Wedding Bells

Over the weekend I made my first cake that I was "hired" to make, for a friend's cousin's bridal shower. What pressure! And with pressure...came disaster. One layer decided not to bake all the way and had to quickly be remade and replaced, another layer decided to crack as it was being positioned on top of another (thanks to the powers of buttercream, it was saved). There's a laundry list of setbacks - not enough buttercream to go around, uncooperative fondant. You name it, I experienced it.

But I finished, and at the very least, the cake was tall. And tall is good, right? And I know the cake is tasty - bottom tier of white butter cake and strawberry filling, top tier of chocolate butter cake with Oreo buttercream filling, slathered in buttercream and wrapped in mm fondant. Delicious! And, of course, topped off with a cute little gum paste bow and surrounded by fondant pearls, who can resist?

But I definitely learned not to bite off more than I can chew - the next cake will be one fabulous tier that I can perfect and make beautiful. I'll just make it an extra-tall tier for dramatic effect!

Look at my review of Wilton's Gum Paste that I used to make this bow with on Sazze.com!

Scraping the Bean

The lure of baking products is always high for me, from intricate cake pans to gadgets and extracts. I generally manage to control my spending and buy just a few things at a time. This weekend I picked up a "vial" of bourbon vanilla beans and decided to make some vanilla bean cupcakes, topped off with cherry blossoms I made out of gum paste.

I've admired Cake Journal's cupcakes covered with poured fondant, and since she gives such a great tutorial on the process, I decided to give it a try. I used Chockylit's basic vanilla cupcake recipe, with the addition of my vanilla bean and a little extra vanilla extract to give them a little more vanilla-y oomph, and used the following pour fondant recipe (although there are a lot of variations out there):

Pour Fondant
1/4 c water
1/8 c light corn syrup
2 1/2 c powdered sugar
Combine the water and corn syrup in a sauce pan and heat over medium/medium high heat until it comes to a boil. Whisk in powdered sugar, cup by cup, until mixture is smooth. Add food coloring if desired.

If making a large batch of cupcakes I would double or triple the recipe (I made a small batch because I only baked up a dozen cupcakes).


These were an amazing sugary treat for a Sunday afternoon, and I would definitely give this a try again. I think the trick to the fondant is getting the right temperature and consistency. Amazingly, one kitchen gadget I haven't purchased (but is next on the list) is a candy thermometer, which will help me pinpoint correct temperature. At the right temperature I think it will be easier to cover the cupcakes more evenly.

Oh, if only I weren't on a diet...

Check out my review of bourbon vanilla beans on Sazze.com!

Final Happy Birthday to Kookybites (& Joe!)

This weekend we had the final celebration for Steve's birthday. Our friend Joe is also celebrating a January birthday, so what better way to celebrate both than with a joint birthday cake? Steve and Joe are both photographers, hence the photography-themed cake.

I normally just make MM fondant, cover the cake, and call it a day. However, I wanted to try my hand at making a cake that was a little more fun and tackle molding people and animals out of fondant, so I bought a little box of Wilton fondant for that and stuck with the MM fondant for covering the cake. Having now worked with storebought fondant, I don't think I would choose to cover a cake with it unless I had to - the chemical smell was a bit much!

I've recently discovered a new blog of someone who is a complete fondant artist - The Journal of a Girl who Loves to Cook. Her B-Boy Cake is a great example of her ability to work with fondant at a great level of detail. My first attempt (ok, about third by the time I was done), was not quite as beautiful to look at.

But he at least looked like a person. And I was quite proud of his hair. The ad hoc leather messenger bag I made out of the leftovers was loved by everyone (hooray for last-minute additions).

The penguins came a bit easier, but again, they're not exactly works of art. But Steve loves penguins, so he was happy.

Overall, the cake was a hit with everyone at the party, but didn't receive an 'A' from my critical eye. I do feel like my craftsmanship has greatly improved - I'm getting the height I've wanted from my cakes, and am much more successful at creating a level, flat cake. And, it didn't taste too bad either - chocolate butter cake with Oreo buttercream filling (because who doesn't love Oreos?!).

Wedding Shower Test Cake

A co-worker has "hired" me to make a cake for her cousin's wedding shower in March. Eek. A whole lot of pressure, making a cake for someone I haven't met - what if I ruin her shower with a crooked, squashy cake?!

