Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

 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 to frequently!  Coconut frosting, orange-flavored frosting, mocha frosting, chocolate frosting, cream cheese frosting, I ...

 I can't let Easter go by without making and decorating sugar cookies!  I use a basic recipe from Martha Stewart that I've had for a long time. Here it is: 3 cups flour 3/4 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 2 sticks butter 1 cup sugar 1 egg 2 tsp vanilla extract Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture, beat until combined. To make chocolate sugar cookies, replaced 1/3 cup flour with 1/3 cup cocoa powder.  I've been making these sugar cookies for many years and for all occasions. I've never tried any other sugar cookie recipe!  Years ago I used to spend an entire day decorating cookies, using different cutters, making many bags of royal icing in separate outline and flood consistencies, and in different colors. Then I learned to use just one consistency for both outlining and flooding and got away from intricate decorations.  I want to keep up the tradition, but I just don'...

Lamb cake. Today I decided to making a cake in my Wilton 3D Lamb cake pan . I think the Lamb Centerpiece Cake is so cute and had been wanting to make and decorate one since I got my pan in 2020.  But, five years later, I'd yet to do so. The reason is that we always go to Grandpa's house for Easter, and I've been afraid to take a 3D cake on a 2.5 hour car ride. We're going again this year, but I decided to make the cake anyway. If it looked stable enough for the trip, I could make it again for Easter weekend. If not, at least I'd have broken in my lamb pan. Wilton lamb cake pan. I looked high and low for a recipe because I wanted to make it a coconut cake. I finally settled on  this recipe  from Southern Living. Here it is written out: Ingredients: 2 cups All Purpose Flour 1.5 tsp Baking Powder 3/4 tsp Salt 1/4 tsp Baking Soda 1/2 cup Butter, softened 1 cup Sugar 2 large Eggs 1 tsp Vanilla Extract 1/2 tsp Almond Extract 1 cup Buttermilk Directions: Oil and flour the...