Coconut Cream Pie

I wanted a big punch of coconut flavor in this pie, so I used unsweetened flaked coconut, ground some into flour, and used in the shortbread crust to create a delicious, toasted coconut crust. Then I made the pastry cream with rich coconut milk, topped the pie with mounds of freshly whipped, lightly sweetened cream, and a big pile of toasted coconut flakes. The flavor is so fresh - no artificial flavors here - cool, creamy, crispy, toasty, and delicious. 

Tie Dye Butterfly Cupcakes

Buttermilk cupcakes dyed with rainbow swirls, topped with rich dark chocolate fudge frosting and modeling chocolate rainbow swirl butterflies. They remind me of tie dye!

Milk Chocolate Banana Cake

Four layers of soft banana cake, filled and frosted with rich milk chocolate frosting, topped with caramel sauce. I tried a new "embossed" decorating technique on the sides, with silver nonpareils. I was very pleased with the effect. 

Dark Chocolate Caramel Banana Cake

Four layers of soft banana cake, filled and frosted with dark chocolate ganache. Coated with chopped pecans, and topped with salted caramel sauce. 

Bee Sting Cake

This is a traditional German pastry, known as "Bee Sting Cake" in the US, "Bienenstitch" in Germany.  It has two layers of lightly sweetened yeasted cake, filled with pastry cream, and topped with a honey almond glaze. It is not too sweet, creamy from the pastry cream, crispy from the almonds, with the delicious kiss of honey. 

Mini Pumpkin Pies

Everything is cuter in mini! These are spiced, creamy, mini pumpkin pies with real whipped cream. I love to use fresh grated ginger in my pumpkin pie. The punch of fresh ginger really makes them special.

French Apple Tarts

These French apple tarts are my favorite apple dessert. Flaky, buttery puff pastry topped with thin slices of apples, a sprinkle of sugar and walnuts, baked until golden, then drizzled with homemade caramel sauce. 

Malted Chocolate Cake

Malted chocolate cake. Four layers of malted vanilla cake, filled with malted chocolate frosting, frosted outside with malted vanilla French buttercream. Decorated with whopper candies, silver nonpareils, and gumpaste blossoms. 

Pink Coconut Elephant Cupcakes

I got to make these fun cupcakes for a baby shower. I molded the elephants out of modeling chocolate, added white nonpareils for the eyes, with a dot of black food dye for the pupils. 

The cupcakes are pink dyed coconut cupcakes, with coconut swiss meringue buttercream and pink dyed shredded coconut. 

German Chocolate Cake

Four layer German chocolate cake with coconut pecan filling. White chocolate plaque with chocolate writing. German chocolate cake is not actually from Germany; it was invented by an American baker, Sam German, and is actually German's Chocolate Cake.

Halloween Cupcake Assortment

I had so much fun creating these creepy halloween cupcakes! Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and white chocolate spiderwebs, red velvet cupcakes with raspberry cream cheese frosting piped like intestines, buttermilk cupcakes with vanilla frosting and gumpaste black cats, chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel buttercream piped like brains, cinnamon roll cupcakes with cream cheese frosting piped like mummies, and chocolate cupcakes with oreo buttercream and gumpaste graves. 

Cupcake Assortment

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter, raspberry, and salted caramel french buttercreams, and champagne cupcakes with chocolate, dulce de Leche, and strawberry french buttercreams.

Cupcake Assortment

Vanilla cupcakes with salted caramel and cream cheese buttercreams, and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla bean and oreo buttercreams.

Birch Tree Fall Leaves Wedding Cake

Bottom Tier: chocolate cake with Reese's frosting. Middle tier: chocolate cake with oreo frosting. Top tier: chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

All the tiers are frosted outside with vanilla bean french buttercream, then hand painted with black food dye to mimic tree bark. Then, I added hand sculpted gum paste fall leaves.

Chocolate Cupcake Assortment

Chocolate cupcakes with raspberry, chocolate, salted caramel, and vanilla French buttercreams.

