Purple Flowers Birthday Cake

Ever since I discovered, i heart baking's blog, I have been so eager to try a filling of fresh strawberries and whipped cream.  The opportunity struck when a friend requested a white cake with strawberries and purple flowers for their daughter's birthday.  The cake was to feed 20 adults and 15 kids; so I went with a three layer 8 inch cake but next time for this type of filling, I would stick to 2 cake layers max and torte, if necessary.  The cake was really heavy and I am not sure it was good idea for this type of filling.

 A dam of vanilla cream cheese buttercream filled with a layer of whipped cream frosting, fresh strawberries, and more whipped cream frosting.

Also, because of the fresh fruit and whip cream, I kept it in the fridge after it was decorated.  It's a go to white cake recipe which I used here and here with great results.  But, this time around, I noticed that it was a bit dry. I don't know whether the fridge dried it out or I simply over baked it as my oven was freaking out that day.  Overall, it still tasted good and it turned out as I imagined.

Red Egg Sugar Cookie Favors

In the Chinese culture, a child's birth is celebrated after a month with a Red Egg and Ginger party.  As a symbol of happiness and life, the parents hand out red eggs to their guests.  Instead of handing out actual red dyed eggs, my friend requested sugar cookie favors in the shape of red eggs.  I do not have much experience with sugar cookies but I took on the job of making 100 of them thinking it was going to be easy.

I ended up making 3 batches of rolled sugar cookie dough and 2 batches of sugar cookie frosting.  It also took the help of my sister, her boyfriend, and my husband who helped cut the cookies, flood them, and package them.  All of this work and I can't believe I was only making one type of cookie and one color of frosting.  Much respect to the other bloggers I follow that make those sugar cookies with all sorts of colors and designs all the time!

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Week

One thing about being a food blogger is finding out about all the fun food holidays.  If you're looking for something to bake in celebration, look no further than the following tried and true:

Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Alton Brown's The Chewy

Thick and Chewy: A Personal Favorite

Bonus: Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies

Option 1: Brownies over Cookies

Option 2: Cookies over Brownies

Honey Nut Granola

As I am still practicing a clean eating "lifestyle" around here; I looked into other breakfast ideas as I have eaten my fill of baked cinnamon apple walnut oatmeal and banana oatmeal muffins for awhile.  Enter this honey nut granola.  It's perfect as a topping for yogurt or simply eaten with almond milk.  Making it at home guarantees that there are no processed ingredients being added and it's really easy to put together as well.

Honey Nut Granola
slightly adapted from AllRecipes
makes 5 cups

Ingredients: 4 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup of sunflower seeds
1 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees
In a large bowl, stir together the oats, nuts, and cinnamon
Mix together the oil, honey, and extract.  Add wet mixture to the dry mixture.  Mix well.
Spread the mixture onto two un-greased baking sheets.
Bake for a total of 20 minutes, stirring the mixture every 5 minutes
Remove from the oven and let cool on a separate sheet.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks.

My Little Pony "Fluttershy" Cake

Not only did I make nutella brownies for Valentine's Day and cranberry bliss bars for a coworker's birthday, I made a birthday cake for my sister this week.  It is a known fact that she loves My Little Pony.  Given how busy I was, the best I could squeeze out was a buttercream transfer of her favorite pony, Fluttershy.  I did try to make it fun by making it a rainbow cake inside, as seen on my Instagram account.  I went with a yellow cake which I split into 6 bowls and dyed the colors of the rainbow.  Frosting was an orange butter cream frosting which my brother said tasted like Fruity Pebbles.

Orange Buttercream Frosting
A Baked by Jen Original
Makes enough to fill and frost an 8-inch cake

Ingredients:
4 ounces of cream cheese frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter
1/2 cup of shortening
1 teaspoon of orange extract
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
6 cups of powdered sugar
1-3 tablespoons of orange juice
1-3 tablespoons of milk

Directions:
Beat cream cheese, butter and shortening together.  Add extracts.  Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time.  Add orange juice and milk until desired consistency is reached.