Christening Cake - a Bear, a Book, and a Cross

(Details to follow...  Maybe.)

My First Wedding Cake

I have an amazing, laid back friend who asked me to do her wedding cake for her in January.  Why mention "laid back"?  A wedding cake is a HUGE deal to many brides - most of which would consider bloodshed as an acceptable thing for screwing it up.  But she was awesome and was okay with anything I was going to do, (although when I told her that I would prefer not to do pink, she expressed ample gratefulness!)

Anyway, here are a few pictures of of the cake as I was doing it - including the picture she sent me of her bouquet, which gave me all the inspiration for it.  As you'll be able to tell, I took pictures at every step as proof just incase a disaster happened along the way...

The bouquet:

The decorations:

     

It took me so long, and so much coloring (that I had to go out and buy more mid-mixing,) but I finally achieved the color I was hoping for.  You can see the scrap of fabric that I was trying to match hanging on the edge of the bowl in the top half of the photo.

I got so lucky with those pine cones!  I had an idea in my head that I could start with a rose base, then work on it like a chrysanthemum...and it worked!  

Making the cake:

While not my favorite flavor, red velvet always looks so pretty!

Initially I had planned to have to have the edge of each tier, where I filled in the gap with plain, piped icing, completely filled with the decorations I made from royal icing.  I was lucky, though, that I piped it as I did, because it ended up looking like piles of snow beneath the flowers.  Or that's what I told myself...

I tried to make the top as visually appealing as I could as there was no topper to add.

Like I said before: I expected disaster.  So I just kept taking pictures!  Only half are actually even posted...

The holes in the butter cream will always bother me, although people assure me it's not that bad.  But this couple especially expressed interest in a non-fondant covered cake, which I happily obliged to do.  I can make my own fondant, and eat it plain, but as soon as it goes on a good, it's just no good.  I don't like to feel like my cake has been taped up or a big band-aid has been slapped around it.  But then again, I'm weird about textures and my food - you won't find me eating sushi (or sashimi) any time soon.

Anyway...

I was horrified at what a person (not myself) could do to a cake just by not using a proper cake lifter.  So the last photo shown is not my favorite.  Even though I was basically told that I was being anal and paranoid, looking at it still bothers me.  And they left my non-slip mat underneath.  See it?  I do.

Ah...  Perhaps with more time and practice, I'll stop being that critical of my work.  Although, chances are, probably not!

Sweet Sixteen: "Turquoise" & Zebra!

Here's the latest cake I made (among an array of tasty cupcakes of which I cannot take credit for.)  This wasn't as horrifyingly difficult as I had originally anticipated.  The ribbon that the bow is made from on top was originally purchased in case I botched the chocolate print around the bottom!  The following is a mini how-to:

The first thing I always do is make the flowers and for a couple reasons: 1) royal icing takes time to set and dry 2) the keep for a LONG time, so it's a good thing to make ahead and get out of the way.

For this cake, I didn't know exactly what I was going to do until I did it.  But I did know that I wanted to use white flowers, so my options (as they came to mind then) were roses, lilies and daisies.  I chose not to do the daisies because they never seem to turn out looking elegant...

(Check out this link for a bunch of how-tos on royal icing flowers and other decorations.  The lilies and roses are both on page 3.)

The day before the party, I baked the cakes and built the tiers.

It just always happens that I remember to take a picture at the same point in icing...

Both tiers were half chocolate and half red velvet.  I used white icing to torte purely for effect.

As you might notice, there are a lot of "holes" in the icing.  This is because I mixed the icing so much in the machine while trying to get the right color.  I realized just as I was about to add food coloring that I couldn't picture the difference between turquoise and teal.  The worst part about it is that I was an art kid in school...

Anyway.  The next thing I had to do (which began the morning of the party) was to make the zebra print border out of modeling chocolate.  I really thought this process was going to end in sweat, blood and tears.  But, alas!  It worked.

To make modeling chocolate, you melt about 10 oz. chocolate or candy wafers (always at half power) in the microwave, then add about 1/3 cup light corn syrup.  Stir until it all sticks together in a sort of ball.  Then pour this out onto a cookie sheet covered in plastic wrap and spread thin to about a 1/2 inch.  Let it set overnight or in the fridge for a couple of hours.  When your ready to work with it, mold it in your hands until it becomes consistent and malleable.  (I'm going to be pissed if I already typed all of this out in another post.)  Make sure your hands and surface that you will be working on is good and greased up with shortening.

