This cake is actually so good though. Extremely light and fluffy inside (that's from beating the egg so much), and the whipped cream frosting tastes exactly like, well, whipped cream! It tastes exactly like strawberry shortcake. I was even able to write (myself) happy birthday on the cake by adding a drop of red food dye to the remaining frosting I had (which I knew would turn it pink), and then writing happy birthday! So it's all whipped cream frosting! Also note that it is really important to sift the flour. I never follow that instruction and just whisk it and I had little chunks of flour on top of not only my batter once I poured it into the cake pans, but once I baked it the flour was still there, so make sure you sift that flour! And make sure your cakes are completely cool before frosting. I always make my cakes in the morning, just leave them there to cool for at least 2 hours usually, then make the frosting and it takes no time and you can really be sure your cakes are cool, so I suggest that. Happy summer!
Yesterday was my birthday! Yay! Happy 18th birthday to me! It's so weird that I'm a legal adult now, like I've always felt really mature but it's weird to be officially labeled as an adult. I'm ready for it, though. I bought my first (six) lottery tickets with my dad yesterday. I won ten bucks... yay... Better than nothing. Anyways, one of my favorite parts about my birthday every year (no joke), is getting to make my own birthday cake. This year I went more with something new than crazy decorations, so I made a strawberry shortcake cake! I do have a summer birthday so why not go with the ultimate summer dessert. Also, I absolutely love strawberries. I liked how it was in a layer cake form though, so it would still seem like a celebratory cake and not just an everyday thing. Plus, that meant I could decorate it, hehe.
This cake is actually so good though. Extremely light and fluffy inside (that's from beating the egg so much), and the whipped cream frosting tastes exactly like, well, whipped cream! It tastes exactly like strawberry shortcake. I was even able to write (myself) happy birthday on the cake by adding a drop of red food dye to the remaining frosting I had (which I knew would turn it pink), and then writing happy birthday! So it's all whipped cream frosting! Also note that it is really important to sift the flour. I never follow that instruction and just whisk it and I had little chunks of flour on top of not only my batter once I poured it into the cake pans, but once I baked it the flour was still there, so make sure you sift that flour! And make sure your cakes are completely cool before frosting. I always make my cakes in the morning, just leave them there to cool for at least 2 hours usually, then make the frosting and it takes no time and you can really be sure your cakes are cool, so I suggest that. Happy summer!
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I made these cookies at the cafe I work at, and of course I had to taste one for testing purposes only, and they were just so good that I had to make them at home. At the cafe I made them with chocolate in the middle, but at home I made them with homemade strawberry jam in the middle, and they were delicious! They spread a little more than I would have hoped they would, but they were very yummy. That's why I have in the instructions to put them back in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking. They also take longer than you would think to bake so make sure they are all the way baked before you take them out of the oven or else they will be pure shortbread dough in the middle.
Today the most annoying thing happened. The big news all-day long was how we were going to get hit with this huge summer storm in the afternoon. There was a tornado watch in effect, the national weather service had warnings going all day, they even taped over the national news with the local news to talk more and more about the storm (I hate when they do that)! Guess what we got? Rain. For 2 minutes. Most people I asked didn't even know it rained. I love summer storms and they got me allll excited and then we got rain. So annoying. I'm never going to be a weatherman, they're just so disappointing!
Anyways, on to cookies. I got up at 7:45 p.m. tonight from my couch and said to my dad, "Guess what?". "What, Katherine?". "I'm going to go make cookies!". "Ohhh, awesome. Go do it!". I love when my family members want me to make food. My mom came home and got super annoyed because she's like on a diet or whatever but we can ignore that. These are really good. If you've never used vanilla bean before (it was my first time, too!), it's really easy and so delicious. Everyone's so used to vanilla in their cookies that we don't realize how delicious of a spice it is. I also love the speckled effect. I used a vanilla bean in the cookie dough and then just used vanilla bean paste in the glaze because I like it better and had it on hand, but you can also just follow the recipe. Also enjoy this lovely picture of my brother gnawing on one of my cookies approximately 5 seconds after I said they were done. Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there, and especially my one and only dad! He is the best, and what do the best dads deserve? Chocolate mousse, of course. We went out to dinner a couple weeks ago to celebrate my graduation and they had chocolate mousse as an option on the dessert menu, and my dad said it was one of his all-time favorite desserts, so he couldn't let it down. So, we ordered it, but I thought to myself, how did I never know chocolate mousse was one of my dad's all-time favorite desserts? It's so easy to make! So, two weeks later, enter the chocolate mousse for Father's Day. He loved it, as he should, it was delicious! I don't have much experience with mousse but I was told it's much denser than most mousse's, so keep that in mind. Nevertheless, chocolate mousse can be made many different ways so this is just one of them, and it was still delicious!
