The Caking Hobbyist

Dog Cake

2011-06-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

Doesn't everyone throw a party for their dog's first birthday?! If they don't, they should and if they do, it should include a dog-themed cake, of course. Our friend Jason knows how to throw a party, and he did just that for his pooch Sydney, a creamy, yellow lab.

I was given one detail....red velvet. Thought I'd keep it simple and the cake was a hit. And although she didn't get to eat any, I'm sure Sydney loved it.

This bone cake was two 9x13" carved, red velvet cakes with cream cheese frosting. Covered/decorated with marshmallow fondant. Americolor Gourmet Food Writer pens were used for the paw prints.

Cigar Cake

2011-06-08T09:27:00.000-07:00

Made a cigar cake for my co-workers' 50th birthday. All things considered, I thought it turned out well, though, it did kind of look like a loaf of bread. Next time, I'll include a burnt end and maybe make it a little longer.

Two 9x13" cakes, stacked & carved. German chocolate cake w/ coconut pecan filling. Iced with dark chocolate ganache and covered/decorated with MMF.

Easter Cookies

2011-04-25T15:44:00.002-07:00

Me and the kiddos made Easter cookies again this year. Well, I baked and topped with fondant. they went wild with the Americolor Gourmet Food Writer pens.

While they did that, I set a few aside that I had iced w/ royal, to decorate and give away to friends. I ~~stole~~ borrowed a great idea from Meaghan at The Decorated Cookie. She always has the cutest and most fun ideas which that can be used in so many different ways, and I've borrowed several of them before.

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Easter!

Hannah's Cake

2011-04-16T14:57:00.002-07:00

Last year, when I made Hannah's birthday cake (which you can see HERE), it was all about Hello Kitty. But when her birthday rolled around this year, and I asked her what she wanted, her only requirements were a pink kitty with a crown. Alrighty, then...and here's what she got.

10" white cake with oreo cookie/buttercream filling. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant. Even her highness is all fondant. Very fun cake to make!

Mark & Aimee

2011-03-28T14:39:00.000-07:00

Mark & Aimee were wed this weekend in the backyard of a very good friend of mine. Everything was wonderfully decorated with such attention to detail, and I could only hope my cake added to the beauty of it all.

(iPhone photo)

12", 8" & 6" marble cake with vanilla buttercream.

Covered & decorated with marshmallow fondant and gumpaste flowers.

Ashley's Sweet 16

2011-03-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

A really good family friend's daughter asked if I would make the cake for her Sweet 16 birthday party!

In our initial conversations, she indicated she wanted white w/ a diamond pattern and that I somehow incorporate yellow. Here is the design I created.

After going back and forth a little more, she settled on a yellow lower tier w/ the diamond pattern on top and a fondant fabric flower.

Here is the finished cake.

10" white cake with oreo cookie filling and 8" red velvet with cream cheese filling. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.

Here's the topper, which I added upon delivery.
(love my airbrush!)

Adrian's Cake

2011-02-08T10:14:00.001-07:00

Made this cake for my co-worker's son for his 2nd birthday! He LOVES Handy Manny!

Not all of Manny's tool friends are included, but you get the idea. I love how the painted fondant really looks like wood. Oh, the things that can be done in cake.

9" x 13" cinnamon chocolate fudge cake with vanilla buttercream. Covered & decorated with marshmallow fondant.

Billy's Cake

2011-01-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

I got a VERY last minute cake request from a friend of a friend of my husband's, who's familiar with many of the cakes I've done. He wanted a cake for his friend's birthday giving only four day's notice, asking that it be a smaller round, red velvet and to somehow incorporate his friend's three least favorite things: tomatoes, olives and coconut. Um, helloooo, random. But I agreed. Here's what he got:

That's one mad tomato and his olive army.

8" red velvet, covered & decorated with marshmallow fondant. 'Coconut' is white chocolate shavings. And Billy is edible image.

Christmas Cake

2010-12-29T12:05:00.000-07:00

I threw together this cake for Christmas dinner with family. Well, I wouldn't say threw together exactly, thought went into the cake, but not so much the design. I love how it turned out though; very Christmas-y.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I know I did and I'm anxiously looking forward to 2011!

8" cinnamon chocolate fudge cake w/ peppermint meringue buttercream and candy cane crunchies. 6" pound cake with vanilla buttercream. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant and sanding sugar.

Terry & Maria's Cake

2010-12-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

Hubby's coworker reached out to me a few months ago to make a wedding cake for them and I happily obliged. The bride wanted something very simple and clean and here's what they got:

12" cinnamon chocolate fudge cake, 10" pistachio cake and 8" red velvet cake, each filled and iced with swiss meringue buttercream. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant. The black fondant ribbons were accented with black sanding sugar.

Shawn's Cake

2010-12-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

This is by far one of the most unique cakes I've made. And one that required some ingenuity and structural pieces.

My friend Laura wanted to surprise her husband with a cake for his 35th birthday! Both she and her husband Shawn are really into curling. You know, the sport! They belong to a club, so it's not just an enjoyment of the sport, it's a participatory activity for them.

So, she wanted to surprise him with a curling rock (or sometimes known as a stone) cake and I was happy to oblige.

Having never seen a rock in person, I was working entirely from a picture, but I wanted it to be very close to actual size.

It was a fairly simple cake. I carved a three-layer, 10" round and used 1/2" PVC pipe pieces to make the handle. My piping around the edges needs some work.

Overall I'm very pleased with the cake and the birthday boy LOVED it!

Out for delivery

Cinnamon chocolate fudge with raspberry swiss meringue buttercream. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant

Update: Giveaway Winner

2010-11-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, the original winner of my 1st Giveaway did not contact me in an adequate time frame to collect her prize, so I've selected a new winner.

Congratulations to Loren at The Baking Sheet!

Please email me your address and I'll get your new apron in the mail!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

Once again inspired by Meaghan at The Decorated Cookie, I made these fun cookies for the Thanksgiving holiday. I also made Bridget's turkey cookies from bake at 350.

I'm especially fond of the pie. And while Meaghan didn't have a cooked turkey template, it was pretty easy to create as well.

My own sugar cookie Thanksgiving feast.

Now...how to draw some corn, yams, macaroni & cheese, green bean casserole, biscuits & mashed potatoes. Anyone?

Hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Julie's Cake

2010-11-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

I made my first vegan cake to help celebrate a friend's birthday! I researched a few different recipes and scoured the web looking for vegan fondant. Who knew that Satin Ice, which I have used before and can easily find, would be just what I needed.

I struggled somewhat decorating this cake though. My swirls kept sliding, which affected the coloring of the airbrushed cake. Thankfully, I know exactly how to do it cleanly next time.

8" vegan red velvet (so freaking tasty) & 5" vegan vanilla sour cream cake, filled and iced with vegan cream cheese frosting. Covered and decorated with Satin Ice fondant (which is also vegan).

My 1st Giveaway

2010-11-17T08:00:00.001-07:00

I've been fortunate enough to win a few giveaways, so in the spirit of giveaways and paying it forward, I'm hosting my first giveaway.

I'm giving away this colorful and stylish "Vibrant Large Flowers" three-pocket half apron, handmade by Doris at GreatGoods.

Created with 'Vibrant Large Floral on Black' twill fabric designed by Sanae, it also has a coordinating flower print accents waistband and is fully lined. It measures approximately 25” wide x 12” long with adjustable waist ties (35” each). It can be tied in the back or wrapped around to the front as shown in picture.

This apron is perfect for baking, gardening or any other variety of jobs. I have this same apron in the 'Brown Lacework' printed fabric and I absolutely LOVE it.

HOW TO ENTER

Just leave a comment that says - "I like cake!"

Earn an extra entry by tweeting about the giveaway on twitter - include a link to this post. Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

The giveaway ends on Sunday, November 21st at Midnight MST. One winner will be chosen randomly and announced on Monday, November 22nd.

RULES

This giveaway is available to residents of the U.S. and Canada ONLY.

Good luck!

Riley's Cake

2010-11-15T16:52:00.003-07:00

This is also the 3rd year I've made Riley's birthday cake.

Riley recently got a new turtle she named Lily. And decided she wanted a turtle cake for her birthday. But not just any turtle cake, but a pink turtle cake.

Three 10" carved cinnamon chocolate fudge cakes with vanilla buttercream for the body. Head is butter pecan with vanilla buttercream. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.

And I also wanted to share a picture of Riley with her cake. One, because it was her birthday and she loved her cake; and two, because it's hard to gauge the size/scale of a cake when it's photographed by itself and this cake was pretty big.

Cut cake. Something I usually never get to see or want to take a picture of.

James & McKenzie's cake

2010-11-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

This is my 3rd year making a birthday cake for twins, James & McKenzie, who celebrated with a Woody & Jessie, Toy Story themed party this year.

I also made fondant figurines of Woody & Jessie for the cake top, but naturally, I didn't get a picture snapped upon delivery when they were added. Hopefully Mindy will email me a copy so I can share pictures of those too!

10" cinnamon chocolate fudge with vanilla buttercream. 8" vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.

Omarr's Graduation Cake

2010-11-08T10:00:00.002-07:00

Dionne, whose birthday cake is below, wanted to surprise her husband Omarr with a graduation cake. He recently graduated from the University of Phoenix with a Master's in Justice & Security Administration.

She gave me free range for the design, which got me excited to try something different. I thought stacked books was a much more mature design than a round, colorful cake with a graduate cap topper.

I did a little research and used courses listed in his degree program as book titles. I airbrushed the cake to give the books a leathery and worn look, which I really liked. Accented with gold, the school logo was hand painted and the cake personalized with a standing, gold, fondant letter 'O', which was added to the cake upon delivery (so I don't have a picture).

I'm very happy with the outcome and Omarr was too! So much so, he didn't want to cut it! *smile*

White cake with vanilla buttercream. Covered & decorated with marshmallow fondant.

Giveaway Win!

2010-11-07T20:38:00.001-07:00

If you didn't already know, I.LOVE.BLOGS. I follow and read all kinds of blogs. Entertaining, insightful, informative and most with purrrrdy pictures, I like to spend a good chunk of my day checking out the goings-on of my fellow bloggers, who for the most part are everyday people like you and me. Shoot, I'm willing to guess that most of the people who read my blog are bloggers too. Hello friends!

I started my family blog, WHOA {just realizing}, 5 years ago this month! And I have since started two others (this one included). The 3rd blog is on pretty shaky ground, but I do have intentions of getting that train back on track.

Blog following has its advantages and I'm happy to say I'm reaping the benefits of a giveaway I recently won from TamStyles' "Get It Girl Style" blog.

Aren't these calling cards THE cutest!

They were created and printed by Pam at pixelimpress who customized my order with the quatrefoil pattern. Tres` chic, oui?! And guess what -- Pam has a blog too!

