Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting



My boyfriends sister Elna's son just turned 1.  I cannot believe how quickly that year flew by!  She was planning Luka's very first birthday party and asked me if I would make the cake for him.  Elna wanted the cake to be Luka's favourite flavour - banana.  She requested that some of the ingredients be organic, which I was happy to accomodate as I usually use organic eggs, and try to use organic and local ingredients whenever I can.  I came across a recipe on the Epicurious website that looked perfect:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Banana-Layer-Cake-with-Cream-Cheese-Frosting-4694

I made 2 batches of the cake, as I wanted to ensure I had 3 layers for the cake, and I wanted to have some cupcakes on the side.  My motto is, it's better to have more then not enough.

As you can see, the theme of the birthday party was owls.  I made my chocolate buttercream to use for the piping, as chocolate and bananas are wonderful together!

I had a lot of fun with this cake and was so honored that Elna requested me to bake the cake.  A first birthday is a very special one, and I was happy to be apart of it.

Lots of love,
April's SweetShop

Peach Crisp

I would have to say that my favourite fruit is the peach.  I absolutely love biting into a ripe peach.  They're juicy, sweet and tangy, and just pretty darn close to perfection.  I would take a peach pie or peach crisp over an apple pie any day of the week!

I had some peaches that needed to be eaten immediately, and rather then scarfing down 10 of them on my own, I decided to make a peach crisp.  My mother had purchased the America's Test Kitchen book, and after looking at it, I had to order one myself.  The book is HUGE, however after making one of their pie crusts, and this peach crisp, I'm thinking it was a good purchase!

http://www.americastestkitchen.com/

This was the best peach crisp I have ever made.  It was simple, easy, but more importantly, delicious!  The peaches had caramelized from the brown sugar and butter.  I can't wait to make it, and eat it, again!

Strawberry Shortcake

 April's SweetShop has been MIA lately due to the lovely heat wave that hit Toronto this summer.  With no central air in my home, my oven has not been turned on in quite some time.  But the heatwave has lifted, and so I can bake again!

I had a family dinner to attend this past weekend for my boyfriend's sisters birthday, and at the birthday girl's request, the search for a yummy strawberry shortcake began!  Not knowing how many people would be attending, I did not want to make individual strawberry shortcakes.  There was a fear of having not enough, and you always want to have more dessert then not enough to serve!

I went shopping on Roncesvalles (a neighbourhood street in Toronto) and found some sweet and juicy Ontario strawberries. 

I came across a Barefoot Contessa's Strawberry Country Cake.  It sounded, and looked, delicious and I had to give it a try.   http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/strawberry-country-cake-recipe/index.html

I put a layer of whipping cream (pure whipping cream only, of course!  None of that fake whipped topping that some people like to pull off as whipped cream) on both the top and the bottom, to ensure no strawberry sogginess throughout the cake. 

The cake was delicious!  With orange and lemon zest called for in the recipe, it added a little something extra to the Strawberry Shortcake.  And of course, you can never go wrong with Ontario strawberries.

My 1st Wedding Cake

I was so honored when Erin asked me to make her wedding cake.  Erin wanted her wedding cake to be the dessert at her wedding, and therefore the taste was the most important thing to her.  I have to admit, I was so nervous for the months leading up to it.  But when I did that practice birthday cake, it calmed me down.  I thought of the reason we have cake - there is something to celebrate.  I also remembered reading in the "Eat Me" cookbook that when Xanthe Milton makes her wedding cakes, she thought of love and wishing a lifelong of love and happiness to the special couple.  So while I was baking, I did that.  I thought of how happy Rob and Erin make eachother, and that they deserved a life full of love with eachother!  I started making the cakes on the Friday morning at 9:30.  I made 8 batches of Martha Stewart's Wedding cake:  http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/recipe/favorite-yellow-cake  The last pan of cake came out of the oven at 6 p.m. Friday night.

After the cakes were done, I made that wonderful chocolate mousse, which I used in my "NO" cake, as this was going to be the filling in the cakes.  I multiplied the recipe by 4, and hoped it would be enough mousse for the cake.  I wrapped everything up and placed in the fridge, in order for everything to set properly.

I got up at 5:30 Saturday morning and began the beginning stages of the buttercream.  I made 3 batches of the milk and flour and allowed to cool for an hour, before completing the buttercream. 

