Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

  Lemon Almond Biscotti Our French language group was meeting at one of our members' homes, but we didn't want to have a large potluck. However, the plan was for a few light snacks. Biscotti seemed like the ideal idea! I decided to try  this recipe  for Lemon Almond Biscotti from King Arthur Baking.  I'm a fan of their  vanilla biscotti  recipe and I reasoned the lemon almond one would also be good.  I followed the recipe to the letter but, sadly, I found it rather disappointing.  First of all they were a bit overbaked even before the 30 minutes of the second bake were up.  Next, the glaze curdled and looked unappealing.  Worst of all, I found them to be rather bland.  The lemon flavor was too mild, and you couldn't taste the almond at all.   "Curdled" looking glaze It was still nice to bring them to the event because they were the only sweet treat there. Everyone said they loved them and I was very happy about that....

Stamped "Honey Bear" cookies This Summer one of my friends became a grandmother. It's the first one of my friends to have a grandchild so in a curious and indirect way it felt like a sort of "milestone" for me. Especially as she's close to my age!  Her grandchild is in another state and my friend was keeping us all posted with pictures and updates about the birth and her trip to see the baby.  When she returned, we had a get together for her to celebrate. The party was an outdoor potluck. For this occasion I felt a cake would have been too elaborate and it was warm enough that we would have had to deal with buttercream in the heat. So, I decided to make some cute cookies. Looking over my cookie supplies, I saw my Nordic Ware beehive stamp and I thought of combining it with my teddy bear chocolate mold to make some cute Honey Bear Cookies . I knew they would be easy, look different, and please our group.  Here's the cookie stamp, and I only have the beehi...

  Flamingo cake My birthday is only 6 days after Bubbie's.  We're almost twins!  This year we had lots of leftover pistachio cake.  Not only was there cake left over from his party, but I had several cake layers in the freezer, left over from when I tried Preppy Kitchen's pistachio cake recipe .  I also had leftover gluten-free cake mix from the cupcakes I made for his Bubbie's party.  I even had leftover freeze-dried raspberries. There was no need to shop or to bake anything and I was free to focus on the most fun part: decorating! I'd been wanting to make a Flamingo Cake for a few years now and decided to try it for the occasion. I made the head of the flamingo several days in advance. It was made out of colored and shaped fondant with CMC powder added for firming. It still took several days to dry. The day before decorating, I colored some fondant green and made the monstera leaves using  this mold  that I had at hand. A small amount of f...

Pistachio Cake with Raspberry and Lemon My Bubby turned 21 this year!  Whether or not we're living in a Simulation the passage of time, ever faster, is the only thing we can count on.  It was a joyous occasion and celebrated with a cookout attended by folks from all areas of his life, including friends and teachers from high school and now college.  He hasn't been this excited and happy since, well, his high school graduation a year ago!  For the occasion we "inaugurated" our new patio, though with a bit of trepidation because thunderstorms were in the forecast.  We set out chairs on the patio, and figured the rain would hold off long enough to grill, but we didn't dare set out the food and hold the entire party in the yard. This worked out nicely enough since in our house you can easily transition from living room to sunroom to patio.   With the threat of rain, we put the food out on a table in the sunroom.  There were peanuts, in a beautiful Pol...

  Easter Carrot Cake Once again for Easter, we were headed to Grandpa's house.  Once again, time to make Carrot Cake !  Some year when we stay home I'd like to try a different flavor recipe, but for now carrot cake is pretty much what the family expects. I wanted the cake to be small yet tall enough to decorate.  The past few years I've divided cupcake recipes into two 6" cake pans and it's worked more or less, but with the oven causing more and more inconsistent baking, I decided to look for a proper recipe.  I went with  this one  from Chelsweets.  It not exactly what I'd call small, because it has the same amount of ingredients as what you'd bake in 8" pans. But because of this, it did yield the tall layers I was looking for.    I followed the recipe to the letter, and it baked in 34 minutes. I frosted the cake with a simple cinnamon American Buttercream.   I wanted to do a Spring Pastel theme, because I was happy that this ...

Piping bags ready to go! Cake frosting has been a lifelong fascination of mine, odd as this may sound.  Growing up, there was a Swiss bakery in town where most people bought their cakes, and the bakery used what I now know to be Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC).  To add to the deliciousness they would cover the sides of the cake with slivered almonds. At birthday parties it was customary to serve the cake with a scoop of ice cream. Sheer heaven! But not for me!  It was very upsetting at the time that my own cakes were always frosted with a thin, sugary frosting, a type of glaze that only set on the top, instead of the rich frosting on my friends' cakes. This was because my father disliked what he called "greasy frostings", ie butter-based frosting.  And so for the rest of my life, I never shied away from rich buttercream frostings and enjoyed them probably all too frequently! Most baked goods you can buy are frosted with American Buttercream . Whether it be lemon fl...