I realized that I haven't posted any cakes since August, so I should show y'all what I've been up to since then. (Answer: not too much, actually.)

( Click here for five cakes! ) 

Thanks for looking at my cakes, everyone, and for all the good advice you give all year long!

Hey everyone! I'm not extremely good at baking but I am looking for Christmas Cookie Recipes for dogs. I looked through the tags but I didn't find any *christmasy* ones. Oh also I was hoping for one preferably without using a cookie cutter.

Thanks! :)

I'm making sugar cookies for the my cousin's son to frost and decorate on Christmas Eve (the poor dear is the only kid). I never frost cookies, so I'm looking for something that will be easy for him to work with (he's 5), but will still taste delicious and sweet.
Any ideas?

More at my blog HERE

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i_hope_that
For many of us, the holidays can be kind of rough. If you're searching for a network of understanding friends, this ultra-nurturing community encourages you to express your heartfelt wishes and offer other members encouragement and acceptance. Not for the terminally snarky or emotionally-challenged, this is a good-spirited place to lend comfort and support.

diygifts
Feeling crafty? If you've got a few last folks on your holiday gift list, this is a great place to seed your creativity and generosity. You'll also discover wonderful DIY tips to decorate your home and entertain guests. Offering a no-frills-no-skills attitude that welcomes the cash-challenged and arts-phobic, you're sure to get ideas and make friends in the process.

cooking_club
A fun and friendly community dedicated to those who love to cook, whether you're a meat-and-potatoes type, an aspiring gourmand, and/or a vegan. In search of a brilliant dish to use up those weekly leftovers? Post your ingredients and you'll be whipping up a feast by dinner. You can also share favorite recipes. For Type A chefs, you can spice up your culinary repertoire with exciting cooking challenges.

This is my yule log (and my first post here). The button mushrooms are almond paste, the shelf mushrooms are dark chocolate peanut butter cups, the dirt is ground up oreos. The filling is whipped cream with some buttercream frosting folded in, for stiffness, the frosting is chocolate buttercream with some whipped cream folded in for flufflyness. The cake is a standard chocolate roll cake, like the recipes already posted, and available all over online.

( More under the cut... )

Recipe in Sugarlace.

Hey guys,

I was at a 21st last night and the birthday cake was just the perfect chocoate cake, or at least my idea of one! (it also had a map of the world on it which was just cool ;) )

So as I'm planning multiple cupcakes for a friend's NYE party I thought I'd see if you could help me replicate it. It was.....

1. Lovely and chocolatey. Good flavour and a dark choc brown colour
2. Moist. Not a hint of dryness to it, but by this I do not mean a mudcake or a fudgy cake, and it was held in the hand no issues. It was just a nice, moist cake
3. Good consistency. I would say dense but not fudgy and fluffy enough to be cakey - actually for some reason a carrot cake comes to mind consistency wise
4. Neat. It did not crumble, did not squish or stick to the fingers and seemed firm (there's the word, firm!) enough that it would hold up well to
being filled with stuff etc.

So fellow bakers, any suggestions re. this perfect chocolate base cake?

This is a really easy recipe that uses a cake mix as a base. I know that some people don't like using mixes but during these crazy holidays I love having something that I can throw together quickly!



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We've seen a few of these lately, but this is a different combination. Chocolate Guinness cupcakes with peppermint Irish Cream frosting.



( Recipe. )

I got the recipe from the December 2007 issue of Gourmet Magazine. I just love this recipe. I just made a few minor changes. www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2007/12/trios I did not cream for 4 minutes (the last time I made them they spread too much. I also chilled the dough after I shaped (my garage was very cold, so it worked out nicely)

( pic...becuase I can't figure out to make it smaller )

I woke up at 5 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. Since yesterday was an exhausting day (a midterm, 3 quizes, an organic lab and finally a very pointless excursion through the mud and the rain in the evening), I decided that rewarding myself was the best way to get me motivated to push through the final weeks the semester. So, I did some early morning baking. ( here's what I have done )

Here is an interesting article on Southern Layer Cakes. It includes a recipe. Enjoy!

X posted tovintage_chefs




( Mmmm Southern Layer Cake. I do declare! )

I'm looking for suggestions/recipes for sweet goodies that I can make with my nieces, other than just decorating sugar cookies.

Recipes similar to this one: http://bunsinmyoven.com/2009/12/16/buttons/

It needs to be simple since they're only 4 and 5.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

So, I'm normally pretty hardcore about making everything from scratch but Kroger recently had a sale on all Duncan-Hines cake mix for a dollar a box. Which was way too awesome a deal to pass up so I grabbed a few in hopes of being able to modify them from acceptable to OMG delish. Duncan-Hines mix requires the addition of: 1/3 c vegetable oil, 3 large eggs, and 1 1/3 c water.

I thought I could try this instead: 1/3 c melted butter, 2 large eggs, 2 oz cream cheese, and 1 1/3 c milk.

Do yo think this would work? Or would it just result in some bizarre mutant cake thing? My trial run is going to be with the lemon supreme mix, which I am making lemon cupcakes with black raspberry cream cheese frosting. Lemon and raspberry gets me all sorts of happy. Doing this trail run is really important, as I will be applied the same modification to the yellow cake mix I got for my boyfriend's bday cake. His mother used to cook everything out of a box so sometimes he prefers box to homemade from scratch. His is going to be a classic yellow cake with rich chocolate fudge frosting and a chocolate ganache filling and chopped reese's on top. I can't wait to see him eat it!

Moving past the rambling, any advice on altering a box mix would be great and if my idea would work.

Thanks!

Hey guys,

So I've been a member of this community for a few years. I don't update all that much, because I never think to take pictures before people have begun devouring my baked goods, but this is where I always go for a lot of my recipe ideas. So a few years ago there was a brownie request post (I tried looking in the tags but I couldn't find it) and it had this link to a scanned image of "The World's Best Brownies." I'm pretty sure that was the title. I don't remember what it was from, but those are the most epicly amazing brownies I've ever had. I had it saved to my hard drive, but of course, my hard drive failed and now I'm left without the world's most delicious brownies. Does anyone remember the recipe I'm talking about?

I remember it had nearly a pound of butter, a ton of chocolate, and recommended that you let them sit for a day before eating them (a feat that is nearly impossible to accomplish). I do however, remember the taste. They were super moist and gooey and chocolatey and amazing. If anyone knows what recipe I'm talking about, I will pretty much love you forever.

Oh and so it's not entirely just a wordy post...

Last night I made Cake balls!

( om nom nom )