Yes, I spent way too much time on this cake, but my son only turns one once. The characters are all fondant. The cake is buttermilk devil’s food, iced in white chocolate cream cheese icing. The cupcakes are Funfetti with buttercream. The kids loved the cupcakes and the adults loved the cake!
My son’s 1st birthday November 24, 2008
Mmmmm…Pumpkin Cupcakes November 21, 2008
Last year for my work Thanksgiving party, I made a pumpkin roll cake. It was delicious. When I was hired by my husband’s company to provide their cake for Thanksgiving, I thought of doing it again. I didn’t though because my company did a potluck and his company is having a professionally catered event and I wasn’t sure how to fancy up the pumpkin roll
Many hours on Flickr have taught me the current popularity of a cupcake tower, so that is the theme I decided to go with.
I originally was going to use the Ginger-Cream filled Pumpkin Cupcakes byChocylit. I had never cooked with fresh ginger before, it made the whole house smell so good. Instead of the chocolate ganache I used cream cheese icing. The cupcakes turned out wonderful but the hint of ginger was so slight, I decided not to fill the cupcakes for my actual order.
The cream cheese icing recipe I originally used didn’t make much icing so instead of fancy swirls, I just spread on the icing on as neatly as I could. The finished project was not incredibly professional looking, although it was tasty. I am so glad I did a trial run, one should always practice before trying something new.
I also originally planned to donate the practice batch to the Ronald McDonald House, but forgot to drop them off. By the time I remembered, the candy corns had started to melt and left orange stripes on the cupcakes. The other problem is that the nutmeg I sprinkled on top looked more like dirt than decoration. It was tasty just not the appetizing.
For the second run, I used the Martha Stewart Pumpkin cupcake recipe. It is delicious and not very complicated. I used a cookie scoop to make sure I used the same amount of batter in each cupcake. Two scoops in each resulted in 32 cupcakes instead of the 18 her reciepe states it will yield.
The Wilton recipe ofcream cheese icing was my base. I ommited the orange juice and zest. Instead I used vanilla, cinnamon (about 1/2 tsp.), nutmeg (about 1/4 tsp.) and allspice (about 1/4 tsp.). It made a pretty and delicious icing.
My husband delivered everything to his office so I didn’t see the final set-up. Here is the practice run I did at home though:
At K-Mart I discovered this handy cupcake carrier. It uses a cupcake tin for the bottom layer and then has a plastic tray for the second layer. The lid snaps all the layers together. It only holds 24 cupcakes, so I had to improvise with a baking sheet for the rest of my cupcakes.
Tiered Cake Practice August 23, 2008
There is a local website that allows brides to barter for services for their wedding. It is pretty new, but I discovered it and contacted the one bride who had posted for needing a cake. Since I only had pictures of one tiered cake, I made 2 this week and sent her pictures of one of them.
The first cake is a chocolate cake with fondant daisies. I was thinking since it was a miniature cake I could use a single cake for each layer, but the dimensions look weird I think. I thought all the daisies looked so neat laying on my counter, but I couldn’t seem to make them as random when I put them on the cake. I took this cake to a Bible study and all the girls loved it.
Next up was a fondant cake. I learned my lesson and used 2 cakes for each layer. I think I need more practice with fondant! I mixed fondant and gumpaste to make the monogram. I wanted to stick the monogram on top but I was out of toothpicks and couldn’t figure out a way to prop it up without seeing the props in the picture. Next time I may dry toothpicks in the letters to that they can stick in the top.
I redecorated the fondant cake a few different ways, but the best was using Skittles. I was inspired by a cake I saw on Flickr. This is the version I took to the Ronald McDonald House. I made my husband take it in, which was good since a bunch of people were hanging out in the kitchen. They thought the cake was gorgeous and I have trouble taking a compliment. Anyway, one little girl will be staying there so long she had to enroll in school here. Instead of leaving the cake out like they normally do, they are going to bring it out at supper tonight and give it to her as a “Back to School” cake. I thought that was pretty neat.
For anyone who has worked with fondant, I need help! I covered each tier separately before stacking them. What type of knife do you use to cut the bottom of the fondant? I am not sure if you can tell from this picture, but my edges were not very neat. There was no way I could use this cake without using ribbons to hide the edges of the cake. On the top and bottom layers, I ended up with overlap of fondant. I never could get the lines to disappear. I kind of filled it in with buttercream, which you don’t see in this picture, but what do I do in the future? I know I probably just need practice. This is only the 3rd or 4th fondant cake I have ever done.
Old Cakes April 23, 2008
Here are some of my old cakes. Unfortunately I lost many of the pictures of cakes I did for co-worker’s birthdays. I also seem to have lost the Care Bear cake I did for a 1st birthday.
Birthday cake for a two year old. The pan was a Wilton foil pan circa the 1980s. I used butter cream for the body and hat. I used chocolate canned icing for the cookie and the mouth. The eyes were a part of the kit.
Large cookie decorated with icing. Based on the logo which can be seen on the hat in the background.
White buttercream icing. Top of shower cake, sides also had squiggles.
Large buttercream with green and blue accents.
1st wedding cake. Bottom layer had monogram. Real roses, single column construction.
