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Hello!

This is a pretty late update, but I figured I owed it to you all for the brainstorming you helped me with! The wedding was in July in MN and was an extremely hot day, but I'm happy to report that all cakes made it to the venue (in four separate cars) and nothing was damaged or melted!

I don't have any good gut shots of the sliced cakes, but these were possibly the most symmetrical and even cakes ive ever made. I'm incredibly pleased with the results. I also made Manhattan cocktail inspired macarons, which I somehow have no final photos of.

4 of the 5 cakes used the same vanilla sponge recipe. The only one that was different on that front was the carrot cake.

Cake 1: chocolate orange cake (the flavor I struggled the most with). I landed on a chocolate French buttercream and orange curd. I spiked the curd with a little citric acid to make it less sweet. This honestly was still my least favorite cake but seemed to be everyone else's favorite, so this is probably a me-problem. Also, the decision to make the French buttercream was somewhat driven by the extreme number of egg yolks I had leftover after making a crap ton of SMBC. I also have literally nearly a gallon of the chocolate frosting in my freezer now. ETA: I also added dark chocolate shavings on the chocolate layers.

Cake 2: strawberry honey. Strawberry honey jam layered with cream cheese honey buttercream

Cake 3: lemon blueberry: lemon curd and blueberry jam

Cake 4: lime blackberry: lime curd and blackberry jam

Cake 5: carrot cake with brown butter cream cheese frosting

Macarons: chocolate shells, Russian white chocolate butter cream, cherry compote with bitters and orange zest

All the cakes were covered on the outside with Claire Saffitz's invented cream cheese SMBC, which I highly recommend everyone try. It's worth the work. Carrot cake was also Claire's recipe, as was the chocolate French buttercream.

I put the cakes onto 1/4" plexiglass rounds that exactly fit into the cake boxes I got, so no sliding around. The logistics of transport was potentially over the top, but it was an hour drive and I was paranoid. Thus I had three other guests pick up one cake each the night before so 4 of the 5 cakes had a lap to sit on and would be protected. The fifth sat at my feet (with one on my lap...it was a lot of cake). I gave everyone the dimensions of the box ahead of time so they could make room in the fridge and gave clear (written, lol) instructions on how to carry and hold the cakes to prevent sides from squishing or body heat melting the base. Also these things were HEAVY. The scale pic is in kg, not pounds. Big shout out to my transport people, because it was a lot of pressure. I should probably mention that I'm a trained scientist and also project manager, so there was really no escaping this being project managed to death. I also kept the equivalent to a lab notebook as I recipe tested and scaled recipes. I copied the entire notebook and typed up final versions of each component and gave that to the couple as a gift. Now they can make their own 1 yr anniversary cake!

That's about all I can think of. I'm really proud of this but also underestimated the amount of work. I took 2 days off work to assemble the things and it took about 1.5 workdays to get it done. All the components were made ahead of time aside from one extra batch of SMBC, since I ran out. So this was literally only assembly time. I will not be doing this for anyone ever again. Oh also we bought an entire additional fridge for this. Good news is that we now have a backup fridge in our basement.

Big thanks to this community for chatting me through some thought experiments to pull this off. 💗

Got some apples at a local orchard and did my best making the dough from scratch. she ain’t perfect but she’s pretty! I had to use the leftover dough to make a lil mini one too lol I used my espresso cup to bake it 😂

for a halloween party at work 🎃

Two years ago I shared a cinnamon roll fail that I had using regular flour and gluten free flour. Today I mustered up the courage to try them again and literally they’re so effing good

Well.

They're definitely giving pagoda, and that tiered aesthetic I guess doesn't lend itself to suitably capturing candy corn essence. In hindsight, I probably should have piped closer along the edges.

French method macarons with ratios from Sugar Spun Run

White shells were piped on 1.25 inch circles, orange on 1.5 (my standard) and yellow on 1.75.

Filled with dyed Ermine Frosting and whipped white chocolate ganache (3:1 ratio, chocolate to heavy cream), then topped with a vanilla candy melt.

GUYS, HEAR ME OUR 😭

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the thought of making classic cinnamon rolls because of how much time and effort they take, you NEED to try cinnamon focaccia.

I freaking LOVE cinnamon rolls, but my usual recipe takes forever and they always turn out pretty heavy because of how rich the dough and filling is.

