A Summer of Cakes

I am clearly not meant to blog, as you can see by my lack of posting. But at my sister-in-law's request I am posting to put up some pictures of the cakes from this summer.

Present Cake for Dennis

Pretty Fondant Cake

I made four cakes in two days. The one above was for my friend Christa, which was accompanied by a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I made two more of the pretty fondant cakes the next day for my sister-in-law, Christa. So many Christas, so many cakes.

Pretty Cakes after being attacked

Birthday Present Gone Wrong?!

I went out on a limb and got my nieces a kitty for their birthday present. It was a risky move to do this without asking my brother's permission, but it's not like he can disown me. They just lost their last kitty, so I thought they would love to give a new one a home. My brother seemed a little perturbed and I don't think Scarlett likes him yet. She just wants the old kitty back, but I'll give it a little time before I call it my worst birthday idea ever. His name is Rusty, which is a huge relief because Scarlett was insisting that they name him Carrot.

Lady Bug Cake

My adorable nieces had a joint birthday party. Berkley turned 1 and Scarlett is turning 3. They are quite possibly the cutest girls ever, so they deserve the cutest cake ever. Instead they got me trying my first ever fondant cake. I guess it's good that we started with a cute idea, that we clearly copied from someone else.

Obsessive Opinions

I love baking. It is as simple as that. It took getting a finance degree, a law degree and passing the bar for me to realize that all I really want to do is bake. This discovery may have come too late, but maybe not. So with the hope of someday opening a bakery, I have been using my friends and family as test subjects for my baked goods. I appreciate their sacrifice of eating endless carbs for the sake of my baking. Lately I must have lapsed in my baking because my friend Kaäre mentioned that he bought some brownies at the store, which made me sad for two reasons: 1) I should have known he was in need of some brownies, and 2) I should have taught my friends that store bought brownies are sheer blasphemy. Some of the grocery store chains don't even make make their own baked goods in the bakery, they come in frozen and ready to frost (ex Fry's b-day cakes).

While I am totally fine with people disagreeing with me, I have some very strong opinions of store-baked goods and maybe I will help one person by sharing the following:

1. Most store-bought / pre-baked brownies are crap. Please don't waste your money.
2. While most things I prefer made from scratch, brownies are an exception. Brownies from scratch are awesome, but they are a lot of work and most good ones have LOTS of chocolate in them, so they can get pricey. If you have the world's best brownie recipe and want to share it, please do. Until then, I'll stick with a mix.
3. All brownies mixes are not equal. Find the kind you like, but Ghiradelli are amazing. Costco used to sell them in 4 packs, but I think they have switched to Hershey's (which are also good).
4. Cake mixes are super convenient and the yellow ones are hard to beat for a quick moist b-day cake. I can tell its a cake mix, but I won't judge.
5. Store bought frosting is almost always a bad choice. C&H has a (uncooked) buttercream frosting recipe on their 1 lb boxes & their website that is an easy alternative. I will however admit that there is something addictive about the Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip frosting. I'm sure it's the chemicals.
6. Chocolate cakes are always better from scratch.
7. Betty Crocker's Oatmeal Cookie mix is also super addictive. There is something about adding my own stick of butter that makes me think that using this mix is not selling out.
8. If you do bake your own cookies, cookie scoops are awesome. (get a good one because I keep breaking my cheap ones)
9. An offset spatula is a must for frosting a cake.

I'll stop there because the people who care about this stuff probably already have their own opinions, and the rest of you probably have better things to do with you time than read about my obsessions. To my friends & family in the future: if you want some cookies, brownies or even a cake: put down the plastic container of store-baked junk and call me.