Hooray that it’s nearly summertime! It’s my favorite time of year, mainly because Portland gets sunny and so picturesque. I just want to be outside 24/7 soaking it all up! Since ice cream is such an iconic summer treat, I wanted to use it as inspiration for these Banana Split Cupcakes. There’s no actual ice cream involved, just tons of cuteness and flavors that are so perfect together.
One of my favorite go-to things to bake are actually the simplest things ever: chocolate chip cookies. I don’t have a fancy recipe (I literally just use the one on the back of the Hershey’s chocolate chip package), but in my opinion, a warm chocolate chip cookie dipped in milk at the end of a long day is like heaven. So as I was whipping up a batch the other day, I had an epiphany: why not translate the deliciousness of chocolate chip cookies and milk into cake form? It didn’t take me long after that to start testing recipes for the best milk & cookies cake ever. Here’s what happened:
I’ve been in the Holiday spirit since before Thanksgiving, which is about the time all the cute decorations hit the shelves and the Christmas music started flooding the radio stations. I can’t help but have hundreds of ideas for festive cake decorating this time of year, especially because creative prints and fun color schemes are everywhere I look! It really is the most wonderful time of the year.
Whoever thought of putting caramel and apples together was a flavor genius. I just love the sweet and salty complexity a good homemade caramel adds to apples (and apple-flavored things!), so as soon as I perfected this apple spice cake recipe, I knew I had to pair it with salted caramel buttercream and turn it into an caramel apple masterpiece! It’s become such a Fall classic in our household that I make it every year as soon as the leaves start changing colors.
Whether you’ve been baking for awhile or you’re new to the game, there are a few go-to recipes I recommend having in your recipe box. I believe one of them should be a fail-proof vanilla cupcake recipe, and this one is just that. These babies come out the same every single time: fluffy, moist, rich vanilla flavor, and perfectly soft structure. And they’re so versatile, you can top them with just about any buttercream flavor and be good to go!
One of the most frequent questions I get as a cake decorator is how I get my buttercream cakes so smooth and sharp. To answer you, I’m going to be completely candid here and not pretend that my cakes are absolutely flawless every time. The truth is, with most of the cakes I design, there are plenty of opportunities to hide small flaws in the buttercream finish. A ganache drip over this crease, sprinkles around that bottom edge, and before you know it the cake appears flawless with all those problem areas covered up! Ok, maybe that’s just me being lazy creative. Despite that, I have developed some skills and learned some tips over the years that help me get pretty darn close to a flawless buttercream finish, and I’m excited to share them all with you!
There’s something about me you’ve got to know: I really really love s’mores. I had my first one as a kid sitting around a crackling campfire under the stars and have been hooked ever since. There’s something about a perfectly toasted marshmallow, melty milk chocolate, and crunchy graham crackers that just gets me all shook up. Since discovering this fun little fact about me, my mother-in-law keeps her pantry stocked year-round with all the s’mores essentials to make sure I can have them any time I come over. No matter what time of year, you’ll find stacks of Hershey’s bars, jet puffed marshmallows, and honey graham crackers tucked away in my very own corner of her pantry and it makes me feel very known and loved. It was just a given that I would turn these flavors into a cake, and it’s one of the very first recipes I sought to master.
Huzzah! It’s my birthday! Well, technically it was last week but I’m still celebrating. I’m a whopping 32 years old now, and although I usually dread birthdays because of the whole getting older thing, this year I’m feeling pretty content. I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with my very most favorite people, and I’m feeling so truly loved that I just can’t complain.
When you’re a caker it’s quite common to make your own birthday cakes, and this year was no exception. I thought about making something classic and reminiscent of my childhood (like yellow cake with chocolate frosting, the all-time favorite of my youth) but then I thought, why not use my birthday as an excuse to pair some flavors I love in a way that I’ve never done before? Even if it didn’t turn out right, it could be a good laugh. But spoiler alert: it turned out real good!
I’ve got a major business crush on Tea Bar for a few reasons: their tea is organic and ethically sourced, the drinks they make with it are innovative (and delicious!), and their entire team is made up of strong, inspiring women. They’ve made a mark on the Portland tea market but I can easily see them taking over the world. After all, who doesn’t love a good cup of golden milk or a matcha latte? If you’re a Portlander and have never been, give them a try next time you want to meet up with a friend!
