Baked

I’ve been a little into baking lately.  Hmm…okay a L-O-T into baking.  I’m not sure if it’s a pregnancy thing and I want sweets or if the timing of this pregnancy and my finding a lot of fun baking blogs just happen to coincide.  Who knows.  What I do know is that I’m having a lot of fun!

I made this cake a few weeks ago, but I didn’t love it. 

The frosting was so over-the-top sweet I didn’t finish my piece and never went back for more.  Dan on the other hand couldn’t get enough and said he liked it more and more with each piece. 

After having a red velvet cupcake while out celebrating my birthday, I decided I had to make some.  I’ve never make them before and always thought they looked a little intimidating, but they were SUPER easy and really good.  The recipe I used called for cake flour, which I haven’t used much and it made all the difference.  They were so smooth and delicious!

 

Then last weekend I was able to go out of town (ALONE!) to visit my cousins in the Quad Cities in Iowa and Illinois.  While there I finally got a chance to make the ruffled cake from the Sweetapolita blog.  My cousin Becky’s daughter is turning one very soon and we celebrated early with her first of two First birthday parties. 

What better reason to make such a girly cake than a cute girl’s first birthday?!  A food photographer, I definitely am not, so the pictures aren’t great, but it looked pretty good for a first attempt and the cake itself was so good.  I actually didn’t eat any of the frosting (I’m not a fan of eating frosting in general – I just like to play with it), but loved the chocolate cake.  We made it light yellow with pink pearl sprinkle balls.



Grace went at her cake with about as much gusto as Sophia did for her first birthday.  We all watched and waited….and waited, but she mostly just poked at the frosting and took dainty little bites.   

  

What to make next?  I saw this post on a blog and decided that gum-paste flowers would be fun to try.  Can you believe those flowers are made out of sugar?  So cute!



Hard to believe Sophia’s next birthday is in just FOUR months and I’d like to try to make her a nice, cute cake instead of buying one.  Let’s just say this new obsession is all for Sophia.  Sure it is…