cakes

Blueberry Citrus Cake

I've been craving blueberries lately, and although it is not the season for them, I ended up buying a few trays of them to enjoy. After a hectic work week, I was so happy that my weekend was wide open for some much needed baking therapy. I turned to one of my favorite white cake recipes and decided to mix in a few blueberries to make things more interesting. I added some citrus flavoring that I'd been wanting to try, Fiori di Sicilia. As it turns out, a little goes a long way, because any hint of blueberry flavor in the cakes was overpowered by more of a creamsicle flavor. The cake was still tasty, though, and I had fun putting them together. I used some Bonne Maman blueberry preserves to make a blueberry glaze for the cake. After using a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds, I added the preserves to the buttercream to add a beautiful purple tint to the frosting. Next time I use blueberries in cake, I'll leave out the citrus flavoring and let the natural blueberry flavor come through.

Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Preserves

Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Preserves



Celebration Cake: Welcoming Baby Rylie

Every new baby needs a birthday cake, even if they can't enjoy it. No teeth? No problem! The new parents would surely enjoy a cake to celebrate their new little bundle of love. When I heard of Baby Rylie's arrival, I knew a pretty little pink cake was in order. Our friends were expected to arrive home that Saturday with their new baby girl, so I set to work baking, frosting, and applying a liberal dose of sprinkles. I made a little cake flag from the same fabrics I had used in making her baby quilt. This was a fun cake to put together.

Welcome Spring!

I have been in a sort of winter hibernation and this blog has sat dormant for far too long. Now that it is Spring and the weather is finally warmer, iced-tea season is upon us (it never really goes out of season here in Texas, though), so it is the perfect excuse to start posting on ye olde blog again. During my embarrassingly long absence, I have been churning out lots of potential new blog-post material. I have traveled, crafted, baked and decorated lots of cakes.

With this introduction back into blog land, I leave you with cake!

April Birthday Cake

This is a cake made in honor of all the April birthdays in our family. I made this for a family gathering (we have a big family, so it needed to be a BIG cake), and utilized some Easter candy I had on hand. I love the pearly pastel colors of these Jelly Belly jelly beans - so festive and perfect for a spring-time party cake!

April-Birthday-Cake-3.jpg
April Birthday Jellybean Cake

Get your beans here:

http://www.jellybelly.com/

Citrus Dream Cake

Citrus Delight Cake

After the little photo shoot for my new blog header, I had a lot of citrus fruit left over. Never mind the fact that I've been hoarding limes since the Great Lime Shortage of 2014. We started the summer with a major lime shortage due to problems in Mexico (fruit diseases, transportation problems, etc.), so I snatched up limes just as soon as I was able to get my hands on them, and have been stockpiling them ever since. Along with lemons and oranges, limes are the epitome of a happy fruit, like a ray of sunshine on a summer day.

I decided to combine these three fruits into a happy little cake. I used a favorite go-to recipe, White on White Buttermilk cake and added some fruit zest and fruit extracts to impart the citrus notes to each of the layers.

Citrus Dream Cake:

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 Cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (do not melt!)

  • 2 1/3 Cups sugar

  • 3 large egg whites

  • 3 Cups cake flour (I use Swans Down)

  • 3/4 tsp. baking soda

  • 3/4 tsp. salt

  • 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

  • 1 1/2 Cups buttermilk (or use 1 1/2 cups whole milk with a splash of vinegar)

  • 1 tsp. each of Lemon extract, orange extract and lime extract (added at the end after batter has been divided into 3 bowls)

  • 2 tsp. grated Lemon, lime and orange zest (each added separately to divided batter)

  • Yellow, Orange and Green food coloring (each added separately to divided batter)

Buttercream ingredients:

  • 2 Cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

  • 2 Lbs. powered sugar

  • 1 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream

  • 1/2 tsp. salt

  • 1 tsp. fruit extract of your choice (lemon, lime or orange)

  • 2 tsp. fruit zest of your choice (lemon, lime or orange)

Directions:

  1. Prepare your baking pans. I used three 9-inch round pans. Line the pans with rounds of parchment paper. I never have a problem with cakes sticking to the bottom when I line the pans, so it is worth the extra effort. Grease the pans with cooking spray.

  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

  3. Using electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg whites and continue beating for another minute.

  4. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and gradually add these into the wet mixture, beating thoroughly.

  5. Divide the batter evenly into 3 separate bowls.

  6. To each of the bowls, you will add the flavor and color you want for each layer. 1 bowl will get lime zest, lime extract and green food coloring. The next will get lemon zest, lemon extact and yellow food coloring. The last will get orange zest, orange extract and orange food coloring. Mix thoroughly.

  7. Add each batter into each of the 3 baking pans you prepared.

  8. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Tops of cake layers should be very lightly brown. Oven and baking times vary, so check regularly. Do not over-bake or the cake will be dry.

  9. Remove cake layers from the oven. Allow cakes to cool.

  10. While cakes are cooling, prepare the buttercream frosting.

  11. Using electric mixer, beat butter, gradually adding in powdered sugar and salt. Mixture will be thick, so add in the whipping cream and flavoring/extract of your choice (I used lemon for mine). Add fruit zest. Whip thoroughly, scraping sides as needed so that it is well-blended.

  12. Frost cooled cake layers.

  13. Garnish with fruit slices or sliced/sugared fruit rind (avoid white pith when slicing rind to avoid bitterness)

Citrus Delight Cake