cake

Five Recent Obsessions

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post! I’m glad those who watched the video enjoyed it, too. It seemed like everyone loved my mom’s reaction 🙂

Today I’m popping in to share five things I’ve been obsessed with lately!

1. Frothed Milk. I don’t know why, but I have been obsessed with having warm, frothed milk lately. At first, I thought it would be perfect with coffee, but I am still having a small (occasional–yay!) aversion to coffee since becoming pregnant. Soo, I’ve been drinking mugs of warm, frothy milk. How do I froth my milk? With this bad boy. It’s amazing.

2. Cake baking and celebrating. I made a strawberry cake with strawberry mousse and vanilla buttercream for my mom’s birthday. We (my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and cousins) went out to dinner to celebrate my mom and it was such a lovely evening! I truly adore spending time with family.

Family dinner at Bella Luna in Pittsburgh

We went to Bella Luna Trattoria, if any Pittsburghers are wondering!

Strawberry birthday cake with vanilla buttercream and sprinkles

3. Pet Sitting. It is kind of starting to warm up and feel more spring-like in Pittsburgh, which has made pet sitting so enjoyable (as if it’s not enjoyable enough when I have the adorable faces below staring back at me)! Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 50s and rainy, and I have six dogs to care for. It’s much easier to walk six dogs in rain than in snow, in my opinion! I’ll let you know if I change my mind on that after tomorrow, though 😉

Cocker spaniel puppy and chocolate lab on couch together

4. Preparing for Resurrection Sunday. It feels like Resurrection Sunday, or Easter as many call it, came up quickly! I plan on reading the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection this week, and have been writing cards to all my clients. Jimmy and I are also hosting my sister, brother-in-law, father-in-law, and his fiancé for dinner on Saturday and we are super excited!

Hallmark Easter card

5. Whipped cream flowers. I had a bunch of mousse leftover from my mom’s cake, and it’s basically whipped cream with a few extra ingredients. I didn’t want it to go to waste, so I did some research and learned that homemade whipped cream can be frozen! I pipped the whipped cream/mousse into rosettes and flowers and froze them on a baking sheet, then popped them into a freezer bag. I’m thinking they’ll be good on a mug of hot coffee or to decorate a cake or cupcakes!

Whipped cream piped into flowers and frozen

What have you been obsessed with lately?

Cupcake Baking and Cake Tasting

Jimmy and I had my father-in-law and his fiancé over on Thursday night for a little wedding cake tasting! As I mentioned before, we are nailing down the flavors they want in their wedding cake.

I spent most of Thursday baking four different cupcake flavors with fillings and frostings so they could have some small bites to taste and decide for their cake.

Here are the flavor combinations I baked up:

Vanilla cake + raspberry preserves filling + marshmallow buttercream

Vanilla cupcake with buttercream for wedding

Chocolate cake + caramel mousse filling + chocolate frosting

Chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and caramel filling for wedding

Strawberry cake + vanilla mousse filling + marshmallow buttercream

Strawberry cupcake with vanilla filling and buttercream for wedding

Lemon cake + lemon creme filling + lemon buttercream

Lemon cupcake with lemon filling and lemon buttercream for wedding

Spending the day baking was seriously fun, and the cake taste testing went so well! My father-in-law and his fiancé were able to ask me questions about flavor combos, get an idea of how the cake would be constructed, and of course got plenty of cupcakes in their bellies! They even made a final decision on which flavors they wanted for each tier.

The top tier is going to be strawberry, the middle will be chocolate, and the bottom will be lemon. They’re also going to have some cupcakes around the cake, which will be chocolate.

I’m really excited to start practicing the cake exactly how they want it now that we have the details all set.

Cupcake taste testingchocolate, strawberry, lemon, and vanilla cupcakes on cake stand

If anyone is interested in the recipes, I’ll be happy to share them! Also, I filmed a vlog that day as I was baking. Jimmy even makes an appearance and pipes a perfect rosette on a cupcake. The man never stops impressing me 🙂

What is your favorite cake flavor?