I absolutely LOVE them! Big thanks to Tam and Pam!

I think I'm going to host my first giveaway too, so check back soon!

Eddie's Cake

2010-11-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

I was asked to make a birthday cake for Eddie's 40th birthday, commemorating all of Eddie's favorite things in a the form of a pie chart.

30% for his love of flying planes, 20% to being a kid, 25% for all his schooling (to include law school) and another 25% to chasing T&A (and if you don't know what that is, try and get a closer look at the picture).

I covered the board and created a graph paper look. The items denoting all of Eddie's favorite things included a stack of books, a plane, a red wagon and a woman's naked torso.

12" round white cake filled with vanilla buttercream. Covered and decorated w/ marshmallow fondant.

Dionne's Cake

2010-10-22T11:19:00.001-07:00

My friend Dionne was celebrating her 35th birthday and her husband wanted to surprise her with a cake made by yours truly! This fun, modern cake was also a lot of fun to make and a big hit!

8", three-layer carrot cake with swiss meringue buttercream. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant, silver dragees and a gumpaste peony.

From Sketch to Cake

2010-10-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

September was a busy month for cake. Well, not terribly busy, but one week alone was rough. I made two cakes for the same day, one of which was my daughter's 4th birthday party and Hello Kitty cake.

Here's the sketch I made for the cake design...

And the end result...

12" Cinnamon chocolate fudge cake with rasperry-almond buttercream filling. Hello Kitty's body was carved white cake and her head was styrofoam. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.

And the sketch for Gaby's 2nd birthday cake. The color and the birds were from the invitation that Gaby's mom, Karen, designed.

The cake...

Gaby's cake was a 10" white cake with blueberry filling and an 8" marble cake with vanilla buttercream. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant. The birds matched the invitation.

Thanks for looking!

BBQ Cookies

2010-06-28T10:09:00.001-07:00

We had a small get-together at our house this weekend, mostly to hang out and cool off with friends and their kids by the pool. It's HOT here in Arizona, so pool time is a must! So, we threw some burgers and dogs on the bbq and made a day of it.

For fun, I made these sugar cookies with a half batch of dough I had in the freezer and leftover marshmallow fondant. I borrowed the idea from Meaghan at The Decorated Cookie and used Americolor Food Writer pens for the 'art'. I also let the kiddos decorate cookies too, and as usual, they had a blast making their own art!

This is such a fun, easy way to jazz up cookies and make them festive for any occasion, even a little 'ol bbq.

Wedding #2

2010-06-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy month and I am officially on a caking break!

My co-worker is getting married this weekend and made a last minute request for a cake.

8" & 4.5" red velvet cakes with swiss meringue buttercream. Covered with ivory, marshmallow fondant, decorated with fuschia sugar beads and a gumpaste peony.

I really like working with Isomalt/poured sugar and can't wait for more opportunities to use it!

I need a new camera!!

Mindy's 30th

2010-06-19T08:00:00.003-07:00

Mindy's 30th birthday party was a blast and I was both happy and excited to provide the cake. My thoughts now tell me that one should not try new techniques for such momentous occasions. Hindsight things *sigh*.

Any-hoo, Mindy loved it and I'm not terribly unhappy with how it turned out. I definitely learned a lot from the experience and actually look forward to trying another.

10", 7" and 4" cakes. Bottom tier was yellow cake with Hershey's chocolate buttercream, middle tier was white cake with strawberry filling and the top tier was white cake with vanilla buttercream. All covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.

Chris's Cake

2010-06-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

My friend Chris turned 34 earlier this week. His wife was throwing a party and asked that I surprise him with a cake. And not just any cake, but an exotic cake. If you're not familiar with exotic cakes, they typically involve naked ladies.

SooOOoo, in an effort to keep my blog family-friendly, I will not be posting a picture of the cake.

If you'd like to check it out, click HERE.

It was two carved 9"x13" cakes (triple chocolate fudge) and two ball pan cakes (white cake), both filled and iced with Hershey's chocolate buttercream. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.

It was kinda weird how real the whole thing looked, but it was a very fun cake to make and the birthday boy was pleasantly surprised!

Arizona Weddings Magazine

2010-06-08T08:27:00.001-07:00

OK, I am just a little giddy! The wonderful couple whose wedding cake I made last spring is featured in the June/July issue of Arizona Weddings magazine. And guess who's cake got a photo and a vendor mention?? Yep, that would be me!

WOOT! WOOT!

Amy & Temesghan's Cake

2010-06-07T09:58:00.005-07:00

I've made my 2nd wedding cake! And boy was it a doozy! Mostly because it was for a wedding I was also a bridesmaid in AND was 6 hours away in California.

I don't know that I'll be inclined to travel with a wedding cake again as it was supremely stressful between all the baking and prep (like the 16 pounds of fondant I made!), let alone the driving! But I had a lot of fun with this cake and the bride & groom were very happy with it!

Five tiers of red velvet cake with swiss meringue buttercream filling. Covered with marshmallow fondant, gumpaste roses and royal icing detail.

Many Thanks

2010-05-31T22:31:00.000-07:00

I'm always grateful for those amazing tips that you may come across that can or will change the way you cake. My latest, method-changing tip came by way of a tweet. I don't recall when or who tweeted it, but I'm glad I read it, because it saved me.

I was making a cake and was out of the non-stick spray I mist my pans with before filling with cake batter. I get it from my local cake supply store and it usually lasts me a while, so I don't buy it very often. But naturally, when I needed it, I was out.

Now, I know I can grease and flour my pans, but that's time consuming, and past experience has shown that it doesn't work that well for me.

But this new tip is great, and almost the exact same thing, but with a little twist, so, here it is:

Equal parts, flour, shortening and vegetable oil. Whisk together until smooth and brush onto your pan with a pastry brush.

That's it. Short and sweet. And so simple. And you can make a lot or a little depending on what your needs may be. It's now my go-to. Perhaps it'll work for you.

Pics later this week or early next of the wedding cake I'm working on!! Stay tuned!

Life + Style Blog Feature

2010-05-27T09:18:00.001-07:00

A short while ago, I reached out to Dayka at Life + Style hoping she could offer a little insight as to how to style our currently empty living room space. After getting to know her, she was sweet enough to write a feature about my caking on her blog!

Check it out HERE.

Thanks Dayka!

Because of the Derby

2010-05-03T09:16:00.007-07:00

A good friend of ours hosted a Kentucky Derby party on Saturday. And while it was Bring Your Own Meat for the grill, I also wanted to bring along some festive cookies . What better than a few horses!

I ended up making horse head profile cookies. I originally intended to make full-bodied horses but sadly, the only full horse cutter I could find was really tiny, which wasn't what I was going for.

I'm really happy with how they turned out. I made three dozen and they were a BIG hit!

Ymani's Birthday

2010-04-26T09:10:00.001-07:00

This weekend I made a cake for Ymani's 5th birthday.

Interestingly, Ymani's mother Tiffany first emailed me in December about a cake for the party. And after four months of email exchanges to determine design, flavors and then adding a second cake, the day finally arrived.

Both cakes were iced in buttercream and if you didn't already know, fondant is my medium of choice, but these were very fun cakes to make! And as always, I learned a lot during the process.

8" marbled cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. Fondant ribbon roses and lettering.

I had serious centering issues!

1/4 sheet cake, marbled cake with vanilla buttercream and edible image treasure map.

This cake was over 4" tall!

B is for...

2010-04-14T08:20:00.002-07:00

Ferrari. No wait -- it's for Bobby!

One of dh's co-workers who orders a cake from me annually wanted either a Ferrari (the car) cake or a big letter 'B'. It was rather short notice and I didn't think I could manage a Ferrari in the middle of the week, so a big 'B' it was.

But to make up for the Ferrari-lessness, I added the Ferrari logos. I think it turned out pretty well.

(please forgive my iPhone photo)

Carved 9" x 13" red velvet cake with Italian meringue buttercream. Covered with marshmallow fondant and edible image logos.

PS. My airbrush is my bestest friend.

Hannah's Birthday

2010-04-11T22:09:00.002-07:00

I love Hello Kitty. She's cute, sweet, sassy and dare I say, sophisticated. She's many things, cute being her greatest asset.

Hannah was having a Hello Kitty party and I couldn't have been more excited to make a Hello Kitty cake. And this cake was super fun and easy to make! I can't wait to make another one!!!!!!!

10" & 6" white cakes w/ strawberry filling. Covered/decorated w/ marshmallow fondant. Figurine is also fondant. Back of cake decorated with edible image.

Happy Easter

2010-04-05T09:15:00.006-07:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

I made HUGE bunny cookies for my daughter and her friends to decorate, using a template I found on-line. It was as easy as using a firm piece of cardboard as my guide and tracing/cutting the cookie dough with an exact-o knife. I had to bake these up pretty firm so the ears wouldn't fall right off when moving, but with 3 and 4-year olds in the room, there were bound to be a few broken bunny ears. Good thing that doesn't affect the taste!!

All that's needed is your favorite sugar cookie recipe, royal icing and food-safe pens (I have Americolor Food Writer Pens, but Wilton makes a similar pen)!

Anniversary Cake

2010-03-09T08:54:00.003-07:00

Dane and Becca celebrated their 1st wedding anniversary and, as promised, I made them an anniversary cake.

I honestly can't imagine eating a cake that's been in the freezer for a year, so I'm glad they opted to have a fresh one made.

Cheers to many, many years of happiness together!

6", 3-layer red velvet cake with swiss meringue buttercream.

I really hate that this picture is so bad -- forgive me!!

Spiderman

2010-03-01T10:35:00.004-07:00

This was my 3rd year making a birthday cake for my daughter's best buddy, Elijah. Last year he was into Cars and this year for his 4th birthday, he's all about Spiderman. I got the idea for this cake from a cake photo I saw on flickr.

Cinnamon chocolate fudge cake with chocolate and vanilla buttercreams. Covered/decorated with Satin Ice fondant (red), marshmallow fondant and royal icing.

It was a 3-layer cake that stood about 4.5 inches tall and was 10 inches from top of head to chin. Pretty easy cake to make and one of the fastest I'd made in a while.

Cookie Kick

2010-02-17T12:43:00.004-07:00

I've been on a bit of a cookie kick lately. I really enjoy making them for my daughter and her friends to decorate but that usually involves a big royal icing mess. SO, I decided to do things a little differently this time around.

And, what is better than a blank canvas?

Naturally, for Valentines, I made heart cookies, but I also made a bunch of white square cookies for the kiddos to decorate with Americolor Food Writer pens. So fun and cute, and a great non-messy kid activity if you're looking for one.

I LOVE Cookies!

2010-01-31T16:29:00.003-07:00

In all honesty, if I had to choose, I would always choose to eat cookies over cake. Small portions, no utensils required, simple and sometimes absolutely gorgeous.

