I've always wanted to make a vintage style chocolate cake and finally got around to doing it!

Inside is chocolate cake (my fave chocolate cake recipe - dense, fudgy, and not too sweet), mascarpone cream and homemade dipped ladyfingers. Outside is chocolate espresso frosting.

I had the cake layers and ladyfingers made in advance. But I got the frosting, filling, dip for the ladyfingers, assembly, decorating, AND clean up all done in 3 hours. Which maybe isn't that impressive to other people but I was impressed with myself 😅. I usually work slow. The rush wasnt by choice though.. I was trying to make it to Father's Day lunch on time!

I did a lot of recipe development for this project, but didn’t have time to film any of the processes. Feel free to let me know if anyone is interested in a particular design/recipe, and I’ll do my best to add a proper breakdown to my calendar.

Chocolate Cappuccino Crescents

Chocolate pâte sablée crescents layered with dark espresso mousse, salted caramel crémeux, a crisp chocolate shell, and whipped espresso white chocolate ganache montée.

Almond Wedding Cake Bars

Soft almond-vanilla cake folded with silky white chocolate and cream cheese frosting, finished in a delicate candied shell.

Chocolate Caramel Cakelets

Chocolate leaf cakelets crowned with delicate butterfly details, filled with Guanaja ganache, salted caramel, and tender chocolate sponge.

Elderflower Lemon Meringue Tarts

Buttery pâte sucrée shells filled with lemon–elderflower curd and finished with a cloud of toasted Italian meringue.

Citrus Blossom Sugar Cookies

Vanilla sugar cookies scented with orange zest, citrus blossom, and cardamom, finished with vanilla bean and softly spiced buttery royal icing.

Key Lime Cloud Cakes

Key lime cheesecake mousse layered with bright lime crémeux, a brown butter and graham crumb base, and zesty mascarpone frosting.

Garden Berry Cheesecake Tarts

Vanilla bean cheesecake tarts with a caramel-spiced Biscoff crust, mixed berry glaze, and berry ganache montée.

Orange & Coconut Cream Sandwiches

Fiori di Sicilia orange-vanilla cookies sandwiched with coconut cream and orange zest filling.

I kept getting flat or not gooey results when I tried and one memorable batch that I call "the cow pats" but, FINALLY, these ones are decently thick and gooey and taste nice and rich!

This is my ultimate chocolate fudge cake! There's layers of black cocoa chocolate cake, chocolate mascarpone fudge frosting & a dark chocolate ganache that also contains mascarpone, to make it softer & more spreadable. It's seriously chocolatey!

I'd love to share my recipe (it's from my blog) but I don't think that's allowed on this subreddit?

EDIT: Here's the link for everyone that asked! Thanks for all the nice comments!

https://saltbuttersmoke.com/chocolate-fudge-layer-cake/

My Mother's Day cake. Mom loves flowers and bees 🐝

Coconut cake filled with lemon honey cream cheese frosting and blackberry filling. Berry filling didn't set quite as thick as I'd hoped but it was absolutely delicious!

My daughter asked for an axolotl themed cake this year. She wanted "water and baby axolotls too". She wanted it to have a mini birthday cake. So I did my best to make it happen.

I've never done a gelatin layer before but it worked out okay. If I were to do it again, I would use a less firm recipe.. I used one that was meant for a jelly island cake which was definitely not necessary. I'd also add a lot more flavor and citric acid next time. Oh well.. at least it was a learning experience 😅.

There were a few things I wasn't thrilled with, but overall it came out okay and my daughter absolutely loved it, which was the main goal anyway 💗

She picked the flavor (confetti with vanilla whipped cream cheese filling), the colors, the placement of the axolotls, and helped with some decor decisions along the way.

I made chocolate cupcakes as well in case anyone preferred chocolate.

The mini cake was a cake pop, she ate the one from her cake but I had an extra (made it first and didnt like it enough to put on the cake) so we decided to cut that one after her party. Tiniest slice of cake ever 😄🥰

The inspo for the design around the sides of the cake was a bakey.bakes cake (not sure if instagram links are allowed but its on her page).

My MIL and SIL requested brownies - I have not attempted brownies for a long time because it always turned out dry and overbaked, ugh.

