TWD #48: Berry berry late surprise cake

Let’s pretend that its Tuesday, January 20th and I am actually not a week late posting this berry cake hosted by Mary of Meet Me In The Kitchen. (Sorry Mary!)

Also one more favor?

Can you get past the fact that I am a week behind baking up the Ginger Chocolate Gingerbread hosted by Heather of Sherry Trifle, which I was actually suppose to post today but haven’t had the chance to make yet.

Can you do that for me? It would really help take the shame away… Thanks.
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Do you have those family and friends in your life that pick up on one of your hobbies and from that moment on every gift they give you is related to that hobby? I do.

As soon as people find out I like to bake they get me baking stuff. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing. I get alot of cupcake related gifts that I absolutely adore. Notecards, liners, plates, towels, apron… Even a teddy bear cupcake cake pan, though Jen of the famous Cake Wrecks, calls cupcake cakes wrecktastical. I suppose I’d have to agree with the ones on her blog (some of them are downright hideous to the point of hysteria!) but after seeing Karen Tack and Alan Richardson’s Starry Starry Night cupcake cake, I know cupcake cakes *can be* works of art! Someday when I have about 5 hours of free time (Free time? Whats that?) I’d love to be able to recreate it.

Dang. There I go. Off on a tangent again. I am easily distracted by cupcake talk.

So about gifts. I can’t blame people. I do it too. My SIL likes ladybugs so I get her ladybug stuff. My BIL likes wine so he gets a bottle of wine for practically every occasion. I try to mix it up but I have a fear of getting people gifts they won’t like so I tend to stick with what I know.

What’s your point, CB?

Oh yeah. My point.

So I’ve been hoarding this mini cake pan that my SIL gave me for Christmas last year b/c I wasn’t sure when I’d use it. I don’t make alot of filling cakes. But the berry surprise cake was perfect to break it in. That was my point.

I totally lost you huh?

What I learned this week:
You can never had too many random pans b/c you never know when the right recipe will come along and you’ll be able to use them. At least that’s rationalization for buying them. And I am sticking to it.

Surprise [Straw]Berry Cake
Recipe from Baking: From My Home To Yours, Dorie Greenspan

Aren’t my Wilton mini tasty fill cake pans so cute?

I baked my minis for about 18 minutes. It puffed up really nicely. Before assembling the cakes, I used a serrated knife to level each top. Don’t worry. No cake went to waste. It went in my tummy.

Making the filling. Cream the cheese, add the sugar, fold in the whipped cream.

No pictures of making the syrup but I brushed my mini cakes with alot of syrup before adding the filling and fruit. I think the syrup gave the “cake” a yummy flavor.

ENJOY!

Husband rating: A-/B+
T wasn’t a huge fan and said it wasn’t his favorite but he still ate a couple small slices.

Wifey rating: A-/B+
I thought the cake by itself was so yummy but I wasn’t a fan of the filling. It wasn’t sweet enough for me. If I am gonna spend a couple hours making and assembling a cake, it needs to be painfully schedule-a-trip-to-the-dentist-because-you’re-gonna-get-a-cavity sweet or whats the point?