Life & A Tender White Cake

Wow, the past few weeks have been so busy, I don't know where to begin. I'll start with the happy stuff. You might remember that my sister got engaged a few months back. It has been really exciting since this is our family's first wedding! We couldn't be happier, especially because we all love her future husband - who I introduced her to (we were both waiters in the same restaurant).

The wedding is on august 17th, so it is only a few weeks away! Last week we went to pick up my sisters dress, which I always volunteer to come along too, because it is so fun being around gorgeous dresses. I can't post pictures of the dress here, because one particular person, who is not suppose to see the dress, may read this post (you know who you are...).

I have a very special responsibility... I have to make the post-wedding celebration cake. Yup, that's right post-wedding. I've been thinking about what kind of design I would like, and I knew I really wanted to expand my piping ability. I came across this amazing tutorial over at Zoe Bakes. It shows you exactly how to pipe beautiful roses, so I started to practice. It took sometime until my roses actually looked like roses, but as you can see they are looking pretty good!

Cinnamon Swirl Cupcakes

I've had this idea for cupcakes in my head for a long time. The recipe is inspired by this delicious Cinnamon Swirl Cake.

It is the perfect blend of a moist yellow cake and a gooey cinnamon-sugar mixture. Another idea that popped in my head was making brown sugar swiss meringue buttercream. I just swapped the white sugar with some brown sugar, and ta da! It also tastes really, really good. Maybe next time I'll use dark brown sugar just to get the color a bit darker...

The cupcakes did not disappoint, nor did the buttercream! yummy.

Elvis Presley's Favorite Pound Cake

The title I think explains it all. 

or maybe it doesn't?  

Let me explain. Apparently a few decades ago this recipe was published in a newspaper by a close friend of Elvis Presley (!!!), who remains anonymous, and claims she'd bake the cake for him often.

My first thought was what if I baked the cake, and disagreed with the king of rock and roll?

Luckily, no imaginary arguing occurred since the cake is so damn good, it was half eaten an hour after it came out of the oven.

Of course I did alter it slightly. I reduced the sugar to 2 1/2 cups and added a teaspoon of baking powder. There was something about this recipe I had never ever done before - you don't preheat the oven. The cake is placed in a cold oven and is baked slowly. AHHH! I was terrified by this method, but it worked!

The pound cake is delicious and tender. It had this gorgeous dark brown exterior and a lovely white buttery interior.