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I'm Beth. I like making your eyes happy. I bake (because food is awesome) and make crafty things! (Which means the majority of photos here are my own.)

Cake!  I tried out the chocolate version of the Martha Stewart Living cake, and it was also delicious and similarly, the only good chocolate cake I’ve made, ever (not counting the flourless chocolate cake).  I cut the recipe in half again so that I had one layer of cake, but I wanted to try the vanilla again with different frosting, so I had one vanilla as well.  The chocolate had chocolate sour cream frosting, and the vanilla had caramel frosting in the middle, and caramel-peanut butter on the top and sides! Cake recipes and frosting & filling recipes(from this post)

Cake!  I tried out the chocolate version of the Martha Stewart Living cake, and it was also delicious and similarly, the only good chocolate cake I’ve made, ever (not counting the flourless chocolate cake).  
I cut the recipe in half again so that I had one layer of cake, but I wanted to try the vanilla again with different frosting, so I had one vanilla as well.  The chocolate had chocolate sour cream frosting, and the vanilla had caramel frosting in the middle, and caramel-peanut butter on the top and sides!

Cake recipes and frosting & filling recipes
(from this post)

Here’s a somewhat blurry picture taken on top of my washing machine of all the Christmas cookies together!  My mom made the almond cookies and the date-nut bars on the bottom of the left plate, and the chocolate and vanilla swirl ones.

Here’s a somewhat blurry picture taken on top of my washing machine of all the Christmas cookies together!  My mom made the almond cookies and the date-nut bars on the bottom of the left plate, and the chocolate and vanilla swirl ones.

More Christmas cookies!  We stopped making these sugar cookies years ago, but I had a craving to make them this year.  The recipe already called for nutmeg, but we added extra and also some cinnamon.  The dinosaurs I gave to my niece, who is in love with dinosaurs at the moment.
My sister and I had fun eating the chocolate chips with a bit of the green mint flavored frosting!

I made carrot cake for Easter.  I really wanted a four-layer cake (never made one before), but the layers were too skinny and would be too flimsy to slice in half horizontally.  Instead, I sliced them in half vertically and made a four-layer half cake!  After it sat for a while I think the weight of the cake forced the frosting to seep into the layers, so it was kind of odd.  Also, notice the bamboo skewer sticking out from the top?  Yeah.  Someone had commitment issues and wanted to slide right off of there.

I made carrot cake for Easter.  I really wanted a four-layer cake (never made one before), but the layers were too skinny and would be too flimsy to slice in half horizontally.  Instead, I sliced them in half vertically and made a four-layer half cake!  After it sat for a while I think the weight of the cake forced the frosting to seep into the layers, so it was kind of odd.  Also, notice the bamboo skewer sticking out from the top?  Yeah.  Someone had commitment issues and wanted to slide right off of there.

That frosting I made for the cake…it’s actually glaze.  Pictured here is the same recipe, except instead of frosting, we have fondue!  For frosting, I used 2 tablespoons plus 3/4 of a tablespoon of water, and for the glaze/fondue, I used the full 3 tablespoons.It’s such a slight difference, but you can get very different results from the same recipe.  And also quite delicious (I used dark chocolate cocoa powder, so that probably helped to make it taste extraordinary.) Also, from my rough calculations, this glaze is much lower in calories than fondue, so that’s a plus.  I can’t compare the tastes, seeing as I’ve never had real fondue!Chocolate Glaze Recipe On the plate is the dry cake, cubed up, ready for dipping!  It was a major improvement.

That frosting I made for the cake…it’s actually glaze.  Pictured here is the same recipe, except instead of frosting, we have fondue!  For frosting, I used 2 tablespoons plus 3/4 of a tablespoon of water, and for the glaze/fondue, I used the full 3 tablespoons.
It’s such a slight difference, but you can get very different results from the same recipe.  And also quite delicious (I used dark chocolate cocoa powder, so that probably helped to make it taste extraordinary.) 
Also, from my rough calculations, this glaze is much lower in calories than fondue, so that’s a plus.  I can’t compare the tastes, seeing as I’ve never had real fondue!
Chocolate Glaze Recipe

On the plate is the dry cake, cubed up, ready for dipping!  It was a major improvement.

I made this chocolate bundt cake for my mom’s social gathering.  She brought half of the cake home, but it was dry and tasteless.  (Well, she thought it was “very rich”, but I seriously couldn’t taste anything).  The frosting…the frosting is a whole different story.  We ended up slicing the frosting off the cake and eating it, leaving behind the mutilated cake!  There’s more to come about the frosting, but for now, here’s the recipe (just for the frosting, I didn’t use that cake recipe). Also, doesn’t the cake look like a giant chocolate frosted donut?  That would have been super delicious.  Stupid dry cake.

