Tuxedo 21st Birthday Cake

This cake is the ultimate 21st birthday cake. You might have a little more than just a sugar buzz after polishing off a slice - if you can stop yourself there. I've made this cake for several different occasions over the past six months and have finally gotten the recipe perfected. It has four layers of intense chocolate cake made with Guinness Stout beer. In between each is a mousse-y, whiskey caramel filling (that is also AWESOME as a sauce over ice cream...) and the whole thing is topped off with espresso buttercream. The cake is super moist with a spongy texture and a not-too-sweet flavor. The Guinness really comes through and gives it an after taste that makes you go, "hmm...," in the best way. The rich filling compliments it perfectly and the buttercream ties all the flavors together. This particular cake has an extra drizzle of dark chocolate ganache over the top, just in case you weren't already sold. It's chocolate, it's Irish, it's alcoholic. What more can you ask for as a new member of the 21 and over crowd?

**All alcohol evaporates in the baking process and only remains in the cake and filling as flavoring**

I recently entered this cake in the Today Show's Quest for the Best Birthday Cake challenge. Here's to hoping that something comes out of it, but either way this cake is just plain wicked. 

Lemon Lime Wedding Cake: Mark + Cassie

Remember these guys from their tasting in February? Well, they got married last weekend! Mark was my swim coach in college for two years, and he met Cassie at McDaniel college where they both were on the swim team as well. In addition to a beautiful day and beautiful venue for their wedding, they also had this beautiful cake as a centerpiece on the dessert table:

The theme of their wedding, if you remember, was lemon and lime- perfect theme to tie in with the cake. Each tier is four layers of vanilla poundcake sandwiched together by a tart lemon/lime curd and covered with Italian buttercream. The topper idea was a find on pinterest that I recreated with a real lemon and lime and a little help from Michael's. 

Wedding cake #2 for June was a success! I loved the clean design and simple topper. This cake very much reflects my own taste in wedding cake style as well as Mark and Cassie's. 

They told me it tasted as good as it looked! Congrats Mark and Cassie, I was so honored to be a part of the big day.