Tim Shank's Independence Day Cones

The man of many names was born on the Fourth of July. Tim/Chris/Tom/Jim had his 22nd birthday celebration on Sunday. Tim always has great cake compliments. His generous servings say more than any words could. He is not a picky eater, so I had a lot of freedom with his cake. I knew exactly what kind of a design I wanted to do, but I was unsure of the flavor. It may have been a little too much freedom!

After some long thought and discussion, I realized I had been missing an obvious obsession of Tim's. He is obsessed with Mountain Dew! He is also a recent fan of whiskey sour. Ah ha!

After the recent lemon-blueberry cake for Amy, I was worried that a lemon-lime cake would be too similar. I pulled out my Susan Branch recipe book in search of ideas. Eli suggested that kiwi would taste a lot like Mountain Dew. I had never done a kiwi cake before, so that sounded like a good plan. After a trip to Wegmans, I had several options for flavors.

For the cake, I pureed two kiwis and juiced one lime and one half of a lemon and substituted that in for water in a white cake mix. I had strawberies, and I couldn't pass up adding another fruit to this cake, so I sliced some up and placed them in the batter before baking.

I came across this ice cream cone cake idea. The recipe called for buttercream frosting, but I thought that might be a bit heavy. It was also a hot day, so something lighter seemed more appetizing. I did a quick google search for Cool Whip frosting, found a basic recipe and worked with that. I bought two 16 oz tubs of Cool Whip, and used about 3/4 of it. I added one packet of lemon pudding mix, an unknown amount of confectioner's sugar, lemon juice, lime juice, and a packet of whiskey sour mix. Then I put it in the freezer so it would stiffen up. I also added three packets of Pop Rocks (which I had to make a special trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics for. They always have the best candy there!). I thought they would remind everyone of fireworks, but they had all popped in the icing before anyone could notice. Next time, I would sprinkle them on top.

Step one: put flat-bottom ice cream cones in muffin tin

Step two: pour in cake batter and add strawberries. Yes, you bake the cake IN the cones!

Fresh out of the oven! Note: add cooking time when baking in cones.

I had originally planned on piping swirls on the cones, but my bags kept bursting. Instead, I used an ice cream scoop.

I added some red, white & blue sprinkles for a little more festivity. Looks like ice cream to me!

See what I mean about the complimenting without words? He had two of these heavy cones! (It was a costume party. This is not his normal look!)

Happy birthday, Tim!

Amy Rae Furnare's Lemon-Blueberry Birthday Cake

When was the last time I made a cake for a girl? When was the last time I iced flowers? Too long ago. What a pleasure it was being able to make a regular ol' iced cake with flowers on it. Of course, that would be boring, so I had to snazz it up somehow. Since Amy's birthday is in the summertime, I decided to do a fruity cake.

I came across a recipe for lemon-blueberry cupcakes. I have since lost the link and had to search for a new one. I found this one and this one and decided to combine the two. I didn't follow the recipes exactly except for the filling. I originally was not planning to make a filling, but I thought the cake needed a little more lemon flavoring, so I found this recipe by Martha Stewart for Lemon Curd which I followed.

After a trip to the public market, I was armed with eight lemons and three pints of blueberries. Instead of following the cake recipe, I bought a box of white cake (I know, I know) and added lemon juice and zest. I substituted half of the water for lemon juice and zested one or two lemons.

Of course I had to use buttercream frosting if I wanted to ice flowers. This time, though, it would be blueberry flavored. I threw a few handfuls of blueberries in the blender and mixed in a splash of water. That substituted the water for the buttercream frosting. It gave the frosting a great pink color that was perfect for Amy. I mixed in a little purple and green food coloring for the flowers and leaves. Then I got to decorating. The result is nothing like the sketches I had made, but I am still pleased with the outcome.

Lemons and blueberries

Looks like a muffin!

Food coloring always stains my fingers

Adding the lemon curd and blueberries

I got a little carried away with the lemons...

Yummy blueberry icing!

First round of piping

Remembering how to make roses after, what, eight years?

I wanted to write "Happy birthday, Amy" but had a lack of space. I like this better anyhow.

