Every time I have made a cake lately, I have stared at this recipe on the Softasilk cake flour box. It looks so beautiful and sounds like an excellent combination of flavors. I finally broke down and used it for my Wilton Course 2 final cake. The recipe can also be found at the Pillsbury website.

Since I only used 2 small oval pans for the cake, I had enough of the batter left over to make cupcakes! The raspberry cream frosting is really what makes this cake, I made half of the frosting since I only used it to fill the cake and frost the cupcakes. The frosting is very soft though, I needed to keep putting it back in the refrigerator while frosting my cupcakes.

Raspberrry-laced vanilla (cup)cakes

• Cake
• 3 cups Pillsbury Softasilk cake flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1-1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened
• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1-1/2 teaspoons clear vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1 (12 ounce) jar Smucker’s Seedless Red Raspberry Jam (I only used maybe 1/2 cup to fill the cupcakes)
• Frosting:
• 2 cups butter or margarine, at room temperature
• 7 1/2 cups powdered sugar, (2 pounds)
• 1 cup Smucker’s Red Raspberry Fruit Syrup (I could not find this, so I used this recipe to make my own)
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla
• Fresh raspberries (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray three 9-inch round cake pans generously with no-stick spray with flour.

Mix cake flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda; set aside. Beat softened butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on high speed until fluffy. Beat in flour mixture, milk, vanilla and eggs on medium speed until blended, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat 2 minutes longer. Spread batter evenly into prepared pans.

Bake 19 to 23 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire rack. Cool completely.

Beat room temperature butter and vanilla in mixer bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar and syrup; blend until well combined. Place 1/2 cup frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a #4 tip for piping.

I used a traditional buttercream to complete my cake, but these are the directions to complete the raspberry-laced vanilla cake.Level cake layers as necessary. Cut each cake horizontally to make two layers by marking the side of cake with toothpicks and cutting with a long, thin serrated knife. Place 1 layer cut side up, on serving plate; spread with 1/3 of raspberry jam to within 1/4 inch of edge. Top with other half of layer, cut side down. Spread with raspberry cream frosting. Repeat with remaining layers. Frost the sides and top of cake. Pipe remaining frosting on top of cake in a lattice pattern. Refrigerate cake to set frosting. Allow cake to stand at room temperature 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with raspberries.

To make the cupcakes: Bake for 10-12 minutes. When cool, use the cone method to fill with raspberry jam. Frost with raspberry cream and top with a fresh raspberry.

Yay! I completed course 2! Originally I wasn’t sure if  was going to take this class. I didn’t really see myself making a lot of cakes with flowers, and I am kind of anxious to start the fondant class. But in the end I decided to give it a try, and I am really glad I did! I feel like I learned a lot about working with royal icing, and I love how all of flowers came out! I also learned a couple of new borders and other decorating techniques.

Tonight’s class was all about the final cake. I started off by learning a rope border, then how to make a basket-weave design. Then I took all of the flowers I had made throughout the course and piled them on to the cake, along with the colorflow birds.

Next up is Wilton Course 3, fondant and tiered cakes! I am really looking forward to working with fondant and continuing to build on what I have already learned.

This months Tasty Tools is all about the scoop. What to make with a scoop? I have 3 different size scoops, all perfect for there own little jobs, so my options were pretty much endless. I ended up choosing this recipe for snickerdoodles for a couple of reasons. Number one, I love snickerdoodles. These classic cinnamon-sugar cookies are delicious, and it’s fun to say “snickerdoodle.” Reason number two, there was a recipe for them in my new Sweet Melissa Baking Book, by Melissa Murphy, that I have been dying to use.

Snickerdoodles

• For the Dough:
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tarter
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• For the Cinnamon Sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup sugar

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the eggs and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until combined. The dough will be soft and too sticky to roll. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

Position a rack in the top and bottom thirds of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

For the cinnamon sugar: Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.

Using a 1-ounce cookie scoop, or a tablespoon, shape the dough into balls and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar.

