Citrus Spice Bakery: February 2013

Happy Birthday Angela!

It was my sister, Angela's 21st birthday this week. She wanted a German chocolate cake. German chocolate is definitely one of my favorites, with its gooey caramel coconut pecan filling. I did 3 layers of rich chocolate cake inside, and put the traditional filling between the layers, but on the outside, I decided to decorate it "filling deconstructed." So, it is frosted with caramel Swiss buttercream, then I spread it with a caramel drizzle, added pecan halves around the bottom for a cute border, and shredded coconut on top. The filling soaks into the cake layers a little bit, so you get an incredibly moist, rich cake. So flavorful and delicious! Happy birthday, my dear little sister!

German Chocolate Cake Filling

4 egg yolks

1 can evaporated milk (12 ounces)

1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (1 3/4 ounces)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick), cut into 6 pieces

1/8 teaspoon table salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups sweetened shredded coconut (7 ounces)

1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans (6 1/2 ounces), toasted on baking sheet in 350-degree oven until fragrant and browned, about 8 minutes

Whisk yolks in medium saucepan; gradually whisk in evaporated milk. Add sugars, butter, and salt and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until mixture is boiling, frothy, and slightly thickened, about 6 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl, whisk in vanilla, then stir in coconut. Cool until just warm, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cool or cold, at least 2 hours. Stir in pecans just before cake assembly.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's day again - any excuse for baking! :) I made decorated sugar cookies for my daughter's Kindergarten class and the office staff at her school. These are iced with royal icing in white, pink, and red. I flooded the cookies, then added an inner border of contrasting color, and then added red dots along the border. Then I ran a toothpick lightly around the border to marble the dots into a heart shape. They came out cute, and everybody loved them!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

It was my dear old dad's birthday this week, so I made him a birthday cake. Chocolate is not his favorite, and I really wanted to try something special, so I made him an "Italian Cream Cake." That's vanilla buttermilk cake with toasted coconut powder and chopped toasted pecans in the batter, and coconut cream cheese frosting, with more toasted pecans between layers. It was definitely one of the most delicious cakes I've ever had! I also wanted to try a new decorating technique - hand painting. I had done a little bit, as seen in the last couple of posts, on the Harry Potter cake and the Chinese New Year cupcakes, but this time I wanted to really do a hand-painted decoration. I covered the outside of the cake in homemade almond fondant, and then hand painted on the birthday greeting and roses. It turned out pretty good for my first try!

Happy Chinese New Year!

It was Chinese New Year last Sunday, which I knew about because my husband served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Taiwan. I decided to make some Chinese New Year cupcakes. Chinese New Year colors are red and gold, so I went with red velvet cupcakes, coconut Swiss buttercream, and gold sugar sprinkles. I made red sugar paste tiles and hand painted them with the Chinese characters for "life," "luck," "peace," and "prosperity." When the tiles were dry, I placed them on the cupcakes. They were so festive and delicious!

Sweet Baby Cousin

My Cousin, Laura, who lives in Virginia, recently had her first baby, a precious little boy. She, her husband, and little baby Dylan came out for a visit last week, and my girls and I had a great time smothering the sweet baby boy! Their visit happened to be just a few days before Laura's birthday, so I made her a birthday cake: chocolate and peanut butter at her request. I decided to do some whimsical blue flowers to go on it, and some piped on decorative swirls. The cake was so chocolaty and moist, and the peanut butter Swiss buttercream is to die for! So light and fluffy, full of peanut butter flavor, and not too sweet. I was so glad to see my cousin and her dear family!

Harry Potter Cake

One of my friend's daughters wanted a chocolate Harry Potter cake for her birthday, so I made a sheet cake, carved it like a book, and covered it with homemade vanilla fondant. I swirled in a little brown food dye to make the fondant look like parchment paper, and used a ridged pastry tip to create the look of book pages around the edges. I made a golden snitch out of a Lindt white chocolate truffle, which I painted with yellow food dye and rolled in gold sprinkles, and then attached sugar paste wings, also sprinkled with gold sprinkles. I dyed some sugar paste black and made Harry's famous glasses, and then dyed some sugar paste brown for his wand. I was especially pleased with the wood grain look I was able to achieve on the wand! I dipped a toothpick in the brown dye and made horizontal stripes across the wand, and then pulled the stripes down with a paint brush to get the desired effect. I put all the decorations on the cake, and then used a paintbrush to write the spells and birthday message in black food dye, so it would look like ink on parchment. I was pleased with the result, and Bekah really loved her cake.