WOOF WOOF

So there is a picture going around facebook of these cute little shaggy pups someone made out of cupcakes. I had a client contact me about replicating them. I tried to find instructions on how to make them but to no avail.

I studied the picture carefully trying to figure out how they got the shape of the face to stay the way it was. There is a SMALL glimpse on the back cupcake that shows a ‘mini cupcake’ behind the mound of frosting. What a neat thing….I would have never thought of that!! Here goes…..

Now let me explain something, I have a very ‘I can do that’ approach to all projects but then when I sit at the table with my materials my heart starts pounding and I convince myself of all the reasons ‘I can’t do this’. These were NO exception. I think even more so because I couldn’t find instructions step by step instructions so I had to use my knowledge just by looking at the picture.

You can see which pups were first and which came as I got more comfortable. Either way I think they came out super cute and my client was pleased!!!

Her + Panda = BFF

When my daughter was 18 months old we asked her what she wanted for Christmas and never got an answer. Until, December 23rd. While getting ready for bed she tells us she wants people (little people and a panda). Ugh, she asked for 2 things, 2 things that had not been purchased. How could we have NEITHER under the tree.

Off to TRU I got in the pouring cold rain, 10 wks pregnant at 9pm at night. FUN!!

Of course the story is PACKED but the shelves are EMPTY! I find 1 little people set for her and begin to scour for a stuffed Panda. I'm crazy, with crazy people, tired, cold and pregnantly (yes that's a word LOL) hormonal. I grab the first panda I can find. 

My husband kindly points out (he must have had a death wish) that the Panda is the same size as our little girl. 

So life size panda goes on the new big girl bed we got her and off to sleep we go. When she gets up Christmas morning her eyes zero in on Panda and it's LOVE at first sight. 

That was 6 Christmas' ago and while we can now travel during day time hours without panda he does go to all sleepovers with her still. 

As you all know I have been doing these cakes for a short time so this should come as no surprise to you but I have NEVER made a cake for either one of my children. NEVER. So this year was REALLY special!! She wanted pandas, she wanted me to use my fondant punches, and she likes pink and purple. I was told. This is what I came up with....Very busy, very colorful

Eagle

My first sheet cake :o)

After my epic fail with the strawberry filling last week to say I was scared. I got some fantastic advice on how to fix it for the future so here's to hoping!

Baking the sheet cake was nerve racking, I went small amounts when setting the timer and checked it at regular intervals. Once it was baked I had to get creative for cooling because I thought of buying a special pan for baking BUT didn't get a sheet cake cooling rack...Oooops! I looped the legs of 2 cooling rack I had together and it worked just fine. However the larger rack is on my wish list of supplies.

Leveling and torte a cake of this size was awkward. I wasn't sure which way to put it on the table or where to position myself to get the best angle. Finally get that 'sweet' spot and cut through it like all other cakes. No new challenges. However, actually lifting the pieces apart without breaking them was a whole different challenge. I recruited husband help for this!! Together we got the top and bottom safely apart and

Now to fill, butterflies start.

I put the cut cake in the fridge to completely cool. Once I felt it was ready I took it out and laid down a THICK buttercream dam. I moved around the cake much slower then I have in the past. I gently pressed the dam into the cake to ensure that it was attached, back in the fridge it went. I left it there for a bit so the buttercream would harden. Once it felt firm, I took it out and added the raspberry filling (YUMMY!! by the way) back in the fridge it went. This time to ensure the buttercream stayed firm and to harden the raspberry filling some. Once again, it was firm enough for my comfort level and out it came.Top layer on. So far so good. Frosting. Still good.

I let the cake sit for a bit, I wanted to make sure there wasn't going to be any problems before I finished decorating it.

For the Eagle I used the piping gel transfer technique, this gave me a guide when laying the feathers for the body. I then used the head and beak as a template to make those pieces.

All and all I was VERY pleased with this project!

OMG NO WAY!!!!!!!!!

I am not sure there is much to say about this one. It's cupcakes frosted together to give the illusion of being a cake. I LOVE THIS CAKE, LOVE IT, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!!!


My first pull apart cake!!!

AllieGATORS

I made some super cute Alligators for my niece for her birthday cupcakes. I have called her Alliegator for a long time and I have now shortened it to just Gator. Since I made her sister some Crab cupcakes for her birthday since, as you guessed, I call her Crabbie I had to do something for Gator too!

Strawberry Shortcake

First cake with filling............DISASTER!!!!!!!!! I was DEVASTATED.

The filling on the strawberry house leaked out and the buttercream started coming off. I wish I had a picture of the carnage.

