand mixed it with a wooden spoon.

Then I sprayed the pan with Baker's Joy, which is fantastic in every sense of the word and wrapped the pan in wet asbestos baking strips.

This makes the cake bake very flat.

I repeated these steps with the other layers, except the top most layer (lemon), I mixed with the whisk attachment on the hand mixer. I transported the cake in pieces (my sister made the sign, please excuse her for not being able to spell "transport") and constructed the tiers at the venue.

I also made four type of cookies and lemon bars. I was in baking heaven.

A little on the wild side

I'm home sick today and thought I'd catch up a little on blogging. :) Today's subject: Diaper Cakes. I made the above diaper cake for my sister-in-law's baby shower. It had a jungle theme, so the white tiger was appropriate as the topper and I chose the ribbons to go along with him.

I thought I'd do this tutorial-like so I took lots of pics as I assembled it. Here's what you need:

1 base (I used a cake cardboard circle the same diameter as the cake covered in blue wrapping paper)
1 pole-like item to use as the center (I used an aerosol air freshener)
approx 60 size 1 diapers (newborn diapers usually are outgrown before the entire package is used)
at least 63 rubber bands in varying sizes
Gift wrap tissue paper or burp cloths (which I didn't use)
Toppers and other decorations (baby themed)
Ribbons

I first started by rolling up all of the diapers with the crease on the outside. (That's my dad's hands.) I secured each one with a small rubber band.

Next, I prepared the base and center and positioned one layer of diapers around the air freshener, securing the layer with a medium sized rubber band.

This is where the tissue paper comes in. You could wrap each diaper in tissue paper, giving the entire cake the appearance of being white, but since green was used so much in the jungle theme, I decided the leave the diapers as they were. I added two more layers of diapers to the bottom tier of the cake and secured each with a large rubber band.

Then I wrapped a wide ribbon around the bottom tier - covering the rubber bands - and taped the ends together. Then I tied a medium width ribbon around that and tied a tight knot

leaving tails so I would be able to tie a bow to them later.

The repeated these steps for the second tier of the cake, only using two layers instead of three.

Then I made two bows and tied them with the tails.

Finally, I used the remaining medium width ribbon to tie a bow around the tiger's neck and I set him on top of the cake. Success!

Pi and junk

It's Pi day and I made this pie for me and my roommate because 1) I don't have a lot of time lately (as evidenced by my lack of posting) and B) I *heart* this pie.

It went over well.

Speaking of roommates, I bought a house in the last two months and have been working on fixing it up (slowly, I've only done the upstairs so far, excluding the bathrooms). This means I have a new kitchen to work in that is in desperate need to fixing up. I'll start posting pictures of what I've started with and what I've done so far. Maybe you all will be able to make suggestions.

If you're on Pinterest, let me know!

Also, I don't think I've mentioned this, but I have an Etsy store, Dreams of Annika if anyone's interested in some of the other things I like to do.

More cakes for boys

My dad's favorite cake is Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Which I don't get. Sounds gross to me. That's why I refuse to make it for him.

And when he's tired of it, we have this:

Pineapple Pudding Cake

yellow cake mix prepared according to package
16 oz. crushed pineapple, drained
2 packages 3 oz. instant vanilla pudding
1 1/2 c. cold milk
9 oz thawed cool whip

Prepare yellow cake mix according to instructions. Let cool. Drain as much juice as possible from crushed pineapple. Spread all over top of cake. Mix both packages of pudding mix with milk. Fold cool whip into pudding. Spread over cake and refrigerate.

Cheesecakes

So my newest sister-in-law makes TOTALLY AWESOME cheesecake. We were all sitting around today discussing our Mother's Day plans and the question came up on whether or not Tricia would be making the TOTALLY AWESOME cheesecake.

The answer was no.

Heartbroken as I was, I just came across this post for a single serving of a no-bake cheesecake that takes a few hours to set up rather than overnight or an entire day. Try it out, and let me know what you think!

