Coffee Cake, Maddie Style

I made coffee cake. This coffee cake, to be precise.

It was for a picnic and I wanted them to be bite sized, easy to clean up, and even easier to eat.

So of course, I made coffee cake in mini cupcake pans.

The cake was incredibly tender and moist.

But you know the topping is always everyone's favorite part. Cinnamon, brown sugar, toasted walnuts, and mini chocolate chips.

Use your favorite coffee cake recipe and they're perfect for brunch or your own picnic!

Pink Ombre Mother's Day Sprinkle Cake

I love this cake.

Let's say it again: I LOVE this cake. This cake was inspired by this fabulous cake.  My mother saw it online and asked for the same cake, but in pink!

The outside of this tall cake is absolutely covered in rainbow sprinkles. I took all the nonpareils in the sprinkle drawer and mixed them together to make a huge bowl of rainbow sprinkles.

 

And the inside is even more special! Six layers of pink ombre fade, each a bit more pink than the last. 

Creamy white frosting inside. 

Pink cake and sprinkles, what more could you ask for? I served this cake with fresh juicy strawberries. I soaked the berries in juice and sugar, then dumped them on top of everyone's slices. It was the perfect finish!

Just be careful when adding the sprinkles...it's a little hard to get them to stick to the sides and there were sprinkles bouncing all over my kitchen floor as I was throwing them at the cake trying to get them to stick. 

This cake was made for Mother's Day, but it would be fabulous as a birthday cake or as a graduation cake if done in school colors. 

Or any type of celebration cake, really. It's quite festive and I think I'm going to be using this decorating technique quite a bit.

Maybe I should buy some more sprinkles. 

My Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Birthday Cake!

It was my birthday last month, so of course I made myself a cake. And yes, I do make my own birthday cakes. I wouldn't have it any other way. 
 

 My suitemates did make me a brownie cake though, and that was pretty awesome. 

 Anyways, this towering little cake is red velvet. 

4 layers: two with mini chocolate chips and 2 without. 

That's a HUGE glop of chocolate ganache on top. Then I dumped some chocolate chips on it. 

Why? Because I can. 

The pink frosting, by the way, is cream cheese. So easy to make and oh so delicious. I didn't take any pictures of the insides because we were too busy eating it. It was my birthday, cut me some slack!

Chocolate Macarons 2-Ways AND a Macaron Cake

I went on a macaroon-making binge. I made about 70 for an order. Then made more for a cake. Then made more for a party. I can't even tell you have many egg yolks I had in my fridge, but it was so worth it. Wanna see?

These macarons are filled with a rich chocolate ganache - my favorite!

I experimented with a few recipes. These puffy macarons were made with David Lebowitz's recipe, found here. They were tasty, reliable, and pretty easy to make, but I wanted a more shiny, classic-looking macaron.

Then I put the macarons on a cake. Why? Because I can.

By the way, this is a double chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache and fresh raspberries, covered in more dark chocolate ganache.  You can stop drooling now.

 Yes, the cake is displayed on an upside down cookie sheet. I'm a college student, don't judge. The macaron recipe, by the way, is from here. The were pretty and yummy, but kinda finicky and I'm not totally in love with this recipe yet. I'll keep searching.

And another batch of chocolate macarons, David Lebowitz's recipe again. There's something to be said for consistency!

 These little gems were filled with a marshmallow fluff/chocolate ganache swirl.

 And then they were rolled in graham cracker crumbs.

Yes, s'mores macarons! Chocolate shells, fluff/ganache filling, and graham cracker crumbs. The only thing that would have made them better is to make the marshmallow filling from scratch and attack it with a blowtorch before sandwiching them to give it that campfire taste. These kept in the fridge for well over a week and they were so yummy. Very messy because the filling oozed all over until they had some fridge time to set, but it was worth it.

You'll definitely want to be licking the spoon for these. Want to know my favorite thing about macarons?

They're so easy to eat!

Peanut Butter Tarts

I made a cheesecake. Almond crust underneath lemon cheesecake, vanilla bean cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake all swirled together.  It was absolutely delicious, but it got sliced and eaten and smashed and digested before my camera got anywhere near it, so I don't have any pretty pictures to share.

Instead, here are some peanut butter tarts. I'm not exactly sure what was in each one because I just started plopping different fillings to crusts rather haphazardly, but I do know that there was a ton of chocolate and peanut butter happening. 

Chocolate peanut butter ganache. 

Peanut butter cheesecake swirl. 

Crunchy and sweet peanut butter filling.

Dark chocolate ganache. 

And a yummy shortbread crust. The crusts, by the way, were baked in a toaster oven. Because I'm a college student and that's just what we do.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Candy Cake

I swear, I really was planning on taking pictures of the inside of this cake. During the party I cut a nice slice and put it aside, promising myself that I'd take more pictures in the morning. Then my suitemates and I ate it. I'd apologize to you, but it was so tasty that I really don't feel all that badly about it.

The cake had 3 layers: chocolate, peanut butter, and chocolate peanut butter swirl.

Layered with chocolate peanut butter ganache (just add some peanut butter and extra cream to your favorite ganache recipe) and chocolate peanut butter cream cheese frosting.

As you can see, it's decorated in kit-kat bars, Hershey's kisses, and colorful m&m's. 

And tied off with a ribbon, because you know I can't resist. 

This lovely cake was made for a candy-loving friend's birthday.  

The decoration was incredibly fast and easy - took only about 20 minutes total!

This cake was incredibly rich - perfect with a glass of milk around a table with friends.

Strawberry Chocolate Marshmallow Tarts

Picture this:

Shortbread crust filled with smooth, sweet chocolate pastry cream

 Slathered in rich chocolate ganache.

Topped with strawberry marshmallow peaks.

And finished off generously with a blowtorch. 

And to top it all off, they're individually sized so you don't have to share.

Why yes, thank you, I'll take two.