Rosette Cake

This is one of the easiest and most elegant cakes I have ever done.

This was for my grandmother's 75th birthday party. The bottom layer was red velvet with cream cheese frosting. The top was chocolate with vanilla buttercream. Everyone was wow'ed by it, but they don't know how easy it was!

All I did was use a 1M tip, swirl on some rosettes, and add some leaves for a bit of color. It was SO fast! I'm kind of hoping this is the only kind of cake I'll ever have to make again! Okay, that's a joke, but I wouldn't mind some more orders like this.

So that's project one. This is project two.

Nursing a sprained ankle. Again. =( I don't know what's going on with my ankle right now. All I know is that it's hurting, it keeps rolling, and nothing has helped yet. I will be seeing a specialist soon. There are talks of surgery, but I don't know yet. You know how the American medical system works. Leave the patient in pain and broke and wait forever to do something about it. We shall see...



Black, White, and Red Wedding Cake

An old friend asked me to make her wedding cake. I always get a little nervous when people ask about wedding cakes because there is still so much I don't know how to. Like fancier flowers, airbrushing, and painting. But when she sent me a picture of what she wanted, I fell in love with it! It had a feel to it that said, "Whimsy gets glam."
I had a plan on how I was going to prepare for it. You know, make roses on Tuesday night, make other flowers on Wednesday night, etc. Minor hitch in those plans. I sprained my ankle on Tuesday. UGH. I was in too much pain Tuesday and Wednesday to even think about walking around to get my supplies and start. =\ Anyway, I changed my plans (when do plans ever work out?) and still got it done.

By the way, this bride was a cake decorator's DREAM. She gave me her ideas, listened to my input, and then trusted my creativity. =)

Enough talking. On with the cake.

Top and bottom tiers are chocolate pumpkin with cream cheese filling. Middle tier is classic white with vanilla buttercream.



When I piped on the little red dots in the center of the flowers, it definitely felt complete. I am quite proud of this cake. =)

Old Cakes

Since I re-did this blog, I figured I should make a post of some of the older cakes I've made since every cake brings something different to the table. These cakes are how I learned decorating. I never went to culinary school or even took one of those classes at the craft stores. Just watched a lot of YouTube and Food Network and tried things out for myself.

This was my attempt at almond frosting. It was... pungent, to say the least. But I liked how simple and cute they were.

This was for my husband's birthday. Black buttercream causes purple teeth, btw. A lot of these pictures are pretty low quality, but the harder I work on a cake, the harder I work to get a good picture. This, obviously, was not a huge deal.

This was my first wedding cake. For my little sister. Also my first tiered cake. So I had seen on TV that you have to put straws or rods to support each tier, but I didn't realize each tier needed to be on its own cake board. This is what culinary school is for, huh? Anyway, I figure that out like a week later. That's why it looks like it's sinking. It actually help up pretty well, looking back on it. It didn't smoosh too much. Also, I didn't make any of these flowers. Now I know how to do that.

Obviously this picture was taken late at night. This was the first time I had used plastic characters. Actually, I don't think I have since then. I also made sugar cookies to use as headstones and numbers. This one was SO easy, and the birthday girl loved it.

Octagon Hollywood cake with (I think) 7 dozen cupcakes. It was all red velvet from scratch. This took foEVer! I'd much rather decorate than bake. The movie stills are printed off from a computer and laminated, provided by the client. Obviously not edible.

This was for my baking buddy. =) Jenelle and I try to get together once every month or two to bake or decorate together. She is such a sweet girl and I enjoy spending the time with her.

These were SOOOOOOO yummy! Chocolate cinnamon with vanilla frosting. I really like the picture, too. =)

A pansy cake. =) I had fun making these flowers! Unfortunately, I didn't realize I arranged them in a sad face shape until my husband pointed it out. This is one of those cakes that I look at and see nothing but flaws... except the flowers. =) (My shell borders are definitely better now)

This is the cake that started it all. I made it for a co-worker's last day. Little did I know, a TON of people were going to be at our school for enrollment, so that TON of people saw this little mini cake. If I would have know, I would have done more, haha! I put it on a styrofoam plate! Anyway, lots of compliments came my way, including an orders and a wedding inquiry. 

This was for a very kind man at my church that has zillions of ties and loves the Rams. I did the star method, covering the cake with individually piped stars. It didn't take as long as I had imagined and it was pretty darned easy, but booooy did my hand hurt!

For my niece's sixth birthday. I was (and still am) quite proud of this cake! I molded Spongebob by hand out of fondant. It wasn't as difficult as I had imagined, but it wasn't easy, either. I loved the colors on this cake. =)

And this, my friends, is my favorite cake I've ever made. I was so nervous making it, but I figured it out. Delivering this was the worst! I should have left the letters off until I got there.

And one new one. This was from my niece's birthday party today. She LOVES nature and will grab her net to go outside and catch a butterfly if she spots one out the window. It's wonderful! She decorated the top cupcake, including breaking the snail. But she didn't mind because that meant she had a slug and a shell. =) FYI, do not try to tint batter violet. It will end up gray. =\



Projects: Lotta Projects...

Wow, I fail at being consistent.