Cupcake tips

Did you know that the cupcake is everyone's favorite treat? Martha says so, so it must be true.

I had Sprinkles cupcakes for the first time last week and you know what I think? Overrated. So I've decided to start compiling a list of tips for making awesome cupcakes.

1) There is a reason why you rarely hear about angel food cupcakes: Angel food does not make great cupcakes.

2) Spraying the liner before you pour the batter in will help release the cupcake from the paper for easier eating.

3) The above picture is an idea from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. These cupcakes won me free movie tickets, so you know they're a crowd pleaser!

Yet another cake that was made for a boy.

My friend Debbie has a baking blog: The Joy of Baking. You should definitely check it out. I stole one of her ideas for this cake:


Debbie's cake was a plain yellow cake, with chocolate ganache in between layers and on top with a white chocolate drizzle. I did mine with a 8-inch triple chocolate fudge cake, almond-flavored butter cream frosting and a vanilla cookie drizzle over the strawberries.

And it was easy to put together! I made sure I used a lot of frosting in between layers and on the sides. The pirouette wafers stuck easily to the sides. The *only* hard part (besides not eating it before it was time) was finding enough wafers that hadn't cracked in half. (I ended up using 2.5 packages. Can I say that I DO NOT enjoy having to go to Wal-mart multiple times a day?)

More cakes for boys

So, obviously I don't check my million and four email accounts often enough or else I could have linked you all to this blog: www.tiepedia.com/tie-blog, which I was directed to by Matt himself. If I had been checking all my email accounts regularly, I would have linked his post before Father's Day. :(

Anyway, check out tiepedia.com.

I went way out of my comfort zone making this cake for my sister's 17th birthday party. She had a luau/pool party but originally requested a ice cream sandwich cake, which I didn't think was feasible so I persuaded her that she actually wanted a sand castle cake.

I started out a few days ahead of time by baking two 9x13 vanilla cakes to serve as the base (and the vast majority of the cake), which I cooled, leveled and froze until I was ready to build the cake. The morning of the party, I baked another vanilla cake in a castle cake mold. While it cooled, I mixed up my go-to butter cream frosting with pure vanilla flavoring. (I normally use clear flavoring, but since the frosting was going to be covered in graham cracker crumbs, it didn't matter that the flavoring was brown. And if I had been smarter, I would have tinted the frosting tan so white spots didn't show through the graham cracker crust.)

I layered the two frozen cakes and covered it with frosting. The I leveled the castle layer and positioned it on top of the cake.

At this point I wasn't sure how I was going to get the graham cracker crumbs to stick to the sides of the cake so I took a break to mold some fondant shells.

I took a handful of white fondant, worked in rose tint until the fondant was almost uniform. Then I worked in some copper and ivory tint just a tiny bit so that there were streaks. I pressed a bit into a shell mold, trimming the excess, and the brushed each with pink, white, or gold edible pearl dust and set aside to firm up.

Then I mixed graham cracker crumbs (I bought a box of crumbs so there would be one less thing for me to do), quite a bit of cinnamon, even more white sugar, some dark brown sugar (all three to taste), and edible gold glitter (to give the "sand" dimension).

Then I iced the sides of the castle with butter cream frosting thinned with milk and sprinkled the graham cracker mixture on all of the horizontal surfaces. I mixed in a cup of melted butter with the remaining graham cracker mixture and pressed it on the sides of the castle and the cake. It worked okay, but the entire effect would have been better if I tinted the frosting.

Finally, I positioned the shells on and around the cake. These were helpful in hiding the "baldest" spots.

And I got to tell you - I'm not shy about it - this was the best tasting cake I've ever had.

Here's a deal!

I frequently bring in cakes and such to work. (Never mind why.) So it's well known that I like to bake. My boss likes to make crazy plans for us to open a little cafe or bakery or a lunch cart: she'll make delicious side dishes, the head estimator will barbeque, and I'll make dessert.