As for how I did the zebra print--I got lucky.  That's all I'm giving ya for know.

It took two strips to make it around, but it worked out pretty painlessly.

After this part, I just started to wing it.  I used a ball border, which I never really use, because I wanted to match the invitation as best I could.

Then I cut out a "16" with my Cricut machine and started to throw flowers on.  I had so many left over that I brought them with me to the party and threw them on the bottom tier in an attempt to hide the fugly base.  (This can be seen in the first photo.)

Then I made up a way to make the bow and plopped it on top.  Ta-da!  If it weren't so grotesque to say "I pulled this cake out of my ass," I would totally use the term here.  But I'm proud of it!  This cake ended up looking so much better than what I had initially drawn up simply by switching around some borders and adding flowers and a bow.

As always, let me know what you think and leave any constructive criticism that I can use in the future!  If it's just mean, then NO CAKE FOR YOU!

Lemon Berry Cupcakes: Trial 1

My mom recently brought home a bunch of different berries from our local produce store, so I put it into my head that I wanted to use them in cupcakes.  Kind of a muffin/cupcake hybrid-why not?

Unfortunately, these bad boys didn't come out as I had hoped.  This is where I need your help!

I started with a box of lemon cake mix.  Whenever I bake with berries, I feel compelled to use lemon flavoring.  I blended the mix according to the directions, then moved on to work with the berries.

After finding out that we didn't have any blueberries, I used 1/2 cup of blackberries and 1/2 cup of raspberries.  (In hindsight, I might either only use raspberries or strain the blackberries after they've been blended.  Blackberry seeds are a bit much for me in a fluffy cupcake.)  After running the food processor with just the berries, I realized that there wasn't enough in there for the blades to kick up.  On the fly, I added some corn syrup (maybe 1/3 cup,) about 3 tbsp. white sugar.  This still didn't do it.  I didn't want to use water.  I contemplated adding some of the batter in, but I knew that I wanted to use some of the berry blend as a drizzle.  So, naturally, I grabbed the vanilla vodka.

As for concocting these things in the pan, I started with a couple spoonfuls of batter in each cup or about halfway filled.  Then I added in a teaspoon of berry mixture and swirled it in with a toothpick.  I wanted some berry goodness in the center, so I added an extra teaspoon in the center (**this is where I need help! Look for my question at the bottom!)

I covered this work with another couple spoonfuls of batter then popped them in the oven at 350 F for about 20 minutes.  (I had leftover batter after making this dozen.)

Mmm...  I let them cool a bit then removed them all from the pan to cool further, all on a wire rack.  I got anxious and wanted to see how it turned out...but, and here's the problem, the extra dollop of berry mix fell to the bottom!  :(  You can see this in the next photo where I left the wrapper in the shot.

I iced them using the butter cream recipe then drizzled the leftover berry mixture on top.  Okay... I had problems drizzling so I basically flicked the berries at the cupcakes making a gigantic mess.  The stovetop was the ultimate loser in this battle.

But they still turned out super yummy!

So, let's see if I can get some help on this.  Was it that I used alcohol in the berry mixture?  Should I bake the bottom for a little to stiffen it up then add the extra dollop?  Or will I just have to swirl it all in?  I would love any and all feedback that you can give me!  Thank you!

Did I mention I can bake Pie?

ARGHH!!!  I missed my opportunity yesterday to post a pie on pi day...  Oh, well.  This is a pie that I did maybe two years ago.  It's pumpkin, of course!  I used this Martha recipe (as found on my Halloween blog.)

Now that I've pimped out The Halloween Spot about half way to the next season, I'll also show you the pie I did this last year using the same recipe.

I love love love love pumpkin pie!  I'll try to suppress my lust for autumn within this blog, but I'm not making any promises...

Who You Gonna Call? Ghostbusters cake!

I made this for boyfriend a little while ago.  Not only is this a brownie cake, but it's BADASS!  Can I say that about my own cake?  ;)

Her dream cake at 6: The Great Wall of China

This thing was massive for little ol' me.  First, the yellow...

