Fluffy butter icing for 24 cupcakes is not something I make often -- but when needed its invaluable. We love cake, whether layered, sheet, or cupcakes but they don't fly on our radar very often. The usual cake lasts way too long when the family is eating only 3 smallish pieces once a day. So when my niece put in a request for a couple dozen cupcakes as part of her agency's celebration of National Adoption Day, I was happy to oblige. I used a good cake mix but the frosting needed to be something special. Seven year old Short Stuff was here for the weekend and promptly volunteered to be the decorator. Keep in mind, my own experience with cake decorating was last "experienced" with this final decorating class and this frosting class from the same series of lessons. I knew I ... [Read More]
frosting
Old Fashioned Brownie with frosting
A good brownie recipe means different things to different folks. This recipe isn’t strong on the chocolate, not too sweet and is more on the cake side of the equation. I chose it first for the lower amount of sugar and make it occasionally for that reason. Ya know – healthy brownies. However, every time Bytes will say “this needs frosting!” So much for reducing carbs and calories with less sugar! Last time he even compared it to the brownie in a certain frozen dinner, which he also thinks needs frosting. How would he know about frozen dinners in this household? Oh yeah—those long days of painting over the past year plus. At any rate frosting it is. For his half of the brownies. Not sure how he ends up with half a pan while Wheels and I get to share the remaining half. ... [Read More]
Spiced Pineapple Carrot Cake
This is THE best carrot cake ever. Carrots are popular at our house. I had to work fast after my grocery buying trip to have enough to make carrot cake. And it was so worth it! Carrot cake is good. Spiced carrot pineapple coconut cake with nuts and raisins is celestial! This looks like a long recipe, but it really goes together quickly. Do take the time to measure the dry ingredients and mix them together before adding to the other ingredients. The mixing time with the wet ingredients is so short that it’s possible the flavors wouldn’t mix or you could end up with too much soda in a bite. Use flaked coconut as it really adds to the finished texture and flavor. Be sure to peel carrots before grating. Or, do like I did, grab a bag of baby carrots already peeled and put them ... [Read More]
Cake Decorating Tip – just one
I'm taking a cake decorating class. If you've been to a Wilton class you'll recognize this as lesson 2 in the beginner's series. You can tell I need a little practice with smooth starts and stops. Maybe some practice with making smooth, even movements in making the edging. And my dots look more like pink chocolate chips -- just can't quite get that "stop squeezing the frosting bag and move to the side smoothly" step. See those freckles over there on the right? Teacher told us not to bring a chocolate cake - but guess what flavor of low sugar cake mix I had on hand at midnight? Not that low sugar matters with all that frosting, but it was also the only one I had. I did pretty well with the make this "one layer a torte" step as we started. Teacher handed me a coping ... [Read More]
