A Fall Romance

The truth is out.
I am in love......

                                                    With Fall.


Trips to the apple orchard.
Cuddling by a fire.
Little Twinkly Orange Lights.
Crispy Air.
Jumping in the leaves.
Little bags of candy pumpkins
That tingly feeling in the air that is cold..and warm at the same time.
The excuse to wear a costume and be your own superhero.

The treasured beauty that will soon be covered by a blanket of snow and ice.

Because I am in love.. I would like  to re-invent the "feel of fall" in every delicious delight I bake.

Like my chocolate cherry red velvet leaf cupcakes ♥

Last Saturday, fall romance was definitely in the air. My Orange Dreamsicle Cake Pops Sparkled at Mollie & Sean's Wedding. ♥

Don't they remind you of orange twinkly lights on the porch on an October evening?

                                                         ♥

Last Thursday it was Donna and Bill's Fall Anniversary.
So I invited them to join me at an apple orchard party .. complete with handmade banners on top of a cake.

See the original blog about it here.
The inside of the cake looked like this!

Cake & Apple Pie. Spice Cake. Repeat. Cake & Apple Pie!

And after popular demand..I decided to turn this wonderful blog into a tutorial about how I made such an edible delight.

First of all..

I tend to make a mess when I bake.

Look at how much frosting (or is it cake batter?) I got in my hair.

This happens every time.
But in my kitchen, when the frosting or batter goes flying, it just means I am completely inspired and having a great time!

This photo was the perfect inspiration for the flavor of the cake.

Caramel, Apples.

                
The cake itself was vanilla, spice, and apple pie.
With a salted caramel frosting.
There's a recipe for quick & easy salted caramel frosting that you can make at home below. ♥

I needed about 6 cups of apples per pie.

So the first thing I did..was peel a lot of apples.

12 cups of apples to be exact.

I had to make two pies for this special cake.

Here are the famous apple pies I baked.

They didn't have to be beautiful on the outside.

Just YUMMY on the inside.

After all, they are supposed to hide inside of the cake!

I used two of these deep 10" pans to combine my cake & pie.

It is a beautiful pie & cake disaster if you don't remember to flour & butter them before pouring in the batter.

First I coated the bottom of the pan with white cake batter.

(You can add vanilla bean to your favorite white cake recipe-or even a white cake mix to give it an organic rustic apple orchard feel)!

Next I carefully placed my 9" pie on top of the batter.

Started to pour the batter over the top of the pie..

I completely covered the pie with batter!

It seems like magic, doesn't it?

A pie hiding inside of a cake.

Oh my.

I baked both cakes at 350 for about 40 minutes each.

I even baked a third spice cake and sandwiched it in between the layers.

The people at the party were so happy with the cake that they asked me to sit down and eat it with them. This was my piece.

Stacking The Cakes:

1. Freeze your cakes for a few hours before even trying to stack them.
2. Once frozen, I "leveled" the top of my cakes using a cake leveler.
3. I frosted the top of each cake with my salted caramel buttercream.
4. The stickiness of the frosting in between each layer is ideal for stacking.
5. I used a giant cake spatula to frost the top & the outside of the cake.

I sprinkled cinnamon and gold glitter on the top!

I used pretzel sticks instead of lollypop sticks for a personalized cake topper. They look sort of "rustic" like sticks!

Salted Caramel Frosting:
There are many ways to make caramel. And frosting.
But this recipe is the quickest and easiest way to make salted caramel buttercream frosting at home.

Ingredients Needed:
♥1 Pound of Butter (cut up into squares)
♥4 Cups of Powdered Sugar
♥3/4 Cup of Ready Made Caramel (You can find it in the ice cream section at the grocery store).
♥1 Tablespoon of Sea Salt
♥1 Tablespoon of Vanilla

 Instructions:
1. Blend Butter Squares in your mixer until creamy and light like butter should be.
2. Pour the caramel into the butter, and enjoy this moment. (It looks really pretty when you do, swirls of light caramel in the butter! Yum!)
3. Blend your Butter & Caramel together until the mixture is a very light brown. Sadly, the swirls will disappear. But they have gone to a wonderful place.
4. Mix in Sea Salt.
5. Add The Vanilla Extract
6. Make sure your mixer is turned down low. (Unless you want snow showers of powdered sugar which could be fun in some kitchens..)
7. Gradually add the powdered sugar until the frosting looks light, airy, and dreamy.
8. Optional: You can add 1 Tablespoon of Milk or Heavy Whipping Cream if you want a more "spreadable" frosting. (I add milk all the time to the frostings I use to spread on cakes).

This is the texture that makes you want a spoon. ♥

More Than Meets The Eye.

A few months ago, I was a cupcake sponsor for the ALS Benefit Ride here in Waupaca.

I made some tattoo inspired cupcakes. Rebellious and soft at the same time ♥

This one was dedicated to my friend's mom who suffered from ALS. ♥ My friend is the one who asked me to donate the cupcakes to the event.

Of course I said yes to the donation.  My mom has recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. A really big reason California was just too far for me to live from my mom here in Wisconsin.

Even though ALS & Parkinson's aren't the same thing.. I know what it is like to want to do something to make a difference in someone's life that you love deeply. So I was more than honored to donate.

I like that Mom says Wow upside down. ♥

And out of this event..came even more cupcakes!

I donated a gift certificate - more and more and more cupcakes for the lucky raffle winner.

Transformer Cupcakes for Connor.

Requested with love by his mom. ♥

She even made this her profile picture on Facebook! That made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

I made the faces out of candy melts, so they are 100% edible. I printed the faces out on printer paper, and used parchment paper to trace.  I used piping bags to trace candy melt faces on the parchment paper. ♥ And this is how they turned out!

This monster cupcake sandwich was inspired by the hood of a car opening up. Inside the hood of this cupcake transformer are peanut butter cups. Yummmmm!

And of course..you can't have Transformer Cupcakes without *real* Transformers on top!

Fun to eat.. and Fun to play with too!

I think he wants a hug ♥

It looks like this order came full circle.. for daughters to give love to their moms.

And for a mom to give a dream come true in cupcakes to her son!

*More Than Meets The Eye*.I hope you loved them, Connor. ♥