Died and gone to Chocolate Heaven

Tonight I made the chocolate cake I have been dreaming of.  I made a triple layer chocolate cake with sour cream chocolate icing.  The cake was so moist and decadent it did not need any icing at all.  The icing was a little too sweet so I wound up scraping the top of it off anyhow to just eat the cake with a glass of milk.  I think I will make this again with a mocha type frosting.  I think I know just the recipe.  Mmmmm...I was very happy with this cake.  

In between baking I worked on taping off my new bedroom to be painted tomorrow evening and started the fun process of taking down wallpaper in the master bathroom.  Got one whole wall almost completely de-wallpapered!  Slow process but I am working at it.  Brought home a few boxes the last couple days to start packing some clothes in from my current bedroom.  The carpet is suppose to be in the store in a couple of weeks so we can get it put in and then we can officially move in!  I think we may put our bed in there this weekend and start sleeping in there so we can get the bedroom downstairs that we are currently staying in painted for Mamaw to move in.  Then we can work on my baby girl's room and everyone will have their own room.  It has been a long time coming and we have all waited much longer than we thought we would ever have to.  It will be all that much sweeter I suppose.  Kinda like the icing on that chocolate cake...

In real need of a victory

Well tonight's cake didn't go so well.  It was the banana cake.  I wasn't too hopeful for it once I finished mixing it up in the kitchenaid.  I never even made the icing to go on it.  It has a pretty nice flavor but not really something I can work with.  The cake did not rise, it was not super dense though and was very moist. Back to the drawing board I suppose.  Hopefully the chocolate cake will go much better.  It is hard to mess up a chocolate cake though.  I may have just jinxed myself right there.

On another note, we did get the living room downstairs painted.  We bought the paint for my bedroom upstairs, scheduled for the carpet guy to come measure for carpet and moved my mother in law and most of her stuff to her downstairs bedroom.  Very busy weekend with so much left to get done.  This is the hard push to the finish line.  Keep us in your prayers in the coming weeks.  Lots of moving and painting to get done. We still have 3 more rooms to get painted.  We are bound to be expert painters by the time we are finished.

The Peanut Brittle that wasn't

Last night I tried my peanut brittle recipe.  The taste is spot on, but the texture....not so much!  It is way to sticky and chewy.  Not brittle at all!  I am not sure if this is a flaw in the recipe or operator error...either way I think I will try a new recipe...shame really because the taste was simply wonderful.  I may try it again another day since it was raining yesterday which  may have played a major role in the brittle not being so brittle.  Not giving up yet!  I have a few new cake ideas already rattling around in my head and hope to do a couple new ones this weekend.  I am excited about the chocolate cake of course, and a banana cake with vanilla bean frosting.  Sounds like a winner to me but of course I have been duped before.  Tonight I made a batch of sugar/shortbread cookies for a good friend of mine.  Yum Yum!  Which of course inevitably means I will be making more this weekend because the kids love to use the cookie cutters and make their own and then decorate them.

On another note...culinary school is out of the question for now...at least the fast track program I was looking into.  The classes are 5 days a week for like 4 hours a night.  I just can't leave the family that long for 9 months.  Way too much commitment level for a working mom.  I am however looking into taking some classes, of course I just can't take the classes I want without taking some boring prereqs which is sort of irritating but I get the reasoning... I just want what I want... but of course doesn't everybody?

Mmmmmmm....

Finally got around to making the next cake.  White almond wedding cake with raspberry preserve filling and vanilla almond buttercream icing.

 I personally do not like raspberry at all so the filling didn't excite me but my husband was over the moon about it.  It went over really well which makes me very happy (especially considering the flop on the last cake I tried).  The cake itself was my favorite...especially warm out of the oven.  I think everyone in the house's favorite part of my cake decorating is always when I cut the top off the cake to even it out.  It is usually still warm and always up for grabs.  This one in particular was very soft and so yummy.  I will definitely be suggesting this one (for wedding cakes especially) from now on.  I am starting to think about my next cake venture now...I don't know for sure what it will be yet but I am thinking something chocolate.  I figure if I made the raspberry filling for everyone else then I should get some chocolate for me in the next cake.  This cake will probably be several days out however.  I may try my hand at peanut brittle tomorrow because I do have the ingredients for this.  I will say I am excited about the cake I made today because I am pretty certain I can do many variations of this cake and it turn out just as wonderful.  hmmmmm....

No cake today...way to much going on :)

Well today was productive in so many ways...just not cake ways.  LOL!  I am pretty sure I will make the cake tomorrow that I had planned to make today, just never made it to the store to buy more flour.  And there is no way I could bake anything without flour.  Considered making a quick batch of peanut brittle instead but was missing an ingredient there as well...oh well.

Today we moved so much stuff around and took several LARGE items of furniture to goodwill.  This move is on it's way and hopefully by the spring we will be all finished.  Maybe even before we have lived here a year!  For those of you who do not know, my father in law passed away last April and my family moved in with  my mother in law and her mother to help out.  We have been remodeling the basement so that they can move downstairs and we can move upstairs.  The remodel has taken several months longer than it should have and we are just trying to get done what we can as we go.  The kitchen, bathroom and one bedroom are mostly all completed.  We have some painting and flooring to get done so we can make the switch.  The kids are excited because they are ready for their own rooms and I am too!

Back on the cake track... I am really debating on going to culinary school and getting a pastry arts diploma.  I think that if the financial aide will fall into place I will be going as soon as they will take me.  I was really scared in the beginning when I first felt the urge to do this but I am starting to get excited and I am beginning to believe that this is a good move for me.  Who knows what I can do with this diploma?  At the very least it will be good to branch out and get to know how to do all sorts of new things!  Now I am waiting to hear back from the school and see what my next step is.  Thinking about it now I am so tempted to run to the store and buy flour to start my next cake... I know I would regret it though when it is midnight and I am just starting to fill and ice a cake.  Guess I will just go to bed instead.  Nite!

New Years resolution time

Welcome to my blog.  I decided that my new years resolutions this year would be much simpler and maybe even slightly productive.  I wish to branch out and try more specialty cakes and fillings and icings and all that sort.  My other resolution is to drink more wine but that is neither productive or worth blogging about.  So I will stick with the cakes for now. LOL!

My first trial of the new year was a Creme Brulee cake with Brown Sugar Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Sounds divine huh?  Well it was so so and is definitely not a keeper for me!  So because of my flop the second part of my resolution came in to play and I broke out the wine... I guess maybe it is a bit productive after all.

My cake tomorrow will be a White almond Wedding cake with raspberry preserve filling and a vanilla almond buttercream.  This one has my husband salivating so hopefully it goes over a lot better than my first cake of the year.  Or I guess I will need to make another wine run.  LOL!