Does my family get tired of cakes?

Well, I suppose that depends on who you're talking about. My husband will eat anything, as long as it's laying around--that includes cake scraps, or any other cake I may have around at the time. My son in law probably will eat most of my cakes also. However, when my kids were younger, we all got a bit tired of eating cakes, myself included. Birthdays were a treat for both the kids and myself, as I would take them to Marie Calendar's and let them choose any pie they wanted. So the treat to me was that I didn't even have to do any baking--imagine that. It wasn't that they didn't like my cakes; it was just that there were always so many around that we just needed something else. When my two sons were teenagers, their friends would come over expecting to find cake scraps left over after I had finished a wedding cake. One time a friend came over asking for cake scraps, and I had just dumped them into my large garbage sack in my baking kitchen. That didn't seem to make a difference to him. He went to the garbage sack, dug them out, and proceeded to eat. I believe only a teenage boy would do that.

To fill or not to fill...

Raspberry Fudge cake

Chocolate mint mousse cake Chocolate Lover's cake

Slicing the layers and adding a filling can turn any cake into an elegant dessert instead of "just a cake." Even the so called self-proclaimed non-cake lover may change his mind with the first bite. Several different flavors and ingredients can be used to fill cakes. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Fudge or fudge nut
• Cream cheese
• Mousse--strawberry, raspberry, chocolate, chocolate mint, peanut butter to name a few
• Fruit fillings--strawberry (best when using fresh strawberries in season), raspberry, lemon, cherry
• Bavarian creme
• Whipped cream--vanilla or chocolate

My specialty cakes always have some kind of yummy filling between the layers. For example my raspberry fudge cake has a layer of fudge filling between layers of raspberry filling in a moist chocolate cake, iced in a delicious buttercream and covered with hand-shaved chocolate curls...yumm! Another is the banana split cake...rich layers of yellow cake with layers of whipped cream with pineapple, fresh strawberries, and bananas, iced with whipped cream and sprinkled with nuts and drizzled with chocolate syrup. Makes you hungry, doesn't it? Next time, try adding a filling to your cake and wait for the compliments!!!

Wedding cakes vs. party cakes...

I have always enjoyed designing and decorating wedding cakes more than party cakes. There are several reasons why.

1. When I have finished a wedding cake, I feel as I have created a masterpiece. I love being part of the whole wedding scene, and being able to design a cake that is perfect for the bride.
2. There is usually less clean-up with wedding cakes because you don't have all of the different colors to worry about.
3. There is hardly any profit in decorating party cakes. On the other hand, with wedding cakes, you can charge by the serving instead of by the cake. Customers are willing to pay more for wedding cakes because there is much more work involved.

When you are first starting to build a cake business, you almost have to decorate party cakes also, in order to build your business. When customers see and taste your work with party cakes, then they will know that you can also design wedding cakes. Taking pictures and keeping a good album of the cakes you have created is important so that your customers can see the work you have done.

High altitudes and baking do not always "mix" well!

Raspberry Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies

I never thought it would be as difficult as it sometimes is to change my ways of baking because of high altitudes. We lived in Glendale, AZ for about 25 years and baking was pretty easy...you just followed the directions in the recipe. Then we moved to Colorado, and I had to change the way I baked my cakes and brownies. My husband didn't seem to mind, because the more I experimented, the more he got to eat my mistakes. We both grew...me in my baking techniques, and my husband in his waistline. After over 2 years of experimenting with my brownie recipe, I finally got the adjustments right, so that the middle of the brownies didn't sink to the bottom of the pan. I make several different varieties of brownies. My husband's favorite is raspberry cream cheese swirl with cream cheese frosting. Here is the recipe for just the basic brownies:

HIGH ALTITUDE DIRECTIONS FOR
MOM’S BROWNIES

Yield: Makes 9x13 pan

1 ½ cups butter, melted
2 ¾ cups sugar
1 T. vanilla
6 eggs
1 ¾ cups flour, unsifted
1 cup cocoa
½ t. baking powder
¾ t. salt
1 T. water
1 cup chocolate chips

Prepare as directed for regular brownies, except change to above amounts for ingredients. Also, do not grease sides of pan. Bottom only! Bake at 350° for approximately 50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, and center is firm to the touch. Run knife around outside of brownies before removing from pan.

I recently traveled to San Diego to make a wedding cake for a friend as a wedding gift. I forgot how nice it was to bake at sea level. Oh well, it still isn't enough to make me want to leave Colorado!