Recently, she ordered two cookbooks for me from Taste of Home. At the end of each year, the recipes published in this monthly magazine are combined by topic into hard back books and sold for $35. If you wait long enough (like a year), the wherehouse gets cleaned out and the books are sold for $5 - total bargain! I received the cupcake book and the dessert book from 2008 which are in perfect condition and have already come in handy.

Frosting Post #2

I meant to update this blog regularly, twice a month, and here I just let more than three months pass between updates. I have three ready to go right now, though.

Here's Frosting Post #2

Caramel Frosting

1/3 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup milk
2 cups powdered sugar

In a saucepan over low heat, bring butter, milk and brown sugar to a boil. Boil for two minutes in a rolling boil. Cool in a pan of water. When saucepan is cool to the touch, blend in powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Milk can be added for thinning. Perfect for caramel or spice cake, or add shredded coconut to make a German Chocolate Cake.

I cannot stress how important it is to follow these instructions to the letter. I have *never* made this recipe right because I don't wait long enough, I boil for too long, etc. But my college roommate Elisa always made it right without any problem - because she followed the directions.

And it's worth it, I promise you!

Variation on a (Pumpkin) Theme

When I was in college, I went through a pumpkin obsession phase that I never really grew out of. I made all kinds of pumpkin cookies, breads, bars and pies. (Yes, pies. That's how I know I will never like homemade pumpkin pie.)

So last weekend, I was *craving* the reduced-fat banana mini-chocolate chip bread from Starbucks. (If you haven't tried, do! It's delicious!) But I was a little too lazy to go out to buy it and I didn't have bananas to make it myself. But I did have canned pumpkin, so I decided to pull out the following favorite recipe from my college years but make muffins instead of bread.

Pumpkin Bread

1 cup butter, softened
3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup raisins (optional)
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 to 1-1/2 cups chocolate chips (optional)

Cream together the butter and eggs. Beat until light. Add canned pumpkin and vanilla. Add the sugars, salt, baking soda and spices. Add the flour and the optional ingredients.

Divide into two (sprayed) loaf pans and bake at 350*F for 60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. OR spoon into sprayed muffin tins (makes about 30 muffins) and bake at 350*F for 25-28 minutes.

Frosting Post #1

I've been thinking about frosting lately. In particular, I've been thinking about how I almost exclusively only use buttercream frosting. I've had two cake decorating lessons and in the first one, I learned the following buttercream frosting recipe and never looked back.

But then I received the Martha Stewart Cupcake book (which I highly recommend) for my last birthday. After that I've also picked up or received other cupcake books and cookie decorating books that had a lot to say about royal icing (another recipe I picked up from Martha). As I've been trying out recipes I've realized that there are things I've been missing. Ganache, seven-minute frosting, glazes...

I'll be sharing these. But first, a fantastic Buttercream Frosting that I didn't need to find for myself.

Buttercream Frosting

2 lbs confectioner's sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup butter
4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon clear flavoring (vanilla, almond, mint, lemon, etc.)

I soften the shortening and butter in the microwave and then mix until creamy. (I usually get the shortening in bars, and I usually use the non-flavored shortening because it helps keep the frosting close to a white color. BUT, you can use the butter flavored [and yellow colored] shortening, which makes the frosting tastier.) Then I add the milk and flavoring. (I prefer almond flavoring: it smells and tastes sweeter than vanilla.) Then I add the powdered sugar in doses. It will keep, refrigerated, for two weeks.

Peanut butter and chocolate in a cup!

Have I mentioned how much I love any combination of chocolate and peanut butter? The Peanut Butter smoothie at Jamba Juice is always what I purchase. I will eat all of the Peanut Butter Cups out my sister's Halloween candy before she notices my hand is in the bucket.

And I make peanut butter cookies with a Hershey's Kiss on top frequently.



You can't tell from this picture (I must remember to take the picture from another angle!), but these cookies are actually in the shape of a cup. Because I bake them in mini cupcake pans. I like to bake them this way for a few reasons: 1) there's a uniformity to the cookies; 2) I know exactly how much to make each ball of dough; and, 3) I know exactly how many cookies I will get out of this process (the following recipe yields 48 cookies made in the mini cupcake pans).