Apple Mascarpone Cake

Vanilla bean white cake with mascarpone cream frosting and fried caramel apples.

Chocolate Caramel Banana Cake

Soft, moist banana cake with dark chocolate ganache, walnuts, and caramel glaze.

Vanilla Salted Caramel Macarons

Vanilla macaron shells with vanilla french buttercream and a salted caramel center.

Halloween Cake

Chocolate cake with toasted marshmallow frosting. Homemade black fondant on the bottom tier, with marshmallow spider web and gum paste spider. 

Hawaiian Guava Wedding Cake

This wedding cake was an exciting challenge to make. The couple has food allergies to gluten, cane sugar, and chicken eggs. They also wanted a hawaiian guava chiffon cake. 

Chiffon cake is very light and fluffy, similar to angel food cake. It is served as a single layer sheet cake due to its delicacy. Using it for a tiered wedding cake was tricky, but I was able to make it work by assembling the cake on site, avoiding transporting it whole.

For the top tier, I used my own homemade gluten free flour blend, and specially ordered duck eggs and beet sugar. It was the first cake the couple  had been able to eat in years, and they loved it! 

For the decoration, they wanted an "exploded rose" design. I made homemade gum paste, dyed it red, rolled it out, cut and shaped 125 petals, plus a central rose.

I set them out on a drying rack to make sure I had made enough for the design. I was very pleased with the end result, and so was the couple!

Cherry Napoleon

Crisp, buttery, flaky puff pastry layered with vanilla bean pastry cream and cherry pie filling. 

Strawberry Cupcakes

Vanilla bean white cupcakes with strawberry french buttercream.

Strawberries and cream cake

Delicate chiffon cake filled with strawberry mousse, frosted with vanilla french buttercream, and glazed with strawberry sauce. 

Cupcake Assortment

A cupcake assortment. Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter, chocolate, and oreo French buttercreams, and strawberry cupcakes.

Smash Cake

This was a cute little smash cake for a first birthday. Chocolate cake with vanilla German buttercream and a modeling chocolate bow. 

Pecan Pie Cheesecake Bars

Crust:

1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon cold water

Cheesecake Layer:

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup sugar 

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pecan Pie Layer:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

3/4 cup corn syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups chopped pecans

Make Crust:

Heat oven to 400. Spray a 9 by 13 baking dish with cooking spray. Process flour, sugar, and salt for 3 pulses in a food processor. Add butter pieces and pulse 10 times. Turn processor on and add vanilla and water. Stop before it forms a dough, but is starting to clump together. Dump into pan and press into an even layer. Bake 15-20 minutes until light golden brown. Set crust on a wire rack to cool slightly while you prepare the fillings. Wash food processor bowl and blade. Reduce oven to 320.

Make Cheesecake Layer:

In clean food processor, process cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides, about 60 seconds. Add sugar and process until smooth. Scrape down bowl and add egg and vanilla. Process until smooth. Set aside.

Make pecan pie Layer and assemble:

In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients except pecans until well combined. Stir in pecans.

Spread cheesecake filling over crust. Carefully pour and spread pecan pie mixture on top. Bake 1 hour until puffed and dry on top, but still slightly jiggly. Cool on a wire rack 1 hour, then refrigerate at least 2 hours. Cut into 16 bars. Keep refrigerated. 

Chocolate Salted Caramel Macaron Cake

For this decadent cake, I made 3 layers of chocolate cake, which I split, making 6 layers. I alternated filling between layers with chocolate ganache and salted caramel, and chocolate Swiss buttercream. It's frosted outside with chocolate Swiss buttercream, glazed with salted caramel, and topped with macarons.

This was my first trial batch of macarons in my new house. It's always scary to make such a temperamental recipe in a new place, but they came out perfectly.  

I filled each macaron with a ring of dark chocolate ganache, with a center of homemade salted caramel. 