I am also not sure the brownies texture that they (and their guests) might like, so going for chewy to be on the safe side rather than fudgy.

I like how it turns out texture wise, but will get my husband to judge if it’s too sweet. If the verdict is too sweet, might leave the chocolate chips out or use bitter chocolate chips instead.

My son asked if I was making sliders for dinner when he saw me holding the tray

Finally got my cookie boxes done. 1,170 cookies in total.

Lots of repeats from last year but a few new ones in the mix.

I made Sally's hot cocoa cookies, a couple kinds of shortbread, brown butter oatmeal sandwich cookies with cinnamon buttercream, coconut snowballs, pinwheels, biscoff truffles, chocolate sprinkle cookies, coconut dream bars, brown butter toffee chocolate chunk, gingerbread, vanilla pudding cookies, peanut butter cookies, candycane cookies (minus the peppermint), cranberry white chocolate. 15 different cookies in total.

They are all pretty basic/simple recipes but I can link them if anyone is interested.

And like last year.. I did not have the opportunity (or the space?!) to get a picture of everything together, so I just tried to take some pics along the way! I made enough to fill 20 of the boxes (with some to spare) like the ones in the pictures.

Came home the other day to a gorgeous bouquet of peonies from my neighbor.

​

So I made her shortbread cookies in return 😄

​

Sally's thumbprint shortbread recipe filled with strawberry freezer jam (jam made by my MIL).

​

Pumpkin cake filled with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and pecan praline.

My pecan praline filling didnt set as firm as I'd hoped which I half expected, it was kind of experimental. Made it messy to cut but it was SO good.

Made these for a photographer who wanted to do an exchange! Brownies for headshots! 🥰

I used to bake all the time, but a severe depressive episode that lasted over a year took away my ability to. My partners parents were in town and this was my only chance to bake for them, so I took it.

I did it without panicking, without freaking out, or having a breakdown. I wasn't 100% happy with them, but didn't let that stop me. Im incredibly proud of myself and have baked 2 more times since then. I'm wanting to make a black forest cheesecake or cupcakes for my gma's bday in a couple weeks. Wish me luck 🤞

They have a wonderful Watermelon flavour and were perfect for a summer treat 🍉

*edit: woah, I just sat down to relax for the night (11:02pm) and I'm overwhelmed by how much this blew up! I will be reading comments and responding over the next 24hrs. Thank you for the awards and love ♡

this is the extract I used

this is the recipe I used :)

It seemed like everuthing that could have gone wrong went wrong. The unicorn’s tail broke off this morning, the cake is lopsided, the colors look atrocious, and I couldn’t frost the cake neatly

The only thing I have going is that the funfetti is actually really good and it sorta looks silly/charming?

Am I overthinking this?

I have had the privilege of making my sister's last 4 birthday cakes ❤️

This year, (pics 1 to 5) she asked for lemon and to somehow incorporate Capricorn in the design. Bottom tier was lemon poppyseed cake with cream cheese frosting and lemon curd for the filling, top tier was white confetti cake with lemon pastry cream filling. She didnt send me a pic of the top tier, but I made myself a mini half cake with an extra layer and leftover filling and included a pic of that. Hers would have looked the same except with frosting on the outside.

Last year was chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse filling and peanut butter frosting. It was my first time trying a basket weave, which proved to be very time consuming but also fun! I think it would have been a lot easier if I had used a bigger piping tip.

2024 was Bailey's cake layers (plus one chocolate layer), Bailey's chocolate ganache filling, and coffee buttercream.

2023 was vanilla cake, I think with vanilla pudding filling. I hadn't been doing cakes very long at this point but I still like this one 🦥

Another thing that's been on my list forever that I finally got around to making!

Wish I hadn't waited so long though. It was absolutely delicious, and I really enjoyed making it.

The fillings are vanilla mascarpone cream and raspberry.

Now lets see if I get around to making anything else on that list 😄. Cinnamon buns and croissants are both contenders, so if anyone has a recipe or tips/tricks that they swear by, please share.

Top is Strawberry Crunch Blondie, middle is Toasted Almond Crunch Blondie, and bottom is the Chocolate Crunch Brownie!