Pink flower cake

I had a girl's night this weekend so I decided to make a very girly cake. I also wanted to try an easy cake recipe. I do not have a 'go to' vanilla cake recipe so I tried this one: http://www.easyliving.co.uk/recipes/desserts-cakes/simple-vanilla-cake which didn't have any strange ingredients and was one of those awesome time saving recipes where you just put everything in the bowl and mix. Very few steps are nice when you bake late at night like I have found myself doing lately.

I also wanted to try some different frostings because I always jump to cream cheese frosting or chocolate frosting so I tried this Chai Frosting recipe: http://premeditatedleftovers.com/chai-spiced-frosting/

I liked the cake but I did not love it. I would make the frosting again but put a little less cinnamon because it tasted a little too much like Big Red gum, which I am NOT a fan of. As for the cake, when it was baking it smelled so buttery and wonderful but the taste of the cake was lacking something. I think I will make that again too but alter some things. If I make these changes and it turns out good, I will definitely post them :)

But decorating this cake was fun. I could not find my bigger flower tip so I used a smaller one. It was the number 16 tip. I decorated it very similarly to a previous cake I did which you can read how here: http://baketimenomnom.blogspot.se/2011/03/pretty-vanilla-lemon-rose-cake.html

Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes (and delicious)

I have not been able to control my chocolate cravings the last 3 days so I decided to google 'low calorie chocolate cake' so maybe I could indulge without all the calories. Luckily I found this baby!: http://www.yammiesnoshery.com/2011/10/secretly-healthy-chocolate-peanut.html

Only 220 calories a cupcakes, WITH FROSTING. Which did I mention is chocolate peanut butter????!!!! What could be better? So if you are craving something sweet, chocolatey, and could get away with being healthy, check out this recipe.

Super Easy Cheesy Mac n cheese!

Everyone needs some good ol' Mac n cheese now and then. Since it is my all time favorite food, I would prefer to have in ALL THE TIME. Unfortunately, if I did that, I would be the size of an elephant. But now and then it's okay to splurge, and tonight was mac n cheese night. I stumbled upon this recipe and HAD to try it and I will definitely use it again!

Recipe here:

http://www.macaroniandcheesecake.com/2011/09/revolutionary-mac-cheese.html

I used white cheese because over here in Sweden, there is no cheddar cheese. I also used nutmeg and left out the cayenne. I would not change anything!

Halloween Cakes!

Halloween in Sweden is very uneventful for an American. They celebrate Allhelgonadagen where they visit the graves of their loved ones. Some children dress up and go trick or treating down town. But it really does not feel like Halloween.

Halloween cakes

I have to say I have been extra down this week because the Giants won the world series (which made me very happy) but I really wish I could have been in San Francisco celebrating. Needless to say I am home sick for California. Then this Halloween came and there was nothing to do so I stayed home and watched 30 Days of Night all by myself.

Pumpkin spiderweb cake

To make myself feel a little better I baked some Halloween treats. I baked some pumpkin cookies and brought them to my SFI (Swedish for immigrants) class and also a Halloween cake.

Frankenstein Cake 

The cake is lemon sour cream cake with vanilla butter cream frosting and lemon butter cream filling. The cake was a little dense for my taste, but it made it easy to work with in the decorating process.

I hope you all had a nice Halloween, or whatever holiday you may celebrate this time of month!