Don't ask me how I did this...

I added some hills then iced that beast up!

Made some cherry blossoms out of royal icing beforehand:

Wait... what is that?

IT'S THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!

That modeling chocolate was boss.  I merely did what it told me to do...  And with some Chinatown letters:

Ready to go in the box!  How did I carry this thing?

A 7-year-old girl's dream cake: A giant California Roll!

This kid rocks!  Last year, I made her a Great Wall of China cake (pictures will eventually make their way on here.)  And this year, to supplement her Japanese Tea Party theme, she requested a cake made to look like a california roll.

I can't say that I'm a sushi (or sashimi) fan, so a little bit of research had to go into the cake.  I pulled up some pictures from good ol' Google and came up with a sketch.

XX INSERT SCETCH PHOTO HERE XX (we'll see if I get to this part...)

The day before the party, I began to create!  I work with box cakes when I'm putting most of my work into decorating.  Duncan brand has never let me down.  I swear, the secret to a great box cake is all in the timing.  Bake just up to the moment when the toothpick no longer brings goo out with it and no longer.  Usually, for an 8" dark pan, 30 minutes will do it.  Take the pans out, and place them on wire racks to cool for about ten minutes.  After they've cooled (or have at least lost the power to scald skin) release the cakes.  You can either let them cool further or go straight to leveling.  Purely a preference thing.  I tend to level first (with my cake leveler,) because once the cake cools the top edge gets a little jagged.  Sometimes this causes the edges to pull and it gauges a chunk out of the side...

After the cake was leveled, I torted the middle with buttercream (see recipe if needed) then iced all around the top and sides.

I leveled the top well, but the sides don't need to be perfect.  If you're trying this out, you'll need to prep some modeling chocolate (or fondant) ahead of time.  Modeling chocolate is simply some melted chocolate wafers and light corn syrup.  Roll out a thick, stubby log (dirty) and make sure your pastry mat is good and greased up with shortening.  Grease your rolling pin too.  Then flatten out the log so that it's a good few inches wider than the height of the cake.

Trim one side of this mess to make a level edge to match up with the bottom of the cake.  I used a pastry something or other to help lift the chocolate off the mat.  Apply it to the cake smoothing as you go.  I had to roll out another piece as this one didn't reach all the way around.

After I applied the pieces and smoothed them down, I trimmed the top with scissors and left about half an inch above the cakes surface.  I then folded the top over inside and used the end of a thin paint brush to tuck it in to leave a smooth rounded edge.

I probably should have mentioned that I used about 3 batches of buttercream for this cake (2 thin, 1 medium.)  But I'm just going to assume that someone would read through my gibberish before attempting to make this...  Anyway, I grabbed some of my thin consistency icing and coconut and began applying it to the cake.  I didn't cover all of the chocolate as I wanted some of the "seaweed wrap" to show through, and I found that clean fingers worked better than anything else to apply the coconut.

Ta-da!!  At this point, I was getting really psyched at how the cake was turning out.  I had decided at this point, though, that base was looking a little boring, and I wanted the cake to really pop.  So I took some of my brown food coloring gel and some water and started slapping it on the cake board.  My intention was to make it look like a wood prep board...

Then all I had left to do was fill my california roll.  I made some "crab meat" out of icing, coloring, and coconut.  Then piped the rest of the decorations on.

Since I had some modeling chocolate left over, I also rolled out some chopsticks. Yes, I realize they're not exactly proportionate...

What do you think?  I love feedback!

First thing's first: Buttercream Icing

Per batch:

1 c. shortening (or butter)
1 tsp. flavoring (half butter, half vanilla)
1 lb. confectioners sugar
1 tbsp. meringue powder
2 tbsp. water (or milk) -for stiff consistency. For medium, add 1 tsp to stiff; for thin, add 2 tsp to stiff


I will refer to this recipe a lot!

To make:

Cream shortening, flavoring and water. Be careful doing this, because the liquids tend to slop up out of the mixing bowl at me. Then add the meringue powder and sugar, steadily but not all at once. You'll want to keep a (damp) cloth over the bowl to prevent the suger from escaping and on the low setting.  After all of the sugar is in and has settled, I usually give it a few seconds on the high setting just to (whip it) whip it good.