Before the great flood the cake was BEAUTIFUL!

Arrrrrr get away from my booty

Open Treasure Chest....SURE!

Couple fun things with this cake. Obviously the load of candy oozing out the front but also the treasure chest is a 1/4 sheet cake cut in half. I used half Chocolate and half Yellow cake. I had NEVER made 2 different cakes in one pan like that. I was super impressed with myself.

I covered the outside in brown fondant and while it looked 'good' I wasn't 100% convinced it was done. So my favorite element of this cake was the 'wood grain' I added to give the chest a realistic look.

As a compliment to the cake, Pirates on cupcakes :o)

It's La la Loopsy :o)

Loopsy is fun! Loopsy is BRIGHT and has little details. I love all the cakes I make and love doing them for everyone but this one was EXTRA special. This little girl has been very sick this last year, she has fought an uphill battle with all her might. Even with everything she has gone through, she is bright and cheery and loving but most of all appreciative!!!

This project also marked a first for me. Everything to date has gone very smoothly. I made cakes, cupcakes and themed cakepops. I was LOVING myself and my work, I couldn't wait to see the smile on her face. I package it all up and head to bed, ready for my delivery the next day.......

I get up, I walk into the kitchen and there it sits.....ALL MY POPS WERE LOST!!! The temperature in the house rose to close to 80 overnight and all the chocolate softened and melted. GONE, ALL GONE. Days worth of hard work. I WAS DEVASTATED. My client was so kind and so understanding but I was mad at myself. I had a lot of take away from this and learned things about chocolate that I never knew.

Here are pictures of the cakes and what the pops should have been.

From others come great ideas

This past weekend my grandmother watched my kids while I went to my final cake class and she showed me a super cool new treat I could make, hamburger cookies. Well I immediately said “that could be a Krabby Pattie, I have to make a SpongeBob cake now”

Guess who has a birthday coming up, THE HUBS, guess who is getting a SpongeBob cake! He hates SpongeBob but that’s Ok, he likes to oblige me :o) He said as long as it is chocolate cake inside he doesn’t care what the outside looks like.

I decided that the design of the cake would be the ocean with the small island, SpongeBob, Patrick and the palm trees.

I purchased the SpongeBob toys rather then making them. I did watch some you tube videos on how to make them but making figures scare me. I tried it once and came out horrible, I will stick to animals for now :o) I did however see them make striped towels and that’s where I got the idea to make the towels that went with them from fondant.

The Palm Trees……Oh boy! No I know full well that for any that has to ‘suspend’ or hold a rigid shape you need to mix/make it with gum paste. I tried to just make them with fondant…..FAIL! I couldn’t get them to hold together let alone attach to the ‘trunk’ (pretzel). In theory they were a super cute project if I had done it the way I know it should have been done.

I personally don’t think that gum paste tastes all that good and that’s why I try to avoid using it. For some reason I have this hang up that all things need to be edible on a cake and while gum paste is (it’s VERY hard depending on the ratio to fondant) to me it tastes like dish soap.

Here's the cake.....

Practice makes perfect....

I love playing in the kitchen, as we have determined, more so then that I want my client to get a product that makes them go 'WOW'. For the Eagle cake I decided that I wanted the feathers to be '3D' so I will be using fondant and lilly petal cutters and flower veiners to make them. You can't really see the detail in the picture so I will need to find a way to accentuate that but here's my first feather.

For the Minnie party we had been going back and forth about a cupcake topper and this is a prototype I came up with.

The last set of pictures is just a party of the party, cakepops! I love things on a stick....I truly do! All edible, it's chocolate and fondant!

Today was a fantastic day!

Accomplished

Today I completed the last class of course 4 of Wilton Method decorating classes and their Tall Cakes classes. I felt that take the classes and having some formal training would help me along the way. I have learned quite a bit along the way and added to my network, I met 2 phenomenal talent ladies along the way.

Here's to continued learning!

I love giving back

So I have taken all the Wilton Cake courses. These last 2 were fondant flower classes so I was eager to test out my new skills. I won't just bake and keep it around the house because, well I will eat it, and no good will come from that!

My neighbors daughter is walking to fight cancer and they are having a benefit dinner to raise money for her. We all know what that means, RAFFLES! What better then to get my name and product on a raffle table. This is what I came up with. I can't wait to hear how they went over. I hope they were a hit and made people want to buy extra tickets :o)

Hmmm....Well, that was simpler then I thought...

Like most of the posts you've read around this time frame this concept was a first for me!

I was asked to do something Toy story, in googling to get ideas I found examples of Andy's bed. I HAVE TO MAKE THAT CAKE. I bought a small buzz and woody to 'decorate' the room with, but the bed was all edible. 

