My First Naked Cake With Chocolate Dipped Strawberries!

This cake turned out so much better than I ever envisioned!  It is filled with a delicious strawberry butter cream filling, and a chocolate fudge butter cream filling.  The hit of this cake is definitely the chocolate dipped strawberries that cascade down the front.  This cake tastes every bit as good as it looks!

 Congratulations to Mitch and Heidi on your very special day!  I'm so glad that I got to be a part of it.

Walter Mitty Clementine Cake

I found the recipe to this Walter Mitty Clementine Cake on a blog by Cathy Merenda.  In her post she talks about how one of the through-lines in the film (Walter Mitty) is this cake.    At the beginning of the story, Walter’s sister Odessa delivers him one on his birthday.  It's his favorite cake made by his mother (the wonderful Shirley McLane).   

I really like this cake because it is gluten free!  It is flourless and has whole clementines in it.  I also found it super easy to make!

Here is the recipe from Cathy:

CLEMENTINE CAKE

• 375 grams clementines (approximately 5 small)
• 6 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup (225 grams) white sugar
• 2 1/4 cups (250 grams) ground almonds
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF.  Butter and line an 8 or 9 inch springform pan with parchment.
2. Poke each clementine 3 or 4 times with a knife.   Put the clementines in a bowl with a microwave safe cover or plastic wrap.  Cook on high for 3-4 minutes. Cool slightly then dump the clementines (whole) in a food processor and process until smooth.
3. In large bowl beat eggs and sugar until light colored and doubled in volume (about 5 minutes)
4. Add in chopped clementines and mix well.  Then add ground almonds and baking power and mix until combined.
5. Pour mixture into pan and bake for about 45 minutes (when a skewer will come out clean).
6. Cool in the pan on a rack.   Once cake is cold, remove from pan and pull off any parchment.
7. Glaze and add candied clementines to decorate.

GLAZE

• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 3 tablespoons softened butter
• 1/2 cup clementine juice

1. Mix everything in a bowl adjusting clementine juice and sugar to make a loose but thick glaze

CANDIED CLEMENTINES

• 3 clementines
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
1. Slice clementines very thinly.
2. Put sugar and water in a heavy bottomed pan on medium heat.   Stir until sugar is dissolved.
3. Add clementine slices and simmer on low for about 15-20 minutes.
4. Pull clementines from sugar mixture and place on parchment or silpat until cool.

You can also visit her blog to get her story on the cake.  Click here.

Grounded???

This post has nothing to do with cakes, cookies, brownies, cupcakes, or any goodies for that matter....  but I have had an overwhelming response to my Facebook post yesterday about my kids getting grounded.  So, I thought I would share what I posted.

The last week or so has been an extremely busy time for me, and my house really shows it!  My kids got themselves grounded for being late to school, so I thought I would use it to my advantage. I came up with a clever way to get them ungrounded.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14GWqhk96Kh9IftPzn8y_643JSFs-Wp2dBvAoVadne6w/pub

This worked out better than I could have ever imagined!  My oldest son got right to work and earned his 500 points in one day.  The other two are getting closer and working hard too!  We had a nice dinner last night prepared by my son.  I found super nice letters on my pillow last night, and my house is looking SO much better!  I just never thought that so many other people would like my idea.  AMAZING!  If you would like to print a copy of this list just click HERE.   Hopefully this will work for you like it did for me!

Jodi's Cupcake Wedding Cake

I haven't done much with wedding cakes in the last couple of years, and it has been especially hard since adapting a Paleo Lifestyle.  But.....  I had a friend get married yesterday.  When I heard that she wanted a "cupcake" cake, I was totally on board.  I REALLY LIKE MAKING CUPCAKES!

I thought that the combination of Coral and Blue was stunning!

This turned out so Beautiful!  Better than I had envisioned, and even better in person.  Congrats to both Jodi and Kurtis on your big day!