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 flour
honey, if dough proves to be too dry

48 chocolate kisses (or mini peanut butter cups)

Preheat the oven to 325*F. Cream together the butters, sugars, vanilla and egg. Add in the salt, soda and flour. The dough should naturally clump together away from the walls of the mixing bowl. If it doesn't, then add more flour. If the dough is crumbly, add some honey.

Coat the bottom each cupcake slot with non-stick spray. Roll a pinch of dough into a ball slightly bigger than a quarter and place in cupcake slot. Bake one tray at a time, at 325*F for nine minutes (or ten minutes if you add honey). Take pan out of oven immediately, place pan on cooling rack, and nestle a chocolate kiss in each cookie.

Remove the cookie when cooled completely.

Speaking of cakes for men...

...I made this one for one of the guys at work for his birthday.



I think it's very pretty, but I didn't say so to him. Wouldn't you want this cake if you were a gouty 38 year old man?

As for specifics, this is a Devil's food chocolate cake that I baked in a regular bundt pan. It baked fairly flat so I didn't need to level it. It's covered in a semi-sweet chocolate ganache (my first *ever*) and white cookie drizzle frosting. And left over fondant daisies that I had made two months before for a different cake. (Shh! Don't tell. And you should be eating fondant anyway, it's gross.) The yellow centers are yellow cookie drizzle frosting.

This is how I made the ganache:

I took four squares of baker's cocoa, slightly melted, and mixed with 1/4 cup of heavy cream until unified. Then I added white sugar to taste and poured it over the cake immediately. I kept going in circles around the cake until I used it all up, that's why there's a puddle in the middle.

Cakes for boys.

The cakes I decorate tend to have a lot of flowers on them. Which I love. So I've been having a hard making appropriate cakes for men. Below are ones I made specifically for persons of XY chromosomal type.


This was a six inch yellow cake with vanilla-flavored butter cream frosting I made for my (former) co-worker's teenage son who loves basketball.


This was an eight inch white cake with almond-flavored butter cream frosting. The stripes are made of one-inch wide strips of fondant.

Tier cake

Here's a recent cake I made that I'm particularly proud of:



This is my first true tier cake which I made for my now-former co-worker Lisa's last day. The bottom tier is 8" inches across, the middle is 6" and the top is 4".

Toffee takes time. Peanut butter has come today.

Banoffee is still going to have to wait. I've found a couple of different ways to prepare the toffee: I tried it the quick and fast way, which turned out well enough, but the long and time consuming way is supposed to be the more-recommended of the two and it's, well, long and time consuming and I just don't have the time currently.

But believe me, it's going to be worth it.

I'm headed to California for the weekend and I asked my brother if he wanted me to bring anything for him. Mom's peanut butter cup balls, he answered.

Well, that's not going to happen (they will probably melt between Phoenix and LA), but I'll post the recipe here in case I feel like making it when I arrive. (Looking it over, it's a very vague recipe, and one that we make differently now. I'll clean it up as best I can.)

Peanut Butter Cups

1 c. butter
1 lb. powdered sugar
2 c. old fashioned peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 c. rice cereal
melted chocolate

Combine the butters, sugar and vanilla well in a large bowl. Then with hands mix in the rice cereal.

Next, you can either form the peanut butter mixture into balls and then cover with the melted chocolate, which is extremely messy and THE reason my mom only made these once in a while (because, really, fat content is not an issue).

OR you can spread the peanut butter mixture on the bottom of baking pan and pour the melted chocolate over it, cutting into bite size squares once the chocolate has cooled down. Much easier, better for portion control. And it's quicker, and that's all that really counts in my book when it comes to anything with peanut butter and chocolate in it.

And you can do it, too!

I know I promised a Banoffee post (yum, banoffee) but I'm still experimenting with recipes. In its place, I offer a fast and easy cake decorating post.



I made the above cake for my friend Lisa's birthday last week, with a total decorating time of one hour - which is four hours less than my normal decorating time.

