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Love Cloud Blue Birth Announcement

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Easter Carrot Cake!

Easter weekend in the Poconos with the Krauses is really a wonderful way to spend the holiday.  This is a family that is warm and loving and just full of joy to be together with one another.  It's amazing and almost unbelievable in its sincerity. 

Carrot cake, well, really good carrot cake, is a labor of love.  This version, my mom's recipe, is my most favorite cake in the Universe.  It's moist and savory and sweet and full of walnuts, carrot and golden raisins.  It has coconut and just the right amount of sweetness and spice.  And don't get me started on the cream cheese frosting.  How can you go wrong? 

Here's the fun cake I made as my contribution to our Easter feast.  Jane dyed some coconut green to serve as an Easter grass garnish and we added some jelly bean eggs to the "grass" to make it even sweeter! 

Here's how a slice looked plated.  Try not to drool on your keyboard.  You can really see the moistness and all the delicious chunks of nuts, carrots and raisins.  It's so, so, so delicious!

Taste Explosion!

When you make these cupcakes, there are lots and lots of moans, just purely vocalized pleasure.  Women swoon.  Men are brought to their knees.  This is some kinda cake! 

It's super moist chocolate cake topped with brown sugar cream cheese frosting (tastes like caramel cheesecake if you ask me), drizzled with homemade caramel sauce and sprinkled with chopped pecans.  Heavenly. 

Bridal Shower Beauties!

These sweeties were made for a bridal shower for a chocoholic bride-to-be.  They are chocolate cake with mocha buttercream, topped with a handmade gumpaste flower accented with an edible pearl and pearl dust.

Coffee+Love

Coffee.  I love coffee.  I can't imagine ever giving it up.  I'm miserable if I don't have it.  I'm even miserable if I don't have it the way I like it, which is with half & half and a little bit of sugar, please.  Dark roast, ultra roast, medium roast, yum.  Sumatra, Guatemala Antigua, Trader Joe's Bay Blend, Godess Kaffeina, yes!  And because I love it, I'd rather do without than drink terrilble coffee from a gas station or vending machine.  A vending machine?  Gasp!

It was this esteem for coffee that inspired these delicious morsels.  Chocolate cake with fresh brewed coffee buttercream, topped with a chocolate chip espresso shortbread cookie.  Heaven.  Plain and simple, heaven.

Guava Mania

As usual, I will pretty much make whatever kind of cupcakes my friends want.  My friend Andy really wanted me to make something with guava, so I gave it a shot.  These are coconut cupcakes with guava cream cheese frosting.  I topped them with mango, pineapple and a slice of guava paste.  They were light, fresh and fruity and I'd definitely make them again, maybe I'd even pipe a little mango curd into the center.  That sounds amazing!

Happy Birthday Dorothy: Part II

Since Dorothy never got to enjoy her last round of birthday cake, I tried again.  This time, I went out on a limb and tried a new recipe.  I mean, it's from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, so how bad could it be, right? 

Here are Martha's Brown Sugar Pound Cupcakes.  Instead of the boring glaze Martha recommends for these lovely cakes, I topped them with her brown sugar cream cheese frosting.  Mmmmmmm!  This frosting is so soft and smooth, it's like a rich sauce for your cake.  And your life.  To up the ante a bit more, I sprinkled chopped pecans on half of the cakes and drizzled just a bit of caramel over them.

Here she is, the birthday girl!  Isn't she sweet?  Of course she is!  She loved her birthday cake! Of course she did!  It was so good!