An Engagement: Vanilla Cake with Lemon Curd Filling and Vanilla Buttercream

Nothing is sweeter than seeing a best friend find the love of her life...

Except when her and her man friend make a commitment to spend the rest of their lives together! EEE!

Gorgeous people! Photo credit: Jerek Barcelona

To celebrate the engagement of my BEAUTIFUL and SPIRITED friend Logan and her soon to be husband, Mason, I made a special engagement cake.

Take a deep breath, 'cause this title is a long one (again):

Vanilla Cake with Lemon Curd Filling and Vanilla Buttercream!

Made with love, my sweet Logan!

When talking with Logan and about her favorite kind of dessert, she quickly answered Lemon Bars (I love those too!).

P.S. We also share a love of Disney, Disney, and ummm...DISNEY! and everything else in life :0)

This immediately made me think of lemon curd! It tastes very similar to the thick and delicious texture and taste of Lemon Bars!

Let's just eat spoonfuls of lemon curd!

I considered doing a lemon cake but thought that might be too much lemon (not sure if that's possible) but I wanted to air on the side of caution.

ON STRIKE FOR MORE LEMON CURD!

I should have put lemon curd in all of the layers! I don't know what I was thinking! Lemon curd is strong and rich but I think it would have been worth the potential stomach ache!

Note: I used Trader Joe's lemon curd (delicious!) but I have an awesome recipe that I'll share with you soon!

The vanilla cake was super easy to make. I made it the night before and let the cakes cool in the fridge overnight.

The next morning I leveled them.

With a bulldozer! No...with a knife.

Made the vanilla buttercream frosting.

BUTTER + CREAM + OTHER STUFF = BUTTERCREAM!!

Layered and crumb coated the cake. Then I let it rest in the fridge so the crumb coat could set.

Not too "crumb-y".

During that time I colored the frosting blue. This is in honor and recognition of Logan's love of the ocean.

Ahhh...the waves at Hanalei!

I did my best to ice the cake as smooth as possible, I still need a lot more practice but not too bad!

I give it a B+.

I started to pipe the bottom but then my son woke up from his nap :0) and I couldn't get to it for the rest of the day...

Kina's Heaven.

Notice how it's night..I have a glass of wine...and I'm watching Cake Boss! YES!

Logan is a WONDERFUL "doodler" and artist. She's even working on a children's book! SO I thought the piping should look like doodling :0)

Doodle here, doodle there, doodle EVERYWHERE!

First attempt at piping...

It looks pretty good...from afar :0)

I had to put Akuna on the top because that is the name she will be using to start this new adventure!

AKUNA MATATA! If you are unsure what this refers to...shame on you.

I love you more than life Logan and couldn't be happier for you and Mason. Thank you for being such a strong, intelligent, and loving person. You brighten the lives of those around you! Sending all my love across the ocean...

Friends FOREVER! Photo credit: Jerek Barcelona

Don't worry...I will eat this cake for you! That's what best friends do, right?!

Gone in 60 seconds...

Love you all! Take Care and God Bless!

Vanilla Cake with Lemon Curd and Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Print Recipe Yield: 6-8 servings         Prep Time: 20 minutes        Total Time: 1 hour Ingredients: Vanilla Cake 2 and 1/2 cups cake flour or all purpose flour 2 cups granulated sugar 3/4 cups canola oil 2 and 1/4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon pure vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 large eggs, room temperature 1 cup milk Lemon Curd I used Trader Joe's Lemon Curd this time around but I have a delicious recipe I will share with you soon! Vanilla Buttercream Frosting 2 cups unsalted butter (4 sticks), room temperature 6-7 cups confectioners sugar, sifted 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 teaspoons heavy cream or milk Directions:  Vanilla Cake 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour four, 6" cake pans (you could also use two, 9" cake pans and divide batter in half). 2. In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, oil, baking powder, vanilla, and salt until blended. 3. Mix in eggs 1 at a time. Make sure each one is incorporated before adding the next. 4. Stop periodically to scrap down the sides of bowl and bottom (don't miss this step or you'll get clumps!) 5. Mix in milk 1/2 cup at a time. Stop to scrap down sides and bottom in between. 6. Mix for 1 minute more so that all ingredients are thoroughly mixed in and batter is smooth.  7. Measure 1 and 1/3 cups batter into each 6" pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. 8. Let cakes cool in pan for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove from pan and let cool on rack until completely cool. 9. Once cakes are cool, layer with lemon curd and frost outside of cake. Decorate to your liking.  Vanilla Buttercream Frosting 1. Using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, beat butter on medium speed for about 3 minutes until smooth and creamy.  2. Turn mixer on low speed, add 6-7 cups of confectioners sugar (1 cup at a time). After adding each cup, turn the mixer to high speed to ensure the sugar has been incorporated. 3. Turn mixer to medium speed and add salt, vanilla, and cream.

