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(Brownie Bottom Lemon Cheesecake)
Prepared with love for Mariel's mom's tennis potluck, Nov. 10. (Formerly called the "Advantage Cathy" cake.)





Mariel's mom, Cathy, is set to host a potluck for her tennis club. Cheesecake is Cathy's favorite dessert, and Mariel chose this recipe to add a bit of pizzaz to the traditional cake.

The brownie crust smelled irresistible as it baked in the oven, and the rich batter with its lemon juice and zest wasn't too shabby to taste!

The bake time was a little lengthy, and there was an overflow of filling ... so we made two mini cheesecakes to devour on our own!

We think Cathy holds the advantage in this potluck! ;)

UPDATE: The cheesecake was a huge hit, an ace ... let's just say it was a grand slam! Apparently requests poured in for the recipe. Cathy said the potlucker who was supposed to bring a dessert didn't, so this cake was clutch!

Tres Bitches

(The Pioneer Woman's Tres Leches Cake)
Prepared with love for the Woodmans, Nov. 10.



Words cannot express the utter joy that came from this cake.

Kate's newest obsession is The Pioneer Woman, introduced to her by way of a recipe for Katie's newest obsession, tres leches cake. Mariel's kitchen provided the outlet for the ladies to meld their obsessions ... and out popped the moist, melt-in-your-mouth goodness that was "three milks."

I (Kate) had never even heard of tres leches until I met my cowboy boyfriend, but once he shared a taste with me, I was hooked. And, it was quite fitting that Katie shared The Pioneer Woman's blog by way of this recipe.

There's three of us in the Cake Brigade, and we were quite catty to each other the night we made this cake, so that's why we gave it the "Tres Bitches" moniker.

The Pioneer Woman inspired us to embark on an intense journey of photo documentation for our cakes.

LOL (Labor of Love)

Heavenly White Cake with Texas Chocolate Frosting made with love for Mariel's trainer, Josh, Nov. 3.



It's taken months to write about the process of baking this cake. It's now Jan. 20, and we're finally sprucing up this blog! Luckily, Mariel took brief notes about each cake on her iPhone, so we didn't have to think too long and hard about this one.

We called it the LOL as that's what we were doing for the majority of the baking process. Laughing. Out. Loud. So loud, in fact, the neighbors probably complained. (I'm not joking.)

Before Christmas, Mariel had just one silver baking bowl for her KitchenAid mixer. She told us we could hold one of her other mixing bowls under the beater and it would fit near perfectly. Yes, the extra bowl did fit under the beater, but no, it was not a good solution. The bowl nearly flew out of my hands as the beater pounded the sides of the bowl and batter went a-flyin'. Thus, the laughs began.

Then, after working a long day, Katie left. But, before she did, she read us the recipe (off a webpage, not from a cookbook) for the chocolate frosting. She said the recipe called for 5 cups of sugar. Wait. What? Five cups of granulated sugar? Without doing too much thinking, into the mixer went cup after cup of sugar and following many minutes of wondering why the texture of this frosting was so off, Mariel and I looked at each other and said, "Why is there granulated sugar in this frosting recipe?" At first we thought the frosting wasn't forming because of some weird reaction to combining cocoa powder with sugar. Maybe it just took a little longer for this frosting to come together? After many more minutes, the frosting never appeared and we took to the computer to double check this so-called "Texas Chocolate Frosting." The error bounced off the page--it wasn't granulated sugar, it was confectioners sugar ... duh. We felt ridiculous. Both of us heard Katie say "granulated sugar." Did she really say it or did we make a colossal mistake on our own accord? The world will never know.

After sighing a sigh at the loss of 5 cups of sugar, we tossed together the correct ingredients and a delicious chocolate frosting soon formed.

The white cake was heavenly indeed and we couldn't help but smile as we frosted the layers. We could hardly contain our laughter as we ate our first bites of our sample cake.

This is a recipe we'd make again, and hopefully we'll stop and think before adding 5 cups of anything but powdered sugar to a frosting recipe.

The Monkey Wrench

(Everyday FOOD's Pumpkin Icebox Pie)
Prepared with love for the PSU strength coach, Scott.

The Double Header

Red Velvet Cake prepared with love for the PSU women's basketball team.




Ever since embracing her inner Southern woman as a temporary Texan (red velvet is a Southern thing, right?), Kate has been infatuated with red velvet cake. After polling a few players on the women's basketball team at Portland State, she found out many of the ladies shared her taste in cake. As a congratulations for finishing pre-season training, the ladies of the Brigade decided to dedicate this cake to the team.

They called it "The Double Header" as it was one-of-two cakes baked that night.

The cake turned out well, although the color was a little off - the amount of food coloring added was incorrect. Also, in wanting to add a bit of decoration to the top, sifted cocoa powder was added. This was a good thought, but the actual action did not equate to a pretty design. From now on, red velvet cakes will remain simple and flair-less.

Three's Company

Chocolate Peppermint Torte
Made with love for Mariel's Dad, Robert, Oct. x?

We weren't really sure which direction to take the Brigade, so at first we planned to make a different chocolate cake each week.

This particular week we added a peppermint twist to a triple-layer cake. In keeping with the "three" theme, Katie joined us in the kitchen for the first time.

We called the cake "Three's Company" to poke fun at Katie's inaugural baking venture. She greased the pans ... and that was the extent of her role in the Cake Brigade that day. We weren't sure if she wanted to embrace the role or tell us she'd rather laugh at us from the living room. Happily, she took the spatula and ran with it ... and now we're a merry bunch of bakers!

The peppermint filling had a consistency of whipped cream with a touch of peppermint extract and red food coloring for effect. The chocolate cake was delectable, and it aged well ... after a week's vacation Mariel still had a slice of the cake leftover in the frige and it was just as moist and delicious as the day it was baked!

The Grand Marshal

(Deep Dark Chocolate Cake)
Made with love to kick off the CB, Sept. 20!





The day before our first baking endeavor, Mariel was the grand marshal in the City of Beaverton parade. Like any local celebrity, we thought she'd be riding in style on an excessively decorated float or a cherry red convertible at the very least. When we (her adoring fans) arrived to wave as she glided by, we were a bit surprised to see her revving down the road on a Yamaha Rhino ... with not a scrap of crepe paper in sight! Local nuns rode in convertibles and nerdy Boy Scouts graced the floats, but the grand marshal was downgraded to a RHINO? We were pretty disappointed to say the least. In an attempt to make up for the lackluster accommodations, we made an over-the-top rich, delicious chocolate cake and deemed it the grand marshal ... the leader of the cakes!

The idea and business model

The Cake Brigade was founded in late September 2009 when friends Mariel and Kate had a hankering to bake. After flipping through a chocolate-lovers' cookbook, the duo decided to bake a layer cake. They had many laughs and licks of the bowl that night, and the cake turned out so great they decided to make baking a weekly tradition.

Not wanting to eat one cake a week, the friends decided to turn their baking into a nonprofit business of sorts. They bake for family, friends and those who might appreciate a delectable piece of cake. Each cake comes with a clever name and a cheeky story about its creation.

Shortly after the initial cake, CB welcomed the addition of crafty friend Katie. The friends hope to expand beyond cakes in the future. In its first year, CB is an evolving business built on the foundations of friendship, laughter and a love of food!

Here was our initial logo design, before the addition of Katie to the group: