Tuesday, April 28, 2009

He's In The Army Now!


Well, Army Reserves anyway! My brother joined the Army Reserve several years back and is being shipped out to Iraq. I have sent him and his family cupcakes periodically and he has been instrumental in getting me to start my own business. So what better way to say goodbye and good luck than with some cupcakes! I free-handed all of these so they are not as good as I would've liked, but they are all made with lots of love! Flavors were strawberry cake with cream cheese buttercream frosting and peanut butter cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. All are topped with a marshmallow fondant plaque.

This is supposed to look like the official seal of the Army Reserve. I had some trouble as you can see!

This one was my favorite!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Fore!


This week I had fun making a golf-themed cake for my husband's step-brother. His mother requested the cake to go with a little salt-and-pepper set that she had found (the little guy with his clubs). The cake is almond poppy seed with raspberry filling. I made my own piping gel for the water. If you want to try making your own piping gel, here is the recipe:


Piping Gel

2 Envelopes (2TBSP) unflavored gelatin
2 TBSP cold water
2 c. light corn syrup

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water in a small saucepan and let set for about 5 minutes. Heat on low until the gelatin has become clear and dissolved. DO NOT BOIL! Add the corn syrup and heat thoroughly. Cool and store, refrigerated for up to 2 months.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Light and Dark

Last week I ended up doing two cakes. One was a black cake with "dead roses" for a fortieth birthday and the other was a stacked Easter cake with lilies.

The fortieth cake was half white cake, half chocolate cake with a 6" round topper done half and half to match. The little round topper was filled with cookies 'n' cream buttercream and the rest was filled with vanilla. The black icing was flavored chocolate. I need to work on my shell border...it really did not turn out well on this cake! I checked out Toba Garrett's book from the library to work on my cake skills.

The Easter cake was my first attempt at stacking a cake. Although I had some problems, I was pleased with the cake overall. I made gumpaste lilies for the cake and thought they turned out very nice! The top tier was strawberry cake with cream cheese buttercream and fresh strawberry filling. The bottom tier was white chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling. I got to eat this cake and it was super yummy! Hope you all had a blessed happy Easter!!!

Friday, April 3, 2009

Hooray for Refunds....Boo to Duncan Hines!


Our accountants worked hard this year and got us a big tax refund. So, the day before we were to go up and sign the taxes, I decided I should make them a cake. I browsed Cake Central for ideas and decided a calculator would be easy to do! This cake is a 9x13 that I carved/built up to create the shape. I used a Duncan Hines fudge marble mix and doctored it with sour cream and irish cream flavored coffee creamer. A word of advice...if ever you are doing WASC (stands for white almond sour cream cake, but cakesters use it for any sour cream doctored mix) do NOT use Duncan Hines! I tried this twice with the same results - it falls while baking! I have used other mixes with success, so I am guessing it is the mix that failed me. It was still tasty though, and luckily I was carving some cake away, so it all worked out. I torted the cake and filled it with chocolate ganache, refrigerated, and carved. I did a crumb coat of vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream and covered that with marshmallow fondant. The buttons are marshmallow fondant and all the letters and numbers are piped on with royal icing. I tasted the cake scraps and it tasted heavenly...I hope the accountants liked it!!!