TWD: Allspice Crumb Muffins

It's Tuesday. It's cold, wet, rainy and windy today. Unlike yesterday which was clear, warm and dry. Typical Northern California weather...we went from summer to winter in one day. The poor trees are always so confused...do we turn colors or just skip that and fall straight to the ground? It's the same every year, but every year we act like we've never experienced it before! Roads are flooded and trees are falling...I think I'll stay inside and bake the day away.

This week's TWD selection was chosen by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table.
The fall smelling and tasting Allspice Crumb Muffins can be found on pages 16 and 17 of Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Not much playing around with this recipe except to substitute buttermilk for the whole milk and adding a few raspberries to half the muffins.

My kids will love these for breakfast!

Don't forget to check out what the others have baked up over here.

Thanks for stopping by.

See...I have been busy :)

I had a few orders and made some cakes:

Some friends of mine had a small church ceremony for family prior to taking off to Cabo San Lucas for their wedding celebration. They had a little lunch reception at a restaurant here in Roseville and I made their wedding cake.

Bottom tier is a 2 layer 10" vanilla buttermilk cake with fresh strawberry filling and vanilla SMBC. Top tier is a 2 layer 8" vanilla buttermilk cake with fresh lemon curd filling. Same frosting. Brown ribbon and scrolling topped it off. The top is a little wonky but not bad for my first wedding cake!

I made a birthday cake for an 8 year old boy born on the Fourth of July!!

10" chocolate cake with strawberry filling on the bottom and 6" vanilla cake with strawberry filling on the top. All iced with vanilla SMBC. Fondant stars.

A first birthday cake for Addi:


10" vanilla cake with fresh strawberries and vanilla SMBC. Addi's mom asked for a pink, black and green color theme....and Addi got her own little smash cake on the top. The ladybug is vanilla cake as well. All fondant accessories and all edible except for the antennae.

I love the ladybug trail.


(Pictures of this cake were taken with my point and shoot camera....my apologies for the quality :) )

A Princess cake for Ella's 4th birthday:

I didn't really know what I was doing here and thanks to all the inspiring princess cakes over at cake central.

The towers are rice crispie treats covered with homemade MMF. Next time I would let the treats sit out a little longer to harden. They were very soft and kind of wobbly...the kids loved them sliced up though!

And finally....a baby shower cake:

I was given a link to the bedding the mom had picked out and a cake flavor and that was it! The decorating was totally up to me. I think I do better with specifics...I looked at too many green and brown cakes and couldn't narrow it down!!

This is a 10" 2 layer spice cake (yay for spice!) with cream cheese frosting on the bottom. The top layer is 1/2 spice and 1/2 chocolate with cream cheese frosting. Homemade MMF decorations. The mom-to-be was happy with her cake and I think it matched the bedding perfectly.

Anyone have any tips for smooth icing a cake? I'm up for anything.

Ok...I'm gearing up for next week...4 dozen chocolate and vanilla cupcakes for a wedding rehearsal dinner and a 16th birthday cake! Wish me luck :)

Thanks for stopping by.

TWD: Chocolate Un-Crunched Caramel Tart

Now known as: GOOD LORD, SOMEONE TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME IMMEDIATELY!

This week's super spectacular yum-yum was chosen by Carla at Chocolate Moosey.

Really, no words are needed....

I could have eaten the whole thing myself. Luckily my friend Michele (of the lemon, persimmon and fig trees that I so often take from) was having a birthday last week so I was able to off load half of the tart to her. Two pieces to another friend with a birthday...and then I ate the rest!

The only change I made was to leave the nuts out so my tart was un-crunched and super smooth.

I will definitely be making this again, and again, and again. I need to get myself some tiny tart pans....that would be awesome!

Don't forget to stop by here to check out the other bakers.

Thanks for stopping by.