Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

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...

Snickerdoodle Basketball Cake! Bubby's has really enjoyed being part of a basketball team this winter.  Ever since he was 5 years old, he's said basketball is his favorite sport, but up to now has never had a chance to be part of a team. When the opportunity arose we hesitated a bit because it seemed like an ideal place to catch Covid. But ultimately he has to live his life, and we encouraged him. And he had such a great - and healthy - season! For the team's end-of-season party we were asked for contributions and I knew immediately a cake was in order. I was very happy no one else volunteered cake, either.  I needed to think of a flavor that everybody would like so I went with Snickerdoodle cake.  I like  this recipe  from Preppy Kitchen because it tastes great, doesn't require special ingredients, and makes for a tall cake that is more fun to decorate.  I used it for Bubby's graduation cake last year and it was a hit. Initially, I thought of making a 3D b...

Vanilla Strawberry "Olympic" birthday cak e This year, R* wasn't sure what he wanted to do for his birthday but he knew he wanted it to involve ice cream cake. However at the last minute, we had a family emergency and had to spend his birthday weekend out of town.  Since ice cream doesn't travel well, I decided to make him a small birthday cake. He requested a vanilla cake, and I suggested we complement it with strawberry frosting since that's his second favorite flavor.  A Vanilla and Strawberry Cake was in order! Looking for recipes for small-batch vanilla cakes I came across  this one  from Butternut Bakery. I'm a fan of their Instagram page where everything always looks delicious, and the recipe got good reviews. I also liked that it was only a 2-layer cake, so that I'd have to make less frosting when I put it together. The cakes baked up in 25 minutes, it seems my oven is now running too hot, whereas before it wasn't heating up enough!  My oven t...

  A special Graduation Cake Bubby graduated from High School! I still have to pinch myself to believe it, because it feels like I just dropped him off at preschool.  On that day so long ago, I was so nervous about how he would do that I couldn't go home and waited the entire three hours he was there at the nearest café in case they needed me to pick him up. A lifetime ago, when he was 3! The family was coming to a brunch at our house before the early evening ceremony and we prepared a nice spread including a corn chips with guacamole, a cheese array, pork tenderloin, local asparagus, couscous salad and plenty of beverages. I decorated the house to make it look festive for the graduate and he received lots of gifts of money, a watch, t-shirts and more. The grand finale of the afternoon needed to be a special cake. I decided to try  this recipe  from Preppy Kitchen because I wanted a hefty cake in 8-inch pans.  I liked how simple it was to put together! I didn't h...

Bubby had a Big Birthday coming up! I always try to tailor his cake to whatever he's into or sometimes even obsessed by at the time. Last year it was Twilight Zone and before that it was Wheel of Fortune.  Right now, it's all about hamburgers!  He'll grab a burger anytime he can and loves Burger King commercials. Yes the child who grew up eating homemade organic foods and hardly ever being served beef can't get enough of fast food. He didn't have any specific requests regarding the flavor. I thought a darker cake might work better than a butter-colored cake, so I decided to make a Red Velvet Cake .  Since it was only our tiny family celebrating this year, a 6-inch cake was the right size, and I chose to make  this  cupcake recipe from Sally's Bake Blog. Making a cupcake recipe, which usually yields two dozen, in two 6-inch pans makes for two thick cake layers, and what I really like about this is that you only need one layer of frosting in between. This cuts dow...

Bubby is graduating high school this year! It feels like I just dropped him off at preschool 5 minutes ago, and it's hard to even remember everything that happened in between. He's participated in an afterschool social group for the last two years, and yesterday was their farewell event. When they asked parents to send in snacks, I knew a cake was in order.  And I had all the ingredients in the pantry to make a Vanilla Sheet Cake.  Something I've actually never made before! I used  this recipe  from Joy of Baking. I used a Pyrex 9x13 glass pan, which is great for transporting cakes because it has handles and a lid. More on that later... The cake was supposed to take 35 minutes in the  oven but thankfully I checked at 33 minutes and it was ready to come out. In fact, it looked a bit overbaked, and I hope it wasn't dry. I took the cake out of the pan, which I'd lined with parchment, to cool on a rack so I could frost it faster. In the meantime, I made a simple van...

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...

