cake Archives - Cupcakes and Cutlery

Macarons with Edible Ink for Cake Banners

October 23, 2013 by Sharon Garofalow 17 Comments

After being introduced to Lette Macarons I got all kinds of ideas of how to use those tasty little treats in various ways. While I love cake banners, I wanted to do something different. I realized that edible ink could turn these beautiful little cookies in to the perfect little billboards for cake messages.

These are super easy to make. Just use cake pop sticks (found at every craft store) and slide them in to one side of the macaron.

Then all you need to do is use edible markers (also found at craft stores) and find someone with way better writing than you…in this case, Lauren. Duh.

You can write any message you want. These can be for any kind of celebration. And the best part? You can totally eat the entire thing (minus the stick, don’t be dumb).

Macarons come in so many amazing colors that you can match virtually any cake or party decor.

And if you have never had the chance to do a macaron tasting, grab some friends, buy a dozen and check them out. Big thank you to Lette Macarons for providing the macarons for this post. Their passion fruit, violet and earl grey are my FAVE. I was also blown away by the coffee one. So tasty! See my introduction to Lette Macarons here.

*I was provided macarons by Lette Macarons, Fashion Island for use in this post. No further compensation was provided.

Filed Under: Party Inspiration Tagged With: cake, Cake Banner, diy, Macarons, Party Decor, Party Food, party inspiration

Colomba Cake for Easter Brunch

March 21, 2013 by Sharon Garofalow Leave a Comment

Do you serve the same thing for Easter Brunch every year? While most of us have traditions that we like to stick to, I usually like to try something new as well. I knew that Panettone was an Italian tradition at the Christmas holiday but I didn’t know they had a version to share at Easter too. This makes me really happy as I am somewhat obsessed with Panettone. Nudo makes a Colomba Cake for Easter that is available online. Like their other products, their packaging is gorgeous! It arrives like a gift and would be perfect to take with you if celebrating Easter at someone else’s home.

This cross between bread and cake is so yummy! It is light and airy with hints of citrus fruit and the crunch of nuts. This Easter cake is made with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and is perfect for brunches during spring.

Those white “sprinkles” are made of sugar and the cake is shaped like a dove (although I wouldn’t have made that connection on my own) to symbolize peace and renewal for spring.

Nudo’s Colomba Cake is a limited edition and is $25. Order now so it arrives in time!

This cake is rather impressive to look at. It is sure to get the crowd talking when you debut it at Easter brunch.

They suggest serving it at the end of the meal but I say put it out for the guests to enjoy all morning. But be warned, it is totally addicting!!

Disclosure: On occasion, I receive products, compensation and/or services gratis or at discounted rates. This practice does not influence my point of view or the outcome of the review. All descriptions are factual and accurately reflect my experience. The opinions are my own.

Filed Under: Family Life, Food Finds, Holidays, Party Planning Tagged With: brunch, cake, Easter, entertaining, family, holiday, Italian, panettone

Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake Recipe

March 20, 2013 by Sharon Garofalow 17 Comments

Yeah. You read that right. This is called a dump cake. Here is a delicious Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake recipe. You literally just dump things in a baking dish and pop it in the oven. And it is insanely good. It is one of those things that you serve or even describe to someone and they are like, “yeah, none of that sounds amazing.” But I know my desserts. And this one is SO GOOD. Full disclosure, I ate this whole batch in two days. Pretty much by myself. It’s pretty great warm and, in my opinion, even better cold. And although it is technically a dessert, it also works well for breakfast, lunch and snacks…

It only take a few ingredients to make a cherry pineapple dump cake. You could use margarine instead of the butter but it is NOT as good. Like, not even close. But it can be done if you are dealing with food allergies or you are crazy and think margarine is better than butter (but it is just not. Agree to disagree). I choose to use salted butter because I love salty and sweet together. And I don’t add salt to anything else I eat (aside from normal seasoning in the pan like real chefs) except for avocados and cherry tomatoes. So I figure my sodium levels can take it.

Are you ready for the amazing dump cake recipe? Hold on to your hats and glasses…

Pour a can of crushed pineapple in your baking dish. Spread it out so it covers most of the pan (seriously there is no wrong way to do this and you should not spend much time on it. Just dump it.) Then pour a can of cherry pie filling over the top.

