An Object of Beauty

On Friday, the newest issue of Martha Stewart Living arrived (yes, I am a loyal subscriber...) and I immediately fell in love with this frozen chiffon cake.  I think it might possibly be the most beautiful cake I've ever seen--aside from my wedding cake, which will always occupy the #1 spot :)

This cake was inspired by baking recipe pamphlets that reached the height of their popularity in the 50s and 60s.  The layers take their colors from pureed fruit (not gelatin, which is what the recipe books would have called for) and the whole thing is served cold, straight from the icebox, covered with a generous layer of Seven Minute Frosting.

I need to make this cake!  Maybe for next book club...

Olive Oil Cake: Eh.

For her 30th (!) birthday, Cole requested an olive oil cake.  I've been wanting to try my hand at one of these for quite awhile.  It's a far cry from the incredibly rich, decadent Chocolate Peanut Butter cake that I made for Cole's birthday last year (which was the subject of my very first blog post, incidentally).

After hitting Sam up for a good recipe and finding that she didn't have one, I trolled the Internet until finally settling on this recipe.

Here's how it turned out.

Looks good, right?  Nothing fancy, but certainly edible.  Well...I wasn't impressed at all.  The cake came out a lot drier and more crumbly than I expected.  The flavors were good:  subtle olive oil, interspersed with citrus and almond.  But I wasn't compelled to devour my slice, even with the citrus compote I made to go along with it.

A week later, 1/3 of the cake is still chillin' on its cake stand.  That right there should tell you something.

You win some, you lose some, right?

{Note the sweet cake stand in these photos--the crown jewel of my burgeoning vintage cake stand collection and a gift from my dad!}

Lime and Blackberries

I had an excuse to bake this weekend for a friends' party so I tried a lime yogurt cake with blackberry sauce.  It was so delicious!  Not super rich and overwhelming like a chocolate cake (or like the insane chocolate peanut butter cake I made for Cole's birthday).  It was a lot lighter and really moist from the Greek yogurt, I think.

I tried some stenciling on top with powdered sugar.  The small stars were a lot harder to wrangle than the big polka dots I did last time.  But still cute, in their imperfect glory.

The blackberry sauce was just fresh blackberries, fresh lime juice, sugar, and water, pureed.  Mmmmm.

Chocolate peanut butter cake

Months ago Cole started hinting around that she wanted me to make this cake for her birthday. Yesterday I tried my hand at it. It's a really, really good recipe and for the first time ever, I actually had frosting left over after covering the layers. Any ideas on what to do with a cup of peanut butter cream cheese frosting besides snitching a taste or two every time you visit the kitchen?

The cake itself is really moist, due to the cup of sour cream you add, I think. The peanut butter frosting has just the right amount of cream cheese in it to add a bit of tanginess. And the ganache is a chocolate/peanut butter mix.

I agree with the recipe in that this cake is best enjoyed in extremely thin slices. Our friends all liked it last night but there's so much left that we could have another party!