Why Pie?

Our family always has pies on Thanksgiving. Chocolate pudding pie is mandatory, usually pumpkin too, sometimes apple and sometimes pecan - but never cake.

Of coarse, I'm not crazy for pies; I'm crazy for cakes.

I made my angel cupcakes with a fall flair. Too cute(!)... from a distance. What you can't see is that I decided to experiment with gold dust. UG! Dust should only be used with a brush, not sprinkled. It's not a sprinkling decoration. To try and balance it out I added silver dust... which seriously looks like mold when not done right.

My sister: Does this cupcake have MOLD on it?

Me: No, I was experimenting with dust.

So between the gold and mold factors I felt I should "package" them a bit, LOVE IT! Putting ribbon on was much more difficult than it looks but I really like the effect.

There was some debate about the cake being dry. Gorgeous thinks it was dry, but still good. I think I'll just start pouring condensed milk over Gorgeous' servings. :)

Happy days!

Note: Isn't the picture great? My sister took it... I really need to get a camera.

Not as American as apple pie...

I have had this idea in my head for several weeks. I wanted to mix apple pie and white cake. My thought was that apple pie filling would make a great cake filling too! Dad used to make apple pie every Thanksgiving. So delicious and such a great memory. I also thought it would be fun to decorate a cake like a pie but in a very basic way.

I had a vacation day and finally enough energy to experiment in the kitchen.

The cake part was easy, just a white cake box sub milk and butter for water and oil. I like to cook my cakes in one pan, an 8x3 decorator's pan (by Wilton of coarse), but I wanted a shorter cake so I figured I could make two.

I found an apple pie recipe online (I don't have Dad's recipe) it looked easy enough. Of coarse all the recipes online assume that a pie crust will be involved. I went ahead and followed the directions but placed the apples alone in a casserole dish to bake.

For ease of cutting cake slices I put the cooled apple filling into my food processor just to cut the apple slices down to apple "chunks".

So, one layer of filling, with an additional layer of filling on the top of the cake. I put cinnamon in the buttercream icing and did a "lattice" on top. I think they turned out adorable!

The cake cut beautifully and has a wonderful chunky filling. It also tastes good.

So the problem... the cake is emotionally conflicting. It tastes good, just not "right". I think that apple pie is too traditional to be messed with. Somehow the mind rejects the cake and buttercream because it's not a flakey crust.

Hubby and I both think it's still good. Gorgeous is the one that was able to articulate the conflict.

All in all, I consider this experiment a success.

Flower Triplet

Attended my 2nd Wilton Fondant and Gum Paste class this evening. So much fun! I signed up for the class at Michael's. I honestly thought the class would cancel because no one else signed up for it. But instead, I now have a PRIVATE class. It's all about me!

The first class we made a bow. I was going to write a post about my poor, awkward bow with no gift to sit upon... but it was a really crazy week at work.

So here are the flowers we created tonight. These were made with colored gumpaste: a carnation, a calla lily, and a rose... and a bunch of leaves!

Cupcake Cuties

Had a great baking weekend! Really love how my two cupcake batches turned out.

For my niece, and of coarse my girlies, I made white angel cupcakes. Heavenly. Seriously, if I were going to a heaven themed party I would bring these puppies.

White cake box, milk and butter instead of oil and water; powder sugar glaze; buttercream icing; and Sugar Pearls.

I only had halloween cupcake liners or extra large cupcake liners, I also only have a mini muffin pan or a regular cupcake pan. I ended up using the extra large cupcake liners in the regular muffin pan... I wish I had taken a picture of how silly they looked, will next time.

Anyway, this is now my preferred way to make cupcakes! I love that the cupcakes are tall and elegant. So, here's how I layer... directly on top of the cupcake is a thin layer of glaze, then a twirl of buttercream and a sprinkle of pearls:

Note: before next weekend I am going to devise a way to take better pictures. The loveliness of the cupcakes don't come across. Plus I hate the color of my countertops and so I have been trying to use paper towels as a background. Time to step it up.

The second batch of cupcakes I made for a co-worker who is always helping me out... always... way more than I should need. Anyway, she wanted lemon cupcakes.

Lemon box, milk and butter for oil and water; lemon filling; lemon buttercream icing; yellow sprinkles.

I didn't cook my lemon filling long enough, so it was a little to liquidy (technical term.) I have also decided that one should only use two of the three lemon components. All three together are a little overpowering. But still good.

Note: I love a good zest. Adds great flavor to the dessert and has the bonus appeal of a fresh scent in the kitchen. You just can't bottle that fresh scent. May start randomly zesting.