Treats from the Tipsy Turtle

Layla is such a picky eater that planning her birthday cake was more about the visual aesthetic than what cake recipe to use. Since she does like bananas, I figured I would make a banana cake and who knows? Maybe she would try it if the smell was somewhat familiar! Here's the cast for the cake. I really wanted to use this cool cake mold with some of her favorite critters. I generously greased each nook and cranny with Nancy's lining paste. I also wanted to try and make a large ladybug as the centerpiece. I figured if the cake mold didn't work, I would have a back-up or vice versa. I did not want to think of what would happen if either didn't come together! Dry ingredients into a bowl. The butter and sugars were creamed together.  The eggs and vanilla were added next. I broke the bananas into manageable chunks and threw them into the mixer. Dry ingredients were added next, alternating with--   The buttermilk! The resulting batter is thickish. I used a saimin spoon to car...

Another dry spell for this blog. This time it's because though I have been making bloggable recipes, I lacked the motivation to actually put posts together. Isn't it nice that I always have a different reason? Anyway...Luna, Layla, and Aiden are born so close together (with my husband and myself interspersed in there as well) that birthday cake has figured prominently in my baking recently. Luna turned one so I lucked out there--a professional made her cake and the cupcakes we distributed to attendees who couldn't really stay long. Thanks, COVID. I wanted to do something extra-special for the big kids. I'm posting Aiden's cake first because his black forest cake was quite involved and I know I'm going to forget what I did if I wait too long. I was so excited to get started that I didn't even do the traditional cast photo! So without further ado...here we go! Though this was a multi-step recipe, I felt remarkably zen. I think it's because I had set severa...