Baking like a MAD WOMAN!

So I have decided that I want to make baking a talent of mine. I'm sure those who know me are scoffing at this. Especially Mikelle because in the seventh grade I made sugar cookies at her house...and forgot the sugar. I definitely don't have the best track record. However, over the past year I have really stepped my game up and worked hard and I am proud to say that I am turning this weakness into an actual talent! I am constantly searching the blogs and cooking websites for dessert ideas. I make desserts at least twice a week (another reason the jeans aren't fitting so great these days :)) Seriously it has become an obsession.

Danny would like me to mention that the 2 weeks I was gone, he lost five pounds because I wasn't surrounding him with sweets.

I'm of course documenting the recipes with pictures like crazy so here are some of the desserts and recipes I've used. If anyone makes any of these and wants tips to make them easier/better let me know!!

The cake that started it all...

Hermione's Cherry Almond Cake from the Harry Potter Cook Book

-sorry I don't have the recipe with me but if you want it let me know. I don't care if you don't like cherries...cake...or fruit desserts you will LOVE this cake. I haven't served it to one person who didn't like it. Honest. The almond cake is so moist and the whipped butter frosting is so light it feels like you could eat it for days.

I'll continue with the Harry Potter recipes...

Homemade eclairs. So this was my first pastry. The batter is so much more difficult. You have to start by boiling some of the ingredients and then you basically throw the dried ones in and it makes this very strange dough that you have to form in to a "ball". It was difficult and not totally worth it. They were good don't get me wrong. But I worked like 6 hours for 9 eclairs. Just go to dicks and buy them :)

Hagrid's chocolate birthday cake for Harry...
Dan was very specific that I had to get the spelling wrong because that is how Hagrid would have done it :) Love dan. This was the softest cake ever! No really it made it impossible to frost! To be fair the cookbook said it would fall apart and look like it was from Hagrid and they weren't lying! However with chocolate frosting and a chocolate glaze to put on top it was quite the delicious cake. Or so I heard...I don't eat chocolate very much but everyone else enjoyed it :)

The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook on amazon.com is amazing and has some seriously awesome recipes. I would highly recommend it and it's not very expensive either.

Next.

Piper (our niece) turned five in July and her mom Mandie wanted to give her a Tangled cake and we decided we'd try to make it all from scratch. It took forever but turned out so cute! And the best was when Pipes saw it she put her hands up to her face and whispered, "My tangled cake...it's perfect" That made it all worth it.

Seriously this turned out amazing. Mandie, Penny and I worked on it FOREVER! But like I said it was totally worth it.

Next.

My parents are avid gardeners. We have rhubarb in our garden and mine and my father in law Bob's favorite dessert is strawberry rhubarb pie. So again I searched and found a recipe for it and it was delicious!!!

Next.

My husband's favorite dessert (well one of them) is the red velvet cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory and I found a super easy recipe for it. However the red velvet wasn't chocolatey enough...so if anyone has an awesome one share it!!! This was such a beautiful cake and I am so proud of it.

Next.

We went to Idaho this summer for a concert and I had cinnamon roll pancakes and they were AMAZING. So I thought, "Guaranteed some awesome mom has an awesome blog where she's made these." and sure enough there was and it was delicious. They are super easy and the cream cheese icing is so tasty.

Next.

Alright! Everyone go to William Sonoma and buy the Marvel superhero cakelet pan! I saw it and knew that it was a great buy. The pan is so nice and these characters will be around forever. My grandkids will probably love spiderman. Seriously they are awesome.

The real challenge with these came with the decorating. I've been wanting to try something with fondant (even though I don't like the taste). So I did what everyone says to do and purchased Wilton Fondant but I also wanted to try to make my own. So I made my own marshmallow fondant...which tasted a little bit better but it was difficult to work with I thought. I think you just have to get used to it. But we made these for Kohen's third birthday and I used frosting for those ones and they turned out much tastier :)

And the most recent was the 14 12-layer cake. I was making it and forgot to throw the last to layers in the oven so it was 12 instead. You use Cafe Rio foil tins for each layer and then put a glaze between them all. They end up looking like a giant stack of pancakes. Then you put the glaze all around and I finished it off with my mother in law's amazing homemade chocolate frosting. I should have made more frosting though because I started to do the ruffle frosting on the sides but didn't have enough to finish.

So the cake turned out delicious! And so moist!

I am loving my new hobby!

Clearly