Lots of baking

Since I've been so busy with school for the past month, I haven't had much time over for one of my favorite pastimes - baking! Really, there's something deeply satisfying about baking. Kneading the dough, watching it rise... and of course sampling the final result! :-)

Today was a perfect day for baking, as it is the Swedish National Cinnamon Roll Day. I'm not sure whether you have similar silly food holidays in America, but this one is actually quite a big deal over here. Cinnamon Rolls are probably as close to a Swedish National Dish as it gets - we all love the things! Swedish cinnamon rolls are smaller and less sickly sweet than their American cousins (no icing) which only means you can eat even more of them! Here's a picture of some of the rolls I made this morning:

And while we're on the subject of baking, I thought I'd show you the cake I made for my friend Sara's birthday last week. She received it along with the moleskine notebook in my last post. I made it bright pink (with girly pink candles) as a bit of a joke, since both Sara and I are devoted feminists. We've had lots of discussions about kids and gender roles, so I thought she might get a kick out of this over-the-top girly cake:

Unfortunately I didn't get to snap a pic before the candles were blown out.

The cake is completely vegan. It's two layers of chocholate cake, the filling is fresh raspberries and jam, and it's covered with strawberry-flavored buttercream and sprinkles. It's probably the largest cake I've ever made, and it was a lot of work... I'm completely new to cakes, I mostly bake cookies and bread. But I will definitely have to try again soon - too bad there are no birthdays coming up in the near future!