Yup coolest cake ever

I have been looking for an excuse to make this cake for so long and my roommates birthday seemed like the perfect excuse! I made chocolate cake and the filling is a buttercream that tasted exactly like Oreo filling. Holy cow was this a rich cake! He had his birthday dinner at Pok Pok, which is one of the best restaurants in Portland. I was expecting to to cut slices 2 Kit Kats deep but they cut 4! Nobody even finished their slices it was so huge and rich! I will defiantly make this barrel cake again but only cut with 2 Kit Kats!

The aftermath!

I made these delicious coconut cupcakes for the birthday of a gentleman who is allergic to chocolate! Such a horrible allergy to have, I think I would die...literally. I also did Banana Pecan with Carmel Frosting...holy moly were they amazing. I had some trouble making the carmel, third try was defiantly a charm on those. I haven't made my own carmel in awhile but after I got the hang of making it it was easy. I seriously could've just take a spoon and drizzle it into my mouth. Actually there's a chance that happened when I was done.

I ordered some adorable business cards that I've been passing out all over the place. I've raised 46% of my goal for Susan G. Komen! I'm looking forward to hitting the 50% mark. I also need to start walking more. I'm on business trips for the next 5 weeks and will be hitting the gym at my hotel and walking along the beautiful river right behind the hotel too.

Playing Catch Up

It has been quite awhile! Since my last post I've been busy baking and raising money, as of right now I'm at 24% of my goal. There are a few more donations I mailed in that I'm waiting to hit my Susan G. Komen 3-Day account, they should put me over 25% hopefully. Here are some pictures of what I've been up to recently.

Christmas party

Top: Coffee with coffee frosting and chocolate sprinkles

Middle: Brownies with mint filling

Bottom: Swirled Peanut Butter and Chocolate

Vanilla cupcakes with green and yellow frosting for BCS National Championship Game on January 10, 2011. We are huge Oregon Duck fans around here, sadly they lost but it was a great season.

100 cupcakes for a friends 30th birthday. Red velvet, Vanilla with Buttercream, Peanut Butter, Cookies and Cream Cheesecake, and Brownie with mint filling

ButterBeer cupcakes inspired by Harry Potter! I found this recipe on AmyBites and I knew it would be perfect for my coworkers birthday. She loves Harry Potter and got me reading all the books and hooked on the movies. Pretty excited for the final movie to come out in July.

St. Patrick's Green Velvet cupcakes! I picked up a mini cupcake pan from Crate and Barrel and these were the perfect cupcakes to try out first! I found this recipe on PickyPalate. I'm usually not a big St. Patrick participant, I'm not Irish at all, but thought these were so cute. Who can resist a mini green cupcake with yellow buttercream? They were so good and addicting. I ended up taking 2 plates to my friends at Najdek Produce, they disappeared very quickly!

My roommates birthday is next week and we've got some surprises planned for him. I'm hunting around for a delicious cake to make for his birthday dinner Monday night.

In other big news for today it's Brian's one year anniversary of opening his State Farm Agency! I am so proud of him and everything he has accomplished. I can't wait for the great things he'll be doing in the future.

xoxo

Cupcake Success!

Last week I made some delicious yellow cupcakes with chocolate cheese frosting and a chocolate cupcake with buttercream frosting. My lovely friends at Najaek Produce (Thanks Mr. Farley and Mike!) have been my best supporters so far. I'm also planning some Thanksgiving cupcakes for a friend and her family. The other week I picked up some cupcake books at the library and I swear I've become obsessed. Between planning out cupcakes to try and the Thanksgiving menu I'm spending wayyy too much time thinking about food.

I made Cookies and Cream cupcakes from 500 Cupcakes. Ummm...delicious! Although the recipe did call for them to baked for 20 minutes which I think is a little long. I mixed in the Oreos to the frosting before putting it on the cupcakes. I will defiantly be using this recipe again. The cakes were so yummy looking with all the Oreo flecks in them! Plus just a straight butter and powdered sugar frosting? Yes please!!

Next cupcake today was from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, Mint Filled Brownie Cupcake. So delicious and fudgy with a happy little mint patty surprise inside. These were so rich and when I tried one that was all I needed. It was slightly warm....mmmm heaven. Usually when a recipe calls for sifting flour or other ingredients I role my eyes and just mix it in without sifting, I bit the bullet and sifted today. If it made a difference I'm not sure but maybe I'll start now.

The picture above is kinda shoddy, I put them in the box and taped it up and realized I forgot to take any pictures. I was trying to get out quickly and deliver so sorry for the icky picture. Hopefully next time I'll remember to take better ones next time!

I'll be delivering cupcakes to Najaek Produce the rest of the month and feeling pretty special to be supplying Thanksgiving cupcakes for a family dinner. Ugh the one part of this project I can't stand is the dishes. Which is what I have to go tackle now. Boo.

This next year

I've set a pretty lofty goal for myself in the next year, my mom and I signed up for the 2011 Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer 3 day walk in San Diego. We each have to raise quite a bit of money and we've decided that "Cupcakes for a Cure" is a fabulous way to do some of this fundraising. I'm in the testing phase of cupcakes right now, figure I should make sure that the cupcakes are good before I start charging!

Allrecipes.com is one of my favorite websites and I'm on it daily searching for different recipes. The first cupcakes I made were "Simple White Cake" with "Milky Way Frosting". Really easy and simple. In my opinion taste was mehhh. I thought the cupcake tasted too much like flour. I used my coworkers as guinea pigs, some of them liked the cupcakes but agreed the taste was a little off. Maybe I'll try those again but the frosting was an entirely different story.

Frosting=ICK

Melted Milky Way bars, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar all mixed together. Ack...it was rich and flavorless all at the same time. Pretty much reminded me of melted cheap chocolate.

Well moving on the next recipe!