Maybe a clover shape for St. Pat’s Day! A chocolate Guinness stout cake or cupcakes if you like that flavor profile.
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Ahhhh, schweet!
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I do like Guinness… and will do some research prior to St. Patrick’s Day!!
these look great! how did you find the workshop?
With Bailey’s Irish Cream frosting 
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Day 2 of Pies and Tarts.
A 6-inch “eggnog” tart made with press-in crust, a layer of nutmeg creme patissiere, and whipped creme topping. My first ever creme pat and first time piping whipped creme. IRL the crust did not turn out as dark as it appears in the photo. Probably not the kind of thing I’d make regularly at home, but happy to have acquired the skills. DH loved it, and ate the entire thing for his dinner.
More up my alley were the sweet potato, kale and onion hand-pies in a cheddar cheese crust. There were a few more in the batch, but somewhere between exiting the building and reaching the parking lot, a few disappeared.
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This is at the King Arthur Baking School. We’re fortunate enough to live a few hours drive away from their West Coast facility. Except during covid when I had to take a break, I try to get over there a couple of times a year. The more intense courses - usually lasting 3-4 days - are awesome! They also offer half-day classes which are limited in scope, but fun none-the-less.
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all that pink frosting really paying off for you man well done
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You might like to take a look at this cake, enjoy the Guinness!
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More pantry clear out: Cream cheese Bundt pound cake, using a lemon box cake mix, based on this video recipe, which varies from many similar by omitting extract (vanilla or almond most common) and using 1/4 rather than 1/2 C of water. Another time I’d add a tsp of lemon extract to boost the flavor. My half-sized cake baked 40 minutes and 6 cakelets took 25 minutes.
The texture of this was perfect, and it held up well under berries and whipped cream.
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2 cakes for our elementary school cake raffle. One is chocolate with vanilla American buttercream. Both recipes from Vanilla Bean baking book. Second cake is banana chiffon with cream cheese frosting. Sprinkles and banana candies because kids. I like the baking but I really don’t enjoy decorating. Excuse my messy dining table. Cat not included.
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Love the creative decorating – you say you don’t particularly like decorating, but you do it well!
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Agree, you may not like decorating but you are really good at it, those are both gorgeous. (As is the cat.)
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The sprinkles and candy are so cute and whimsical! Ha, we are the same in enjoying baking but not so much decorating.
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Chocolate-covered strawberry cake. This is a delicious recipe from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes cut in half for a 6-inch cake. I’d tried out the cake layers before and thought they were a bit sweet, so I cut 60 grams of sugar from the whole recipe (so 30 from the half I made) and the layers are absolutely delicious. It’s white cake with the addition of white chocolate in the batter. Moist and delicate as can be!
The frosting is supposed to be an Italian meringue buttercream with strawberry butter, but I like to make berry frostings with ground freeze-dried fruit. I got some strawberry powder from Modernist Pantry and thought to use that. Unfortunately I hated it. It tastes nothing like when I grind my own freeze-dried strawberries. So I made an American buttercream based on Sugarologie’s recipe, except I replaced the corn syrup with strawberry jam. And the buttercream is fantastic! Not too sweet, not gritty.
The chocolate frosting for this is phenomenal. It’s chocolate, butter, and lots of corn syrup. It has a great texture and tastes amazing without being too sweet. I used salted butter for it.
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Me too not so much for decorating, i go for the taste of the frosting. Also, i dont like cakes decorated with flowers. I always imagine a nice little worm crawling out and before you cut you have to remove them.
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Third and final day of Pie & Tart class.
Many firsts for me today: blitz puff pastry, cornmeal pastry, lattice crust, browned butter.
Bakes included:
A cranberry browned butter tart in cornmeal crust (FWIW in summer can sub sour cherries).
A sausage and mushroom single-crusted pot pie (we ate half before I remembered to get a photo).
A pear galette - my favorite of the day.
After 15 hours of class time, my pores are oozing butter, but mission accomplished - I NO LONGER FEAR PIE CRUST. 
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VICTORY IS YOURS!!!
Say more about what you liked about the pear galette, if you wouldn’t mind?
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The crust was a blitz puff. There was a thin layer of cream-cheese-and-sugar topped with candied ginger and then fresh pear. A sprinkle of sparkling sugar.
What I loved about it was how simple and effortless it was to make (from common ingredients, no less), yet the end result was anything but common. It was delicious and the combined texture of all the elements quite pleasing. I thought the two minutes it took to trim and frame the eges (as opposed to a more rustic version where they are folded over), added an extra element of visual appeal. As a novice to pastry, I suppose I’m just wowed by the concept of the galette in general, and this version - pear or otherwise - is one I can see myself making quite often in the future.
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