There are a lot of great sites and blogs on the web displaying the cookies of some VERY talented cookie decorators. And they with much steadier and patient hands than my own. But every now and again, I'm inspired to give it a go myself. I made the cutest turkey cookies in November (which I naturally didn't get any pictures of) and these I made yesterday for expectant friends.

I probably got a little crazy with the color selection, but you know me, I like color. Electric pink and green may have been a bit much; and I probably should have thought to ask about nursery colors, but alas.

But overall, my friends were happy, I was happy and I know they tasted good.

2009 - Year in Review

2010-01-07T21:00:00.004-07:00

2009 was a great year for me and caking. I made my 1st wedding cake, had a plethora of cake ball orders and got to try out a few new techniques. My activity has been slow lately, which has been a nice break, but I'm SO ready to gear up and dig into some fondant soon!

2010 looks equally busy and at this point includes two weddings and a minimum of five birthdays. I'll throw some cupcakes in there for good measure for dh to take to work, because although tedious, cupcake toppers are fun and cute!

January

My first cake of 2009! Hand-drawn and painted Phoenix Suns logo.

February

Cars cake for my daughter's best bud.

March

My 1st wedding cake.
Can't wait to make Dane & Becca's anniversary cake! Red velvet, of course.

April

The 2nd Dora cake I've made.

Asian-themed wedding shower.

The fortune cookie cupcake toppers were my favorite!

This is the 2nd SAAC cake I've made for Arizona State.

I LOVE the woodgrain appearance!

Magic made with Americolor airbrush color and a pastry brush.

June
Simple birthday cake for a special friend.

Pooh and friends birthday cake. Similar design to the Dora cake.

July

Gotta bring something to the BBQ!

August

Go Yankees! Early birthday celebration for my dad's 60th...

*shakes fist at faulty airbrush for dying on my before I could finish the bill*

...and my grandmother's 80th.

September

Avery's 3rd birthday cake! Learned a lot on this one, especially what I'd do to make it AWESOME!

November

A cake for the twins! Cars & Tinkerbell

December

No cakes this month, but more cake balls than you can imagine! And in festive and seasonal flavors and colors. Wish I had more pics of these!

Happy New Year!

Cheers to a great 2010!

2009 NaBloPoMo

2009-11-30T13:01:00.002-07:00

I made it a little more than half way, then lost it. Which stinks because I got off to a good start. Ah, well, life happens. Maybe I'll give 'er a go next year!

Til' then, Congratulations to those of you who were able to get in 30 posts in 30 days!

I Like Cake.

2009-11-17T21:47:00.001-07:00

That's all.

And NaBloPoMo is hard. Uninspired today.

A Break

2009-11-16T21:34:00.004-07:00

I'll be the 1st to admit that it's nice to take a break after two consecutive weeks/weekends of caking. Having a hobby such as this is so bittersweet. I love it, I really do, but after spending countless hours preparing, thrashing my kitchen, not sleeping and ignoring my family, I'm exhausted and want nothing to do with it.

A brief, cake-free break rejuvinates me for my next go-round. You know, after I've missed it for a while.

I honestly don't have much planned right now, so I'll be doing more leisurely baking. Seasonal cookies for the holidays. I'd like to get a little better with iced sugar cookies because they make such great gifts. But honestly those take almost as much time as cakes. Well, it is different. Different materials and prep time, and ultimately, different results.

Yes, I definitely see sugar cookies. And maybe I'll organize my cupboard and cake kit. It's long overdue.

Until next time...

Forgive my rambling, it's NaBloPoMo.

Riley's Cake

2009-11-15T16:50:00.006-07:00

The end result. Riley's barnyard themed birthday cake and cupcakes. Super cute and fun cake & cupcakes.

Bad lighting = poor photo.

6" cinnamon chocolate cake and cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. Cake is covered and decorated with mmf and the cupcake toppers are also mmf.

The piping is actually pink, but turned our electric orange in the photo.

Faces you can't help but love. The sheep were my fave.

A cow says...moo.

#2 Slacker Post

2009-11-14T23:59:00.001-07:00

To put it into Twitter terms - #FAIL.

Letter Cutters...

2009-11-13T08:00:00.002-07:00

are the bane of my existence. Despite my tip for easier removal, unless your gumpaste is firm, it's not fun.

Steadily working on Riley's cupcake/cake creation.

Just A Little Something I'm Workin' On

2009-11-12T08:20:00.001-07:00

Oink Oink!

Caking Again

2009-11-11T21:08:00.002-07:00

Not much to post about today. Working tonight and the rest of this week on cupcake and cake toppers for a 3rd birthday party this weekend.

It's so fun to be able to do things I haven't done before. I'm not crazy about cupcakes, but I do enjoy making cute things, and what I'm making are sure to be CUTE!

Can't wait to post pictures!

fingers crossed

2009-11-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

That's what I do every time I enter a giveaway from a fellow blogger. Yep, I hate to admit it and it sounds awful using the term, but I am a giveaway whore.

I'm nearing my four year anniversary of blogging (on my other blog) at the end of this month. And in my four feeble years, blogging has swung from people posting random thoughts and musings, then wondering (or hoping) someone else other than themselves might actually read it, into thousands of hits per day for those who've found a niche audience.

And you know what, corporate America has taken notice.

So much so, that blogs have sponsors. And sponsors give things to these bloggers to give away to their readers. There are those super cool bloggers who buy or make awesome stuff to give away, but if you're generating traffic to your site in areas that impact big business, it can definitely work in your favor.

Cooking and baking are unique fields of interest because there are so many needs and uses to create delicious and becoming food. And in hosted giveaways, appliances, utensils, cookbooks, product, gift cards, apparel, jewelry, aprons are things I've come across so far. I've seen a lot because I've entered a lot of giveaways*. And guess what? I've won a couple of times too; see that cool apron I'm wearing? I just so happened to have won that in a giveaway hosted by i♥cuppycakes in February.

It's a virtual lottery.

I follow a lot of blogs, especially food blogs, and more than those listed to the left in my blogroll. There are some amazing bloggers out there who have become so popular that they've gone on to publish books, cookbooks and even make television appearance with your better-known foodies.

They are everyday people who enjoy what they do and want to share it with other everyday people like myself. The only exception is that they're now virtual celebrities with free stuff to give away. I like that. Not just because I might win, but because these are products or companies that they'll stand behind. Products I might be willing to actually spend money on because they've brought this amazing-must-have-item to my attention.

Not that I wouldn't want to, but I'm not sure I'll ever be in a position to host a giveaway. I certainly appreciate those who do and am grateful for the opportunity to participate. Even when I don't win, I'll still keep going back to those blogs for the delicious eye-candy, tips, and recipes and imagining the winners squealing with excitement just like I did.

*Just so you know, I don't enter EVERY giveaway I come across.

Easy vs. Hard

2009-11-09T12:11:00.007-07:00

More often than not, I tend to do things the hard way. Well, maybe not, I guess it all depends on how you view it.

If you've never been a parent, despite what people may tell you (or warn you), you learn as you go, as your relationship with your child grows. Trial and error, figuring out what works and what doesn't, it's an ongoing process. The same can be said about everything; parenting is hard, writing a thesis is hard, changing a tire...HARD. All true if you've never done it before, but once you get the hang of it...

The same can be said for cake decorating. Sure, you can go to culinary school and they can teach you the fundamentals of cooking/baking, but until you're flying by the seat of your pants and winging it on your own, you haven't learned anything.

In my caking world, time management is key and probably my biggest challenge.

I like to think that I've scheduled my cakes appropriately and in most cases I do. Allowing myself ample time to bake, make fondant, buttercream and figurines. However, in my scheduling process, I think my big FAIL is always on assembly and decorating time.

Once everything is prepared, I just don't seem to schedule enough time for assembling and decorating. And it's in those 1:00-2:00 a.m. moments that I'm cursing myself and longing for my pillow, wondering if I'll EVER get this done.

Truth be told, icing my cakes, covering with fondant and stacking are my cake-nemesises* (nemesi..nemessisies??). This is where a nice big Somerset dough sheeter along with a dedicated work space would be GREAT. I'll tell ya, after rolling out some difficult fondant this weekend, my core is sore! Yah, that's right, my abs are killing me. I must've been throwing myself into my fondant.

Basically, what I'm saying is, what took me so long, shouldn't freakin' take me SOOO long. I'm sore, I'm exhausted and I've lost valuable time I could have been spending with my family.

I always say I'm going to do things differently so it's not so hard, but honestly, it's not always that easy. But, it's getting easier.

Oh, and everyone should have nemesises, because when you beat your nemesis, there's no better feeling. My other nememsis: holes with water on the golf course. It gets in my head and screws with me like a true superhero arch-villan would.

Two-Faced!

2009-11-08T23:00:00.005-07:00

Last week and this weekend, I was busily working on a cake for a twin's 3rd birthday. I originally thought I'd make two separate cakes, since it was both a Tinkerbell and Cars themed party.

As the week progressed, the idea of making two cakes overwhelmed me when I thought of all the baking and fondant I'd need to make. I do have a full time job and those darned familial obligations as wife and mother. So, there was obviously no time for that. I then sketched out a two-faced cake, and I'm super happy with how it turned out!

12" cinnamon chocolate fudge cake with vanilla buttercream and 8" white cake with white chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.

In my opinion, Tinkerbell left much to be desired and unfortunately, I don't have any close-ups of either figurine. Lightening McQueen turned out better than I thought; it was fondant but decorated mostly with royal icing. I'm finally becoming a little bit more confident piping. And I thought the royal icing stitching between the two designs was SO cute.

More caking to do for next weekend! Another 3rd birthday!

NaBloPoMo Slacker Post #1

2009-11-07T23:59:00.000-07:00

Barely a week into NaBloPoMo and I've already missed a post. Although, in my defense, I do have a good excuse. I'd been working diligently on a cake, which leave no time in front of a computer, especially on the weekends.

Must focus (read: write and schedule posts, just in case).

A Few Helpful Tips

2009-11-06T19:19:00.004-07:00

I am always on the hunt for new methods or techniques for doing the same 'ol things. If you have an amazing tip that changed the way you bake, cake, cupcake or cookie, care to share? I love them, I use them, I write them down and I'm willing to share too...

