Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

My Sis was coming to visit just a couple of weeks after a milestone birthday. She didn't celebrate on her Big Day, so we decided to do it together. She wanted a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting . Simple! I made a 6" three-layer cake using  this recipe  from Sugar and Sparrow.  Quickly this website is becoming my go-to, their recipes are just better than on Sallys Bake Blog which used to be my reference.  For Sis, I actually followed the instructions to use eggs plus egg whites, whereas usually I never bother and just substitute one egg for two egg whites. This recipe also uses sour cream. The cakes were a bit dry and I should have taken them out of the oven a bit sooner, but I'm still getting to know my new oven.  I offered to make Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but she wanted American.  These layers, when stacked, make for a pretty tall cake. I offered Sis a filling but she declined. She just wanted chocolate buttercream! With all this, I was worried that...

Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Cake Recently I got to make a birthday cake for a young friend of ours who was turning 18. He is a film fanatic and especially likes gangster movies.  I knew I'd have to make a cake in honor of this! The flavor requested was a simple Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Buttercream .  The mom told me there would be up to 30 people at the party, so I knew it would have to be a 9" cake.  I have several vanilla cake recipes in various sizes I've made over the years, but I wanted to try a new recipe this time. I chose  this recipe  from Sugar & Sparrow, an online blog I've recently found. I tend to like her recipes a little bit better than my old go-to, Sally's Bake Blog.   The recipe makes two cake layers.  So I made two layers several days beforehand. Knowing I'd have a spare cake layer, I "cored" one of the cakes to try a small bite beforehand and was satisfied that it baked up well and tasted good.  I froze ...

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...