Cakes, cakes and more cakes

This month my family has a multitude of birthdays back to back. I really would love to get the whole family together and have one big birthday party with one big cake, but since that can't happen I make the cakes for everybody separately.

This cake is for one of my nephews that loves the San Diego Chargers and he wanted Red Velvet cake.This cake is chocolate for my sister, very simple but she liked it.

This is a white chocolate and strawberry cake for a friend of mines whose husband just joined the service and was coming home for a weekend.

A trip to Hilltop with a little bread on the side

You know how the story goes, you have egg yolks in the fridge, you look for a recipe to use it in and 'Wa La' you have Challah bread. I used Martha Stewart's recipe from her Baking Handbook and after three days I took the last about 12 oz. and made Tiramisu Bread Pudding with a coffee liqueur sauce. I wasn't able to get pics of that because it was gone so fast, but I will make some more this week and try to take pictures of it and this time i will measure all the ingredients and have a recipe to go along with it.Now this little beauty I found while on my trip to Hilltop Shopping center. There is a grocery store called "The Fresh Market" that is the only place I can find instant espresso. I always have to stock up on it while I am in there so I don't have to drive that way too much. While in the store my girlfriend and I came across this drink and decided to give it a try. I don't know what a frenchberry is, but the drink was mighty tasty. When you take your first taste it almost has a wine/winecooler like flavor, yet there is no alcohol in it.

These gorgeous strawberries were also at The Fresh Market and we couldn't resist purchasing them. They were so juicy and sweet with a bright red color to them. I never knew Driscoll had organic strawberries since I never came across them in the regular grocery store.

Let's talk about these cupcake liners now because when I saw them I knew that I would have to buy at least one package to try them out. They are a product of Sweden and they were purchased from The Kitchen Barn(another store that is a must for me when I go to Hilltop). The package said you don't need a muffin pan to bake cupcakes so that same night I went home and made some Red Velvet cupcakes to see how well they would hold up.

Here they are before being cooked

And after

This is what the paper did after cooling and sitting for a day. I'm not sure how well they would fare if they were used in conjunction with a muffin pan, so once I try I will let you know.