Surprise Inside Buffalo/Lumberjack Plaid Cake

Merry Christmas! Or Chris-Moose if you prefer! Hope you are loving life and the season and taking time to savor a special moment now and again.

Not sure WHAT possessed me to finish this cake so late in the game with the big day only two days away. No more room in the freezer perhaps?

The layers have been chilling out for some time while the oven door was overworked with loads and loads of Christmas cookies. My favorite holiday activity is baking. Anything. (Could you guess?) Mostly cookies because they're such a happy treat but I've been known to indulge in cupcakes, tartlets, cinnamon rolls and special breads from time to time. And with all of those baked and safely delivered and the Christmas packages mailed and the snow shoveled, well, mostly shoveled, I finally took time out to put this together. The snow just had to wait today. By the way, what exactly happened to December? I turned around twice and it was just g o n e. 

My first attempt at this design was "okay" but I wanted this second try to be a little closer to what was in my head. Didn't even bother to finish or frost the first try but once I fully defined the exterior elements I couldn't wait to finish this one! After thinking I'd get it done for November or Movember and then having that deadline slip past, I just couldn't bear to have it looming into next year. So my Christmas gift to myself was to finish this project.

I will never admit to how many hours, wait, minutes. It was just minutes, right? Anyway, the moose took WAY longer than I'd planned. Tried him out of peanut butter chips then caramel then peanut butter candy melts and finally got one that worked. And I thought that was going to be the simple part. Silly girl! Just when I thought I had a beautiful caramel shape all finished, some very cute deer decided to pop in. On our upper deck. Not their usual hangout. So I dropped what I was doing to take some (lots) of video of them eating anything they could find in the snow laden pots and planters. When I returned to the task at hand I discovered I'd set something on top of the moose in my haste. Sticky mess so I decided to try something else. The peanut butter candy melts were the winner. Right color. Tasty. And easy to pipe when heated. The peanut butter chips were much more temperamental  during the melting so go with the easy stuff if you decide to give this a try.

The rosemary sprigs and cranberries were the simple part. Simple yet striking somehow. Love them very much. I was going to hand cut the squares for the plaid strip but decided it would be quicker and as effective to use an edible image. Didn't love the way it warped or decided to be green instead of black but kept on going in spite of the hiccups.

Want to see it being cut?

inspiration for the next madness

And now hopefully I can finally sleep a full night without visions of checkerboards and  plaids dancing through my head. Right. Like that's ever gonna happen. Now it's back to visions of triangles. Lots and lots of colorful triangles. Up next. But probably not until after New Year's.

Until then, rest up, eat yummy stuff and take lots of pictures of those special smiles in your house.

Sweetest dreams!

xoxo,

Deborah

Pinecone Cake

I've been wanting to make this cake for years. Decades if the truth be told. I first saw it many, many years ago in Rose Levy Beranbaum's, The Cake Bible and immediately fell in love. Taking time out to make it was my Christmas gift to myself as well as my husband's office and I'm so happy to have finally given it a go.

It looked daunting, if not impossible all those years ago what with chocolate tempering and the hundreds of petals involved. I've learned a lot since then and my confidence to take on a cake of this caliber has changed. Still, I made it a bit easier by using Candy Melts (no tempering or temper tantrums) along with some other major adjustments. The cake turned out to be a whopping 13 x 10.5 inches without the branch or pine needles so I ended up using a lot more  (about 650) than the original amount of petals called for. Even so, they weren't nearly as hard as I'd imagined and putting them on the cake was actually fun! I'd change the angle of the petals near the top next time but was pleased overall with the rest of the project.

The pine needles are made of thinly piped green Candy Melts and the branch is Tootsie Rolls. I'd love to find an easier way to do this part since the thin needles break quite easily but I'd still use them in some fashion since it helps to finish off the cake.

Since the first one worked out so well and was easier than expected, I made a second one as a gift for some friends at at my favorite local kitchen store. I opted to speed things up a bit by using a non edible pine bough garnish clipped from a stem from Crate and Barrel.

Although this cake takes a little time, the method is easy and the WOW factor is soooo worth the extra effort. I even made a third cake on Christmas Eve that we decorated after dinner and served right up. We made a time lapse video to show just how quick and easy it really is once the petals are made. We didn't do quite as neat of a job and didn't use as many petals as my first two cakes since we were going for speed. It was after all time for dessert and the smell of all that chocolate wafting through the warm kitchen was mouthwatering. As you can see, the results were still impressive. You can see the youtube video by clicking on the box below or here: Pinecone Cake Time Lapse. (Choose the HD view for a better picture.)

So how did it taste after all of the effort? A cake that looks good but doesn't meet the taste bud test is a disappointment. Rose would be so disappointed to know that I used a boxed  Devils Food cake mix with mini chocolate chips slathered in   Smuckers Caramel ice cream syrup and canned frosting (horrors!) for the cake itself.  I was concerned that the petals might be hard to bite but they are so thin and made of Candy Melts so they just melt in your mouth. Tasted absolutely fabulous! Sorry Rose.

Hope you take time out to do something fun for yourself this holiday season! Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Deborah

Mini Reese's Christmas Snowflake Ornaments

Long time, no posts. My apologies and thanks for hanging in with me. Get it? Ornaments, hanging? ANYWAYS . . . here are a few of my lame excuses: An extended trip of Europe. New home shopping out of state. And now getting ready to move. In the winter. Really poor planning, wouldn't you agree? None of these have left tons of time for proper baking or blogging. Or working on my book. Since it may be a while before I'm up and posting for real again, I thought I'd share a quick project you might want to try.

I made these last Christmas and they came together pretty quickly. Especially since I did each step at my leisure and then glued them together with white chocolate just before delivery. Is there any glue better than white chocolate?

These tiny ornaments were made from a peanut butter truffle mixture dipped in white chocolate.  Any type cake pop or could be substituted. Red velvet might be nice.

The topper is a mini Reese's dry brushed with silver luster dust. The hanger is a small piece of a cellophane rice noodle. These can be purchased in Asian markets. They are sometimes called bean thread or glass noodles and look transparent.

The snowflakes were punched from wafer paper and given some sparkle with luster dusts. Each treasure was tucked in a mini cupcake liner and sent off to spread some joy.

Hope that you are enjoying all of the warmth and wonder that the season has to offer. Happy Holidays!

More Jelly Bean Cupcakes

I promised you a rest from the jelly beans. But now they are back. There are SOOOOO many great entries by the other contestants that I've lost some of my steam. They vary from no jelly beans at all to thousands used for intricate sculptures.
Here are the rest of mine so far. They may just be the last.

Pinecone with edible needles

Bean Counter with edible adding machine tape.

Glasses are non-edible & borrowed from a Pez dispenser.

Where Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches Come From

Bread is from a Kraft Stackermallow.

What can YOU do with a jelly bean?


UPDATE: The winner has been chosen. Congratulations Lisa! You can see her winning entry here.