Crumbs and Cake

Long time no post :)

 

I actually did post earlier, from my phone, but I'm not sure what happened to that post... weird how that happened... Anyways I'm back on the good ol' computer. 

I've been busy-- baking and in school. Yep. In school. I'm in summer school, by choice surprisingly. I never thought I'd see the day where I voluntarily took a course over the summer. I didn't come close to failing any courses but decided to take a summer course, in order to learn more science. No harm in learning, right??

The last day of my course will be this Friday actually. Then I will bake bake bake. And bake some more. Maybe cook a meal or two to balance all that sugar. NAHHHH! :)

What have I baked? Recently I've made mascarpone-free Tiramisu (made special for my dad's birthday! I'll go into detail next week :) ), 

 

Crumb cake bars:

What I drizzled on them (prior to cutting out the bars) for extra "fanciness" was a basic milk glaze, made only with icing sugar and milk. i used about 4 teaspoons of milk and one cup of icing sugar, but you can use more or less depending on personal taste (thinner or thicker).

Here's a birthday cake for two of my three bestest friends (who happen to be twins...):

 

 

It was their sixteenth birthday! Sadly, on the date of their birthday, I was out of town :( I made them a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. To make the brown frosting I took a heaping spoonful of the cream cheese frosting, and added cocoa to it. 

 

Cream cheese frosting recipe:

 

• 400g icing sugar (approx. 3.2 cups)
• 2 sticks of butter, softened
• 5 ounces of cream cheese 

 

You can add more or less of the sugar or cream cheese (i wouldn't recommend tweaking the butter though) depending on how you like it. If you like more of a cream cheese taste, add more cheese. If you prefer a super sweet frosting, add more sugar. To each his/her own :)

Take an electric mixer (normally I do everything by hand, except this time I used a mixed and I'm glad I did! it came out "whipped" and fluffy :) ) and beat butter and cream cheese until combined. slowly add sugar, one spoon at them time. Add coloring or flavorings if desired. This will generously frost and fill a two layer 9 inch cake.

And finally an apple crumb cake:

 

 

A pound cake with apples (which sunk to the bottom of the cake) and streusel topping, glazed with the milk glaze.

I'm going to be posting the tiramisu in a separate post, with step by step images, I just don't want this post to run too long ;)

 

If you have any recipe requests, or if you'd like to see a particular dessert which I have not yet tried (with recipe + step by step photos if desired), feel free to leave a comment :)

 

                                              Happy baking everyone!

                                                            xxx