Here are 10 that have come through for me in one way or another (in no particular order):

I hate it when the fondant pulls away from the cake circle of the upper tier of a cake. When stacking cakes, dust the the top of the cake tier with powdered sugar prior to placing the next tier on top. It prevents the bottom of that next tier from sticking and pulling away the lower tier's fondant when separating to serve.
Bake your cakes at a lower temperature to prevent them from doming and baking unevenly. The is especially great for larger cakes and makes leveling a lot easier. I tend to bake at around 300-315 degree farhenheit.
When using small letter cutters, dust the fondant well w/ powdered sugar and place plastic wrap between the cutter and the fondant. This will help prevent the fondant from sticking in the small crevices. And if it's stuck to the plastic wrap, pull taut to release letter.
To make fondant ropes, use a clay extruder or the less expensive Playdoh Fun Factory (just be sure to lube well with shortening to prevent sticking).
Coating chocolate chips or nuts with flour before adding to cake/muffin mixture will prevent them from sinking to the bottom while baking.
If you use an airbrush, do not begin spraying directly on cake. When doing overall color application, start to the right or left of the cake (which should be airbrushed in a closed space -- cardboard box, etc.), then apply. This is the best way to avoid unintentional streaks of color.
Do you doctor your cake mixes? If so, instead of using water as instructed on the box, use milk, chocolate milk - for chocolate cakes, lemon juice - for lemon cakes, coffee, etc., as liquid replacement to enhance the flavor of similarly flavored cakes.
Does your recipe call for buttermilk and you have none on hand? Add 1 Tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk and let stand for 5-10 minutes. Voila!
I rarely have cake flour on hand, so....use 1 cup minus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour for each cup of cake flour. SIFT.
Use uncooked spaghetti noodles to test cake doneness and you're less likely to waste all those toothpicks you need for something else.

Late Nights

2009-11-05T23:45:00.000-07:00

Between busy days at work and late nights working on cakes, I'm barely squeaking by for NaBloPoMo. But I'm making excellent progress...on the cake part.

I'm working on cake accents for a good friend's three year-old twins' birthday. The party is on Sunday and it's a Cars and Tinkerbell themed party. I'm really excited about my sketch, the figurine and other features I've made so far!

Until tomorrow...

d.

The Notebook

2009-11-04T15:00:00.003-07:00

When I first started caking, I pulled directly from my Joy of Cooking cookbook for my cake and ganache recipes. I used Wilton fondant and turned to the CakeCentral website for inspiration and how-tos.

My first cake was a hot mess. The cake was dry and my fondant application left much to be desired. Matter of fact, the best thing about this cake was the ganache, which sadly, years later, I have not been able to replicate, neither in consistency nor flavor. I'll attribute this to the Colorado altititude, which by all accounts MUST have made my cake try too, but I'm not pointin' fingers.

Almost four years later, I like to think I've come a long way. And over time, I've graduated from keeping my multiples print-outs of recipes and cake photos spread throughout my house, to consolidating it into a little notebook.

Yep, I'm a lefty.

My cute little notebook houses mostly recipes that I've tried and liked...my go-tos, of sorts. But it also has detailed notes of the amount of cake, buttercream and fondant I needed and used for a four tiered wedding cake serving 150 and things of that nature. Doodles, stationary I think would look cute as cake, and a running list of random cake musings and tips too.

God forbid I ever lose this thing.

Me vs. The Pros...Take 2

2009-11-03T17:00:00.003-07:00

As I was writing yesterday's post, more and more things kept coming to me about what would make my life easier as a caker. I'd love to open my own shop and share my creations with the neighborhood, but I'm not yet in a position to do it because I think I still have so much more to learn. But (big but), it doesn't mean I don't fantasize about it. And I often do it while I'm in the throes of a cake at 1 a.m.

So, without further adieu, more Me vs. The Pros.

5. Work Surface. I mentioned yesterday that I had an island in my kitchen. I always wanted an island in the kitchen of our first home and I got one. It's ideal for working free of cupboards and in not so many words, spread the mess around. Ah yes, free to get powdered sugar everywhere. Yup, more counterspace to collect things and have to try and keep clean. Everything has it's place right? It's just that most of it ends up not in it. What to use?

Me: My island.

A lazy day in February for me and the hubs and of course, our island in the background.

This is the best picture I could find of our island, which funnily, happens to have a cake on it. You may (or may not) also notice that there's a sink, smack-dab in the middle of it. This feature is not uncommon, but I SURE do wish that it was mostly left of mostly right. The rental house we lived in before we bought our house had a large island, sans sink, and beautiful granite counters. I's-a got some remodelin' to do! Oh, and did you notice all the other miscellaneous crap. Nice, huh?

The Pros: Stainless Work Table

No sink. No clutter. 'Nuff said.

And fairly inexpensive, about $150.00.

6. Spacesavers. Now, I often like to dabble in other baked goods. I've been known to make cupcakes, cookies, iced sugar cookies and cake balls/lollipops. And what I lack in cooling racks, I also lack in counter space. And if I want to leave my cookies out on the counter, I must beware of super-sly three-year old hands, or interfering in every day things like, you know, making dinner. What to use?

Me: I got nothin'.

I've put things on top of the fridge, on top of the microwave, on top of spa-gheeettttiiii, aw geez, I just don't have adequate space to put anything. And if I do, I have to hawk-it to make sure curious fingers don't innocently feel the need to help.

The Pros: Proofing/Bun Racks

I have visions of trays of iced cookies and cake ball-ffles, setting to perfection in their own designated space; a place they can call home, until they get in someone's belly. Maybe a cake or two, leveled, iced and waiting to be adorned. If only... And about as inexpensive as a work table.

7. Goods. There have been many a nights when I have run out of something and had to bolt to the store before it closed at midnight. Things I generally have on hand until a batch goes wrong in the making. I hate this. It makes me feel helpless and slows down my decorating time. I'm pretty organized, but when SMBC turns to soup and you need more egg whites, you have no choice.

Me: The Grocery Store

I'm grateful that I have a Safeway store about 200 yards from my house. Last I remembered, they used to be open 24 hours, but this one is only open until midnight. I have made a desperate run at 11:57 p.m. for a bag a powdered sugar.

Also at my disposal is Costco Wholesale and every time I go there, I just can't convince myself that I need a 50lb bag of powdered sugar. IF I were to buy it, I'm sure I'd use it over a period of time, but then again, seriously, where do you put it and how do you keep critters out of it. Obviously, I'd have to put it in a bin, but that's a mess waiting to happen. Don't get me started on butter, eggs, flour, etc.

The Pros: Wholesale Delivery

Just make the call...

Eggs...

Butter...

Flour...

Chocolate.

Me: "Yes, I need you to deliver 100 lbs of powdered sugar, 72 lbs of butter and 30 dozen eggs, blah blah chocolate, flour and blobbity blah cream, please.

Them: "As you wish."

This is when the previously mentioned reach-in fridge/freezer is awesome and the above work table has storage space for bins of sugar, etc.

Must be nice.

Until tomorrow...

Me vs. the Pros

2009-11-02T18:00:00.003-07:00

As a caking hobbyist, I certainly don't have all the accoutrements of professional cake decorators and bakers. My caking tools have their own cupboard in the kitchen and the rest is stored in a sealed storage tub and Wilton tool kit (you know the one).

My kitchen is spacious but there are several things just waiting to be upgraded. And I love being able to decorate on an island, but I can guarantee, where I create my cakes is no chic and stainless commercial kitchen.

I pride myself on working cleanly and making the most of what I have, but let's compare what I use and what the pros have at their disposal. Much like man vs animal, this is me vs. the pros.

1. Fondant. I work exclusively in fondant. It's the medium of choice for a more finished look of my cakes. However, in addition to making my own fondant, I knead in the color and roll it out by hand before covering makes cakes. What to use?

Me: A rolling pin.

You're guaranteed to work up a sweat regardless of how much fondant you actually knead...er, need (heh). Not to mention your forearms are to be reckoned with afterwards.

A rolling pin can be found anywhere, from your local grocery store for a few bucks or upwards of $40+ at specialty cookware stores (Williams-Sonoma, etc.). And don't get me wrong, many well-known decorators use a rolling pin like me. But many use...

The Pros: A Somerset Dough Sheeter

Retailing for $2,945.00 - $4,500.00 this puppy wouldn't even fit in my kitchen. But it doesn't make me want one any less. I'd be the fastest decorator in the West, with fondant of perfect thickness every time.

2. The Mixer. No decorator is complete without a stand mixer. I fondly look back on the days helping my mom make yellow cakes with chocolate frosting, from the box and the tub respectively. And we only needed three things, a bowl, a spatula and an electric hand mixer. But these days, everything is easier with a stand mixer. What to use?

Me: The KitchenAid Artisan 5-quart Stand Mixer

This is the best thing I ever registered for when I got married. This is my baby...I love her. A little more than my husband, I think. Just kidding.

She purrs when making cakes, frostings, cookies, bread dough and fondant. My only wish would be that I had a bigger one or more than one bowl to do all the things I use her for. Talk about dish-pan hands when washing between uses. There are several different models ranging in price from $299.00 to $600.00 and multiple attachments, to include a pasta maker and juicer.

The Pros: 20 quart floor mixer.

The sheer quantities of sweet creations to be made (insert evil laughter)! I'm almost certain I'd make a gigantic mess, but again, time would be saved if I could make singles batches of anything with this baby. For $2,590, you'll get the mixing bowl, wire wisk, dough hook and spatula. And hopefully a warranty with an on-call repair man!

3. Baking. In an effort to be efficient with my time, I have a schedule I follow when preparing cakes. Baking on this day, making fondant and icing on another day, and covering, assembling and decorating on the 3rd day, in that order. However, when baking a large cake, I have to bake and freeze in advance, giving me plenty of time to bake all the cakes I need in my modest little oven. What to use?

Me: GE Freestanding Electric Range

Not a double oven or a convection oven, but your run-of-the-mill-it-came-with-our-house-observe-aforementioned-upgrade-comments range. She works well, but darn it if our house doesn't become it's own oven when I'm on a caking frenzy. And let me remind you that I live in Arizona where it should never be as hot inside as it is outside. Available at Sear's for $450.00.

The Pros: Vulcan VC4GD Single Convection Oven

You're rolling with the big boys now. There are several different types of convection ovens depending on your needs and available space. I can't begin to tell you how glorious it would be to make a cake I'm certain would fit in my oven (think 16-18 inchers), bake evenly and not take a gazillion years. And for a mere $3,500.00 (on special from Bakedeco.com), it could be all mine.

4. Cooling. After making aforementioned cakes, I'll usually level, wrap well and leave on the counter before I need to assemble my cakes. However, if I'm baking a larger, tiered cake, I'll bake and freeze for a few days. Wrapped cakes on the countertop, even in AZ, can start to smell a little off if left on their own for too long. So, ideally, you chill or freeze, either iced or not. What to use?

Me: Kenmore 18.2 cu ft Top Freezer Refrigerator

I'm not very particular when it comes to refrigerators. As long as it works and has enough space to hold all my food, frozen and fresh, I'm good. And let's just say, it's near impossible to freeze or even chill cakes if you plan to freeze any other food in your house. "Sorry kid, but the chicken nuggets have got.to.go." or "you didn't want ice with that right, my bad." It just doesn't fly. I'd happily settle for an energy efficient chest freezer for the garage.

