A Garden of Cakes

Lauren's Birthday Treasure Chest

2011-07-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry so long, I will try to get up the cakes I have done over the past few
months up! Here is the first, Lauren's Birthday Cake! This was fun, lots of work, but fun!
The chest is chocolate cake, the top is lemon. All covered in fondant! The "treasures" are ring pops, jolly ranchers, candy necklaces, and chocolate coins, with brown sugar for the sand.

Two Cakes...

2010-11-06T15:41:00.000-07:00

I have been on a cake hiatus lately, then two weeks ago I did two "simple" cakes for family. This next week I have two more cakes on the calendar. One is for my daughter and the other for a friend. Originally my daughter had decided on an American Girl themed party, but after watching the "Pirates of the Caribbean" Movies, decided on a different kind of theme completely. First she wanted me to make a cake that resembled the "Black Pearl", the famous pirate ship owned by Jack Sparrow. Hummm, I don't think so, I am not that good, and finally convinced her that my talents were more in the way of a treasure box cake. So a treasure box cake it will be. At this point I am planning on using fondant to cover it.

The photo is a cake by Martha on Cake Central.com that we are using to get ideas from for making my daughter's cake.The second cake will be a larger two or three round tiered cake for a friend's surprise birthday party. Her husband requested a cake with Eeyore on it. In the past I had actually done her a cake with cute little chocolate transfer Eeyores and didn't really want to go that route again. What I I did come up with was a cake in her favorite color of lime green buttercream frosting, gum paste butterflies painted in orange, lime green, pink and blues, and a couple of her little Eeyore figures. Just need to get them without her noticing they are missing! One cake will be lemon, and the other White Chocolate Raspberry. When I have a better idea of how many people to expect, I will make a final decision on sizes.

Patriotic Themed Cake

2010-06-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

Our family recently went on a 9 day tour with a Christian Tour group that went through Plymouth/Boston, MA, New York, NY, Gettysburg,PA, Washington, DC, and Williamsburg/Jamestown, VA. Last night we had a little reunion to get together and share photos and memories. I did the cake for dessert.

I was such a great idea on paper, but I wasn't all the pleased with the final look....but that is me. Everyone at our reunion last night loved it. The cake was a 14 inch round and very difficult to work with. It was so moist that when I leveled and cut it into layers, the top broke. Fortunately I was able to get it all together and get a good crumb coat on before I did the final frosting. Here it is before I did the top and final smoothing.

After I got the letters made, which I must say was absolutely the hardest thing about this cake! Never having worked with JEM lettering before and trying to do it in less than one hour was a nightmare. It was hot as blazes in the kitchen and I must have cut out a hundred letters to just get the ones that ended up on the cake. And getting them on the cake was absolutely frustrating! Once I got finished you will noticed that I sprinkled red and white sugar on it to cover up my fingerprints!
On the side I used an impression mat with lines. Love the look, and it's so easy to do, thank goodness! My daughter helped me get the ribbon on and then we taped the photos on with double stick tape. They held up pretty well through the event.

The pictures of the cake were taken on my cell phone because none of us brought a camera. I didn't check them before cutting the cake and later I realized they didn't turn out very well. When my DH asked last night if I wanted more pictures I said "don't bother." Today I told him, next time remind me that it will matter the next day!

The cake was a White Almond Sour Cream cake with a thin cream cheese cake pie filling with a layer of fresh strawberries. Lauren told me one little girl had 5 pieces, guess that meant it tasted good too!

Raspberry Version of WASC Cake

2010-06-29T17:45:00.001-07:00

A few months ago I posted about the cake I did for an auction at our church and came up with a Raspberry version of the White Almond Sour Cream Cake. One of my readers asked if I would post the recipe with my changes so here it is!

Sandi's Raspberry WASC Cake

2 boxes of white or yellow cake mix
2 cups of all purpose or cake flour
2 cups of Giradelli's Sweet Ground White Chocolate. (This is in place of the sugar)
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
5 eggs (or 8 egg whites, I use whole eggs, unless I am making a white cake)
1 2/3 cups water
1 cup Torani Raspberry Syrup
4 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
2 cups or a 16 oz. carton of sour cream

I begin by adding all the wet ingredients first, then add the cake mix and blend just a little. I add the salt to the flour and sift a bit to make sure it distributes evenly, and then the sugar. Beat together for about 2 to 3 minutes, will have some lumps, but shouldn't have huge ones.

Pour into prepared pans. I use Cake release by Wilton for all my cakes, as well as baking strips.

A new trick I have tried is using rose nails, directions for that can be found at here. Be sure to read the comments as some readers have some other tricks for larger cakes. I use five when doing a 12in or 14in cake. And I always use baking strips, I have more success with them keeping my cakes more even.

Here is the original recipe for WASC.

Raspberry Filling:
1- 8 oz. pkg Cream Cheese (softened)
1/2 cup Raspberry Jam (seedless)
1- 16 oz. tub Non-Dairy Whipped Topping (Cool Whip) ****I used prepared Pastry Pride instead of Cool Whip, it will hold up better because it stabilized to be used for frosting and fillings.

Instructions

Beat cream cheese in medium sized bowl until creamy. Add jam and beat until very smooth. Add whipped topping and fold into raspberry mixture. It will thicken as you fold in the whipped topping.

I found it too be a bit too tangy so I used more Pastry Pride to give it a sweeter taste. I had a lot left over and found that I need to rewhip the extra when I needed to use it again. Best to use it with in a week.

Happy Birthday April!

2010-05-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

In celebration of my friend April's birthday I made a cake using one of her favorite fondant flowers. The cake is based on this cake from cakejournal, which is one of my favorite decorators! I used a bell flower cutter, and a flower press to make all the flowers for her cake. Very easy to make!

The cake is Raspberry Lemonade with Raspberry mousse filling. I used the WASC cake recipe from Cake Central, using lemon cake mix, lemon flavoring. Taking about 4 cups of the lemon batter, I added a small box of raspberry jello. I divided the lemon batter and poured it in the pans, then added the raspberry batter and swirled it gently. The recipe made two 10x4 inch cakes. For the raspberry mousse I used this recipe but added more pastry pride (stabilized whipped cream). I wanted a more sweet taste than the tangy one the original recipe creates.
I iced the cake in white buttercream and then applied the stems, flowers and leaves. (Leaves & stems are green buttercream). I piped a simple border on the bottom in buttercream.

Happy Birthday April!

Auction Cakes

2010-05-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, I tried a new cake recipe, $25 later for special ingredients and this is what is what happened.
The cake batter rose a lot more than I expected, and thus right over into the oven. Yes, the smoke alarm works well. Then it took forever to bake, and burned on the top but still caved in bit. When I tried to remove it from the pan the side stuck and broke away. I tasted it and didn't like it at all, but my L did and said it was fine. Either way we aren't going to turn this into a fondant decorated cake. So I trimmed the cake, put the pieces in a bowl and will use them to make this:
I cut up the cake, layered it with mixed berries and whipped cream.

After a trip to Smart-N-Final, I decided to go a different route with the cake. Using my White Almond Sour Cream cake base, I tweaked a few things and now have a new version of a White Chocolate Raspberry cake baking in the oven. It's pink because I used Torani Raspberry Syrup in place of one cup of water. Instead of the sugar I used Giradelli's Sweet Ground White Chocolate. Ok, I am not an expert baker, but I took a gamble that these changes would work in this cake. I baked it in a 12 in by 4 in pan, (those are flower nails sticking up. Flower nails help the bake more evenly, great trick I learned from Cake Central.) Pretty Pink Batter:
It baked up beautifully, nice and even, I didn't even trim the tops! I did a 12in and use the rest of the batter in a 8" x 4".
The cake was donated for to auctioned at our annual Talent Show at church. The design was based on the artwork of Mary Englebriet, which I don't think too many people really knew about. I liked the way it turned out, especially the border. I think the cake would look as nice with just the white border! The cake is all done in marshmallow fondant.

The second cake I did was supposed to be used for people to taste, but there was so much cake already there, several people suggested I auction it also. I don't think people really got into the whole silent bidding idea, but we did make a nice amount to donate to the charity we were raising money for. This cake was iced in buttercream with fondant roses. Both cakes were white chocolate raspberry cake with raspberry mousse filling. I was pleased with the results, and I did get some great feedback when they served it on Sunday for our after church fellowship! Definitely going to use this recipe again!

Vote for a Flavor!

2010-05-07T11:23:00.002-07:00

Next week I am planning on making a cake to donate for auction during our church's Talent Show. The theme will be based on the artwork of "Mary Englebreit", trying to avoid using a lot of black. (Fondant is difficult to achieve a good black color, unless you purchase it pre-made). I am still working on the design, but have an idea of what I want.

I need to decide on a flavor to use for the cake, and you get to help decide. I have three flavors with fillings that I want you to vote on.

1. Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Filling

2. Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cream Filling

3. White Chocolate Raspberry Cake with Raspberry Mousse Filling

You only have a few days to get your vote in! I am baking on Wednesday!

My own Cake Wreck

2010-02-25T15:22:00.000-08:00

I now know what it feels like to open the door of the van and see all your hard work tumbled over and waiting for you to desperately rescue it. Thankfully it slid away from the cake I didn't stack and it was ultimately saved. I doubt there is one decorator who hasn't experienced it and if you haven't then let me know what I did wrong!
This cake was supposed to be a surprise for my friend's daughter to celebrate her sweet 16th birthday. Ok, so it was a surprise for more than one person! The design I had on paper looked great but my execution (yes, pun absolutely intended) of it didn't quite make it. With a couple of sketches in hand, I had a couple of my daughter's friends to help me to decide on the final design. Blue, black, 3 tiered cake: Square, Round, Square cake, fondant dots and black ribbon. Simple enough, no problem.

Here is what I learned:
First, don't decide to change the size of the bottom tier at the last minute, because you will waste valuable baking time running to the cake store to buy another pan.

Because you know that the cake store is always closed on Mondays, then you have no excuse to go pick up the filling you procrastinated getting the week before. Because then you will have no excuse to run to the store to purchase another pan thinking it won't be any trouble at all. You should never be purchasing stuff the day before the cake is due, especially the pan since it should already be baked by now!

Second, purchase black fondant, do not try to color your own. Even after using half the bottom black dye, it still looks like a faint brownish purple and will leave lovely purple stains around all your finger nails. Yes, food gloves would have come in handy, but the fondant would still be some brownish purple color.