I made this chocolate bundt cake for my mom’s social gathering.  She brought half of the cake home, but it was dry and tasteless.  (Well, she thought it was “very rich”, but I seriously couldn’t taste anything).  The frosting…the frosting is a whole different story.  We ended up slicing the frosting off the cake and eating it, leaving behind the mutilated cake!  There’s more to come about the frosting, but for now, here’s the recipe (just for the frosting, I didn’t use that cake recipe).

Also, doesn’t the cake look like a giant chocolate frosted donut?  That would have been super delicious.  Stupid dry cake.

I’m calling these Stupid Cupcakes.They were supposed to be chocolate cupcakes with raspberry buttercream, but mine?  Not so much.  Several things kept them from being awesome.  Originally I was going to make all vanilla cupcakes, so I used a different recipe (but a 1/4 of it, since it was for a whole cake).  Later on I added cocoa powder to the remaining batter.  Both were very dense and throat-clogging, I assume because even though the recipe was accurately reduced, the act of doing so must have thrown the ratios off.  I was making these with my sister, and when we started to run low on powdered sugar while making the frosting, she read the back of the bag.  Turns out, powdered sugar is only regular sugar and cornstarch.  The frosting was way too thin, so we dumped in some makeshift powdered sugar.  It definitely thickened it, but the sugar to cornstarch ratio obviously wasn’t correct because it tasted like a mouthful of chalk.  Which, by the way, my sister didn’t notice, but then again I seem to be sensitive to textures.  Chalky frosting is not smooth and fluffy and not very pleasing.  (Also, we used strawberries instead of raspberries.  Just because that’s what we had in the freezer).I had a picture planned in my mind with piped frosting, something I never do, but the frosting was still too thin for that.  So, the final result?  Mini cupcakes almost too dense to swallow, topped with a layer of chalky strawberry frosting.Mmm, appetizing!    This is a case where, I hate to say it, I would have been better off using a yellow cake mix full of chemicals*.  Topped with homemade frosting :] *Or, I could have made the actual recipe instead of messing with it.  Lesson learned?

I’m calling these Stupid Cupcakes.
They were supposed to be chocolate cupcakes with raspberry buttercream, but mine?  Not so much.  Several things kept them from being awesome.  Originally I was going to make all vanilla cupcakes, so I used a different recipe (but a 1/4 of it, since it was for a whole cake).  Later on I added cocoa powder to the remaining batter.  Both were very dense and throat-clogging, I assume because even though the recipe was accurately reduced, the act of doing so must have thrown the ratios off.  
I was making these with my sister, and when we started to run low on powdered sugar while making the frosting, she read the back of the bag.  Turns out, powdered sugar is only regular sugar and cornstarch.  The frosting was way too thin, so we dumped in some makeshift powdered sugar.  It definitely thickened it, but the sugar to cornstarch ratio obviously wasn’t correct because it tasted like a mouthful of chalk.  Which, by the way, my sister didn’t notice, but then again I seem to be sensitive to textures.  Chalky frosting is not smooth and fluffy and not very pleasing.  (Also, we used strawberries instead of raspberries.  Just because that’s what we had in the freezer).
I had a picture planned in my mind with piped frosting, something I never do, but the frosting was still too thin for that.  So, the final result?  Mini cupcakes almost too dense to swallow, topped with a layer of chalky strawberry frosting.
Mmm, appetizing!   

This is a case where, I hate to say it, I would have been better off using a yellow cake mix full of chemicals*.  Topped with homemade frosting :]

*Or, I could have made the actual recipe instead of messing with it.  Lesson learned?

I’m taking a break in my queued up posts to show you a spongebob cake I made last night for my grand-nephew’s 5th birthday (he’s visiting right now).  It was a tough choice between a batman, lego, or a spongebob cake.  My cake is going to taste so much better….I used frosted cookies and yummy homemade frosting instead of fondant (bleh!).  And his pants are chocolate!

I’m taking a break in my queued up posts to show you a spongebob cake I made last night for my grand-nephew’s 5th birthday (he’s visiting right now).  It was a tough choice between a batman, lego, or a spongebob cake.  
My cake is going to taste so much better….I used frosted cookies and yummy homemade frosting instead of fondant (bleh!).  And his pants are chocolate!