Quick strawberry shortcake cake

Another whipped cream favorite and it's the strawberry shortcake cake from Whole foods.  This is usually fresh and good with lots of whipped cream.  Sometimes they are heavier on the cream than the strawberry's but is that a bad thing? The presentation with the strawberries is quite attractive.  Once you take off the plastic shaper the whole thing can fall apart but then you eat it!

Nice clean and smooth - and it's whipped cream!

Nicely displayed berry slices!

Pie a la Mode

There is nothing as American as apple pie, right. Maybe!  Today we had a nice one from Wegman's which really does have good bakery products. Other stuff appears there hit or miss but there is always a good selection of pies that are quite tasty.  Today it's apple pie with a little bit of ice cream. Their pie is well cooked meaning that the apples are nice and soft.  This caramelizes them somewhat and embeds the cinnamon flavor.  The pies with crunchy apples are undercooked and not as flavorful, kin our cake hour opinion! If you are in a Wegman's and want a good pie go for this one!

The view from above!

We heart you too!

Good around the edges!

Well cooked and tasty apple filling!

Just to make it a la mode!

Even More Whipped Cream

We like whipped cream - everyone knows that.  Today we got another dose from Antonio's Bakery in Warwick, RI! It was very pretty cake with thick and sculpted whipped cream and finished with some orchid blossoms - nice! The cake was very good - a yellow cake with some lemon curd filling in addition to the whipped cream. This was one of our firsts from Antonio's and what a great way to start the relationship!

There's a new kid in town!

Lookin' good!

Now this takes talent!

Nicely finished on top!

Colorful fresh orchid flowers!

It's what's on the inside that counts!

One of the faves - Banana Cream Tart

We had a special treat today and one of the favorites. This is the Banana Cream Tart from Pastiche bakery. Thee is nothing quite like it visually and taste-wise.  A cake base with sliced bananas, banana mousse and then a mountain of whipped cream drizzled with caramel. We've said it before and we'll say it again - it is awesome!

Lookin' good!

Creatively swirled caramel!

Never too much whipped cream!

Layers to love!

Pre-Valentine's Fruit Tart

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and we are beginning the celebration of love with a very well designed fruit tart.  As usual you have the pastry, a layer of custard and then the fruit. The display of the fruit slices is what give the tart it's visual appeal. This one was from Whole Foods which did it's usual good job. There was a little more custard in this one but the fruit was fresh and overall it was really great!

Lots of red for Valentine's Day

Good thick cake base too!

Nicely arranged fruit!

Plenty of Custard too!

What's with that strawberry?

Another day, another student cake and it's on his birthday!!!  Our visiting scholar from Barcelona celebrated his birthday with his student cake month contribution.  He opted for a Boston Cream Fruit Pie. i call it that because it is a Boston Cream Pie with fruit in lieu of chocolate on the top. You might think it is a fruit flan but that would be wrong.  It is a small layer cake with some pastry cream between the layers.  This one came from Dave's and was fine.  We have had similar things before and this one was comparable.  Good moist cake with the aforementioned pastry cream and some glazed fruit on top.  It hit the spot and we sang happy birthday before digging in. We give him 3.5 stars with extra consideration as it was his natal day.

A somber birthday boy it seems!!

Our birthday boy was a little bashful when it came to taking a picture and remarked that he was not good at smiling.  Check out the video and the two resulting pics that show how we got him from A to B after his comment.

And we get some teeth!

And what was on that Strawberry. If you look at the strawberry closest to his right arm you notice there is something white on it.  We could not firmly establish if it was mold, you know, the aspergillum kind, or some frozenness since the cake was kind of juicy on top.  Being uncertain we removed it.

Just like a Boston cream pie minus one furry for frozen strawberry!

Earl Grey Cake

Our third entry is upon us and we found, prior to the baker arriving, a heart shaped cake with vanilla frosting and some kind of crumble on the top.  What could this be and why the heart shape?  We were intrigued!  But it turns out that our student participant only has a heart shape pan for baking which is sweet. Every time she bakes she says I love you!!

Thumbs up for her creation!

The cake that says I love you!

The cake she made she described an Earl Grey cake.  We took that to mean that Earl Grey tea somehow figured into the cake batter prior to baking and that turned out to be the case.  It appeared to be a basic white cake with some kind of Ear Grey infusion or perhaps liquid tea was added to the batter. We will have to get back on that.   The frosting was a basic butter cream type vanilla frosting and the crumble....? That was a bunch of smashed vanilla wafers-creative?  So we have a tea flavored vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and crushed vanilla wafers.  It is truly a vanilla day!

Crumble on top, crumble on the bottom!

You can see that it is a little dense - where are all those air bubbles?

The cake was good and tasted something like a spice cake or banana bread sans banana. It was a tad dense and the frosting was a bit congealed most likely because this is one of those cakes that should have been taken out of the refrigerator prior to serving. So many people forget to do that and the icing then tends to have the consistency of hard butter rather than a soft creamy texture.  The vanilla worked and the vanilla wafer crumble visually looked good but should have been crunchier.  We give the cake 3.5 stars with extra credit as it was homemade!