Lauren’s Birthday Cake

Lauren’s Birthday Cake

Red Velvet Cake with Oreo Cream Cheese Filling, Biscoff Buttercream Icing, and Nutella Fudge

As April came to a close, I knew I faced a huge challenge. No, not final exams. Lauren’s birthday is April 29th. For anyone who doesn’t know, Lauren is my best friend and Co-WIDBer. As we were also nearing graduation, I knew I really had to make Lauren an incredible cake. Knowing many of Lauren’s favorite things, I made what I truly believe was the perfect cake for Lauren. Click the link below to see how I made this cake, and how you can recreate it! 

Emily's Birthday Cake

 

Emily’s Birthday Cake: A Kit Kat Cheesecake Brownie Layer and a Nutellla Cheesecake Brownie Layer with Cream Cheese Icing in between, covered in 3 Musketeers Fudge

 

In this post I will disclose the details of perhaps the most intense birthday cake I have made to date. When I asked my friend Emily about some of her favorite desserts and candies she gave me lots of ideas. So naturally I decided to use all of them in her cake. She listed off cheesecake, brownies, Kit Kats, and 3 Musketeers. At first I didn’t exactly know how I was going to incorporate all of these things into one cake. I thought of making cheesecake with a brownie crust, but then realized that might be difficult to layer with other things. I ultimately decided to make cheesecake brownie layers because I felt more confident that they would be structurally sound. Pretty quickly I knew I would make fudge with the 3 Musketeers because technically you can make fudge by melting together chocolate chips and marshmallows, so I knew a marshmallow-based candy would make a great fudge. And to make sure the cheesecake component stood out in the cake, I put cream cheese icing between the cheesecake brownie layers. Next I had to make sure the two cake layers were not the same, (because let’s face it, that would be unacceptable). So, I mixed Nutella into one and put Kit Kat pieces in the other. After lots of brainstorming, I ended up with a cake that was awesome, delicious, and super fun to make!

Here’s how you can make this cake!:

Zaid's Reese's and Kit Kat Birthday Cake

Zaid's Reese's and Kit Kat Birthday Cake

In making a birthday cake for my wonderful friend Zaid, I was faced with yet another new challenge. Zaid said his favorite candies were Reese’s and Kit Kats. I struggled with how I could make the best possible cake for him while still making it unique from the Reese’s cake I made for Lindsay and the cake I made for Rachel that was surrounded by Kit Kats. I also faced the challenge of being a little low on peanut butter when I was making this cake. I had plenty for the peanut butter blondies, but then only had about half a cup when I needed to make the icing, not to mention the fact that I had no powdered sugar. So, partially due to my efforts at uniqueness, and partially due to necessity, I ended up with a totally new cake that got the best reviews of any so far.

Thin Mint Brownies

Thin Mint Brownies
 

 

 



As you may or may not know, this is a very special season. Valentine's day? No. Lent? Um okay, but not what I'm getting at. The end of winter? Well yes, thank goodness, but not quite. The season to which I am referring is Girl Scout cookie season. Yes, this is the season during which, for only $3.50, you can buy a box of the chewy or crunchy deliciousness that only an adorable little girl with badges on her vest can sell to you. A long time ago, I too was a girl scout, and I love the fact that somehow me eating cookies can help such a worthwhile cause. (P.S. if you want cookies and don't know where to buy them, here's a link where you can enter your zip code and find a girl scout cookie sale near you! Girl Scout Cookie Locator )

Rachey’s Birthday Cake

Rachey’s Birthday Cake: Flourless Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Icing, Kit Kats, and M&M's

As promised, here is another birthday cake post, and one in which I will actually be able to tell you how I made the cake. In my birthday cake consultations I ask my friends a variety of questions, two of which are always “What’s your favorite dessert?” and “What’s your favorite candy?” Following these steps, I usually decide to base my cake off of one of these answers. In the case of my dear friend Rachey, I based the cake off of both, and also added an extra surprise that I knew she would love. She said her favorite dessert was flourless chocolate cake and her favorite candies were Kit Kat bars and M&M's. As an avid Pinterester, I had seen a picture of a cake with Kit Kats around the outside and had been wanting to try doing that anyway. Though I had not made a flourless chocolate cake before, I knew that wouldn’t be a problem. I decided to use chocolate chip cookie dough icing, because Rachey and I share a love for chocolate chip cookie dough. Finally, I decided to top this epic cake off with M&M's. LOTS of M&M's. Shoutout to Lauren for helping me with the icing and decoration of this cake, her help is probably the reason the cake did not end up looking like a total mess :-) For more specifics on how you can recreate this masterpiece, along with process pictures, all you have to do is click the “Read More” button below!

Chocolate Amaretto Cookies

Chocolate Amaretto Cookies 

I began this baking adventure by asking myself, “What’s better than chocolate?” The answer, of course, is nothing. That is, except adding other delicious things to chocolate. So, after a thorough search of my kitchen, I found an ingredient that I knew would add something extra special to normal chocolate cookies: amaretto liqueur. The liqueur gives these super-chocolaty cookies a delicious nutty flavor. I will warn you that this recipe yields a surprising amount of cookies. I ended up with 60. Not that this is really a problem :-)

The Ultimate Reese's Cake

The Ultimate Reese’s Cake: Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cake with Peanut Butter Icing, Covered in Reese’s Fudge

As promised in my birthday cake post, here is how you can make the amazingly epic Reese’s cake that I made for Lindsay’s birthday. I must warn you that a lot of ingredients and various steps go into this, but it is all SO worth it for the end product. I recommend reading through the entire recipe before starting, as I listed the ingredients under their parts of the cake, rather than all at the beginning of the recipe.