A Cake of a Different Flavor

Oh cake how I love thee, but let’s NOT count thy ways. There are infinite combinations of cake flavors. I mean how is someone able to pick just ONE flavor for one of the most important days of their lives?! I mean this could just be a personal dilemma I found myself in, because I do know some people who don’t like cake. Insanity I know, but a fact none the less.

I remember everything about the first wedding I ever went to. I was young, like 12 I think. The food is still the best I remember and the Wedding cake was a chocolate chip cake with white frosting. I honestly don’t remember the icing flavor at all just the cake. Chocolate chip!?! I didn’t even know it was possible! Ever since then I have always wanted to have a chocolate chip wedding cake.
The dress, the wedding colors, I never knew any of that, but the cake …. That’s was easy, or so I thought.

But than last year I worked in a French Bakery and it opened my eyes to the wonderful world of Carrot Cake. I never knew that Carrot Cake could be so moist and flavorful! Oh and the cream cheese icing… I could have made a cake-less cake with this icing, I kid you not. I mean look at it!
I mean this cake even has nuts in it and I really dislike nuts in my dessert. It is the best cake I have ever eaten and I had to stare at it all day at work. I never knew I had such will power!

But wait, who wants carrot cake at their wedding, and what about my chocolate chip dream cake? Besides it not being traditional (I am all about untraditional btw) not many people like carrot cake. Let’s face it; it’s just not a popular cake. So my question is; what do you do when you’re favorite cake is not a crowd pleaser?

For me, it is simple. You get both! I know this might sound a little crazy but why not get both. Where is it written that you cannot have 2 different cakes in one wedding cake? I mean the tiers are basically separate sections of the cake. I could even go as far as to have a chocolate filling in the chocolate chip cake part. I could even go buck wild and have THREE flavors and maybe do the third as a chocolate cake with raspberry filling or maybe a peanut butter filling! Or maybe I just go the traditional route and have the third flavor be a yellow cake with vanilla or even butter cream filling.

Now you would have to have the over all icing of the cake be the same, so in the end if you do decide one just isn’t enough, then you have to pick cake flavors that go well with one common icing. For me it’s got to be the cream cheese icing, hands down. It is pure blissful deliciousness.

Cinnabun Rising

So I have been doing a lot of thinking about the wedding. I can't believe it's less than 6 months away. It is unreal to me that something that I have wanted, with every fiber of my being since I was 5 is going to come true. I know it seems silly and corny to say that, but it's really true for me. My parents even use to say I should have been born in the 1800's because I could have been married at 16.I think it's a little ironic that I am now 28 and getting married a couple months before my 29th birthday. Well as I have had to learn time and again ... I might have a time line of when I want things but that does not mean time agrees or cooperates for that matter.Married at 24, first baby at 25 .... HA! Yeah that worked out. I may have to wait to have my first child until I'm 30 and I may have had to wait until i was 24 to actually meet the love of my life, but I can definitely look at my life and say it was well worth the wait.

Life will work out the way you want it ... for the most part anyways. It is a lot like making cinnabuns (if you've ever made them from scratch) It takes almost 2 hours to make, first mixing the dough, then you have to let it rise in a nice warm temperature and wait .... waiting is the worst part but once it's risen into soft yummy dough you get to knead it! Kneading is the hardest part but it's really where all the love goes because, you really have to work hard but you never want to over knead ... the dough lets you know as silly as that sounds. THAN you get to the fun part of rolling it out and slathering it with melty butter and gooey cinnamon, sugar! Oh man if i was to dub any part of this process the wedding, that would be it! (and the honeymoon ;-) Then you get to roll it up and cut it into perfect little pieces and bake. That is my life baking and yummifying and once done i get to sit back and just look and smell the deliciousness of it. I can only imagine retirement as being like when you finally get to spread that yummy frosting on and take your first bite. You get to sit back and just enjoy the fruits of your labor! Yeah it took like 2 hours but look what you made! Delish!

CINNABUNS!

Servings: 12
Ingredients:

DOUGH
1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup margarine
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 cups flourFILLING
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/3 cup margarine, softened

ICING
8 tablespoons margarine
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Prep Time: 1 hr
Total Time: 1 1/4 hr

*For the rolls, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl and add sugar, margarine salt, eggs, and flour, mix well.
*Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour.
*Now if you have a bread maker it will take care of all the dough making and rising. If not heat your oven to 200 and place your covered bowl ON the open oven door. Do NOT place it in the oven, it is to hot for the dough :)
*Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, until it is approx 21 inches long by 16 inches wide. It should be approx 1/4 thick.*Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
*To make filling, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
*Spread the softened margarine over the surface of the dough, then sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon evenly over the surface.
*Working carefully, from the long edge, roll the dough down to the bottom edge.
*Cut the dough into 1 3/4 inch slices, and place in a lightly greased baking pan. The 2 end pieces should be placed funny side up. They always come out mini so it's nice to have and just as yummy :)

*Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown.

*While the rolls are baking combine the icing ingredients.
*Beat well with an electric mixer until fluffy.

*When the rolls are done let cool 10 mins and then lightly ice all of the cinnabuns. I don't like to ice them heavily because all that icing will melt, especially when reheating. Save the icing for when you do eat it you have fresh icing to spread on and eat with it :) ENJOY!