The little pop of salted caramel is so good, cutting through the rich, creamy dark chocolate ganache. The great thing about macarons is all the textures you get when you eat them. A thin, crisp outer crust, a soft cake like interior, with just a bit of chew, and then the creamy filling. Love!

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

For these light and delicious cupcakes, I used chiffon batter, and filled them with cool, creamy vanilla pastry cream. They are dipped in rich, dark chocolate ganache. Chiffon cake is perfect for this, as it stays soft when refrigerated, which is necessary for the delicious pastry cream filling.

Peach and Blueberry Pie

It was my stepmom's birthday this week, and she requested peach pie. I added a few blueberries in the mix as well, since both fruits are in season and so delicious right now. I did not add any spices into the filling, since the fruit itself is so flavorful and delicious. Happy birthday, Debbie!

Chiffon Cake with Mascarpone, Blueberries, and Caramel

Chiffon cake is a light and fluffy sponge-style cake, where the egg whites are whipped separately and folded in to the rest of the batter as the primary means of leavening. It is perfect for a light summer dessert, such as this one, filled and frosted with sweetened mascarpone cream, and topped with fresh blueberries and homemade caramel. 

Blueberry Coconut Cake

It was my daughter, Rachel's birthday in July, and as she was brainstorming cake flavors, one of the frostings she talked about was blueberry frosting. I realized I had never made blueberry frosting before, and as it's blueberry season, I thought I'd give it a try. I cooked blueberries down into a concentrated jam-like consistency and added it into Swiss meringue buttercream. I had some coconut milk on hand, so I decided to make coconut cupcakes to go with the frosting. 

The combination was very mild, light, and summery. I loved the beautiful color of the frosting.

Sweet Pea Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my new baby's christening brunch. My most rich and chocolaty frosting on chocolate cupcakes. I made half with little baby pea toppers, and half with sweet pea blossoms; both sculpted out of modeling chocolate. 

Chocolate Cupcake Variety

I love French buttercream. It is so smooth and luxurious, and not too sweet. I made this chocolate cupcake variety with four kinds of French buttercream: chocolate, salted caramel, vanilla bean, and raspberry. 

New Baby!

My 9 month "baking" project has come to an end! Introducing my sweet baby Isaac, born June 24th. 6 lbs 5 oz, 20 inches long. I will resume taking orders Monday, August 4th. If you have an event any time after that date, you can get your orders in now! Visit http://citrusspicebakery.com for prices and flavors. Email me at citrusspicebakery@gmail.com to order. Thanks!

Baby's Coming!

Due to the impending birth of my baby boy, I will no longer be taking orders. I will resume baking in August or September, depending on his (and my) recovery! Thanks, everyone! Stay tuned for a post on Isaac's upcoming birth! After having our 3 beautiful girls, my husband and I are very excited to welcome our first baby boy!

Teacher Appreciation Cupcakes

This week was teacher appreciation week at my girls' school, so I donated 4 dozen cinnamon roll cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting. One of my favorite cupcakes!

Neapolitan Wedding Cake

This wedding cake had raspberry French buttercream and chocolate ganache outside each tier, but inside, each was different. The bottom tier had alternating layers of chocolate and vanilla cake, filled with raspberry buttercream. The middle tier had 4 layers of red velvet cake filled with cream cheese frosting. The top tier had 4 layers of chocolate cake filled with chocolate frosting. Hand sculpted sugar roses and leaves complete the decoration.

Cheese Danish

Happy Easter! Our neighborhood had an egg hunt and breakfast, so I brought homemade cheese Danish. 

Flaky, homemade, melt in your mouth puff pastry, filled with a cream cheese and ricotta cheese filling, drizzled with lemon glaze. 

Raspberry Neapolitan Cake

The ladies at the church in my new neighborhood had a dinner, and I signed up to bring a dessert, of course! 

I made a raspberry Neapolitan cake, with four layers of chocolate and vanilla cake, filled and frosted with raspberry French buttercream, coated with chocolate ganache, and topped with fresh raspberries and chocolate sprinkles.