Cake Endeavours

Yesterday at work we had our first bimonthly celebration for the birthdays in my department.  I was asked to make a cake that would serve about 50 people.  The floor really loves my Oreo cupcakes so the Social Committee requested an Oreo cake. This is a 2 layer 10" cake.  The cake itself is cookies and cream iced with vanilla buttercream.  I scored the top into 1" by 2" pieces.  You can barely see it in the picture though.  To each rectangle I added a mini Oreo cookie then dusted with cookie crumbs.  Scoring the cake made it really easy to cut and to ensure it served 50 people.

Shocking that inspiration for this cake came from Pinterest which in turn came from the blog the Bitten Word which in turn came from the November 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living.  I'm sure that in the baking world you could play Six Degrees of Martha Stewart no problem.  One day I might actually make this cake, but the only part of this recipe I used was the caramel, and it was only half the recipe. I used the Perfect Chocolate Cake recipe for the cake.  You really can't go wrong with this recipe and I have no desire to deviate. This is part II of Lindsay's birthday celebration.  She is an amazing friend, well, the best friend a girl could ask for, so naturally she deserves the best cake.  I knew that chocolate and caramel would be a winning combination for her.  Then for the decorating I didn't want to cover it in fondant as I still think covering this icing is a crime against nature!  On the other hand I find decorating chocolate a challenge.  Fortunately

I found this recipe on Pinterest a while back and vowed that I would make these one night for wine night.  It's the May 24 weekend also known as Lindsay's birthday weekend.  So, I figured we'd start the weekend celebration off with these. I followed the recipe that came from the blog Sing For Your Supper pretty much to the letter.  I did add some extra Peach Schnapps to the icing though.  They were quite yummy and I will make them again.  Next time I would probably use two peaches, and definitely Ontario grown ones.  The icing recipe barely covers the two dozen cupcakes.  I topped these ones off with some silver flakes.  Also, next time I go to Milestones and order a Bellini, I'm going to see if I can get some extra plastic animals that they always put on top of their drinks for the cupcakes. This time I wasn't organised enough and only thought of that yesterday.

Like so many people I know, I am addicted to Pinterest .  I saw many posts on Facebook about things that people have "pinned" and never really paid attention.  Then a friend invited me to join.  I didn't realise you had to be invited to join until I tried to bypass the invite and join on my own which only made it more enticing.  Ever since then I can't go to bed without looking through Pinterest's popular pins and what my friends have pinned.  There are so many craft ideas, recipes, quotes, organizing ideas, etc. it's great.  I even follow a blog 365 Days of Pinterest Creations , that I discovered from following a pin to the originating website. I have have made several crafts that I found on here and have tried several recipes.  This past weekend for a family get together I made the Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake and it is by far the best cheesecake I have ever had! If I do say so myself. Normally I follow the recipe the first exactly and then deviate from

This is the 3rd time I've got to make Logan's birthday cake and the first time that he didn't have Pablo from Backyardigans on his cake.  He's moved on.  Poor Pablo!  For this birthday Logan's request was a Pokemon Ball.  I really don't know much about Pokemon.  Miss E has a Piplup stuffy that she picked on an excursion with Mr. T to the Pacific Mall.  That's all I know, or rather did know.  Making cakes for boys is certainly educational for me. For this cake I made a vanilla cake with sprinkles in it, covered it in buttercream icing then fondant.  The characters Logan's bought for me to add.  I wouldn't even attempt to try and make these.  Besides this way Logan gets to have a toy out of the cake too.  The orange and black rabbit like thing is called Tepig, the pig, Munna and the bird Drilbur.  I have no idea what they do, I don't even know what Piplup does, and it looks like a penguin. However, a lot of kids at the party knew exactly who they

Johnny Test is a cartoon on the Cartoon Network Channel.  Never heard of him before.  Miss E of course had, even had a favourite character.  Mother of year I am! :)  I don't know how I'd decorate without edible markers.  It makes things so much easier.  This cake is a two layer vanilla cake with sprinkles added in.  I tried out a new recipe.  Martha Stewart's Versatile Vanilla recipe just wasn't cutting it.  On Pinterest I stumbled upon this pin, Best Vanilla Cake  and thought I'd try it out.  I had to trim a bit off the top of each layer and Mr. T and I taste tested the cake and we both liked it a lot better.  Sorry Martha!