I started off a few days ahead of time by baking a milk chocolate cake with pudding (from a mix) in 2 - 9" circle pans. I let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then on a wire rack for an hour. Then I leveled them, loosely wrapped each in plastic wrap, placed in the clean pans and froze until I was a ready to decorate.

When I was ready to decorate, I prepared a cardboard base (a plate is fine, too) and placed one layer on it. Then iced the top of that layer, placed the other layer on top of that, and iced the sides and the top. I used Pillsbury milk chocolate frosting (it was the cheapest kind).

I purchased these to use in the middle because I knew that I would be short on time (and I don't know how to make roses yet). Then I drew curlies around the edges and a rim around the bottom edge with vanilla-flavored ready-to-use cookie icing. I put it in the refrigerator overnight and took it to work in the morning.

Point for pie!

"I've got steaks and baked potatoes and sour cream and chives and salad and fresh baked pie. I would have made a pot roast - I make a terrific pot roast - but I didn't know whether you ever had pot roast, whether you like pot roast. Anyway, there wasn't time 'cause it really should be made the day before. You can't go yet! You gotta stay for supper, that's all there is to it."

"What kind of pie?"
--The Way We Were

I've never seen The Way We Were, just a trailer during the special features of The Natural, but it included this quote, which I have never forgotten. I love pie! I have pie for my birthday instead of cake. Sometimes I force my sister Monica to have pie for her birthday, too, even though she doesn't like pie so much. I always have a strawberry pie and either a peach pie or a homemade banana cream pudding pie. I do not like banana cream pie from restaurants or stores (I feel the opposite about pumpkin pie) but luckily homemade banana cream pudding pie is very easy to make.

Jell-o (R) used to make a No-Bake Banana Cream Pudding Pie mix but stopped in 1997. I've been meaning to write them a letter expressing my disappointment in that turn of events but I've never got around to it. (I've also been meaning to write a letter to Mariah Carey, suggesting that she wear more clothes. I need to get my priorities in order.) Since Jell-o doesn't make the mix anymore, I had to come up with a just-as-easy, if-not-easier alternative.

Banana Cream Pudding Pie
1 large box of banana cream pudding mix
Suggested milk amount on the pudding mix, less 1/4 - 1/2 cup (this will make the pudding thicker and therefore easier to set)
Whipped cream
Graham cracker pie crust
1 or 2 bananas

The Jell-o mix included graham cracker crumbs to make your own crust but, really, it's probably easier just to get the crust ready made. If you do prefer to make your own, melt 6 tablespoons of butter and mix with 1-2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs and 1/4 cup sugar then press against the bottom and then the sides of a pie tin.

Start by mixing the pudding mix and milk and set aside to thicken. Slice one banana and set on the bottom of pie crust. Pour 3/4 of the pudding on top of the sliced bananas. If you decide to use two bananas, you can slice the second one and place on top of the pudding layer or the next layer, which is the whipped cream layer. Mix the whipped cream (however much you'd like to use) with the leftover pudding and then pour over the pudding layer. Cover with the plastic lid that came with the pie crust and refrigerate for at least an hour.

This is guaranteed all-around joy, unless you're feeding my friend Jina who doesn't like bananas for some reason.

Next time: Banoffee!

When life gives you cherries...

I've been taking a cake decorating break. It's been nice: I've had time for my other hobbies, I've had time to relax, so on and so forth. I'm going to start up again shortly (Janelle and I are planning on an entire Saturday to make our first wedding cake), but I think I need to confess something first.

I'm not a big fan of cake.

Cakes you buy at bakeries have too much frosting on them and that frosting is usually too sweet for me. And then the cake, well, it usually doesn't taste that great without any frosting. So I stay away from cake when I can. I don't have birthday cake these days; I have pie. (In fact my next two - at least - entries will be about pie.)

I also stay away from cherries when I can. Not that there's anything wrong with the way cherries taste, I just happen to have had an unfortunate incident in my youth when the cherries in my stomach ended up in an obliging front yard after a long and winding car ride.

