Let them have wine!

As you will come to find in my blogs to follow I am a lover of food and wine. It can only be made better when enjoyed with friends and family. A few weeks ago while reminiscing with my boyfriend Don about his Black Jack themed birthday cake that I had made him I decided that cake baking would be a great hobby for me to pick up. It is something that I truly enjoy doing, and I find it to be a great stress reliever! I like playing with different flavor combinations and enjoying the finished project.

And so the project began...
I went to the store and bought the essentials. Wilson baking pans, pastry bags and tips, fondant, and various ingredients. The second cake that I made turned out like crap. I decided that to try different recipes I would cut them down and just make little 6" cakes in case they weren't all that great...good thing, because this one went straight in the trash! It was supposed to be a rich chocolate but I think the person that posted the recipe had no taste buds, or perhaps a very different idea as to what rich chocolate is. I decided to test out my creative skills by making a Detroit Tigers cake (Don's baseball team). It was covered in white fondant and had a Detroit Old English "D" on the top which I carved out of blue fondant. The "D" looked amazing and, like I said the inside was, well, crap.

My next adventure is to make a standing wine bottle cake for a wine tasting at a friends house on the 31st. I did a test run on this one and it is mmm good! The cake I chose is a dark chocolate Cabernet Sauvignon with chocolate butter cream and grape filling. I did a 6" tester and it is delicious! Last night I used the remainder of the batter to test baking it in a coffee can to get my desired size and shape (thanks for that idea Mom!) I lined the sides and bottom with parchment paper and it came out great. I will be making the real cake this Wednesday so check back to see how that goes!

I feel like giving you some insight into my love for baking, so your going to get it! My parents owned a bakery when I was a baby. My Aunt Susie has so many home videos of us in there and I'm glad because there is the hard evidence that my thunder thighs are all my fathers fault! He used to paint my nails with icing and I licked it off as fast as he put it on. My parents house always smelled like a home...something was always being cooked or baked. I loved that we usually always had home made cookies and if mom hadn't made them there were always ingredients to make your own. In my family we love friends, family, food, and good wine....Slainte :)