Dirty Kitchen? Yes Please!

I normally demand a clean kitchen however recently we were loving a "dirty kitchen", more specifically Frank Solivan and the Dirty Kitchen. It was Frank's birthday and a little surprise was waiting him during intermission....

Happy Birthday Frank.

2 Never looked so good!

This is the reason I love 2:

this little darling is Zoe....she is not mine but I love love her!

April 8th she turned 2 and I made her a cake

....and I let her take a lick before the party :)

and then I had to take it away before she demolished it .

so sorry Moppet. Happy Birthday.

Marble Mania

To achieve marble cake simply get chocolate and vanilla cake batter. Pour chocolate in the pan then dot the vanilla and swirl. This idea is fantastic because with a little creativity it can go so far beyond vanilla and chocolate. You can use food coloring to dye 1/3 of your vanilla batter blue or purple and create Easter wonder, you can swirl banana cake and chocolate cake, you can swirl coconut and lemon....the sky is the limit.

cherry blossoms version 2

so this comes with a confession....I make everything from scratch (this is not the confession) usually, today however I did not. Cherry blossoms are in season but cherries are not and so I couldn't make the cherry compote for this tempting cake. Thank you Safeway for supplying me with this sad gelatinous excuse for compote in a pinch.

and while the cherries left a bit to be desired, the organic nature of the almond frosting was spot on for Collin's 30th.

A walk on the wild side

now I am sure I know what you are thinking,"wild cupcakes?" what makes them wild? peppers, wasabi, vodka?....these are not those!! These are wild animal. A little party at the Reston Zoo for Tate, and a chocolate cake and vanilla and coconut cupcakes were on the menu.