key lime cake for happy birthdays

First of all, this is not a food blog. It may be hard to tell what with all of the food posts lately, but it is not. So. Now that we have that cleared up, let me share with you a delicious little treat I baked up for the mister's birthday over the weekend.

It is the Key Lime Cream Cake by the lovely Bakerella, and it is just delightful. No crazy ingredients needed to make this baby from scratch (coming from a person who considers cake flour a crazy ingredient, ok? Normal, plain old, all-purpose flour here.) I didn't have access to key limes, and regular limes did just fine. I won't repost the recipe here out of respect for the original author, but if you have any trouble accessing the recipe please let me know. 

 Also, I made two round cakes and did not slice them into additional layers. It just seemed unnecessary to me, so I skipped that step. Plus it just seems like an excuse to add more frosting and I'm not really into a whole lot of frosting. That being said, I also cut the frosting recipe in half and it was still more than enough for me. Really, I cannot imagine eating this cake with more than twice the frosting. Uhhh no. But the fresh whipped cream and graham crackers? Completely necessary. This made all the difference so I would not recommend skipping out on these. And don't just get Cool Whip. I mean, you can, but you won't be doing yourself any favors there.

Now I will admit that I am not the world's best cake decorator. I like to tell myself that messy is charming and nice, but let's be honest this makes me a little jealous.

That, folks, is a gosh darned gorgeous cake. Mine looked nothing like that. I piped my whipped cream on with a zip-lock back and ended up with a giant blob in the middle of the cake. And I have no clue how you make that happen with graham cracker crumbs on the side of the cake. No clue. Try as I might it all pretty much ended up on the tray around the cake, and what did stick to the cake messed up the frosting. But you know what? I don't think the mister minded. I don't think he minded one bit.

So... have I mentioned I love baked goods?

 

If you're like me you've been waiting patiently for months for this book to come out (no? What, you have something against cake? It happens to be fabulous in all its different forms), and last week it finally did! I haven't bought it yet, but I'm kind of dying to get my hands on it pretty soon. I mean just look at these things, how cute are they?!

All photos courtesy of Bakerella, the genius (and I mean genius!) behind the cake pop.

Oh and by the way, she's doing a book tour at Williams Sonoma's across the country, but sadly nowhere near me. But if you're in the area (hint, SLC is on the list) it might be great fun!

Thompson Family-Life

 Looking for kitschy cute vintage things? Projects for kids? Crafty inspiration? Tutorials? Giveaways?

Well here's your one-stop-shop.

Thompson Family-Life

I read her blog regularly and think it's just adorable. And recently I decided to enter a giveaway on her blog, tempted by cute cupcake kits over at Layer Cake Shop, but also knowing that I never win these things. I mean, really, what are the odds?

But I won! I won a $30 gift certificate which I promptly spent on some of these goodies!

That last one I am super excited about. Those are 11 different sizes of circular cookie cutters, which come nested in their own little tin! Can you just say after my own heart. Oh yes, I can think of a million uses for those beauties. And no, I couldn't stick to just spending the $30, in case you were wondering. Once I started shopping, I just couldn't stop! Seriously, check it out for yourself. You can even shop by theme or color, which is absolutely brilliant.

Thanks again to Thompson Family-Life and Layer Cake Shop!

yum

I haven't posted anything food related in a while, which is interesting considering the number of recipes I have starred and saved in Google Reader. I may have a slight fear of coming off as obsessed with unhealthy foods (because let's face it, healthy foods are not nearly as interesting, and thus never seem to make it into my recipe collection with all the cakes and cookies and cheese-foods) or, perhaps even worse, someone might actually expect me to start making all these fabulous foods. Way too much time and effort there, guys. Who do you think you're talking to? 

Anyway, one of my favorite foodie blogs is Tartelette. I mean, her tag line is "on the sweet side of life." You had me at hello.

This Raspberry and Vanilla Dobos Torte took my breath away. If I have time to contribute to the dessert bar at my wedding you had best believe these will be there. Or I may find a reason to make them sometime sooner. Fourth of July anyone?

And the Pinch Cake Lemon Mousse Strawberry Trifle?  What's a girl to do? That's perfection in a glass.

Then there are the Raspberry Mascarpone Macarons

Raspberry Rose Vanilla Cream Cake

Are you sensing a theme here? Clearly summer is upon us and all I can think about is heavenly, creamy, berry topped goodness. And it's like a lightbulb going off in my head- a raspberry & lemon themed wedding dessert bar. It will be perfect. I'll just quit my job and bake all day, that doesn't sound like such a bad idea.

Don't get me wrong, cake is great and all

But this crumbly goodness looks amazing. Found via CakeSpy, recipe at Serious Eats.

4/3/2010

Oh, Kitchenaid, where have you been all my life?

I promised to bake cupcakes for work so Kelly and I baked rainbow cupcakes (thanks to Chris's suggestion) last night. I cheated a little bit and just bought a white cake mix and a can of frosting. BUT tell me you aren't impressed with our rainbow layering skills.

Seriously. They are beautiful. And ridiculously light and fluffy. Melt in your mouth fluffy.

I had to drop them off at work and run to DC today (I know, it's terrible I had to go play in this perfect weather instead of being stuck inside at work) so I just have to trust that they're going over well. They're lucky I like them.