The Pros: Top Mounted Solid Door Reach-In

(fridge & freezers available)

Aside from a walk-in, this is the next best thing. Alas, everything at arm's reach. Fresh, cool, and without the random peas that freed themselves from the partially opened bag in the back. Approximately $2,500.00-$3,500.00 smackaroos.

I could go on and on about what you can find in a professional baker's kitchen and well, I think I will! It's NaBloPoMo...I've got the time. Check back tomorrow for more Me vs. The Pros.

NaBloPoMo

2009-11-01T08:00:00.001-07:00

I've decided to try my hand again at NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), but this time on my caking blog. I did it in 2007 on my other blog and was thoroughly challenged to post thoughtful posts on a daily basis. I was four days short. However, I'm actually looking forward to it on this blog.

I am a huge fan of blogs, every kind, and it's so inspiring to see how people are willing to let you into their world, whether through a photo, funny story, their expertise or general life experiences.

Let's see what I can come up with!!

Cake Balls...er, Truffles

2009-10-06T08:28:00.005-07:00

Not sure what to call them. Cake Truffles sound a bit more refined, while cake balls, to me, are more fitting. Not to mention I like the way the ll's roll off the tongue in the end.

One of dh's coworkers orders from me quite regularly, and he's a HUGE red velvet cake and cake balls fan, so why not have both.

I made red velvet cake balls and dipped them in white chocolate. He requested two orders and one order yields approximately 60 pieces. They're so fun to make and the sea of balls is divine.

Yumm....

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-09-29T12:00:00.012-07:00

I.LOVE.STARBUCKS.

(plain & simple)

And I have married a man who loves Starbucks too. We have countless cups & mugs, a Starbucks espresso machine, we've gone through several of their coffee makers, 80 percent of our Christmas tree is adorned with Starbucks ornaments and we've taught our 3-year old how to order her drink...made her way. You'd think we owned stock in the company, dang, right...we do.

I haven't made a Starbucks cake YET. But, aside from a coffee, I've made my next favorite thing I've ever gotten there.

With the Fall season comes their Pumpkin Spice Latte (sweet goodness in a cup), but this time of year also brings their Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies. And I've managed to replicate their chocolate-y goodness.

The Pumpkin Cookie recipe I used is from the Joy of Baking website. It's a soft, pillowy and cakey cookie, for which you can add chocolate chips, nuts or smother with cream cheese frosting. I opted to add the chocolate chips and further exalt their goodness by dipping them in chocolate, just like you'd find in their stores.

The sweet, crunchy, chocolate bite on the outside combined with the pumpkin and warm spice flavors inside, make this cookie sinfully delicious. It will garner nothing but compliments.

Can you tell how much I ~~like~~ LOVE these cookies?

Hello Kitty

2009-09-28T11:53:00.003-07:00

My college roommate and good friend Kara was in town for the weekend and wanted to make a cake while she was here. It was a practice cake for a cake order she had in October, and she knows I'm always up for making a cake.

It worked out well for the both of us, as she got a good idea of how much fondant & buttercream she'd need to make and other decorative adjustments, and I got to make a new flavor cake I've been dying to try.

I don't bake much from scratch; my scratch cakes just don't come out quite right, so more often than not, I use enhanced cake mixes. But the cake I wanted to make was all scratch and was SO good. It was a pumpkin muffin recipe found on the Joy of Baking site which I tweaked a little to make a pumpkin chocolate chip cake. Combined with the maple cream cheese frosting, all I can say is YUM! So moist and delicious.

Here's the finished product:

Funnily, my daughter thought this cake was made to celebrate her birthday again and couldn't thank ~~Grandma Rita~~ Auntie Kara enough.

Helping Hello Kitty speak her mind...meow?

Wall-E Cake

2009-09-14T12:08:00.004-07:00

My daughter requested a Wall-E cake for her third birthday, and I had no idea what a huge undertaking it would be and test to my caking abilities.

I was completely perplexed by his eyes, hands and arms. So, I decided to use rice krispies (rkts) covered in modeling chocolate/chocolate clay. This was my first time using modeling chocolate and I LOVED it. SO easy to make, use and another great technique I have under my belt. The downside was the combined weight of the rkts and chocolate. The hands immediately starting falling apart once I attached them to the arms and the arms to the cake. So, while they initially looked good, in the end, not so hot.

The body of the cake was four stacked 6.5" square cakes; incredibly heavy, so I was concerned about stacking it on smaller cakes that would be his wheels/feet. So, I bought, carved and covered styrofoam with fondant. Why at that time it didn't occur to me to make the eyes, hands and arms out of styrofoam, I have no idea. But that epiphany didn't hit me until almost a day later after the party.

Suffice it to say that I know exactly what I would do differently to make this a more accurate depiction and prettier version of Wall-E.

Cinnamon chocolate cake with Oreo cookies & cream filling and strawberry banana creme cake with vanilla buttercream filling. Covered/decorated with mmf. Feet are styrofoam covered w/ fondant. Eyes, arms and hands are rkt covered with modeling chocolate.

My Birthday

2009-09-08T10:29:00.003-07:00

Look what my husband made me for my birthday!!!

Yep, he covered and decorated this baby ALL BY HIMSELF! I think it's obvious he's picked up a few tricks watching me do my thing!

Thanks babe!!! The cake was AWESOME! And I LOVE my new ipod!

Catching Up

2009-09-08T10:11:00.004-07:00

I'm long overdue posting the cakes I've made recently. It's quite a shame actually!

So, for my Grandmother's 80th birthday celebration in Las Vegas, I was asked to make a cake. My grandmother wears big hats to church every Sunday, so I was asked to create one in cake. I had a lot of problems with this very simple cake, and it pained me to give it to anyone, but my grandmother LOVED it! So that made it all OK.

Three layer 8" cake, both chocolate and vanilla with vanilla buttercream filling. Covered and decorated with mmf. 50/50 gumpaste bow.

While we were in Vegas, we also surprised my dad for his 60th birthday. He's a die-hard New York Yankees fan, so a baseball cap cake was appropriate. Everything was going beautifully for this cake until my airbrush stopped cooperating, which was right before I needed to paint the bill. If you didn't notice, airbrush and paint brush painting look ENTIRELY different. Additionally, my fondant was VERY soft and after several days, still didn't harden/dry enough to hold a true bill shape.

6" carved round cinnamon chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling. Covered with mmf. Gumpaste logo.

4th of July

2009-07-06T16:35:00.004-07:00

Hubby and I made a 4th of July cake for a barbeque we went to on Saturday. I had a lot of trouble with the my fondant; there wasn't nearly enough to cover my 9" x 13" cake, but I was able to stretch it w/out tearing. It still wasn't pretty, hence the lovely gold border. We also had some obvious spacing and measurement issues, but I think it got the point across.

9" x 13" vanilla cake w/ vanilla buttercream frosting. Covered/decorated w/ mmf and gumpaste.

Angela's Cake

2009-06-15T09:34:00.004-07:00

It was Angela's birthday and guess who made a cake? Yep, that'd be me.

I really wanted to play and experiment with a fun cake with her, but doing so has it's challenges when there are two toddlers trying to steal pieces of fondant and general child's-play overall.

So, it had kind of a wedding cake feel to it, but I thought it turned out well.

For the applique on the top, I used a silicone mold I bought over a year ago that been sitting unused in my kit.

8" chocolate cake and 6" lemon cake both w/ vanilla buttercream. Covered/decorated with mmf. 50/50 fondant/gumpaste applique. Gold luster dust used to color pearls and applique.

Song's Birthday

2009-06-13T17:05:00.005-07:00

Made this cake for one of dh's co-workers. She requested a similar cake to that which I made for Marisa in April.

I spent a lot more time on the figurines and I'm very pleased with how they turned out. Next to Kipper (March '08), they're probably some of the best I've made.

10" strawberry cake with vanilla buttercream and 6" red velvet w/ cream cheese frosting. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant (mmf). Figurines and flowers were made with 50/50 fondant and gumpaste.

I'm not crazy about how broad in the shoulders I made Pooh. I guess he kinda does have a linebacker's build though, right?

SAAC Cake

2009-04-27T22:02:00.007-07:00

This is my second year in a row making the cake for the annual Student-Athlete Advisory Committee's (SAAC) last meeting of the year. The first cake was not my ideal creation as it was requested that I recreate a store-bought flub (see post in April 2008).

This was much more fun to make and I look forward to creating something different next year (if they'll have me).

12" cinnamon chocolate fudge cake w/ oreo cookie buttercream filling. Covered and decorated w/ marshmellow fondant. I used a pastry brush and food-safe airbrush color to create the woodgrain appearance. Tappits letter cutters for the letters. The SAAC letters were a little larger than I would have liked, but those were the smallest, large letters I have. The Sparky logo is inedible.

Served 45.

Asian-themed couples bridal shower

2009-04-25T12:54:00.004-07:00

This cake and cupcakes were made for a friend who was throwing a couples bridal shower. I LOVED the Asian theme and the colors the hostess chose (Hi Cindy!) worked so well together.

8" white chocolate/vanilla cake with strawberry swiss meringue and fresh strawberry filling. Iced with swiss meringue buttercream and covered w/ mmf. The cake was also decorated w/ mmf.

There were also 48 cupcakes, half vanilla and the other cinnamon-chocolate fudge, iced with vanilla buttercream. Each cupcake was topped with a fondant fortune cookie, complete with message!

Marisa's Cake

2009-04-04T16:11:00.004-07:00

It was Marisa's 3rd birthday today and a cake was needed for a Dora-themed party.

I made a Dora figurine for the topper and included some of Dora's friends along the top tier, to include Map, Boots and Backpack (which, sadly, I never took a picture of).

10" yellow cake w/ vanilla buttercream and an 8" cinnamon chocolate fudge w/ chocolate hazelnut meringue filling. Covered and decorated w/ mmf. I also used various luster and petal dusts for the figurines and friends.

My Mom

2009-03-30T09:21:00.003-07:00

My mom used to make cool cakes for my birthdays. Ready with a star tip, the cake that stands out most in my mind was a Garfield cake she made for 11th or 12th birthday.

She's always made awesome cakes and is never afraid to try something new. Like making my brother's fondant-covered wedding cake without having never made one before or a Star Wars storm trooper, like that she made for a family friend's son's 4th birthday.

Yep, she's where I get my skills from! Thanks Mom! And great job on Nathan's cake!

My 1st Wedding Cake

2009-03-06T19:36:00.009-07:00

What I thought would be stressful and unraveling was anything but. Thanks in large part to good preparation. I say, if you're going to do a wedding cake, there are no last minute, late night, cake fests. My preparation was scheduled. Hmm, interesting, I guess all my cakes should be, eh?