So I thought, why not combine them with my second favorite thing FOCACCIA 😵‍💫

I've been wanting to try this for SO long and last night I finally made the dough, baked it this morning, and OMG, it genuinely made my day.

I promise it tastes a million times better than it looks. 😮‍💨💕

I have seriously been struggling with the quality of chocolate that is out there. I have also noticed the percentage of saturated fat has gone down in many butter brands, and I think more water is added.

Biggest one this week was that my classic kitchenaid of 10 years (it churned out hundreds of weddings with no issues) finally broke, so I went to buy a new kitchenaid that was even the same exact color and model, and the speed lever broke in like 3 days! I read they are making them differently now.

Also noticed the quality of wilton fondant has seriously declined. It doesn't firm up at all, and is a weird off white color.

Ugh part of baking is having the comfort of relying on certain brands and products, and this is stressing me out lately! Not to mention the prices skyrocketing with amount of product being reduced.

I finally succeeded in making this using https://chawjcreations.com/pandan-honeycomb-cake/#recipe

I need to make the color darker but other than that, it was perfect 😁

I don’t know what I did with my good piping bags! I made do with a crappy rubber piping bag and a plastic freezer bag. They didn’t come out perfectly pretty but I was over the moon when the shells were perfectly crisp and hollow out of the oven. I also had to take three goes at the dough. First time I accidentally added the eggs to the boiling water/sugar/salt/butter and made a scrambled eggs monstrosity. Second time I got tilted and started rushing and added the amount of sugar that’s supposed to be for the filling (2/3 cups) and started over again. Third time’s the charm! Once I got the mixing after boiling it didn’t quite give pipeable consistency so I added maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of one more beaten egg and they turned out great. Super tasty and I love that the less sweet shell really balances out the chocolate and filling. Definitely not the last time I try baking these.

I used preppy kitchen’s recipe and demonstration!
https://youtu.be/6GIGcq8SCpE?is=I5ta5EqzlomvJhCa

Made these for my second child’s 1st birthday…no one showed up. 😪😢 Still proud of myself though!

Pumpkin honey cheesecake with a cinnamon toast crunch and granola crust finished off with a Jack Daniels whiskey salted caramel pecan sauce.

Lemon swirl bread with pearl sugar crust. Sourdough preferment for a little extra flavor.

Has me starting to think about trying a version where I flavor the milk first, like with ice cream. Maybe lemon swirl with earl grey steeped milk.

Some pretty rolls that just came out of the oven. I normally drizzle heavy cream on top just before baking but I didnt have any so I used chobani white chocolate mocha coffee creamer. Not as moist as with regular cream but still very good.

The first picture shows the stock photo, followed by my cookies just before they go into the oven and then straight out of the oven. So, I decided to try making these cool Frankenstein cookies, and guess what? I ended up making some adorable green monster cookies that are amazingly delicious! I used a chocolate chip cookie recipe, which I’ll add below. I only added back-to-nature classic cream cookies and green food dye. I say, even though the cookies didn’t end up looking like the example, they taste amazing and are too adorable to even be upset.

Ingredients:

2½ cups all-purpose flour (300g)

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter softened (227g)

¾ cup light brown sugar (165g)

½ cup granulated sugar (100g)

1 large egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1½ cups semisweet chocolate chips (or chocolate chunks) (270g)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a large mixing bowl with a handheld mixer, combine the butter and sugars. Beat on medium-low speed until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add the egg and vanilla. Beat until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Beat just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Using a 1½-tablespoon scoop, scoop the dough into balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. Press more chocolate chips on top. (If desired, chill the dough balls for 1 hour, or cover and chill for up to 72 hours.)

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. (If you’ve chilled your cookies, bake for 13 to 15 minutes.) For best results, bake one sheet at a time. Immediately sprinkle cookies with flaked salt, if desired.

Let the cookies cool on the pan for 5 to 10 minutes. Finish cooling on a wire rack. Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

My first ever banana bread! The crispy top is the best!

It didn't rise as I'd hope it to, but still nice to taste, even though a bit too moist inside. Probably cut it too early.

Any advice to make it less moist?

Was in the oven for an hour at 180°

Not as fancy as some of you guys, but here’s my pumpkin spice cupcakes I made for my toddler’s swim class. They tasted AHHMAZINGGG