This week’s cake is a Pumpkin cake, for Halloween. Rose has a few of the “outtakes” on her blog. I wish my outtakes were that pretty! The cake part of this one is really, really easy, but the frosting has more than a couple of steps. You have to caramelize sugar, make a crème anglaise (which isn’t quite crème, given it contains no cream, but I’ll allow it…), make an Italian meringue, then whip the various parts together with butter.

Here is my finished cake.

Continue reading “Pumpkin Cake with Burnt Orange Silk Meringue Buttercream” →

I was a little late with this cake. I saw everyone’s posts for last weekend’s Heavenly Cakes project and just couldn’t resist making it myself. It looked so good, and I love Amaretto, and I knew I already had some blanched almonds in the freezer, so what could go wrong, right? All I would need to pick up was the seedless raspberry jam.

Continue reading “Almond Shamah Chiffon” →

This week’s cake in the Heavenly Bakers group is Apple Upside-Down Cake. I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures this time, as we were in the process of attempting to deal with a squirrel that had decided that our no-longer-used chimney would make a good entrance to the basement. He (or she, I didn’t look closely) has been trapped and taken to the other side of a river and across a busy highway, so hopefully won’t be making his or her way back any time soon.
Continue reading “Apple Upside-Down Cake” →

To keep track of what’s going on with this project, I copied a list of the cakes from one of the reviews on amazon.com. I’m linking the recipe names to Marie’s version at The Heavenly Cake Place. As dates are set for each cake, I will edit this post to add the dates. I haven’t decided yet whether I’m going to link the dates to my posts, to whoever Marie decides to feature, whoever “hosts” that week, or the version I happen to like best. For now, I’ve linked the Barcelona Brownie bars to my version, and The Jansci Torta to Faithy’s version, because I like chocolate. 🙂 I linked the wedding cakes to Hector’s previews on Rose’s website.

If I (or rather the person who wrote the amazon review I used) missed any cakes, please let me know. Thanks!

Edit: I’ve moved the list to the link on the right under Pages titled Heavenly Cake List, so that it’s easy to access.

The Heavenly Cake Bakers are doing Barcelona Brownie Bars from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes this week. I made my version on Saturday, and took them (along with Rose’s butter dipped dinner rolls!) up to my uncle’s place for Thanksgiving yesterday. Not traditional Thanksgiving fare, but Grandma was already supplying pumpkin pie, so I figured it couldn’t hurt. My co-workers can wait until next week for their first taste of Heavenly Cakes. 🙂

Here’s my favourite shot of the (mostly) finished product:

Continue reading “Barcelona Brownie Bars” →

My husband (he runs a business out of our home) tells me the doorbell just rang, and it was a package for me. The only thing I think it could be is my copy of Rose’s Heavenly Cakes! YAY! I can’t wait to get home from work.

Rose, your publishers are amazingly fast. 🙂

Ok, so I haven’t actually baked this one (yet). I’m waiting to receive my copy of Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. I’m so glad I’m one of the 10 that is going to be receiving the free autographed copy from the publishers, because money’s tight right now having just bought (and renovated) a house. You can see Marie’s version of the Hungarian Jansci Torta at The Heavenly Cake Place.

I will be baking something “similar” later this week — in the sense that it’s a flourless torte. I have a friend/colleague who is strictly following the specific carbohydrate diet to manage some health problems. His last day at work is this Friday, and since finding a restaurant where he can eat without getting sick has proven impossible in the past, instead of organizing a lunch for him, I’m going to bring cake. He can’t do chocolate or sugar, so I’m planning on making a banana/ground almonds/honey cake that I’ve made for him before. I’ll use Rose’s Royal Honey Buttercream from The Cake Bible for frosting. I’m going to make a second cake for the rest of my colleagues — probably the lemon glow chiffon cake, also from The Cake Bible.