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Creamy-Vanilla-Frosting-241564

This recipe is a finicky one.  But I had a lot of practice with it over the past few months, so it no longer intimidates me.  If you follow it exactly, it makes the perfect buttercream.  I was now ready to fill and ice the cakes!  Each slab of cake would consist of 4 layers of cake and 3 layers of chocolate mousse.

The top layer of the cake was a 6", followed by an 8" and the base was a 12".  I calculated that we would get 32 pieces from the 8" and 48 pieces from the 12".  I made an extra 8" and 12" in order to get 160 pieces of wedding cake.  The 2 extra slabs were the exact same as the wedding cake itself.  The 4 batches of mousse and 3 batches of buttercream turned out to be the perfect amount!  With the 5 boxes of cakes, my girlfriend (and date for the wedding) Paula and I drove to the wedding.  Paula turned out to be a very helpful assistant, and helped in 'eyeing' everything with me and setting up the wedding cake. 

This experience taught me that I can do it!  I had many wedding guests come up to me and compliment me on the cake, which made me so happy.  The wedding was beautiful and I was so happy to be a part of it!

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or if you would like to order anything for your next event or occasion!

Love from,
April's SweetShop

Erin and Mel Celebrate their Birthday!

My bestie Cat was throwing a birthday party for 2 of our girlfriends, Erin and Mel.  Since Erin's wedding was going to be the following week, I thought it would be a great opportunity to practice tiering cakes, so I offered to make the birthday cake. 

I used a Martha Stewart recipe to make the chocolate cake.
http://www.marthastewart.com/282238/one-bowl-chocolate-cake

I was so pleased with this recipe!  The cake is a wonderful chocolate cake, that is super moist and fluffy.  I made a 8" square and a 6" square and then sliced them in half to make up the layers of cake.

I then filled and iced the cake with buttercream.

I piped letters with chocolate and once they were cooled, placed on the cake. 

I was so happy that I practice tiering a cake.  There were a few things that I had learned from this experience, which definitely helped in preparing me for the wedding cake I had to make the following weekend!
I also found a chocolate cake recipe that I will be using going forward.  I think it will make a perfect light, fluffy and moist cupcake!

Next up:  My 1st Wedding Cake

Red Velvet Birthday Cake

We celebrated Robert's sister's birthday this weekend.  Red Velvet Cake is her favourite cake, so I decided to make that for her.  I used Martha Stewart's Red Velvet Cupcake recipe, which if you recall I have posted on here before.  It's a great recipe, and I have no need to look for another red velvet recipe.
http://www.marthastewart.com/317517/red-velvet-cupcakes

I sliced the cakes in half in order to have a 4 layered cake!  Each layer had a thin layer of cream cheese frosting.

I start my cake decorating course tonight at George Brown.  I'm excited to practice masking cakes and piping shapes! 

Enjoy your week!

Love from,
April's SweetShop

French Toast Cupcakes

My bestie bought me a cookbook at Christmas titled Eat Me! by Xanthe Milton.  I should tell you first that I look at the book all the time.  Her stories and images are truly unique.  Think Little 'Red Riding Hood bakes', mixed with 'Alice in Wonderland goes to a tea and cupcake party'.  After months of just looking at the book, I decided to make her French Toast Cupcakes. 

The cupcake part is made up of melted butter, flour, sugar, maple syrup and cinnamon.

While these were baking in the oven, I was upstairs playing with my cat.  When I came downstairs to check on them, my house smelled of french toast.  It was absolutely incredible! 

I didn't follow Eat Me's icing exactly.  She calls for brown food colouring, which is why her icing has that brown colour.  Instead, I added cinnamon and maple syrup to the cream cheese frosting.

I have to say that when you bite into this cupcake, it does taste like french toast.  It's a cinnamony cupcake that is light and moist! 

I have also decided that unless requested, I will be icing my cupcakes the old fashioned way.  I find that when the icing is piped, there is simply too much icing when you take a bite.  And although it looks pretty, it is basically a mouth full of icing.  It goes back to my theory of the trend in the bakery world where all that matters is the looks.  However, if it is requested, I have no problems piping the icing on and having a beautiful and high icing swirl.
I cannot wait to try baking more cupcakes from Eat Me!