The final product

Top view

Happy birthday, Amy!!

Alex (Amy's boyfriend) made this adorable and delicious cookie cake

The cake was practically on fire

They were trick candles!

Anthony's Maine-Style Whoopie Pies

Anthony's last birthday cake was, in my opinion, one of my best. It was one of my bigger cakes. This year, I had a hard time coming up with something to top it. I came up with one idea (which I can't discuss in case I need it in the future), but after discussing flavors with him, I decided to just go with something I knew he'd like and appreciate.

Last summer, I went home with Anthony to Maine. He told me all about Dysart's famous whoopie pies. After some light research in the car ride there, I found out that whoopie pies seem to have originated in two places, one of which was Maine. I believe the other inventors were Amish. I had seen whoopie pies at home in Vermont, but never quite like in Maine. They are everywhere.

We had to search and search to find the right ones, though. Apparently, Dysart's stopped making Anthony's favorite kind, but they still had another option - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Frosting in the middle.

Me and Anthony in Maine last summer! This was my first official whoopie pie.

I decided to skip going crazy over the design, and just make him this old favorite. It is one of those things that we have a history with. Plus, they are just delicious!

Yummy pumpkin batter

Plenty of chocolate chips

The cream cheese frosting

Fresh out of the oven

Preparing the pies, and wrapping them in saran wrap for an official whoopie pie presentation

Now that is one happy boy!

I had to snag this mid bite so I could take a picture in front of his banana tree :)

We went out with some friends on Saturday night to celebrate!  Happy 22nd birthday, Anthony!

Summertime Strawberry Cake

Summertime Strawberry Cake

In continuation of graduation weekend, my friend, Eli, had a barbecue at his parent's house. Since I had made the graduation cupcakes the night before, I decided to switch it up. I was glad to be able to make whatever I wanted, with no theme or shape to worry about. The strawberries I had just bought and the beautiful weather inspired me to do a strawberry cake. I topped it with seven-minute frosting, which I hadn't made in a while. I wanted to make a cream cheese frosting, but I didn't have the ingredients for it on hand. Instead, I was able to make the cake using supplies I had in the cupboard.

I found a recipe for strawberry cake (that didn't involve cake or jell-o mix) from A Dash of Sass. Luckily, I had all of the ingredients (including the exact amount of vegetable oil) except for the lemon juice, which I omitted.

The cake turned out pretty well. It tasted very fresh and had a consistency similar to zucchini bread. A cream cheese frosting would have made it killer, though. Next time!

Strawberries!

Strawberry puree

Fresh, local brown eggs (of course)

Layer one

There is a light layer of frosting and strawberries in there

From above

The final product

The cake was quite thick!

Graduation Cupcakes

Last night, my friends on Cornell Street had a final BBQ/get-together at their apartment. The majority of my friends have graduated. Many of them are staying around, but most are leaving. It's amazing how quickly these past four years have gone by, and I wish I had taken advantage of more opportunities to see some of my friends.

On to the cupcakes!

I had several ideas brewing for graduation. I thought about doing brown and orange to represent RIT's colors or tiger paws for the mascot. Those seemed too expected and boring, though. I found cap pops by Bakerella, the woman who invented cake pops. I altered a couple of things about her pops.

I made mini chocolate cupcakes and lightly iced them with peanut butter frosting. The frosting was made up on the spot, so I don't have an exact recipe for it. It was made out of butter, peanut butter, confectioner's sugar and vanilla extract.

The Reese's mini peanut butter cups were easy to find. I searched Wegmans for an alternative square topper, though. I found some cookies, but they weren't the right size. Then I noticed Hershey's bar chocolate was on sale (for s'more season). Two bricks seemed like they made a perfect square, and this was the cheapest option.

Sorry about the quality of the images. It was getting late, the lighting was bad, and I wanted to bring them over!

Lots of mini cupcakes!

Peanut Butter frosting

I ran out of chocolate for caps, so there were some without.

Egg cartons work surprisingly well for carrying mini cupcakes!

The extras for the roomie :)

Lots of caps

Happy Graduation!

Amy made a cake for Cornell :)

That's me!