Chocolate Cake Yumminess!!

I feel I should start this post by saying that I love chocolate...it should be a food group all it's own! Back in October I was lucky enough to be graced with the chance to try a chocolate cake mix that is Peanut/Egg/Dairy/Nut Free made by Cherrybrook Kitchen. We were also given chocolate frosting that is Peanut/Egg/Dairy/Nut Free, & it's also Vegan. Now I know you're thinking "Ick!", but let me just tell you this stuff is fabulous! It's so great for anyone with food allergies! I have a younger cousin with several different food allergies, & Cherrybrook Kitchen's products would be perfect for her. I highly recommend trying any of these products if you ever get the chance...the cupcakes that I made were soooo yummy! They certainly satisfied my chocolate craving!


I love the box...it's so cute!


Just out of the oven.


Notice there are 2 missing...Mom & I couldn't help but dig in right away!

Thanks a million to BlakeBakes & Cherrybrook Kitchen!!

Baby Cakes & Mishaps

Oh look...another day, another post! I'm doing better I tell ya!

Back at the beginning of last year, I had the pleasure of making a wedding shower cake for my cousin, Tosha. She & her husband are now expecting a baby girl in a couple of weeks, & her sister asked me to make the cake the baby shower. There's no way I was going to say no! I had never tried a multi-tiered cake before, so I really wanted to try one for this cake. I was given a couple of the napkins to be used at the shower for inspiration, & this is what I came up with...



Now this is what the cake looked like this morning before we left the house. When we got to the shower...not so much. The fondant decorations had started to droop & pull down the buttercream icing with them. It didn't look horrible, but it wasn't that great either. I didn't want to give her a crappy looking cake. Everyone said how much they liked it, though, & it did taste really good...I can't complain too much, I suppose.

So I have a question to all of you seasoned cake decorators...how much internal support should go into a cake like this? It's a 8" on top of a 10", & there are 4 rather small wooden dowels in the middle of bottom tier. Help a girl out!

Anyway, that's my dilemma for the day. I've got a couple of Blake Makes posts coming up so stay tuned!!!

Christmas Cookies Rock My Socks

Hello my lovelies!! I am so completely behind on posting that I figure I'll just start at Christmas & work my way forward. (Why Christmas, you ask? Because I love Christmas!!) This year I made it my personal mission to make some super freaking cute Christmas cookies. Since I'm absolutely in love with the book Cookie Craft, I decided to use the cookies in the book as inspiration. I made a double batch of the sugar cookie recipe in the book & a single batch of the gingerbread recipe, & let me just tell you I had cookies everywhere! I can honestly say that I spent 3 solid hours at the kitchen table decorating cookies, but I loved every minute of it. These little beauties went to my office Christmas party with me, & everyone fell in love with them.

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year!!!

I have severely neglected my poor little blog, so one of my new years resolutions is to update this thing A LOT more often! It's been so long since I've posted any of my work that I'll probably spend the next month or so catching up on some of my favorites. The holidays were very busy for me, so I've got a lot to show off!

I hope 2009 is an amazing year for everyone!

Ashley's Monthly Bake Sale - September

Just a little late on this one! I'm so slow with the blog posts these days...shame shame! Soooo September's Cupcake of the Month was a good ol' southern specialty...hummingbird cake. Mmmmm! I found a recipe from Martha Stewart that I thought I'd try. Now I didn't get to try these cupcakes, so I don't actually know how they turned out, but everyone at work loved them. My boss even said she might like them better than the strawberry lime cupcakes which is a big deal! I'll have to try this recipe again someday so I can actually get a taste! The recipe can be found here.

Operation Baking GALS - Round 2

For Round 2 of Operation Baking GALS, I was on Team Maybe For Real hosted by Anna at Maybe Just A Little Bite. This time I wanted to try to make something that I love & reminds me of home. My favorite cookie in the whole world are snickerdoodles, so I thought maybe our soldiers would love them too. I found a recipe that sounded pretty good, so I set out baking. These cookies were so easy, & they filled the house with the delicious smell of cinnamon & nutmeg. I had to make sure I taste-tested these little morsels before I sent them off, for quality control of course! Mmmmm...so good!




Snickerdoodles

1 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix throughly in a bowl the butter, sugar & eggs. Blend in flour, cream of tarter, baking soda & salt. Chill. Shape rounded teaspoonfuls into balls. Roll in sugar mixture (listed below), & place on an ungreased baking sheet two inches apart. Slightly flatten balls with a glass & bake 6 to 8 minutes or until set. Remove from baking sheet immediately.

Sugar Mixture: 2 Tbsp sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Ashley's Monthly Bake Sale - August

WOW...I haven't posted an update in over a month!! Shame on me! Over the next fews days I'll be catching up on everything that's been going on lately.

First out of the box is my August Monthly Bake Sale. I decide to go a different route this time & picked brownies instead of the usual cupcakes. I am addicted to Food Network, & one of my favorite shows is Barefoot Contessa. Ina is genious! So for August's bake sale I choose Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies. Their name suits them well...these suckers were loaded with butter & chocolate! They were delicious!! I was sort of in a time crunch to get these finished, so in my haste I completely forgot to take a picture of the brownies. I only managed to get a picture of the packages containing the finished product. These were definitely a hit at the office!



My selection for September are hummingbird cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. A southern classic that I can't wait to try!!