Bachelorette "Stripper Cake"

Just when I thought life couldn't get any crazier.... life went and got crazier!

I haven't blogged much, mostly because my weekends have been go go go GO at 100MPH constantly and it has been quite overwhelming! So in order to catch up a bit, I am going to post a series of catch up posts to share what's been going on in my life and the yummy goodies I've been creating lately!

First off, August started off with a bang when we took my best friend Maureen out for her Bachelorette party! A group of us girls too Maureen to a hotel where we had pre-party snacks and drinks, then went out for a yummy Italian dinner then headed out to a bar where we danced and drank the night away!  Of course, the night had to be accompanied by a cake! Maureen had said no way to strippers but I felt we needed to slip something hilariously "inappropriate" in there somewhere... and the stripper cake was born!

Let me tell you, being a 26 year old in Toys R' Us in search for a Ken doll was an experience.  I luckily found a cute little doll on sale (I was gonna rip his legs off anyways!) and when I proceeded to the check out line, I think the cashier was a bit confused.  She looked at me, with no children in tow (obviously) and was clearly curious as to why I had a barbie doll in my hands.

"Do you need a gift reciept for this barbie doll?"

-- No..

 "Do you need it gift wrapped?"

--No..

"Will you be putting this on your Toys R' Us credit card today?"

--No..

"Do you want to open up a Toys R' Us credit card today?"

--No.. I don't have kids, I don't shop here.

"Uhh.... Does your friend need a man?" 

LOL we will just leave it at that! I definitely do not enjoy that store!!

So we ate cake and named the sexy Ken doll Calvin Harris... And it turned out really great!!!! 

What fun memories with my best friend!

Quadruple Layer Cookie Dough Cake

A few weekends ago I attended a family reunion and tried some delicious cupcakes my cousin Jaclyn made for the occasion... among the flavors were cookie dough.. and I died..and went to heaven.

She sent me the link for the cupcakes which were from The Cake Blog.  After trying these, I knew I had to make this for Father's Day, and I knew I wanted to go bigger. 

I adapted the recipe but used my own chocolate cake recipe that is trusted and always comes out moist and delicious.  I decided on two 6" rounds, cut those in half to make four layers.. yes.. FOUR. 

For the filling, I followed the recipe perfectly and ended up with delicious cookie dough, which I then filled each layer with.  Stacked up high, the cake was about 10 inches tall! I then threw it back into the fridge so the cookie dough set. 

After about a half hour, I removed to ice it.  The icing is SO SWEET and I even cut back on the amount of sugar, omitting white sugar completely and cutting the brown sugar in half.  Still very sweet but very tasty, and surprisingly smooth.  

Iced to perfection.

This cake was so sinful. I mean, dreadfully sinful but I don't care. 

So delicious. Everyone loved it! Total win! 

Tiger Pride

On Sunday we celebrated my cousin Eric's graduation from high school!  Eric is a gifted artist who plans to attend Rochester Institute of Technology, where he will study a very prestigious program for Medical Illustration. 

It was a great time for all and so nice to see my entire family together!

My aunt is the ultimate party planner, and she put together a great "tiger themed" celebration in honor of the soon to be "RIT Tiger!" 

 My cousin Renee used her talents to do some cake pops!

And I provided the Tiger cake! 

I have to admit, this was one of the most moist and delicious chocolate fudge cakes I have ever done. I even added dark chocolate morsels to the batter to add texture to the cake, and it was so good!  Frosting was a true buttercream with french vanilla Bailey's creamer... my secret weapon for the most delicious buttercream :)

A big congratulations to my cousin, we are all so proud of him and he is destined to do (and draw!) great things!