Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

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...

  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 ...

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...

Easter Cake 2024 I did a quick check with the family to see if they wanted carrot cake again for Easter, or coconut cake for something different.  Carrot cake won the day!   I decided to try a new recipe and went with  this one  from King Arthur Flour.  I specifically wanted to bake it in 8-inch rounds in order to have enough space for a fun decoration, but not too much space.  This recipe is for 9-inch rounds, so I was prepared to have leftover batter and make cupcakes.  But it only filled the pans halfway up, so I used up all the batter.  Since the change in pan size made me a bit nervous about dry edges and uncooked centers I baked them at 345 F.  At 35 minutes they were well underdone. I raised the oven temp to 350 and checked again in 5 minutes and they were still raw in the middle.  I gave them an additional 10 minutes, and then they were done.  And maybe even a bit over dry, though hardly noticeably. I needed 2 batches o...

Today I made Hot Cross Buns to freeze for Easter morning. We're visiting Grandpa, so I needed to make these ahead of time. I used  this recipe  from Sally's Bake Blog. I've made them before but I can't remember how it went. This time, however, I had a lot of trouble with the dough sticking to the sides of the mixer no matter how much extra flour I added. I have a feeling it could have been because I didn't follow the recipe to the letter. It calls for 3.5 cups of flour, but somehow I skipped looking at the amount in the ingredients, only looked at the directions, and started beating 2 cups of flour with a dough hook instead of with the paddle attachment. By the time I came to my senses, switched attachments, and put in all the flour needed, perhaps the die was cast.  I was late to a French lesson, to boot.  So I dumped the mess out on the counter, added a lot of bench flour, and somehow made a dough.  They baked up fine and I tried one after dinner and it was d...

This year I made several dozen  Decorated Sugar Cookies,  some for us to enjoy and some to send to my family and friends in the Caribbean. When I send them baked goods I always try to mail the package on a Monday, in hopes they will arrive by the following Saturday at latest, and avoid an overnight in a post office somewhere. I made one batch of  Chocolate Sugar Cookies  and one batch Vanilla . I used an egg shaped cutter, a large bunny head cutter, and a bunny cutter.  I always use  this royal icing recipe  from Sallys Bake Blog and although I'm not the biggest fan of royal icing, I think it does have a pretty good taste and never fails to dry no matter how much water I end up adding.  I do recommend this recipe.  I made five colors: a blue, a pink, a green, a yellow, and a purple.  Pretty basic! I flooded the bunnies in pink and the eggs in blue.  My original idea was to do a floral design, inspired by  this tutorial ...