A Day of Love: Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Red Velvet cake is my FAVORITE, so this quest was very important to me.

This is the BEST red velvet cake I have had to date...and it's all from scratch!:

"I'm in Love, I'm in Love, and I don't care who knows it!"

It is *moist, a beautiful shade of red, and perfectly complemented by the cream cheese frosting. 

* (I still dislike this word but have now learned that it is a cake adjective...so I must use it)

I should have made it 1,000 layers so it would last forever!

I am not a beautiful morning person...EVER. I am also not very pleasant (zombie)...but when I woke up on Valentine's Day this year, I definitely had something to smile about:

Roses smell heavenly! But not as good as cake ;0)

Beautiful!

While Eric made us a delicious eggplant parmesan for dinner (SO GOOD), I set to work making the cake:

Woah! RED!

Side Note: I have been noticing that most all from-scratch cake recipes have you mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately and then add them together. Perfect for Valentine' Day - matchmaking! 

Call me cupid:

Love at first sight!

I highly recommend using parchment paper on the pans - these things were super resistant to coming out...at least they were comfy in their pan :0)!

To decorate, I used a few of my go to tools:

Bench Scraper, Pastry Bag, Cake Turntable, and Offset Spatula Unite!!

Love them all - life changing!

The cake turntable is my best friend and makes decorating/frosting SO much easier. I use the bench scraper and offset spatula help to get the frosting on smooth (still working on perfecting this technique). For the piping, I used a 1M tip to pipe the bottom and make the small swirls on the top :0).

YAY! I love decorating cakes!

Before we cut the cake, Eric and I exchanged our Valentine's!

Since we met, Eric and I have made a pact to make each other's Valentine's Day cards from scratch. Spending money is NOT allowed. From our cards this year...it's easy to tell what our main hobbies are:

Eric = Madden Football on X-Box, Kina = Baking

Time for cake! I wish I had some to share with you...but it's gone. We polished it off in 3 days! Breakfast, lunch, and dinner BABY!

What a great Valentine's Day! I love my husband and my son...and this red velvet cake.

Love you all! Take Care and God Bless!

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Print Recipe: Yield: 10-12      Prep Time: 20 minutes     Total Time: 1 hour Ingredients: Cake: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 2 Tablespoons unsweetened, cocoa powder 2 cups granulated sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 2 eggs 1 cup buttermilk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1-2 oz. red food coloring 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar 1/2 cup prepared plain hot coffee Frosting: 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature 2 - 8 oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature 8 cups confectioners sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Directions: Cake: 1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour two 9" cake rounds (I highly recommend adding parchment paper to the bottom and buttering both underneath and on top) 2. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.  3. Whisk together the granulated sugar and vegetable oil in a large bowl. Carefully add the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, and red food coloring until combined. Stir in coffee. 4. Slowly combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients, stirring as you go. Try not to over mix. 5. Divide batter evenly between the two pans. 6. Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes (mine took about 35 minutes), or until a toothpick comes out clean.  7. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Then remove from pan and let cool on cooling rack. Wait until cake is completely cooled before frosting. (These cakes are really moist so you may need to refrigerate before stacking to help make them more firm).  Cream Cheese Frosting 1. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment to cream butter and cream cheese for 3-5 minutes, until smooth.  2. Slowly add confectioners sugar one cup at a time and add vanilla. 3. Frost in between layers and outside of cake completely. Decorate as desired.

