Pink Princess Cake

My little daughter turned 6 and we had a Princess Tea Party for her and her friends.  She wanted a Pink Princess Cake.  I was happy to make one for her!

Her favorite part of the cake, (this is what she told me) were the little bows 

on the dress.

It is a white cake from Tish Boyle's Cake Book.  With Billy Vanillie pink buttercream, topped with pink fondant.  My little girl said it was "The best birthday party ever!"  So that works for me!

Here is where we got our inspiration.  Check it out and other fun ideas!

http://www.howdini.com/howdini-video-7075975.html

Hope you are having a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie

This easy recipe is quite tasty, except if you don't like coconut that is.  My girls did not care for this pie but my husband and I thought it was quite yummy!  A simple crust of short bread and toasted coconut, then a yummy filling of chocolate icecream and bananas.  Perfect for a warm day.

Check out this recipe here.  Or find it in Baking From My Home To Yours, by Dorie Greenspan.  on pg 350.

Flag Cake for Rylan

Happy Birthday Rylan!!  Actually he is 7, but it was easy to fix as soon as his mom showed up to pick up the cake.  Oops!  :)  It's a Delicious Chocolate Sheet Cake sized 11 x 15.  My first one!  I even had to go buy a new pan.  How else are you going to make a flag cake? I hope he had a great party!  I was very happy with this cake.  Me?  I'm still baking away!

Next up is Tuesdays with Dorie!  See ya tomorrow friends!

Lemon Lust Cake w/fresh blueberries

It's been a busy week of baking.  I made a Lemon Lust Cake from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle for my sister's boyfriend Wade.  Happy 42nd birthday!

It is a 4 layer 9" cake, each layer has lemon sugar syrup, a creamy lemon filling made from Lemon Curd, and then the outside is covered in a Lemon Curd Buttercream frosting.  It is lemonly goodness.  I topped it with a few fresh blueberries.  If you like lemon cake this is a keeper recipe.  I also made a few cupcakes from the same recipe, as listed in the previous post Hippo Cookies and Lemon Cupcakes.

I've made this cake before and covered it with fondant.  Click on the following link if you want to see the other cake, and the cupcake recipe by Tish Boyle, Lemon Birthday Cake for Bryce.  I thought it would be fun to show you the different looks this cake can have.  Hope you are having a great weekend!  I'll see you soon as I've got more baking to do!

Hippo Cookies and Lemon Cupcakes!

I made Hippo Sugar Cookies for my friend Melena's class.  She teaches preschool and on the last day of school she wanted to send the children home with a sweet little something.  Her class is the "Happy Hippos".  I found a cute little cookie cutter online. Hippo-Cookie-Cutter

I used the same recipe as I did for my Valentine's Day Cookies. I bagged each cookie individually and put stickers on them that say "Have a great Summer".  My friend Erica designed the stickers.  Thank you Erica!!

On the back of the wax paper bags, I placed another sticker, that Erica designed for me, with my information on it.  Everything was Hippo-y!  I loved making these cookies!

Melena decided at the last minute she wanted just a few cupcakes to go with her cookies.  Not a problem!

I made her some Lemon Cupcakes.  These came out so good.  I was in the middle of making a Lemon Lust Cake out of The Cake Book by Tish Boyle, so it worked out wonderfully!

The raspberries were a fun added element.  Hope you are all having a great weekend!  

Chocolate Cake and White Cake with Bavarian Cream

 

I made two birthday cakes last week.  The first one a delicious deep chocolate cake with a chocolate pudding filling, and a fudgy icing.  I used a recipe out of The Cake Book by Tish Boyle.  I made chocolate covered stawberries to go on top.  Of course I sent that separate, so it could be assembled it at the party.  Here are the pieces, you just have to use your imagination here my friends!  Or look at this very similar cake I made last December Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Covered Strawberries.

The top of the cake, just imagine it surrounded in pretty chocolate covered strawberries.  I'm still perfecting my writing.  Believe it or not, it's getting better. :p  This is a 10" cake on the bottom and an 8" cake on the top.  I used wooden dowels to hold it all together.

My next cake was a White Cake with Bavarian Cream filling.  I have only made the Bavarian cream filling once before and I think I managed to get that down this time (It's so yummy!!), but I had trouble, and I mean Trouble, with the icing.  It was a combination of problems- humidity, not enough sugar, then too much sugar in the icing.  I struggled with this one, oh well, no one is perfect!  I hope you had a nice birthday Maryori!  :)

Here is the side of the cake.  Isn't that cute?

Hope you have a great week, and I'm back to baking!  

Cherry-Topped Cheesecake Cups

Oh my, these are absolutely scrumptious!  I wanted to make something (besides my tart) just for the moms in my life.  Something special, small, and well, delicious.  These fit the bill, and I'm not just saying that.  Ok, well me and my taste buds are saying that!  :)  I did have to keep a few, I'm a mom too you know.  

Oh, you will never guess where I found this recipe!  That is what I call a little joke.  If you have been reading this blog, you just might know what my favorite cake book is, and that is where I found this scrumptious recipe!  The Cake Book by Tish Boyle.  Oh yes I did!  These were really easy to make and came out perfectly!  I couldn't be more happy with them.  The only thing I did differently was I used canned cherries, instead of the Morello Cherries, but it still tasted super yummy.  

I have some exciting news!  Well, at least for me.  :)  I keep raving about Tish Boyle's book, and well, she emailed me!  She has put BabyCakes by Rachel as one of her favorite blogs on Tish Boyle's Blog.  If you want to see, just click on this link Tish Boyle's Blog, and scroll down, and it's on the left side.  How cool is that?  I am so honored!  Her recipes are so good!!  I am so glad I found her book, and it has helped me develop my baking skills.  If you are interested in learning to bake cakes, develop you skills, or learn new wonderful recipes, this is the book for you! 

I hope you all have a great week!  I have some cakes I'm baking this week so I'll have them up soon!  

Quick Classic Berry Tart

This Mother's Day we celebrated with a beautiful Berry Tart.  I wouldn't say it was "Quick", but it was quite good and worth the effort.  

I love fresh berries and whatever reason we have to eat more is good by me.  I actually made two tarts, one  for my mother and sister, and one for my husband's mother and grandmother.  We had a fun day filled with family, and church.  The best of it all.  

The way to do this "quick", I believe, is to make the pastry cream and the crust the day before you assemble the tart.  Then assembling is a snap.  I made the pastry cream as directed, and I actually split it between the two tarts.  It was plenty for both.  For glazing, the recipe called for boiled red currant jelly, but I opted for fresh raw honey.  It worked perfectly.

  As you can see I prefer to use a ceramic tart pan vs a metal one.  I usually have good results, but this time the crust seemed to stick.  Maybe I played with it too long?  Next time I will use some parchment paper.  The berries I found were at their perfect ripeness, and the tart was delicious.

Thank you to Cristine for picking the recipe.  It was a perfect accompaniment to our day!  If you would like to see the recipe check her page or look on page 377 in Baking From My Home To Yours, by Dorie Greenspan.   Don't forget to check out the TWD blog roll.  I  hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!