I’m at that weird point during the year where I’m posting Mardi Gras stuff and every other bakery on the planet is shoving hearts and chocolates down my throat. Since Mardi Gras is basically canceled this year (even though I am faithfully listening to my New Orleans jazz radio station like it’s going out of style), I guess I’m at the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” stage.
The Man Candy has been calling this weekend a powerhouse weekend: Chinese New Year was on Friday (we ate dim sum on the edge of Chinatown and thought we were going to die. But really it was just fireworks, NOT cannon fire like I originally thought they were),
Valentine’s Day (here’s the card I gave to my Man Candy),
Presidents Day on Monday (he’s going skiing, and I elected to stay here and keep all of my teeth and ensure that none of my limbs get broken),
and Mardi Gras on Tuesday (I was going to go all out in costume at work that day but then someone told me that staff photo day is that day so I guess I should dial back the gold lamé pants and feather headdress idea).
Maybe next year.
Ok so I kinda lied about the gift I gave him for Valentine’s Day. I didn’t give him that card. In fact, I made him a cake (I know, we’re all shocked!) in the shape of a heart. It was very easy to do, so I want to share how to make the shape of this cake for my tip of the week.
Start by baking a square cake and a circle cake. Place the square cake on your board and position it so there is a point facing the top, bottom, and sides of the board (basically in a diamond).
Cut the circle cake in half, and place the two semi-circles around the top two flat sides of the square to make the rounded parts of the heart.
I didn’t bake for this cake, but instead used leftover cake scraps that I kept in the freezer from a previous baking adventure. I actually did happen to have both a chocolate square cake and a chocolate circle cake waiting for me! My cake sizes didn’t quite line up, so I positioned the semi-circles around the square and trimmed them down to make the shape line up nicely. You’ll see it better in the video, but feel free to ask questions about this step.
Also I’ve been making tons of macarons lately which means that I had many, MANY egg yolks leftover and hanging out in my refrigerator so I chose to make a French buttercream and dye it a few Valentines-y colors.
I've been super into sprinkles lately, so I used two different sprinkle blends from Sprinkle Pop to give this cake some extra flair. I feel like sprinkles can truly turn my day around, so I use them often.
Of course, since I’m trying to get more comfortable on camera, I filmed the whole thing and even came back to give my cake a little shimmy. Enjoy!
I hope you have an excellent powerhouse holiday weekend!
And if you don't, here's something else that you can look forward to:
Happy eating, y’all!
If you tried this dessert, or any other desserts in my blog, please share my Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram posts about them and let people know what you think! Mahalo!
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