I've confessed all of this because I need you to understand that the next thing I'm going to write is the absolute truth: My favorite kind of cake in the world is Chocolate Cherry Cake, as introduced to me by my college roommate Natalie, and this is how you make it.

Chocolate Cherry Cake

1 chocolate cake mix
20-21 oz. can of cherry pie filling
2 eggs
1-1/2 c. chocolate chips
1 c. sugar
1/3 c. milk
5 tablespoons butter or margarine

Mix the cake mix, pie filling and eggs together and bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes at 350*F. (Check the cake at 25 minutes)

After the cake is done baking and cooled down, in a sauce pan, boil the milk, butter and sugar for 1 minute. Remove from the burner. Stir in the chocolate chips until melted.

Pour the glaze over the cake and chill in the refrigerator until the frosting is set. Best served cold.

Paltry Devices

I'm going to have to ask that we keep this post on the down low. You know, just between you and me, because I would hate for the following to be well known. And you shall see why shortly.

My last two months of my college experience, I was roommates with a girl named Stacey. And it was Stacey who shared with me the following recipe. It's called several different things: when I bring it in to work, I call it "Caramel Oatmeal Bars". At home, we call it "Death by Caramel".

The name Stacey called it was... "Man Catching Brownies." Now, how valid that name is, I will not say, never having made it for a man I wanted to "catch".

Who resorts to such paltry devices?

Er... Anywhoo, I make them for me and my girlfriends. These bars are, after all, meant to be shared. And then stories about sharing need to be shared.

Man Catching Brownies

1-1/2 cups Flour
1-1/2 cups Brown Sugar
1/3 tsp Salt
1-1/2 cups Oats
1-1/8 cups Butter
2/3 tsp Baking Soda

Mix the above ingredients. Pour half of the mixture in the bottom of baking dish (any size). Bake for 10 minutes at 350*F.

48 Caramels
7-1/2 tablespoons Whipping Cream
1 cup Chocolate Chips

Melt the caramels and stir in cream. Pour on top of crust. Pour the other half of the mixture on top of the caramel. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake for another 10 minutes at 350*F. Let cool before serving.

The Art of Ice Cream Cake

Juli previously asked how my family got along without an oven in my early years. The answer is simple: we didn't ever make anything that was made in the oven. I'm sure it was very frustrating for my mother, as we're big on turkey all year long. And we usually have a cake at least twice a month.

And I'm sure it was frustrating for others, too. I remember my brothers and I once being babysat by one of the older girls at church (I was either six or seven then) and her wanting to make Christmas sugar cookies. We rolled out the dough, cut out camels and bells and stars, frosted the cut-out dough (I didn't know you were supposed to frost the cookies after they baked), and then couldn't bake them because the oven didn't work. There have been other times at church activities when us girls would bake and I didn't really participate because I didn't know how to bake and then was accused of having a bad attitude. (Can you imagine that???)

So, you would see how it was impossible for my mom to make our birthday cakes. We always had our birthday cakes from a bakery on Las Tunas Drive in San Gabriel, CA, Julie's. I always had white cakes with strawberry filling. Unfortunately, Julie's no longer exists (I believe it's a tire store now). Which means we had to come up with new plans of action for my much-younger-than-me sister Monica.

One year we had a Baskin Robbins' ice cream cake, which went over well but was very expensive. The next year, we tried to make our own. At the last minute. Which means we took the slab out of the carton, spread a bit of frosting on top and served. The next year, I took a little more time to plan and tried to melt two cartons of cookies n' cream ice cream in a 9x13 dish. That worked a little better, but I didn't give it enough time to melt and reset.

We gave ice cream cakes a break after that.

This past year, Monica asked for an ice cream cake again. And I gave it actual thought before I executed and came up with this, Snickers Ice Cream Cake.

