Baking

Well well well. It seems like once again, all I blog about is food.

This weekend I decided it was high time to make some more tiny cakes. I whipped up some plain old buttery, rich yellow cake in my tiny cake pans that I bought for Kacy's shower last year.

Then I baked them all together on a tray. I let them cool and then was free to experiment. Each cake has three layers, so there was plenty of room for icing and flavoring. On the first one, I spread lemon curd between the layers (oh how I love lemon curd) and then iced it with cream cheese vanilla icing. I decorated it with my favorite little fake daisies. Annnnd, I might have eaten a slice for breakfast. shhh.The other cake was for Rob. In between the layers is blackberry preserves. Then I mixed the preserves with the cream cheese icing and iced the whole cake with the purpleish mixture. I stuck it in the fridge for a while to set, then I iced over that with normal, non berry icing.

Of course I covered it with sprinkles. Rob hearts sprinkles more than cake.

I can't get enough of tiny cakes. I wish I lived back east so I could hand deliver one to my lovely niece who just had her first birthday!!! Happy Birthday sweetie!

This is a little candle holder that I made for her for her birthday. Well, it's like the one that I made her. The real one is hopefully on a USPS plane speeding its way toward her right now.

Friday Recipe: Tiny Lemon Cakes

I have a new Friday Recipe for you today (Saturday morning). I know what I said about this being the year of full sized cakes and everything, but these are too yummy to be ignored in 2008. Besides, they aren't cupcakes. I haven't got any pictures today because we already ate the cakes.

I have some special tiny cake pans, but before I did, I used to make tiny cakes in the bottom of large aluminum cans. I used empty tomato cans or pumpkin cans, you know the size, right? Well, I washed them really well, then lined them with foil (just in case tin cans are actually toxic in some way). So, if you have small pans, use them. If not, improvise!

Tiny Lemon Cakes

1/2 cup butter
7 tbsp sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup self-rising flour
1 tsp lemon extract
zest of half of one lemon
3tbsp milk


Ok, make sure your butter is a little soft, but not squishy before you start. Mix all the ingredients except for the milk together on high speed. I use the small bowl on my mixmaster so that everything gets good and whipped. When everything is combined, drizzle the milk in until it reaches a good batter consistency. Sometimes it doesn't need all 3 tbsp. You know how cakes can be fiddly like that.
Fill your prepared cans about 1 inch full (use several cans to make layers, you should be able to get 6 tiny layers) or pour batter into lightly greased pans.
Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 min or until they start to get a little golden on top. My oven is inconsistent and I sometimes have to cook them at 375 for 25 minutes. Your's is probably lovely and will be right on target.
When they're done, let them cool for a minute or two in the pans (don't burn yourself) then turn them out onto a cooling rack for at least 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the icing:
1/4 cup butter, softened (1/2 a stick)
8 oz cream cheese
5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon extract (or use lemon juice at this stage)
the other half of the lemon zest
1/3 cup of milk or cream.
yellow food coloring (people won't believe it's lemon if it's not yellow)

Mix up the butter and the cream cheese. Slowly add the powdered sugar, alternating with the milk and the lemon extract. (Go check and see if the cake is burning). Adjust the milk or powdered sugar to get a good icing consistency. Not too thick, not too thin. The lemon zest will make the icing just a little lumpy, but we're not perfectionists, are we? Add the food coloring just a little at a time until it looks nice and fake. When the cakes are cool, ice them liberally with your delicious icing and eat the rest out of the bowl.

-so I made this up and as you can see some of the instructions are a little less than exact. If you do make the cakes, let me know how they turn out, okay, and we can adjust the recipe for later.

A great visit

Well, my mom just went back to Georgia after a wonderful week's visit. We had such a good time together, I wish it could have lasted longer. We visited the Titan Missile, Tombstone, Gates Pass, we went to the movies and out to dinner. Whew! One of the coolest things we did was buy my cool new computer. Seriously, this is the coolest computer I have ever ever owned. I think her name will be Coco, but we're still trying it on for size. It's a shiny HP laptop with a webcam and everything. It's all very futuristic.
Meanwhile, there are some new crafty things to report.
Here is a home-craft of sorts. When mom came, we needed a place for her to sleep so Rob bought this daybed that we put in the office.
That's a pretty Mexican blanket that Katie gave me. We'll use it as a couch when no one is visiting. Also for Mom's visit, I finally organized the scary-messy craft shelf. Look! Now it's all usable. We live in a house with no closets, so everything has to be out in the open- now the crafts can be in plain sight without endangering anyone.
I also finished another pair of socks. These are for my friend Ryan. They are thick hiking socks made from fat stripey wool (Patons). This is my first knitted object that someone has actually paid me to make. Does that mean I'm a professional? Hmm, maybe we'll see how he likes them first.Finally, I'm getting ready for Kacy's shower on the 29th, and trying to think about what I'm going to feed people. I've decided to make a bunch of tiny cakes in all different flavors. Fun, huh? Well, today I got the equipment. Tiny cake pans! I have six of them. Enough for three 2-layer cakes or two 3-layer cakes. Yum. I'm thinking lemon butter cream, chocolate chocolate, and carrot cake with cream cheese. Any other ideas? Five tiny cakes ought to do it. If they turn out to be a huge pain, I may make different flavors of cupcakes instead.

Up for this weekend: a trip to the Grand Canyon to visit the GeoJourney kids. Should be fun. I'll blog about it, promise.