Sprinkle the dry cake mix over the whole thing. Yes, the dry cake mix. Try to cover the fruit fillings as evenly as you can.

It will look like this when you are done. And even at this stage, it will smell SO yummy.

The hardest part of this recipe is melting the butter. Why can’t I get it to melt all nice and mellow? It always pops and blows up all over my microwave. Melting butter is super aggressive. But I still love it. All you do is pour it over the top of the dry cake mix. And that will smell even better than it did a minute ago.

You bake it for an hour and it gets all goldeny brown and bubbly. And smells EVEN BETTER! The edges get all crusty and the butter soaks in to the dry cake batter…yum.

To serve, spoon a heaping portion in to a bowl. It is mostly made up of fruit after all…While it doesn’t immediately look like something you would make when having guests over due to it’s somewhat sloppy demeanor, the taste is a total crowd pleaser. And your kids and male guests will get a good laugh when you call it a dump cake.

Ingredients:

1 can Crushed Pineapple (normal sized can, not a small one – do not drain)

1 can Cherry Pie Filling (Comstock brand is always a good choice. I went with an alternative last time and was disappointed)

1 box Cake Mix (Yellow or White)

1 cup butter (margarine only if you have to for allergy reasons – otherwise only use butter!)

Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with Pam or other spray oil. Pour in the crushed pineapple and juice and spread out on the bottom of the pan. Pour the cherry pie filling on top (it will not spread out evenly). Sprinkle cake mix over the cherries. Melt butter and spoon over mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

You will not be disappointed!! Have you ever made a dump cake before?

*For the most part, I do not create recipes but share the ones I grew up with in my family. I’m certain some fantastic chef came up with this many moons ago but no sources are listed in my homemade cookbook from my mom. She didn’t anticipate blogging.

Filed Under: Family Life, Food, Food Allergies, Recipes Tagged With: cake, cherry, pineapple, Recipes

Happy Cake Day Banner on YAMF

March 15, 2013 by Sharon Garofalow Leave a Comment

I have a really fun birthday banner up on You Are My Fave. Have you seen it? Fabric letters and napkin flowers make it fun and exciting. Go check it out!!

Filed Under: Craft / DIY, Holidays, Party Inspiration Tagged With: banner, birthday, cake, craft, diy, flowers, garland, guest post, You Are My Fave

4 Cakes for 4th Birthday

February 26, 2013 by Sharon Garofalow Leave a Comment

Two days after Christmas we held a birthday party for my son at Pump it Up. Two days after THAT was his actual birthday. We always have family over on the actual day for cake and ice cream. But this year, you know, on account of because I am crazy (we’ve already established this right? I don’t need to keep saying it.) I decided that since it was his 4th birthday, he needed to have 4 cakes. So this happy little guy got to ride around the house on his new Envy Prodigy scooter. I had cakes in the oven. I had no time for discipline.

I used the rest of the Minted party decor I had ordered for his party at the house. This is our banner wall. True story, this banner is still up. As I type this, in February, the banner is on the wall behind me. It just looks so cute! And it was super easy. The Minted items come printed and ready to string. They are printed on really nice quality paper and make decorating super simple. Here are 3/4 of the cakes. One was still in the oven at this point. We had a yummy cherry chip cake, a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, an angel cake with meyer lemon glaze, and a dump cake. Yes, a dump cake. If you have never had one, you need to. I’m going to share the recipe with you next week. It is super simple and everyone always goes crazy for it. And kids (and my husband) laugh when they hear the word “dump.”

And oh yeah. I had made the cake toppers from the Minted party stuff before Christmas. And then found them a few weeks after the party, unused. How cute would these have been on the cakes? Total fail. I am not a baker so trying to get all four cakes done really through me off my game. But I will just have to save these for another time.

Do you want to know how to make the birthday boy extra happy? Let him walk around on the dinner table. It was hilarious. Pure joy.

So there you have it. 4 cakes for a 4th birthday. For 8 adults and 4 kids. We had a lot of leftover cake. And since my other son is turning 7 this year I figured that if I wanted to do a party with one cake for each year I better do it now. Even my crazy has limits.

*This is not a sponsored post for Minted. I had a credit with them and decided to try out their party decor. I am so glad that I did. It saved me a ton of time and everything was still super cute.