I bought all my ingredients last week, baked and made icing/fondant in the evening during the week and took Friday off to get after it. It's nice to be able to get things done w/out any distractions. Just my iPod. I was able to ice and cover four cakes in two hours. And the royal icing detail took about an hour. I used a custom-made stencil by DesignerStencils.com to match the bride & groom's invitations

The bride and groom wanted their cake to feed 150 people. And decided on alternating layers of red velvet and white cake, both filled and iced w/ swiss meringue buttercream. I love SMBC. It takes a little longer to make, but it's so good. They also requested two orders of cake truffles. It was a 14-12-8-6 cake.

I hope they liked it as much as I enjoyed making it for them.

Congratulations Dane & Becca!!

Elijah's 3rd Birthday

2009-03-01T08:48:00.004-07:00

This weekend was my daughter's best buddy's birthday. Elijah turned 3 and his mom asked that I make his cake. This kid LOVES Cars (the movie), so a Cars cake was appropriate.

This was a fun, fast and easy to make cake thanks to my husband. I had pre-baked the cakes and made the icing and fondant. But dh iced and cut each of the fondant checkers for the larger cake AND drew the Lightening McQueen used on the top tier. My assistant does great work! Thanks babe!

10" and 6" cakes, both devil's food w/ vanilla buttercream. Covered and decorated w/ mmf. Hand drawn Lightening McQueen w/ Americolor Food Writer pens. Inedible candle and ribbon.

Phoenix Suns

2009-01-16T19:30:00.003-07:00

Fun and very easy cake to make.

Cake is airbrushed and I must say, I'm madly in love w/ my airbrush now! It makes coloring fondant SO much easier. Still working on even application and inhalation issues (wink).

Hand cut and painted the Suns' logo for a friend's, boyfriend's birthday. Used Tappits letter cutters for the 'Happy Birthday' on the front of the cake. The letters are dusted w/ edible purple glitter.

8" spice cake w/ swiss meringue buttercream. Covered/decorated w/ marshmallow fondant.

Quincy's Cake

2008-12-23T14:31:00.003-07:00

So, I was truly put to the test w/ my most recent cake request. My friend wanted a Transformers - Optimus Prime cake, like that done by Floating Cat. It didn't look too difficult, but my time management got the best of me. It was well received, but it kills me that it didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it to; w/ more finished lines and detail. Next time!

Chocolate fudge cake w/ peppermint meringue buttercream and candy cane crunchies (the filling was beyond yummy!). Covered and decorated w/ mmf. All silver pieces were 50/50 fondant and gumpaste. Tires are rice crispy treats covered w/ fondant.

Snowman

2008-12-18T10:01:00.003-07:00

Made this cake for dh to take to work for an office potluck. Overall, he turned out well, but I'm displeased how plain he is. He definitely needed more detail like, a hat or something! And his arms were a tad long.

8" chocolate fudge cake w/ mint meringue buttercream and candy cane crunchies filling. 6" white cake w/ the same filling. Covered and decorated w/ mmf. Arms were made of chocolate candy melts drizzled over skewers.

X-Mas Cookies

2008-12-15T11:08:00.004-07:00

Cookies ARE NOT my forte, hell, I'm not sure I even have a forte, but I know I'd rather make cakes than cookies. That aside, I made cookies to give to our all new neighbors and was pleasantly surprised at how easy they were. They're by no means perfect and if I'd taken more time, they'd have been a little better, but I'm pleased with how they turned out.

No Fail Sugar Cookies w/ Royal Icing

************************************************
No Fail Sugar Cookies

This recipe is GREAT when using complex cookie cutters. The dough holds its' shape and won't spread during baking. Make sure you let your oven preheat for at least 1/2 hour before baking these or any other cookies.

6 cups flour

3 tsp. baking powder

2 cups butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself)

1 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together. Chill for 1 to 2 hours. Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe yields up to 5-dozen 3” cookies.

Thanksgiving Cupcakes

2008-11-29T17:49:00.003-07:00

I made several of these cute little fellas for our office staff meeting.

Six jumbo and a dozen regular size butter cupcakes w/ vanilla buttercream. I made six turkeys out of 50/50 mmf & gumpaste.

Wedding Cake

2008-11-19T14:38:00.003-07:00

Yep, that's right! As previously mentioned, I'm going to be making my 1st wedding cake and I'm SOOooOO excited! I met w/ my bride- and groom- to be this past weekend to go over the details. And the design they've chosen will be very elegant.

The tasting cake I provided was nothing like the design I will be creating, but was used primarily for, well, tasting. It was a 6" white cake w/ buttercream filling and a 5" red velvet cake with both cream cheese frosting and swiss meringue buttercream fillings.

So, I will creating a 4-tier, fondant-covered wedding cake to serve 150 people for a March wedding with alternating layers of red velvet and white cake w/ swiss meringue buttercream filling. Two orders of chocolate cake balls will also be provided.

This is going to be so much fun!

Riley's 2nd Birthday

2008-11-17T09:16:00.007-07:00

I made this cake for my daughter's daycare friend, Riley, who was celebrating her 2nd birthday.

Pretty easy cake to make, but it took me forever. I took my time on this one but was also making a mini tasting cake for a wedding in March. Yep, you read right, I'll be making my 1st wedding cake! CRAZY. I digress.

I made the mistake of buying 10 oz bags of mini marshmallows for my fondant, which yields so much less than what I need to cover one cake. Which meant I was running to the store, where I realized, I typically buy 16 oz bags of marshmallows. A mistake I won't be making ever again.

The lower tier is a 10" chocolate fudge with traditional buttercream. And the top tier is an 8" spice cake w/ swiss meringue buttercream. All covered and decorated w/ marshmallow fondant.

I also made an Elmo topper; both that and the #2 are 50/50 fondant & gumpaste.

McKenzie & James

2008-11-09T19:32:00.004-07:00

Our good friends twins, McKenzie and James, were celebrating their 2nd birthday and I was asked to make the cake. Interestingly, the theme of the party was decided on the style of cake I made and I was given the option of making a Wonder Pets or Finding Nemo themed cake. I chose Nemo! I had always wanted to make a Nemo cake and this was the perfect opportunity!

I carved one and a half 9" x 13" cakes to create Crush's shell and made the fins (flippers?), head, Marlin, Nemo and Squirt from rice crispy treats. Sadly, I didn't actually have any pictures of the characters to draw from when creating them, other than frequent visits to the laptop while molding. I would have done a lot of things differently if I had.

Needless to say, the cake was a HUGE hit and I'm pretty proud of it. Special thanks to DH for all his help!

Butter cake w/ buttercream filling. Covered and decorated w/ marshmallow fondant.

Lyla's Birthday

2008-10-17T08:51:00.003-07:00

I made this cake for my co-worker's birthday. It's an 8" spice cake with swiss meringue buttercream; covered/decorated with marshmallow fondant.

This was my first time making swiss meringue buttercream and I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was. I've read the stories of the numerous batches people have had to make to get it just right, but mine came together pretty easily the first time.

And I totally hate writing on cakes now. Well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I knew how to use parchment triangles. My piping bags are too big and cumbersome to work with. It's impossible to be neat. Although, I do find that writing w/ buttercream is easier than royal icing. You have to work too hard with RI to get the right consistency.

ASU Sundevils

2008-10-13T09:13:00.004-07:00

I made my first and hopefully not my last ASU/Sparky cake this weekend. Creating Sparky was a challenge, but with the help of dh, I thought it turned out well.

I colored the marshmallow fondant maroon (which only made it a pale pink), but airbrushed it maroon. I need more practice getting it applied evenly.

I cut and traced a stencil with an Americolor Food Writer pen and handpainted in the maroon with the maroon color. I probably should have painted it in with the airbrush color because it went on really thick and the airbrush color is much thinner. Piped royal icing around the edges.

The recipients last name and his number is on the backside (which I failed to take a picture of).

Need to work on my writing. It's hard!

8" Lemon cake with lemon meringue filling.

Avery's 2nd Birthday!

2008-09-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

My daughter Avery absolutely loves the Backyardigans, so for her 2nd birthday party, I had planned to make a Backyardigans themed, tiered cake.

I tend to have pretty grandiose ideas that usually flutter due to my lack of natural creativity. Most of the cakes I have decorated are borrowed ideas that I've tweaked to make my own, but this cake, I created in my head, where my creative juices tend to run pretty dry. Overall, I like the intent of the design and for the most part, it was true to form.

Here's what I'd planned to do.

DH jumped in to help put together this cake. He did everything from level cakes, fill and ice w/ buttercream, as well as roll out and cover a cake with fondant. He's a great assistant and the consummate perfectionist. Oh, and he loves him some cake and buttercream! Thanks baby!

Here he is smoothing out the fondant on the half-ball cake.

Most of the cakes were covered in one night, but the pink, polka-dotted cake was done the night before. And by morning, it was a mess. I used a different kind of marshmellow in the making of the fondant used on this cake. For whatever reason, it wouldn't firm up, no matter how much powdered sugar I continued to add. Needless to say, the cake looked "sick". It was a blistering, bubbly, bulging, rippled mess. I didn't have time to bake and cover another cake, so I had to live with it. Which absolutely killed me.

Here's the cake in assembly with the half-ball cake.

And here is the final product.

Pablo got a little fatter. In my haste, I made my figurines without giving them the proper amount of time to dry. So while rolled thin, the fondant settled for a more full-figured Pablo. Notice the pink ugliness?

Uniqua didn't turn out that badly.

Tasha was by far the best.

I thought Tyrone turned out okay, though his head may have been a little long.

Overall, this was a fun cake to make. I truly enjoy making cakes, the cake was a hit and my daughter could tell who was who. However, more time should have been given to the complete implementation of the idea. I learned a few things making this cake.

Aimy's Cake

2008-08-04T08:39:00.004-07:00

Aimy's mom wanted a Dora and butterfly themed birthday cake for her 2nd birthday party.

Bottom tier is a 10" coffee infused chocolate cake with mocha buttercream. Middle tier is an 8" vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. And the top tier is a 6" red velvet with vanilla buttercream. All covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant in yellow, violet and pink, respectively.

Not shown are the swirly #2 and Dora toppers I made. Cake needed to serve 50, but more likely could have fed 60+. Almost all of my cakes stand about 4" tall, but my bottom tier was close to 6" with both layers torted.

This cake was a lot of fun!

Flower Cake

2008-06-30T08:58:00.006-07:00

My latest cake was for Ariana's 6th birthday. She wanted a flower cake w/ a yellow center and six pink petals, denoting her six years.

I baked a 5" round for the center and cut the petals from sheetcakes using a stencil I made. Each was iced and individually covered w/ fondant. I planned to use my Tappits letter cutters for the message, but they weren't cooperating, so I ended up just doing it by hand. I also planned to embellish the cake a little w/ a butterfly I had made, but it broke shortly before I left to deliver the cake.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how the cake turned out.

Butter cake iced w/ vanilla buttercream and covered in homemade marshmellow fondant. Dusted w/ pink pearl luster dust and additionally iced (using star tip #30) w/ vanilla buttercream.