For this project I got to trim a cake down to a shape that I want. I have to make and dry the head board and foot board in less time then you would normally use so they were a little thinner then I would have liked to see them. I also wrapped 'cakepop' in fondant to form a pillow and draped/ shaped fondant to make the sheet and blanket. 

To compliment the cake, little green men cupcakes. 

A wild one!

So this week brought in a new client and 2 SUPER fun cakes!!!!

After bringing in my Hello Kiitty cake a co-worker contacted me about doing her sons party in May. She also mentioned that the next day was one of her other sons birthdays but that was short notice. Being that I love CAKING and had the night free I said I wasn't closed to the idea of making a cake with less then a 24hr turn around depending on what we were talking about.....We decided on a simple Spiderman cake. I bought a hexagon pan to make his web and a Spiderman action figure to decorate the cake. This was the end result....

Then we started talking about his party that coming weekend. It was a quiet week for me after the craziness that was Easter so I was up for the challenge of a bigger themed cake in 2 days time. She threw out there that her son LOVES Toy Story. Perfect I have never done anything with that theme so the sky is the limit!!!!! I decided Andy's bed would be FUN (and it was). I used a square pan and trimmed it down to make a rectangle. I used a mix of fondant and gum paste to make the headboard and footboard. The cake was crumb coated with buttercream and covered with marshmallow fondant. I also made the pillows out of fondant. The figurines were purchased at a local toy store. Draping and shaping the blanket was fun. I had never worked with fondant in that capacity before. It took a couple tried to get it right, so i guess it's true practice makes perfect! The top sheet is just an accent, it's just a small piece tucked under the top of the blanket. Little green men cupcakes to round out the cake table and it's picture perfect!!!

Well, Hello Kitty!

The beautiful flower cake that I made for a clients daughter spurred another idea. She asked if I can do a Hello Kitty. This character I knew was popular, she’s all over the stores but never thought about making her for a cake.

I don’t generally like to bake ‘just because’; I hate wasting food and certainly don’t need an extra cake hanging around. My waist line can do without it. The idea of making Kitty’s bow though did intrigue me. I had never made a bow before.

So I make the bow, let it dry. As I am looking at this bow daily I think “something is missing”. Then a light turns on “I know what it is. That bow is missing Hello Kitty”. Ugh, knew this would happen. I am now making a Hello Kitty cake.

Kitty’s face is oval so I decide to use a 9x13 pan and trim it down. Well that works out perfectly. The ‘excess’ makes PERFECT ears. I use buttercream to attach the ears and crumb coat the cake. I make sure the cake and ears are level and now she is ready for fondant. I have some left from a weekend project and we are in business.

Roll, roll, roll, trim, trim, trim, flip over the roller and on to the cake…….CRAP! It’s too small! UGH! Now what little fondant I have left is covered in buttercream and crumbs and the cake is unevenly frosted!!! Well now I am aggravated so I am done for tonight.

Ok, covering Kitty take 2 – new batch of marshmallow fondant made. A more then generous piece of fondant rolled out and ready to be placed. Deep breath and GO. BAM, it works this time. Some gentle folding, tucking, smoothing and I have a Kitty :o)

Since I don’t want this hanging out in my house so I am not tempted to eat it, I decide Kitty would be best suited with the person who suggested it.

Bye bye Kitty!

Easter Weekend

Super Mario Cake

I was asked by a client to make a Super Mario Bros cake for his sons Birthday. (Disclaimer: I am so out of touch that I didn’t know he’s come ‘back in’, my poor kids). I started thinking about all the things I remember about Mario from when I played.

I think of the little flowers, the coins, mushrooms, bricks/bricks with question marks and of course those green tubes! Oh boy I can have fun with this!!! Also, I Google the theme to see what others have done.

I decided to make a 3d cake. My first and boy and I excited! I want to make the green tubes to sit a top the cake, using cake pop insides and fondant (I think). I am also going to attempt to make a Mario out of fondant. I have done animals but never people. (Mario counts as a person, right?)

Marshmallow Fondant

Ok so like many I would misspell marshmallow, I too thought it was marshmellow. In searching for a recipe it made me curious about the difference between marshmallow and marshmellow. It's nothing more then a common spelling error. Now that we have cleared that up, a fun fact...They got their name because they were originally made from a plant called Mallow that grew primarily in marshes. Interesting!

Now that your dying need to know about the spelling and origin or marshmallows has been taken care of let's get to the fondant.