I make this apple crumb tart at the cafe I work at and it is so delicious! I've gotten so many great reviews on it, plus it's one of my personal favorites. The trick is that you cook the apple beforehand, so first of all they're delicious, because you cook them with sugar, butter, and cinnamon so you can be sure the apples have fully incorporated all those ingredients by cooking them with them beforehand. Also, it make it so that the tart doesn't shrink in the oven because all the juices from the apples have already been released. So, it's a win, win. And the crumb topping really makes it. A great summer dessert!
Dessert number three of what I made for my graduation party (out of six). I invited a lot of my friends to the party, so my dad was thinking that I had way too many desserts, but sure enough my friends went ham on them, just as I thought, and we had only one container-full left of them. But as I pointed out to my dad, I think that if you have enough food, whether it's dinner food or dessert, that means that you will have extra. If you have too much food you will have way too much extra, but I think I made the perfect amount, because we really didn't have that much left. Literally the second after I brought out the first 4 of 8 platters, everyone was out of their seats. No joke. I had to get through the crowd to being out the rest of the platters. It was insane, but also so wonderful.
Anyways, red velvet cupcakes. Pretty much heaven on earth. People were asking me, is there really any difference between chocolate cupcakes and red velvet cupcakes except for the food dye? The answer is yes and no. Chocolate cake usually has melted chocolate in it in addition to cocoa powder to really make it chocolate-y, while red velvet cake only has cocoa powder, so it's not as chocolate-y. It also typically has buttermilk and vinegar in it, whereas most chocolate cakes may have buttermilk but almost never have vinegar. Lastly, I think red velvet cake is usually a bit denser than chocolate cake. Most people like fluffy chocolate cake, but red velvet cake is best with fine crumbs and a bit more dense. It is also topped with cream cheese frosting, which is so good. So that's what I interpret as being the difference, but nevertheless, they're both still amazing. Saturday was my graduation party, and of course, I was on charge of all the desserts, yay! It was so much fun to make all the desserts. I made six different desserts: chocolate chip cookies (of course), chocolate chip pecan shortbread cookies (my mom's secret best cookie ever), double chocolate sable cookies, red velvet cupcakes (coming soon), apple crumb tart (also coming soon), and then lemon bars. I had no idea, but everyone was so excited for the lemon bars! It was so many people's favorite desserts! Even my aunt, who is definitely not a dessert person (I know, crazy, right?) loved these and said they were amazing. Also, they're so great for the summer! They're nice and fresh with just the right amount of sweetness and sourness. Even I liked them, and I'm not a huge fan of lemon desserts, so that must mean they're good, right?
I graduate from high school in 2 days!! I'm so excited! I used to be in the orchestra and so I would go to graduation to play pomp and circumstance and just couldn't wait until I was one of those kids in the ugly maroon gowns. Well, this Sunday, I am, and I'm really happy about it. So, what do I do to celebrate? Make cake, of course. We are going out to dinner tonight at this nice French restaurant and I'm really excited. I looked at their menu online and it all looks so yummy. So, I made this cake to come home to for dessert. And, there is a surprise inside the cake. Well, it probably doesn't come as much of a surprise given the name of the cake, but there are sprinkles in the cake! It looked so awesome. I used confetti/quin sprinkles, which I think work really well because they look awesome but don't bleed into the batter to give you weird, ucky ranbow bake. It was also delicious, as per usual. A great cake for birthday celebrations, too!
Right now I am on the paleo diet, which means I successfully made a whole batch of delicious chocolate cookies without having ANY of the dough. It was hard, I have to say. There were times when I took a little piece and stared at it for a solid minute before just throwing it in the sink so I couldn't eat it. However, I did try like one-sixth of one of the cookies to make sure they were good. They looked good, but if I was going to put them on my blog I had to know they were good. And guess what, they were... they were really good. They have the texture and look of a chewy gingersnap but they taste like pure chocolate heaven. They do have to refrigerate, but other than that these are super easy and quick to make!
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AuthorMy name is Katherine and I love, love, love to bake! You can find all my baking adventures on this blog, plus you can follow me on Social Media by clicking below! Archives
January 2016
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