40th Anniversary Cake

Here is the story of my mom and dad's 40th wedding anniversary cake.
Over the weekend my parents celebrated 40 years of marriage together! And I was lucky enough to celebrate with them and make the cake. It was fun.
My first idea was to use fondant. But then, no one in my family actually likes to eat fondant. It looks stunning, but it would just get peeled off each piece of cake.

I decided to focus on making a cake of decadence, so mouth-watering that it would stand apart from other wedding/anniversary cakes.

Chocolate came to mind immediately, but then not everyone likes chocolate. Ok, I thought to myself, I could make each tier a different flavor. Uh-oh, if I do that, then I open up problems with structural stability and consistency with each tier, not to mention a frosting that would compliment different flavors of cake. And also too many options for fillings.
It was narrowed down to one flavor, one type of filling, and decided on Swiss Meringue Buttercream. It is so smooth, creamy, and simply heavenly.

On to picking decor and flavors. My mom's wedding cake was multi-tiered with the top tier separated by columns. BTW, my dad's mom mad their wedding cake!
The original wedding cake was richly piped with borders and flowers. In honor of the cake, I wanted to do some old school piping and separate the top tier from the bottom two. But at the same time, I wanted it to look more modern.

Final product: Peach Bellini Cake, white cake(with a hint of peach), rich peach filling, Swiss Meringue Buttercream laced with Peach Schnapps).
Swiss dots on bottom and top tier, cornelli lace in middle tier. Top tier separated by filled champagne flutes.
The cake and filling were recipes by Dede Wilson. I LOVE her recipes!!

And finally, here are the pictures.

Cupcakes?

This is not a trick. They are really crocheted. With so many cakes these days looking like real 'things' I figured I should clarify.
These are crocheted Cupcake purses I made for my daughter and her friend Sydney. CUTE!

Scones

Today was very very cold. When it is cold and too snowy to drive anywhere, I bake. That is also when I gain weight. It has been cold and snowy a lot lately.
It started with one batch of Blueberry Scones. They smelled so good, came together quickly, and the baby was still asleep, so I made another batch; Sugar Cinnamon.

Luckily, my mom and dad who are trusty taste testers, came over and shared some of them with me. The scones were good, I ate one of each.
I've also included a picture of some of the ingredients I used!

The Sexy Cake Pop

This is the story of how the sexy cake pop was born. Cake pops are a craze sweeping the nation, thanks to Bakerella. She is the mastermind of the cake pop. They are fun to make, fun to eat, kids love them, adults love them.

Of course I had to try making them! I love making anything out of cake! My perfect excuse was my kids' birthday party.

I described them on facebook and posted this picture of me for my friend Jamie.



Jamie, in her excitement over the cake pop, re posted the picture on her profile. It was then my duty to send her a few cake pops in the mail.

Jamie is a professional photographer. The surprise was returned to me with these amazing photographs, featuring the lovely Lanee Lu and my cake pop!




And that is the story of how the cake pop became America's sexiest dessert.

Carolyn's Cake

Some friends of my parents hired me to do a cake. It is exciting to get new customers. They ordered a birthday cake for their friend Carolyn. Vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.

Anniversary Cake

I have to thank my lovely Chiropractor and friend Arika for referring her friend to me! It was a rush job, two days warning. I was up to the challenge. The customer sent me a picture of her parents at their wedding and asked if I could make a two tiered version of their wedding cake.
As you can see, the cake picture is a bit old and fuzzy. I did my best and think everyone was happy with the results. The cake is red velvet with traditional buttercream frosting.
This is the kind of cake decorating that made me want more! I LOVE the old school piping, borders, garlands, etc. It was so much fun.

Happy Birthday Dad

When my dad asked me to make him a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, I knew it had to be extra special. He is the best dad in the world!

I saw this chocolate lace technique on a PBS show. It went well for my first try.
The cake itself is homemade chocolate cake, three layers, filled with chocolate ganache and fresh raspberries. The burst of raspberry flavor with the dark chocolate was amazing.
It is covered in cream cheese frosting and decorated with chocolate dipped strawberries.

Happy Howloween!!

