Leftover birthday cakes

This year there were birthday cakes aplenty when one of us had a recent birthday.  At a party for all the family members with July birthdays - about 6 of them - there was a cake for everybody which meant for a lot of cakes.  We have remnants of two of them today. In addition, while doing a little on call work, coworkers had a little birthday celebration with a lovely cake from a Boston dessert place.  Since there were not enough people to finish that cake we also had those leftovers today.

LEFTOVERS!!!

It's a trio birthday cakes!!

One of the cakes was a standard commercially bought American birthday sheet cake.  Typical butter or shortening frosting, very colorful with candy confetti decoreations, with a chocolate swirl cake.  This one was not the popular one, however.

This is what it looked like.

This is how much we got!

We also had a homemade, made from scratch Black Forest Cake!  A relative couldn't find a bakery to make one so took it upon herself to find a recipe and give it a shot.  The recipe was a good one as this had the requisite chocolate cake with cherries soaked in kirsch and of course the whipped cream frosting.  Decorated on the outside with fresh cherries and shaved chocolate, it tasted great and was the real McCoy.  If this first try so was so successful we can't wait for the next few.

Homemade Black Forest Cake!

This is the piece that we got!

Nice cross section shows that it was the real thing.

The third cake was a Choco Symphony - triple chocolate mousse cake from Finale in Boston.  The cake was quite good.  It had thin layers of buttermilk chocolate cake with three different mousses in between - dark chocolate on the bottom, white chocolate in the middle and milk chocolate on the top.  It was garnished with white chocolate shard on top and a thin straw of dark chocolate. Finale is known for their desserts and this was memorable for sure.  Thanks to the birthday boy for sharing the wealth!!

The one on the left is the Choco Syphony!

It came with a message!

Three types of mousse.....great cake from Finale for the finale!

Maybe they are chicken cookies?

We had a break from our July student cake today.  At first it appeared cake hour would be dry but then we got a treat brought back from a recent visit to China.  Our friend gave us a box of cookies unique in that there was no English translation of anything on the package. This left us to our imagination as to what we were getting.

Treat from China with no translation not necessarily intended for export!

Herb cookies or just creative license?

More packaging but what's insiide?

To a certain extent Chinese products emulate the Japanese in that there is sometimes more packaging than necessary. Upon opening the box we found that there were multiple smaller packages containing the goods. But that was all.  The cookies were not individually wrapped inside the packages as they could have been.  However, the first package we opened spilled forth some broken cookies. Maybe this is not the best packaging scheme after all!  Most of the remaining packets were fine and had a stack of three pieces.

The first one was little busted up!

The intended presentation!

Theses were a Chinese shortbread they tasted buttery and not too sweet.  There was even a hint of a salty taste.  They were good and we were happy to have them.  We got into a discussion about what they really were based upon what we saw on the box.  For instance, the cookies are shown on the box with some green leaves behind them. Does that mean they are made with herbs of is it just a garnish? Then we noticed the rooster on the box.  Was that a logo or maybe they are chicken cookies, we questioned.  Probably not but that would explain that slightly salty taste!

What is the reason for the salty taste and the rooster on the box?

As backup we also had some Quadratinis to finish off...for those who didn't want chicken cookies.

Old standby...Espresso flavor!!

And they are PURE GOODNESS!!

This tastes Dominican!

Our second entry for student cake month decided to go with a flan.  He had made one before and was trying again. He was not that happy with the result.  He felt it was a little overdone and had flattened out too much.  Also he did not think the sugar had caramelized correctly and tasted a little burnt.

Giving it a second shot!

There might could have been a little more or the caramel sauce.

Most of the sugar caramelized into the flan.

Throw in some salt and it's salted caramel flan!!

These issues didn't matter much to the rest of us.  We have had several flans and this one was very similar to all the others.  Some were flat. Some were too sweet. Some tasted a little bitter. And some were very creative featuring fruit and sprigs of rosemary.  So we were fine with this and think our guy did a good job. It had a good texture, was not too sweet and the bitterness of the caramel was subtle and acceptable.  If he had thrown some salt on it and called it salted caramel it would have been a rave.

Inside it's the usual custard!

We will however leave the final word to our self-appointed resident flan expert who clearly has insights beyond our capabilities. After trying it she exclaimed: "This tastes Dominican!" And we will leave it at that!

Domincan flan - does it look that much different?

We sail into student cake month with a Pirate Ship!

