The Baby Shower From Hell

Ok -- not really. It was actually a lovely jack & jill shower, held outdoors in a pavilion at the park for my absolutely radiant stepsister. Everyone had a blast, and my kids actually refrained from both crying AND pooping... and if you have kids, you know that this made for quite a pleasant afternoon.

However, I, the reluctant-yet-overly-ambitious baker, was in over my head. This post should really be entitled The Hell BEFORE the Baby Shower. After entirely too much hemming and hawing over recipes, I decided upon this: a whipped brown butter vanilla cake, with a lemon curd filling and lemon meringue buttercream frosting. As if that wasn't enough, I was also tasked with making 24 cupcakes. The last time I did that much baking was for my son's baptism, and I thought having two different recipes was overcomplicating it. I decided to do the same thing for the cupcakes, filling them with the lemon curd. Instead of keeping the process simple, I ended up chosing to do a recipe with a million steps... TWICE.

What's that you say? I'm a lunatic? But I'm not finished! I also decided to decorate the cake and the cupcakes with these dried pineapple flowers from Martha Stewart. Seriously, even typing this all out again is making me annoyed. This whole post is already annoying.

Let's continue this madness, shall we?

Baptism Cake

What a month -- so many parties, insane amounts of cooking and baking. We held a party for my son's baptism a few weeks ago and with family coming in from out of town, most of them meeting him for the first time, I really wanted the cake to be special.

I decided on a dark chocolate cake with sliced strawberries and white chocolate whipped cream filling, topped with a whipped cream frosting. I'd been drooling over it ever since seeing it on Annie's Eats. I have to say, the dark chocolate cake was wonderful. I would absolutely make it again. However, I had some issues with the filling/frosting.

It was such an insane day, I didn't even get the opportunity to taste it until the following day. It almost seemed like the strawberries had sort of fermented. They just didn't taste quite right, and my husband assured me that they were fabulous the day before. Not sure what happened there, but it wasn't too pleasing. I also felt that the white chocolate whipped cream filling kind of got lost. I couldn't really taste enough of the white chocolate to make it worth the effort that went into making it. The whipped cream frosting was delicious! But this was a cake I really wanted to have fun decorating, and it was a bit flimsy for anything too fancy.

All of that said, it was a great day, and everyone seemed to really love the cake and the cupcakes. The cupcakes! Yes, there were cupcakes too. I don't think anyone even got a picture of them, terrible I know. I opted for the opposite of my cake, with a white chocolate cupcake and chocolate frosting, topped with little white chocolate crosses and Ns for my son's name. Those were a big hit as well. Cake recipe is below - will do the cupcakes in another post.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

My husband is a chocolate peanut butter addict. So I knew that I really had to come correct for his birthday. After much researching, I decided on a sour cream chocolate cake, with peanut butter frosting, topped with a dramatic chocolate peanut butter glaze.

This cake is very rich, but really, really amazing. I was afraid that the flavors would be overwhelming, but everyone seemed to agree that this was not the case. I regret that I do not have pictures of this cake, however smitten kitchen does have pictures of it. Mine looked virtually the same, except that my glaze was a bit thinner, and my cake was MUCH taller. I'm not sure why on either count, but seriously my cake was towering, and carrying it to his birthday dinner, the thing had to weigh 20 lbs. Or at least it felt like it.

The recipe calls for 8" pans, but I used 9" pans and clearly did not have any issues with it. I would definitely make this cake again, and I'm pretty sure my husband would be on board with that as well.

Lemon Poppyseed Cake with Raspberry Curd Filling

(My pictures leave a lot to be desired, I know. And I don't have any pictures of the inside, either. But it was beautiful!)


My father-in-law is 85 years old. He is a brilliant man: an accomplished electrical engineer and woodworker, but he is also a very easygoing man. Every year he has but one request for his birthday: lemon. Make it lemon. Whatever it is... lemon.
While I personally don't see the merits of any kind of dessert that is solely fruit-based and does not include chocolate, I decided that it was not my very special day, and that I ought to make him what HE wants. Fine. But it won't be just any lemon cake -- no. Make it lemon poppyseed, with a delicious raspberry filling, and a lemon cream cheese frosting to top it off.

I have to say, even I liked this cake. I don't care for lemon, and I REALLY don't care for raspberries, but it was pretty darn good.