Two Cakes, Two Celebrations

Thought I'd share the two cakes I made the last couple of days.  The first is a carrot cake I made for my boss, Mary Lou.  We had a small celebration in the office and found a little bit of time between two of her many meetings to sing "Happy Birthday" and wish Mary Lou well and a great year ahead.  She was very appreciative.  My co-worker Dean was Mary Lou's party planner, and came to me early on to see if I'd bake her a special cake, which I was happy to do.  Our office is great that way. Everyone is designated party planner for someone else, so no one person's birthday goes unacknowledged.  It's a special thing.

Here's Mary Lou's cake, which was a carrot spice cake with raisins and pineapple, and cream cheese frosting:

Mary Lou's Birthday Cake

The second cake I made was for my friend Anne's granddaughter, Breanna.  She's celebrating her 13th birthday with a slumber party and six of her close friends.  Anne sent me a photo of an "inspiration" cake that  Breanna liked, and I used it as just that, inspiration.  I always try to make someone else's design unique by incorporating my own touches, and I think it was successful.  This was a white/vanilla cake with butter cream frosting and cut-out fondant decorations.

Here's Breanna's cake:

Breanna's Birthday Cake

And, since I rarely give my oven a rest, right now I'm baking crumb cake muffins.  They've just come out of the oven, and they are pretty.

Today's crumb cake muffins -
hot out of the oven with a little sugar on top!

Photos:  my own

Crumb Cake Muffins

I'm testing out new muffin flavors, since it seems I always settle on the same three or four favorites.  Tonight I decided to broaden my baking horizons with a crumb cake muffin.  I'm using my basic recipe for the muffin itself -- a sour cream batter used as the foundation for every muffing I make -- and topping it with a New York-style crumb topping.  It's a very simple recipe, and it looks great (in the oven now).  The photos are of the muffin-in-process.  It's a pretty little muffin, and all expectations are that it will taste as good as it looks!

CRUMB CAKE MUFFINS

Oven 375 degrees F
Makes 12 standard muffins, plus a couple more...

Crumb topping:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 bar softened butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Muffin batter:
1/4 cup softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 3/4  cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Make crumb topping:  in medium bowl, combine all the crumb topping ingredients and cut together with a pastry cutter or two knives until the mixture has coarse lumps the size of peas.  Set aside.

Make muffin batter:
In large bowl of electric mixer, beat together softened butter and sugar.  Add extracts.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Beat in sour cream until thoroughly incorporated.  Add dry ingredients and mix very well, for about a minute.

Line muffin tin with paper cups or spray with cooking spray.  Fill muffin cups 2/3 full (about 1/4 cup batter each).  Top each filled cup with 1 tablespoon of the crumb topping.

Bake for 20 minutes or until muffins are done (toothpick test).  Cool on wire rack for 10-15 minutes, then remove from pan.  Sift confectioners sugar over top of cooled muffins.

Makes more than enough for a dozen muffins.  (I got 15 out of mine.)

Me and my little helper!
(and happy birthday to his grandpa Gene today!)

Crumb Cake Muffins