Celebrating Mercy - Citrus Pound Cake with Lemon Buttercream

My youngest sister passed away many years ago. My family still gets together on her birthday to remember and celebrate her. This year I couldn't think of a better way to remember Mercy than to sit in my kitchen, cry a little, and make a cake that made me think of my sister. She loved bright colors, and she would have loved this cake.

I brought the cake to dinner with my family. Now, the design was something I wanted to do to spend time remembering Mercy, the flavor and frosting were another battle.

I grew up in a family full of food allergies. I think it started there, but turned into preference... and we ended up not being a "cake" family. When I sat down to decide on a type of cake, I couldn't even figure out what kind of cakes my family members like. They like rice krispy treats, brownies and ice cream and not cake... which I think is a shame. So I decided on an orange pound cake with my lemon buttercream frosting. I've been trying various lemon-y pound cake recipes, and this one was full of punch, and was good, but won't take the cake for my Lemon Pound Cake "go-to" recipe. The cake alone has so much flavor that if I use it again, I might pair it with a meringue frosting, a regular buttercream, or even leave it plain.

I love how Mercy's cake turned out-- and I might have even helped push my family into being more of a cake family.

One weekend, 5 cakes. Oh no.

A friend ordered a cake from me and I was really excited to bring in a new order and for more exposure for my cakes, but he needed it for a weekend when I was already making four cakes, of course. The other four were small, three for a cake tasting and one for my little sister's birthday- but 5 cakes in one weekend is still a feat. It was a challenge and I (and my kitchen) survived. Here is a picture of the last remains of Charles' cake. I'm bummed I didn't get a full picture, but it looked just like the last Tres Leches I did, pictured at the top of the blog.

I was most excited by the compliment Charles paid me when he ordered the cake. His direct quote was, (while eating my Tres Leches cake at a party) "I don't even like cake, and I like this cake. THIS cake, I want THIS cake for April 10th, can you do that?" It was a wonderful compliment. If I can make someone like cake who normally doesn't, that's very fun.

Pictured below are peices of two of the cakes I did for a cake tasting. We already chose the cake flavor, so the tasting was really about frosting. Each small cake was a red velvet filled with cream cheese frosting and raspberry. The frostings were meringue, buttercream, and swiss meringue buttercream. She chose my swiss meringue buttercream, an original recipe. I agree that it paired the best. Come June they will have a phenomenal wedding cake!

Textured Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Sandra's Birthday

A little cake for my little friend. Doubled everything "lemon" in the pound cake and it STILL tasted like a regular pound cake. Not bad, a good pound cake, but I'll keep looking for a LEMON pound cake recipe that I can rely on.

The frosting on the other hand, was heaven. It was like little clouds of angelic lemonly goodness. AND... it is one of the first recipes I created! I am slowly building up my repertoire of original recipes. Very proud of my lemony goodness birthday cake.

Joe and Amy's Engagement Party

For Joe and Amy's Engagement Party, I planned way too many desserts to make all in one afternoon, and Esther bailed me out completely! She took on these Red Velvet delights (credit for the recipe goes to one of my favorite new baking blogs: http://lickthebowlgood.blogspot.com/2010/02/red-velvet-love-for-you.html.) Esther did awesome, they came out incredibly well, and Amy got her Red Velvet while Joe got his Tres Leches (below).

This beauty (also pictured as the main picture on blog) was my first try at Tres Leches cake and it turned out GREAT thanks to http://www.scribd.com/doc/41585994/Recipes-from-My-Sweet-Mexico-by-Fany-Gerson for the recipe. I skipped the traditional whipped cream frosting, and frosted and filled in with swiss meringue buttercream. I thought the buttery taste paired really well with the sweetness of the cake. Apparently other people did too- I got an order for another one of these cakes during the party. It is a pain to make, but well worth it. I also doubled the recipe and stacked four torted layers instead of two. It's harder to make this way, but I love the look of the height and it worked really well with the swiss meringue buttercream.

The last dessert were these pound cake cupcakes. Lemon pound cake frosted in lemon buttercream. I've been playing around with a few different lemon pound cake recipes to find an "old faithful". Not sure I've found it yet, but they turned out well. If you have a good lemon poundcake recipe, post it in the comments section.

They call the baby "Peanut"

So I thought there HAD to be elephants on her baby shower cake. :) I'm so happy with how it turned out. Bethany came to give me moral support and ended up making the leaves, which I still think turned out being the best part of this cake.

Jess requested yellow cake. Admittedly, I've always thought yellow cake was boring but I will happily eat my words (and yellow cake) and discovering this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Davids-Yellow-Cake/Detail.aspx

I filled this cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream and frosted in Buttercream. I have wanted to try a new swiss meringue recipe for a while, and it worked really well combined with the sweetness of the regular buttercream. Obviously the elephants and leaves are fondant layered onto the buttercream.

The best part of this cake was of course that Jess loved it. They now call their little "peanut" Henry James. Congratulations to Jessica and Aaron!!

Amy's Flapper Birthday Cake

Amy turned an age that I won't reveal and planned a big birthday bash that was flapper themed. I excitedly emailed her fiancee to plan the cake. Pictured are a few phases of this two tiered square flapper themed cake. Her favorite is red velvet, so this cake was red velvet with cream cheese filling, a thin layer of raspberry filling, frosted in buttercream. I tried to frost entirely in cream cheese frosting but it wouldn't set well enough to decorate. The cake turned out great, and it was so fun to make.