Workout Review and Bridal Shower Cake Recap

You know what puts a damper on working out in the morning?

It not being morning.

I'm looking at you, Daylight Savings Time.

There's just something about starting your day when it's still dark out that goes against all natural instincts. Luckily for me, my little brother is home from school for the week. And since he wanted to tag along to the gym while he's home, I get to "take one for the team" and wake up a little later to be his gym buddy.

This being my first fitness post, I'm going to give you the inside scoop of what I actually do at the gym (because you've all been dying to know). Well, I've been slowly shifting my workout from focusing on just cardio to splitting it equally with strength training. So I've gone from 45-60 minutes of cardio and 15 of strength training to at least 30 minutes of each. My cardio of choice is running, but an injury last week banned me from the treadmill, forcing me to fill my gym time elsewhere.

After dealing with a frustrating, money-stealing seller on eBay while trying to buy the Insanity workout program, I found this workout routine on another blog. Let me tell you, this workout looks all innocent and reasonable, but it definitely pushes you. I like to think I'm in fairly decent shape, but there are points in this workout when I have questioned that.

Then yesterday, while doing "Day 7:The Punisher," I come across this:

"One Arm Push Up." All casual-like. It's like they snuck it in there at the end as a joke. 

I don't know about you, but I do push ups on the regular and have yet to be able to do ONE one armed push up. Maybe you men have it easier or something, but as a girl it just ain't happenin'. 

The only thing this proved to me was that this workout really does push your limits. I highly suggest it if you're looking for structure and a change in your daily routine. Plus you don't need all kinds of crazy equipment. And because of their Extreme Leg and Butt Workout Level 1 (Level 1!?!), my legs are currently as close to feeling like Jell-O as ever. 

Speaking of dessert, I had a Paris-themed bridal shower order this weekend. I have a soft spot in my heart for anything French, so this was a pretty exciting project for me! I thought I'd share some photos, and reward you with some cake for sticking with me through this fitness post. 

The bride's personal cake: red velvet cake decorated with hand-made sugar blossoms, sugar pearls and topped with a chocolate Eiffel Tower

French vanilla cupcakes topped with fondant and hand-piped damask and bow patterns

Creme brulee cupcakes (brown sugar cupcakes filled with vanilla custard, topped with vanilla meringue buttercream and a burnt-sugar disk) and chocolate raspberry cupcakes with chocolate ganache

Au revoir! 

Espresso Buttercream and New Endeavors

Happy October! Well, mid-October. Since my last post I've been busy making cakes for some dear friends (Happy Baby Shower, Christina! And Happy Birthday, Umran!), being a leaf-peeper in Vermont, playing jump-rope with the cable wire laying in our driveway (cough Comcast sucks cough) (Side note: do you understand how difficult jumping-rope is? From what I remember from my childhood, it shouldn't be very complicated. My boxing trainer has me jump rope EVERY WEEK and I still can't do it without tripping over myself. And that's super intimidating when you're getting ready to throw down.When did I become so uncoordinated? I digress.), and getting a new job!

If you remember correctly, I recently started a new job in August. But now I have a new new job! Where I get to replace my heels with sneakers! And be surrounded by baked goods all day! That's right, I'm gunna be doing pastry. Full time. And get paid for it. So that's definitely going to up my cred with all these recipes I'm giving you, so if I were you I'd write them down furiously. Just kidding, I have no cred. But I think this is a step in the right direction! I'm technically the "Pastry Finisher," which means when all the pastries are done, I get to eat them. Quality control of sorts. Are you jealous of my job yet?

Okay, that's not what I'll be doing at all. I'll be assembling all the pastries and decorating them and making them look nice. I think. I haven't started yet so I could be lying. Either way, I'll keep you all updated when I'm not working at the bakery or the restaurant, and if our Internet doesn't decide to take a nap in our driveway again.

I just have a simple recipe for you today. Simple but delicious. And chock-full of caffeine. I also have some pictures of the baby shower cake I made a few weeks ago. So by the time you're done, you'll have relived the last few weeks of my life. Minus the awkwardness that I tend to contribute. Enjoy!