Third....Make your frosting and fondant ahead of time, there should be no explanation here.

Lastly don't change plans at the last minute UNLESS you absolutely have to. Because I spent so much time running errand at the last minute I didn't take into account the extra time I would need to get the cake finished on time.

So as you can see my biggest issue BEFORE the cake fell over was my lack of planning and preparation. I pushed myself to get it finished and though I was careful in stacking and securing it, it still didn't make it to the church in one piece. Even though I would late getting the cake to the church, I drove carefully and obeyed all traffic laws. One final note, take pictures before you leave. Because I was running late, I didn't take one picture of the finished cake, was going to do that when I arrived.
However I am still not all that sure why the cake fell other than the two cakes I had stacked where not probably prepared properly, or that my bottom cake was not stable enough and slid. The round middle cake was still in one piece, just had the frosting damage. And even then the frosting was easy to smooth out after I picked up and took it inside, the satin ribbon bow was ruined from the frosting of the bottom tier!

So here are pictures of what was left. I didn't take any of the white one, but trust me it looked great, really it did! I do plan to make a smaller version of the cake that fell apart and take it Sunday so she can see what the rest of her cake was supposed to look like!

The top tier. This tier was actually going to sit on top of a bowl filled with black ribbon.

We save about half of the botton tier. We were able to pick up the cake and slide it back together that....Sharon Zambito's buttercream recipe is amazing, it has one mark in the middle where we pushed the cake layers back together!

The dots were supposed to look more frilly, but instead looked more like baseballs and basket balls!And I was worried about the corners looking right! Still amazed they held up as well as they did!

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Red Roses Birthday Cake

2010-01-24T21:23:00.000-08:00

Love the way this cake turned out! My friend's husband requested a cake for his wife's birthday and we surprised her today at church. I think she was pretty surprised!

I used a basket weave impression mat on the side, and love how it turned out.
6 in round, lemon with lemon filling:

10 in lemon cake with lemon and buttercream filling:
12 in chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling:

Final presentation:

Happy Birthday Becky!

Surprise Birthday this weekend!

2010-01-18T12:28:00.000-08:00

This week I am working on my first cake after a long break, I really needed it! It's a surprise for a friend of mine, so I can only give a few details. The person who asked said to go ahead and do what I want, got to love those friends. I am thinking red roses, accented with yellow, buttercream, and maybe a chocolate cake or lemon?? I will start on it later this week, and get the pictures up after Sunday!

Happy Baking! Sandi

"Cake for Romantic Occasions"

2010-01-07T13:36:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite cake designers, May Clay-Cadman, has published a new book "Cakes for Romantic Occasions." I have her first book "Sweet and Simple Party Cakes", and I was very impressed on how well the book was presented. Her directions were easy to follow and were lovely designs that a novice cake decorator could actually accomplish. Her new book doesn't disappoint, and again she has filled the pages full of her beautiful cakes, cookies and cupcakes. Again her directions are easy to follow and understand. One of my favorite designs in this book, is a cake you simply torte and fill, stack, then sprinkle with powdered sugar adding fresh flowers, strawberries and raspberries to give it a beautiful finish. I love the fact she uses a variety of methods that can actually be accomplished without a lot of having to purchase a bunch of fancy or expensive cake tools. Overall a wonderful book for cake designers to add to their book collection!

Happy Holidays

2009-11-28T12:54:00.001-08:00

Happy Holidays to all my blogger friends! The next few weeks are going to be very busy as our family prepares for a variety of activities over the next few weeks. No cakes planned, but do check out my favorite blogs and websites to see what they are baking up this holiday season!

Silvermist Birthday Cake

2009-11-05T09:05:00.000-08:00

I decided to make a cake for my daughter who is having a birthday next week. On Wednesdays we have dinner at church before Bible study and I thought this would be a perfect way to celebrate Lauren's birthday. Since will be not be at church next week, I did her cake a week early and although she knew I was doing a cake, she didn't know what it was going to look like.

I covered the cake in fondant and made all the flowers out of fondant. I got a little creative trying to get make different flowers from the cutters I already have. The water lily took a bit of time, and I never did figure out how to do the center like the real ones, so I just put a yellow dot in the middle. Still cute. Lauren's favorite character in Pixie Hollow is Silvermist and I was fortunate to find a small doll to put on her cake a few weeks ago. (Love those Disney clearance prices!) She was very surprised when I showed her the completed cake with Silvermist right on top!

This cake will be last one for awhile, taking a break for the holidays and other much needed projects! Keep up my favorite blogs (listed to the right) when you need a cake fix!

Silvermist adorns the cake:
Close up of Silvermist and top of the cake. Blue represents water, the fairy talent of Silvermist.

The bottom tier is done in green to represent the Pixie Hollow meadows and fairy's home.

Cake with lots of cupcakes!

Happy Birthday Adrian!

2009-11-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

Adrian's first birthday cake was based on the partyware that her mom used at her party. I found butterfly cutters from Global Sugar Art, and thought they would be easy to use! Well, turns out I need to practice a few more times to get the hang of how these cutters. The butterflies that I did make turned out quite well and I did like the final look of them.

I had originally planned to stack the cakes with the square on the bottom. But as I was decorating, I decided to go with them separate and then elevate the round one on a cake stands. I am not all the pleased with the way the border turned out, but think I can remedy that problem next time by layering them instead of putting one directly on top of the other...to me it makes it look sloppy. Adding the dots really gave it that little extra something it was needing.

The butterflies were made with Satin Ice Fondant. I bought a small tub at our local cake store to try it out. I find it stickier that my MMF, with a slightly different taste. When using the patchwork brand of cutters, they recommend Mexican paste, but I just didn't have the time to make it. I needed to just get them made so they could dry and be ready for me to paint them. I used wilton color gels (like you would use for coloring buttercream & fondant), and painted them a few days later. After the painted was set up and drying I dusted them with Wilton pearl dust. This final step really helped them come to life and blend the colors well.

The cakes are both covered and decorated in Marshmallow Fondant (MMF). The dots are the only part I did in buttercream.
Complete Butterfly Cakes:

Border of round cake:
Butterflies:
Top of the square cake:
More butterflies:
Set up at the party. The small cake is for the birthday girl, topped with little butterfly confetti decorations.

Happy Birthday Ashley!!!!!!!

2009-09-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

Here is the Surprise Birthday Cake! The bottom tier is the one I choose to do based on the voting results. I am not all that thrilled with the other two tiers, but everyone at church gave me lots of compliments. I will definately have to make another cake with diamonds!

All the cakes are frosted in with buttercream, and accented with Marshmallow fondant, and Satin Ice Fondant (all the white blossoms). The large bottom tier is chocolate filled with chocolate buttercream, the other two are lemon cake filled with Raspberry filling.

Happy Birthday Ashley! 18 Years!!!

In progress...

2009-09-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

Got the top and bottom tier done in purple. The middle tier will be done in white. I am finally getting the hang of finishing the frosting with the computer paper! (Sharon's DVD on Buttercream how-to)

Another batch of buttercream, this is for the middle tier. It so beautiful, smooth and bubble free!

Want a hint...

2009-09-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

Purple Buttercream: (first pic is before the powdered sugar)
White fondant blossoms:

Baked a 12 in round chocolate cake, a 10 and 6 in lemon cake today. Good thing I did it today tomorrow is supposed to be in the 100's!

And Diamonds it is...

2009-09-23T09:27:00.001-07:00

Busy week with a lot going on! I am putting together the design for the winning design, can't wait to get it posted with all the details! Thanks for voting!

Happy Birthday Kelly!

2009-09-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

Here is John Kelly's First Birthday Cake! Slowing getting better at getting the frosting on my evenly, and using the computer paper. I also made cupcakes, but didn't get pictures of them. One of my favorite compliments that I received was "That's precious!" from my daughter's 9 year old friend!

Happy Birthday Kelly!!!!

Smash Cake:Close up of fondant one decoration:

Cakes for September and October

2009-09-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

Voting is showing that the diamonds are in the lead by one votes, if you haven't placed your vote, you have a few days left!

Next week I have a birthday cake planned for my friend's little boy. Plans are for a buttercream frosting with chocolate and fondant accents, green and brown color theme. Haven't decided on a flavor or filling yet.

The Surprise cake will be done the last weekend of September, to be delivered to the guest of honor on Sunday morning.

Have another cake in the planning stages for a little girls first birthday. This one is due on October 31st and will be based on this party theme. See lots of potential here!

Surprise Cake Voting Begins!

2009-08-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

This month you get to vote on a cake that you have no idea who it's for, the occasion, or color. You get one hint, it's for a young lady. The pictures are all in black and white, and only partial photos of cakes, so you can't be swayed in choosing the design element based on those elements.

There are four choices, so choose the design element you like the best. Be sure to place your vote in the side poll. You can vote as many times as you want...I will never know! Polls close on September 18. That will give me a week to start putting together the cake to surprise the young lady. Also, feel free to leave a comment what you liked about your choice. Or any ideas that you think would look good with the element your voted on!

Choice #1: Roses
Choice #2: Diamonds
Choice #3: Spring Blossoms Choice #4: Petunias

After I reveal the final cake I will post a complete picture of each cake, in color, with a link to the original cake decorator/designer. Each picture is of a different cake.

Don't forget to place your vote in side bar.
Leave a comment of what you liked about the design element you choose.
And be sure to come back and check out the final cake design!

Horse Birthday Cake

2009-06-23T13:34:00.000-07:00

My daughter requested that I make a birthday cake for her friend. Thinking it was later this summer I said yes. Turns out it was this month, and she wanted the cake for the party they were having last Friday. She was specific about a few details. It had to have horses, grass and a fence. And it had to have a second tier, so that she could save it for her actual birth date (it was just a few days later). I got to work and together we created a cake to surprise the birthday girl with!

The cake is frosted with my trusty recipe for buttercream frosting from Sharon Zambito of SugarED Productions. I now only use Hi Ratio shortening instead of Crisco and have amazing results. I took my time and followed Sharon's method for icing the cake. I still have a lot of trouble with the final step of using the computer paper for the final shine. I did great on the top tier, but I had a lot of trouble with the bottom tier.

Fortuntely the fondant decorations cover most of those little mistakes! The horses are made from cutting them out of chocolate marshmallow. The rest of the decorations are from marshmallow fondant. I painted the fondant with pearl dust to give it a little sparkle and shine.

Happy Birthday Sydney!

Dragonfly Cake

2009-06-21T21:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the cake inspired by the dragonfly ribbon!