A Few Of My Favorites

2008-06-23T15:12:00.005-07:00

I haven't caked in a while, but expect to be pretty busy in the next few weeks. So, I just thought I'd share a few of my favorite cakes I've made over the past year.

Made for Alicia's 2nd birthday. She's a big fan of Kipper the Dog, so it included a figure of Kipper and his friends. 10" round vanilla cake w/ fresh strawberries & cream filling. Covered in homemade mashmellow fondant.

Probably the biggest and most fun cake I've made. From head-to-toe, he was approximately 25" long and 4" tall. Butter cake w/ vanilla buttercream filling. Covered completely w/ homemade marshmellow fondant.

Halloween 2007. Snoopy and the Great Pumpkin cake. I stacked two bundt cakes and covered in Satin Ice fondant. Spice cake w/ cream cheese frosting.

Ferrari cake. Made for dh's coworker. 8" red velvet cake w/ cream cheese frosting. Another tall cake at 4". Covered in red Satin Ice fondant and decorated w/ homemade marshmellow fondant. The logo was hand-drawn using an Americolor Foodwriter pen.

Happy Valentines' Day! I really like my heart-shaped pan and wanted to make 'conversation heart' cakes. Strawberry cake w/ vanilla buttercream and vanilla cake w/ vanilla buttercream. Both covered/decorated w/ homemade marshmellow fondant.

Max & Elijah's 2nd birthday cakes. Surprisingly, probably my most challenging cake to date. I had to work w/ two mediums in an unusual pattern. I don't often make cakes decorated only in buttercream, but this was a combination of vanilla buttercream and black Satin Ice fondan for the mouse ears. I used a crusting buttercream, which was not completely smooth before placing the fondant ears on. The challenge was not bleeding the red w/ the beige. Turned out well, tasted great and the mom's were happy!

Made for dh's office. 9" x 13" vanilla sheet cake iced w/ vanilla buttercream and covered in homemade marshmellow fondant. Hand-cut the Intel logo and used Tappits letter cutters for the letters. I liken it to a big bar of soap.
Any my all-time-favorite cake, my daughter Avery's 1st birthday cake. It'll be a challenge to see what I can create for her 2nd birthday, but this cake was a lot of fun to make. And my mom was along for the ride to help. All the figurines are hand made. Lower tier is butter cake w/ vanilla buttercream icing. Top tier is chocolate w/ a chocolate/hazelnut filling. Covered and decorated w/ Satin Ice fondant.

Peanut Butter Fudge Cake

2008-06-16T07:56:00.004-07:00

Inspired by Bakerella, I made a small Peanut Butter Fudge Cake for a friend's birthday.

I made a 5" round and with the remaining batter, I made cupcakes. I thought the cake itself was VERY good. The mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups gave it a lot of peanut-buttery and chocolately goodness. But I also found it made the cake VERY oily/greasy, which caused some rising problems in the baking process.

I also didn't care for the frosting/filling, which was a combination of Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate, creamy peanut butter and heavy cream. I just thought the dark chocolate and peanut butter gave it a bitter, overpowering flavor, which took away from the plesant cake flavor.

Overall, I think I'd make this again and give it a B rating. It was a very easy cake to make. The recipe can be found HERE.

Mother's Day

2008-05-15T15:00:00.003-07:00

I made a really cute Mother's Day cake for dd's daycare caretaker this past weekend and of course, I failed to take pictures.

It was a very simple, 6" three layer yellow cake with pink buttercream frosting. I then covered it with thin strips of green fondant and topped with pink and orange ribbon roses. I did get a picture with my camera phone, but unfortunately, it doesn't have email capabilities.

Hopefully 'Sarah' will email me a picture as she promised she would. I haven't made a cake in while to share here, and I was looking forward to posting this one.

Finally got the picture off my camera phone. Thanks Kara!

Bad Cake -- Replicated

2008-04-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

It was a little smaller than the original cake, but I figure it was much taller.

9" x 13" x 4" sheet cake with a vanilla and chocolate/chocolate chip cake layers. Iced with vanilla buttercream. Evidently a big hit.

Nephew Cakes

2008-04-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

My in-laws and nephews were in town visiting last week and knowing how much kids loves cake (well, pretty much anything sweet), I thought I'd let the boys decorate a cake of their own.

I used some leftover fondant and covered two 5" funfetti cakes I'd made. I even put their names on them so they'd know who's cake was whose.

More time was spent trying to negotiate how much of the fondant they could eat after cutting out flowers and shapes, than decorating, but they had fun. I did too!! Dd (darling daughter) enjoyed watching and trying to get her hands on gobs of fondant. I look forward to the day she's old enough to try her hand at it.

The Bad One

2008-04-18T16:36:00.004-07:00

I've been asked to replicate what I would consider to be a REALLY bad cake. Certainly a cake I wouldn't want my name associated with.

This particular group ordered a cake from the local chain grocery store. However, when going to pick it up, the cake order had not been fulfilled. The young guy in the bakery offered to place the requested information on the cake himself. And this was the result*:

*a camera phone photo

The people of this group thought this was the funniest thing EVER. So much so, I thought the folks telling me about it were about to pee their pants with laughter. I guess there's nothing quite like a misspelled word that starts with an oversized C.

I prefer to err on the side of pretty and polished. And I had so many wonderful ideas for this cake, but I guess I'll take one for the team on this one and give them what they want.

Kipper Cake

2008-04-13T15:30:00.002-07:00

Dh's coworker ordered a cake for her granddaughter Alicia's 2nd birthday. She wasn't very specific about what she wanted, but wanted it to have Kipper the dog on it. Now, if you're like me, you've never really heard of Kipper; but I soon learned that it was a British cartoon based on a series of books that is shown on PBS.

This was a pretty easy cake to make and I had a lot of fun making the figurines.

10" vanilla cake with fresh strawberries and cream filling. Covered with mmf. Decorated with mmf and Wilton packaged fondant (browns for Kipper). Cake & name letters airbrushed with 'orchid pink' luster dust.

Ferrari Cake

2008-04-07T10:21:00.013-07:00

Last week, and at the last minute, dh's co-worker asked if I could make a Ferrari or BMW cake. Having never made a car cake and personally, not polished enough as it is in cake decorating, I knew this was a challenge I wasn't ready to take on. Not to mention, he wanted it the same weekend I already have a cake due and will also have family visiting from out of town.

I told him no. He asked for it on a different date. I told him that I didn't feel comfortable making a car cake, but would consider making a normal cake adorned with the car's logo. He was okay with that option and opted for the Ferrari logo.

The cake he requested was only serving a few people. And since it was going to be small, I took creative liberty on this one too.

Since most Ferrari's are red, I wanted to cover the cake in red fondant. But I didn't want to make red fondant (a big, messy pain), so I just bought a 2 lb tub of Satin Ice from my local cake supply store.

I have raved about Satin Ice fondant in the past, but I did not enjoy working with it this time. I've become very accustomed to the maliability and ease of use of my homemade mmf. I've perfected the recipe so it comes out exactly how I want it each time. The SI fondant was hard and once I placed it on the cake, it cracked and tore. Fortunately, I was able to save it (the cake).

Here's a picture of the logo dh's coworker requested. He actually wanted the cake in the shape of the logo...my creative liberty said, well, no. It was simple enough, and the horse was the last thing added.

I will admit, the horse stressed me out A LOT. While putting together the shape and colors was relatively easy, I didn't want to have to make another one, so my first pass had to be the one. Not great, but it was good enough!

Dh's coworker LOVED it! (smile)

8", three-layer red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Covered in red Satin Ice fondant and decorated with mmf accents. Airbrushed with 'old gold' luster dust. Horse logo drawn on with black Americolor Food Writer pen.

With the scraps I made red velvet & cream cheese frosting cake balls (about 55 pieces). SOOooOO good! I don't really care for red velvet cake because of it's nondescript taste. It's just buttermilk cake with a hint of chocolate, but the red color completely throws me. I expect fruity or something other than what you get. But the smushed combo is quite divine when covered in chocolate (or white chocolate in this case).

Baby Cake

2008-04-07T08:03:00.006-07:00

This weekend I made a cake for a woman I'd never met. Well, we've kinda met, but not in person, but through the on-line cake community Cake Central, the best caking site EVER (pretty sure I've mentioned it before).

She happened to be looking for someone who lived in the Phoenix area to make a cake for her son and daughter-in-law to welcome her new grandbaby. She lives in Michigan. Not sure what possessed me to pipe up and offer my amateur services, but I did, and it was a great experience.

She'd found a cake she wanted in one of the galleries of the CC website. It seemed simple enough, I quoted her a price, she paid for it (thank you paypal) and things were a go. Now, every other cake I've made was either for friends or dh's office, whereas I did not feel much pressure for it to be PERFECT, but I wanted this cake to be perfect, or pretty darn close.

I bought new pans and I prebaked. Sadly, my vanilla cake wasn't cooked all the way through, so the night I was decorating, I was also baking, which tacked about 2 hours onto my night (not cool).

In my mind, all my cakes seem pretty easy and I think, "ok, I'll do this and this and I'll be done by this time." But I'm either REAL slow or am not efficiently scheduling my time, because caking takes me much longer than anticipated and results in far too late nights. I do like to take my time, but I also love my sleep, so I need to develop a better system. ANYway...

I was delivering the cake on Saturday and told my fellow CC'er that I would email her pictures beforehand. I was very nervous about her response, but here's what she said:

Doreen,
OMG that is so cute!!!!!!
and the little feet sticking out, are adorable
you did a beautiful job!
I am just so happy that you were the one who replied to my request on CC
I cannot Thank You enough

Jane*

Insert smiley face here and cakingly glow. I delivered the cake to the new mom and she thought it was adorable, wondering in fact if it was actually edible. Jane* emailed me again with her son's response:

Doreen
they are so happy with the cake and said it is so cute
that they dont want to cut it
my son said he would like to lacquer it and keep it
again, you did a beautiful job!
I hope that we can do business again
thank you very much

Jane*

* name changed

Of course, I thought I could have done a few things differently, but overall, it's a winner!

8" and 6" tiered cake. Lower tier is chocolate fudge. Upper tier is vanilla. All filled and iced with vanilla buttercream. Covered and decorated with mmf.

Do you not LOVE the baby feet?! I thought they were SOOooOO cute!

This was also my first time doing scrollwork and I made the mistake of using royal icing on the bottom tier. RI is much more difficult to work with than I anticipated. I used buttercream for the swiss dots on the top tier, which was 1,000 X's easier.

Cupcake Hangover

2008-04-02T08:41:00.010-07:00

Late last week, I received a last-minute order for 100 cupcakes. As I've mentioned in a previous post, I'm no cupcake maker. But at this point in my decorating career, who am I to turn down a customer. And considering it was from Intel (now a repeat customer), I didn't want to say no.

