Pet Recue of Maryland Cakes

When I’m not playing with sugar or hanging out with my dog, in my spare time you can often find me volunteering with Pet Rescue of Maryland (check them out!).  I just love spending time with all those great puppies and dogs (I’m even working on my discomfort with cats) and fantastic volunteers.  The fact that these wonderful people are also willing and enthusiastic guinea pigs for my culinary experiments is just, well, icing on the cake.
   

Our main dog foster mom extraordinaire makes the world’s best chocolate chip cookies. I could never hope to improve her recipe.  I do, however, enjoy testing new cake recipes when we celebrate volunteers’ birthdays.

 

Our leader frequently treats us with chocolate-covered strawberries during the Saturday adoption events. What could be better than a chocolate cake filled with sliced strawberries?  To keep the strawberries from making the cake too soggy, I put a thin layer of vanilla buttercream under and over the layer of fruit.

My friend loves all things chocolate and recently introduced me to the sinfully decadent and oh-so scrumptious gourmet truffles from Parfections.  For her, I made my chocolate truffle cake.

I thought a nice, giant slice of cake-shaped cake would be fun.

A nice, summery citrus cake inspired the colors for this design.

We hate to see a good volunteer go away, even if it is to college, but a graduation is definitely worth celebrating.