Chocolate-Covered Strawberry

Friday evening we celebrated my niece's Eleventh Birthday.  

Happy Birthday Hannah!

She requested a "strawberry cake with chocolate frosting and pink writing" - I made a cake I like to call  the chocolate-covered strawberry.  

This is triple-layer 10-inch strawberry cake with two different chocolate fillings, 

covered with chocolate buttercream.

The lower layer is a dark chocolate mousse with macerated strawberries.

The upper layer is dark chocolate buttercream.

I finished off with some real chocolate-covered strawberries and piped chocolate deco. 

(This cake was dairy-free, of course, so that I could enjoy a slice, too. ;-)

A Review of Two Cakes

This week I have tried out two new cake recipes with the hopes of increasing my gluten-and/or-dairy-free arsenal.  


For Valentine's Day, I made a Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake that is so insanely and marvelously good that I think the recipe had to have been Divinely Inspired.   Originally I bragged that this cake would also be sugar-free; in the end it was not.  Although it can be made as such, I am still on the hunt for less expensive sugar alternatives.  The sugar source erythritol (which is what this recipe called for) is reported to have the lowest impact on blood sugar levels of available sugar alternatives, and I am excited to try baking with it to see if its aftertaste is as noticeable as Splenda's, or other alternatives on the market.  However, with a current cost of $17 a pound, it isn't exactly in my cake-testing budget. I am open to suggestions and alternatives. :)  Please stay tuned; I will have sugar-free cakes in the future!


This GF, DF cake has a dense, moist texture, and isn't very crumbly.  It works well for medium-sized layer cakes, like an eight- or nine-inch round, and I think would be amazing with a cherry or raspberry filling.  There is also a white, vanilla "sister" cake, if you aren't a fan of chocolate.   






Dairy-Free Tres Leches, or "Tres Mentiras", needs some tweaking, but it will get there!
  
The cake was dry and almost tough, partly because it didn't absorb the "cream" very well, partly because (in my professional opinion) I think it was just a dud of a cake recipe. The next time around will hopefully result in a more absorbant, lighter cake with stronger vanilla overtones to balance the definite coconut flavor. It may have to be renamed "Tres Cocos", or whatever "Three Coconuts" is in Spanish. 


If you like coconut, this cake is for you.  I have never tasted creme of coconut before making this cake - heavenly, luscious stuff! I am hooked. I can't wait to play with it more; perhaps a dairy-free, tropical tiramisu? My culinary muse has been awakened. 

Sweet to Eat, Sweets to the Sweet

I was so happy to make Elisa's cake for her 8th birthday!   

She requested a Valentine's Day theme; 

the cake also had to be dairy-free for those family members with a dairy allergy. 

This is a quarter sheet white cake with

strawberry chiffon filling

& dairy-free buttercream

Looks like a Valentine's Day card, doesn't it?  

Thanks Elisa for letting me a part of your birthday!

A Pirate's Life for Me!

I was honored to make a birthday cake - the very FIRST birthday cake! - for one of my mama friend's little boy, Porter.  The order was for something pirate-themed, and delicious, of course!

This is a double-layer yellow butter cake with raspberry mousse filling and 

traditional buttercream frosting.  

Porter's Mama also requested a little personal cake for him to smash, for photos and so forth.  

What a great idea!

Happy First Birthday Porter!

Thank you for letting me be a part of this special day!

This cake turned out beautifully, and I am looking forward to filling more creative birthday orders in the future.  Feel free to contact me via Facebook or email for availability, pricing, 

and any other questions you may have.

Also, I couldn't possibly have filled this order without the help of my wonderful, gracious, and logically-minded husband, Jimmy.  Thank you, honey, for keeping me grounded, and keeping the baby occupied!