Cakes to Die For

It's almost Halloween, and although some of you are probably over it, I can't pass up one more chance to share some holiday-themed cakes. I'm not going to post the recipes here, but I will post links to the recipes so you can find them if you're interested in baking one for yourself.

You'll find the recipe for this cute layer cake on Taste of Home. It's made using cocoa and orange extract, and it's perfect for a family dinner. Start your own Halloween tradition by making this one every year.

The recipe for this Boo-tiful Chocolate Marshmallow Ghost Cake is found on marthastewart.com. Make sure you click through to the recipe for the two kinds of frosting (Vanilla and Chocolate Cream Cheese). You'll need some marshmallows (large and miniature) for decorating, and a few chocolate sprinkles too.

Poke cakes are fun and easy to make, but they look great when you cut into them. For a little dramatic flair without a lot of work, try this recipe at Taste of Home. You'll need a marble cake mix (or make the batter from scratch) and two boxes of orange-flavored gelatin. Add some candy pumpkins or candy corn on top for extra flair and you're good to go!

This one isn't a cake recipe, but isn't this adorable? Whether you're entertaining kids or adults, everybody would love this. Complete instructions are on The Cake Blog. You'll need a cake, frosting (white), Oreo cookies, Mini Oreo cookies, Junior Mints and M&Ms. I'd make this one right now if I had the goods in my kitchen! 

Have a safe and Happy Halloween everybody! 

Happy St. Paddy's Day

I found this Shamrock Cake Recipe online while I was clicking around today. Though she uses a boxed mix in this recipe, those who make cakes from scratch can easily adapt the decorating ideas. Today is this blogger's anniversary and it's also my parents' wedding anniversary. They would have been married 64 years today. The mind boggles.

So Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone, and Happy Anniversary to anyone celebrating today!

May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back.May the sun shine warm upon your face, the rains fall soft upon the fields. And, Until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Dishin' Mocha Creole Spice Cake

Mocha Creole Spice Cake

For the Cake:

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mace
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, unbeaten
1/3 cup molasses
3/4 cup milk

• Sift flour once. Measure. Add baking powder, salt and spices, and sift together 3 times. 
• Cream shortening thoroughly; add sugar gradually and cream together until fluffy. 
• Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each one. 
• Add molasses and blend. 
• Add flour alternately with milk, a small amount at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. 
•  Bake in 2 greased 9-inch layer pans at 375 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes, or until done.

 Frost with Mocha Creole Frosting:

1/3 cup butter
4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (use real vanilla, not vanilla flavoring)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 square unsweetened chocolate
1/3 cup strong coffee

• Cream butter well; 
• Add 1 cup of the sifted confectioners' sugar gradually, blending after each addition. 
• Add vanilla extract, salt and melted unsweetened chocolate. Mix well. 
• Add remaining 3 cups confectioners' sugar alternately with about 1/3 cup strong coffee, until frosting is of right consistency to spread.

Enjoy! 

King Cake

In the interest of research, I had my first ever taste of King Cake the other day. It's not something I remember seeing in many places in my old life, but where I live now . . . well, King Cakes seem to be everywhere now that it's Carnival Season.

My daughter and I were strolling through a store the other day when we came across a huge display of King Cakes. Okay, we were not in a bakery, and I'm sure there are King Cakes out there that would have given me a smoother bite for my first try, but Hey! We were there. And so was the cake. And as an author writing about a baker who is inundated by order for King Cake, I felt duty bound to try one.

So we took our cake home and commenced the taste test. I have to say that, having read so many recipes and blog posts and discussions about King Cake on online forums, the texture was pretty much what I expected. Kind of flaky, kind of coffee cake-y, not what I could call traditional cake. But I'm sure you all knew that.

The taste was another thing entirely. I expected cinnamon. After all, it's a key ingredient in the King Cake. The cake we bought was, I believe, made using a traditional recipe, which means no filling. But I wasn't prepared for a hint of anise--at least that's what it tasted like to me. In all my research, I don't think I've come across a recipe that calls for anise, so I'm guessing there wasn't actually anise in the cake we bought. But something gave it a unique flavor unlike anything I've ever tasted before.

Maybe it was nutmeg.

Obviously, my research on this subject isn't finished yet.

So, you King Cake enthusiasts, give me your opinions. Where do you find the best King Cake in New Orleans, and what makes it so special?

A Rose by Any Other Name ...

I need help.

Serious help.

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend a mini cake decorating class where I got to try my hand at creating buttercream roses. I've watched countless videos on cake decorating since I started writing this new mystery series, and I've tried some other decorating techniques, but last night was my first hands-on attempt at roses.

Folks, it's not as easy as it looks -- not by a long shot! Making sure the icing is the right temperature and consistency, getting the center post just right, learning how to hold the nail between forefinger and thumb and then how to perfect the rolling motion with the nail hand and the up-and-down motion with the pastry bag hand . . .

