Mother's Day weekend!

Yes, I am still baking!

I just looked at the date of the last time I was here! I have been remiss in keeping you posted as to my baking. Well, I am not baking as often since I am working again full time at a great studio near by, more on that in a minute.

This lovely is a deep, dark red velvet cake layered with semisweet chocolate ganache and more of the vanilla meringue buttercream. I really like this cake recipe since it uses full fat sour cream, rather than buttermilk or vinegar. It still uses a good amount of red coloring and I like using the gel coloring rather than the liquid. AND I tend to use more cocoa powder and cut back just a bit on the flour so have a stronger chocolate note in the cake that marries well with chocolate ganache. The cake is really moist and tender. I will need to make these into cupcakes soon, too.

SO I am not baking everyday anymore, more like once or twice a week. It's hard to juggle baking a layer cake during the work week, since everything is started and made from scratch. I find myself starting at 6 pm at the earliest -waiting for eggs, butter and liquids slowly coming to room temperature so I can begin to bake the cake. As the cake is baking, I can make the fillings what ever they maybe, citrus curd or chocolate ganache, and patiently wait for them to cool or chill. AND when the cake is cooling, working on the buttercream! Once all the components are cool and ready to go, I find myself layering about 10pm or so...waiting for 25 minutes for the "skim" coat to harden, now it's creeping up on 11pm and by the time I am wrapped up, it's midnight. AND time for bed.

I still really enjoy making my one of kind creations...and hope to find more time and balance in keeping this important time in my crazy schedule! It's 6:41 am and time to start my day...
Happy, sunny day!

Our new morning alarm...

It's finally Sunday, and it's been a long week for Eric and me! We were looking forward to a quiet Sunday morning, lingering in our jammies, sipping tea and coffee...but oh, no...we have a little, rather BIG fellow creating his own beat of a drum. Take a look....

See him? He looked like he was about 18" long with that red hat on top. He was just banging away at the tree, looking back and forth for creatures that would pop out with all the vibration he was generating.  There have been several family members in the trees lately...
Now if only they could get together and play percussion...with a beat.