Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Many Cakes

As predicted, I did not get a chance to post all weekend. The boy and I went downstate Friday and came back Monday, only to have to rush and prep dinner for seven, as his extended family was visiting his parents and they wanted to come see the house. I was cooking the entire time I was away pretty much though, so I do have a few pictures to share.

My Nana turned 90 over the weekend, and wanted a big party, hence my trip downstate. I helped cook a bunch of stuff including two cakes. I used Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World recipes and made 9 inch round cakes. Each one recipe of cupcakes makes one layer of an 8 or 9 inch round cake, if you ever want to convert them. It tends to take an extra 10 minutes or so in the oven, but they bake up just fine!

This first cake is a hazelnut cake with raspberry filling, vanilla butter cream, and chocolate ganache. The raspberry filling is from the Raspberry chocolate chip blondie recipe out of Vegan with a Vengeance. This cake had a major structural problem and the entire back end pulled out from under it when I tried to remove the wax paper (to protect the serving platter) after I decorated the cake, hence the downward slope in the back.


The second cake was a Vanilla Agave cake with Lemon Buttercream decorated with pomegranate seeds, blueberries, strawberries and kiwis.

And, while many guests commented on how beautiful they were, the cakes mostly went untouched in favor of this bakery monstrosity: (And it's not even because it was "ew vegan cake" or anything since no one knew it but my immediate family)

My dad did say my vanilla agave cake with lemon frosting was the best tasting of all 3 of them :P

Ahem, moving right along...

Last night for dessert I made a pumpkin chocolate chip cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. It was super yummy and really moist, despite the cake having been made a solid week ago and frozen (made the frosting fresh last night). The decorating left a bit to be desired, but after the other two this weekend, I was about fancied out, so it's just drizzled with chocolate and sprinkled with fall themed sprinkles.


Here's a graphic inside shot for you folks who are into that sort of thing:

And so, that is my tale of three cakes. I think I'm just about caked out for a while now!!

13 comments:

Jen Treehugger said...

OMG! Cake cake cake. They all look amazing but I think my favourite to look at is the Vanilla Agave cake with Lemon Buttercream. I love the pommegranate seeds.
:)

Kelly said...

Your cakes are gorgeous! I'd barely even notice the bakery monstrosity if yours were nearby. I can sympathize with you, though; my extended family has a fondness for processed crap cakes that is irritating to the extreme.

Megan said...

Maybe they were intimidated by the beauty your cakes possessed? But yeah, I know how it feels when people would rather eat crap than something with actual heart put into it.

shannonmarie said...

Beautiful cakes. I've been making raw ones on a smaller scale lately, as they are all cupcakes. Although not raw, I find your cakes to be very tempting :-)

Catalina said...

All your cakes were beautiful. Don't worry that the family snarfed up the bakery sheet. I can assure you yours tasted better because they certainly looked better. Some people are just used to bakery cakes and don't realize how great homemade is anymore. Means more for you right.

Trinity (of haiku tofu) said...

your cakes kick that bakery cake's butt!

Ashley Gibson said...

Your cakes are stunning!! Who would want to eat icky store bought cake with such beautiful cakes like yours sitting there??? There's no contest in my eyes!!

Anonymous said...

Oh my god, I need that pumpkin cake in my life. Right. Now.

(This is rockindancer from veggieboards, by the way :) )

k's mumbo jumbo said...

Those all look just divine!

Amy said...

Mmmm you have awesome cake making talent!!! Every cake I've ever made has been a dismal failure :( I can't belive your beautiful cakes got overlooked for a bakery cake!

Happy Birthday to Nana!

Shanna said...

I'm with Jeni! If we'd been there, we would've been all OVER that vanilla agave cake!

imahag said...

oh yummy. I absolutely love this site and you make it one of the best. Good job on the cakes. I wish I could have a taste but I think I'll get myself into the kitchen and get my oven going for the Halloween weekend!

Anonymous said...

so...much...cakey...goodness...

they all look delicious!

happy birthday to your nana!