Red Panda Cake!

All these years I've been calling the panda bear my spirit animal. You know, panda bears are from China, I'm Chinese... but then there's this bumbling nutbar raccoon-like mammal lazing around in his fancy fur coat - yes, the red panda! These guys are so cute! So I have another spirit animal to choose from now. I wonder if red pandas like to bake cakes and eat ice cream. Hmmm...

I made this little cutie for baby Liam's 1st birthday - he has a red panda stuffie that he loves! Pretty darn cute. Happy 1st Birthday, Liam - and thank you Tiffany for the fun cake order!

xo Lyndsay

Sussudio: 1980s Satin Ruffle Pillow Inspired Valentine's Day Heart Cake!

My inspiration for this cake was a 1980s satin pillow with ruffle trim - did I succeed?? Haha... well I think it looks pretty 80's and it turned out pretty cute and ruffly! File this wild cake under: Why Not. 

1980s Satin Pillow Ruffle Heart Cake

You Will Need:

A heart shaped cake pan

Your favourite recipe for a 2 layer cake

4 cups of vanilla buttercream or frosting

Gel food colouring in fuchsia and purple

Three piping bags fitted with an open star tip - or you can re-use the same one!

An offset spatula 

Baking Tip: Grease and flour your heart shaped cake pan before pouring your batter in. I also cut a piece of parchment paper to size which helps immensely with cake release. 

Make it!

1. Bake your cake according to recipe instructions. Let cool completely.
2. Run an offset spatula around the edges of the cake pan to loosen the cake. Remove the cake from cake pan and place on a large cake plate or cake board.
3. Mix your buttercream colours - divide your buttercream in thirds, keeping one cream coloured and making one third pink and one third purple.
4. Frost the entire exterior of the cake with pink buttercream.
5. Fill each piping bag with a different colour.
6. Pipe the sides of the heart cake with cream coloured buttercream.
7. Pipe the top of the cake with pink buttercream, doing three rows of drop stars.
8. Fill the rest of the cake with the purple buttercream to make a purple heart center!

Cut a slice for your sweetie and enjoy! May as well throw on some Phil Collins No Jacket Required while you're at it.

See ya soon, cake pals!

xo Lyndsay 

Glazed + Confused: Donut Try To Deny The Power Of Donuts

I got donut pans for my birthday in November and I've been dying to find time to use them! Today I got smart and decided to test them out using leftover vanilla cake batter... and it totally worked! Perfect, adorable baked donut cakes in those wonderfully pleasing puffy circle shapes with that missing "hole." 

I made a simple glaze from heavy cream, icing sugar and pure vanilla extract and it turned out nicely thick and creamy with a sweet milk flavour. Use your favorite cake recipe and see if it turns out! 

Baking note: I used a piping bag with an open tip to pipe the batter into the donut pan - seemed like the least messy way to do it! 

My donut obsession has been cranked to eleven now - going to test out a bunch of donut recipes, can't wait! Anyone have a good one? Would love to hear -leave me a link! 

In the meantime, here's the simple glaze recipe. I mixed the glaze in a bowl and dipped my cooled donuts right into it. This glaze is just as good dripping down a beautiful bundt cake, too. 

VANILLA CREAM DONUT GLAZE  

You Will Need: 

1/3 cup of heavy cream (33% milk fat) plus more to dilute if needed
2 cups of icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
A toothpick's tip of pink gel food colour (optional) Rainbow sprinkles

Make it!

Whisk together all ingredients until creamy and smooth. Have more cream on hand to dilute the mixture if you find it too thick to use as a glaze. It sets up fast and easily and will glaze a dozen donuts. The fun part is also mixing and matching your donut toppings - I used rainbow sprinkles and fresh blackberries!

Have fun, cake pals!

xo Lyndsay 

Bright + Sweet: Little Mini Rainbow Cupcakes

All My Love For You: Blue Ruffle Cake + Velvet Ribbon Garland DIY

Today's post is sponsored by Minted.com

Yeah. You know it. Heart day is coming. Good old Valentine's Day. Do you love heart day? Do you want to smother your loved one with kisses and bonbons and shower them with heart shaped confetti and log-roll in mounds of freshly plucked red velvet rose petals? Or do you want to murder heart day and set fire to its heart shaped boxes of chocolates and professions of sappy love and long walks on the beach and romantic dinners for two? Seems to me like as good a day as any to throw a wicked awesome party - and who doesn't love a nice little mini party with CAKE and some sweet and simple decor? No sweetie in your life? Invite some pals over for pizza and cake! NBD in 2014! 

It's hard for me to resist making a garland. So here are two very easy ones to jazz up your heart day (or any day!) party: craft paper letter "LOVE" and super cute velvet ribbon garland. The "LOVE" garland was made by free-style cutting letters out of craft paper and adhering to twine with washi tape. The ribbon garland was made by cutting ribbon to varying lengths, using glue (I used a glue gun) to adhere both the ribbons together and attach to twine and cutting a v-point on the ends to finish them. I used the ribbon bits that were cut away as table confetti, too! See below! 

Gorgeous luxe velvet ribbons, custom Valentine's Day classroom cards, washi tape and twine all available through Minted.com.

See you again soon, cake pals!

xo Lyndsay