This is what you need:

1/2 gallon chocolate or vanilla or caramel flavored ice cream
1 mix for white or chocolate cake, including eggs, water, oil as directed
caramel ice cream topping
salted peanuts
saran wrap
two baking pans the exact same size

On day one, I melted half a gallon of chocolate ice cream and poured it in a saran wrap-lined 9 inch round cake pan and put it in the freezer flat. (By lining the pan, you'll be able to pull the ice cream layer right out of the pan after it's set.) I made a white cake in a 9-inch round cake pan, only letting it cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then on a rack until completely cool (the rest of the cake batter I made cupcakes with), then leveled it with a serrated knife so that it was the same height as the ice cream layer. I wrapped it loosely but completely in saran wrap, placed it in the (clean) 9-inch pan and put it in the freezer. (Variations: chocolate cake with vanilla or caramel ice cream.)

The next day, I placed the layer of cake on a plate, drizzled caramel topping (I made my own, melting 20 caramels and mixing it with 2 tablespoons of milk) and salted peanuts on that layer. Then I pulled the ice cream layer out of the pan, pulled off the plastic wrap, placed it on top of the caramel drizzle, and then drizzled more caramel and peanuts on top of that.

Serve cold!

Don't stop me if you've heard this one before...

When I was in college, I may have loved this boy who may or may not have been called "George Thurmond" who loved my chocolate chip cookies. He used to devour them, with sound effects of rather a pornographic nature. "Herbal Essence commercial" is a politer way of describing it. Unfortunately, if he had known me better, he would have known that at the time I could not make a good batch of chocolate chip cookies to save my life. [I have since mastered the art: put the dough in the refrigerator for a hour or so. It's amazing how it helps!]

Yes, the secret comes out: the Pillsbury doughboy was a personal friend of mine.

Like boys that I may have loved, he fell to the wayside and he and I are no longer friends. I may have been hung up on him for a very long time. About a year after "George Thurmond", my roommates and I became friends with a group of boys who were everything to me: brothers, friends, neighbors, teachers. Every Monday night (and nearly every other night of the week) for two years, we would congregate together and sometimes I would make a special dessert.

One of my roommates at the time was Janelle, my best friend who will be featured frequently in this blog, who knew about the whole "George Thurmond" business.

One night I made an Apple Cinnamon cake, as an experiment, and received rave reviews. Of rather a pornographic nature. I was the first to notice: "Phil" *really* loved it. The words "Yipee ki yay" were used. And soon "Aaron" let me know that he loved it, too, although not so animatedly. Janelle, being the good-friend with-the-memory-of-an-elephant that she is, turned to me and said "Aaron just Thurmonded that cake."

To which I replied, "Phil also Thurmonded that cake like no one's Thurmonded that before."

Later on, this cake became known as Thurmond Cake, the food of legends, and now I will share the recipe with all of you.

Thurmond Cake

1 box spice cake mix (Betty Crocker is a personal friend, too)
21 oz. can apple pie filling
3 large eggs (or 3/4 cup egg substitute)
3 Tablespoons cinnamon sugar
Whipped Topping

Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease and flour 9x13 cake pan. Mix the cake mix, pie filling and eggs well. Pour half of mixture in cake pan, sprinkle with 1/2 of cinnamon sugar. Pour rest of mixture in pan, sprinkle with rest of cinnamon sugar. Bake for 28-30 minutes (check at 25 minutes). Let cool, and serve with dollop of whipped topping.

An introduction

I've decided that it's time that I had a blog. A blog with a purpose, as I am not very inclined to share things about myself. And after seeing Julie and Julia this weekend, I decided my escapades in the kitchen would be my purpose.

Before anyone gets too excited, I need to say that I was never one to sit in the kitchen as my mom or my aunts or my grandmothers cooked. I don't think our oven even worked until the kitchen was remodeled when I was eleven years old. Except for a semester of Introduction to Cooking in the 8th grade, most of my cooking experience came in college (which will likely be featured frequently).

These days, I mostly bake. And I mostly bake cakes for the express purpose of decorating them. I plan to document this process, and include recipes, for my own amusement. And possibly yours.