Mary Lindsey's Wedding Cake

Mary Lindsey is MARRIED!!!!

Mary Lindsey and I have been friends since we were little girls at Highlands Presbyterian Church.  We went through many VBS's, RYM trips, church lock ins, and so many other events together.  She is a beloved friend, and I was absolutely THRILLED and honored when she asked me to her wedding cake (and groom's cake!!). 

Mary Lindsey and Troy ordered the bobble heads for the wedding cake topper which turned out to be adorable.

For the cake she gave me some pictures that she liked and said that she wanted it to be pretty simple.   The product was a 4 tiered lemon almond cake with grooved, lined sides, and a smooth top.  The icing is a cream cheese icing inspired by Rose Levy Beranbaum, though I added my own touch as well. Mine is much sweeter (we are Southerners!!) and more fluffy.

I made an extra cake top tier for Mary Lindsey so that they could serve the entire cake at the wedding. I told the server that she was allowed to cut the top tier since we had an extra, but I swear she thought I was crazy.   I don't think she believed that I actually made the wedding cake.  In the end though, I believe the whole cake was gone.

The evening was enchanting. I am so happy for Mary Lindsey and Troy and wish them a life time of happiness!!

Troy's Groom's Cake

I hope everyone like's chocolate.

This groom's cake was for Troy Jackson, the groom of one of my childhood friends Mary Lindsey.  Troy and Mary Lindsay are both Jackson, Mississippi natives so the Mississippi shaped groom's cake was perfect!

This cake is a three tier, dark chocolate cake with a raspberry ganache icing.  I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but the cake was HUGE.  Getting it to the venue was quite the experience and took multiple helpers (I'm so thankful for my friends and family who helped out!!).

I also made the bride's cake so stay tuned for a post about that cake and sweet Mary Lindsey! 

Blueberry Pie

My roommate Katherine recently came home with the largest box of blueberries that I've ever seen from the farmer's market. We still had a box of blueberries in the refrigerator, so she said to use them up however we wanted to. Of course my mind immediately goes into action... cake, cobbler, pie?

The final decision was a nice summer blueberry pie.  I was going to go to the grocery store to pick up a Pillsbury pie crust for the sake of simplicity, but I am currently on a budget so I decided to open up the pantry and put in a few more minutes of work.  The Mississippi humidity is always a little intimidating when making pastry but I decided to give it a go nonetheless.

The result was fantastic.  I took it to my parent's house for father's day and the pie was gone within 15 minutes.  I had several people say it was the best blueberry pie they've ever had so I'm counting it as a success.

Brooke's first birthday

The cake for the adults above

The smash cake for Brooke below

My baby niece Brooke turned one several weeks ago!!  It was interesting for all of us to see a very practical demonstration of how different parenting is for a third child than for a first child.
When Jane Bradley turned 1, the whole world knew about it.  Lacey hand delivered invitations to her friends that were inside rubber duckies.  There were rubber duckies in the pool and hanging from the trees and just about anywhere else you could think of.  Lacey didn't miss a beat in making sure that it was the party of the century (aside from her wedding of course).

But about 6 years later Brooke came along as the third child.  This time the party was more intimate.  People didn't get rubber ducky invitations but the house was filled with laughter of kids from the neighborhood and family who gathered to celebrate Brooke.  It was a really sweet day-- even sweeter for Brooke when she discovered how much cake she could eat!

100/99: Golden Dream Wedding Cake

 

The photo shows Kay on her wedding night on the left with my modernized replica on the right

This cake is exciting for several reasons:

1. This cake marks the 50th anniversary of our dear friends Les and Kay.  Les had called me several months in advance to book the cake for the event.  After having discussions with family over what type of cake to make, I  received a photo of their original cake from their daughter and set out to replicate it.

2. It means that I have exceeded the original number of Rose's cakes that I committed to making. Granted this cake was not made within the same year of the other 99 but I certainly feel like a disciple of Rose.  When you make 100 of someone's recipes, it shows commitment. 

99/99: Bernachon Palet d'Or Gâteau

Ninety nine cakes in three hundred and sixty five days. And it's done.

General thoughts about the moment:

My feet hurt and my arms are covered in chocolate.

What on earth am I going to do with all of these cake pans and plates?

And then there's the big question that I've been asked 99 times this week: What's next?

98/99: Torta de las Tres Leches

 

I've never had torta de las tres leches before but I've heard that its incredible.  There's a lady in my church who asked me months ago about it and ever since then I've been waiting to try this cake.

97/99: Le Succés

This one was definitely not a success right away.

The cake itself was easy.  I don't even know if I would call it a cake.  To me it was more like a meringue cookie or something. 

96/99: Marionberry Shortcake

I've never heard of a marionberry before.  I went to good ole' Kroger with Marionberry on my list and didn't even ask the grocer what it was. I guarantee you that 99 out of 100 people in Jackson, Miss won't know what a marionberry is.

Well friends, I just looked. Apparently its a type of blackberry.  I don't know why Rose couldn't just say blackberry. Wikipedia deems the Marionberry "the Cabernet of blackberries."  I'm not really sure what that's supposed to mean either though. Cabernet is just another type of grape used when making wine. As far as I know, its not any better than a merlot grape. Maybe this is where I start sounding like I'm from Mississippi?

Nevertheless, I went for the raspberries- easy and classic.

95/99: True Orange Génoise

 

I've actually been dreading this cake because orange cake is not exciting to me. But this one may surprise me- these cakes often do.

