I Forgot...

to add in the last post:

1) The invitation to Cake Thursday, January 16th


Click to enlarge

2) How the cakes tasted. I've been leaving out crucial details such as that lately, though by no means on purpose. Business in work and life as well as a cake-preoccupation on THE BOOK leaves me with little time to flush out things here.

Which is ridiculous...I'm neglecting to pay attention to one of the most useful rules of life: You can't judge a book by its cover, and you can't judge a cake by its frosting.

So, all that said...

The Star Cake (which I think I did muse on a bit) was lovely, delicate, and tea-worthy.

The Striped Cake was one of those too-much-going-on kinds of cake. Tart and sweet and fruity and meringue-crusted. It was not a bad cake, but it was an "I can't quite finish it" kind of cake. And rarely do I not finish a slice of cake.

The Sprinkle Cake...alas, I did not get to taste it as I had to leave the party early. A co-worker had paid me to make a red velvet birthday cake for her sister, which was to be delivered (meeting under the clock in Grand Central—kinda poetic) the next morning. A frosting crisis had developed which needed immediate attention. FYI, it all worked out well.

I did receive an email from the recipient of the Sprinkle cake a few days later:

I wanted to say thank you so much for the amazing chocolate cake. When people bit into it there were quite a few memorable quotes.... "I'm eating heaven!" being one.

Leads me to think it tasted pretty good.

Stars and Stripes (And Sprinkles)

Though not directly related to the wonderful inauguration, there was no shortage of patrioticesque cakes over the past week or so.

First up:

Cake Thursday, January 16th was the Sunday Cake (Named as such as it's the kind of cake I imagine would be very nice served after a big Sunday dinner. A very basic, moist, single-layer butter cake flavored delicately with vanilla extract and orange flower water.)

Dusted with powdered sugar stars, I served it with homemade vanilla bean ice cream in celebration of the birthday of a very dear friend whom I'm lucky enough to work with. 

That very same friend and I spent a frigid Saturday afternoon trolling a flea market before running for warmth in a small café.

She had a hot chocolate and an almond croissant, while I had black coffee and a slice of cake bought on looks alone. 

That night, I briefly attended a birthday party for another friend, bringing with me a dark chocolate cake with Vanilla Buttercream and covered in all sorts of celebration-appropriate  sprinkles.

The Wedding Party

A few weeks ago, I baked a cake along with two dozen cupcakes for a work party celebrating the impending nuptials of a company VP.

No pressure there.

After showing sketches and offering ideas to those involved in the planning, it was settled that I'd bake and decorate a 2-layer Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting as well as 1 dozen Chocolate Cupcakes and 1 dozen Lemony-Vanilla Cupcakes, both with Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

It was an intense undertaking, comprising of a few pounds of butter and flour, nearly a pound of sugar, a dozen eggs, 24 handmade tissue paper flowers, and 3 fresh-blooming lilies.

Here are the exhausting, yet incredibly satisfying (and overwhelmingly well-received), results...

Happy New Year!

After what seems like an eternity away from flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and the computer, I'm back in Brooklyn itching to bake. But, before I move on to 2009, there are a few things from 2008 that I did not get the chance to post before fleeing the city for the mountains.

First up is Cake Thursday: December 18th

The invite:



The Cake:









Next up is the cake my friend Aaron baked for the holidays, a Cranberry Walnut Upside Down Cake (recipe via Dorrie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours).



Though the image is a bit of a blur, I think the cake came out beautifully—and it was his first!

Last, but not least, I caught this post on The Brooklyn Kitchen Blog of their Crown Roast Cake made to celebrate the opening of Marlow & Daughters...



Note to vegetarians: Perhaps a new way to have your meat and eat it to?