Coco Cake Land Has Moved! visit cococakeland.com to find me!

Oh wow. I've had a real good time hanging out on this here blog, since 2008! But bigger brighter interweb pastures await, and I'm so excited to share my new blog with y'all (Tami Taylor style.) Come visit me (and stay awhile!) over at Coco Cake Land! Please update accordingly - catch you on the flipside, cake pals!

xo Lyndsay

Get Your Bunny On For Easter! Bunny Cake + Bunny Cake Toppers

I got pretty bunny-ish this April with some cute bunny buddies. Learn to make this crazy cute bunny cake over on my post for Craftsy!Check it out here: How To Make An Easter Bunny Cake!

And talk about party animals. These simple and adorable bunny bow tie cake toppers are a cool breeze on a hot day to make - the whole bow tie bunny cake topper DIY is on Handmade Charlotte! Hop on over for the full tutorial! Sweet for Easter or for a bunny themed first birthday party.

Happy Easter, cake pals!

xo Lyndsay

Arr arr! Make A Baby Seal Cake!

Heehee! I've never eaten real baby seal... that seems very, very wrong. However, a cake made to look like a baby seal? That's just right! Click on over to my baby seal cake DIY at Handmade Charlotte.

Friendship Cookies: Sweet + Salty Chocolate Chip

Baking is such a special thing. Butter, sugar and flour has a language of its own - as nerdily as it sounds - it's pretty much one of love and caring. No one's going to make you a birthday cake or a batch of homemade cookies if they hate your guts. Well maybe they'll make you a poison apple or put a worm in your cupcake! But no, when someone bakes you something - they do it because they love you, they care aboutcha, they support you and want to make you feel good if you're feeling crappy, or feel better if you're feeling sad, or feel special if it's your birthday, or they miss you so they make you a little treat. Because sometimes just eating a really good cookie can make you forget any life crappiness for the tiny minute that it takes for you inhale it. And I've never known anyone who hasn't been at least minutely stoked to receive a batch of homemade cookies!!! Cookies have POWERS. Or at least they can be a symbol of crunchy yummy salty sweet delicious caring.

These cookies are made with spelt flour, too - so while they're decadent in the butter and extreme-o chocolate-ness, spelt is high-fibre! Great! 

Sweet + Salty Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of golden brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups whole spelt flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups (about two 100 gram bars) of high quality semi sweet chocolate, broken into pieces (I used 49% cocoa Lindt Surfin)

Make It!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line three metal baking pans with parchment paper.

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars on high until light and fluffy, about two minutes.
2. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat on high until incorporated, using a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together the spelt flour, salt and baking powder.
4. Pour the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar mixture; beat on low until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
5. Throw in the chocolate and mix for a few seconds until incorporated.
6. Using a small retractable ice cream scoop or clean hands, dole out 1.5 inch round balls of cookie dough evenly spaced onto baking sheets. Optional: place a piece of chocolate on top of each cookie for extra chocolate blast! 
7. Bake for 12-14 minutes, rotating pans halfway, until chocolate is melty and cookies are lightly browned on the bottom.
8. Remove from oven, let cookies cool on wire racks.



What do you think - what's your go-to, make-someone-happy move?? I'd be pretty happy to eat a bacon cheeseburger with fries right about now, in case someone out there felt like making ME happy! ^__^

xo Lyndsay 

Sweetest Of Them All: Strawberries + Cream Birthday Cake

There's nothing more girly and pretty than a pink strawberry cake. I was feeling the urge to make something very pink for my mother in law's birthday - and the organic strawberry jam in the fridge was calling my name too. I've been suffering from a case of work life balance lately - I have so many ideas and things I want to do for photoshoots and cakes, recipes and flavour ideas - yet of course I am a wife and mother, too - sometimes I feel I could get so much more done and really live up to my potential if I could just "work full time" on my ideas (haha) - but then I laugh at this thought as soon as Teddy jumps on me to give me a sweet unprompted hug, or babbles out the new words he learned or wants to sit on my lap and have me read him a book. I have two days a week where we have childcare and I power-work - baking, photographing and madly blogging and making work for my freelance jobs. Weekends I attempt to still do cake orders but then that impedes on our time together as a family...  I dunno.
Still, at least I found time to make this pretty cake for my mother-in-law! It delighted her - which delighted me. It was actually fun to make something so simple, pink and pretty to look at.

This cake tasted just like strawberry ice cream to me! Which I've realized is one of my favourite flavours. Up there with chocolate and peanut butter ice cream. So here's the recipe:

Strawberries + Cream Birthday Cake

Ingredients

For The Cake:

1 cup unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups granulated white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup of strawberry preserves
2 cups of heavy cream
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

For The Buttercream: 
2 cups unsalted butter
4 cups of icing sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup of strawberry preserves
dash of cream
tiny amount of pink gel food colouring
pastel sprinkles - I used India Tree brand Nature's Colors Carnival Mix Sprinkles

Make It: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 7x2 inch round cake pans. I also cut parchment paper rounds to place in the cake pans to help with nonstick powers. 

