Eye Candy 2

Again, I really do not like blogging at all. This is my way of sharing with you what I have made in the last...year.  Aside from maybe two things, all of these items have been made while away at college. I am not your stereotypical college student.  I throw dinner/dessert parties for my friends, and everything is made from scratch (except for rare instances when I realize I may need to take it down a notch and focus on school a bit more).  I am a student and caterer by day, extraordinary baker by night!

Strawberries and cream napoleans

Chocolate shortbread crust filled with salted
caramel and topped with chocolate ganache

Churro Cupcake filled with dulce de leche

Thrown sugar
(yes, this was done in a dorm room kitchen)

Homemade Dulce de Leche

Earl Grey infused caramel

Butterscotch and Baileys bread pudding bites

White bean and asparagus tart

Strawberries and Chocolate cake

Homemade berry sorbet with fresh
whipped cream and mint (made in my dorm)

Mother's Day

I am a terrible blogger. If only I blogged as I much as I baked...
Anyways, this cake was made as a belated mother's day cake since I was still away at college. As I was  unable to celebrate and take part in the festivities with the fam bam I planned a nice little summer dinner and lovely dessert.  Now, I'm pretty darn proud of what I made for dinner that I think it deserves an honorable mention. After tossing veggies in olive oil with fresh rosemary and garlic, s&o, I grilled corn on the cob, red and orange peppers, onions, and zucchini on the BBQ.  Once that was all hot with grill marks I tossed it with some penne pasta, more rosemary, olive oil, s&p, garlic and ka-ching! Dinner is served. Oh baby oh baby, it gets better. Why? Because there's dessert!!! Which is what this post is supposed to be about.

So I made a hummingbird cake with cream cheese frosting.  It is a basic white cake with pineapple, banana, and walnuts.  Tasted more like a banana bread to me.  If I were to re-make the cake I would definitely make it a carrot cake with walnuts and pineapple (more pineapple too).  I'll post the website where I found the recipe and also the idea for the topper.  I just decorated the top with pineapple flowers and golden raspberries from our local farmer's market. Gotta love summer berries! I feel like the ratio of words to pictures in my blog posts is a little off, but I always like looking at food pictures better than reading the recipes. You know what they say, you eat with your eyes first!

Recipe adapted from:
http://www.ambrosiabaking.com/2012/05/hummingbird-cupcakes.html
p.s  I had the pineapple in the oven for 1 hr 30 total

bon appétit! 

My lovely mother. She's pretty amazing and doesn't she make that cake look good?