Thanks again to Hello Cupcake for inspiring these fun wolf cupcakes. These were for a party at my mom's house and I was in a bit of a hurry, so I cheated and used cake mix and tubbed frosting.
Next time I will for sure use homemade frosting. It sets up a lot better. The canned frosting stays quite gooey. The werewolves needed something a little more sturdy. But, they were still a big hit and very yummy. :)

Paris/Poodle Cake

Three tiers. Top two tiers are vanilla cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream filling. Bottom tier is Happy Talk chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling. Cake covered in fondant.
This was for my friend's daughter's birthday. I think she put a pink poodle on top at the party, which I was not fortunate enough to photograph, so you'll have to use your imagination.

Pink Tiger Print Cake

Happy 19th Birthday Nicole!!!!!

Chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling. Covered in fondant. If I did this one again, I would do MORE tiger stripes. Looking at it now I see it needed about twice as many, and I would do some longer ones. I was feeling a bit rushed as I was working as fast as I could during my 9-mo-old's afternoon nap.

Berry Tiramisu

Yia Yia's Birthday Cake, Berry Tiramisu. Thin layers of genoise filled with mascarpone/cream cheese mixture and fresh strawberries soaked in dark rum.
This is supposed to be layered in a springform pan. I did not have one the right size, so I put it back into the 8in cake pan, and when the layers started to go above the cake pan, I placed the pan in the springform, then weighed the cake down with plates. It held together. I had visions of filling spilling out the second I took it out of the pan. It was quite delicious served with fresh strawberry sauce.

Happy Talk Chocolate Cake

The inside is chocolate cake, the best I've ever had. I made it for our friend Katheen's birthday. It's pictured a few posts below as the Classic Rose Cake.

I decided to call it Happy Talk Chocolate cake because people were happy eating it and talked about it for days, much to my pleasure.

Kathleen proceeded to order one for her grandson's birthday but asked for chocolate frosting as well. I made Chocolate Buttercream. Lots of chocolate, lots of butter, very rich. I hope Charlie enjoyed his birthday cake.

Walgreens Cake

Brent ordered this cake for a party at his Walgreens. I made it very simple. Whipped icing outside, vanilla cake inside with fresh blueberry filling.

Baking Joy

Although I have graduated from three Wilton cake decorating courses, I am a self-taught baker.

That meant I started out mostly using cake mixes for my decorated cakes. There is nothing wrong with cake mixes. They contain your basic ingredients and are super handy when you do not have time to measure everything.

However, as I progress with my baking, I decided the inside of my cakes should be as exciting as the outside. In the past few weeks I've been experimenting with all kinds of new recipes!! I'm happy to report I've stumbled across the most amazing red velvet, chocolate, carrot, and white vanilla cake recipes. Then of course there are so many filling options with cream, chocolates, fresh fruits, or all of the above!

The skateboarding cake was a challenge. The cake itself had to be super sturdy to support pounds and pounds of fondant and gumpaste. I chose a chocolate pound cake recipe. I like the recipe, but will work on making it more moist, yet still sturdy and carvable.

A few things I've learned along the way that are keys to baking success.

1. high quality cocoa powder matters
2. butter makes it better
3. sifting, sifting, sifting
4. quality baking pans make a difference! Sometimes I get lucky and it bakes leveled.
5. never bake late at night when tired from chasing two young kids around all day!!!
6. get good at reading your cake eaters' expressions. You'll know for a fact it if was a hit or a dud.
7. I use high quality vanilla extract. I get mine at The Spice Merchant, it's amazing.
8. It's ok to get buy in bulk or use off brands of flour and sugar. But sift the powdered sugar for the best results.

That's all on my mind for now! Better go check on my chocolate cake.

Classic Rose Cake

Whipped icing, tastes like sweetened whipped cream, but is non-dairy so it is perfect for wedding cakes which often have to sit out for several hours. I love it so much I used it on my own wedding cake.

Inside is the best chocolate cake ever! Filled with chocolate ganache, fresh strawberries, and some of the whipped icing.

This specific cake was for our friend Kathleen's 70th birthday. We enjoyed the cake with strong black coffee.