Cat in a Sombrero

Its my Best Friends 20th birthday and I had to make something special and epic. She adores cats so much that I knew that I had to incorporate that somehow into it. She also went to Mexico recently to study abroad so I thought it would be funny to put a cat in a sombrero. I could not stop laughing while making this cake, its completely ridiculous! The bottom round ended up looking like something out of the Saved by the Bell intro. This is by far my favourite cake to date. This was a chocolate cake with italian meringue buttercream, fresh strawberries  chocolate ganache, and gum ball decorations around the outside.

Cake Time Total: 6 hours

Toronto Maple Leafs

New Cake!!!! This one was done pretty quick, was told about it on Sunday and it was delivered today. This cake was made for my best friends Uncle. He is a HUGE fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I made a mini version of him complete with a customized jersey. I had a hard time finding a damn maple leaf cookie cutter even though Canada Day was six days ago haha. Well here it is.

Cake Time Total: 3.5 hours

Yogurt Passion

So I was going through some cookbooks that I picked up at the library this week and came across the perfect recipe in which I could use the passionfruit pulp I randomly bought in Toronto a few weeks ago. In Donna Hay's "Seasons" cookbook, she has a recipe for yogurt and passionfruit syrup cake. I decided to give it a try today and see what happens. Drum roll please! Deliciousness certainly!

Yogurt and Passionfruit Syrup Cake

Ingredients

150g butter, softened
1 cup (220g) caster sugar*
1 tsp of vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup (280g) thick Greek-style natural yogurt
2 cups (300g) self-rising flour, sifted**

For the passionfruit syrup:

1 cup (250ml) passionfruit pulp
1/2 cup (125ml) water
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar

* Caster sugar is also known as superfine sugar, however is is not powdered sugar, its like granular but just a little thinner. If you cannot find caster sugar you can also just take regular sugar and just throw it in a blender.
** If you don't have self-rising flour on hand you can substitute with all purpose flour. For every cup of all purpose flour you need to add 1 and 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 320 degrees F.
2) To make the passionfruit syrup, place passionfruit pulp, water, and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook for 10-15 minutes or until syrupy. Set aside.
3) Place the butter, sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 10-15 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the yogurt and beat until well combined. Fold through flour.
4) Spoon mixture into a lightly greased Bundt tin and bake for 35 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
5) Remove the cake from the tin and place in a serving plate. Spike the cake several times with a skewer. Drizzle cake with syrup while it is still warm.