Marzipan Desserts May Madness

It's a crazy time of the year, and lots of things are coming out of my kitchen! I wanted to share some of them with you.

First, my son turned 12 and he requested a chocolate cake with mocha buttercream - not hard to believe since he loves the mocha frappe from Starbucks. It was really good! It's the same chocolate cake recipe used in the Grasshopper Cake from the Baked Cookbook. I've decided that it's now my favorite dark chocolate cake. The cake freezes quite well when double wrapped in plastic wrap. Still moist and good as the day it was made.

To make the buttercream, add 4 ounces of melted and cooled chocolate and 2 teaspoons of espresso powder to Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Chocolate and espresso is a marriage made in heaven.

I went to the Penn Avenue Fish Market in the Strip last week and got some sushi grade salmon. The fishmonger was nice enough to give me refresher on how to cut it for sushi. We had some great sushi and salmon rolls for dinner that night - sushi rice, salmon, cucumbers, carrots, red peppers and a little wasabi paste. The first roll was delicious, but the nori wasn't big enough and they fell apart. The second try turned out pretty well I think! 

My friend Jen had a birthday too. She requested these coconut cream filled coconut cupcakes. I'd forgotten how good they are. And don't they look pretty in these multi-colored cupcake papers?

Finally, the senior lacrosse players at our school had their senior dinner and I made each senior a lacrosse jersey sugar cookie decorated with their number and name. Congratulations Seniors!

Happy Baking!

Deanna