How Many Bundts in the Oven?

There was a trend this year in the food blogging world, a trend of "healthier" baked donuts.  I don't want my donuts to be healthy.  I want them to be fried in oil and glazed with sugar and I want them to be spelled "doughnuts."  I also want them to be readily available in my kitchen without the purchase of a specialty "baked donut" pan.  Give me a bottle of canola oil, a pint glass and a shot glass (because I still don't have a doughnut cutter), and a roll of paper towels, and I'm ready to go.

But these baked donut recipes were just so pretty!  They looked so fluffy and light and dainty!  I wanted to bake them and drizzle them with pink icing and plate them on delicate china next to a paisley turquoise napkin.

I came across a mini-bundt pan in a thrift store close to where I work.  I don't even have a regular-sized bundt pan, but I picked up this $2.49 beauty for one reason only - mini-bundt pans look an awful lot like baked donut pans.

Mini Bundt Cake on Grandma's Saucer

These fluffy treats, more cake than doughnut, are perfect as a single serving or a shared treat.  The recipe was inspired by Tracy at www.shutterbean.com.  These cakes were so good, I made them twice in one weekend.

The Vegan Butterfly

My second special order birthday cake was also my first vegan birthday cake.  I've had success with Joy the Baker's vegan chocolate avocado cupcakes before, but the soft creamy texture of vegan buttercream frosting doesn't lend itself to the polish necessary for a birthday cake.

I was able to adapt another chocolate buttercream recipe using a vegan margarine, and our birthday girl requested peanut butter filling.  The cake, filling, and frosting was completely egg- and dairy-free.  It was a wonderful experience making a special cake happen for a gal who usually has to abstain from the birthday sweets.

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake for Hannah's Birthday

Hannah recently got a butterfly tattoo on her arm, so I added the chocolate bark and butterfly to personalize the cake.  

A Humble Beginning, or, a Study in Chocolate

I am a lucky girl.

I love my job, I love my neighborhood, and I'm fortunate to live with and work with people who inspire and support my creativity.  At the end of last summer, my employer came to me with a proposal:

Make the cakes.

I work for a locally-owned company that treats its employees like family.  And when an employee works on her or his birthday, well, we get cake.  My boss asked if I would be interested in baking these cakes for a few months, to see how it would work out.  I said yes immediately.

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Cake for Jenn's Birthday