A Birthday Surprise: Key Lime Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Toasted Coconut

This last week a good friend of mine had a birthday, so I decided to surprise her at work!

She is a teacher and mommy friend :0) - which means she deserves an extra special cake!

Here it is!

Key Lime Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Toasted Coconut

(why do all of my recipes have such long names?!)

YUMMY!!!

This cake is easy to make, a fun and tasty mix of flavors, and...

THE HULK!! GrrRAAAWWWrrrrr!

did I mention it was green?! EXTRA FUN!

While making this cake, I turned on The Next Great Baker for inspiration. It just so happened they were having a Baker's Challenge to see who could crack a tray of eggs the fastest...so naturally...I joined in (this recipe calls for 5 eggs)!!!

I tried cracking the eggs with one hand for the first time, like they do on TV!...yikes.

Do you see ALL those shells?! I would have lost,

I promise I picked them all out :0)!

What I love most about this cake, is all the fresh ingredients.

Oranges and limes!!! Minus the hanging bananas...that would be weird.

Orange juice!

Toasted Coconut...in my wok! ASIAN PRIDE!

The recipe I followed calls for three 9" pans. Am I good at following directions? Only 50% of the time...I had a vision!!!!

As you can see I tried using my 6" pans again and much to my dismay, my impatience caused the middles to fall a bit:

BLAST!

So let us add "human tears" to the ingredient list, shall we?!

Luckily, it's nothing a little leveling can't fix!

Awesome! But next time...try to center the cake Kina :0)

I had extra batter to make some cupcakes too! After the Funfetti incident, I had to make sure this cake was edible!

A small, cupcake army!

SUCESS! These things are FANTASTIC! I highly recommend this recipe...for any occasion! They/It (cupcakes/cake) are sure to be a hit!

At the end of the day, the goal was to make my friend feel as special as she deserves and I think it was a success :0).

I love you Brittany! Thank you for being a wonderful person and friend!

BEAUTIFUL family!

P.S. Her husband Sean is the best realtor in Bend! He helped make all of our homeowner's dreams come true!

Love you all! Take Care and God Bless!

Key Lime Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Toasted Coconut

Print Recipe Yield: Serves 10      Prep Time: 20 min      Total Time: 1 hour - 1 hour and 15 minutes Ingredients: Key Lime Cake 3 oz. package lime flavored gelatin 1 and 1/3 cup granulated sugar 2 cups all purpose flour, sifted 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 5 large eggs, room temperature 1 and 1/2 cup vegetable oil  3/4 cup orange juice, fresh 1 Tablespoon lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Glaze 1/4 cup key lime juice (can use regular limes) 1/2 cup confectioners sugar Cream Cheese Frosting 1/2 cup butter, room temperature 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature 4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Toasted Coconut 14 ounce bag of sweetened coconut flakes/shredded coconut Directions:  Key Lime Cake with Glaze  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour three 9" round cake pans. (You could also do cupcakes and bake for 18-23 minutes) 2. Mix lime gelatin, granulated sugar, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. Set aside. 3. Mix eggs, oil, orange juice, lemon juice, and vanilla in a medium bowl.  4. Slowly mix wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. 5. Carefully divide batter evenly amongst the three pans and bake for 30-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 6. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then take them out to cool on racks. 7. While cake is still hot on the racks, mix together the key lime juice and confections sugar for the glaze. Pierce the cake layers with a fork and pour over three cake layers(piercing allows the glaze to soak in). Let iced layers cool completely before frosting and decorating with toasted coconut.  Cream Cheese Frosting 1. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment to cream butter and cream cheese for 3-5 minutes, until smooth.  2. Slowly add confectioners sugar one cup at a time and add vanilla. 3. Frost in between layers and outside of cake completely.  Toasted Coconut 1. On medium-low heat, toast coconut in a medium sized wok or frying pan for about 10 minutes on stovetop, stirring constantly. Toast until desired color/crispiness.  2. Let cool and then decorate cake by gently pushing toasted coconut onto the frosting with your hand.

The Good Wife: Cinnamon Sugar Chocolate Chip Bread

Rule #1 for being a “good” wife:

Feed your husband. Just kidding...but seriously.

