Sweet Corn

I recently hosted a 250th post giveaway on our family blog, Building a Kingston Castle and Shana was the lucky of winner of 3 dozen adorable candy corn cookies. These cookies were the first I presented to my office last year for tasting and exhibition of my then-new hobby. I got the idea from Bake at 350. I loved that they were Halloween-y without being witches, black cats, and headstones. Next year, I want to play around with colors - I love the idea of a white, purple, and orange candy corn. I also made 2 dozen for my mom's coworkers as a special Halloween treat.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Chocolate cake, peanut butter cream cheese frosting, peanut butter chocolate ganache. Sound delicious? It is. And I don't even like chocolate. Or peanut butter. But this cake is to die for. I found the recipe here and tweaked it some for a coworker's birthday. Within a week, I was asked to make it two more times in cupcake version. Once for the big boss' birthday, and once for an admin who love the cuppity cakes so much, she wanted some at home for the weekend. Awesome. And earlier this week, another coworker asked if I could make another cake for his mother's birthday. Happy to oblige.

I really love making this cake. What's great about making it as a cake is that, unlike butter cream frosted cakes, it doesn't have to be perfect. Normally, I have to do a crumb layer, freeze the cake and do another layer and skillfully ensure that no crumbs are picked up by the second layer, all while making sure that it's level and the sides are lovely and neat. With this cake, the "crumb" layer is covered by a layer of rich, peanut butter ganache, so crumbs are irrelevant. Even though the components are a little complex, the cake as a whole is a dream come true. The hardest part is leveling it. Even then, frosting can be used to make up slight differences in height around the cake. And ganache by nature is lumpy, so voila! An awesomely delicious cake that's relative easy and stress-free for me to make. Hopefully, I'll be able to experiment with the recipe some more and make it a Purple Castle Confections classic.

Welcome!

This is my very first post here on my new blog, and I'm incredibly excited. Thanks to my awesome friend, Salt, I have this awesome logo, and I'm so appreciative of her graphic design work.

A little about me, I started baking about a year ago, and have been trying to challenge myself ever since. I got my start with a gift from my friend and coworker, the Brown Eyed Girls' Mom, who gave me a gift card to take a cake decorating class. My excitement inspired me to start with decorated sugar cookies, and now I do cakes and cupcakes, too. I've also learned a lot from Bridget at Bake at 350. My wonderful husband, Dan, and my coworkers love every bite of my new hobby. I've recently started bringing in some business and being able to expand on my skills, so I'm excited to start a blog and showcase all my creations.

The name of my little business is taken from our last name and our personal blog, Building a Kingston Castle. I clearly love purple, and Purple Castle Confections was born. Check out my side bar for dessert-related blogs I love and am inspired by. Thanks for coming by!