Fancy Naked Truffle Cake with Raspberry Icing

As I’ve mentioned about a million times, I do my best to bake something special for all of the birthdays at my office. This month, we had a particularly special birthday – the [total foodie] co-owner’s 50th – and I really wanted to try to hit one out of the park for her big day!…

Floral Buttercream Birthday Cake with Chocolate and Whiskey Tiers

Omigosh you guys, it has been a whirlwind month! Over Memorial Day weekend we headed for Des Moines to throw my husband’s grandmother a surprise birthday party (and his cousin a Bridal Shower.) No birthday is complete without cake, but everyone was worried about spoiling the surprise, so we made the cake in Minneapolis, loaded…

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

You’d be hard pressed to find a bad chocolate cupcake. Well, unless of course you’re talking about vegan cupcakes. Even those styrofoam Hostess ones are somewhat palatable, but vegan cupcakes taste like sawdust! 😉 …. just kidding, of course! I made these for a neighborhood dessert potluck, and was faced with a dilemma – they’re…

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting

So, you may remember that last year I crowned my Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Frosting, like,  the queens of fall. The end-all be-all of autumn related cupcakes. The autumnest of the autumn. The epitome of fall in a paper wrapper. Well, as it turns out, I was wrong. I know. How…

Devil’s Food Cake with Amaretto Frosting

One of my husband’s close friends is part of a technology start-up, so he’s constantly traveling for work. As you might imagine, that means that staying in touch can sometimes get tough. Oh, AND his Instagram never fails to be full of infuriatingly exotic locales, so I’m always wayyy too envious of him. 😉 On…

Chai Tea Latte Cupcakes

We had another office birthday last week, and I had a strong urge to bake cupcakes, as I hadn’t really made any since Halloween! (What is this world coming to?) I didn’t have any specific requests from the birthday girl, so I figured I’d hit Pinterest and look for inspiration. Just a few scrolls in…

Chocolate Turtle Cake

My husband’s birthday was last week, and as I’ve mentioned before, he’s not much of a cake guy. I’d put him firmly on Team Pie or Team Cheesecake. This year though, he surprised me by repeatedly asking me what kind of cake I was going to make for his birthday, and each time I would…

Cheesecake Filled Chocolate Birthday Cake

My mum and brother share a birthday, but every year I make two cakes for the occasion to acknowledge that it really IS two separate occasions. My brother requested ice cream cake again this year, so a little like last year, I decided to bake a regular cake-cake for my mum, but with a bit…

Homemade Carvel Cookie Puss

If you’ve been following Mayhem in the Kitchen! for awhile, you might remember that my mum and brother have the same birthday. As a result, every year I find myself trying to bake two extravagant cakes to make sure that neither one of them ends up with Christmas-Birthday syndrome. Like last year, my brother requested…

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon-Brown Sugar Icing

You guys. It’s the second most wonderful time of the year! PUMPKIN SPICE SEASON Last year I bought the Costco pack of organic pumpkin puree, and based on how September has gone thus far, I’m going to need to stock up again this year. I know a lot of folks think this whole pumpkin spice…

90th Birthday Cake

This afternoon we had the joyous privilege of celebrating my grandmother’s 90th birthday! We gathered at her house for lunch and, of course, cake. 😉 I was lucky enough to bake for the occasion – I made an old fashioned yellow cake with almond icing, and, for one layer, an orange marmalade filling. Inspired by…

Low Carb Vanilla Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Last week I was invited to a surprise party for a very close friend. His girlfriend wasn’t able to bake for the occasion without blowing her cover, so I volunteered to make my first foray into keto-friendly (low carb, LCHF) baking. Prior to making these cupcakes I did some extensive research on flour replacements and…

Whiskey Caramel Truffle Cake

When it comes to baking for occasions, birthdays are my favorite. I love trying to think of a dessert that really suits the person. This time around, I was baking for a wonderful friend of mine. She’s not too picky, but I knew that she isn’t a fan of the copious amounts of frosting I…

Vegan Wedding Cupcakes

This is a historic weekend for Minneapolis – Thursday, August 1st was the first day same sex marriage was legal in our state (and in commemoration, starting at midnight, our Mayor performed 46  wedding ceremonies in 6 hours!)  It’s amazing to me that just two years ago, we were fighting tooth and nail to be…