I had every intention of showing you photos of the cakes I baked for a party this past weekend, but in the latest episode of my camera drama, it seems the photos I took disappeared into the netherworld.  Not one of the shots I took of the baking process Saturday night, the frosting process Sunday morning or the actual finished cakes Sunday afternoon is anywhere to be found on my camera or memory card.  None.  Clearly, my trusty old point & shoot is not as trusty as I though.

At least some of the shots I took of the beauty of the afternoon managed to be saved. In all honesty though, I have to admit the pumpkin roll I made was verging on cake fail, having cracked along one side, giving it a not-very-roll-like appearance.  The cake itself looked a little too moist, which I thought was a result of rolling it in my silicone baking mat instead of a powdered sugar covered dishtowel, my reasoning being that I hate having to wash said dishtowel after the fact.(I am brutally hard on my dishtowels, what with all the baking & canning I do, most of my dishtowels are tattered or badly stained.) Turns out I added way too much pumpkin and that was the cause of all my problems.  Baking two cakes, making dinner, watching football and having a glass of wine all at once may have been one task too many.

The chocolate cake I made turned out beautifully however, because it’s one of my tried & true easy peasy chocolate concoctions.  I had a few folks ask about the recipe, to which I replied “Chocolate Cranberry Torte, Bon Appétit, December 2003“.  I skip the cranberry sauce and shorten the baking time.  Leftovers freeze beautifully for a frozen fudgy treat. I highly recommend you make one and soon.  People will be impressed and you will see how easy it is to bake a show stopper.

Despite what I said above about the pumpkin roll being on the verge of cake fail, Edie woke up this morning to tell me yet again how good it was.  Of the three cakes at the party, it was the only one to be completely consumed, so while I thought it looked awful, it was a hit.  The power of cream cheese filling I tell you.

Sally showed up with this apple cake that was incredibly good.  I’ve been looking for a good apple cake recipe and I think this is it. It’s the sort of cake that would be downright lovely for breakfast and it’s got fruit, so that makes it far healthier than all the Halloween candy we have lying around which has admittedly been breakfast for all of us for days.  We are in that spot of the year where life is fat and sassy, with one celebration after another.  My birthday, Halloween, Oysterfest, various pre-holiday parties, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years then a small respite before my beloveds January birthdays…..yep, it’s that time of year where it is just one celebration after another.  I’m working on addressing the camera situation, because what good is being able to bake fabulous cakes if I can’t brag about them on the internet?