The dragonflies were made using white chocolate, much easier than royal frosting. I only had two break when I was placing them on the cake. The frosting is all buttercream.

What did I learn from this cake?

First, don't rush to make the cake, because if it's truly going to be a practice cake then one really should take the time and practice!

Square cakes are definitely harder to frost than round ones. Getting square edges seems nearly impossible, and just when you think you have it, you realize you have removed most of the frosting and now the cake is showing through the corner.

It was a great idea to color the frosting in the lightest shade first, then adjust the color for the next two layers. It was not such a great idea to keep whipping the frosting (more and more air bubbles each time) and then forget to save enough of each color to do the edges. Not easy to match up the color when it's late and your are tired of making a cake.

If you are going to off set the cake layers, make sure nothing hangs over, because frosting has a hard time clinging to the sides in midair. Fortunately only one corner fell off...but did I save frosting to fix NO! So, not only save enough frosting of each color to pipe the border...save enough for touch ups!

Yes, it was a learning experience and I am pretty sure by everyone's reaction at church they like they way it turned out!

Front Top View:Front View:
Back Views:

Totally Awesome New DVD

2009-06-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

After months of anxiously awaiting the latest cake instructional DVD is on it's way to excited cake decorators around the world! I received my copy yesterday, "Happy Birthday To Me!" I have four of Sharon Zambito's Cake DVD's, which I think every new cake decorator needs to have in their cake library. (I only missing the Boxes and Bows, maybe a Christmas gift, hint, hint.) I cannot tell you enough about how it's helped me improve my cake decorating skill. I am by no means a professional, but Sharon's DVDs make you feel like you are right up there with the best of them!

Ok, the New DVD is....I admit I will probably not ever make a topsy turvy cake...well, at least not anytime soon. However, there is plenty of other information to keep me busy with decorating until such time. Sharon explains every step of the cake in the photo from start to finish, (details on what is included on the DVD are here.) I am already putting use some of the techniques I have seen on the DVD into the next two cakes I have planned.

Ok, you ask who is Sharon and why do I care if she has DVD's on decorating cakes? Take a look at her website, and just sit and look at her gallery of unbelievable cakes. Wouldn't you just love to be able to do that? Because of Sharon's generous spirit she embarked on a mission and started creating Instructional DVD's for the novice cake decorator (or those who are stuck in the Wilton mode of decorating!). Starting with "The Art of Perfecting Buttercream", Sharon now has 6 DVD's available for anyone wanting to learn to decorate a cake. Her methods are easy to understand, and buying expensive equipment isn't a requirment to great looking cakes. As you can tell I am definately a fan of her work!

Now it's time for me to start putting together the winning cake design from our June contest. Stay tuned and hopefully I will have pictures of the Dragonfly cake this weekend. My goal is to have it all finished by Saturday and then use it for our church fellowship on Sunday. Then it's time to work on a cake for a friend's birthday, per request of my daughter.

Ribbon Inspired Cake Voting Begins

2009-05-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

I have had an idea for sometime to do a cake based on a ribbon design. A few weeks ago I picked out a few ribbons that I thought would be good to use, I finally narrowed it down to 4, I had way too many choices! If you think this is a little odd, it's amazing what cake decorators will find to inspire them. Here is an example of one baker using ribbon to inspired her cookies. At cakecentral there is a even a cake being designed based on a famous chandelier!

Vote for one choice, you can vote more than once, I will never know! You can click on the picture to see the ribbons better.

For the actual cake I will use the ribbon to inspire the design, so it's not going to look exactly like the ribbon. I don't have really any plans on size, shape or style for now, so until then vote for which ribbon you would like to see as a cake design.

Also, stay tuned a new cake for next week, Chocolate Marshmallow Fondant, pink, strawberries are all a part of this birthday cake!

New Contest Coming!

2009-05-11T10:32:00.001-07:00

My sister-in-law was visiting recently and reminded me it's time for another contest. I have one I am preparing for, what will it be? If all goes as I have planned I will have the new contest posted before the end of this week!

Happy Baking!

56th Anniversary/Wedding Cake

2009-05-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

My husband's parents are visiting from out of state and we had an afternoon reception so they could visit with friends while they are here. My husband requested that I make them a wedding cake to surprise them, since they didn't have one at their wedding. I had an idea of what I wanted to do but it wasn't until last week that I finalized the design. I wanted to avoid a stacked cake so I could cut each tier as needed so I used my floating tiered cake stand. I was planning on using fresh flowers, but opted for silk flowers which went better with the plates and napkins my daughter picked out.

The top two tiers are Lemon cake with lemon cream filling, the bottom tier was all chocolate. I wanted an ivory look instead of pure what, so all I did was used regular vanilla instead of clear and it's just a bit off white buttercream.

I am pleased with what it turned out:

Top tier 6"x 4" lemon cake with lemon cream, swiss dot pattern with shell border.
Middle tier same flavors as one above it. 10" x 4" iced with scrollwork pattern and shell border.
Bottom tier is 12" x 4", chocolate cake and filling, iced in buttercream, then I used a diamond impression mat to imprint diamond pattern.
Top view Of the first two tiers. I put the flowers together using a Styrofoam ball (cut in half) then placed the finished bouquet on top of a piece of parchment paper. When we cut the cake I simply removed the flower bouquet and placed it in place of the cake, the cut the cake. Worked very well.The next cake is still a mystery, maybe a contest, maybe a mother's day cake, don't really know, but I am sure there is a cake out there really to be created!

Allison's Birthday Cake

2009-04-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

I made a cake for a friend's daughter and will be taking it to our meeting tonight to celebrate her birthday. It's a white almond sour cream cake (filled with boysenberry preserves) with marshmallow fondant frosting and accents. I loved doing this cake, and can't wait to see Allison's expression tonight! Inspired by PennySue Cake Central. Here are a bunch of photos! Happy Birthday Allison!

Spring Wedding Cake

2009-04-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night a friend called me and explained that her brother had been taken to the hospital and was in ICU, and that they weren't sure what was wrong with him. Because of that his wife, who needed to be with him, would not be able to make a wedding cake that was due on Saturday. My friend asked if I could help, assuring me she had everything and they really just needed me to decorate the cake. Well, I ended up helping her shop for the pans, purchase the ingredients, and figuring, out what she would need to make a three tiered square wedding cake.

First I have never made a square wedding cake, or a square cake for that matter that I would need to frost.

Second, I had never frosted a cake in Pastry Pride (whipped cream frosting).

And third, I had never made a cake in so short of time.

My friend did help, but I did end up doing most of the work on the cake. She helped me bake the cakes on Thursday. I trim the cakes, and filled them, while she prepared the frosting Friday morning. However by Friday afternoon, I pretty much decided that either the cake would look awful in Pastry Pride.

So my friend and I decided to go with my buttercream, so off to the store to get what we needed. We scraped off the frosting and I frosted the entire in buttercream. By the time I got the cake frosted, stacked and ready for decorating it was already 8 at night. My friend put the ribbon on, at that point we decided to skip the dots and shell border.

At 9:00 we put the final dowel in and packed it in the car. I was supposed to have be on the road to visit friends in another city. She was already supposed to on her way with the cake to where the wedding was to take place then next day, Saturday! At 9:20 we each left, her with the cake, me completely exhausted on my way home to pack! Yep, I wasn't even packed, but I got home, got my packing done, piled everyone in the car and headed to our friends! My friend sent me a text and assured me that cake arrived safe and sound, then after the wedding sent another telling me everyone loved the cake!

Here is the cake all finished and set up at the house where they had the wedding. The flowers were all placed on cake before the wedding. Needless to say I am glad it all worked out well, and best wished to the happy couple!

Here is a photo they sent me of how the cake turned out:

Chocolate Tools and boxes

2009-03-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

After I finished the jungle cake for the baby shower, I spent last week making chocolate tool boxes, tools, and hearts for our women's retreat. Thankfully my DD helped and we managed to get 48 treat bags filled with hearts and 46 tool boxes made. Also we made several dozen tools and hearts to complement the tool boxes. Our theme was "Extreme Makeover: Heart Edition" the reason for the tools and hearts.

We made these hearts also in white and pink chocolate, then put them in little bags and tied them up with pink ribbon. They were placed on the pillows of each retreat guest.
Chocolate Set of Tools and Tool box. We also did these is pink and white chocolate:
Each retreat lady enjoyed her own stash of chocolate and when home with there tools and boxes:

I didn't have this picture the other day when I did the cake photos. This is how we presented the cake, the candy favors on the table were provided by the hostess and the giraffe was a gift from my DD.

It's a Jungle of A Cake

2009-03-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

I have to admit this cake was such a great concept on paper and I couldn't wait to get started. Then after three days of making animals I quickly decided this cake was a lot of work! I did preserve and I finished Saturday night. Seeing the reactions from the parents-to-be at the shower made it all worth the effort. Ok, I also admit I just about couldn't bear to see it cut, but I finally did let the guests have their cake and eat it too.

Using the Hi-Ratio shortening in the frosting was amazing, no more Crisco brand for my cakes. Basically Hi-Ratio shortening is the "old school" shortening, before companies started taking trans fat out of everything. It's a good idea for our health, but bad for making awesome frosting for cake decorating. It creates a creamy, non-gritty texture and it also much smoother to frost the cake.

And now the for the pictures:

Jungle Animals

2009-03-19T23:59:00.000-07:00

I spent most of today getting the candy melts prepared for the animals that I am using on the Zanzibar Jungle cake. I was able to get a few made. I am not completely happy with how my animals are turning out, but as always I am my worst critic! Yesterday had I baked the cake layers, but the bottom layer didn't bake well, so today I baked a new 12 in layer, which turned out very well.

Here are the animals I finished up today. I am making extra ones of each so I plenty if any break. Tomorrow I need to finish up a couple giraffes, and monkeys. I also need to get the fondant ready that I am using for the grass, tree and other decorations. I am not sure I am going to let anyone cut the cake after spending all this time on it!

Ribbon Roses Heart Cake

2009-03-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

This cake seem to take me forever to get finished. I will admit, it's not my best work and I am not all that happy with the final look. I am my worst critic, and I know where I rushed and where I skimped a bit. The Fondant should have a smoother texture, but I rushed and didn't take the time to get all the air bubbles out and stiffen it up. The top design is not quite what I had anticipated and would have like to see a more defined heart shape. The ribbon roses, which seemed to be easy to form, took me a few attempts, but eventually I did get a few I was happy with. My leaves didn't form tips, seems to be an issue I haven't quite figured out to fix.

