Previous Cakes Continued: Introduction of the Light Tent

It's so difficult to take a good picture indoors, and once the sun goes down, you lose even the little light coming in from the windows.   This is a problem because I always seem to finish a cake at 10pm.  In order to solve this problem of lighting and to keep me from taking pictures of all my cakes in the grass (not every cake should be eaten on a picnic, although every picnic should have a cake!), Alex (my boyfriend) and I  built a light tent.  The light tent lives in our living room so when I finish a cake at night (or when it's raining outside) the cake goes in the tent and the photo-shoot begins!

Lemon Poppyseed Cake with Lemon Buttercream. 

Made 10/7/2012

Strawberry Chocolate Cake. 

Made 10/8/2012

Making this strawberry cake wasn't easy. I tried to flavor and color the cake base with strawberry syrup.  However I didn't think about the extra sugar that I was adding to the batter, and my first cakes turned into strawberry burnt sugar in the oven.   The cake photographed here was my second attempt after I reduced the sugar in the batter.  The cake looks wonderful, but over all I wasn't impressed by the strawberry cake itself.  It tasted too artificial--of course, because the flavoring the artificial.   I want to try to make another strawberry chocolate cake in the future and get it right (with real strawberries inside the cake), so stay tuned!  

Chocolate-Chip Cookie Cake with Vanilla Frosting 

Made 10/11/2012

This is my first cookie cake ever!  It turned out great--chewy, yet soft enough to slice into wedges.   When I made this cake all I could think about was all the elementary birthday parties I went to when I was little.  Lots of kids had cookie cakes, but they were all made by a grocery store.   I can't remember ever seeing anyone ever make a home-made cookie cake, but this is proof it can be easily done and vegan, too!  

Strawberry JellyRoll 

Made 10/11/2012

October 11th was an experimentation day.  Not only did I make my first cookie cake, I also attempted my first jelly roll.  I first heard of a jelly roll when watching Julia Child's "The French Chef: French Jelly Roll" episode.  Jelly rolls seem simple but I have found them to be challenging.  There isn't a good vegan recipe out there so I just used my regular cake recipe and reduced the leavening.  The trickiest part is knowing when to un-mold and roll the cake.   The cake has to still be hot for this to work properly or else your cake will split.  As you can see my cake was either cooked too much (it may have been too firm) or wasn't hot enough and it split on the sides and along the top--nothing a little garnish couldn't fix though.  Since there is no frosting on this cake, the cake itself really shines here--a light and tasty dessert.  More attempts to come.