Coconut Almond Cake {and a little Announcement}

As I was preparing for this week's class on stacking cakes, I couldn't help but think of our recent wedding cake. Venturing down memory lane, it seemed as if the wedding cake was the easiest decision we made. Mr. J was very interested in partaking in this aspect, more so than in making the DIY card box or pocketfold invitations. In the end, we decided that I would be in charge of the exterior aesthetics of the cake while he took care of the inside.

After several hours on Pinterest, I decided on this (left; photo credit: weddingchannel.com) four-layered round cake for our wedding cake. I liked that it was simple and elegant as that was the theme of our entire wedding. Our flowers would be fuchsia pink sugar roses and we would have a cake topper instead of the floral bouquet.

Photo credit:  Vanessa Finch Photography

Our cake (right; photo credit @ Finch Photography) turned out beautiful! And it was exactly what I wanted. A family friend bakes and designs beautiful cakes and I am happy we asked her (Thanks Jolene! You can find her here). After several cake tastings, the hubby decided on a lemon cake with raspberry filling for the bottom layer, chocolate cake with chocolate ganache for the second and for the top cake he went with a coconut almond cake. All were very great combinations and I'm sure they tasted great on the day...but I wouldn't know since I didn't eat any.

So back to the cake stacking class that started this reminiscing. I was inspired by our wedding cake and decided to recapitulate it for this project. For the cakes, I made two 10" cakes for the bottom layer and two 6" cakes for the top. Both cakes were frosted with my go-to swiss meringue buttercream (SMB) with lime zest and lemon extract. The bottom cake is a new recipe that I'm sharing below. It's a coconut almond cake that I experimented with and it turned out moist and amazing!

For the floral arrangements, I made pink gumpaste roses and fondant leaves earlier in the week (while watching Criminal minds... I love that show!). I went for a much simpler piping design than our original wedding cake. After all, I'm only just starting and not a pro. In the end, I think the piping has lots of room for improvement and I will be working on that more. The roses turned out great and I am in love with them.

The small cake is also a test recipe for a purple velvet cake. Why purple? It has to do with my little announcement. I was asked to design and set-up a dessert table at a bridal shower this summer! I am super excited (and secretly scared...shh) and honored that the maid-of-honor hosting the shower (ahemmm Trista!) trusts me to pull this off. 

I am testing several variations for this purple velvet she requested and once I nail the recipe, I will share it here. Needless to say, there will be lots of posts on this first gig as we get closer to the summer. There are so many ideas racing through my mind and I am spending lots of hours on Pinterest trying to figure out how to bring them all to life on one small table.

Holiday Baking

The holiday season is upon us...Merry Christmas! This is our first married Christmas together and I love our Christmas tree.

Being an avid fan of Pinterest, I had a lot of ideas for what my holiday baking list should entail but I kept it simple. I started with some simple sugar cookies from Better Homes and Gardens and these gingerbread cookies. I followed the recipes as close as possible and the cookies turned out great.

I attempted to decorate the cookies as well and I spent a lot of time watching videos and reading blogs on how-to decorate cookies. I went simple again, using a standard royal icing recipe (below) and made two different consistencies (piping and flooding) for each color and took a shot at it.

Can I say not bad for the first time???  I was very proud of them being my first take on decorating cookies. I will definitely need to practice more in the future. 

Finally, I made these peppermint bark brownies and some peanut butter chocolate balls for my husband. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures before I packaged them up.

I sent holiday treat bags to my new in-laws, friends and family. I was very happy they all enjoyed the sweets!

Now I have to decide what to make tomorrow for Christmas dinner at my sister-in-law's.

Happy Holidays again!