I've actually tried to make this cake twice before.  I bought the oranges about 2 weeks ago and never got around to it.  The oranges went bad and that was the end of that.  Then I tried this weekend but my plans of baking got interrupted by the trampoline. 

So now, I've finally completed this cake once and for all!

94/99: Chocolate Apricot Roll with Laquer Glaze

 

I am pumped about eating this one. Yum. 

The cake includes the actual cake (called the biscuit roulade), Lekvar, apricot syrup, apricot ganache filling, and lacquer glaze.  The apricot comes in from the apricot brandy that's used in almost everything as well as the dried apricots in the Lekvar.

But the lekvar was optional and the liquor store didn't carry apricot brandy. Basically, my chocolate apricot roll was not going to have any apricot in it.

I ended up figuring out an alternative route... hopefully it will still taste good.

93/99: Mini Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes

I am flying through these! It's fun being at my parents house to do this because their kitchen is HUGE, I have 2 sinks, 3 ovens, and lots of natural lighting.  And surround sound with the Head and the Heart pandora station playing. I feel like a rockstar.

I actually only have 2 cakes left to make now... the rest are all cooling / waiting to be composed with the other parts of the cakes. Like I said, I'm flying through them.

92/99: Miette's Tomboy

This is cake 2 in the weekend marathon! My original plan was to stay up tonight and do 4 but I think it might just be a Saturday marathon with 7 cakes. I'll need all the sleep I can get tonight...

I've been looking forward to Miette's Tomboy for quite awhile because apparently it's one of the best in the book. The recipe is really strange though and did not seem like typical Rose.

91:99/ She Loves Me Cake

 

The cake marathon has officially begun.  I went from 99 cakes in 365 days to 9 cakes in 3. Thanks to all of you for your input/encouragement over the past couple days via facebook/text/blog to tell me to keep going!

Here's the list for the next few days:

Miette's Tomboy

Chocolate apricot roll with lacquer glaze

True orange genoise

Torta de las tres leches

Le succes

Mini vanilla bean pound cakes

Marion berry short cake

Bernachon palet d'or gateau

Back to the She Loves Me Cake- 

90/99: Chocolate Bull's Eye Cakes

Time is ticking. Has anyone else noticed the clock on the right side of the page? Just in case you didn't, it says THIRTEEN DAYS! AAH!!!!!

So 9 cakes to bake in 13 days.  And I'm taking 18 hours of upper level classes this semester with tests coming up in almost all of them. And believe it or not I do have a social life. Again, AAHHH!!!

So the question is, am I going to finish on time? Should I extend the deadline to remove the stress or still shoot for it?


For some reason I really want to finish on time. I've worked so hard on this all year long and I want to reach the goal that I set for myself. And honestly, it's only 9 cakes.

But then again, it's 9 whole cakes. that's 10% of the project.  I really enjoy baking but I don't want these 9 cakes to be absolutely miserable because I'm trying to whip them out really quickly.  I would have to have a baking marathon this weekend and Easter weekend in order to finish.

So thoughts anyone? Should I try to finish on time or extend the deadline?

89/99: Banana Refrigerator Cake with Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Icing

The weather in Oxford has been amazing this week (minus a bit of pollen and a day of rainfall) so a bunch of friends came over to sit on the trampoline this afternoon.  I brought out the banana refrigerator cake that I made last night and it was absolutely perfect for the sunny afternoon.

88/99: Blackberry Crown Cheesecake

When I was in kindergarten, I had a friend named Anna who had a Pocahontas birthday party. I got an invitation and was so excited because it was a dress up party and that meant that I could wear my favorite dress--my Pocahontas dress.  My mom was concerned that Anna was supposed to be the only Pocahontas so of course she called Anna's mom just to check.  Her mom was so sweet and assured her that it would be just fine! We're good ol' Mississippi folk down here- no one would never say no to a kid wearing a Pocahontas dress.  I happily wore my Pocahontas dress and life went on just fine.

87/99: Devil's Food Cake with Midnight Ganache

Great cake, bad timing (silly Lent).

My time is ticking so that means I have cake sitting around all the time with the push to get the made. As a result  I halved the recipe for the devil's food cake.  It was a delicious cake but I am really glad that I halved it because, like I said, I feel like I have cake pouring out of my house.

I didn't have any dried sour cherries or cognac so I decided to add some Chambord to the ganache instead of the cherry cognac.  It was a good decision.

This cake, second to the Chocolate Feather Bed, is one of the most chocolatey cake in the book.  it has 99% cacao chocolate as well as cocoa powder with some light brown sugar and sour cream.  The cake itself is moist and thickly chocolatey while the ganache tastes like chocolate fudge. Yum!

Everyone in my life now seems to be on a diet so I ended up throwing the leftovers away this afternoon.  I just realized that I should brought some to my friend Kesha (shout out to her for her faithful blog reading) but too late. Maybe next time!

I'm almost down to the single digits in the cakes! I can't believe I've made it this far.   I REALLY want to finish on time but its definitely going to be a push...

Rose's Heavenly Cakes page 99

86/99: Carrot Cake with Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting

I'm on a how-many-cakes-can-i-make-without-going-crazy kick so here's my second cake of the weekend (more to come). This actually might be one of the best cakes I've made in awhile.  It was incredibly moist with the perfect amount of spice.

85/99: Baby Lemon Cheesecake

I started to make these almost every day this week but it didn't actually work out until last night. It's been an incredibly busy week with midterms but I did well and now they are behind me! Hooray!

But the most exciting new is that my strawberries flowered and my tulips are about to bloom!!!  No lie. I haven't killed them and so it's time to celebrate.


Enter cake.