July is student cake month!! But you knew that, didn't you.  We have a good crew of summer student interns this year so we have some great expectations.  Not really.  First up today, however, our guy hit a home run.  Inspired by Instagram or something else out there on the web he opted for a pirate ship cake.  This was banana cake with chocolate frosting that he assembled to look like a pirate ship using various candies or snacks to complete the ship and the overall picture.

ARRGH!!  It's a pirate ship, Matey!

Sailing on an ocean of blue....frosting!

That's Jolly Roger on the sail!

Barrels made of root beer on the deck!

Railing made of pretzel and the name of our ship...SSBCA!

So we have the ship, made of cake frosted in chocolate to make it look like wood.  Along the side we had some life saving rings made of Life Savers. On the deck you find some barrels made of root beer candy. The railings and the mast are pretzel logs which also look like wood.  There is a figurehead made from a gummy candy. On the back white frosting outlines indicate window openings and underneath the ship is christened SSBCA in deference to the assay used to determine protein concentrations.

Well equipped with barrels and life savers!

Those pretzels look like real logs!!

The ship sails on an ocean of blue frosting featuring fish shaped, confetti candies and the ocean is swarming with candy sharks. Some of them are devouring unfortunate sour patch kids or something to that effect.  Maybe it wasn't original but it was cleverly done and will be a hard act to follow.  The yellow banana cake tasted great and went well with the chocolate frosting. All in all a job well done.

Watch out for the sharks!

It's a little late for the sour patch kids!

Fish confetti candy came with the blue frosting!

A few of our newer colleagues got to attend orientation where they learned all sorts of things including the fact that the institution is now toaster oven free!!  In addition to a smoke free and drug free workplace we now have a toaster oven free workplace!!  To justify this they were shown one of our buildings aflame ostensibly due to a toaster oven.  There have been a few fires in the same building which made us wonder whether we should rethink putting some of our people in said place when they first arrive.  At least we will make sure they leave their toaster ovens home.

This is why we are toaster oven free!!

Brooklyn Surprise

We got one of those texts that we love to get on Monday....sign me up for cake hour tomorrow! Someone was coming back from Brooklyn, NY and was bringing something.  It was supposed to be a cheesecake but at the last minute she opted for something else that looked good.  We will have to wait for the classic NY cheesecake for some other time.  She dropped off the cake and then spent the next hour chatting with a mentor so we never really saw her at cake hour - which is something she has done before. But that certainly didn't stop us. Who needs her when we got the cake?

Another bakery to try....

...and it's in Brooklyn.

This is not a cheesecake for sure!

Avant garde look on the top with a tubular element!

I think the hazelnuts are a hint for what is to come.

This was a nice looking thing for sure.  It was not that tall with a silky chocolate frosting like you see on all those flourless chocolate cakes. The side of the cake was covered with slivered almonds which made for a nice look and there were random pieces of chocolate and some hazelnuts to embellish the top.  We liked the white chocolate tubular thing as this made the decoration a little avant garde.

Two small layers with a cream filling were just about right!

And it's going fast!

The cake was a white vanilla cake with a hazelnut cream filling. It was lighter than it looked with the hazelnut and chocolate flavors nicely complementing each other.  It had a little bit of the Ferraro Rocher taste.  It hit the spot with the crowd as you can tell by the number of empty plates. Thanks for our treat from Brooklyn and hope to see you with the cake next time!

Thumbs up from this group!

An empty plate says it all!

Another satisfied and sated customer!

A couple of days of Pecan Sandies

Pecan Sandies are a classic Keebler cookie that usually runs for about $3.50 - $4.50 depending on where you get them.  While strolling through a nearby store we noticed they were on sale for 2 for $4.00.  Who could pass that up?  As it turns out we had not cake volunteers for the last two days so the Sandies came in handy.

They were on sale at a great price!

This is what we are looking for!

Nicely packaged in rows!

In case you haven't heard of them, they are an American version of shortbread which originated in Scotland. It is a cookie made with flour, sugar and butter.  The buttery taste is what shortbread is known for as is the resulting high fat content.  A few of these cookies can pack a few calories to say the least. Pecan Sandies get their name from the pecan chips that are added.  Although these might not be as smooth as something from Walker's, these are actually pretty good cookies and they go great with coffee, tea or even ice cream.

The classic Sandie - just like on the cover and about the same size!

In case you were wondering.

Keebler cookies are supposedly made by elves.  We like the little disclaimer about not being short to enjoy their shortbread!

Cute little disclaimer!