Espresso Buttercream
Adapted from Sweetpolita

5 egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) butter, softened (I use salted so it's not overpoweringly sweet, but if that's what you like, use unsalted!)
1 1/2 Tbsp instant espresso powder mixed with 2 tsp water to make a thick, syrupy mixture (this amount makes it fairly strong--use more or less depending on how strong you'd like the final espresso flavor to be)
1 tsp vanilla

Over a double boiler that's simmering (not boiling), whisk egg whites and sugar until mixture is hot to the touch (around 140 degrees F), about 7-10 minutes. Transfer to a mixing bowl with the whisk attachment, and whip on high until egg whites are fluffy and glossy, and mixture is no longer warm to the touch (this takes me 10+ minutes. To help cool it off, I keep a damp towel in the freezer then wrap it around the mixing bowl as it whips). Switch to a paddle attachment and add butter one tablespoon at a time until it is all incorporated. Add espresso mixture and vanilla and stir until combined.

Here's the baby shower cake pics-- pink and leopard cake for sweet little Aleeah! Can't wait to meet her!

                                                                   *thanks for getting the pic, Christina!

Chocolate Kahlua Cupcakes and a Cowboy Hat Cake

So I don't have a new recipe for you, which is a little bit of a cop-out cause I haven't posted in a while. Bear with me.

I've been busy pretending I'm in college again. Which for me would actually mean recipe testing and baking every hour of the day, and I'd probably have 17 new recipes for you. So really I've been busy pretending I'm in college for the first time while I'm visiting my friends and going to alumni weekend. And you know what it's taught me?

I'd be really good at being homeless.

First of all, if I didn't have to primp for my job every day, I wouldn't feel the need to mess with doing my hair or wearing attractive clothes. Flannel=perfection. As long as I could bathe I'd be a happy permanent camper, and as I've mentioned in this post, give me a puddle and a bar of soap and I'll be just fine (Note: puddles can also be substituted for fountains). Also, I got some practice sleeping in my car and it was pretty cozy. You wake up and everything you need is right there! Jump in the driver seat and the world is at your gas pedal. So maybe I couldn't be street-homeless, but more of the live-out-of-a-car homeless type. Plus you start to learn which places have accessible outlets and bathrooms you don't have to buy anything to use.

Are you impressed yet? Why is that look of disgust on your face? I'm just saying, if it was between you and I being homeless, I might volunteer for the job (really, you should be thanking me...). The only problem, I don't think I'd be able to do this whole baking-blogging thing for very long, and that might drive me crazy. So I'll just continue being a non-homeless person (Thanks, parents, for letting me live here! Don't kick me out now!).

Speaking of the live-out-of-a-car homeless type, I have a friend that does this. Okay, so we're not like BFFs, but we hung out once. And by "hung out" I mean we went fishing at midnight. And by "we" I mean I didn't go there with him, we just happened to be doing the same thing at the same place at the same time. So I guess it was only natural that we struck up a conversation. Also, I suggest you listen to this song. It's only appropriate.

His name was Dave, and he was there with his friend Rusty and we had a great time. Until Dave showed me the laser pointer he found and figured out how to smoke stuff out of it. That's when I called it a night. To be fair, at first I didn't know I was basically intruding on his home next to the river. I thought he just needed to get out of the house and away from his wife for some prime time fishing. It was only when we parted and he said, "Okay well I'm gunna go take the truck back to the tracks now," when I realized. Then good ol' Rusty goes, "Yeah I'm gunna head home and go in the hot tub." HOT TUB?! Dave's gunna go sleep in his truck and you're gunna go home to your luxurious, bubbling hot tub? Dave didn't seem too jealous though. And by then I could slowly back away and disappear into the night. But not forever. The next morning on my run I saw Dave! "Hey, Amanda!" "Hey there, Dave!" And we never crossed paths again.

I wonder what Dave's doing these days. Well, I can't tell you that, but I can tell you what I'm up to. I'm  making cowboy hat cakes and cupcakes with Kahlua in them, and you can, too!

