Red Velvet Cake with Hazelnut Buttercream

I really tried to dissuade my mom from choosing the red velvet cake with buttercream frosting for her birthday cake this year. I even tried to tempt her with the offer of a piecaken (see below), but surprisingly she even passed that up! What can I say? The red velvet and buttercream are family favorites.

But I couldn't just have an exact repeat of so many birthday cakes from years passed, so I spiced it up a bit by adding about 2 teaspoons of hazelnut oil. The hazelnut flavor was pretty strong when you ate the frosting by itself (and interestingly enough tasted like wafer cookies (which conveniently are one of her favorite types of cookies)), but once combined with the cake, the hazelnut was only a very slight accent. In the future, I will probably add about 4 teaspoons of the hazelnut oil so that it holds its own more when paired with the chocolate in the cake.

And now, the piecaken: 

I'm still trying to figure out how she could say no to this.

image via here, which I found via my fiance's gchat status...the magic of the internet

Carrot Cake

We just celebrated my mom's birthday, which reminded me I never posted the carrot cake recipe from my sister's birthday back in January. 

Maybe if you're lucky, I'll post pictures of my mom's birthday cake and meal in August for my dad's birthday.

Raspberry Coconut Cake and Lemon Butter Cream Frosting

Little E's birthday was in January, it is now March. If my calculations are correct, that means it's taken me 2 months to post pictures of her birthday cake. I think I deserve an award, maybe something like, the "Best Blogger Ever." Quality over quantity people, that's my motto, and let me tell you, this is some quality stuff right here. Coconut, lemon butter cream, homemade raspberry preserves, fresh raspberries, and all vegan. Nothing better. Except maybe Almond Milk Ice Cream. Have you guys tried that stuff? Delicious.

Birthday Breakfast: Vegan Crepes

These crepes are more of dessert crepes than just breakfast crepes. But it was a birthday breakfast, so it seemed acceptable to pile almond milk ice cream and chocolate syrup on top of the already sweetened crepes. Of course that decadence is optional and the crepes are equally as delicious simply wrapped around assorted fruits.

Birthday Cakes: Chocolate, Berries, and Vegan Cream Cheese

A bunch of good friends from all over came together this last weekend to celebrate my boyfriend's birthday, which is today. For the occasion I made two cakes. They were supposed to be red velvet with a vegan cream cheese frosting, like what I made during the holidays, but I ended up having about 1/4 of the food coloring I needed, so they turned out just being chocolate cakes with vegan cream cheese frosting. Both had berry fillings, one was just raspberry, the other was strawberry and blackberry. I will post pictures of the middle of the cake along with recipes for the cake, frosting, and filling, but for now, enjoy these photos I took on Saturday!

The two cakes

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling and Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

Close up of the top of the raspberry cake

Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Blackberry Filling and Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

Close up of the strawberry blackberry cake and an orchid in the background

Happy Birthday to my wonderful boyfriend!