December 30, 2012 by Nina Spezzaferro
THIS cake is the piece de resistance of this project. At least I was hoping it’d be. Two years ago I attempted to make a Bûche de Noël. It was a disaster. Crafting a successful Bûche was an obvious goal for this year. I used a recipe I found on the Food Network website, which is accompanied by video clips from the show it originally aired on. The videos are very helpful, but I still think Nick Malgieri makes the assembly look WAY easier than it actually is. (more…)
Category 52 Cakes | Tags: buttercream,chocolate,coffee,jelly roll,marzipan | 1 Comment
June 30, 2012 by Nina Spezzaferro
I’ve got to admit, this cake didn’t taste great, but it sure does look pretty. This cake was the second of two I baked with my friend, Joe. For the first, see: Week 21: Gooey Butter Cake. (more…)
Category 52 Cakes | Tags: buttercream,chocolate,layer cake,strawberry,tomato | 4 Comments
April 11, 2012 by Nina Spezzaferro
Is this not the most beautiful cake you’ve ever seen? This is the cake I produced in my cake decorating class. The recipe claimed to be yellow cake, but it tasted more like a white cake and angel food cake hybrid. “What makes a yellow cake yellow?” you ask. Egg yolks! (more…)
Category 52 Cakes | Tags: amaretto,buttercream,chocolate,espresso,layer cake,piping,roses,yellow cake | 2 Comments
April 5, 2012 by Nina Spezzaferro
Last week I attended a weeklong cake decorating class at the Institute of Culinary Education. It was a blast and I’m so excited to execute all the techniques I learned in this year’s cakes. There was too much to pack into one post, so for now here’s an overview for how the week went down. (more…)
Category Cake Decorating, Miscellaneous | Tags: buttercream,cake decorating,marzipan,modeling chocolate,roses | 3 Comments
January 22, 2012 by Nina Spezzaferro
Friday was my friend Talia’s birthday and this was her cake. Talia works with me and also makes beautiful, handmade jewelry under her Piedra Studio brand. You should check it out.
Talia and I love to muse about our favorite things, which in no particular order include cruising, real estate, home shopping, reality television, antique jewelry, faux fur… I could on forever. But something we differ on is preferred cake flavors. As you probably deduced from my birthday Chocolate Bacon Cake, I prefer fatty, heavy, chocolatey cakes. Talia prefers light, elegant, sophisticated flavors. And that’s why I was more than happy to bake her this Lemon Buttercream Birthday Cake, because I want my 52 cakes to have variety and this is a cake I’d never choose for myself. (more…)
Category 52 Cakes | Tags: buttercream,layer cake,lemon,lemon curd | 5 Comments
January 19, 2012 by Nina Spezzaferro
This week’s cake is… can you guess? Lemon! Stay tuned for the full recipe and how-to.
Category 52 Cakes | Tags: buttercream,layer cake,lemon | No Comments
January 5, 2012 by Nina Spezzaferro
My first cake of 2012 was my birthday cake, which was an exciting way to launch the project, but also carried with it some pressure. I started thinking about it over a month ago and even created a pin board on Pinterest for it. I had a lot of grand plans, which at one point included fondant snowflakes. But when it came down to it, I just wanted a great tasting cake that looked decent. I have a year to work on my decorating skills, but flavors are easier to master.
I decided on chocolate bacon, which a lot of people I initially told seemed horrified by. I’m not sure why. Bacon’s really having a moment right now. It being one of my favorite foods, why not throw it into the batter of the cake? My original plan for the frosting was to make maple buttercream. I thought it would complement the flavor of the bacon and chocolate nicely. But I didn’t plan far enough in advance and couldn’t find maple extract in time. After the third store I visited, I settled on almond buttercream. So that was the thought process behind it all.
Let’s make this cake! At the end of this insanely long post you’ll find the printable recipe and directions.
Category 52 Cakes | Tags: almond,bacon,buttercream,chocolate,layer,pink | 9 Comments
January 1, 2012 by Nina Spezzaferro
And so it begins. I just put the finishing touches on my first week’s cake, which is also coincidentally my birthday cake. There she is, chillin’ in the fridge, just waiting to be devoured tomorrow afternoon. I chose chocolate bacon with almond buttercream. If the batter, cake crumbs, and frosting licks are any indication, this cake is going to be out of this world.
Check back later on this week for the full recipe and how-to.
Category 52 Cakes | Tags: almond,bacon,buttercream,chocolate,pink | 2 Comments