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!