Cake Byte: CakeSpy Artwork at Trophy Cupcakes Starting December 5!

Breaking Cake News! CakeSpy is having another art show at Trophy Cupcakes! The first one this summer was such a success that they have asked for more cupcake art to get them through the holiday season!

Please note that if you read the update about the show a week or so ago, the artist reception has changed. It will now take place at the following time:

Saturday, December 5, from 6-8 p.m.
at Trophy Cupcakes in Wallingford, 1815 N. 45th Street in the Wallingford Center
There will be plenty of awesome artwork and of course a limited supply of free cupcakes!

There will be over 80 new paintings featuring cupcakes (and even some other foods!) in all sorts of sweet (and sometimes bittersweet) situations, and many illustrations including Seattle landmarks.

Of course if you can't make the reception, the artwork will be up all month long in Wallingford, through January 2, so you can pick up sweet gifts for your friends, neighbors, family and maybe even your sweet self all December long!

Hope to see you there!

Roll With It: Pumpkin Roulade Cake Recipe from Cake Gumshoe Julia

CakeSpy Note: What the world needs now is love, sweet love--all rolled up in a pumpkin roulade cake. Cake Gumshoe Julia is at it again, and has contributed a totally sweet recipe! You can follow her everyday adventures on her site, Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body.

I have been wanting to make a roll cake for years. But I have been so intimidated by them--they always look so perfect, and I always feared there was no room for error in the texture of the cake or consistency of the frosting. It had to be perfect or else it wouldn't roll correctly. But Saturday morning I was feeling lucky.

I had a pumpkin I had just roasted which I wanted to use for some baked goods. I also realized I hadn't made any pumpkin baked goods yet and Thanksgiving is only 5 days away. So right then I knew I had to make Ina Garten's Pumpkin Roulade. Her recipes have always turned out well for me, which gave me the confidence to move forward. Of course I modified her recipe slightly (I just have a habit of always adding some of my own 'flair' you can call it).

Pumpkin Roulade Cake

For the cake:

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 cup whole wheat
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  
• 3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
  
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin (not pie filling)
  
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, plus extra for dusting
  

For the filling:

• 8 ounces cream cheese (I used low fat)
  

Note: I have been using Philadelphia cream cheese. I used the generic cheap stuff forever, but recently discovered that Philly has such a better consistency.

• 1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
  
• 1/4 cup fresh pumpkin puree
  
• 1/2 banana, mashed
  
• Pinch kosher salt
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 18 by 1-inch sheet pan. Line the pan with parchment paper and grease and flour the paper.
   
2. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt and stir to combine. Place the eggs and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed for 3 minutes, until light yellow and thickened. With the mixer on low, add the pumpkin, then slowly add the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated. Finish mixing the batter by hand with a rubber spatula. Pour into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake the cake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the top springs back when gently touched.
3. While the cake is baking, lay out a clean, thin cotton dish towel (I used a cheese cloth) on a flat surface and sift the entire 1/4 cup of confectioners' sugar evenly over it. (This will prevent the cake from sticking to the towel.) As soon as you remove the cake from the oven, loosen it around the edges and invert it squarely onto the prepared towel. Peel away the parchment paper. With a light touch, roll the warm cake and the towel together (don't press!) starting at the short end of the cake. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Note: I just dumped the cake onto the powdered sugar towel, and I watched a huge cloud of powdered sugar spread everywhere. So the term 'with a light tough' is key to making a little less mess.
4. Meanwhile, make the filling. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and cream together for about a minute, until light and fluffy. Stir in the pumpkin, banana, and salt.
5. To assemble, carefully unroll the cake onto a board with the towel underneath. 
   
6. Spread the cake evenly with the filling. 
7. Reroll the cake in a spiral using the towel as a guide. Remove the towel and trim the ends to make a neat edge. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve sliced.

Sweet Art: Music for Illustration Friday

Can cupcakes rock out? You bet your bottom dollar they can. Here they are making some sweet music, in celebration of this week's Illustration Friday theme of Music!

This is How We Roll: Buche de Thanksgiving for Serious Eats!

Pie is great and all...but seriously, doesn't cake deserve a little more love around Thanksgiving? I sure thought so, and in an effort to bring cake back to the forefront of America's biggest eating day, I concocted a little something I call the Bûche de Thanksgiving--a November version of the more-famous Bûche de Noël.

This Thanksgiving version starts with a rich pumpkin roll cake filled with cream cheese frosting--and then gets even better when swathed in chocolate cream cheese frosting and decorated with marzipan turkey detailing.

Ready for this awesome? Check out the full post and recipe at Serious Eats.

P.S. Oh, the post also includes how to make...Marzipan Turkeys!

Sweet Bread: The Gingerbread Financier from Fonte Coffee, Seattle

I want to tell you about the Gingerbread Financier from Fonte Coffee in downtown Seattle, but first, let's get a few things out of the way.

First, what is a financier? It's a French term which as two meanings. The first is--as you might expect--a term for someone who works in finance. The second definition is far sweeter, and I like what Joy of Baking has to say about it:

Financiers are Frenchtea cakes (pronounced fee-nahng-syehr), also known as Friands (meaning "dainty" or "tasty"). They are made from a sponge-like batter of brown butter (beurre noisette), egg whites, flour, toasted ground almonds, and powdered sugar. Financiers are similar to Madeleines in that they both use a sponge-like mixture that is baked in special molds. When baked Financiers are soft and springy with a slightly domed top and a lovely golden brown crust.

The adorable versions at Fonte Wine and Coffee Bar look like mini loaf cakes or quick breads, and have a crumb which is slightly more delicate than a cookie but not quite a cake. And at the downtown location, where they not only have great coffee (and, I hear, a great happy hour) but also make all of their sweets in-house, they have a sweet seasonal variation: the Gingerbread Financier. They burst with a rich, buttery flavor, blossoming into a spicy, aromatic taste, and finish with yet more lingering butteriness.

Though these treats may not be available every day, there's bound to be something equally delicious: on recent visits, some specials included chocolate bread pudding, bacon brownies, and some tres jolie-looking cookies.

1321 1st Ave, Ste A30, Seattle, WA; (206) 777-6193; online at fontecoffee.com.