I wish now I'd taken pictures of my efforts because they did not look like the rose in this picture. My first effort, in fact, came out looking more like a cabbage than a rose. My instructor called it a "classic cabbage." I'm not convinced she intended it as a compliment, but I'm choosing to take it as one!

My second attempt looked a little more rose-like but I tried to move it from the nail to my cookie (sadly, no actual cakes to practice on) without the flower lifter. Big mistake. I'd moved the first one without disaster, but the second one turned over and landed face down and the bottom was . . .

Well, let's just say that it wasn't decorative.

Obviously, it's going to take a whole lot more practice on my part to turn out a decent buttercream rose.

So if you have any tips you can share with me, I will welcome them all!

I've been doing a lot of research about cakes lately. I've read up on how to make them and studied how to decorate them. I've tried my hand at both, and I'll keep experimenting and sharing my successes and failures here in the coming months.

In the process of my research, I noticed that many recipes specify a particular type of flour, and that, naturally, raised the question:

Is there a difference between the different types of flour?

The short answer is yes, there's a difference.

For those who don't know a lot about flour, the main difference in flour types arises (pun intended) from the gluten content. Gluten is the protein that helps yeast stretch and rise. It's also dangerous to those with Celiac Disease, but that's a subject for another day. The gluten content varies in different types of flour depending on whether the flour is made from hard wheat or soft wheat.

If you want to achieve the best results in your recipe, it's smart to use the type of flour the recipe specifically calls for.

All-purpose flour is designed for a number of uses--hence the name "all-purpose." It's best used for cookies, quick breads and biscuits and can also be used for cakes. It's a mixture of high-gluten hard wheat and low-gluten soft wheat, and it comes in both bleached and unbleached varieties. From what I can tell, it really doesn't matter whether you use bleached or unbleached flour in a recipe, unless the recipe specifies one or the other.

Bread flour is an unbleached, high-gluten blend, mostly hard wheat, and best used in yeast breads because the protein in the gluten is necessary for the bread to rise properly.


Cake flour is made primarily of low-gluten soft wheat. It has a fine texture and a high starch content which make it ideal for cakes, cookies, biscuits and pastries that don't need to rise much.


Pastry flour is similar to cake flour, but it has a slightly higher gluten content. This higher gluten content aids with the elasticity that's needed to hold together layers necessary to make pie crusts, puff pastry and the like.

Self-rising flour is just all-purpose flour to which someone has added baking powder and salt. You can use it in yeast bread recipes instead of all-purpose flour if you omit the salt and in quick bread recipes by omitting salt and baking powder.

Is it okay to use all-purpose flour for everything?

Not exactly. Like I said earlier, you're going to get the best results if you use the appropriate flour for the recipe. However, if all you have is all-purpose flour, here's a substitution chart created by TLC to help. 

When the recipe calls for:	Substitute:
1 cup sifted cake flour	1 cup minus 2 tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup pastry flour	1 cup minus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup self-rising flour	1 cup minus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour plus 11/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour	1 cup plus 1 tablespoon pastry flour

And now you know!

What cake-baking tips do you have in your arsenal to help those of us who are just starting out?

Cake or Cupcake?

Image courtesy of DailyClipArt.net

Lately, there's been a lot of talk about cakes vs. cupcakes. Is one better than the other? Is one more appropriate for certain events than the other? When I was growing up, cupcakes were definitely for children. Grown-ups had cake. Kids had cupcakes. It was a "truth" I accepted without even thinking about it. Never in a million years would I have expected to see my mom or dad having birthday cupcakes on their special days, and the idea of serving cupcakes at a wedding? Outrageous!

But in the past few years, cupcakes have been gaining in popularity, it seems. Once the thing your mom made for you to take to school, cupcakes are going gourmet. A simple Google search for gourmet cupcake shops will bring up over a million hits. I'm pretty sure there aren't a million gourmet cupcake shops in the world -- or maybe there are. No matter how many there are, there's no denying that cupcakes are now for grown-ups, with flavors like Chai Latte, Café Mocha, Mango Passion, and Fat Elvis showing up on the menu. Cupcakes even have their own TV Reality show in Food Network's Cupcake Wars.

It's not just the cupcake that's gaining in popularity, though. Cakes and cake decorating have become immensely popular thanks to shows like Food Network's Ace of Cakes, TLC's The Cake Boss, and WETV's Amazing Wedding Cakes. More people than ever are tossing around terms like ganache and pastiage, and we love watching our favorite pastry chefs create cakes brimming with WOW!

But the question remains, is one better than the other? Does it matter? Frankly, I'll happily eat both if someone is kind enough to put them in front of me. But would I have cupcakes at my wedding? I'm really not sure.

What do you think? Cake or Cupcakes? Or Both?