I'm Glad She Didn't Sneeze

Aztec Meringue Cake

This is the cake I entered in the "Other Layer Cake" category at the Fair. It's two layers of Kahlua soaked chocolate cake and two layers of pecan coffee meringue held together by chocolate buttercream and finished with coffee buttercream. I stenciled the top with cocoa powder and cinnamon. By the time I got to the cinnamon, I needed a third hand to hold my stencil so I could tap my strainer full of cinnamon with both hands while keeping the stencil from sliding all over the cocoa powder I had just put down. I enlisted my younger daughter to help. All was good until I peered over at her through a cloud of cinnamon dust and saw her start to wrinkle her nose. Arghh! She was going to sneeze and couldn't move because she was holding my stencil. I made 3-4 more quick taps of the strainer and whisked the cake away. She moved her head out of the cinnamon dust ... and didn't sneeze. Whew! I decided then and there that stenciling cake tops is WAY to stressful.



German Chocolate Cake

This cake, I ended up icing in my basement on top of my washer. Once again, the kitchen was so hot that all the buttercream just turned to liquid before I could get even a quarter of the icing piped. I finally resorted to the basement!

I am attempting a "three-peat" this year. I have won the Cake Sweepstakes at the State Fair the last two years. The Sweeps is given to the overall cake at the fair. They take all the first place winners from the different cake categories and pick the Sweeps. These are the only two cakes I have in the running this year. I think the filling on my German Chocolate might be too thick and the Aztec Cake is a bit "out there" with the meringue layers so I'm not getting my hopes up. There are some people who bring 10+ cakes every year. I think one lady last year brought 23! Winning the Sweeps two years in a row was almost unheard of so I'd be pleasantly shocked if I got it again.

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

I had a really hard time picking out a cupcake recipe to make. So many intriguing choices! I was all set to make the Reese's Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting that Isabelle had posted here when my family talked me out of it. I REALLY think they talked me out of making those cupcakes because they wanted to eat the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups I had already purchased!

These cupcakes have a coconut pecan filling inside of them and coconut buttercream icing on top. I have taste tested half a pan already. (Somebody stop me!)

Honey Applesauce Cake

This is the cake for the "Honey Applesauce" cake category under the "Honey Cake" division which is separate from the regular cake division. More then 51% of the sweetener in the cake has to be from honey. The frosting has to have honey in it too. I made a "regular" confectioners' sugar based frosting. The funny thing about this cake was how "hard" it was for me to frost it! I generally use buttercreams or glazes and do fancy things to finish my cakes. I can't remember the last time I used a regular frosting to frost a cake. I got totally stressed trying to make the "random swirls" in the frosting look just right. I think I needed a few drinks before frosting this.

I decided not to make a fourth cake. I went to bed at a reasonable time last night and got all the cakes to the Fairgrounds by 2:30 pm today - well before the 4 pm cut off. Of course, driving home, my brain started running through all my options for Gold Medal and Ghirardelli and popcorn and all the other upcoming contests!

Tagged and ready to go!

What's your favorite cupcake?

Ever been to a fancy cupcake store? I haven't but I just saw that a new one opened up on SR135.