Place the cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Flatten them slightly with your fingertips so that they stay put. Bake for about 12 to 13 minutes, or until the bottoms are slightly golden in color. These cookies are supposed to be chewy, so do not overbake. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Snickerdoodles keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. For longer storage, freeze well wrapped in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil for up to 3 weeks. Do not uncover before defrosting.

Makes 3 dozen cookies. I used my Pampered Chef medium scoop (2 tablespoons) and got about 20 cookies.

I had been eyeing The Sweet Melissa Baking Book in Borders since it came out, but wasn’t really up on spending nearly $30 on it. So after dropping some serious hints for Nate, he ordered it off of amazon.com for me.

I won’t lie, the first thing that attracted me to this book was the name. I’m Melissa, she’s Melissa and it’s the Sweet Melissa Baking Book, perfect, right? But once I flipped through a couple pages of this book, I knew it was a winner. Melissa Murphy is the owner of the well-known Sweet Melissa Patisserie in Brooklyn. Well I may never make it to New York to visit in person, this book makes you feel like you can create her famous bakery goodies at home.

I already have several recipes bookmarked, including Snickerdoodles, Bee Stings and Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake. The only think i don’t like about this book is that their are not very many pictures. I have gotten so used to using the internet for recipes and reading blogs, that I almost feel like I can’t make a recipe without a picture of the final product!

I highly recommend this baking book to anybody who enjoys baking, whether you are beginning baker or an old pro, this book has something for everyone.

Flowers, flowers and more flowers! This class continued on with making flowers out of royal icing. 

We started out with the Victorian rose. Now if you read my post about the roses in course 1, you know that I was less than thrilled to be re-visiting this little gem. But this is the Victorian rose, which means it is made with a different tip! These beautiful roses were made with tip 97. I also think the consistency of the royal icing makes these easier to create. I was thrilled with how these came out.

Next we made daisies. These were probably the easiest flower of the night, and they are so cute! I can totally see myself making a cake covered with different colored daisies in the near future.

We went from the easiest flower to the most difficult, the daffodil. I love daffodils out in the real world, but in Wilton world, they are the devil. What makes these flowers so difficult is creating the little points on the petals. I think they have the potential to be very cute, but with so many other flowers I can make, I don’t see myself bothering with these again.

The next flowers we created were pansies. I love the look of the contrasting yellow and purple in these flowers. In person they really do look purple, not blue.

The last flower I learned was the primrose. These took a little practice to get the petal shape correct and making the last petal even with the first petal, but overall not a very hard flower and very pretty.

We had some extra time at the end of class and I had some extra icing so I made my chrysanthemums for the final cake. I had practiced these in class 1 with buttercream icing, but had not gotten around to making them with royal icing.

I love how all of my flowers are coming out and I am looking forward to putting them all together for the final cake.

Next class: The end of course 2, which means the final cake. The cake I will be making is an oval cake and I will add a basketweave border during class, then top with the final flowers.

Supplies needed: None. I just need to decide what kind of cake I will be making! I also need to make my second set of color flow birds, since the first set met an untimely demise.

I made this cake for my best friends Birthday! She wanted a chocolate cake with raspberry filling in any design I wanted to make. I chose the drop flower cake because I have been wanting to make it since I saw it in the Wilton Course 1 book. It is also a relatively easy cake to make, which is good because I was very busy that day, and looks very pretty! The recipe for the chocolate cake can be found here, and the raspberry filling here.

I made this cake for a co-workers daughter. She wanted a spongebob cake, but did not want the big one made with the spongebob pan since it would just be for family. I was not sure how I was going to decorate this cake, but then I saw the spongebob candle at Micheals and decided to base the cake of that. My co-worker really liked the Easter Candy Cake that I brought in last month, so I made the same Hershey’s chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting.

On The Barefoot Contessa the other day, Ina Garten did a show on classic Contessa recipes. This chicken was one of them. I love the combination of crunchy pecans and walnuts, mixed with the sweet grapes and pieces of moist, flavorful chicken. Speaking of the chicken, normally I poach chicken breasts for chicken salad, never again. Roasting the bone-in breasts made them so moist the flavor was so much better than poaching.

