50th Anniversary Cake!

My very first formal cake!  I had so much fun designing this cake and making it.  Debra wanted the cake to be gold and cream, with black accents.   I made two sketches for her, and this is the one she chose.  I used a 6" round Golden Cake for the top, and a 9" round Devilishly Chocolate Cake for the bottom half (Thank you to Tish Boyle's The Cake Book), under the fondant icing the cake is covered in a cream cheese frosting.  

I was so honored to make this cake.  What a special day- 50 years of marriage!  

Hope you are all enjoying your Thanksgiving weekend!

Cranberry Lemon Galette with the BEST Pie Crust RECIPE!!

Today's Tuesday with Dorrie from Dorrie Greenspan's Baking From My House To Yours, is a simple rustic type of pie~a galette.  This is my first galette, and it was so simple and easy to make.   This Galette is a scrumptious combination of sweet and tart, so, so good!!  Dorie you have done it again!! Delicious!

I didn't have a lime, it was supposed to be a Cranberry Lime Galette but I only had a lemon, so that is what I used.  I also substituted homemade strawberry jam for the raspberry jam.  I believe in working with what I have on hand!  :)  Simple substitutions like this do not really alter the recipe much in my opinion.  Sure the taste will be slightly different but the principle is the same.

I baked my Galette on my stone cookie sheet.  The stone prevents the crusts from burning, ie. the cookies, galette, or whatever I'm baking.

I love Dorie's pie crust, but I have a recipe I love even more.  My cousin from WI gave me this little cookbook from the Sheboygan Christian School (they are famous for their pies!) and I make the crust from this home grown book~100 Years Of Butter & Love.

Here is my pie crust recipe, enjoy it with your favorite pie.  I'm sure you'll be baking one up here pretty soon as we are just one week away from Thanksgiving!

Pie Crust 
Makes enough for two pie crusts.
4 C. flour
1 T sugar (optional)
2 tsp salt
1 3/4 C. butter
1/2 C. water
1 T vinegar
1 lg. egg
Mix together flour, sugar and salt.  Add butter and mash with a pastry blender until crumbly.  In a small bowl beat water, vinegar and egg.  Combine the two mixtures, stirring with fork.  Divide for rolling.  Works best if chilled about 30 minutes.  Roll out on floured surface or between parchment paper to prevent sticking.

The crust does not taste at all like vinegar, once cooked.  It has a wonderful consistency and is easy to work with.  Rose Levey Beranbaum author of The Pie and Pastry Bible says "The vinegar helps relax the dough with out loosing the flakiness, making it easier to roll, shrink less and be more tender."  She is also the author of The Cake Bible.

If you would like the recipe for the Galette look here at Celestial Confections blog, she picked the delicious recipe this week!

Baby Shower Cake (Gluten Free) - Monkey Design!

I recently made this cake to match the bedding below for a friend's babyshower.  She is having a little boy!  Isn't the bedding adorable?  

Silly me, I forgot to take a picture of the cake, but I'm so glad she sent me this one!  I made the cake Gluten Free using white rice flour.  It was perfect!  I used Tish Boyle's The Cake Book's recipe for Golden Cake and just altered the flour to rice flour and added a little Guar Gum to help with the consistency.  

I used BillyVanillie Buttercream, and I made the monkey with fondant.  I even learned how to pipe my words with a new technique!  

Welcome Baby Avery!!  

Not-Just-For-Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake

This shortbread cake is perfect for this time of year.  The flaky sugar cookie crust is scrumptious and the cranberry center is a nice compliment.  It's pretty easy to put together.  I used a spring-form pan and that worked great for me. 

If you want to try it check out a Singleton in the Kitchen's great blog!  Or look in Dorie Greenspan's cookbook Baking From My House To Yours page 208-209.