Of course, this is a learning cake and the whole purpose of it was to practice. So I did learn a few things:

How to make Red Velvet from scratch, and have it taste good.
I tried a new cream cheese frosting recipe, which crusts very well
Take more time getting the fondant prepared ahead of time.
I made the rope border using my new sugarcraft gun, I can see lots of potential for using this tool more in the future.
I did a lot of procrastinating on this cake and to make up time I rushed over a few elements.

Thanks to all those who voted, now for the pictures. Now if I just had the nerve to cut the cake and serve it after all that work!

This week I am working on the Zanzibar Baby Shower Cake. I will start baking and working rest of preparations tomorrow. Today, Tuesday, is always a busy school day, and I will only be working on getting the templates ready for the chocolate transfers. Tomorrow I will bake the cake, prepare the frosting and fondant, and get started on the decorations. I won't actually put the entire cake together until Friday, with final set it up on Saturday. Even the though the shower is Sunday, it's right after our church services, so setting it up on Saturday is my best option. Hopefully I can get the pictures posted over the weekend.

Done

2009-03-16T23:35:00.001-07:00

The cake is done, but no pictures...yet. I will get them posted just as soon as I can on Tuesday.

Proof I am making a Cake!

2009-03-11T14:03:00.001-07:00

I am, I am, I am working on the Valentine's cake, here is proof!! I just filled it with cream cheese frosting. I won't work on it anymore today, but will let it rest overnight and finish it tomorrow by covering it with fondant and ribbon roses.

Also, I have two cakes I am working on a shower cake for next weekend, and a birthday cake in April. Details coming later.

Valentine's Day Cookies

2009-03-07T21:38:00.001-08:00

I know it been too long and I haven't posted the winning cake design. There has been much going on and I have had to wait on decorating February's cake. I will try to get it done this week, but no promises. On Valentines I did manage to get a few cookies made. My original idea didn't work, but what I did come up with I think turned out pretty.

For the month of March I was planning on doing a vote on a baby cake - however the person I was going to do it in honor of - became a Grandmother two months early. I didn't even get a chance to tell her what I planning on doing! Well, a couple weeks ago a friend of ours called and announced they were expecting their first baby. They used to live in the area and will be coming to visit in a couple of weeks. My friend and I are giving them a baby shower. I already have the theme for the cake, so no voting this month, but check back in a few weeks and I will post pictures of the finished cake.

The Winner is...

2009-02-13T21:45:00.000-08:00

Ribbon Roses! Wow a close vote again!

I did get the cakes baked, but I won't be able to get the cake finished until next week. We have a full weekend. Monday and Tuesday are busy also, so it will have to wait until next week. It will keep nicely in the freezer until then.

Check back next week for the cake, and hopefully valentine's cookies tomorrow!

Red Velvet Cake

2009-02-13T14:34:00.000-08:00

Today I baked my cakes for the Valentine heart cakes using this recipe that found at one of my favorite cupcake blogs, "How To Eat A Cupcake." Cassie has some of the most amazing cupcake recipes. The only change I made was I used coffee in place of the water. I used Americolor gel paste in Red Red, and very pleased with the look. I only used about about a tablespoon of color.

I was planning on making cream cheese frosting to fill it with, but I am considering using the frosting recipe Cassie used on her cupcakes. From what I have tasted of the cake scraps from torting the cake, I think the boiled frosting would be a better compliment to the cake.
I used the set of heart pans that were grandmother's, and they baked the batter up very nicely. The pans are not very deep, so the layers are about 1 1/2 inch tall. I did have torte them, but I didn't have to take too much off.

Now to make the fondant, filling and frosting, and see which design wins, only and hour left to vote.

While the cakes were baking I mixed up a batch of No Fail Sugar Cookies. I made a couple of changes my using half butter, half butter flavored shortening, and adding about a teaspoon of almond flavoring. If I have time to bake them and cover them with Chocolate Fondant.

Valentine's Cake - Time to Cast your Vote!

2009-02-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

I have to admit this month's cake designs was hard to narrow down, there are dozens of heart cakes I wanted to try! The three in the photo are what I finally decided on. The cake will be a Red Velvet Cake, with Cream Cheese Frosting as Filling. There is a short description for each cake next to the drawing, and below that, there are a few examples of the techniques that are possibilities for the cake.

I tried to draw the best I could, but I will admit, drawing a rose isn't my best skill. There are three cakes designs to choose from and I put a short description by each cake. Lace and Roses will have a center bunch of roses, either in buttercream or fondant. The cornelli lace will be done in white buttercream. The Diamonds and Roses will have buttercream or fondant roses, with a diamond impression on the side (it won't be pink). The last cake, the Ribbon roses, the tiny roses will all be done in fondant. All roses will be red, and the cakes will all be iced in white. I wanted to get the picture up as soon as I could, so it's not the best at the moment. I will edit later, but I wanted to be able to have you start voting as soon as possible. You can click on the photo and get a slightly bigger view.

Example of Diamond impression on side of cake. My cake may or may not have the dots accenting the diamonds.

Example of Cornelli Lace and roses for the Lace and Roses Cake:
Example of Ribbon Roses. The top of the Ribbon Roses will have a roses in a heart similar to this with tiny roses on the side:

Voting begins today and will be until next Friday. I am not sure if I will have the cake ready for Valentines, but I will do my best!

Next month's cake contest will be something different that I what I originally decided, so say tuned, I haven't decided exactly what it will be! (edited to say I haven't decided...)

January Snowflake Cake

2009-01-24T15:28:00.000-08:00

It took me several days but I got it all done this afternoon. I did make more snowflake and it's a good thing, they do break quite easily, and I broke quite a few of them trying to get them on the cake.

Off set oval top tier with 10" round cake, buttercream frosting (with chocolate frosting filling) with royal icing snowflakes. Here is the final cake!

Front of Cake:

Back of cake:

A small flurry of snowflakes

2009-01-21T10:31:00.000-08:00

While I wait for the aspirin to take effect I thought I would post a few pictures of the royal icing snowflakes. The aspirin isn't just that my hand is a little sore, but I am not feeling all that great and even thought I would planning to fill the cakes today and frost tomorrow, not sure if I am up to it yet. Although I did take the cakes out of the freezer to thaw, so I can't wait too long to get the cake put together.

Royal Icing snowflakes are not exactly hard, but not all that easy either, sort of trial and error trying to get the right consistency of frosting, the right tip, the right design for the getting the perfect looking snowflake. Something I have been doing over that last two days and not sure I have mastered, but I think I have enough snowflake for my simple cake.

Once they dry then you have to make sure you can remove them from the plastic without breaking them. Not quite an easy feat, as you will see in the photos.

Several of the snowflakes did break here and there, but I am not too worried. I figured I could either carefully piece them together, or use them in the design as is.

I prepared the frosting the other day by tinting a soft blue, giving it a bit of color will hopefully give it a more festive flair and not a wedding flair I am trying to avoid.

And the winner is

2009-01-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

by one vote, the Snowflake cake! No promises on when I will have this cake done and pictures posted, I am aiming for this week. (I am on call for jury duty next week, so if I am called in, I won't be doing any cakes.) Thanks for all those who voted! I better get started on those snowflakes!

Merry Christmas To Me!

2009-01-12T10:39:00.000-08:00

I used some of my Christmas money to do a little cake shopping from my never ending cake tool wishlist. Trying to decide which items to get now and which to wait on was hard, but this is what I finally chose. I received them all, except for the clay gun it was on backorder from SugarShack. It was definitely one tool I was anxious to get for sometime.

A rose bead mold. Can't wait to try this on a cake! I love roses and this was perfect.

Daisy Cutters by Jem Cutters. I needed a different style of flower and this one hopefully will be a nice addition to my collection.

Multi Flower Veiner.

I love my other veiner, but needed some variety in styles. This should be a nice addition to go with my new daisy cutter and others already in my collection.

Set of Fondant Smoothers (as featured in Sugar Shack's DVD "Flawless Fondant"). This set is a lot larger than the Wilton one I have been using. I am hoping this will improve my ablity to get fonant on my smoothly.

A Claygun for making all kinds of special decorative edging. I have heard a lot of decorators talk about this and have been wanting to get one for a long time. After watching Sugar Shack's new video (see below), I have a dozen reasons to put it to use.

And a brand new DVD by Sugar Shack:

From Sharon's Website:

"Looking for inspiration and want to enhance your design skills? This DVD is a video slide show of some of Sharon Zambito's favorite creations. Sharon narrates this beautiful on-screen display that is set to pleasant background music. As you view over 120 photos her most popular cake designs, she discusses some of the techniques and tools used in each design. Hear helpful hints and ways to avoid pitfalls. The cakes are grouped into seven categories so you can watch just the section you want to at that time. A great source of ideas for decorators of all skill levels.

Please Note: This is not an instructional DVD, and does not give a complete description of every technique used on each cake. It is intended to be an idea source for cake designs, to help you spark ideas for your own creations."

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at purchasing a DVD that wasn't going to really "teach" me anything. However what I found was not only are Sharon's Cakes absolutely extraordinary (as always!) you can see the details, and you can really study what the cake looks like. As she states not everything on every cake is discussed. What I did learn was a couple of new techniques that I can try out and others I can improve on. Sharon has another DVD coming out soon, so you will want to check out her website and blog to find out when it is available.

Between the new DVD and my tools, I can't wait to get started on a cake. Which one will it be? If you haven't voted for the January Design it's not too late! (Voting is on the right hand-side, just click on your favorite).

January Cake: Which Design to Use?

2009-01-05T16:34:00.000-08:00

A new year and a new reason to make a cake! This year I want to make a practice cake each month (or at least try!) and I thought I would give my friends and family a chance to help me out. This month I would like you to vote on which design I will use for my January cake. The cakes won't be exactly like the pictures, I may change the color, shape or size of the cake, but I will keep with the same design.

The pictures are all from cake central and will link back to the original photo and decorator's information. This month I have chosen three different styles for you to vote on:

First design is a Peggy Porschen style cake, one of my favorite cake decorators. When decorating for this style of cake I would use fondant to cover the cake with fondant accents. (Cake Central Member rouv).
Second is a snowflake themed cake, perfect for the winter weather of January. I would use buttercream frosting and make the snowflakes with royal icing for this cake. (Cake designed by cake central member heavenlycakes.)The last design is a scroll work design (most likely without the flowers and swags). I used a scroll work pattern on a wedding cake, but wanted to get it another try. For this particular cake, I would use all buttercream. (Cake designed by Cake Central Member KoryKA)
The poll ends Sunday, January 18 and I will bake the winning design and get it posted as soon as possible. Happy Caking!