So what I should have done is take pictures of each step of this cowboy hat cake so you could just look at the process instead of enduring my awkward, incoherent babbling. But I didn't....so here goes.

The very first thing I did (a week ahead of time) was cut the brim of the hat out of chocolate fondant, and allowed it to harden into shape by placing it on top of, stay with me....an upside-down cowboy hat. I had to do this step THREE times. Even though I set it out a week ahead, the fondant just wouldn't harden enough to support the cake. So two days in advance I made the same thing out of gum paste I dyed brown kneaded with chocolate fondant, and by God it worked. You can just skip right to that step and avoid all the stress and frustration, if you'd like.

I made two batches of chocolate cake batter so I'd end up with three cake layers and a dozen cupcakes. Once the cakes were cooled I brushed them with Kahlua and stacked them with ganache in the middle. Then I started hacking at it with a knife til it looked like the top of the hat! There's really no fancy method to do it, just have an idea of what you want to end up with and gradually saw off cake wherever you see fit. It's all going to get covered anyway so it doesn't have to be pretty! Take too much cake off? Just put a dab of ganache and stick some cake scraps on there to fill it in. It's fairly forgiving, just take your time!

Next, I coated the sculpted cake in buttercream and set it in the fridge to harden a bit while I rolled out the fondant. Then I just covered the cake with the fondant, smoothed it out and cut the excess. I dyed some of the leftover fondant a darker brown and cut three really super long strips and braided them for the leather rope around the hat's base. And made the medallion looking thing that I painted with edible gold paint.

When you're sure the brim is hardened enough, the cake can be assembled. I put a bit of extra sticky fondant on the cake board to secure the brim in place. I did the same thing when attaching the cake to the brim. Actually that's untrue. I totally forgot to secure it all to the cake board which was really stupid of me. So I had to lift the whole finished cake up and then put the fondant underneath to attach it, which is also a frustrating step that you may skip.

The final steps were attaching the fondant medallion and braid with some melted chocolate (if you use chocolate candy melts it'll dry a lot faster), and painting the whole thing with brown food coloring to give it the look of leather.

With the cupcakes I just cut out a bit in the middle, brushed on some Kahlua and piped in some ganache. Then I put the cake back that I cut out and topped them with buttercream, a chocolate-covered almond and some cocoa powder. Done and done!

Thanks for putting up with my extra wordy post. I'll be sure to come up with more exciting recipes now that I'm no longer practicing being homeless and have an oven and the Internet within reach.

Specialty Cakes

There's no recipe for this post--mostly pictures and a few words so there's less opportunity to embarrass myself in front of you, cause I'd really like to keep you around. I wanted to share some of the specialty cakes I've made for people in the past. I'll probably do it over the course of a few posts, so I don't overload you with cakes! (If that's even possible...) The quality of some of these photos is really exceptional and definitely not taken with my phone. Just sayin'.

Leopard Cake: Devil's food cake with cookies and cream buttercream
This cake was raffled off during a promotional event!

Butterfly Cake: Vanilla bean cake with key lime custard and vanilla buttercream
I made this cake for my 21st birthday. It was a combination of lots of my favorite things: vanilla bean, key lime and butterflies.

Pink Blossom Wedding Cake: Chocolate and vanilla cake layers with fresh strawberry filling and vanilla buttercream

This cake was for the wedding one of my best and most amazing friends. So happy I was able to be a part of her big day!

Global Outreach Cake

Donated to an event for a friend from school!

Marist Rugby Ball Cake: Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream

Made for the great guys on Marist's rugby team! 

Guinness Cake: Red velvet cake with chocolate-hazelnut filling and cream cheese frosting

It may be deceiving that this cake isn't actually made with Guinness, but it ended up incorporating many of the birthday girl's favorite things!

Coral Damask Cake: Devil's food cake with raspberry-orange filling and chocolate buttercream

Happily made for my aunt's birthday!

Monkey Baby Shower Cake: Bottom tier--Peach cake with vanilla buttercream, Top tier--Banana cake with salted caramel frosting 

This cake was made for the same amazing friend as the wedding cake. She couldn't have picked a cuter theme!

Have a wonderful day!

