Buttercream Ruffle Cake

After much success with my strawberry cake recipe last week, I went ahead and made the same cake flavor again for my cousin's birthday cake.

When my husband and I sampled the extra cupcakes, we both agreed that the taste and texture was just as good as the last time.  Since this cake was for my cousin, I was able to stick around and taste the actual cake as well.  Unfortunately, the cake was dry and dense; not like the cupcakes at all.  However, I suspect that the cake was not as moist as I anticipated because this time around, I grabbed a container of nonfat yogurt instead of full fat yogurt.  This would definitely make a difference in moisture.

To decorate the cake, I went with a popular buttercream technique that I have seen on Pinterest.  After crumb coating the cake, I scored lines up and down the side of the cake about 1 inch apart to make sure my ribbons would be the same size as well as straight all the way around.  The ribbons were made using the #104 tip with the smaller end facing out.  I ran out of frosting or else I would've added at least a quick border around the top of the cake.  For the lettering, I used my candy mold again to keep it simple and clean.

Spiderman Cake (Cake4Kids.org)

This Spiderman cake was for another Cake4Kids recipient.  I used the frozen buttercream transfer technique to make Spiderman's face as I only had a few hours after work to put it together.  My sister helped by using candy melts in my new ABC mold to write our "Happy Birthday Jose" while I was at work.  I love how clean it made the cake; it looks ten times better than my piping skills.  This will definitely be a new go to technique for me.

The cake flavor request was for strawberry cake and I was excited to give this cake flavor another go.  I have tried recipes with strawberry jello, strawberry puree, and strawberry yogurt but I couldn't recall an absolute favorite.  This time, I used an adaptable white cake recipe as the base and substituted the sour cream for strawberry yogurt and gave it a boost of strawberry extract.  My sister, who sampled the extra cupcakes, deemed it the best strawberry cake ever!  We now have a new house favorite.

Red Velvet Cupcakes (Cake4Kids.org)

I signed up for another Cake4Kids.org request this past week.  This time I baked 4 dozen red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for one of the agencies.  This cupcake combination has been done many times on this blog as seen here and here and even as a comparison here.  I wanted to bring them to light again as I realized how forgiving my go to recipe is.  I made these cupcakes with the milk and vinegar shortcut for buttermilk and I think that explained why there wasn't any differences when I forgot the extra tsp of vinegar at the end.  I also used all purpose flour instead of cake flour and they still came out fluffy.

Oreo Desserts

I can't believe it's the first week of August already.  I am still trying to savor the last few weeks of longer days and warmer nights, before we have to embrace all the hustle and bustle that comes with the "back to school" season.  The coming of back to school season makes me nostalgia for my days in elementary school and finding Oreos at the bottom on my lunch bag.  Given how much they are featured here on my blog, I guess you can say they are still a favorite treat.

Mini Oreo Cheesecakes

Oreo Cupcakes

Oreo Brownies

Oreo Cheesecake Cake

Funfetti Oreo Cupcakes

Oreo Cheesecake