Hello Kitty Castle

2008-11-17T18:58:00.001-08:00

Hello Kitty now has her own castle.

The bottom layer is the chocolate version of the WASC and the top layer is lemon version. Covered in marshmallow fondant. Fortunately the birthday girl helped with the decorations and I was able to get it finished a couple of hours before the party. I was in such a hurry to get it finished that I missed taking the time to do a few things better. The towers on the castle part are a bit crooked because I didn't prepare with the dowels as I should have. The royal icing was a bit too thin and made more of blobs that leaves.

The birthday guests were definitely impressed and didn't notice that the tower was crooked or my leaves looked like blobs, they were just so excited to see it.

This is the cake the before I finished putting the towers on and painted the pearl dust on it.

Completed Castle Cake just for Hello Kitty:

Hello Kitty Birthday

2008-11-08T00:30:00.000-08:00

It's time for another cake and this one is for my daughter who is celebrating her 11th birthday on the 11/11! We are planning to do a Hello Kitty Castle cake to go with the party supplies she picked out. Her party is Friday, so have all week to work on it.

I plan to cover the cake in fondant and match as best I can to the style of the plates and napkins. DD will help with the prep work, and probably with baking the cakes. She is a good assistant, and will probably come up with a few decorating ideas that I haven't thought of!

Baby Shower Cakes

2008-10-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

My friend's daughter and husband are expecting their first baby. Today we gave her a baby shower and I did two different cakes, mainly because she choose two designs from cakecentral.com and I just couldn't decide which one...there were both sooo cute!

A Family of Ducks Baby Shower Cake

Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd/Cream Cheese Filling, Marshmallow Fondant Frosting.

Family Duck Pond Baby Shower Cake

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting Filling. The top is white buttercream covered with a thin layer of blue tinted piping gel, and buttercream "bubbles." The mom-to-be proved the little family of ducks.

I have two other cakes I did last week, but don't have the pictures right now. I will post them on my blog just as soon as I get them!

Vacation and Cake Planning

2008-09-17T15:18:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I have been taking a vacation from cake decorating and will be getting back into my cake making next week. I have to two cakes to do, one for a Christmas dinner for our Church Choir, and another for a baby shower in a couple of weeks.

We recently returned home from a family vacation to Walt Disney World. Here is just a small slide show of the first part of trip, and there is even a cake included in it!

Mommy and Me Patriotic Cake

2008-07-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

I wanted to practice getting my icing smooth on a cake, so I got out my last cake from the freezer and went to work. I am getting better, but need to get much stronger boards for support. The beautifully smooth cake cracked when we picked it up to move it. After I got the sides done I pipped the boarder on, then left the rest for Lauren to finish.

Since we would be celebrating the 4th with friends, I decided to go with a patriotic design for Our Independence Day. Lauren and I found several different red, white, and blue decorations (gotta love those clearance sections right before a holiday!) and decided they would work well on the cake. I gave Lauren free reign on designing the cake with her decorations (ok, I gave just a couple, very, very few, suggestions.) With decorations in hand and a piping bag she went to work. She did a great job, much different that I expected it to be. I love the way she grouped her designs and gave it a 3-D effect. When we took the cake to our gathering on Friday, there were a lot of oh's and ah's and I did brag a bit on Lauren (who later told me I was embarrassing her!)

Top View of Completed Cake:

The center of the top of the cake:

Side Views of the Cake:

Red Roses Wedding Cake

2008-06-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

A last minute wedding cake. I enjoyed working with the bride and her mom. They choose to use my floating tier cake stand and wanted red roses. I didn't tell the bride what the final design was until we delivered it Sunday. I didn't quite give myself enough lead time and ended up being an hour late! It still turned out well and I was quite pleased with how this cake turned out!

Nothing fancy for the presentation, just a pretty cake with red roses! Congratulations Tony and Erica!

Top Tier close up:

Sweet 16

2008-06-15T18:20:00.000-07:00

My friend's daughter celebrated her 16th birthday a few days ago and I did a simple cake for her. Covered and decorated in Marshmallow Fondant, it was a little easier than the wedding cake the week before! I didn't want it to be frilly, just fun and colorful and here is what it came up with! The tiny hole is the middle is where is the candle was!

It's Official

2008-06-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

I have made my first wedding cake. It seemed to take forever, but it was a big success. Unfortunately I seemed to have misplaced my camera and depending on others for pictures! Here is one that my DH took. Over all I am pleased, still have to refine the art of stacking cakes, and scrollwork. A friend did the flowers and they really added to the final look of the cake. All white cake with ivory buttercream frosting. It was delicious! (The black image in the middle of the flowers is actually a glass etching of the bride and groom. It was hard to see so they put a black paper behind it.)

Close up of Wedding Cake:

Presentation on cafe style table under the decorated arch:

Sweet and Simple Party Cakes

2008-06-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

I just received a new cake book from my craft book club. Gotta love those half price sales! This newly release book is written by May Clee-Cladman of Maisie Fantaisie from the UK entitled "Sweet and Simple Party Cakes." The majority of her ideas in this book is using fondant and gumpaste, very popular in the UK and becoming just as popular here in the US. It's not just a book about cakes, but how to actually decorate the examples in the photos.

The author introduces you to a variety of basic for baking and decorating cakes. She gives an overview of equipment you may need, recipes to get you started and the basics on preparing your cake to be decorated.

Each chapter is divided by color categories rather than by holiday, event or celebration. What I found most helpful with this book was how the author takes one concept and reworks it match a different color or event. Instructions for every design are included in the book, some a bit more detailed than others. Most of the designs are simple as the title implies, with only a few that would be more complicated. One thing to keep in mind is this is written with European instructions, so various items or terms may differ from those that we have here in the states.

The photos are well done and show the details of many of the cakes. Templates are also included. With this book I think I could come up with dozen of cakes based on her ideas and creations. However until then I have a wedding cake to prepare for. Time to go make the frosting!

More Bake Sale Cakes

2008-06-02T12:06:00.001-07:00

Although they look quite fancy, they were quite easy! The Chocolate Cake is just that... Chocolate! Filled with Chocolate and covered in chocolate frosting! The cookies on the sides are chocolate covered vanilla filled piroutee cookies.

This one is a vanilla strawberry cake with strawberry jam as the filling on on top. White Buttercream frosting. Both cakes were baked in my oval pans from the Wilton Course 2 Kit. Love them!

Stay tuned...it's the week of my first wedding cake! I start baking tomorrow!

Happy Baking!

Edelweiss Flower Cookies

2008-05-11T18:54:00.001-07:00

This year our theme for our annual Ladies' Tea at our church was "The Sound of Music." Back in January I started discussing ideas for edelweiss cookies and took a look at what a real edelweiss flower looked like, checked out cookie ideas from Cake Central, and tested out the No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe. This week was the week to create my interpretation of the edelweiss flower in a cookie.

I made the dough and the fondant earlier this week, using the No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe and Marshmallow Fondant from Cake Central. I also tinted royal frosting yellow to use for center buds. On Thursday I practiced the best way to bake and frost, working in small batches made it the process go pretty well. By Saturday morning I had made over a 100 cookies.

Here is how they turned out.
First I cut out the dough with a large petal cookie cutter and while those baked I prepared the fondant for the top. After rolling out the fondant, I used my imprint pin to imprint the tulips on it. I used a different cookie cutter for the fondant and cut out as many as I needed and set those aside. I thinned down a little piping gel and had it ready to put on the cookies when they come out the oven.
After removing the cookies from the oven, I let them only sit for a second or two. (I baked them on parchment paper, great idea and I didn't have to clean my pans, and you can reuse the paper until you are finished baking.) I brushed a light coat of the gel on then very carefully matched up the petals as best I could. Having the large size cookie and smaller fondant worked well since I didn't have to match up exactly, but I did have to position them carefully. I didn't want them to look perfect, because the real edelweiss flower isn't at all perfectly shaped or even.

Besides making cookies, Lauren did the majority of little chocolate notes and treble clefs for the plate. I didn't even get a picture of that. I also hosted one of the tables at the tea, which meant providing everything expect the tablecloth, serving plates, napkins, and centerpiece. The room was too look like a big green meadow. In one are was a giant display of the Swiss Alps and in another a puppet theater similar to the one in the Julie Andrew's movie. Here are two pictures of my table, it shows both sides of the table. For favors I molded pink candy melts in one of my brown bag cookie molds. It represented my favorite things, pink and roses...and one of my favorite collections, my cookie molds. We also include a small bag with a rose candle.

It was a very nice tea and all the ladies enjoyed learning about each others favorite things and enjoying a lovely lunch. Everyone loved the cookies and I was pleased with both the taste and the design.

Bridal Shower Cake

2008-04-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

Since my birthday cake wasn't quite as successful as I had hoped, I wanted to make sure the bridal shower cake I was asked to do would be. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but the cake didn't really come together until I went to set it up at the church.

I made an 8" and a 10" white almond sour cream cake with raspberry filling. I covered it with a thin layer of buttercream and Marshmallow fondant. I cut out several different types of flowers after I imprinted them with my new "rolling pin." I got the idea from one of the cakes in Peggy Porchen's Book.

After I got the cakes to church and saw how the room was decorated, I figured out what look to go for. With a trip to the craft store, some blue ribbon, a little tulle, and a candle, here is my third bridal shower cake.

Top tier with Candle:
First tier of cake:
Bottom tier of cake:Back view of cake:

Cake Presentation:

Now to start designing their wedding cakes.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-04-24T22:09:00.000-07:00

My birthday was last week and I decided I was going to make my own birthday cake. Ok, my birthday was over a week ago and I am finally getting around to getting a post written up for it!

I thought about what I wanted, but my final cake design wasn't quite what I had envisioned.

I had baked the cakes the week before since I knew I wouldn't have time the week of my birthday. I didn't think that would be a problem, but when I defrosted them were quite..uh, moist.

Then came the frosting. I followed Sugarshack's recipe and instructions. But when I went to taste test it, something seemed very wrong. It was gritty, and very greasy and didn't look smooth at all. I tasted it and it just didn't taste like my "normal" buttercream frosting. Hummm, I didn't use Crisco, but a store brand shortening, and a different brand of powdered sugar. I decided not to worry about it.

