Over Easter break I discovered the fantastic blog of Rosie Alyea, author of Sweetapolita. Before ordering the book, Justin and I attempted the scrumptious Meringue Dream Cake – a cake that combines yummy meringues with a delicious dark chocolate cake. Aside from the rabbit, the cake was the highlight of our lunch that day!
When I received Sweetapolita last Friday, as with all cook books, I had to find the perfect recipe to make that night. Justin was tired from work, so if I wanted to make something, it had to be me doing it (for the most part, that is). While meringues, sprinkles, and milkshakes took the cake (haha) for being the easiest and requiring the fewest ingredients, I ended up settling on the Buttermilk Cake. With a total of eight ingredients and confectioner sugar topping, I assumed this would be one of the best (read: easiest) recipes for me to begin with without the need for grocery shopping. When going to the grocery stores takes a minimum of 20 minutes, at 7PM at night after a long day of work, you avoid getting back in the car even if it means cutting the recipe in half – which is exactly what we did. Using Justin's brain power (I trust his more than my own.), I basically managed to throw the recipe together in about 30 minutes. We then threw (yes, threw!) the cake in the oven for approximately 30 minutes (rather than the 20-22 minutes suggested) while we ate dinner. Given my baking skills and Justin's tiredness, the cake came out far from perfect. The center wasn't all the way done (we did one cake pan rather than the suggested 2 since we had cut the cake recipe in half to begin with), but the cake was fantastic when served with ice cream!
After messing up the Buttermilk Cake recipe and still getting good results, we moved to something a bit more difficult – the Pastel Vanilla Birthday Cake – feeling the desire to give the book another shot at glory. After having spent a month making delicious sweets beginning with the book Cookie Love, as well as making the Meringue Dream Cake, and the Buttermilk Cake, it was time for us to go shopping and stock up on baking ingredients. We spent $40 at the store on flour, milk, eggs, sugar, baking powder, etc, etc… It was quite the investment, but then again so was the cake we were about to make. It took us between one and two hours to put this confectionary dream together, but we did it! One step at a time… We began at 4PM and did not finish until 8PM with dinner included. The cake ended up being light and fluffy with a similar consistency to that of Angel Food Cake. And the icing? The icing was a kid's dream! Tons of sugar! None of the people who ate the cake with us (all adults) could finish simply because it was soooo sweet! (In the future, I would make the cake with a less sweet icing, but that's just my opinion.) The inside layers of the cake included an eggless sugar cookie dough which was a fun touch! My step-grandmother was so thrilled that she immediately began writing down the 4 page recipe! In fact, she wanted me to include in this review that this recipe is her very favorite cake recipe that she has ever had in her (more than) 70 years of living! (Quite an accomplishment!)
While I have really only shared about the experience in making Sweeapolita cakes, the book actually offers tons of other recipes that I can't wait to try in the future! The sweets are all very colorful and fun, and the author provides tons of information for getting the recipes just right. Justin loved that she used weight measurements in her recipes saying that this little detail made it far easier to get the recipe just right. He did comment that you need to read the recipe in full before attempting it though. Sometimes the recipes contain unexpected surprises (cookie dough in the icing?) and sometimes the pictures aren't accurate to what the authoress indicates in her recipe.
Just so that you can get an idea of what else to expect in the book, let me list off a few of my must-bake recipes for the future:
• Coney Island Cheesecake (NYC peeps: Is this really a thing? It looks delicious!)
• Edible Chalk and Chalkboards (Fun idea for kids!)
• Pink Candied Carnival Popcorn
and
• Campfire Deluxe Cake
FYI: Best Friends For Frosting shared the Pastel Vanilla Birthday Cake recipe if you want to check it out. :)
Have you seen this book or read Rosie Alyea's blog?
Now for the fun part.
I have some spatulas, measuring cups, and a $5 Amazon gift card to give away! Want a chance to win? Share something food or baking related with me. It can be absolutely anything – a story of cooking with your children, a favorite recipe, a baking or cooking tip, or anything else you can think of! Then enter the rafflecopter below. You will have two weeks to enter and you can enter as many times as you want! There will be 7 winners in all with one winner receiving the Amazon gift card. Good luck!
* Participate in the A-Z blogging challenge with me! You know you want to! :)
** I received this book for free in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
*** Giveaway is sponsored by me and not Rosie Alyea, Swwetapolita, the publisher, or anyone else.
