IT'S YOUR FACE

So there's a bit of baked-good-backlog.

Cardamom fennel mini cupcakes, mango buttercream, candied fennel.

Recipe by Roopa at Raspberry Eggplant, Oct. 2007.

I brought these to a garden party hosted by the owners of Dozen Bakeshop, for whom I currently work (selling, not baking). To the anonymous dining room voice who complimented their "fake vanilla flavor" while I was refilling in the next room: 1, you might attend to your corrupted palate, as there was a whopping quarter-teaspoon of vanilla in a batter that produced 46 cakes; 2, I use the good shit, not the watery imitation. So cool it.

 Incredible meyer lemon sticky rolls, prior to frosting with cream cheese glaze. Adapted from blog-favorite the kitchn.

 Sour cream chocolate cake, cream cheese buttercream (Italian), coconut. Adapted from various recipes within Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cake.

 Triple chocolate tart.

 Adapted from Gourmet, Sept. 2008.

This was bananas. The crust base is Newman's chocolate letter cookies, then a truffle-like bittersweet filling and a thin, shiny glaze. I added just a pinch of cayenne to the filling, subbed Frangelico for water in the glaze, topped with some Aguni salt I bought way back when at the South Bend farmers market, and paired with fresh almond-scented whipped cream and raspberries.

Baking in the summer months in an un-air-conditioned kitchen with sealed windows: never easy. Sometimes people misinterpret my working in a bakery as access to better facilities, but this modest laboratory is actually where the magic happens -- meet our kitchen:

Counter. Note the indispensable lamp. Canisters and framed chart of world revolutions thrifted in Fairfax and Wintergreen, Virginia, respectively.

Brave little stove. Cast iron skillet, Le Creuset dutch oven. Above fridge: food processor, many cupcake molds, and my beloved cake spaceship -- you think it's crazy to spend $30 on cake transportation, until you're trying to stabilize two dozen birthday cupcakes on the bus.

And finally, my baby, the red stand mixer. A most cherished gift. 

And I'm just realizing you can see me in it, weird.

So concludes the tour. It's not much, but it works.

IF THEY WERE ME AND I WAS YOU

Cardamom saffron cake, alphonso mango buttercream, candied fennel.
Recipe by Roopa at Raspberry Eggplant, Nov. 2007.

Plum frangipane tart.
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, Feb. 2008.

Earl grey cake, kumquat marmalade (between layers), almond meringue buttercream.
Recipe by Roopa at Raspberry Eggplant, Jan. 2008.

Chocolate, toffee, bacon. Bourbon meringue buttercream.
Cake adapted from Chockylit at Cupcake Bakeshop, Oct. 2009; frosting modified from Roopa's plain swiss meringue buttercream.

Notes:
I guess I think of baking a birthday cake as fulfilling a particular wish. The bacon cupcakes were for a woman in the department. Loved the addition of bourbon to the swiss meringue. Split a dozen between bacon (the birthday wish) and vegetarian (only toffee); the cupcakes were a bit dry for my taste but novel enough.

I'd been wanting to revisit Roopa's earl grey cake since first making it for Raechel, and this was for my girl Caroline's 20th. Only after purchasing ingredients for a key lime ginger cake did I receive her text preferring the tea flavor profile, haha. No worries -- I love this cake above all others.

That said, the mango buttercream is the silkiest, easiest-with-which-to-work buttercream frosting I've ever made. Ever. I didn't actually have a slice of this one (lost my appetite after a string of decorating/travel-related stumbles, but I think despite 90+ degrees the Indian-inspired paisley turned out okay) but it tasted (and smelled) pretty good in process.

Met a handful of undergrads at Caroline's party who invited us to dinner later in the week. Since one is originally from Paris, I wanted to make frangipane, subbing summer red plums for poached pears. They made a fabulous dinner: feta-stuffed eggplant rolls, caramelized brussel sprouts, herb-marinated grilled lamb ribs. I overworked and burned the crust, but hypnotized everyone from noticing with glazed plum spirals.

I'm feeling the solstice. Suddenly, all this time to bake. Climate troubs: frosting requires constant chilling, layers benefit significantly from flash-freezing (see Deb's super helpful tips here) -- but I love seeing how bringing dessert lights up the room, or backyard. Candle notwithstanding.