Fans in Texas!

My sister so loving showed all of her friends my website and photos of my cakes, so when I arrived here (before I arrived, actually) on last Saturday, there were several requests that I make a cake for them. I forgot to bring recipes, so I made one of the cakes that I know fairly well -- Coconut cake. Coconut cake is my mom's favorite; she was here in Texas, too, and even though she specifically asked me to make a red velvet cake, she was happy with the coconut cake. My sisters friends thought it was pretty good too!

It was nice to bake for them. Next time I will come more prepared!

Nothing fancy...just delicious coconut cake!

Unemployment = Cakes

I was laid off of from my job at Seattle Audubon in July, after 10 1/2 years. Bitter sweet to say the least; I spent most of my adult life there. So, I'm currently looking for another full time job, one that hopefully will make it easier for me to continue to pursue my cake baking dreams! One can hope and pray.

With this new found "time" on my hands, I've been able to bake! I've done about 7 cakes in the last 3 1/2 weeks. Oh, and I launched my website. I'm excited for whats to come!

Here are a some of the cakes that I've made over the last few weeks.

Piece Vanilla Cake w/ raspberry filling and chocolate frosting

Red velvet cake w/ cream cheese frosting

Almond Cake w/ coconut filling and chocolate frosting

Passion fruit ricotta cake

Piece vanilla ombre cake

I gotta keep up with this!

Well, it seems it's been since September when I last posted! Wow, that's way too long. Well, I'm not going to try and make up for the 5 month gap, so I'll just post a few pictures of some recent cakes and bullet a few things that are in the works.

• Business cards are almost ready to print!
• Website creation is active and will hopefully be done by the end of the month.
• Business plan in the works (again).
• Ideas are brewing in order to obtain my business plan!

Here are a few cakes from the last few months...

Birthday cake for my girls in N. Carolina

Birthday cake for my Goddaughter

Gluten Free cupcakes

Ganache...broken and revived!

I made chocolate ganache the other night to use as a frosting for some cupcakes. Couple things: 1. ganache is a chocolate/heavy cream mixture that is delicious and is the base for many truffles, and can be used as a filling and frosting.

This is what ganache should look like! Courtsey of Serious Eats

 2. When I bake a cake that is an unusual size, and I have left over batter, I will often make cupcakes and grace my friends or co-workers with these felt over goodies! Now, back to the story...after making cupcakes, I had left over ganache that I planned to use on another cake I made this week. So, I tried to reheat the ganache, since it was solid at this point, and use it. I heated over a double boiler..and as it melted and I began to stir, it broke! Meaning, the fat and solids started to separate, which makes for a yucky mess of a frosting.

This isn't mine; just an example of what it looks like, courtsey of  Cut out and Keep

I was so frustrated, so I immediately looked online for advice and a solution. There were many blogs about it, and one suggestion came up several times on different sites -- divided the broken ganache, and heat one half to 130 degrees and cool the other half in an ice bath to 60 degrees. Then add the heated back to the cool and stir. I did this 3 times! No good...Then I made more ganache, and it broke! I was ready to pull my hair out! So, I looked online one more time, and this time I picked the expert -- Martha Stewart. Good ol' Martha usually knows what she is talking about, so I used her fix -- add water to the broken ganache a tablespoon at a time, and whisk. And it WORKED! I was so relieved! It was perfect for frosting, and all was good. Martha saved the day for sure.

7 Cakes for a wedding...

A few weeks ago, I did my very first cake tasting for Ashley and John. Today was their big day! It was a beautiful, clear, unusually HOT day in the PNW.  It was about 90 degrees in the sun, and the wedding and reception were outdoors! The venue was perfect: outside, next to Puget Sound. The yard had gardens, chickens, and ducks. It was really nice...















Well, I had to make 7 cakes for this event. That was fine, although, I was worried about the heat. But things worked out well; the cakes stood up to heat, and I received a lot of comments and positive reviews. This was a big job, and I felt really good about the cakes, particularly the trickier ones -- the gluten free carrot cake and the vegan-gluten free chocolate.

Vanilla soaked pound cake w/ white chocolate mouse, raspberries, and whipped cream filling

Vegan Dark Chocolate Espresso Cake w/ chocolate frosting

Gluten free Carrot Cake w/ Maple Cream Cheese frosting

Lemon Soaked White cake w/ Vanilla bean buttercream frosting

I look forward to my next opportunity to help a couple celebrate one of the happiest days of their life!

July = Cake month!

I have had the pleasure of making several cakes and cupcakes this month! I'm getting more orders, and recommendations from those who are buying them to their friends. It is such a good feeling and a blessing!

I have a wedding coming up in August that I will be making several cakes for. I'm pretty excited about this. It will be a challenge and an opportunity that I'm looking forward too. I'm hoping to have my website up and running by mid August, and my business licenses by the end of August.

Here are a few cakes that I have done this month.

Chocolate cake w/ caramel gananche and chocolate buttercream

Vegan chocolate cake w/ Caramel ganache and almonds

From L - R: Vanilla soaked pound cake w/ white chocolate mousse and raspberries; GF Vegan Chocolate Cake; Vanilla cake w/ vanilla buttercream frosting; GF Carrot Cake w/ maple cream cheese frosting

Mini cupcakes: Chocolate w/ chocolate buttercream frosting; Red velvet cream cheese frosting; lemon w/ buttercream frosting

Cake weekends!

About a month or so ago, I was talking with a friend about what I should do to get going on making cakes. She suggested I make a goal of making 3 cakes a month. Well, I thought about it, and decided it was a good goal, although I thought it may be a bit overwhelming. Well, in the last 2 weeks, I've made 6 cakes!! Three each weekend. And...it wasn't too overwhelming. In fact it was kinda fun, and a good test of my stamina and ability to plan and get things done. It also gave me a sense of whether I REALLY like baking enough to give up a lot of my weekend, stay up late in a hot kitchen, and get less sleep to do the job. And, as of now, I do!

Banana Creme Cake (Gluten Free)

Lemon scented pound cake w/ whipped cream and berries!

Baby reveal cake -- White (pink) cake w/ whipped cream and strawberry filling; butter cream frosting

I have 2 cakes this weekend, and if this keeps up, I will definitely exceed my goal of 3 cakes a month. Now if I could just get that price list set...