We call this the Chocolate LOVE Cake because when you make it, people just can't help but love you for it. This was my daughter's choice when I asked her what she wants for her birthday cake.

I wish I had a recipe for you, but sorry to say that I don't. This is my husband's specialty and he guards his recipe with his life! Yeah, so he wants to keep all the love for himself. lol!

But seriously, if you have a good chocolate fudge recipe and can make a decent ganache, that's all what this cake is. Don't you want to just jump in and swim in this?



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Cardamom in cupcakes sounds so foreign and exotic that I just could not resist. They turned out to be great!

Now you all know how much I love to use up old bananas by making banana bread, banana cake and banana muffins. So when I saw cardamom as an ingredient for these cupcakes, I just had to try it out.



Click here to see the recipe for Cardamom Cupcakes...



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We make banana bread all the time. We make it so often that sometimes I don't even follow a recipe anymore. I just throw stuff in with the bananas and we almost always come out with something dense, filling and utterly satisfying. But sometimes, I want something lighter and airier. So one of those times I decided to make this delicious cake with caramel sauce. It was a huge hit in our house. You can eat it with or without the sauce, depending on the mood you're in. It's perfect with a hot cup of black coffee or in the girls' case, cocoa.

Here's the recipe for this Banana Cake with caramel sauce.


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Yesterday was my sister's birthday. She didn't have a big celebration though, it was a quiet affair with just the kids and my mom in attendance. So soon after our grandmother's passing, I guess none of us were in a celebratory mood.

One thing we gotta have for any birthday at anytime though is a birthday cake. A birthday just isn't a birthday without a cake. If it's nothing but a cupcake, we gotta have something sweet to celebrate a birthday.

This cake on the photo is a pineapple cake that I cooked up last year for my daughter's birthday. It was such a hit that it has quickly become a family favorite. The base is simply white cake with buttercream icing. Having this simple base makes it open for any flavor you choose. It is easily adaptable. I'm thinking of making a mocha coffee variation next.

If you'd like the recipe, click here for the perfect birthday cake recipe.




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What could be a better combination than white chocolate and cranberry cake? Unique but also deliciously paired. This would be a perfect cake to serve with tea or coffee. It is almost as dense as a pound cake but not quite. The cake is infused with white chocolate flavors and the dried cranberries provide a very nice and very different contrast.

Try the recipe here...



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The Clone celebrated her birthday a couple of weeks ago and I made her the Filbert Gateau cake since they weren't home when I first made it. This girl also loves chocolate, so I thought this would be perfect for her. I was right. She loved her cake!

Although, she felt a need to redecorate...

>



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This was my attempt at being a daring baker last month. Again, I procrastinated and hem and hawed for nothing. After I buckled down and got started, I found that it really wasn't as bad as I thought. So I've determined that from now on, I'm not even going to subject myself to the anxiety and just get to it.

This cake turned out delicious! With the girls away in California this month, I hate to admit that my husband and I pretty much ate this whole thing by ourselves! All week long, I have been on a slice of cake a day. It was so good, but I don't even want to think how much I must have gained eating all that buttercream.

If you'd like the recipe for this cake that has a real fancy name of Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream, just click on the link.


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I finally worked up the nerve to join the Daring Bakers and this was my first challenge, Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Birthday Cake! It was a perfect them and timely considering March is my daughter Jade's birthday and we've been celebrating all month :)

I made the cake twice, the first time just the way it came with lemon flavored frosting and raspberry filling. The second time, I made it with pineapple filling and flavored yellow frosting. Both versions were delicious! But between all that buttery frosting and the flan I ended up making to use up the egg yolks, I think I need to lay off anything fatty for a while.

Click on the photo if you'd like the recipe for this cake.



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This is the first attempt at a recipe for caramel cake. I'm not quite happy with it yet, it's a little too sweet, but I'll be working on it.

Just because I'm not happy with it doesn't mean the recipe is not good, though. My girls liked it. If you'd like the recipe, click her to cook caramel cake.



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The Clone is our resident cake decorator as you can see from her more sedate decor when we first posted the recipe for this carrot cake. For Easter, since it's carrot cake, the clone figured why not decorate with bunny peeps? Them blue peeps were good, too. Blue is her favorite color.

So next time, we'll be making carrot cup cakes and storing them in these handy dandy cup-cake holders below, thanks to my very generous SisterO!

Aside from Momma Dot's Sweet Potato Pie, another holiday must for us is her Coconut Cake. She used to make this every year, and then she taught it to me. After a while, she gave me the privilege of making this cake at every family gathering. She passed away this summer after a courageous battle with brain tumor, so she was sorely missed this holiday. This is our way of remembering and honoring her memory for she surely not only fed our stomachs well but also our souls.

Continue to the Coconut Cake Recipe.

This was tonight's dessert, which was a collaboration with The Clone. She was bored and feeling neglected this afternoon, so to cheer her up, we decided to make cake.



2 cups Light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 1/2 cups Cooking Oil
4 eggs
3 cups grated carrots
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup chopped nuts

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, salt, eggs, cinnamon, oil and carrots. Blend together with an electric mixer (blending by hand also works, I've done it when I don't feel like taking the beater out). Gradually add the flour, baking soda, and nuts (the Clone decided she didn't want nuts in the cake, but rather on top of the cake so we omitted this step this time). Mix well. Pour into greased and floured 9 inch round pans (you can use two or three, depending on how many layers you want). Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Since I used 3 round pans and the layers are thinner, I only had to bake for 35 minutes. Let the cakes rest for ten minutes after removing from the oven then turn them out onto racks to cool.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING



Jade made the frosting. She used:

1 stick (1/2 cup) Butter
2 bars Cream Cheese
approximately 2 cups of Powdered (confectioners) Sugar

Beat the butter and cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add confectioners sugar starting with 1 cup and adding a little bit more at a time until desired sweetness is achieved.

Frost cake. The Clone decorated the top with toasted and chopped Pecans.

This is a recipe I used to make for breakfast potlucks at work and such, before I got married. It's great 'cause you have the option of starting it the night before and putting it together in the morning.
I haven't made it in a while since my husband does most of the baking now. But since I had some blueberries in the freezer, I thought I'd try out this recipe again and see how the kids like it. I made it for our Sunday brunch last week.



2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 cups frozen or fresh whole blueberries, unthawed
Crumb Topping (recipe at bottom)

Into a large mixing bowl, measure the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir well to blend.
Into another bowl or large measuring cup, combine eggs, milk, butter and lemon juice. Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until blended. Pour mixture into buttered 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Sprinkle blueberries evenly over the batter.
TIP: If you roll the blueberries in flour before doing this, they won't sink to the bottom as much.
Sprinkle with the Crumb Topping and bake at 375 degrees F for 40 to 50 minutes. Serve warm.

CRUMB TOPPING
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
4 Tbsp. soft butter or margarine
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and stir until mixture is evenly blended and crumbly in appearance.

TIP: To prepare in advance, blend the dry ingredients the night before. Cover and let stand at room temperature. Combine the liquid ingredients and make the crumb topping. Cover both and refrigerate. The next morning mix the batter and assemble the cake as directed.