Cupcake Cake

This was a cake for my mom's birthday, which was the same day as Father's Day. I know they sell giant cupcake pans for these, but I thought it would be more of a challenge to carve it myself. I used this tutorial to help. 

The cake is chocolate (her fave) and I tried this new frosting- Salted Caramel. It's my new fave!

Ruffle Cake

A cake for Sydney, who turned 6. I made this cake for her two years ago. The perfect girly girl, this year sweet Syd wanted a ruffle cake-

Cake was chocolate with chocolate filling. 

TWD- French Strawberry Cake

This week's TWD is for French Strawberry cake, a light genoise cake filled with macerated strawberries and covered in cream. The recipe is very straightforward and easy. 

"A génoise cake is an Italian sponge cake named after the city of Genoa and closely associated with Italian and French cuisine that does not use any chemical leavening, instead using air suspended in the batterduring mixing to give volume to the cake."

It's baked in a single layer, and then torted:

There's nothing I dislike more than torting a cake. I never do it if I can help it. If I want layers, I'm more than happy to bake them in separate pans. I only got two layers from my attempt to tort this.

This was delicious and fresh- perfect for a summer BBQ! Check out  Sophia of Sophia’s Sweets and Allison of Sleep Love Think Dine for the recipe!

CTR Cake

This cake was for Max who got baptized last weekend. What's CTR, you might ask? It stands for "Choose the Right," and is a common theme for kids getting baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Max's favorite colors are blue and orange so I opted for the ombre look.

The cake is chocolate with cookies and cream filling. My fave.

Argyle Golf Cake

For my friend's dad who turned 70. She had seen several cakes online with this design. I made the golf ball out of cereal and marshmallows, but it kept losing its shape so it's not perfectly round.

Cake was chocolate and vanilla with chocolate buttercream.

Caramel Banana Bars

I made Ina Garten's caramel sauce recipe last week for an ice cream party and had some left over. Then I saw some overripe bananas on my counter and a thought came into my head. I like banana bars. And I like caramel. Hmm.

And why shouldn't you put cream cheese frosting on everything? 

These are yum, but you should definitely use more caramel than the amount I had leftover. Kind of like bananas foster in a bar form.

Caramel Banana Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar 2 eggs 1 cup Greek-style yogurt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 mashed bananas 1 1/2 c caramel sauce Cream cheese frosting (recipe follows) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 15"x 12" jellyroll pan and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla and yogurt and mix until combined. Add flour, baking soda and salt and mix until just combined. Stir in bananas. Pour into prepared pan and bake 15-20 minutes until tester comes out with a few crumbs. Let cool completely. Pour caramel sauce over the top of the bars and spread evenly. Chill in the refrigerator 15 minutes, or until soft set. Spread cream cheese frosting over the top of the caramel layer. Cut into bars and serve. Cream Cheese Frosting 1/2 c unsalted butter 1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese 5-6 cups powdered sugar 1 t vanilla 2 T milk Cream butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Slowly add powdered sugar and blend until combined. Add vanilla and milk and beat until fluffy.

Chevron Baby Shower Cake

This cake was for my friend and neighbor who was throwing a baby shower for a newly born Nicholas. She didn't give me any guidelines, only that she was using baby blue. I've always wanted to try this chevron design, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity. It isn't the straightest, but I loved trying something new. Maybe someone will request this again so I can improve :)

Cake was lemon with fresh strawberry buttercream.