strawberry cream cake

In my quest last year to a recipe for the perfect vanilla cake (for my friend Helen's baby shower cake), I tried out one for America's Test Kitchen's strawberry cream cake.  The recipe described the cake as a "chiffon-style cake that combined the rich flavor of a butter cake with the light-yet-sturdy texture of a sponge cake", which sounded perfect!

Like a chiffon cake, the recipe called for folding in whipped egg whites into the cake batter, to give the cake a light and airy texture.

When it came out of the oven, the cake was definitely light, yet sturdy at the same time.  So I sliced it in half horizontally, and then layered on the whipped cream and fresh strawberries, and included sliced strawberries inside the ring of halved strawberries (which is not pictured here).
Note: the recipe actually called for mashing the strawberries and cooking it down with kirch in a saucepan, but I skipped that step.

Then came more whipped cream, followed by the second half of the cake layer, then another layer of whipped cream, and fresh strawberries to decorate the top of the cake.

Although I didn't end up using this cake recipe for the baby shower, I thought the cake was actually pretty good, and kept well in the fridge without hardening.  And who can go wrong with strawberries and whipped cream!

flower surprise inside cake with dried pineapple flower topper for mother's day

Since I didn't do any baking at all during our month in Hawaii, I decided to show you the cake that I made for Mother's Day back in May.  After seeing this post at Tide and Thyme on making dried pineapple flowers as cupcake toppers, I had decided that I wanted to try making some to decorate a cake instead!  I followed this tutorial at Annie's Eats, and ended up with these beautiful dried pineapple flowers!

For the cake, I wanted a simple vanilla cake, but with a twist - I wanted it to have a red velvet flower "surprise" inside the cake!  To do this, I baked up a red velvet cake and then let it firm up in the fridge.  Then I used a flower shaped cookie cutter to cut out my flower shapes.

Next I made a vanilla cake using this recipe at Sweetapolita, filled up the cake pans halfway with batter, and then dropped in the red velvet flowers before filling the cake pans with the rest of the batter! (I actually first saw this technique at A Cup of Sugar A Pinch of Salt)

After the cake layers were baked and cooled, I filled it with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, since I wanted something light and airy and not too sweet, and then frosted it with whipped cream as well.

Finally I added a piped beaded border on the bottom, and finished it off with a dried pineapple flower!

And the best part about the cake, the surprise inside!

Happy belated Mother's Day! :)

red white and blue flag tart for july fourth, with fresh blueberries and strawberries

I'm back!!!  It's been a long time since I've posted anything, but I've been busy with the three kids! Plus, we decided to take a long vacation while I was still on maternity leave, so we went to Hawaii to visit my husband's family and hang out for a while ... in fact we were there for a month!  We stayed with my in-laws, so it was nice to have the extra help with the kids as well.

Anyhow, the first thing that I baked when we got back was for a July 4th BBQ at my cousin's house.  I didn't have a lot of time to bake since it was my first week back at work, so I decided to make a simple tart with fresh fruit on top.  Inspired by Martha Stewart's flag cake (that I've been wanting to make for ages), I decorated my tart to look like the American flag!

First I made my favorite all-butter pie crust, rolled it out and fitted it into a rectangular tart pan, then blind baked in the oven and let it cool.

For the filling, I found this Martha Stewart recipe for a no-bake cheesecake, and then I topped the tart with fresh blueberries and sliced strawberries.

The tart turned out to be perfect for a bbq on a hot summer day - crispy flaky crust, light and creamy filling, and fresh fruit!  I served it with my red, white, and blue ice cream (almond-scented ice cream with fresh blueberries and strawberries), which made a great combo! 

And now I'll leave you with some of my favorite pictures taken during our month in Hawaii.  Enjoy!

dr. seuss cat in the hat cookies

A few months ago, my husband's coworker asked me to make cookies for a Dr. Seuss themed baby shower.  She sent me a few Dr. Seuss cartoon images, and I was immediately excited at the challenge!  We decided that I would make Cat In The Hat cookies, Cat's hat cookies, and One Fish Two Fish cookies.

The first thing I did was ask my husband to make me a Hat cookie cutter.  He's the best at making custom copper cutters!  (See my Superman, Thomas the Train, Dora The Explorer, Spiderman, custom Cat, and Standing Piggy cookies).  We even have an Etsy shop up for them!

After using my favorite cookie and royal icing recipes, I was ready to decorate my cookies!  I started by piping an outline and stripes on the hat cookies with stiff black royal icing.  Then I filled them in with red and white runny icing.

After letting them dry overnight, I finished them by using an edible food marker to draw on the details, to give them a "cartoon" look.

For the Cat In the Hat cookies, there were a few more steps.  First, I used royal icing to hand pipe each Cat onto waxed paper, let them dry overnight, and then used an edible food marker to draw on the face and the details.  Then after I baked rectangular cookies, I outlined and filled them with blue royal icing, peeled off the pre-made Cats, and dropped them on the cookies while the blue icing was still wet.

I used the same technique for the One Fish Two Fish cookies, which were inspired by the ones at Sweet Sugar Belle (love her site and her amazing work!).

These ended up being the most complicated cookies I've ever made!  But they were also super challenging and so much fun, and totally worth it!

dark cherry ice cream

Near the end of my pregnancy with my third baby, I started making a lot of ice cream.  Like, a lot.  Particularly, various flavors of ice cream with chopped Oreos.  And then my cousin suggested that I make black cherry ice cream.  I instantly set about to find the perfect recipe, and finally decided on David Lebovitz's recipe from The Perfect Scoop (what a surprise!).

The first step was to make candied cherries by simmering cherries, sugar, lemon juice, and water together.  They cooked for about 30 minutes until the cherry liquid reduced and became syrupy.

For the ice cream base, the recipe called for making a custard with egg yolks, sugar, heavy cream and milk that had been steeped with chopped almonds to give an almond flavor in the custard.  But since my 3-year old is allergic to nuts, I skipped that step and instead used imitation almond extract.  Then after chilling the mixture overnight, I churned it in my ice cream maker, and added the strained and chopped candied cherries during the last few minutes of churning.

Let me just say that once I tasted this ice cream, I instantly fell in love with it.  And so did my husband.  I must have made it at least 5 times during my last month of pregnancy!  This is definitely at the top of my list of favorite ice cream recipes!