And the Winner Is....

Alicia Gallops!


Now, I know that most of you are probably disappointed that you didn't win, but you can still order a cake from me, and I promise to make it just as yummy as this free one.

How I selected a Winner:
First off, I went to this not so fancy tool here, called the Random Line Picker. Then I put all of the names of the people who left a comment into the box and shuffled the names three times, just to be extra fair. I then clicked "pick random line" and the name that came up on the first try was the winner. I was secretly hoping that all of you would win, but I can't make that many free cakes this month! Thank you all for entering! I will probably do this again sometime, so keep an eye on the blog. Oh! and be sure to subscribe so that you can be notified when I post!

Excuses, Excuses... And Our First Giveaway!!!

I think that I need to accept that I am a procrastinator. Maybe that will help me out a bit - not just with the blog, but in life in general. I MEANT to post last week, but I was busy with Thanksgiving preparations and such. Then I got sick. I'm still sick, but improving. Then I remembered that I wanted to post a technique tutorial next, so since that isn't ready, I put it off again, and I almost put this off once again today, but I told a friend to keep an eye on my blog, and I felt convicted... cause what if he was checking my blog once a week or more often, and I wasn't posting anything? That wouldn't be cool. So, here I am, taking a break from my Christmas decorating, just to tell you guys that I am a procrastinator.... AAAAND that I am giving away a cake!

Ugh... It's been more than a month!

So, I just remembered that I have a blog, and decided to come see how long it has been since I posted, and my last post was September 29th! Geez! I have not been doing a great job of updating lately. That is not to say that I have not been making cakes. I have a few pretties to share with you (think "two posts for one, plus a preview for next time"). I also learned a new technique that I want to share sometime this month, so stay tuned!

The Best Cake I Ever Tasted

I recently volunteered to make some dessert for a church event. It needed to serve 20, and I couldn't decide what I wanted to make, so I decided to make two: one that was a winning cake recipe from the Dec/ Jan 2010 issue of Taste of Home magazine, and another that I completely made up from cooking intuition. Here they are:

On a Very Personal Note

Although I do have some cakes to show you, I felt like I needed to take the time to write this - which has nothing to do with cooking or cakes or anything like it, but does give you a teensy look into my life. So, look forward to seeing some cakes on here really soon, but for now, here's the scoop.

Honey Cake

Cinnamon Swirl Honey Butter Cake, trimmed and ready for frosting

Last weekend we celebrated Ava's 4th birthday. For the longest time, she had said that she wanted a honey cake. Well, I knew where she got this from - it was a Winnie the Pooh book where Pooh had made a honey cake for Kanga's birthday. I thought that I remembered a recipe on the back of the book, but the day before her birthday I found out that there wasn't one.... oops!
     That sent me on a long adventure online, trying in earnest to find a suitable honey cake recipe. Despite two days of searching, I just couldn't find one of "birthday cake quality". So, I made one up myself. And it was so extremely delicious, tasted like honey butter, but not heavy like most baked goods that contain honey. It remained light and fluffy, moist and crumbly, and sooooo delicious!
     I frosted it with a Swiss meringue buttercream (far superior to traditional American buttercream, in my opinion), and decorated it with last minute fondant flowers and bees. I still need practice with writing with icing, but I think that the rest of the cake was absolutely perfect :)

Oreo Cake

Oreo Cake, with chocolate Oreo filling, buttercream frosting, and garnished with chocolate covered Oreos,
white chocolate pieces & a chocolate "Happy Birthday" plaque.

My brother turned 29 not too long ago, so, of course, I made him a cake. It's nothing super fancy, looks wise, but it is really yummy. I have been trying to make a lot of cakes so that I can build up my recipe file. I like to try new recipes, but sometimes the recipe isn't all that great. I can't tell you how many frosting, filling and cake recipes that I have tried that just don't meet my standards. Sometimes it can be very trying on you when you make a new filling and it turns out all wrong - especially when you KNOW that it wasn't your fault it turned out that way. Well, this filling was like that. I won't use it again, or anything like it, for that matter, because it wasn't thick enough to fill a cake, and I ended up having to tweak it - a lot - to make it work. I would have just thrown out the batch and started over, but I really hate to waste food. So, onward we go! That one will not make it into my Kelly's Cakes recipe file. But the cake, on the other hand... yummy! It will definitely be there.