I had this grand idea that would make fondant roses. I tried several different methods, I really wanted a realistic looking rose. Unfortunately, I woke up Tuesday feeling quite miserable and didn't feel very successful in my attempt at roses. At this point I can't even remember if I filled that cake Tuesday or on Wednesday!

I still didn't feel all that great on Wednesday, my birthday. I got breakfast in bed, and about an hour to myself. I put off doing the cake until later since my DH took the day off and we decided to get out for lunch and stop at a local yarn shop. After we got back, DH took the kids to where they needed to be. I stayed home and attempted to finish my birthday cake.

Ok, remember I said the frosting tasted and looked different, well, I started the Sugarshack method to putting on buttercream. Only to discover that when I got the smoothing with the paper towel part, the frosting hadn't crusted. Ok, no problem, I will just redo it and make it look more homemade. I stacked the cakes together and it was a bit crooked, but at this point I didn't even care!

Since the whole rose thing didn't work out for me, I decided to use my tried and true flower press and flower cutter. I got quite few prepared and had them ready, and put them on. I ended up having to make a bunch more to get them go all the way around the bottom layer. I tried to add the leaves, but the frosting was to thin, so I added some powdered sugar. which I didn't get mixed up well enough. So needless to say the leaves were a bit of challenge to get on. So here it is.

Lemon Birthday Cake

2008-03-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

This cake was a last minute idea when I was talking with a couple of friends the other night. One of the ladies mentioned it was her husband's birthday on Sunday, which just also happened to be my turn to bring snacks to class at church Sunday morning. The result was a Lemon Cake with Buttercream frosting and lemon garnish.

I used my tried and true WASC (recipe link at the right), but made a couple of adjustments. I used a Duncan Hines Lemon Cake mix and instead of adding vanilla or almond flavoring, I juiced one lemon, added a little Creme Bouquet flavoring and grated the rind of the lemon into the batter. Instead of 8 egg whites, I used 5 whole eggs instead. The result was perfect!

For the filling I layered cream cheese frosting and lemon curd.

I frosted the cake with Sharon's buttercream recipe, which looks a bit cream colored instead of white because I used a little bit of butter flavored crisco. I actually like the look, especially with the lemons. I used a diamond impressed mat that I purchased from Sugared Productions, and followed Sharon's instructions on how to use it. I was pleased with the results of my first try!

Because I iced the cake Saturday, I didn't want the lemons to sit on the cake so I waited until morning to put them on. Cake isn't normally what I would serve as a breakfast treat, but it was a special birthday for a special friend!

Larger Cake, this one went home with the family:

Small Cake, we ate this one right away in class!

Both Cakes, you can see the side a bit better with the diamond impression pattern:

Belated Valentine Cake Photos...

I made a simple White Almond Sour Cream cake using the Valentine's Cake Mix for my family a few days after Valentines. I baked them using a set of heart pans that were from my Grandmother. The cakes baked amazing well in her pans even without any baking strips and I didn't even have to trim the top of my heart cakes.

I filled and covered the cake with milk chocolate Ganache. The roses are Red Satin Ice Fondant and Royal Icing Leaves. I wasn't too worried about the cake being smooth and just left it casual looking.

Family Valentine Cake:Close up Of Fondant Roses:

Sugar Shack's Fondant DVD

2008-03-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

I forget to mention in the last post I used Sugar Shack's latest DVD on how to cover a cake in fondant. I decided that since I wanted to make a cake for the bake sale and my DVD had just arrived, this was a perfect time to try out her method. I followed her instructions and the only real issue I had was getting the fondant on the cake without any folds. However it was a lot better than with previous cakes. I was pleased with the results.

Sharon has another DVD in the works entitled "Successful Stacking" Here is a brief overview from her website. You can pre-order and save a couple of $.

Sharon Zambito will lead you through the complete process of stacking a multi-tiered cake, using a method which minimizes the amount of damage that occurs to the icing during the process. Learn how to stack in a way that will allow very small borders or no borders at all.The techniques taught in this lesson can also be applied to many different types of stacking systems and equipment. This complete step-by-step video also includes a full supply list and suggested vendors.

Sharon's DVD is looking pretty tempting!!!!

Pastel Blue Cake

2008-03-05T13:45:00.000-08:00

I made a cake for our youth's bake auction, it sold for $80! Didn't go for quite as much as a little plate of brownies, that went for $200. They waited to sell my cake last...next time I am going to request they sell it BEFORE the brownies!

Marshmallow Fondant Icing
White Almond Sour Cream Cake with Chocolate Chip Frosting Filling
Painted with Pearl Dust

Happy Valentine's Day Cakes!

2008-02-13T20:41:00.001-08:00

I did two cakes for our Valentine's dinner tonight. The first one is all chocolate with raspberry filling. White Marshmallow Fondant, Red Satin Ice Fondant, buttercream accent. 12 inch, 2 layer cake.

This one is a 8 inch one layer of white almond sour cream cake, the second one is chocolate, filled with chocolate chip frosting. Roses are duff style. Red Satin Ice Fondant. White Marshmallow fondant with buttercream accents and leaves. I painted the red on both cakes with luster dust.

Castle Cake Details

2008-02-11T15:49:00.000-08:00

We took some more pictures at the shower of the cake, and you will notice that they added some red tulle around the bottom.

The bottom layer is all chocolate cake with chocolate frosting filling. The middle layer is White Almond Sour Cream Cake with Raspberry. The top tier is one layer of chocolate and one layer of WASC, with chocolate frosting filling.

I covered the cake with Buttercream icing and learned that if you want smooth frosting you really need to get SugarShack's DVD. The first batch of icing I didn't follow her directions on how to make the icing properly, I only used her recipe. I watched her demonstration on YouTube while I made the second batch...and the results was amazing. You could really see the difference between the two.

On Friday I frosted the layers with the Buttercream DVD close by listening to Sharon explain each step. This is certainly something I will have to get the hang of. I did have straighter sides, albeit a bit angled still. The frosting did get smooth, I just have to figure out how to use the paper step and keep from accidentally poking my finger in it!

Once I got them all finished we packed everything up in the car and headed to church to put it together. I pretty much understand how to get the tiers doweled and ready for to put the cake together. However what I didn't take in account for what how to actually get the cake onto the other cake. Needless to say I will need to learn how to do that without messing up the nice job I did on the buttercream icing. I had to spend sometime fixing it in a few places.

I piped the borders and prepared the towers - I needed to put dowels on the bottom of a few of them. Once those were ready, I put it all on the cake, piped the green leaves on, and put the roses on it. The only really problem I had was when I dropped one of the "cones" for the top of towers into the frosting. I tried to fix it and hoped nobody would look to closely!!

I cleaned up everything and then worried all night and the next morning about it all falling apart! Fortunately it was all in one piece when I got the shower and everyone was giving me a lot of compliments. My favorite was when someone (who is a cake decorator) asked me how I got the frosting sooo smooth. Thanks, Sharon, it's all because of her DVD. They took dozen of photos with the cake.

As I have had time to think about it, there are few things I wish I would have done. Mainly making a few more larger flowers (except on the towers, I like them just the way they were) and putting more decorations like swags or something decorative on the sides.

Overall I am pleased with how it turned out. The ladies who decorated used a bistro style table for the cake so it was a bit higher up, very striking, and did a great job with the extra touch of tulle and little decorations around it. Here are a few more pictures. Tomorrow I am doing two more cakes for our Valentines dinner, only because I had several extra layer left over from this cake. They have kept very nicely in the freezer.

Cake with Turret Missing on Right side. Fortunately I found it and not one person noticed it was missing when I got there before the Shower:Final Presentation with Missing Turret and Red Tulle:

Roses close up near door on front of the cake:
Overhead View:

Mickey And Minnie centerpiece, thought it was cute!

TA DA!

2008-02-08T20:40:00.000-08:00

Here it is! I finished it at church today. I am tooooo tired to write much right now, so enjoy the pictures and I will post more tomorrow! And let you know how everyone liked it at the shower.

All ready for the shower tomorrow:

Back View of Castle Cake:

Close up of Front of Castle Cake:

Cake Set Up at the Fellowship Hall were the Bridal Shower for M. is.

Windows and Roses

2008-02-05T16:52:00.000-08:00

Finished Roses with Luster Dust and few more extras. All done making fondant roses.

Today I piped white royal icing on the "windows" of each column/tower, each window, a door and roof peak, sprinkling them with cake sparkles. After that I place 3 flowers on each window and set them aside to dry.

Towers and windows with royal icing leaves.

Close up of roses on tower, roof peak, and window.

Castle Cake Preparations

2008-02-04T13:36:00.000-08:00

I spent most of last week trying to figure out just how I was going to put together the castle cake for the bridal shower coming up this Saturday. Cake Central has several discussions in their forums on using the Wilton castle kit, most to say how much trouble they had with it. Two main things I learned were to put the cake together at the site, and secure the columns as best as possible.

After playing around with couple ideas for flowers I decided on making small fondant roses and rosebuds. After I am finished with them I will paint them with luster dust to give them a bit of shine and elegance.

This is what I have made so far:
I made a batch of royal icing and practiced piping it around the window on one of the columns and experimented with the edible glitter. I also wanted to make sure that the tiny rosebuds would stay secured to the columns. For the cake I will secure the roses with green colored royal icing. So far everything I have tried hasn't been to difficult and the roses seem to be holding to the columns just fine.

Practice Window: Royal Icing around "window" with edible glitter and 3 rosebuds.

Testing the royal icing on the columns:

Roses for Cake before Luster Dust: The roses have white cornstarch on them, once they are painted with the luster dust the cornstarch won't be seen.
Close-up of rose-buds on window:

Tomorrow I hope to get the flowers are painted, and start baking the cake layers.

Blossom Flower Set

2008-01-31T14:31:00.000-08:00

I finally ordered the Blossom Flower Set from Global Sugar Art and it arrived yesterday. I also order a couple of extra cutters. The top three are a set of bell flowers, works perfect with the double sided veiner. The blossom set is the middle cutter and veiners. The bottom is a dog rose cutter. I experimented with some of my Marshmallow fondant and later made these flowers, with the large bell flower cutter and petal veiner. So easy to do!

That isn't all of them I used the rest on a batch of cupcakes for tonight. Vanilla with Brown Sugar frosting. The colors are very light, but very pretty. I love my new tools! Thanks to CakeJournal for all her inspiration on using them. She also includes a how-to on using this set.

