Ok, so I took a cake decorating class a couple of years ago at Michaels.

I decorate cakes for my family, but thats as far as it goes, lol. I'm really not very good. This is the cake I made for Sean for Valentine's Day.

I'm also going to give a little lesson in photography. Not that I know much at all, but I do know one thing. Natural lighting beats out flash any day. When you are taking pictures of food, use natural lighting, or your pictures will suffer from an ugly yellowish cast. If you take pictures when natural lighting is simply not available (say, during the winter in Alaska), then I would suggest buying or making a light box. While I have yet to do this, I've read many tutorials about this on the internet, and it seems to work very well.

Now I'm going to tell you a little secret: When photographing my food, I usually put the plate on a dining room chair and scoot it next to the window. High tech, huh? Its just the place that has the best natural lighting. The table is a little too far away to take advantage of the natural light, and I don't want to bother with moving the whole table, then moving it back. So I just move the chair and take the picture there.

So, here are the pictures. See what you think!

A close up of my dandy cake. I placed it on a chair and scooted it next to the window.

This next picture was taken the same way, on a chair next to the window.


This next picture was taken on my dining room table, and the flash was used. As you can see, the window is nearby, but just not near enough. The picture is yellow and ugly. All of these three pictures were taken within minutes of eachother.


CARROT CAKE
This next picture is of some carrot cake that I made some time ago, way back in October, I think. When the cake was ready to eat, it was dark outside, so there was no natural lighting available. So, for comparison, I took one picture with a flash and one without. Then, the next day, I took a picture in the middle of the day, when there was plenty of natural light coming in through the window.

This one was taken inside, with a flash.

This one was taken inside, without a flash.

And this one was taken the next day, with natural lighting and no flash.


So, you can see the difference that lighting makes.

Wasn't that educational?


Carrot Cake Recipe:

1 cup pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped
3 cups finely grated carrots or zucchini, or a mixture of the two
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
2 cups granulated white sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, beat the oil, sugar, applesauce, vanilla and eggs until combined.

Sift flour, soda, salt and cinnamon together in a bowl. Fold gently into egg mixture, until just combined.

Fold walnuts and carrots into batter.

Bake in a greased and floured 9x13 pan at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 lb powdered sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

In bowl of electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter, on low speed, until very smooth with no lumps. Gradually add the sifted powdered sugar and beat, on low speed, until fully incorporated and smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake

Recently, my children were introduced to the concept of "dessert for breakfast" in the form of coffee cake. While we were visiting my husband's relatives for Thanksgiving, my Mother-in-Law made us a coffee cake on the morning we left to drive home. My daughter, Hannah, was so excited, she giggled to her sister: "Its like dessert! For breakfast!!" She really thought we were getting away with something! Can you tell that she doesn't like oatmeal for breakfast? As far as she is concerned, this is a dream come true.

So, shortly after our return, the children begged me to make a coffee cake for breakfast. I had been eyeing a recipe in a recent issue of Cuisine at Home. It looked so good but so...high calorie. Oh well, I made it anyway.

Oh my it was wonderful!!! I have to say that it is too rich for every day fare, but Sean has now declared it our official Christmas Morning breakfast, thus displacing our typical Christmas breakfast of Blueberry Muffins. I think it is a good idea to only associate this particular recipe with a once-a-year tradition. That many butter, nuts and eggs on a regular basis could result in the onset of premature death!





"Cinnamon Roll" Coffee Cake
Makes one 9" cake
Total time: About 1 1/2 hours
Only about a million calories!

For the Caramel-
Stir Together:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
Pinch of salt
Sprinkle:
1 cup chopped pecans

For The Streusel-
Process:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/4 tablespoons salt

For The Cake-
Whisk Together:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt (I used plain)
2 eggs
Sift Together:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Cream:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; coat a 9" cake pan with nonstick spray. [It should be a pan with rather high sides; my pan was a bit short and the caramel dripped out the sides a bit. I just used a regular 9 inch round pan.]

Stir together brown sugar, cream, and salt for the caramel. Pour into prepared pan and spread to coat the bottom. Sprinkle pecans over the caramel.

Process brown sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon, and salt for the streusel in a food processor. Pulse until small clumps form; set aside

Whisk buttermilk, yogurt, and eggs together for the cake in a measuring cup with a pour spout.
Sift flour, baking powder, soda, and salt onto a paper plate.

Cream butter and sugar with a mixer just until combined. Alternately add dry and wet ingredients, starting and ending with the dry. Blend each addition just until incorporated.

Spread half the batter over the caramel, then sprinkle with half the streusel. Carefully spread remaining batter over that and top with remaining steusel. Bake 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool cake for 5 minutes on a rack, then run a paring knife around the sides to loosen. Invert onto a serving platter while hot, then let cool slightly before slicing. Due to the sticky top, an electric knife is best for cutting, but a sharp, thin bladed knife is fine too.

Hannah's Cake

I've recently started subscribing to the Family Fun Magazine. Every issue has a section that spotlights a child making a recipe with a parent's guidance. Hannah always gets excited and wants to make that recipe.

This is the result:



Honestly, we didn't like this recipe so much. The cake was a little dry. We prefer the Amazing Tunnel Cake. For some reason it was much better.