Next time I make this I will probably decrease the tarragon, I thought it was a little strong. Also, I think the salt measurement is a mis-print, the recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of kosher salt, I only used 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and it was still a bit salty. I served this chicken salad in a whole wheat pita with iceburg lettuce. I made some other small changes, noted below.

Chicken Salad Contessa

• 2 split (1 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on (1 1/2 pounds)
• Good olive oil
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 
• 1/2 cup pecan halves
• 1/2 cup walnuts halves
• 1/2 cup good mayonnaise (I used light)
• 1/2 cup sour cream (I used light)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves, divided ( will use less next time)
• 1 cup green grapes, cut in 1/2 (I used 1/2 green and 1/2 red seedless grapes)
• Lettuce leaves, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts, skin side up, on a baking sheet and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Set aside until cool.

When the chicken is cool, remove meat from the bones and discard the skin and bones. Cut the chicken into a 3/4-inch dice.

Meanwhile, place the pecans and walnuts on a separate sheet pan and toast in the oven for 7 to 8 minutes until golden. Set aside to cool. I will skip this step next time, and probably just use walnuts.

For the dressing, mix together the mayonnaise, sour cream, 2 teaspoons salt (start with 1/2 teaspoon and use your judgement, 2 teaspoons is way to much) and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Fold in half the chopped tarragon leaves.

Place the diced chicken in a bowl, add the pecans, walnuts and grapes. Pour the dressing over the chicken and toss well. Sprinkle the remaining chopped tarragon leaves on top, and serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.

When the mood to bake struck me the other day, I wandered over to Blonde Ambition in the Kitchen knowing she would have something yummy for me to make. I was looking for something caramely when I found these bars, originally from Pillsbury.

I only made 1/2 of a batch and it is a good thing! These hit the spot with their rich buttery crust, gooey caramel center and just the right amount of chocolate.

Oatmeal Carmelitas

• Crust:
• 2 cups Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose or Unbleached Flour (I used King Arthur)
• 2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups margarine or butter, softened (Butter)
• 1 (12.5-oz.) jar (1 cup) caramel ice cream topping
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose or Unbleached Flour
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (I did not use)

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13×9-inch pan.
Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. In large bowl, combine all crust ingredients; mix at low speed until crumbly. Reserve half of crumb mixture (about 3 cups) for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture in bottom of greased pan. Bake for 10 minutes or until light brown. I made 1/2 recipe and baked in an 8×8 pan, baking time stayed the same in this step.
Meanwhile, in small bowl, combine caramel topping and 3 tablespoons flour; blend well.
Remove partially baked crust from oven; sprinkle with chocolate chips and nuts.
Drizzle evenly with caramel mixture; sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Return to oven; bake an additional 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. I baked for about 15 minutes in this step.
Cool 1 hour or until completely cooled. Refrigerate 1 to 2 hours or until filling is set. Cut into bars.

This class was about decorating with colorflow and making the apple blossom, violet leaf and violet from royal icing. I have to be honest, colorflow is kind of a pain and I don’t see myself using it again. My understanding is that colorflow used to be widely used before fondant became popular. Colorflow is very similar to royal icing, except that, according to Wilton, whatever you are making will not be as shiny or as strong. Luckily the only colorflow we will be doing in this class was the two birds for the final cake. The two flowers we made are the smaller flowers for the cake.

The apple blossoms are fairly easy to make, it is just a matter of angling your tip to get the correct petal shape.

I love the vibrant color of the violets, unfortunately the come across with more of a blue color than purple here, but they really are pretty! I didn’t save the violet leaf I created since it is not needed for the final cake.

I will post a picture of color flow birds when I make another set. When I got home from class I put them on top our gas stove until I could put them away. Let’s just say Nate wasn’t paying attention to which burner he was turning on and we are very luck to still have a house!

Next class: Roses, primroses, daisies, daffodils and pansies all made with royal icing.

Supplies needed: No new supplies needed, except for I am almost out of meringue powder, so I will use the 50% off coupon from this weeks paper to buy some more at Micheals.