Cake

Chocolate Cherry Cake with Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting

Chocolate Cherry Cake with Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting

Posted on by Katie Gaffen

We’re finally at the end of the summer birthday season, with Josh’s birthday being last week.  Naturally, I wanted to go all out for his birthday cake.  Chocolate was a given since it’s his favorite, and I’ve had cherries on my mind since the start of cherry season, so it made sense to me to put them together.  Josh had also mentioned that he liked cream cheese frosting better than traditional buttercream last time I made it, so I figured I might as well put them all together for one super-decadent cake.

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Mini Chocolate Raspberry Upside Down Cake Wrecks

Baking Fail: Mini Chocolate Raspberry Upside Down Cakes

Posted on by Katie Gaffen

If you’ve been following I Wanna Bake’s Facebook page, you already know that this week’s bakeventure didn’t go so well.  It was supposed to be chocolate raspberry upside down cake, but it turned out to be half-baked chocolate raspberry sludge.  Don’t get me wrong, the cooked parts were delicious.  But this was so ugly I didn’t even have the heart to try to fix it.  I mean really, look at this:

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Belmont Jewel Cupcakes

Belmont Jewel Cupcakes

Posted on by Katie Gaffen

This past weekend, American Pharoah became the twelfth horse to win the Triple Crown, and the first to do so in 38 years.  It also happened to be the first year since I started attending the Belmont Stakes in 2007 that I wasn’t able to make it.  This is something that my dad and I do together, so I was disappointed to say the least.  In an effort to take some part in the race, I decided to invent a cupcake to commemorate the event.  Yes, I know I already did red rose cupcakes for the Kentucky Derby, but who doesn’t want more pretty red rose cupcakes anyway?

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patriotic red, white, and blue mini cakes

Red, White, and Blue Mini Cakes

Posted on by Katie Gaffen

As a reward to myself for meeting my exercise goal for the month, I signed up for two cake decorating classes on Craftsy.  I know cake decorating and exercising sound like two diametrically opposed endeavors, but I was able to justify it to myself by maintaining that the cake decorating class would give me something to blog about.  As long as I can keep myself from piping frosting directly into my mouth (a real struggle for someone like me), I should be able to maintain my fitness progress and learn to make some fancy cakes at the same time.

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kentucky derby red rose cupcakes

Kentucky Derby Winner’s Circle Cupcakes

Posted on by Katie Gaffen

The 2015 Triple Crown kicked off with the Kentucky Derby this weekend, and I wanted to celebrate the occasion with a little party.  Usually, I gather whoever I can easily get to come over (this year my neighbor) and serve mint juleps and Kentucky hot browns.  This year I decided to step it up a notch with red rose cupcakes for dessert.  In keeping with the general theme of “horse,” I decided to make apple walnut carrot cake cupcakes with molasses cream cheese frosting (both recipes are adapted from the Joy of Cooking).  Adding bourbon peach filling gave it an air of race day indulgence.  (Anyone who’s ever been to a Triple Crown day at the race track knows it’s all about the indulgences for the large majority of the crowd.)

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