1. Using a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy.
2. With the mixer on low, add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Add vanilla and strawberry preserves and mix until incorporated.
3. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. With the mixer on low, add the flour in three parts, alternating with the heavy cream until just mixed. Do not overmix!
5. Divide batter evenly into three greased, floured and lined cake pans.
6. Bake at 350 degrees on the center rack of your oven until a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean - about 25 minutes.
7. Let cakes cool in pans on wire racks.
8. Meanwhile, make the buttercream: beat all ingredients on high speed until light and fluffy!
9. Using an offset spatula, frost and fill cake layers, frosting the entire exterior of the cake. Using a cake icing smoother, smooth the frosting then place in freezer for 15 minutes to set.
10. Do a final frost of the cake, smoothing again with the icing smoother. Optional: pipe drop stars around the top for a border (you'll need a piping bag fitted with an open star tip) and lightly dust with pastel sprinkles! I added a fresh organic strawberry for decor.



Yeah that work/life balance thing... what do you guys do to make it "work?" Or do you find, like me, that's it's a constant process of negotiation? That seems pretty okay too. Whenever I'm feeling down and struggling a bit with feeling overwhelmed, it's nice to know I'm not alone - here are two great posts on the topic:

That Juggling Thing by Oh Joy, and then this post on blog reality vs REAL reality: I've Been Thinking About This by The Day Book. (my house is currently a post-vacation mega explosion - and You Will Know Us By The Trail of Teddy is my constant daily reminder that I have a toddler in the house! But I can't have that clutter in a strawberry cake photograph, right? Ha...)

Ok guys! Til next time... hope you're doing great...

xo Lyndsay

Dreaming Of Cakes: Instagram Lately

Drips and drops and glazes and buttercream. Cakes, ice cream and donuts!

I'm so in love with Instagram - are you? Follow me for all the behind the scenes cakey-ness at Coco Cake Land!

Fuzzy Grey Mouse Cake DIY

Get your squeak on (Lyndsay? Is that even a saying at ALL?) with this cutie pie grey mouse cake DIY! I think this mouse cake would be best served with a sideboard of cheese. Yes, a sideboard. Not a stingy little wooden board, guys. We need mountains of cheese.

I wasn't born with an obsessive love of cheese like my husband was - my mom was a fan of slicing huge blocks of orange cheddar and placing those in our sandwiches along with lettuce and black forest ham. I knew cheddar, brie and havarti. Not until I married my cheese mongering husband did I learn how vast and truly WONDERFUL the world of cheese is! Gouda, gruyere, raclette - I love a good cheese party. So yes, I would highly recommend a mouse and cheese themed birthday party. It just seems right.

As for the dessert - scurry on over to Handmade Charlotte for how to make a fuzzy mouse cake!

xo Lyndsay

Donut Try To Take My Donut Pan: Pretty Palette Of Donuts + Recipe

Gosh darn it I loved making these colourful pretty little gems. I used my newfound and trusted donut recipe to make these in my donut baking pans. Mauve, peachy rose and mint green tinted vanilla milk glaze with a light dusting of rainbow sprinkles. The lovely Tamara Taggart asked me if I would make donuts for her for a photoshoot for the Glitter Guide - how could I say no to such a sweet and beautiful lady??

One of my Instagram followers noted that the donuts look like Froot Loops! Made me want a bowl of crunchy fake-fruity Froot Loops instantly, and it gave me a great idea for a future donut flavour! So fun! I have a sugar problem!! Oh and here's the donut recipe again after this photo.


Vanilla Nutmeg Cake Donuts
(recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour)


Yield: 1 dozen donuts + 1dozen mini donuts
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/3 cup golden brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 2/3s cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole milk

For the glaze:
1 cup of icing sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 teaspoons whole milk
Sprinkles (optional)
Gel colours in fuchsia, purple and green

(I made three bowls of this glaze using the same amounts so I could tint each bowl with a different colour - you need to make a decent amount of glaze for donut dipping otherwise the dipping concept doesn't quite work).

Make it!

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Oil your donut baking pans.

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, oil and sugars until smooth and creamy.
2. Add the eggs, mixing to combine.
3. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and vanilla extract.
4. Add the flour into the wet mixture, alternating with the milk until combined. Do not overmix.
5. Fill your donut pans 3/4 full with the donut batter. I used a piping bag with pretty nice results.
6. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes, or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Do not overbake!
7. Remove donuts from pans and let cool on wire racks.
8. Meanwhile, make the glaze: whisk together icing sugar, vanilla extract, milk and desired food colouring until smooth.
9. Once donuts are cool, dunk the donuts into the glaze. Add sprinkles if so desired!

Imagine showing up at your next birthday party with a big old plate of these? Best friends would be made for life. Or at least the duration of the party.

Happy snacking, cake pals! (donut pals??)

xo Lyndsay

Rose To The Occasion: How To Pipe Buttercream Roses

It's tough to deny how pretty a rose topped cupcake is, especially a buttercream rose that you cram-jam into your mouth... mmmm!