Southern Homemaker Cake

I start work in a restaurant on Monday. I couldn't be more excited! I'll finally get paid for being around food even if I'm not making it, instead of being around payrolls (which is equally as exciting with all those paper cuts...and ringing phones...and freezing cold offices. Just, you know, not for me.). And as with any new job, I'm a little nervous. But I'm not nervous about what I'll be doing or who I'll be working with. No. There's only one thing I'm nervous about....

TRIPPING.

I feel it's kind of important in this blog for you to get to know me as much as my food, and I've tried pretty hard to give you some insight into who I am and what I'm about. Well, you wanna know something? I'm clumsy.

Memorable Clumsy Moments:
-Four years old: Mama thinking I need glasses because I constantly miss the doorway and run into the wall.
-Ninth birthday: Missing a branch while climbing trees with all my nine-year-old friends and breaking my wrist.
-Not too long ago: Falling on the treadmill while running at the gym. Worst. Fear. Come. True.
-Daily: Falling upstairs, whacking my head on the top of the car door, and/or tripping over sidewalk cracks.
-Miss New Jersey USA 2009 Pageant: Round two of evening gowns, tripping over my dress in front of hundreds of people.

Okay, that didn't really happen, but I pictured the scenario nonstop until it was over and I successfully was able to move one foot in front of the other on stage in blinding light. How horrified did you feel for me just then though? You were probably like, "Wow this girl is really is embarrassing and if I'm seen reading her blog her embarrassing-ness is probably going to seep through the screen and infect my life forever so I should probably just exit out of this now while I still have a chance." But you don't have to do that, cause I'm not that embarrassing.

I digress.

So now that I'll be wearing high heels every day and walking constantly, the risk of tripping greatly increases. I'm sure I could throw together a line graph or a flow chart that demonstrates these relationships, I mean, if you're more of a visual learner.

I wonder if classy Southern women are clumsy? I bet they're not.

So I made this cake today. I call it my "Southern Homemaker Cake," just because when I looked at the finished product I could see it sitting on a dining room table next to a giant plate of fried chicken, like it was effortlessly thrown together (I wish I could say it was effortless...). And don't question the cake and fried chicken combo--you know you'd love that meal.

This is my go-to chocolate cake recipe. Technically Allrecipes.com calls it "Chocolate Mocha Cake," but no one ever picks up on the coffee flavor, so I just use it as plain, amazing chocolate cake. I usually change recipes around and tweak them here or there, but this one's so good as is, no tweaking needed.

Chocolate Cake
From Allrecipes.com

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp instant espresso powder
1 cup hot water (I use hot coffee)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease two 9" round cake pans. Put all ingredients, except espresso powder and hot water/coffee, in mixing bowl. Combine and mix on medium-high speed for 2 minutes. Dissolve espresso powder in hot liquid then slowly add while mixer is on low speed (batter will be on the thinner side). Transfer to cake pans and bake 30-35 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out mostly clean.

SO EASY.

Vanilla Buttercream
I use Wilton's recipe, which also doesn't need tweaking!

1/2 cup butter*
1/2 cup shortening*
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp milk
*Sometimes I use a full cup of butter and omit the the shortening, or all shortening can be used for a more pure-white frosting.

Cream butter and shortening together. Slowly add sugar until completed incorporated. Add vanilla and milk and whip until light and fluffy. More or less milk can be added for a softer or stiffer frosting.

Cherry Buttercream Filling
1 cup vanilla buttercream
3/4 cup chopped cherries, divided
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp sugar, more or less depending on the sweetness of the cherries

Simmer 1/2 cup of the cherries, water and sugar together over medium heat until liquid reduces by half and a syrup has formed. Cool cherry syrup. Slowly whisk into vanilla buttercream until fully incorporated. Stir in remaining cherries. Frosting will be thin and best used as a filling.

I decorated the cake with fondant and gum-paste blossoms, but it by no means needs the extra work! Because the amount of work is directly related to the amount of devastation when you trip carrying the cake and and it explodes on the floor. Luckily this hasn't happened...yet. 

PS- Happy Birthday Mrs. Miley!