Upcoming Projects

2008-01-24T12:44:00.000-08:00

I have been asked to do a couple of projects over the next few months and decided to get started right away on getting prepared.

The first is a Castle Wedding Shower Cake. The request was for the cake to serve about 75 people, with white buttercream and red roses. I decided to go with this castle kit from Wilton and was able to use my 50% coupon at Michael's. Since the person asked for red roses I ordered red fondant so I wouldn't have any issues with color.

My second project is Valentine Cupcakes. I picked up a silicone heart cupcake pan at Michael's, all their shaped pans are on sale this week. I would like to try covering the cupcakes in rolled buttercream and try decorating them. I bought some valentine cake mix that I can use with my White Almond Sour Cream Cake Recipe. I was asked to make something with edelweiss flowers for our Mother's Day Tea in May. (The theme is "The Sound of Music.") I know it's really early to be thinking Mother's Day, but I wasn't sure what to do with Edelweiss flowers, and honestly I didn't even know what they looked like until last week! After trying to figure out a few options I came up with the idea to make cookies and then decorate them with Royal Frosting to resemble an Edelweiss Flower. I have several different daisy cookie cutters that will work for the shape. However since I haven't ever tried to make sugar cookies or decorate them with royal frosting I should probably try them early and not a week before the tea. Maybe some valentine cookies or easter eggs, all depends on how much time I have to practice.

Edelweiss Flowers:

Sugar Shack's Awesome DVDs!

2008-01-14T19:41:00.000-08:00

In my quest for trying to cover my cakes with buttercream and get them smooth I spent hours reading through the forums on Cake Central. And thankfully one of the members, Sugar Shack, decided to help us all out and produced a DVD, "Perfecting the Art of Buttercream, A Step by Step Guide to Icing the Perfect Cake," to share all her secrets to a super smooth finish! At first I wasn't all that sure I needed it, so I waited to hear what the other members had to say about it. After reading all the wonderful reviews on how helpful her DVD was I decided to invest in it. Ok, I haven't actually had an opportunity to try frosting a buttercream cake, I have learned how to use her method to make the frosting and fill a cake without bulging! Sugar Shack, also know as Sharon, creates absolutely beautiful cakes, you can see her designs at her website.

Now by popular request she is producing another DVD called "Flawless Fondant," and I personally cannot wait to get my copy. Here is what the website describe the DVD as...
"...a complete A to Z education on how to prepare and cover your cakes properly with rolled fondant. This all inclusive 2 disc set includes a full supply list and suggested vendors." You can read the list of topics that will be covered and how to pre-order before it's release in early February. I think this is going to be another great DVD to add to cake decorating library.

Brush Embroidery Cake

2008-01-11T09:41:00.001-08:00

Brush Embroidered flowers on marshmallow fondant, with satin ribbon. White Almond Sour Cream Cake with Creamcheese frosting as filling.

Close up of Flowers:

Top of Cake:

My Newest Cake Books

2008-01-03T17:39:00.000-08:00

I got two new books for Christmas! The first was one I found at our local Barnes and Noble, "Beautiful Cakes" by Peggy Porschen. The photos of her cakes, cookies and other projects are gorgeous. She explains how to decorate each example and has a very helpful section with recipes, hints and how-to's. I haven't ever heard of this decorator, but she is a very well known for her beautiful cakes among cake decorators! Check out her website for more examples of her cakes. (An FYI for those who might be interested in her book "Romantic Cakes", here is a link that explains it's the same book as Beautiful Cakes...just a different title.)

The other book I got after I saw a recommendation for it at CakeJournal, simply entitled "cupcakes." I can't wait to try a couple of the recipes from it.

I am in the process of making a cake for our women's ministry dinner tomorrow night at my church. I baked the cake already and put the filling in this morning. It's good to let it sit for a couple of hours before covering it. Tonight or tomorrow I will cover it with my marshmallow fondant. My plan is to brush embroider red flowers on it once I get it covered in the fondant. I had plenty of batter so I baked a set of oval cake layers and one little for the family last night. Gave me a chance to use up some extra frosting and they were excited to get cake! I usually don't let them have any until I have trimmed them or bring them a piece home!

Chocolate Transfer Eeyores

2007-11-14T16:41:00.001-08:00

I have been wanting to learn how to do Chocolate Transfers that I have seen on so many cakes at Cake Central. Chocolate Transfers are created by using candy melts you "draw" your design then "color" it in, let it harder, turn it over and you have a cute designs made from candy. I started reading everything I could on them.

A Thread on Cake Central on Chocolate Transfers. This is a great thread with lots of tips on creating adorable designs. It also several photos so you can see what they look like.

Article on how to do CT's. A short article showing how to create a Chocolate Transfer.

This is a great book, "The Whimsical Bakehouse", with detailed instructions on how to make Chocolate Transfers.

Finding out that the friend I was making the cake for on Monday liked Eeyore, I rounded up two friends to help me. We were able to make several Eeyore CT and put together an adorable birthday cake for her!

This is a picture of the final cake. One friend helped me with the CT, while the other friend make the cute roses. Our friend was very surprised and absolutely thrilled about her cake. I can't wait to try Chocolate Transfers again!
Close ups on each Transfer:
This one was the third one I did, and I was finally getting the hang of it.

This was was great, but when we went to remove it from the plastic sleeve it got stuck and didn't come off very smoothly.
My first transfer, you can't really see it too much, but it has a lot of air pockets! I had forgotten about the toothpick trick on the smaller details. On my other transfers I tried to make the lines more defined and fill in the color better.

"A Slice of Cheese" Birthday Cake

2007-11-10T21:41:00.000-08:00

It's once again birthday time at our house, and by special request DD has requested a birthday cake to fit her theme of Ratatouille. This time I started early! DD knew just what she wanted, and I was able to find an example at CakeCentral.com. I got the cake layers baked early, had the frosting made up and the character ready to put on the cake.

One layer is chocolate cake, the second is white cake with sprinkles (confetti cake), filled with cream cheese frosting. I used a new recipe for the buttercream frosting. The frosting tasted great, still have a lot of issues with air bubbles. Not the smoothest cake, but it was to look like cheese and that was all the matter to the birthday girl. The figures are a character set from our local Disney Store.

"A Slice of Cheese" Birthday Cake

Monday I am working another birthday cake for a friend's birthday tomorrow night. A friend is coming over to help me. We are going to attempt to make Chocolate Transfers of Eeyore for our friend's birthday. I am also going to make smaller cake for one of the daughter's who will also be also be joining us who just turned 18. She just wanted a really small cake. since I have a lot of yellow frosting left I think I will do some yellow roses on her cake. On the cake with eeyore I am going to make some whimsical ribbon type roses out of fondant.

I just finished baking some cupcakes with my DD for her class tonight at church, but noticed they were very oily when I removed them from the pan. Seems she misundestood when I said 1/3 cup, she put in a 1 and 1/3 in the mix and I didn't check! Humm, will find out if we can eat them! We are using some of the yellow frosting (did a mention I have a lot of it!) and topping with some royal icing pansies, violets and apple blossoms. Had a lot left over from another cake I did earlier this year. I will post pictures later week!

10 Lessons Learned/Surprise Birthday Cake

2007-10-17T21:01:00.001-07:00

A friend was giving his wife a surprise birthday party and I offered to make her a cake. Her favorite color is pink and I thought roses would be a nice touch. I got the idea of the ganache over pink icing on cakecentral.com, and wanted to try a different method of fondant roses. The method is based on roses that Duff, a famous cake baker and decorator, uses on his cakes. I didn't know who he was until Saturday, but apparently is pretty big on cable TV, (which we don't have, so I haven't ever seen him or his show).

In making this particular cake I learned a few things.

Lesson number one, never offer to make a cake for someone, then wait until the very day you need the cake to be ready. Lesson number two, read the ingredient list very carefully, even if you have done the recipe several times already. Despite leaving out the sugar, it actually didn't taste bad at all. (I used the White Almond Sour Cream Cake recipe.) I just added another box mix (mixed correctly this time), thus adding to each tier of the cake, three thin layers. Oh, yeah, back to lesson one, as I mentioned in number 1, don't wait until the day you need the cake, because when you can't find your baking strips, you will be cutting off a lot off the top because your cake layers make a very nice curved dome.

Lesson number 4, check to make sure you have all the necessary ingredients for the frosting as well. A frosting with more butter flavored shortening and butter flavoring, than actual butter, still tastes like there is a lot of shortening in the frosting. Lesson number 5...remember what your instructor said about whipping the frosting too long. No matter how much you try to smooth the frostings, the air bubbles won't disappear. Lesson number 5, the idea of using the hair dryer really does help make the ganache drip if you don't get it to drip over the sides of the cake the first time. Thanks to the advice of someone on cakecentral.com's forums.

Lesson number 6, Wait for the ganache to harden before you put the fondant roses on top, need I say more. Lesson number 7, practice the border before attempting to put it on the cake, even if you have done a dozen times before. There is a reason for that saying practice makes perfect. Lesson number 8 check your decorator bags for holes before trying to pipe the leaves on, which leads to lesson number 9, know where the extra decorator bags are before you have hole in one of them you are using. This will save you a lot of time in finishing up the cake.

I did manage to get the cake finished with about 30 minutes to spare. I put it in the car (under the umbrella), to the church, and on display in one piece.

And finally, lesson Number 10, just say thank you when someone compliments you and don't tell them everything that is wrong with it!

White Almond Sour Cream Cake, with Butter Cream Frosting, Ganache Topping, and Fondant Roses, made in the the style of Duff's.

Chocolate Happy Birthday Cake

2007-08-30T15:54:00.000-07:00

An All Chocolate Birthday Cake!

Chocolate Cake with Ganache filling and frosting! Both recipes from cakecentral.com. The ganache frosting was very easy to make, and was incredibility rich in taste. I served it with a choice of chocolate or vanilla ice cream.

Crumb coat with warmed ganache:

Filling Coating before Decorating:

Finished cake with decorations also ganache frosting. Lauren choose what design she wanted on the cake!
Happy Birthday John!

Cake Websites and A Dragon Theme Birthday Cake

2007-08-04T08:47:00.001-07:00

I found a great new website called Cake Journal, her cakes are amazing! Louise lives in Denmark so her cakes have a different flair that what we are used to seeing here in the US. I especially like her flowers.

