yellow ruffle lemon cake filled with lemon whipped cream and fresh blueberries

Speaking of reconnecting with high school friends (which I mentioned in my last post), sometime last summer I also made this yellow ruffle cake for my friend Bernice from high school, who was hosting a baby shower for her sister Tiffany! She wanted to emulate a blueberry cheesecake that was a favorite of her sister's, so we decided on a lemon cake with blueberry whipped cream, similar to this cake. (Although now that I look at the pictures, I totally forgot to make a blueberry whipped cream, and ended up making a whipped cream with fresh blueberries instead! OOPS! I'm so sorry, Bernice!)

Anyway, for the lemon cake I used the vanilla cake recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book, and added grated lemon zest to the batter (instead of the extracts). I baked them into two 8-inch cake pans, let them cool, and then cut them in half horizontally (giving me 4 cake layers). Then I filled each layer with fresh whipped cream and fresh blueberries.

For the frosting, Bernice wanted a ruffle cake similar to this one, except we decided to go with buttercream instead of whipped cream since it was going to be a hot day! Since I knew the cake would be covered with ruffles, I only covered the cake with a quick crumb coat of yellow buttercream (recipe also in my book!).

Then I used a disposable pastry bag fitted with a petal tip to pipe the ruffles, starting in the middle of the cake and piping continuous rings towards the outer edge of the cake. (A nice revolving cake stand works great for this! Or, you could use a lazy susan.)

Then I continued piping all the way down the sides of the cake.

Here's a view from the top, isn't it pretty?



I do think that this technique with buttercream gives a slightly different look than when done with whipped cream though, as buttercream gives slightly smoother ruffles while whipped cream gives more textured ruffles. But both effects are still very pretty.

Anyway hopefully the blueberry whipped cream debacle turned out okay. (Sorry again, Bernice!)

Happy baby shower, Tiffany!

half naked layer cake with fresh blueberries and lemon whipped cream

Last year I made this macaron baby shower cake for my friend Irene, and while I was at the baby shower I met her good friend Sharon. Almost a year later later, Sharon's friend Jennie contacted me about making a cake for her husband's surprise 50th birthday party! It's always so exciting for me to hear that friends of friends like my work, so I of course was super excited to make this cake!

Jennie and I went back and forth with several cake designs, and in the end we chose to do a rustic naked cake decorated with fresh lemon slices, inspired by a cake made by Knead To Make. To continue with the lemon theme on the inside of the cake, we decided to go with a vanilla cake filled with lemon whipped cream and fresh blueberries.

For the vanilla cake, I made two batches of my favorite vanilla batter (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!) and baked it in two 10-inch round cake pan. Once cooled, I sliced each cake in half horizontally, giving me four layers. Then I whipped up a large batch of whipped cream, which I lightly sweetened with powdered sugar, and flavored it with fresh lemon juice and lemon zest to give a nice lemony tang. Each cake layer was then filled with a heavy dose of lemon whipped cream and a layer of fresh blueberries.

Once the cake was assembled, I whipped up a batch of vanilla buttercream frosting and covered the top and sides of the cake with it.

I did my best at smoothing out the frosting while still keeping the "naked cake" effect, allowing some of the cake layers to peek out from the frosting. 

I let the cake chill in the fridge overnight, and the next morning I started prepping my fresh lemon slices. Since I wanted the prettiest, biggest lemon slices (cut from only the middle of the lemon), I ended up using seven lemons while looking for the perfect slice! I blotted each slice with paper towel, and then dusted each one with powdered sugar to help keep them looking glossy.

The frosting had set nicely by now, so I piped a bit of frosting on the back of each lemon slice to attach them to the cake.

The final touch was a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, which I secured with toothpicks.

I loved the end result! The combination of the vibrant colors, graphic shapes, and "striped" effect of the naked cake was just what we were going for!

Jennie ended up topping the cake with lots of candles and sparklers, and while I don't have a picture of it or the inside of the cake, she informed me that the cake was a hit, and even people who normally don't like cake came back for a second slice! That just made my day.

Happy Birthday, Jennie's husband! :) 

purple ombre petal cake with chocolate butterflies for mother's day

My mom likes desserts that are not too sweet.  And, she loves lemon.  So for Mother's Day I decided to make her a lemon blueberry cake, with purple ombre petal frosting for a girly feminine touch.

Initially I was going to make a lemon cake with blueberries in the batter itself, but last minute I decided to just make it a lemon cake, filled with blueberry whipped cream.  I had been eyeing a recipe for "hot milk cake" in my copy of "Miette" by Meg Ray; it sounded interesting because it was the total opposite of any other cake recipes I had tried.  While usually I would combine the fat with the sugar and then add eggs, and then alternate a flour mixture with milk, this recipe called for beating eggs with sugar, then adding the flour, then melting butter with hot milk, which is then poured into the cake batter at the end.  Interesting!  I wanted to try it.  The only thing I changed was adding lemon zest to the batter, to give a nice lemony flavor to the cake.

The blueberry filling was fairly simple - I whipped heavy cream with a bit of confectioner's sugar and vanilla, and when it started forming stiff peaks I added a few tablespoons of pureed blueberries (blueberries that I had pulsed in the food processor), and then whipped it a bit more to incorporate.

For the frosting, I wanted a light frosting that wasn't too sweet, so I chose this swiss meringue cream cheese frosting at 6 Bittersweets - I've been wanting to try her recipe, and it sounded perfect with the lemon and blueberry combination.  But I must have done something wrong, because my frosting came out very loose.  I tried refrigerating it for a while and then rebeating, but this only lead to clumpy not-smooth frosting.  But I was running out of time, and besides it still tasted great, so I used it anyway.

I piped a border of frosting on the perimeter of my first layer of cake, so that the soft filling would not leak out.  Then I filled it with the blueberry whipped cream, and then topped it with my second layer of cake.  After a quick crumb coat of frosting, I began the fun part of creating the petal look of the frosting.  I found this great tutorial at Hungry Housewife, which shows you step by step how to create the petals.

I also made chocolate butterflies for the finishing touch!  I found a great tutorial here.  Initially I was going to make the butterflies purple, but since the top of my ombre cake was purple in the middle, I decided to just make them chocolate so that they would stand out.

When we cut into the cake, the inside looked so pretty with the purple and lemon yellow constrasting colors!  The cake was nice and lemony, but very very dense, and tasted almost like a lemon pound cake.  But the overall combination of lemon and blueberry flavors was nice.

Happy Mother's Day, Mommy!

lemon meringue pie

By the time I got to the signup sheet for my son Matthew's preschool Thanksgiving party, the only things left were things like napkins, plates, (boring!) and ... lemon meringue pie.  Really?  For Thanksgiving?  In any case, I have never made lemon meringue pie, so of course I instantly put my name down!  I wouldn't have ever thought to associate lemon meringue pie with Thanksgiving, but at least this year I didn't have to make an entire turkey for the party like I did last year!

For the crust I used my favorite all-butter crust recipe - I've used this crust for everything from rhubarb pie, chicken pot pie, pocket pies, savory tarts, and fruit tarts, and it always comes out great.

For the lemon curd filling, I chose this recipe from Gourmet on Epicurious, except I increased the lemon zest to one tablespoon (instead of 2 teaspoons), for more of a lemony flavor.
I also used the recipe's meringue topping, but instead of just spreading all the meringue on top of the pie, I used a piping bag fitted with a large star tip to pipe the meringue in decorative swirls.

Once assembled, the pie went back into the oven for the meringue brown nicely.

When it came out of the oven, I was so excited to try it since I had never made one before!  And Matthew was so excited to bring it to school the next day!

Later on after the party, I asked Matthew how he liked the pie.  He said he loved it, except ... he didn't like the yellow part!!!  But, that's the "lemon" in "lemon meringue", I explained!  Alas, he thought it was too sour.  On the other hand, my husband and I both thought the filling was a perfect balance of tart, sweet, and creamy.  And especially delicious when combined with flaky crust and soft clouds of meringue!  Maybe one day when Matthew grows up, he too will learn to love the "lemon" in "lemon meringue"...

strawberry-lemonade macarons

For my next batch of macarons, I decided to make a combination of my lemon macarons and my strawberry macarons ... giving me strawberry-lemonade macarons!  Lately I've liked the look of sprinkling macarons with things such as earl grey tea, or cocoa powder, so this time I thought it would be really beautiful to have a sprinkling of strawberries on top.

I've read that macaron shells are very senstivite to moisture, so I decided to use dehydrated strawberries (from Trader Joe's) that I ground up in my food processor.  I sprinkled the strawberry bits on a few of the shells before baking, and thought the color contrast looked really beautiful!

Alas, I hadn't thought about what would happen to those dehydrated strawberries while they baked in the oven.  I had envisioned them a beautiful vivid red color, but ended up with ... dark brown!  At least they didn't taste like burnt strawberries, in fact they were still quite tangy, but they looked more like burnt bacon bits!

It was a good thing I hadn't covered all of them with the strawberry powder.  At least half of them still looked pretty, although plain.  So I brought the plain ones to work to share, and left the ugly ones at home to eat!

lemon cream cheese macarons, and whipped chocolate ganache macarons

Grant's cousin Erin was in town last weekend, and we were planning on meeting her for a day at the zoo.  I wanted to bake something that we could snack on, and based on my knowledge that a) she loves macarons, and b) she loves lemon cupcakes, I decided to make lemon macarons.

Instead of blanching and peeling my own almonds to make the almond meal with like I did here, I chose to use blanched slivered almonds instead, to save me some time.  (Of course, I could always buy ground almond meal itself, but where's the fun in that!)

I decided that I wanted to fill half of them with something lemony, and then the other half I would fill with a chocolate ganache.  So I dusted a few of them with good cocoa powder - these would be the ones filled with ganache.

For the lemon macarons, I made a smooth cream cheese filling, and added a bit of fresh lemon juice and lots and lots of freshly grated lemon zest, to give it lots of lemony flavor.

And for the ganache-filled macarons, I made a bittersweet chocolate ganache, which I whipped in order to make it more light.  This way the cookie itself could stand out more, instead of being overpowered by ganache.

We ended up having a great day at the zoo, although we didn't snack on any macarons while we were there.  Instead, we had them prior to heading to the zoo ... as a pre-lunch snack, and a post-lunch dessert!  Hope you enjoyed them Erin!

hydrangea cupcakes - lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting

When I saw this post on I Am Baker's hydrangea cake, I immediately wanted to make it, except in cupcake form!  With Mother's Day coming up, as well as Teacher Appreciation Week at Matthew's preschool (I had signed up to make a dessert for the luncheon), it was the perfect opportunity to make them.

I went to my Martha Stewart "Cupcakes" book for a lemon cupcake recipe.  The recipe calls for lemon zest as well as lemon juice, for lots of lemony flavor.  The cupcakes turned out super fragrant, moist, and soft.

For the frosting, I made a basic cream cheese frosting and also added some lemon zest and a tiny bit of lemon juice.  Once the cupcakes were cool, I piped the lemon cream cheese frosting on the cupcakes in my signature basketweave design.

Then made a batch of buttercream frosting (which I divided in thirds and then colored  pink, lavendar, and purple) to pipe on as flowers.  I thought they turned out pretty cute, but not as impressive as a cake.  So maybe one of these days I'll try making the cake too!

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!