Find the whole DIY over at my How To Pipe Buttercream Roses post for Craftsy!

xo Lyndsay

Total Splash: Sweet Mermaid Buttercream Cake + Cupcakes

 


How obsessed was I with:

1. The movie Splash starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah as the giant floppy tailed dolphin-barking mermaid. Um, also John Candy is in it. GOLD. Need to watch this again asap.

2. The original Hans Christian Andersen story The Little Mermaid where the sweet beautiful mermaid loves her prince so much she cannot kill him and throws herself into the ocean and disintegrates into a thousand bubbles into the ocean waves (SAD!)

3. The friendly-fied Disney version of The Little Mermaid where the little merm is a bright red haired firecracker mermaid and marries the prince (although there is still a horrible death scene of "crazy old Ursula" the mole-faced octopus scary lady).

4. The movie Mermaids starring Cher and Winona Ryder and a young Christina Ricci. Set in the 1960s with amazing hair and wardrobe and a coming-of-age story that any young lady would glomp onto. Yeah. That's a good one.

MERMAIDS! I still love them! And I will love anyone who requests a cake as pretty and buttercreamy beautiful as this one I made for the adorable Rhys. I even drew a custom cake topper in her liking. As a mermaid of course...

Thank you Genieve for the fun order - and happy birthday Rhys!

A Little Pep In Your Step: Easy Peppermint Chocolate Ice Cream

Irish or not, many of us ice cream lovers out there go wild for that minty green peppermint chocolate chip ice cream! This simple version is a snap to make with just a few ingredients. Blast on over to Poppytalk for this breezily easy peppermint chocolate ice cream recipe.

How To Decorate A Cake: One Cake Three Ways

I gots some sweet cake decorating ideas for lazies today! Check out my post on how to decorate a cake on You Are My Fave - including this candy topped beauty. Shortly after this photo was taken all of the mini eggs and malt balls were destroyed by ingestion. Candy problem, right here!!

PS you're not lazy. Even if you are, lazy cake decorating can still be great.

Pretty Pup: Pink Dog Cake For A Sweet First Birthday

I made this pink hairy buttercream dog cake for baby girl Quinn's first birthday party. I die a little of cuteness whenever I make a little baby's first birthday cake - it always reminds me of how emotional I was on my son Teddy's first birthday. You can hardly believe you made it through those 12 months ... those first newborn months going by so painfully slow and difficult yet you want to hold on to that mini human forever... then all those milestones in months, little smiles, teensy giggles, starting to eat solids, crawling, standing up and then BLAM. First birthday.

It is a frigging honour each and every time to make a little mini's birthday cake - guys, my cake is going to live on in all these kid's baby photo albums! Sweet!

Time flies so, so fast. Happy 1st birthday, beautiful little Quinn.

xo Lyndsay

Coffee Icing Glazed Vanilla Nutmeg Donuts

I finally found a sweet recipe for baked donuts that remind me of non baked donuts! The last few recipes I've tried were more on the cakey side - ie, they taste kind of like cake batter baked into a donut shape - but these guys really had that dense nutmeg heavier vibe going on - then, dripping with a thick layer of coffee icing glaze, well they're frigging delicious.

I wanted to mix it up with glaze flavours and looked through my extract collection - this Nielsen Massey coffee extract stared me in the face. The taste of the glaze reminded me of the wonderful lazy daisy vanilla cake my grandma would make for me, dripping in glaze made from instant coffee and icing sugar. I honestly was scraping dried glaze off the plate and eating it. Oh, and eating it by the spoonful. I think I like coffee flavoured things, maybe? Haha!

Coffee Icing Glazed Vanilla Nutmeg Cake Donuts 
(recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour)
Yields 1 dozen donuts

Ingredients

For the donuts: 
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/3 cup golden brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 2/3s cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole milk

For the glaze:
1 cup of icing sugar
1 teaspoon coffee extract
5 teaspoons whole milk
Sprinkles (optional)

Make it!

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Oil your donut baking pans.

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, oil and sugars until smooth and creamy.
2. Add the eggs, mixing to combine.
3. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and vanilla extract.
4. Add the flour into the wet mixture, alternating with the milk until combined. Do not overmix.
5. Fill your donut pans 3/4 full with the donut batter.
6. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes, or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Do not overbake!
7. Remove donuts from pans and let cool on wire racks.
8. Meanwhile, make the glaze: whisk together icing sugar, coffee extract and milk until smooth.
9. Once donuts are cool, dunk the donuts into the glaze. Add sprinkles if so desired!

I seriously donut lie when I say this recipe is a goodie.
What's your favourite baked donut recipe? Would love to know!

xo Lyndsay

Hip Hop: Bunny Cake + Pink Cupcake Buddies

Gad sometimes it's so hard to let these cake friends go. Pretty much fell in love with this orange buck toothed party animal bunny cake and matching pink bunny cupcake buddies that I made for the adorable little girls Sapphira and Nyla! Don't you love how specific little kids can be? Orange bunny?? Amazing. Ahhh I love kiddos!

Thank you so much Dimithra for such a fun order! So fun to create something for your girls once again.

xo Lyndsay