Another great website is by Rebecca Sutterby called Sugar Creations, her cakes are also amazing, with most of them done in fondant. She is well known in the cake decorating industry.

Also, if you have lots of free time on your hands to just look at cakes of all kinds, check out Cake Central, where decorators post their latest creations. Need help with cake baking, decorating, cookies, or a need a new cake recipe you can probably find it there. The White Almond Sour Cream Cake is one recipe I have discovered that makes a great cake.

Yesterday I baked the WASC for a cake today. Tyler's birthday is tomorrow, but we are celebrating with his friends today. He asked for that particular cake and marshmallow Fondant for his birthday cake. I made up a couple of batches of MMF the other day. In reading through the forums at cake central I got a few helpful hints on preparing the WASC cake. Today I will torte it, fill it with cheesecake filling & strawberries, and decorate it in fondant. It's going to have a Dragon theme, based on the "Eragon" book. Not the movie since it doesn't follow the book and I was careful to use the dragon picture on the book and not from the movie! After I get it finished I up I will post pictures!

Cake Update!

I finished up Tyler's cake!

Oval Cake, 2 Layers torted and filled with Cheesecake filling and sliced strawberries. White Almond Sour Cream Recipe. (Oval for an egg, because the dragon egg is a key element in the story.)
Marshmallow Fondant used to cover the cake and for the decorations. Except the picture, I just printed a color copy and cut it out and laid it on top of the cake. The "spikes" in the bottom border are grains of rice.
I mixed pearl dust from Wilton (much like luster dust) with clear vanilla and a tiny bit of blue and painted the fondant. I darked up the mixture with more blue and darken the tips of the "scales". It dried very nicely and I really liked the way it brighten up the fondant.

One of the Tyler's friends asked if I got it from the store and was quite amazed I actually made it. When it came time to serve the cake, his other friend said he didn't really like fondant. Tyler told him he would like this one, it's made with marshmallows. He ended up eating the fondant before I even got the ice cream on his plate! I served the cake with ice cream and extra strawberries.

Saphira Birthday Cake for Tyler's 13th Birthday:
Close up of the "Scales":

Close up of the side of the cake and bottom border:

Happy Birthday Tyler!!!

Bridal Cake Photos Posted...Again

2007-07-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

For some reason my photos are disappearing so I am going to repost them and see if they disappear again. If you can't see them, please leave me a comment. Thanks!

Red Roses Bridal Shower Cake

2007-07-23T11:30:00.001-07:00

I made a cake for a bridal shower we had at our church the other night. I chose to decorate with red roses to match the napkins and plates, and the yellow flowers made for a nice accent color. The frosting and flowers were all done in buttercream.

I baked two 12 inch layer cakes, and didn't torte them because I wasn't all that sure of trying it on such a large cake. Between the two layers I used premade CheeseCake Filling and sliced strawberries (I would use more strawberries next time). I used this recipe from Cakecentral.com and made three modifications to it.

1. Instead of Sour Cream I used Plain Yogurt
2. Instead of Almond Flavor, I used clear Vanilla Flavoring.
3. Instead of 8 Egg whites, I used 7 eggs. Since this didn't have to be a "white" cake I didn't mind having some color from the egg yolks.

I like the flavor and the texture, and everyone who tried it at the shower said it was great! I got a lot of compliments on this cake. Even though it was last minute I am glad I did it because I got a chance to try at something other than just with my family!

Father's Day Cake

2007-06-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

It was time to attempt another Fondant Cake and Father's Day gave me a good reason to do one. Here is the cake!Each tier has one layer of White Almond Sour Cream Cake and one layer of Chocolate Cake with the Extender Recipe from cake central. For the white cake I made the following adjustments: I used a French Vanilla Cake Mix and instead of 4 egg white I used 3 eggs. If you want a truly white cake use a white cake mix and no yolks. I followed the recipe for the extender and added a 1/3 cup of cocoa powder to make it a bit richer.

I used a 9 inch pan and a 6 in pan for each mix. There were a bit full and even with the baking strips baked round above the pan. Next time I will not fill the pans so much and maybe make a small pan with the left over batter by making a small marbleized cake.

I tried to get the chocolate fondant to work so I could cover the cake, but finally gave up. It just didn't have any elasticity. I took the marshmallow fondant and immediately could tell it was going to be a lot easier. I think I still need to practice to getting the fondant to go over the cake smoothly.

I tried using the chocolate fondant to decorate with, but it just kept tearing and breaking. Luckily I had some extra Wilton White Fondant and I mixed in a little to make it look marbleized. Turns out it helped it out a bit. Still had to work hard to get the decorations on before they got to dry and broke.

I covered and decorated the bottom layer, put the smaller tier on top after I cover it in MMF. I decorated it after I secured it to the top of the cake.

We kept it refrigerated until we served it the next day after our Father's Day Dinner. When I cut the cake it was really pretty with the two layers! The cake had a really great texture and flavor, and I was pleased with the way the cream cheese filling and fondant complimented the cake.

Other than the problem with the chocolate fondant and getting the fondant smooth I was pleased with out this cake turned out!

Chocolate Cake with Fondant Roses

2007-05-23T11:08:00.001-07:00

I had this brilliant idea to finally make fondant and try it on a cake. It was to be our dessert our for our fellowship last night. I picked the design I wanted, pulled out my recipes, and got to work. I made a batch of marshmallow Fondant (MMF) from Cake Central (CC). I also made batch of Chocolate MMF from the same website. So far soooo good.

Then things started to go array. As I was trying to add all 8 cups of powdered sugar my chocolate MMF was becoming drier and drier and crumbling all over the place. So I tried to put in roll and wrapped it tight with plastic wrap. I let both MMF rest over night, but I was still concerned that they were really dry. Off to the cake forums,to come some advice from other bakers.

In the meantime I baked the cake using a cake mix and recipe extender from CC. I make up a batch of frosting and got the cakes ready to be iced the next day.

I wake up Tuesday ready to make my MMF and try to get nice and pliable for my cake. I follow the advice and then let my Chocolate MMF rest. I did the same for the MMF, it's still resting, we will get back to that later. I prepare the cake (chocolate frosting filling, then I brushed it with chocolate sauce mixed with a tiny bit of milk, then crumb coated it) and set it aside to finish after we get back from dance class.

Ok, I am already I have the Chocolate MMF out and ready to roll out. I carefully roll it out making it large enough to cover the cake. Hummm, it's tearing as I attempt to pick it up. I try again, still tearing. Back to Cake Central, I check the article on covering a cake with fondant, reply to a couple of my posts on my MMF. I come back add more powdered sugar, I knead it again, I repeat this over and over and over again, until my hand, arms, and wrists are telling me I need to rest. I refuse. I roll out the MMF again...still the chocolate MMF (I haven't even attempted to get out the other MMF). I get ready to put the chocolate MMF on top of my cake! Lauren helps me and we get it on the cake...only to have it fall and tear completely into pieces on the cake!!!!!! I pull it all off, and say...forget the fondant. The MMF will have to to wait, it was supposed to be for the flower cutouts.

I am tired, everything hurts now, and I have to get this cake done! I decide to go ahead and frost it with the rest of the chocolate frosting I used for the crumb coat. It's looks great and the strawberries will be a nice touch to it when I serve it later. I don't feel much like trying to decorate it because I only have a pastel green frosting on hand and the last thing I want is more tips and bags to clean. And green just isn't going to work. But I have all this Chocolate MMF, and we could make little rose buds out of it. So Lauren and I work on make enough roses to go around the bottom of the cake. I tried to make larger roses, but the fondant is toooooo soft and they just fall. Tyler came home and told me the cake looked nice, that made me feel better!

I am very pleased with how the cake turned out despite my fondant issues. The cake it's self had a nice texture and wasn't too rich. The frosting was a bit rich, but wasn't bad, a good balance?! Now that I have had a good night's sleep and can think more clearly I might actually want to try using the MMF again...in the future.

My Easter Cakes

2007-04-08T21:26:00.000-07:00

For Easter I made two cakes. The cross cake is a carrot cake from the Cake Mix Doctor with cream cheese frosting. I make the Royal Frosting flowers a few weeks ago and let them dry. The only problem I encountered was that way the cake baked in the wilton cross pan, the edges browned and the very center of the cross didn't bake completely, just a tiny bit. Otherwise the cake turned out well.

Cross Carrot Cake:

The other cake I made was the Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake from the Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor with chocolate frosting. Although the cake batter was very thick when I mixed it, I was surprised that it wasn't heavy, but moist and well textured when I torted it. The basketweave seemed to take forever, so I think I will get a wider basketweave tip for the future. All the flowers, except the big bluebell, I made at the same time as the others. The bluebell from was from my Wilton class. I liked the way it turned out and so did everyone at out Easter Lunch today!

Easter Basket Cake:

A few weeks ago I made cookies for our annual women's retreat, they turned out great! I used the Pampered Chef Recipe for Classic Spritz Cookies. I colored the dough by adding the color to the butter mixture and before adding the flour, then after I added the flour, adjusted the color. I baked the cookie at 350 degrees, not at the degrees suggested. Same amount of baking time, and the cookies were perfect, kept their color and didn't brown on the edges. You have to remove them about two minutes after you take them out of the oven or they will stick and break if you wait too long.

I made the same recipe and made cookies for Easter. I colored the dough pink and purple and made more flowers and butterflies. I adjusted the color of the purple by making it darker with a bit more red and blue to the purple base color and they kept their color much better than they did when I made them back in February. I am pretty sure adjusting the temperature has helped keep the color and keep them from over cooking.

This is a picture of the cookies on the dessert plates:

Down on Grandpa's Farm Cake

2007-03-05T12:39:00.000-08:00

I made my first stacked cake for my dad's birthday. Since he is a farmer what could be more appropriate than a cake that featured John Deere and a few of his crops.

I wanted to try cake that I was hoping would taste good and do well as a stacked cake. The cake I decided to use was the "The Ultimate Butter Cake" from Baking911.com. The cake it's self was tasty, but I thought it was bit dry and heavy. I had a hard time getting to sit even, the top seems to be tipping in a bit. I used chocolate and raspberry jam for the fillings.

I used a basic butter cream frosting and the decorations. I am still learning how to get that crumb coat on and then get the frosting to be smooth. Over I think it turned out well, even though I wasn't all the impressed with how the actual cake tasted.

Before Crumb coat:

Final Frosting:

Almost done:

Grapevines:

Corn Stalks:

Final Cake:

Cake Presentation:

Happy Birthday Dad!