Cakes, cakes, and cakes

Last spring when I got engaged, I thought it would be really fun to make my own wedding cake. All summer, it seemed like a good idea, and I was even excited. However, now that my wedding is less than a month away all I am is nervous. So Ben David, Pigeon, and I have been making countless practice cakes, coming up with different designs, etc. My first design turned out to be a flop. It resembled a teenager's 13th birthday cake. So I tried a few more and ended up deciding on doing just several small ones with different colors and white piping to tie them all together.

As you can tell, the filling looks delicious. There was a yellow tier on top of the coconut, but it just looks really ridiculous. 

For my next trial, i frosted a cake in stiff yellow buttercream and let it set. Then I used a slanted brush and several colors of buttercream and painted flowers onto it. I loved the way it looks, and I may do one cake like this. 

this blue one is what most of the cakes will end up resembling. I may make some cute, handmade toppers for them. 

On another note, I've been busy working away at the bakery lately. Here are some photos of things i"m whipping up right now: 

Fresh Apple-cranberry walnut scones

Gluten free brownies

My brownies turned out great; they're very soft and moist, but not grainy like alot of gluten free products. The brownies are cut in half and people are paying $2 for them!!! I also made a few cupcakes here and there for people asking for them. 

Cakes and Biscottis

I've been doing a good amount of baking in the past few weeks. My mother's birthday came along, so I made her a raspberry cake with lemon frosting. The recipe made alot of batter, so I made some cupcakes after I made the layers.

She really liked the look of the gluten free cake I made, so I recreated it with the lemon buttercream icing and fresh flowers. 

I also put fresh flowers on the cupcakes, and I love the way they turned out!

This week I started back at the bakery for the school year. In the spirit and mood of baking,  I came home after work and decided to make some biscottis. I made almond-cranberry biscottis and had alot of fun doing it! I haven't made them since school, and I forgot how easy they can be! My boss's birthday is today, so I wrapped some up to bring to her as a little treat.

School is going well so far, my classes have all started well and I'm settling back in the flow of things. I made Ben David some muffin mix to take back to work with him, so next time I'll post some pictures of that.

Mendhi Cookies and Pin Up Paddling

I've been out in Durango, CO for a few days visiting one of my dearest friends. We used to work at a kayaking/rafting company in NC and have been good friends ever since.

I've seen these Mendhi hand cookies for a while now and have been wanting to try them on my own. I got a new cookbook while I was in Chicago, so we made a batch of gingerbread cookies out of it. She didn't have a mixer, which meant I got to cream the sugar and butter by hand and add all the other ingredients slowly and methodically.

Once we got the dough made (which tasted great and was lovely and fluffy!), we rolled it out by hand, with a little flour sprinkled on her fabulous wood countertops.

We had traced our hands on paper and cut out a hand template, so then we used that to cut the cookies.

After they were finished baking and had cooled, we used little icing tubes to make designs and really had fun with it.

This trip has been full of amazing small-town treats: riding bikes to yoga in the morning and then to breakfast, hiking up the hill to hear a lecture, dinner parties at high school friends' houses. I've never been to Durango, so I wanted to experience the wild wild west. We got to go paddling on a very low run of the Rock Wood section of the Animas River. It involved a 2 mile hike (passing a rattlesnake!) and a brutal hike out, but the beautiful deep gorge, the high walls of rocks, the amazing boofs, and the clear, quality class III whitewater made for a beautiful run. We even got in a little paddling pin up practice .

I'm leaving tomorrow, and I'll be sad to leave the wild wild west. Its been a great trip.