Dancing & Dining: Cakes of all sorts

I happen to love cake of all kinds. It's funny though, I think I actually enjoy making cake more than I like eating it. The truth is, if you gave me a choice over cake or ice cream, I would hands down chose ice cream *gasp* But that being said I still do love cake, and instead of my usual cupcakes, I tried out different types of cake this week.

First is actually a savory cake. Black bean cakes. Well "burgers" really, but for the sake of this post, I'm calling them cakes. I am getting tired of the same old veggie burgers and patties that I buy all the time at the grocery. Sure they are great, but there is no variation and lets be honest, they are pretty expensive. So I started looking around for some quick veggie burgers, or cakes, to make and keep in the fridge so I can throw them in the microwave after a long day of class, work, and rehearsal.
I adapted this recipe for black bean cakes from here.

It is really a simple recipe. Just mashed black beans mixed with chopped onions and bell pepper then bound together with a couple eggs and some bread crumbs. I didn't have any hot sauce to throw in like the original recipe called for, but I did sprinkle some Tony's on after baking and the added spice was nice.

I added some cheese to the top of a couple and they turned out delicious, and so much cheaper than buying veggie burgers in the freezer section!

Then I wanted to make a birthday cake for Tara, and her favorite cake is carrot cake! I enlisted Virginia as my little carrot grater.

lots and lots of grated carrots.

A pretty simple batter

but with the added carrots and nuts (I used walnuts instead of pecans because that's what I had around the house) it is a delicious carrot cake!

Then whip up a simple cream cheese frosting...

look at all that cream cheese and butter, Paula would be proud.

I usually stick to cupcakes because layer cakes make me nervous, but I decided to give it a try.

I am no expert cake carver, so the sides were a little uneven, but that just shows the homemade love right?

Instead of the normal piped carrots on top of the cake, I decided to roll some shredded carrots in sugar and decorate the cake with actual carrots! And it helped me camouflage the unevenness of the cake...