We celebrated one year!

Monday was a momentous occasion for us----we celebrated our first wedding anniversary!  We've been through a lot in the last year.  But no matter what life gave us, we took each challenge as an opportunity to grow together in love and as a couple.  We celebrated the day by enjoying a fancy dinner at The Capital Grille in the 'Burgh and then went home to enjoy the top tier of our wedding cake.


For those of you that don't know, my sister and I made my wedding cake.  It was a hybrid of real and fake tiers with sheet cakes being served from the kitchen.  Our top tier was a decorated cake dummy.  In order for us to do the traditional wedding cake sampling on our anniversary, I had to make a replica of our cake as a substitute for the fake one.


Here's how it turned out:

Courtesy of my iPhone---sorry for the poor lighting.

And, for comparison sake,  a shot of the original:

At the request of my Mr., the anniversary cake was fondant-covered carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and filling.  It was yummy!   I tweaked the recipe I've used in the past and swapped out some of the fresh grated carrots for a few jars of carrot baby food.  This intensified the flavor and made it very moist.   I was really impressed with how it tasted.


I know some couples enjoy eating their frozen tier, but fresh-baked cake is better than frozen any day.   Ours was delicious!


Here is the recipe, in case any of you are interested:


CAKE:

•   2 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour
•   2 tsp. baking soda
•   1/2 tsp.  ground cinnamon
•   1/8 tsp.  ground allspice
•   1/2 ts salt
•   2 cups  sugar
•   1 cup  vegetable oil
•   2 lg eggs; at room temperature
•   2 tsp. vanilla extract
•   3 cups grated carrots (swapped with four 4-ounce jars carrot baby food)
•   One 8-ounce can crushed pineapple; well drained
•   3/4 cups  chopped walnuts (I omit these because I don't like them)
•   1/2 cup raisins

FROSTING:     

•  8 ounces cream cheese; at room temperature
•  4 tbsp. (1/2 stick)  butter; at room temperature
•  1 tbsp. half-and-half or milk
•  1/2 tsp. almond extract
•  1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
•  4 cups  confectioners' sugar   (1 pound)

Directions

To make the cake: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter and flour a 13 x 9-inch baking pan, tapping out the excess flour. Sift the flour,baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt together and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer at high speed, beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla until well combined, about 1 minute. Mix in the carrot baby food. With the mixer on low speed, beat in the flour mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, and mix until smooth. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the pineapple, chopped walnuts, and raisins. Spread evenly in the prepared pan.


Bake until the top springs back when pressed lightly in the center, about 1 hour. Cool completely in the pan on a wire cake rack.

To make the frosting: 


In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, beat the cream cheese, butter, half-and-half, and almond and vanilla extracts until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar.

Spread the frosting over the top of the cake. Cut into 15 pieces. If desired, garnish each piece of cake with a walnut half.

I Made a Pumpkin Roll!

And it turned out great!  It looked good and it tasted good.  Woohoo!  I used the following recipe from Libby's Web site.  (I figured the recipe should be good since they are the authority on pumpkin products.)

LIBBY'S® Pumpkin Roll

Prep: 45 min

Cooking: 13 min

Cooling time: 1 hrs refrigerating

Yields: 10

Ingredients

CAKE

·         1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)

·         3/4 cup all-purpose flour

·         1/2 teaspoon baking powder

·         1/2 teaspoon baking soda

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

·         1/4 teaspoon salt

·         3 large eggs

·         1 cup granulated sugar

·         2/3 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin

·         1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

FILLING

·         1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature

·         1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

·         6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·         Powdered sugar (optional for decoration)

Directions

FOR CAKE:
PREHEAT oven to 375° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.

COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes.) Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

FOR FILLING:
BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

COOKING TIP:
Be sure to put enough powdered sugar on the towel when rolling up the cake so it will not stick.

Remember to follow baking instructions before consuming.

I was really surprised by how easy this was.  Pumpkin rolls look so much more difficult to make than they really are.  I'm really glad I gave this a try.  Now, I'm planning on making some rolls for the holidays.  I think one would go over great at my in-laws for Thanksgiving, and I'd love to have one or two made up and in the freezer, ready for when we have company.

Oh, and I do have some pictures from when I sliced up some for Chris and my dad.  

Yummy!