Hello, Holiday's...

So, I've been busy this past week. Not only baking but getting ready for the holiday's period. My boyfriends and I just finished our shopping today and tomorrow will be our anniversary that we won't be able to celebrate outside of our home because we are broke. I said we BROKE! I hope the smiles on Christmas morning are worth it! haha

Even if we do celebrate at all tomorrow, I still have to stay up and bake a couple of cakes for some friends. They all want the Rosie cake! I wish they would ask for something else. I don't know what but something different and one of kind. Like this cake...

A friend of mine specifically asked for a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and frosted with mocha whipped cream frosting. Then she gave free range in decorating it. I came up with this all on my own. I made the chocolate leaves all by myself with rose leaves that I picked from our garden and cleaned. 

This Rosie cake they all want all looks the same. A lot of people I know don't want to broaden their cake or cupcake horizon. They don't like to try something new and it is a bit annoying, really. Oh well, it's what they want... I wish they would ask for some cupcakes already! ANY cupcake, I don't care even bacon ones (which is still a little bizarre to me. It must be some kind of fad at the moment). I make really yummy ones, too!

So anyway, enough of that. I stopped by one of the few bakeries here in Stockton while I was shopping to stock up on baking supplies. It's a Dutch bakery and my best friend used to be employed there a couple years back and she used to rave about their pastries a lot. She also told me how the owner was baking day in and day out without a break all the time. I felt sorry for the guy because he didn't have anybody there to help him. He really SLAVED over his baking creations. 

Last time I was at that establishment my mom had dragged me there (without me knowing I was going there) because her best friend from someplace was visiting her sister who was married to the baker, and she was in town so my mom wanted to see her. I guess the baker is married to a Filipina. We walk in and it is really small with a good selection of baked goods. We went home with free goodies by the way. 

So, here I am again and I guess they expanded. It looked like the tore down a wall and just made the place bigger. This time there were about 10 people working and they looked like they were all related... to the baker's wife. I guess they made it in to a family business instead of hiring people like my best friend like they used to. 

And here is what I walked out with...

From the left, German chocolate cake, and two French chocolate macarons. They sell macarons in Stockton??? haha

The taste test? Man, I really hate giving bad reviews because I know people do try but these lacked something. Taste. I was really disappointed with both of these. I love German chocolate cake and this almost made me give it up completely. Let's see, it could have done with less topping because there was a lot of it and I didn't taste any cake. The French macarons were also disappointing, no taste! And the person who sold it to me didn't know what I meant by Parisian macaron when I asked for two. He had to have asked 4 other people what I was talking about even though I was pointing right at it. It was like he didn't believe what I was calling it. It's okay. Wasn't his fault. 

Carrot cake, red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and mocha cake. Bland, bland and bland. Ugh. The rest of my family didn't even want to finish it and my family loves their sweets. The only thing that I appreciated was the carrot cake but then again it had waaay too much frosting. The red velvet just tasted like cream cheese frosting which was too sweet and the mocha cake didn't have anything mocha-ey about it. It was sweet and that was it. No taste, no taste, no taste! 

You know, I've have had a chocolate mousse cake from them a year ago and it was soooo good. If you wanted a reason to like chocolate mousse, there's was it because it was so moist and the mousse was incredible. I still remember putting it in my mouth and falling in love but this experience was anything but. I have also had their danishes and they were just as yummy and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I don't know what happened. Now I'm wondering if it's the same owners...