Happy fall ya’ll! At 12 Oaks Desserts, the team is excited for the fall, even if we’re not exactly experiencing the change in the weather here in Los Angeles (#heatwave). Regardless of the warm weather, we can still celebrate all things Fall with 12 Oaks’ fall-themed cakes and desserts. I’m super excited to be able to share some of our favorites with you below!
Fall Flowers Chocolate Cake
Allow me to introduce you to our new taste of Fall — our Fall Flowers Chocolate Cake. Once in a while, there is nothing more comforting than chocolate cake, in particular, this beauty, which is swathed in our chocolate sour cream frosting. Chocolate sour cream frosting is both sweet and tangy and tastes especially rich and indulgent (it’s a tried and true recipe my mom who would always use it in her special, homemade chocolate cakes). I love this cake not only for the taste but also because of all the warm and inviting colors. Using a smoothly frosted 7” base, I topped the cake with flowers, choosing specific colors that evoke the changing leaves in Autumn. The effect is simple and lovely. I think this is the perfect cake for a special someone’s Fall birthday party — particularly if they love chocolate as much as I do!
Thankful Drip Cake
I’ve said it before, and I don’t mind repeating it…Drip Cakes are so much fun to create! The inspiration behind our Thankful Cake is that I was feeling a bit tired of the classic Thanksgiving desserts a few years back. Pies just seemed so old hat! So I decided to do a fresh take and bring something you rarely see at the Thanksgiving dessert table: cake! The idea of a caramel drip cake was born! Caramel is a quintessentially Fall flavor — even the smell evokes thoughts of the chill in the air and dressing up for Halloween. I felt that this should be a semi-naked cake to accentuate the effect of the caramel drip. Topping with seasonal flowers, corn cob and macaroons finished the look perfectly and called to mind a classic cornucopia centerpiece. I love to pair a dark chocolate cake with the caramel drip, but carrot cake could be another delicious option. Regardless of the cake flavor you choose, the Thankful cake is truly a showstopper and would be an exciting addition to any Thanksgiving meal!
Fall Brushstroke Cake
Okay, this is my second caramel drip cake entry on this list, but it’s too cool to not include: 12 Oaks’ Fall Brushstroke Cake. For a modern take on the colors of Fall, I love the Brushstroke cake. The brushstrokes are created by brushing melted candy melt onto a Silpat mat and leaving them to dry (putting them in the refrigerator for a few minutes always helps). Once they’ve hardened, I used buttercream frosting to adhere the brushstrokes to the cake in this design and then added a few touches of edible gold paint to really up the wow factor. Really, a brushstroke cake can take on any color palette, but I liked this design for the Fall season, as it resembled quickly falling leaves. One of my favorite things about brushstroke cakes is that each one is very unique. The brushstrokes are always a bit different each time you make them and so each cake comes together differently. The Fall Brushstroke is a great option for almost any Fall event — be it a birthday party, engagement party or Thanksgiving.
Wintery Cheesecake
When thinking about how Fall gives way to Winter, my memories tend to turn towards cozy nights in front of a fire with a glass (or two) of red wine and a slice of 12 Oaks’ delectable cheesecake. To be clear, I’m a firm believer that cheesecake is a dessert-table essential in all seasons, but this Wintery option does feel like a perfect design for late Fall. Our cheesecakes come in five flavors, including Pecan Pie, which we recommend as an excellent option for a Fall cheesecake. With the Winter Cheesecake, however, I opted for the Classic NY flavor (Gotta admit, that’s the favorite in my household.) By topping with blueberries and rosemary, then dusting lightly with powdered sugar, I sought to create a look of freshly fallen snow on evergreens. The kind you’d see after the first snow flurries of winter where I grew up in the Northeast. I love this Cheesecake and its elegant design for any and all of your holiday dinner parties.
Reviewing our Fall Cake Flavors
I just wanted to include a quick closing note on Fall cake flavors — when you’re searching for the perfect dessert for your special occasion, be it a cake, cupcakes or cheesecakes, for instance, be sure to also consider all of the flavors you’re choosing and how those might match the current season or holiday. Sometimes it’s nice when you bite into a cake or cupcake to taste the flavors associated with Fall, be it chocolate and caramel, red velvet, or even carrot cake. I recently worked with a client who requested our chocolate chip cake with cinnamon buttercream frosting for her wedding cake. I’d never paired those flavors before, but they complimented each other perfectly and upon tasting them together, they brought all things Fall to mind. It can be really fun to incorporate those kinds of flavors into your Fall desserts. Just some food for thought!
Yours sweetly,
Katherine & Missy