Grandpa's birthday always falls over the Thanksgiving holiday, so we don't always have a chance to celebrate him with a birthday cake because pumpkin pie is the focus. But this year he was starting a new decade, so the occasion clearly called for a special cake. I've been wanting to make another 3D cake and have been intrigued by pumpkin-shaped cakes I've seen online with flowers on top.  I had to make one!  Since many people are not fans of pumpkin cake, I decided to make a spice cake.  It would still fit the bill for a Fall flavor. I chose  this recipe  from the "If You Give a Blonde a Kitchen" website, mainly because it called for 6-inch pans.  I didn't want to make the cake too big, as we are a small family and there would also be apple pie.  This was my first time trying this recipe. I was a bit nervous that the diced apples would be too crisp (it's happened before with apple pie), but they did bake up soft. The cake recipe calls for 30-35 minutes...

Bubby's friend was coming over after a bike ride and I wanted to make them a Halloween-themed treat.  I've been wanting to make a spiderweb cake for a while.  I sure came away with some do's and don'ts! I chose to use  this recipe  from King Arthur Baking.  Not sure why but I had my heart set on making it in an 8x8 square pan, and this recipe fit the bill. It's a recipe that calls for no eggs and no butter! I was a bit anxious about greasing but not flouring the pan, but the cake didn't stick to the sides when cutting it so that was fine.  The cake baked for 32 minutes (should have been 31) in my Corning Ware pan. Had I used an aluminum pan I'm sure it would have been ready much sooner.   I'd never made ganache using chocolate chips and I wanted to try it so this was my opportunity.  This recipe also calls for half and half rather than heavy cream, for the ganache.  It was more difficult to melt the chocolate chips and incorporate the in...

Yesterday was my birthday and I knew exactly what kind of cake I wanted to make for myself: a small chocolate cake, with a whipped cream and strawberry filling, and a chocolate cake collar.  This technique is also called a "chocolate cage" and I had been wanting to try it. Most of the cakes I made are transported somewhere else, so I had to wait for an opportunity to make a cake for home. For the cake layers, I went with  this recipe  for Chocolate Malt Cupc akes  from the Browned Butter Blondie website. Instead of cupcakes I baked it in two 6-inch cake layers. Upon closer inspection it turns out the malt in this recipe is only in the frosting. This was misleading!  I ended up adding three tablespoons of malt powder. The recipe calls for coffee, and I swapped this for 1/2 teaspoon of espresso powder.  Next time I would actually use a whole teaspoon. The batter is very liquid. The layers baked up great in about 26 minutes. For the frosting, I used  this...

When a friend from my book club announced that she was having her second baby, the rest of us immediately started planning the baby shower. I knew I wanted to knit a gift for the new little one, as I've done for all the "book club babies".  I ended up knitting a vest with a whale motif  and that turned into the inspiration for the cake too! I decided to try an Oreo Cookie Cake because I've never done one before and I knew it would be a crowd pleaser.  I used  this recipe  from the Life Love and Sugar blog.  I made some changes to the recipe: taking out the Oreo fillings, using larger broken off pieces instead of crushed Oreos, and baking it for longer than 18-23 minutes.  My cakes were in the oven for about 27 minutes.  And actually, I didn't use Oreos, but instead went with Whole Foods' 365 brand chocolate sandwich cookies. They may not be a health food, but they do have better ingredients than Oreo brand. The cake layers were delicious but, dis...

Remembering a cake I made last June to donate through Icing Smiles. Icing Smiles is an organization that provides cakes to critically ill children. I had signed up a long time prior and was thrilled when an opportunity came up that fit my abilities. A long story ensued. There are two types of cakes one can make through Icing Smiles: a Dream Cake and a Fun Cake. A Dream Cake is usually more elaborate, two-tiered, etc. I accepted an opportunity for a Fun Cake since I'm not a professional baker nor am I that experienced. The child was a little boy named Abdiel who lives in nearby Holyoke and was turning 5 years old. The directives I received were for a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse-themed cake and that it needed to be for 40 people. I only got this information after accepting the request and it gave me pause. I'd never made a cake that big, and it was for more servings than a Fun Cake is supposed to have. But I didn't want to back out. And at least their requested flavor was simply v...