I've been doing quite a few projects, few of which have been worthy of pictures. But some have.

Project Elmo Cupcakes.

Should have made fondant noses. Now I know. And now I also know that I need to stick with the other method of marbleizing cupcake batter so I don't crease the papers and make them all different sizes.

Project Friggin' Delicious Kahlua Frosting.

The recipe called for a few tablespoons of Kahlua. I put in about 1/3 cup. =) And I looooved the box. I wish I had more of those stickers.
Project Cute Little Cake.

I think this is one of the cutest ones I've ever done. =)

Project Yo Gabba Gabba Cupcakes.

Soooooooo fun to make!!

Project Yo Gabba Gabba Cake (obviously same project as above).

The little robot guy (I believe his name is Flex) was my favorite. =) Random tidbit of information, our housemate looks and acts like a Hispanic version of the guy on this show. And I love the word "tidbit."

Project 'Nother Flower Cake.

I loved the little rose buds on the bottom two tiers, but man... that bead border! And I still have no idea how the pros make their buttercream completely smooth. This is why I need/want to go to school to learn. (Although I did make my most amazing bead border a few days ago... and forgot to take a picture of that cake)

Project Music Cupcakes.

I made the notes out of milk chocolate. So much yummier and easier than fondant! I'm trying to start doing more with melting chocolate. Kind of expanding my hypothetical portfolio.

Project Guitar Cake.

This was the size of an actual guitar. I had a mental breakdown in the middle of it, but I was quite happy with how it turned out. The knobs are Rollo's. =) This was my first cake that required an actual piece of wood as a base. Yay for Home Depot! I was going to use embroidery floss for the strings so they were straight, but the floss was all creased and it was to late to iron it. So I ended up just piping them with frosting. And I got to use food coloring spray paint. When I can afford it, I want to buy my own gun for the food color spray, but they cost too much for the moment.

Project Surprise My Mommy Cake.

...This is the one I forgot to take a picture of. I made white chocolate daises for it. Her favorite. =)

Project Cake Pops.

These were fun! You make a cake, crumble it up, mix the crumbs with the frosting, form it into balls by hand, jam in the stick, and pour melted chocolate on top to help secure the stick.

Not everything has been cake-y, though. I've also started cooking and cleaning more, but no pictures of that. It's not as cute. I've been trying to spend more time with people, too. Been seeing my family. Going out with my bff now that she's back on this side of the country. Oh, and I'm back working with the youth group at my old church. Those kids keep me young. =)

Project: Flower Cake

My mom asked me to make a cake for her friend's birthday a few before she needed it. It was just for a small crowd, so I agreed. I wasn't going to make it difficult, so I planed on not using any fondant (I always forget how long it takes to knead it to the right consistency). I didn't really try any new techniques for this cake, but I had never made a monochromatic-ish one before.

I ran into a snag with this one, though. I wanted to start the cake the night before the delivery so I didn't have to wake up so early to frost and decorate. However, I discovered that I left the eggs out overnight and forgot to leave the butter out overnight. Fail. So I was the second person in the nearest grocery store in the morning.

I was pretty nervous about getting it done in time, but I tried to keep reminding myself it wasn't a hard design at all. And, as always, I finished it on time.

Overall, I was very happy with it. It was pretty last-minute, but the birthday girl almost cried happy tears when she saw it. It got a lot of compliments, too. My mom's friends boost my decorator's ego. =)

Next week is going to be full of cake and cupcakes. Two orders!

Project: Cake 1

So, in keeping with my New Year's resolution, I completed a project in the first week of January.

Okay, so my mom wanted me to make a cake for a birthday party and I made it the project. But nonetheless, it was a project.

She gave me a lot of liberty as far as design goes. "Something for two women. Maybe pastels." There were a million things I could have done. When I get that much room for creativity, I like to try something I've never done before. Learn something new, ya know? Last time, I learned how to make buttercream roses. So easy, but so pretty. I figured I'd try fondant roses this time. I had all of the tools to do it and now I had a reason. So I made them. I didn't make as many as I planned on doing because, although they are easy, they take a loooong time to make. I got to use some Styrofoam circles that I purchased for but did not end up using for our wedding (tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary, btw). That was pretty... resourceful.

I like doing both frosting and fondant on cakes because a lot of people don't like the taste of fondant and it gives a lot of textural interest. I didn't have enough shortening for the recipe that I was following for the buttercream, so I had to improvise. And it tasted really good, if I do say so myself.

Baked two 10 inch round chocolate cakes, two 6 inch round white cakes, and one 8 inch round chocolate/white marble cake, stacked and frosted 'em up, stuck in the flowers, piped borders/dots/leaves/letters, and there you have. A cute little birthday cake.

It's definitely not perfect (crooked lines and slanted words), but hey. Considering I've never taken a single decorating class, I think it is quite cute. And I heard it was yummy, too. My mom and one of her friends at all of the flowers, haha.

Next project: decorating cupcakes! Jenelle and I are taking a break from our baking nights to do a little decorating. =)

I know I said my first project would be to clean out my trunk so I could find my camera, but my mom got me an iPhone for my birthday. Now I can procrastinate on that project a little longer, haha. Yay for a new fun toy!!