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

When a Man Loves A Carrot Cake

The other day I got a call from my friend Pat, who said "I want to order a birthday cake."  I said, "OK, who's it for?"  "It's for me!  I love your carrot cake, and I want to order my own birthday cake."

First of all, I think it's the coolest thing when someone goes ahead and orders their own birthday cake.  No waiting around wondering, hoping someone will provide the cake on your big day.  You know you'll have your birthday cake, and eat it too, because you've taken care of it!  It's proactive and shows self-respect and confidence.  I love that!

I dropped Pat's cake off at 7:45 this morning.  He was all ready to go.  He's meeting his wife and daughters up at Gore Mountain for a little ski get-away, and he told his wife Beth, "Don't worry about my birthday cake.  I took care of it!"

Because I AM the cake baker, I usually don't bake my own birthday cakes.  My big day is next week, the "Ides of March" will be upon us and my odometer will turn over from 57 to 58.  Henry's been trying to tell me something all week.  I walk in their house and he says "Grandma, I have a surprise..." and goes running to reveal it, only to have his mother remind him, "Not yet, Henry!"  Then he just has the hugest grin on his face and looks at me like he can't wait to share the surprise.  So far, he's kept the lid on it.  Let's hope he can hold out for the next five days!

I always think about what peoples' favorites are when it comes to their birthday cakes.  It's usually a very specific, if not personal, preference.  Any Eddy relative usually requires chocolate in some form.  My neice Lauren usually likes strawberries and cream.  My nephew-in-law (is that a bonafide status?) Bob loves lemon anything, as does my best bud Sue.  The O'Farrell side of my family often likes the classic yellow birthday cake with white frosting (which I love too).  And then there's my friend Pat, who got just what he wanted, his own carrot cake, for his birthday today.

I've posted about my carrot cake recipe before.  It's a bit of a short-cut, for which I'm forgiven because it is just so good.  It's lighter (less oil) than many from-scratch recipes, and the addition of crushed pineapple and pineapple juice, along with raisins and walnuts, makes it a taste and texture extravaganza.  Add the cream cheese frosting (posted with the linked recipe), and, all I can say is, MORE PLEASE!

Happy birthday to you, Pat.  I hope you order your own cake from me for many years to come!  And I'll close with a collage of "my boys" on this beautiful Saturday morning...

Saturday morning with my boys!

Carrot Cake!

Carrot Cake

The very thought of it makes people smile. This weekend I attended a graduation party in Hatfield, Massachusetts for my good friend Logan (UVM ’09), where wonderful foods were served. Her dad John manned the grill with offerings of steak, chicken, burgers, veggie burgers, etc., but when I got there I had just one request – a burnt hot dog. I don’t know what it is, but I just love a charred hot dog on a toasted roll with mustard and relish. I know the carcinogenic dangers of such foods, but one, once in a while, kicks off summer for me like nothing else. Once that was out of the way, there was a wonderful salad (dessert, really) of green grapes in vanilla yogurt sprinkled with cinnamon. It was so simple and so refreshing that I could have stolen the bowl and hid around the corner, but I controlled myself. My contribution to the evening was not to be shared by all, and was not on the table. It was carrot cake, in the form of cup cakes, and Logan’s personal favorite which I kept in the car and presented to her after the party, to make sure she and her college room-mates had them all! Her father cornered me and asked “Where are the cupcakes?” so we made a personal trip to the car (in pouring rain) where he scored his cupcake, and he almost convulsed in happiness as he shoved the whole thing in his mouth! Anyway… I make a loaded version with raisins, walnuts, crushed pineapple, and coconut. This much personality is over the top for a lot of people, so for the less adventurous the recipe gets toned down a bit with just raisins and walnuts, or just raisins. Rarely is carrot the only textural component in my carrot cake. The topper is a cloud of cream cheese frosting. This is a softer version of the same frosting used on the cinnamon rolls of a previous post. A generous dollop spread with the back of the spoon, exposing a bit of cake at the cupcake’s rim, is all it takes to transform carrot cake into a devine dessert.

A carrot cake recipe can be very much like a zucchini cake recipe, with lots of shredded veggies, a cup of oil, the standard dry ingredients and lots of cinnamon. There’s a short-cut that I’m sharing with you today. It uses a carrot cake mix. One made by Duncan Hines is great, with a recipe for the loaded version on the back of the box, and the results are spectacular. If you’re short on time, or don’t feel like shredding carrots, and can handle rave reviews, this recipe is for you:

Carrot Cup Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 carrot cake mix
1 cup water
4 eggs
½ cup oil
8 oz. crushed pineapple in juice
¾ cup raisins, tossed in 1 tbsp. flour
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup shredded coconut

Mix all ingredients together very well and fill paper-lined muffin cups half full. Bake at 350 degrees F until they are dry on top and bounce back when pressed in the center, about 22 minutes.

When cool enough to handle, remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
¼ lb. butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. lemon extract
1 lb. confectioners sugar
Up to 1/4 cup milk, a little at a time

Beat cream cheese and butter together. Add extracts and mix well. Slowly add confectioners sugar all at once, and milk, a little at a time, until you reach the perfect consistency.

Drop a generous dollop of frosting on center of cupcake. With the back of a spoon, spread almost to edges.

photo credit of Logan's cupcake: Jeannie O'Farrell Eddy

Tomorrow's Blog: contribution form Claire ~ Bitchin' Bette's Blueberry Pie!