   #1: Try not to make promises you do not intend, or are otherwise unable to keep

When Eric and I first got married (almost 4 years ago!), I promised myself that I would be the “do it all” kind of wife. You know, the kind that has the laundry folded and put away, gourmet dinner on the table, romantic kiss as you walk in the door kind of wife.

Epic Fail.

That lasted a week…maybe a month.

One evening after I had stopped acting like a crazed wombat, he sat me down to talk.

I soon found out he never expected those things from me. WHAT?!

In fact, it almost made him feel uncomfortable and useless that he wasn’t helping out more. PREPOSTEROUS!   

Eric is such a sweet man that deep down I knew these things already, but I pushed it anyways. Maybe it was even a selfish attempt at perfectionism…not me! :0)

Since then everything has been great! Look at this effort!

Pristine!

And this!

Next to Godliness!

During this last fall, Eric and I thought it would be fun to take turns making breakfast for each other in the mornings! How sweet! Acts of service as a team – love language baby!

However, here are some of the problems that arose:

1. Obesity

Chicken and biscuits = shorter life. 

Eating like this every morning? Delicious…until our clothes slowly stopped fitting properly #muffintop. 

2. Beauty Sleep

If this sweet kid is sleeping, then so am I!

I am not much of a morning person, so please do not disturb!

3. Food quality

 Kina's breakfast...

Cute, healthy, AND yummy!

Eric’s breakfast...

Heart failure and dentistry work. 

Enough said.

So this stopped.

Since I love baking and still have that “be a good wife” mentality, (it brings me so much joy to serve my husband!) I started making a batch of baked goods every Sunday that last him through the week.

Now I can stay in bed a little longer, I’ve been able to make some delicious food like sweet orange rolls, blueberry muffins, apple turnovers, etc. (recipes to come!), AND they’re all low fat! (shhhh…not really...sorry Eric...muaahaha!) You look great honey!

Here’s what I made this week:

Cinnamon sugar toast, meets chocolate chip loaf!

Mini chocolate chips are rad!

I’m not a huge sweets bread/loaf girl but it’s pretty good!

MMMM...this is a good recipe to use if you want your house to smell incredible!

Soft inside, pleasant crunch from caramelized sugar on the outside.

Would I sell it in a bakery? Probably not. Doesn’t have that wow factor. Plus, its all-over-the-map ingredients project a sense of indecisiveness and anxiety, which could reflect poorly on the baker. Who made this anyways? Definitely not me ;0)!

It was, however, quite easy to make - bonus!

Best Friends: Buttermilk and Egg spend some quality time warming up.

Oh cinnamon and sugar, how I love thee!

Batter - in process. YES, I administered a taste test. DUH!

Hope you enjoy! Oh and Rule #1 for being a "good" wife - there are no rules :0). Marriage is truly a treasure! 

*Disclaimer - Eric is in fact a "good" cook ;0)

Yummy!!

Love you! Take care and God Bless!!!

Cinnamon Sugar Chocolate Chip Bread

Print Recipe Yield: 1 loaf     Prep Time: 10 minutes  Total Time: 1 and 1/2 hours (includes cooling) Ingredients: Bread 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 large egg, at room temperature* 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1 cup buttermilk 1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Cinnamon Sugar 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon 1/3 cup granulated sugar Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9x5 loaf pan. 2. Make the Cinnamon Sugar by combining the cinnamon and sugar together in a small dish or bowl. Set aside. 3. Make the bread by combining the flour, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips in a large bowl. Set aside. 4. Whisk the egg, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl. Be careful there are no lumps. Slowly, whisk in the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. 5. Carefully pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together. Be careful no to over mix (it will make the bread tough). 6. Pour half the batter into the floured loaf pan. Evenly top with 3/4 of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Pour in the remaining batter on top and cover with the remaining cinnamon sugar mixture. Sprinkle with a few extra chocolate chips. 7. Cover the bread loosely with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 50min -1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  8. Allow the bread to cool for 10 minutes in the pan. After 10 minutes, remove the bread from the pan and cool on a cooling rack for about 30 minutes. Do not try and cut before cooled. Bread stays good for up to 6 days.  *Give your egg a 5 minute warm water bath to help bring it to room temperature