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Thursday, April 14, 2011

A cake for the BIG 3-0

Not me of course...been there, done that...but my wonderful husband is 30 today!!!  David is so supportive and such a good sport whenever I bake anything, shoving spoonfuls of whatever it is at him even though desserts are not really his thing.  He is always asking me to leave some cupcakes or cake unfrosted for him...seriously?!?!  How about I leave some frosting uncaked...that sounds better to me :) !! This being said when I saw this cake on Martha Stewart several weeks ago I was determined to create a frostingless (well almost) cake for him for his birthday!  Over the past couple weeks there have been some amazing cakes that I have used as inspiration.  I used cake recipes from the unbelieveble talented Rosie at Sweetapolita, I could seriously stare at her site all day!  Then when I was trying to decide what I was going to use between the layers of cake I came across this Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cake Cheesecake from the also amazingly talented Heather of Sprinkle Bakes.  I think I could eat this entire cake, but since it isn't my birthday I decided to just use the Peanut Butter Frosting for between a couple of the layers and chocolate gnache between the other layers, then I found the cutest mini peanut butter cups at Trader Joe's last night and knew they would be the perfect finishing touch!  Happy Birthday David, I love you :) !
Dark Chocolate Cake layered with White Cake Layers

Here are a couple of other things that have kept me busy this week!

Raspberry Macarons w/ Salted Caramel Gnache...still working on flavor combinations...this was VERY good!
Coconut & Ginger Shortbread, dipped in chocolate and toasted coconut

A couple of weeks ago after I made the Earl Grey Macarons, I was anxious to try using other flavors of teas in some baking.  When I went to the tea store to go find some chai that I thought would work, I came across some Coconut Ginger tea that smelled AMAZING, kind of sweet and spicy at the same time!  I decided that I would try adding some of this into a shortbread cookie.  I started with a basic shortbread recipe and put about one tablespoon of the tea leaves in the food processor with the flour.  The flavor that came through in the cookie was a little bit milder than I expected but was a nice compliment to the chocolate and toasted coconut on the outside.

Gearing up for another weekend full of baking, trying some new recipes and hoping for some very exciting news to share soon!  Have a great weekend!!

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