In December when I looked for a recipe I just typed 'fondant recipe' into my browser and picked through the ones that came up for something that had good reviews and ratings that also looked like something I could easily make. The end result was a product that I could work with that tasted decent. I was 'Ok' with decent because in my search I found that most people had the same opinion of the taste as I did.  I didn't need to search for another recipe as I had found the acceptable standard.

Recently I have been networking with other 'from home bakers' talking recipes and techniques. I found out about this little gem known as marshmallow fondant. To google I go to find a recipe, again I look for high rating and good reviews. Much to my surprise it also looks SUPER easy (minus the 'sticky').

I melt my marshmallow, coat my mixer in baking spray and off I go. It didn't take long and it wasn't too messy. The end result is a AWESOME tasting product and it feels even easier to work with. I will be testing that theory the end of this week.

Stay tunes more to come!!

M-I-C-see you real soon-K-E-Y!!!!

I know I am showing my age because it’s no longer The Mickey Mouse Club, it’s Mickey Mouse Club House. They don’t sing that any more it’s ‘mishka mushka mickey mouse’ and the ‘hot dog dance’, even with the changes he still seems to very popular. As of February and I have already gotten 2 requests for Mickey cakes.

I was asked to make a Mickey cake and some other kind of dessert for a small family 1st Birthday party. We decided to use small round pans to form and frost as a Mickey head. We finally land on mini-cheesecakes with fruit toppings on the side for the dessert for everyone else.

Girls just wanna have fun.......

So my son goes with my mother, his Nana, on Sunday mornings and my husband had drill this weekend so it was just me and my girl :o) She is forever wanting to help me especially in the kitchen. I found a fun little cake that we can make for dessert tonight after dinner and surprise our boys. Dirt cake, because boys like getting dirt and worms!

We headed out to get the supplies and I wouldn’t tell her what we were up too so she was VERY confused to say the least about our list. Oreos, pudding, whipped cream, gummi worms and a pail/shovel LOL

Once we get home I let her in on the secret. She was excited and on board. I let her do most of the ‘work’ for the cake.

I used some left over buttercream frosting to make some grass. The cake was a hit, mostly the serving it with the shovel :o)

Fudgy Puddles...AKA Chocolate heaven wrapped in a peanut butter cookie!

Ok, really, where could a cookie that contains chocolate and peanut butter go wrong? I don't even think it's possible. I even doubt anyone baking with those 2 ingredients could not get a perfect result.

This time I was searching Allrecipes.com as opposed to Google, surprising I know, when I came across these little gems! 

Have you ever had a peanut butter blossom? The cookie with the Hershey kiss in the middle? These are very similar. These cookies are not coated in sugar though and are baked in a mini-muffin tin. The chocolate center uses chocolate chips as opposed to the kisses. That eliminates the pesky task of unwrapping 48 pieces of candy just to make the cookie. I started all the ingredients for the centers in the 'double boiler' after I was done mixing the batter for the cookie.  (Disclaimer...I don't yet own a REAL double boiler, I will tho *hint to my AWESOME husband that read my blog, Mother's Day is in May* For now tho I use to pans)

So now have everything ready to go your first tray comes out of the oven. While they are still hot you use a melon baller to make the 'puddle'. That was interesting. I figured out you have to be creative with moving it around to get a good divot, just pressing it straight down doesn't work. Then the cool for a while in the muffin pan. Having more then one pan makes this project go quicker. Now to fill...

Anyone that knows me knows that for some reason I need things to be 'even'. When a recipe calls for filling to make 'x' amount I will break out the food scale, a bowl and calculator to even distribute said filling. Well with these you can't. The chocolate would certainly harden before any ever made it into the cookie. So with my OCD screaming 'no this is wrong' I start spooning chocolate into puddles. It wasn't the easiest task but certainly not the hardest either. I will be buying a pouring funnel before the next batch!

All in all, the project was easy and DELICIOUS! 

Ooooops, Did I do that?

So as I create something new (or re-create if I get the idea from Google) I get SO excited and squeal "Isn't that freakin adorable?" as I show my family. Well......

Today my daughter comes home and I am working in the kitchen and as she walks thru she looks at my project and says "tell me that's not freakin adorable". Oh no, what have I started??? My 6yr old has captured my phrase

We had the 'what's Ok and not Ok' to say at school conversation. The last thing I need is her turning in her pictograph asking her teacher "isn't that freakin adorable?". I have a feeling that our next parent teacher conference would be a lot different then the last.

Crisis averted, I think. Times like this just reassure me that the decision we made when she was born to not swear (well do our best) around her and any future children was the right one! Pat on the back for myself and the husband :o)

Who could imagine anything but sweet words from this mouth?? :o)