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April Charity Bake: Another Bake for Ukraine
My humble cake raffle last month to benefit World Central Kitchen generated more than $1600 in donations so I'm doing it again this month to benefit Voices of Children. Read on for details on how to enter and what you can win. Deadline to enter is Friday, April 15!
Clean Made Bakes: Menu & Ordering
You asked and the answer is – YES! You can now order your own Clean Made Bakes bespoke cakes and more!
Modern cakes and bakes made in a dedicated gluten free kitchen with the most thoughtfully sourced ingredients. Organic whenever possible. Always celiac safe.
The Bake Shop is currently closed but we do periodically accept custom orders.
90s Themed Birthday Cake
What to do when someone asks if you can make a cake you’ve never made before that’s also a bit out of your comfort zone? Get creative and make a cake! As important as it is to know when to say no (for real) it’s also key to know when to take the plunge and say yes. And this was one of those times.
Black Cocoa & Strawberry Snack Cake
What’s a Snack Cake? The Snack Cake was born when I had an extra 6” layer of cake and some buttercream leftover and I torted the layer to make a simple sandwich of a cake and told Mr Beer there was a little cake in the fridge for “snacking” if he was in the mood. I mean, when is anyone not in the mood for a little cake?
Celebrations & Cake
Like most, we missed many a birthday and celebration to the pandemic. Lucky me with an early spring birthday, I had not one or two, but three pandemic birthdays. When it came time to celebrate a friend’s birthday this year, in person, it was only fitting we do it right with birthday cake.
St Patrick's Day Cakesicles
With so much St Patrick’s Day confection inspo out there I couldn’t resist making something fun…. fun with tempering white chocolate! These White Chocolate Vanilla Cakesicles are made with vanilla cake colored with butterfly pea flower mixed with some cream cheese buttercream and dipped in white chocolate. Did you know how hard it is to find white chocolate without hydrogenated palm oil?
Cake for Friends
When friends lend you their beach house, you make those friends a cake. Even if those friends own one of the most successful bakeries in Canada. Even if! This is a 6” three layer chocolate cake filled with buttercream and fresh strawberries and finished with American buttercream tinted with a bit of beet root powder, more fresh berries, gold dragées, a couple of wafer paper butterflies, and some more gold gilding. Have I mentioned I love using gold?
London Fog Cakes Three Ways
More cake! The rest of last weekend's World Central Kitchen cake raffle winners got these one, two and three layer 4" mini London Fog cakes – earl grey sponge soaked with a little earl grey syrup and layered with vanilla bean buttercream colored with butterfly pea flower.
Make It: St David's Day & Welsh Cakes
If you’re a Brit expat, or lucky enough to live with a Welshman like I do, you may know about St David’s Day. Saint David is the patron saint of Wales and St David’s Day on March 1st is a feast day to celebrate the saint marked with many festivities and daffodils and also Welsh Cakes.
Charity Bake: Baking for Ukraine
It’s time to put this cake making to work for good and who doesn’t love a good old fashioned bake sale? This week I’m going to be raffling off cakes to benefit chef José Andrés World Central Kitchen that has been on the ground working with local chefs and restaurants to help feed refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine and at the Poland border. Read on for details on how to enter and what you can win…
Salted Caramel Cakes
Salted Caramel Cakes! This cake batter was so light and lofty I ended up with enough for not one or two, but three cakes! This is a caramel cake recipe adapted to be made gluten, dairy and refined sugar free, with layers of salted caramel American buttercream, and a salted caramel drip topped with some cake crumbles and a ring of dark caramel. The crumbles were a fun addition but I preferred the look before adding them. Also found myself wishing I had more salted caramel left to do a full pour over on one of the cakes instead of a drip, but c'est la vie. Next time.
Make It: Chocolate Heart Cake
Of course I had to make a Valentine's Day cake. This one's a classic for my chocolate lover – chocolate sponge with vanilla bean American buttercream. Want to make this chocolate cake yourself? Here’s my recipe and method. If you try it at home, let me know how it goes!
A Royal Wedding Cake Triumph... and a Major Cake Fail
This is Royal Wedding Cake. Yes, those royals. A gluten and dairy free cake inspired by the cake eaten at Harry & Megan's nuptials – Lemon Elderflower Cake with Lemon Curd and Elderflower Swiss Buttercream. Recipe adapted with my gluten free cake flour blend and made dairy free with the use of vegan butter in the cake and buttercream…
Black Sesame Cake with Matcha Buttercream & Rice Paper Sails
And just like that... more cake! This is black sesame sponge filled with layers of matcha Swiss meringue buttercream and matcha colored American buttercream on the exterior, finished with matcha stained rice paper sails painted with edible gold, and finally some gold leaf.
Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes
If you’ve been following along I’ve been on a a mission to bake a cake a week this year and working on this weekend's cake. In the meantime, I made some paleo chocolate cupcakes to use up some chocolate ganache buttercream and the beet dyed American buttercream from last weekend’s cake to work on my piping. I wasn’t thrilled with the result until I realized I was using the wrong tip! Oy.
Don't Forget to Say I Love You
Five years ago today Mr Beer came out of a coma following a widow maker heart attack that left him dead for more than 15 minutes, and the resulting anoxic TBI, entirely his usual snarky (and loving) self, defying all of the odds with what was nothing short of a miracle. (If you haven’t seen me talk about that before, well, it was a lot and the takeaway is, learn CPR. He wouldn’t be here if I didn’t know what to do that night).
Blackberry Brown Sugar Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
After making Mr Beer’s birthday cake last year, I realized cake decorating was curiously very relaxing for me, and decided I'd try to bake a cake (or cupcakes or mini cakes) a week this year to work on my gluten free, dairy free and sometimes vegan cake skills. So, here's this weekend's berry ombré cake inspired by last week's epic sunrises and sunsets...
Olive Oil Vanilla Citrus Cupcakes with Citrus Honey Buttercream
When life (or a windstorm) gives you lemons (and limes, and oranges, and grapefruits) you make gluten and dairy free olive oil vanilla citrus cupcakes topped with citrus honey buttercream and a little lemon zest.