I know there's worse birthdays out there but I'm usually trying to be overly positive in any way and today i just couldn't. I baked myself a cake but i couldn't stomach eating it. I found out boyfriend cheated on me last night. He gave my present to his new girls brother as well (it was going to be game, im nerdy). To end the day my grandma came over and insisted on playing the song that played at my mom's funeral all afternoon. She passed away when I was little so i think she knows it gets to me.

alsoo I spend the entire year telling everyone in my circle happy birthday and not one of my friends told me this year. i don't know it's just a little sobering to not feel special on the one day you're supposed to.

its midnight but i wanted to tell at least one person how today went before i fall asleep.

Vanilla cake layers flavoured lightly with almond and lemon, layers of frangipane and with a brown butter cream cheese frosting. I made tiny almond rugelach cookies shaped like croissants for the decorations! They turned out surprisingly well and are extremely adorable.

Vanilla cake is the reverse creaming method cake from Sugar Geek Show (with almond and lemon extract added). Frangipane is from theactualansley on IG, and the brown butter frosting is from Sugar Spun Run.

I was very kindly gifted a large tromboncino squash, and since my partner and I aren’t huge fans of it in soups, I decided to experiment and turn it into a pie instead.
I peeled and chopped the squash, then roasted it until soft and caramelized. I puréed it and let it cool overnight.
The next morning, I made a basic pie crust, rolled it out, and covered it with cinnamon sugar. I rolled it up, cut it into pieces, pressed them together, and rolled it out again between sheets of parchment. It created the most beautiful swirled crust.
For the filling, I took inspiration from pumpkin pie, using cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and clove, but added browned butter and just a touch of maple extract. The result was an incredibly smooth and light autumnal pie.
To me it kind of tastes like a cross between pumpkin pie and a butter tart.

...and it was absolutely worth it! A fantastic beginner's recipe for this weekend! So lucious and rich, a perfect lava cake. I didn't have mint chocolate chip ice cream as suggested as a complimentary side, but I did have some left over Andes chocolate mints from last weekend's bake, so I chopped some of those up for the top, and that was a great move, if I do say so myself lol. The boiling water step was scary, but as always, trust in Sally 🤗

I'm both proud and grossed out by myself for this illusion cake! I made the clams out of chocolate and ganache, with jello to make them look disgustingly wet. The "ice" was jello, lemon slice I hastily made with chocolate and buttercream, sauce was strawberry jam and (split) ganache inside a chocolate cup.

The cake itself was chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and potato chip crunch, with buttercream on the outside and for the bowl.

My husband was super surprised, he had fun slurping up the "clams" along with the cake 😂

My girlfriend loves cheesecakes so I took the challenge to make one myself to surprise her even though I've never baked. Quite happy with the result although it could be better, the middle was a bit too soft. But it was pretty tasty atleast

For those who may have seen my last post, I tried a new method adding things people recommended, to see if I could take the flavour further, and it was a big success.

Along with the usual method, I added milk powder to the butter while it was browning to drastically increase the amount of toasted milk solids.

I also swapped some of the sugar out for ground up toffee to add another layer of sweetness and some little toffee pockets, while also making the edges extra crispy and chewy.

These things absolutely took the cookie to another level, however does make the process a bit more awkward..

These are SO GOOD! Recipe is here and I fully recommend: https://butternutbakeryblog.com/butter-pecan-chocolate-chip-cookies/

What I did differently: I infused the vanilla into the browned butter as it was on the stove, I used mini choco chips instead of regular sized ones, I toasted the pecans before chopping, and I added nutmeg. 100/10!

A chocolate chip banana cake to be exact 😇

I'm happy with how it turned out!

Vivid pregnancy dreams got me set on having HAVE to bake this cake I dreamt of last night. Just a basic vanilla cake using the 1-2-3-4 recipe by susan g purdy. Frosting is a standard American buttercream. Luckily found a vanilla pod in my kitchen for the frosting yay! Tried my best with what little baking tools I had (see last photo for my makeshift “turntable”decorating stand lol). Respect to cake people because coating cakes IS HARD

Family approved! Also don’t know if it’s just me but once a year I get a day where I’m realllllly hyper-fixated on making a cake. And then that’s it. A whole year passes with no more thoughts about baking a cake.

Open to advice/tips especially for decorating/frosting! (because again, that shiiiii hard)

https://aayisrecipes.com/cakes-cookies-pies/1-2-3-4-cake-for-the-apple-fan/

Tried baking a cake for the first time. Be honest, what do y’all think?

I have been perfecting this recipe for around two years and finally I am close to finishing my mission 🫡 It’s super creamy and soft ☁️

Here you can find the recipe!

Please note that I am using a polish cheese called twaróg. I heard that farmer’s cheese is almost the same thing ☺️

https://obsessedcakes.com/recipes/brownie-lava-cake

(The cake for her 14th birthday was a crooked disaster 😭💀)

Chocolate cake with vanilla cream cheese frosting and freshly made raspberry jam layer (ONE layer because I completely forgot about it later😂). The frosting wasn’t smooth unfortunately 😭. I already have ptsd from making grainy frosting 😭😭😭😭. I tried my hand at vintage cake decorating, and enjoyed it immensely.

Despite all the mistakes it tasted delicious and we added the jam as a topping after we cut it.

Reduced time to 18min and they came out great.

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/best-banana-bread-recipe/

This weekend was a total success!! I made over 100 items and was left 12 which I turned into discount bags for today. So many people came swing by and I had a bunch of neighbors come by and it was just an all around amazing experience. The biggest hit were the pretzels, I’m down south so finding those down here is apparently uncommon at bakeries and not to brag, but a lady who’s originally from Philly said they were delicious so maybe I’m a pro soft pretzel maker now lol (just playing). Even though the weekend went great, I’m always nervous, hoping today will go smooth.

Anyway, I decided to make some different stuff yesterday and set it out today because why not, here’s the lineup:

-Biscoff Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls: Cinnamon roll with apple filling, Biscoff buttercream glaze, homemade apple pie filling, and a Biscoff cookie and drizzle

-Cheese Pizza Soft Pretzels: Soft pretzels flavored with tomato (paste), garlic, & Italian herbs, and topped with cheddar and mozzarella cheeses

-Classic Salted Soft Pretzels

-Loaded S’mores Cookies: Chocolate chip and Biscoff cookie chunks cookie, stuffed with marshmallows, and topped with chocolate drizzle, Biscoff crumbs, and mini marshmallows

-Traditional Birthday Cake Slices: Vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream and rainbow Jimmy sprinkles

Not much of a baker, so was very happy with the end product. Cake was bright and light and perfect for summer!

Recipe:

https://cafehailee.com/recipes/strawberry-and-cream-cake/

I'm an experienced baker, but haven't done anything beyond pizza crust that involved yeast in years. Used the one-rise cinnamon roll recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction, and am so pleased with the results that I'm already planning to make a second batch next week!