Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

 It seems unreal that Bubby is turning 22!  Last year we had a big party for his 21s birthday, but it feels like that was only 6 months ago. This year we elected to travel to Grandpa's area and spend the day with him.  So as to not have to cook, we'll eat at a Mexican restaurant and we'll sing happy birthday with a dessert from their menu.  The weather forecast is for hot and rainy weather. Not ideal for traveling over 2 hours with a frosted and decorated cake.  But we can't have Bubby not have a birthday cake!  I came up with the idea of having a "Birthday Eve" cake.   Bubby couldn't think of what flavor cake he wanted.  In the end I suggested an Oreo cake, and he liked that idea. Since I wanted to make a 6-inch cake, for just the three of us, I went with  this recipe  from Sugar and Sparrow. I've made it before, in two 8-inch pans.  It does have a sizable amount of batter for a cake for just 3 people, but I figured at least i...

Hulking-bunny cake. Dieu merci this Easter we are not going to Grandpa's house. For a variety of reasons, and I am thrilled to stay home. It's much less work, and last year's blowout with SIL still rankles me. We simplified our plans further, from the initial thought of inviting friends over for brunch, to deciding to make a simple brunch for the three of us. On the menu: asparagus, green salad, cod cakes, And for dessert, Carrot Cake ! I decided to go with  this recipe  from Sallys Bake Blog. I've this cupcake recipe before in two six-inch pans, hoping to get tall layers and not have to use too much frosting in between. Results have been mixed, with sometimes the cakes coming out perfectly, others with a dry exterior and not entire cooked middle. It's a lot of batter for two pans, so I decided to try it in three pans. It worked very well in terms of amounts! I followed the recipe to the letter and baked it in three 6-inch pans. The baking time was almost 25 minutes...

Chocolate cupcakes with basketball decoration. It was the end of another season for Bubby's basketball team and after the last practice there was a pizza party to celebrate. We were asked to contribute desserts.  Last year it was so much fun to make a cake, but this year I only had time for cupcakes.  But they were fun to make too! And best of all, quick. I used  this recipe  for Chocolate Cupcake s from Sugar and Sparrow. It's so easy and uses all pantry ingredients.  The batter is very liquid, and last time I made it the cups were 2/3 full and the resulting cupcakes were too big. This time instead of 12 I made 13. And even then, some of them were a bit too tall. So I think with this recipe I can try for 14 next time.  As it is, when they came out of the oven I had to smush down the tops of some of them that had domed a bit. I needed to be flat. I used  the usual recipe  for buttercream, from Preppy Kitchen. I made one batch, reserving some to co...

  Chocolate Doughnuts  with Vanilla Glaze and Fondant Hearts On this Valentine's day I decided to make a small batch dessert that still felt special. We hadn't had home made doughnuts in a long time, so that gave me the idea to make Chocolate Doughnuts . I used  this recip e from Preppy Kitchen. I followed it to the letter but cut the amount to only make six doughnuts. Here they are right before going into the oven. Filling doughnut pans is always a bit of a pain to me, so I only enjoy making them in small batches. Doughnut batter in the pan. I was surprised, since our new oven bakes so hot, that the doughnuts took a full 12 minutes to bake. I checked them at 8 minutes, which is the minimum baking time according to the recipe. But they were raw inside. Not wanting them to get dry, I turned oven down to 340 and checked again at 10 minutes then at 12.  At 12 minutes a toothpick came out clean. After the doughnuts were cool I coated them with a vanilla glaze. I love...

 Recently I made a Banana Bread from a different recipe that uses less butter.  Here it is: Ingredients:  2 cups flour  3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup butter 2 eggs 1 cup mashed bananas 1/3 cup yogurt 1 teaspoon vanilla Directions 1. Combine dry ngredients. 2. Beat butter and sugar 1 minute. 3. Add eggs, one at a time. Add bananas, yogurt and vanilla.  4. Bake 1 hour at 350F. Modifications I made: 1.5 cups whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour. Slightly less banana because that's all I had. Two teaspoons vanilla instead of one. Dash of cinnamon It turned out pretty good! Denser than my usual Martha Stewart recipe, so a little bit dryer. I'd bake it a little less next time, or at a lower temperature. But it's also a bit more filling than my usual recipe. Great for mornings when I have to rush to art class in Connecticut and eat breakfast in the car.

Galette des Rois I volunteered to make a Galette des Rois for my book club and then I began to have second thoughts. Puff pastry has always intimidated me and I've never worked with it.  But I couldn't backtrack, so I did it. It came out pretty good too! I made the frangipane the day before. Here is the recipe I used:  108g almond flour 1.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour 100g sugar 100g butter, room temperature 2 eggs, room temperature 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1. Cream butter and sugar for 3 minutes. 2. Add eggs, vanilla and almond extract 3. Add dry ingredients 4. Beat until smooth 5. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. I didn't want to make the dough myself, so I bought Dufour pastry sheets. First and last time, too, because it was damned expensive.  I needed two boxes, and each box was $13.99 at Whole Foods. Ouch! Each box contains one 9/14 x 13" sheet of 1/4 inch thick dough. So, there's minimal rolling out to do...