By Monday, the order had gone down to 80. Now, my insider at Intel who doubles as my cake-pusher, dubiously thought that since I'd only ever really made cakes large enough to serve 25 or so, that I couldn't possibly make a cake for 80. Um, hello, Spongebob could easily have fed 60! And so cupcakes it was. And having never really made more than a dozen jumbo cupcakes (which the aforementioned insider dropped in the parking lot), I had no clue what I was in for.

The baking part was the easiest. And the scratch mix I used was simple and tasty. I went through two double-batches of buttercream and got way too ambitious with my fondant accents.

Mind you, I have to do all this (with the exception of the baking), once a wee 18-month old has gone to bed, which is around 8 p.m. However, I could have done a few things days ahead...made the buttercream, created my fondant figures. But no, I like to do things the hard way.

The cupcakes were finished this morning with the help of my handsome assistant. Let me just say that decorating a cake has its challenges, but decorating 80 cakes is ridiculous. I'll stick with cakes, thank-you-very-much. In my opinion, the finished product is much more rewarding.

The cakes

Vanilla buttermilk cupcakes with buttercream frosting

Chocolate cinnamon cupcakes with buttercream frosting

Each cupcake was adorned with either a Intel bunny man or fondant flower (both made from mmf)

Note: I only made 20 of those bunny buggers and they took me TWO hours. But yeah, if I'd planned ahead and made them in advance, I could have easily done 80 and in assorted colors too. Hindsight...

What Not To Do

2008-03-31T09:30:00.002-07:00

Rule #1: Don't attempt to try something new for an important occasion when you haven't had the chance to practice or do a dry run. It won't turn out well.

************************************************************

My good friend and former co-worker Jen was visiting Arizona for a birthday celebration with her best friend Heather. Since they were going to be staying with us Sunday night before heading to the airport Monday morning, she asked if I would make a cake for her. "Of course, " I replied.

There would just be a few of us enjoying this cake so it was going to be pretty small. And with this small cake, I wanted to see if I could make a single tier of a topsy turvy (or mad hatter) cake. I've never made a topsy turvy cake before, but I wantd to be daring enough to try one and figured I couldn't royally screw it up on such a small cake. Guess again.

I used this link as my instruction guide. It seemed simple enough. But when I got to stacking and carving my 5-6-7-8 inch layers, it had a pretty heavy lean to it. After icing and covering with mmf, I was so disappointed.

It's been a while since I've struggled with covering a cake with fondant, but I sure did with this one. It had a lot of folds, then add the fact that it wasn't smooth, I was heartbroken, thinking, I can not give this cake to someone. What am I going to do?

But then my cake-hobby supporting husband said, "stick with it, you've already invested time and resources in this cake, and it doesn't look that bad." I forged ahead. Thanks baby!

I think I was able to save it. I thought it still had an awkward lean and my fondant application wasn't the greatest, but it was pretty cute and very well received. I don't know if I'm ready for tt cakes yet, but I think it's worth another try.

Strawberry cake with vanilla buttercream icing. Covered/decorated with mmf and pink dragees.

NOTE: Strategically placed fondant accents can hide a lot of ugly boo-boos.

March Challenge -- Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

2008-03-30T08:00:00.010-07:00

I'm two for two...in food blog events that is! I'm pleased to report that I've successfully completed my first Daring Bakers challenge, and I couldn't be happier that it was cake. Thanks to Morven for selecting Dorie's Perfect Party Cake!

Having followed the challenges for the last few months, I was a little nervous about what would be my first. I've never made anything that called for meringue. And bread, well, between the rising, punching and waiting, I'm almost certain that would have been a big ol' flour-y bust.

But if you know me, you know I'm all about cake. So much so, I was tempted to cover this baby with fondant and adorn it with pretty flowers. I thought better of that, this cake is simple and pretty enough enough without any extras.

Now, having made many-a-cake from doctored mixes and only a few from scratch, I had my doubts. Because my cakes didn't rise very much (about 1.5 inches or so), I was sure I did something wrong. My layers were pretty thin, but after torting, it all came together very nicely. This was a very quick and easy cake to make.

**Update: I only learned after I finished my cake that it was recommended to substitute the cake flour with all-purpose flour for better rising cake.**

I wasn't sure the entire time I was making it, whether my meringue buttercream would turn out like it was supposed to, especially when adding the THREE sticks of butter (hello? Is Paula Deen in the house?). And then I was worried I wouldn't have enough buttercream to fill AND cover the cake, but I actually had about 1/3 of a cup left over when I was done. Maybe I shorted a layer or two, who knows.

As pretty as it was, I hoped it tasted as good as it looked. Funnily, as much as I enjoy making and decorating cakes, dh and I don't eat cake very often, so I sought co-worker feedback. And of course, I had a bite or two (or three, but who's counting).

The cake was very light, especially the buttercream. This was a nice change from the normal, heavier buttercreams I tend to make. The subtle hints of lemon in both the cake and the icing was also very refreshing and contrasted nicely with the blackberry preserves. I didn't think the coconut added to the flavor, but it made it pillowy-pretty.

I'd certainly make this cake again!

Woot!! I'm a Daring Baker!!

Perfect Party Cake

Courtesy of Dorie Greenspan's 'Baking from My Home to Yours' (page 250)

For the Cake
2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk

4 large egg whites

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 stick (8 Tbsps) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream

1 cup sugar

4 large egg whites

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 fresh lemon juice (from two large lemons)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For Finishing

2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable

About 1 1/2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut

Getting Ready

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Whisk together the sugar and lemon zest in amixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.

Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.

Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.

Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.

Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating unil the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.

Finally, give the batter a good t-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.

Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops witha rubber spatula.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the ckaes are well risen and springy to the touch -- a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.

Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake alyers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozed for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream

Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl oveer a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.

The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.

Remove the bowl from the heat.

Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the merigue on medium spped until it is cool, about 5 minutes.

Using the paddle attachment and in a separate bowl, beat the butter, adding one stick at a time, until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.

During this time, the buttercream may curdle or separate -- just keep beating and it will come together again.

On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then add the vanilla.

You should have a shinny, smooth, velvety, and pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake

Using a sharp, serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.

Put one layer, cut side up, on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.

Spread it with one third of the preserves. Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.

Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you'll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).

Place the last layer, cut side down, on top fo the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top.

Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving

The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it's best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room -- not the refrigerator.

Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all it its subtlety when it's cold. Depending on your audience, you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing

The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well -- it will keep for up to two months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped, overnight in the refrigerator.

Playing Around

Since lemon is such a friendly flavour, feel free to make changes in the preserves; other red preserves -- cherry or strawberry -- look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.

Fresh Berry Cake

If you will be serving eh cake the day it is made, cover each layer of buttercream with fresh berries -- using whole raspberries, sliced or halved strawberries or whole blackberries, and match the preserves to the fruit.

You can replace the coconut on top of the cake with a crown of berries, or use both coconut and berries. You can also replace the buttercream between the layers with fairly firm whipped sweetened cream and then either frost the cake with buttercream (the contrast between the lighter whipped cream and the firmer buttercream is nice) or finish it with more whipped cream. If you use whipped cream, you'll have to store the cake in the refrigerator -- let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before serving.

Intel SPCM/SMT/FTF

2008-03-27T09:00:00.003-07:00

A whole lotta letters that mean absolutely nothing to me. But dh was coordinating a meeting for work and I was asked to make a cake. I liken it to a big bar of soap...a credit card maybe. But dh wanted simple and simple it was.

The Intel logo was hand cut (what a pickle THAT was) and I finally figured out how to better use my Tappits letter cutters. Cake Central is a wonderful resource for even the most benign decorating questions, including...how the !@#$ do I get these letters out of the cutters without the !@#$ing fondant sticking?!

I digress.

White vanilla cake with raspberry-flavored buttercream filling/icing. 9" x 13" x 4". Covered and decorated with mmf. And I actually FINALLY used my airbrush to color the logo & letters. I need A LOT of practice. I eventually hand painted the Intel logo to give it a stronger blue color.

I also made an Intel Bunny figurine at the last minute for dh to skewer onto the top of the cake once he got it to work. If I had more time, I probably could have made him more closely match the doll, but it was late, and I think the airbrush color got to my brain.

Cake Balls -- Round Two

2008-03-18T09:00:00.005-07:00

I had A LOT of leftover cake in the freezer from the golf ball and spongebob cakes, so I thought I'd take a stab again at cake balls.

This time, I did in fact use cream cheese frosting rather than the non-dairy creamer and the balls shaped much more easily. And I also managed not to burn my candy melts, so my balls actually looked much better too.

Aside from their mardi gras-ness, they tasted pretty good. I'll need to work on my color combos. Oh and one tub of cream cheese and two bags of candy melts only got through one of the two giant ziploc bags of leftover cake, so more balls will be made.

Vanilla cake with cream cheese cake balls. Dipped in purple and yellow Wilton candy melts. Yellow balls have a caramel crunch topping.

The Caking Hobbyist

Dog Cake

Cigar Cake

Easter Cookies

Hannah's Cake

Mark & Aimee

Ashley's Sweet 16

Adrian's Cake

Billy's Cake

Christmas Cake

Terry & Maria's Cake

Shawn's Cake

Update: Giveaway Winner

Happy Thanksgiving!

Julie's Cake

My 1st Giveaway

Riley's Cake

James & McKenzie's cake

Omarr's Graduation Cake

Giveaway Win!

Eddie's Cake

Dionne's Cake

From Sketch to Cake

BBQ Cookies

Wedding #2

Mindy's 30th

Chris's Cake

Arizona Weddings Magazine

Amy & Temesghan's Cake

Many Thanks

Life + Style Blog Feature

Because of the Derby

Ymani's Birthday

B is for...

Hannah's Birthday

Happy Easter

Anniversary Cake

Spiderman

Cookie Kick

I LOVE Cookies!

2009 - Year in Review

2009 NaBloPoMo

I Like Cake.

A Break

Riley's Cake

#2 Slacker Post

Letter Cutters...

Just A Little Something I'm Workin' On

Caking Again

*fingers crossed*

Easy vs. Hard

Two-Faced!

NaBloPoMo Slacker Post #1

A Few Helpful Tips

Late Nights

The Notebook

Me vs. The Pros...Take 2

Me vs. the Pros

NaBloPoMo

Cake Balls...er, Truffles

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hello Kitty

Wall-E Cake

My Birthday

Catching Up

4th of July

Angela's Cake

Song's Birthday

SAAC Cake

Asian-themed couples bridal shower

Marisa's Cake

My Mom

My 1st Wedding Cake

Elijah's 3rd Birthday

Phoenix Suns

Quincy's Cake

Snowman

X-Mas Cookies

Thanksgiving Cupcakes

Wedding Cake

fingers crossed