42/99: Coffee Chiffonlets with Dulce de Leche Whipped Cream

Well several things on this recipe went a little wrong:

41/99: Chocolate Raspberry Trifle

 

 

Today is my 22nd birthday and as pathetic as it sounds, i decided to make my own birthday cake.

40/99: Classic Brioche

I thought this was a strange recipe to have in a book of cakes.  Then I realized that it's actually just a step of another cake but since it takes awhile, it gets it's very own recipe!

39/99: Black Chocolate Party Cake

I've had my eye on this cake for awhile because it  looks so good and chocolaty. I was asked to bring a cake to a party on Monday night so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Who doesn't like chocolate?

The cake was surprisingly easy to make too.  The only different part of it was that you had to de-skin  walnuts. Rose mentioned it briefly.  She said, "Turn the walnuts out onto a clean dishtowel and roll and rub them around to loosen the skins.  Discard the skins and cool completely." Simple enough right?

38/99: Almond Shamah Chiffon

The Almond Shamah Chiffon was the final cake of the Lacey's 30th birthday cake extravaganza.





 "Shamah" in the title actually stands for one of Rose's friends, David Shamah.  A bunch of people at the party were curious and therefore looked up the word "shamah" in a translator.  They came up with something and then proceeded to discuss why the cake would be called this.  Sadly, I don't remember the word that they found but, if you were one of those people, I must inform you that you were wrong.  Sorry about that friends.

The one that's not a cake

 I've officially crossed the line of insanity. I know. 

I started learning to use the sewing machine last week when I decided to quilt some old fabric scraps.  Last night, I got ambitious and made a tee-shirt quilt out of all of my old tee shirts.  Then I had scraps left over from the tee-shirts so I decided to make an apron. 

How do I have so much spare time you ask? Honestly, I'm asking myself the same question. Class starts on Monday so I decided to use this weekend to do absolutely nothing.  But I have this issue where doing absolutely nothing stresses me out because I have to be doing something. So sewing kills two birds with one stone. I can sit in front of a TV and let my mind go completely blank while my body is actually being productive. Brilliant.

37/99: Tiramisù

The tiramisù was also for Lacey's birthday party. Lacey has always loved tiramisù so I thought it might be a fun addition.  I couldn't exactly take it out of the pan at the party to take a picture of a slice so you just get the whole thing:

 

I had baked for a few days and had completed the other four cakes for the party already.  I woke up on the morning of the party and decided that tiramisù was a must.  It's a crowd pleaser and Lacey loves it. I had already bought the ingredients in case I felt like getting around to it so I just hopped out of bed and went straight in the kitchen.

My best friend Alyssa was in town to visit for a few days (sadly she lives in Missouri now) so I happily put her to work too. 

She was put in charge of the eggs.  Putting someone else in charge of eggs is a pretty big deal for me because I am very OCD about eggs but I knew she'd do a great job. Her job was to whisk the yolks, sugar, and sweet marsala in a bowl on top of a pot of simmering water while holding a candy thermometer.   She also had to make sure the bowl stayed balanced on the water because you have to put the wooden spoon between the two pots in order to let the steam out (think back to the explosion from Zach's la Bomba). I sound like an evil friend right? Maybe I was just letting her get or hands dirty or maybe I just didn't want to do it myself.... mwah ha ha.

Mama's Peppermint Torte

Happy birthday to my big sister Lacey!

The Peppermint Torte is the official Travis birthday cake. Of course, for her birthday this year, all she wanted was a peppermint torte.  Out of all of the cakes that I've made this year (and I believe that totals well over 40), I still can't beat it.  I still have it every year for my birthday and my sister still has it for hers. Maybe it's the memories. Maybe it's the love that goes into making it. Or maybe it's just that good.

 

36/99: Woody's Lemon Luxury Layer Cake

The Lemon Luxury Layer Cake was quite a hit.

35/99: Moist Chocolate Raspberry Genoise

The next five cakes were made in honor of my beautiful sister Lacey who just turned the big three zero. 

As mentioned before, I tried to make this cake once already. I was super excited about making this cake because it is dark chocolate with Chambord and that just seems divine.  I completed the batter, pictures and all, and had the cakes sitting on the counter top ready to go in the oven.  But then, this happened:

The Cake for a King

I know, guys, I'm slacking.  But, before you judge, give me some grace. The last cake I made (The Princess Ariel Cake) was a whopper of a cake and it took me a few days to remove the sugar from my hair before I was ready to dive into the next cake.

A few days later, I decided to make the Chocolate Raspberry Genoisé and as you have not seen a post on it yet, that means there is a story--something along the lines of tripping before putting the pans in the oven. No tears, just anger and bitterness.  I'm re-making the cake this week so wait on that post for more details!

But after my cake drama with the raspberry genoisé (and after being exhausted from way too much summer school), I needed a break.  Off to the beach I went and now that I have returned, I am back in the game.

The next cake is not a Rose cake because it is a special request birthday cake.  It seems I'm slowly entering into the cake business.  The lady who commissioned it wanted to make her son feel like a king on his 18th birthday.  So what's more kingly than a king's crown?

Here's the process of getting there:

The Princess Ariel Cake

 Jane Bradley's 5th birthday just came up and she wanted a Princess Ariel party.  Of course if you're going to have a Princess Ariel party then you have to have an awesome Princess Ariel cake.... and that's where I become the cool aunt.

So of course, into the kitchen I go. Here's the final product:

 

I got to the house a little before to assemble the tiers and to add all of the finishing touches to the cake. I was just finishing up when the first little guest walked in the door and went "ooh... a Princess Ariel cake!" Then she ran up to it and looked really closely at it. 

"Now don't touch it, sweetie. Just look," I said to cover my bases.

The last part of that sentence didn't even leave my mouth before the little girl poked out her finger, stuck it straight into the cake, and then licked it.