Devil's Food Cake

Well, part two of the birthday cake I'm making is done. I finished the Chocolate Mousse for filling earlier today - or yesterday it would be now. And I just finished baking the Devil's Food Cake.

This recipe is a good one. The batter is so beautiful and silky. I thought I might have made a mistake when I finished because it looked like milk chocolate as opposed to devil's food. I keep forgetting that the reaction that turns it into devil's food occurs during the baking process.

I'm debating whether to stay up and make the Italian buttercream icing and ice the cake now or get some sleep and do it in the morning. Hmmmm.

Strassburger Cookies

So it's apparent my piping skills leave a lot to be desired. It's a shame because I love these cookies and I struggle to pipe them all the same size and shape.

They are so yummy though!

I made three different centers.

1. Blueberry Center

2. Strawberry Center

3. Peach Center - I had to add colored sugar to this one because my peach filling ended up having a clear syrup. I added purple sugar to it but then realized I already have a purple with the blueberry so then I added a yellow sugar and then this turned it a shade of green! Oh well, now I know for future reference.

Chocolate Mousse

This recipe does require multi-tasking! From melting chocolate, heating sugar, whipping cream and eggs, you can't stop for a second!

I do enjoy the results though.

I am using this in a cake filling for tomorrow. I have also frozen some in some molds. However, I don't think the molds I used were conducive to freezing this type of product, but we shall see!

White Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts

I tweaked my Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I used white chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate chips and I used walnuts instead of pecans. Plus, I added a couple more tablespoons of butter.

They came out well. I would definitely go back to the original amount of butter. My husband was my taster. He loved them and said they were delicious. I may need to find someone a little more objective. But it's still nice to hear.

Birthday Cake 5-30-10

I am making a birthday cake that is due on Sunday, 5-30-10. The only guidelines the client gave me were that she wants chocolate!

Here are my thoughts so far:

Cake - Devil's Food Cake

Filling - Chocolate Mousse

Icing - Italian Buttercream

Covering - May cover with Marshmallow Fondant or leave as buttercream and add chocolate shavings to the bottom.

Color - I know she likes purple but she wants something simple. I will probably leave it white and add some purple buttercream roses and pipe some purple fondant designs.

Writing - I will see if my purple fondant will pipe cleanly for wording. If not, I will use tempered chocolate to write Happy Birthday.

The process begins in a few hours. I am going to get some sleep so I can wake up refreshed and ready to work! Have a good night and "see" you tomorrow.

Creativity

I have vowed to force the creative juices to flow!

I used to say that I will do the baking and have someone else make it look pretty. Now, I feel like that's kind of a cop out.

I have a few projects to work on this month so I will do my best to make them pretty!