Baumkuchen (Daring Bakers' Challenge)

I got very excited when I saw January's Daring Bakers' Challenge. So excited, in fact, that I promptly dropped the rest of my plans for the weekend, marched to the grocery store to buy almonds, and began baking. This month's challenge was baumkuchen - a traditional cake throughout Europe that has also become very popular in Japan. The name translates to "tree cake" in German. Usually, the cake is ring-shaped, so the layers look like tree rings. Unfortunately, getting this ring-shaped layering requires some specialized equipment, so my baumkuchen has horizontal layers.

The January 2014 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Francijn of "Koken in de Brouwerij". She challenged us all to bake layered cakes in the tradition of Baumkuchen (tree cake) and Schichttorte (layered cake).

A Wedding Cake For Friends

Photo credit: About The Day.

Last year, Mr. Buttercream and I were delighted to hear that a great friend from college was getting married to his awesome girlfriend. The couple initially asked me to help them with a dessert table for their wedding reception, but then decided they really wanted a tiered wedding cake.

I was nervous! Even though I've made many, many cakes in my day, I've never tried putting one cake on top of another (or made one this big). To prepare, I spent many weekends this summer planning, researching, and practicing. Ultimately, I learned a lot, the cake turned out well, and (most importantly) my friends loved their cake!

Caramel Mocha Brownies

I was overcome by a desire to bake something last Sunday afternoon. After pushing around various food items in my pantry for several minutes, I decided that I had all the ingredients for brownies. Then, because I love coffee, I decided to make them mocha brownies. Then I decided to throw in some caramel. Usually, my baking projects are well thought-out far ahead of time. These brownies...not so much.

Raspberry Cheesecake (A Late Valentine's Day)

 Whew!  My husband and I are mostly moved into our new house...mostly.  Well, at least we've unpacked essentials like pillows, blankets, the computer, the cat, and the Kitchenaid.  I'm getting used to the new kitchen, which has a gas oven instead of an electric one (weird).  So far, I've managed to tackle a couple small baking projects, and I'm finally ready to post about a scrumptious raspberry cheesecake, which I originally made for Mr. Buttercream for Valentine's Day.

Chocolate Mousse Mille-Feuille (Daring Bakers' Challenge)

It's October 27th!  That means it's time for another Daring Bakers' Challenge.  This month's challenge was to create something called mille-feuille, which means "thousand sheets" in French.  The reason this is called "thousand sheets" is because the buttery pastry part of this dessert is folded and rolled out a gazillion times (I may be exaggerating...a bit).  Typically, mille-feuille is filled with a vanilla pastry cream.  I felt like I'd just used pastry cream in the pâte à choux swans challenge, so I decided to use chocolate mousse instead.

Our October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full. Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it!

Chocolate & Hazelnut Birthday Cake

Does anyone else have something that you constantly think you're out of, but in reality you have vast quantities sitting in the back of your pantry?  My husband and I are like this with Nutella.  We often return home from the grocery store with a new jar of the sweet chocolate spread, only to be surprised to find many more jars in the pantry.  We currently have four mostly-full jars cluttering our shelves and serving as vivid reminders of just how disorganized we are.