Tag Archives: vanilla

Maple Anniversary Cake

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I made this two-tier cake for my grandparents’ 50th anniversary last week. I was going for a woodsy theme as we were spending the weekend in the Black Hills, South Dakota. Maple is a favorite with Gramps hence the frosting is a silky, rich & earthy, maple buttercream.

Before leaving my Grandparents’ house for the Hills, I made both an 8-inch and 6-inch vanilla cake for the special occasion. Working all day before we were to leave, I finished the cake’s most important components, leaving just the assembly to be completed at the cabin.

Simply put, this anniversary cake is compromised of rich vanilla cake, maple buttercream filling and frosting, and candied pecans sprinkled between each layer and atop. It was a huge hit. We enjoyed this cake together while watching slides of different events and snapshots of Gramps and Grams’ married life (including Gramps’ time serving in Vietnam)

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Cake Challenge: August

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Remembering what a hit January’s cake was, I decided to try it again but this time with a simple chocolate cake accompanied by smooth vanilla buttercream filling.

This particular cake was a surprise Birthday dessert for our good friends, the Gohs. A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Goh emailed my Mom about joining their family for Thai food at an eclectic restaurant in downtown Tianjin to celebrate Mrs. Goh’s Birthday. Of course Mom (the courteous mother she is) felt compelled to bring something along to the dinner. So she replied asking if we could provide the B-day cake for Mrs. Goh.  Mrs. Goh has always been a very encouraging supporter of my baking passion and she herself is a queen of creative scrapbooking so I definitely wanted to bake something special for her. This cake was the result…

our family met them at the restaurant and enjoyed a lovely dinner and (an even lovelier) cake. ~Unfortunately the Gohs arrived at the restaurant before we did and seeing 11 seats at their reserved table, Mrs. Goh soon guessed who would be joining them for dinner.

In the end, I have to say my favorite part of baking cakes are the memories I hold with those I share them with.

<Cake Challenge Series: is a collection of posts which document the cakes I bake each month. More specifically, I have a goal this year to bake at least one (hopefully spectacular) layer cake each month, and photograph/post them here. I hope you enjoy this collection as much as I enjoy baking these delicious desserts!>

Other Cake Challenge Posts:
January 
February
March 
April
May
June

 MAKE YOURSELF:

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Filling: find a thorough set of instructions here.

Espresso Drizzle: find recipe in the Cake Challenge: January post.

Click on this post to see recipe for Chocolate Cake (scroll to the bottom).