To ensure I'm up for the challenge, I made a test cake today. After completely trashing the kitchen, I emerged with this cute little package, which will accompany Steve and I to a New Year's party tomorrow. It's a butter cake with strawberry filling - nothing too crazy, but hopefully tasty. The actual cake will be similar, but will be two stacked packages, very close in size, and I think maybe two different shades of pink. The bow is made out of gum paste, and I'm pretty proud of my first bow adventure. Gum paste is amazing stuff to work with. The cake is covered with a layer of buttercream frosting and mm fondant.

This day of baking was filling with challenges - a layer that (I) broke in half and had to remake, fondant that just didn't set up the way it usually does and was a nightmare to work with, accidentally dying some frosting hot pink (which I used to write on the gift tag with). But overall, I think it's heads and shoulders above the cake I made for Darcie's shower in August, and with a few refinements I'll be ready to go in March!

Check out my review of Jet-Puffed Marshmallows on Sazze.com!

Anyone need a cake?!

I had the chance to make some mini cakes (with 4-inch cake pans and a mini heart-shaped pan) this weekend for decorating practice. I had forgotten how much work goes into the process - whether the cake is 4 or 14-inches. Cake batter, marshmallow fondant, buttercream icing and royal icing...it was an all-day affair and a lot of work. In the end, I had fun, the pieces I made with gum paste turned out well, and I'm ready to make another cake for a special occasion.

I like this squiggle cake - not nearly as good as the example I had in a book, but a lot of fun, and the gum paste flowers look cute on top.


If I had a baby shower for someone coming up, I could totally do a larger version of this cake... (after painstakingly working on this bear for nearly an hour, I watched a youtube video where a woman showed how to make one in a matter of minutes. Who knew?!). I've never really worked with icing before, so I'm slowly learning how to work with the different tips. I'm not quite ready for flowers yet, but this border came out pretty well (for a beginner).


Now I'm ready for some real cakes. I feel like I keep on learning and learning, and have come leaps and bounds since I made the baby shower cake in August. Anyone with a party coming up who wants me to make them a cake?!

Check out my review of my heart shaped mini springform pan on Sazze.com!

I baked me a cake...a purty cake...

So, little Zachary's baby shower has come and gone, and I found myself all day on Friday in Washington, working on the cake. I'd forgotten how nice it was to have big counter tops, a double sink (for the mass of dirty dishes I created), and a big clean fridge. Oh, and no Daisy or Basil underfoot.

Anyway, so I made this cake. For a first go around, I feel ok about it. Definite room for improvement, but still, a vast improvement over what I've done before, and I definitely learned the fundamentals for doing a presentable cake. The bottom tier on this one is white butter cake with strawberry buttercream, and the to tier is chocolate butter cake with mint buttercream.

All-in-all, a good attempt, and hopefully in the future I'll be able to continue experimenting. Maybe by Zachary's first or second birthday I'll be able to make him a cool dinosaur or truck cake. Oh yah, and Zachary and Darcie are doing great, and he couldn't be cuter (and getting bigger by the day!!).

Baby shower cake, take 2

Now that little Zachary Irish has been welcomed into the world, it's time to get serious on this cake so that his upcoming baby shower is glorious as he gets all kinds of great swag. My first practice cake was something ugly. It leaned. The top was bumpy. I used a cake mix. It was all kinds of horrible. This time around I did my research, purchased a copy of the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum and baked away. I'm happy with what's currently sitting in my kitchen. The layers were solid with no air bubbles to speak of and baked up even. No big dome in the center, woo hoo! Because I had some leftover fondant I was able to decorate this, but I wasn't really going on looks here. If I can't achieve a good cake, it doesn't matter how well I can cover it with some fondant! So, I feel like I'm ready to make some cake for the shower in August, and make little Zachary proud!

Baby Shower cake....take 1

So, I'll be making a cake for a baby shower at the end of August. I started practicing this week and when finished decided I had made the world's ugliest cake. Needless to say, I was pretty upset. But I've figured out what I need to learn and how I can go from my sad ugly tilted cake to something like this beautiful cake I found on Pink Cake Boxes. Making the fondant is surprisingly easy, the hard part I've found is just getting the cakes to bake up big, nice, and somewhat even on top. I'll be making a lot of cake this month in "practice." Fortunately my neighbor has a great fondness for cakes and will welcome anything I bring down, so at least they won't go to waste!

So, I started with making the fondant, with a pretty simple recipe I found that involves melting down a bag of marshmallows and mixing that goo with a bag of powdered sugar, sticky!












Once done, it's surprisingly easy to work with, add food coloring to (this can be a little tricky) and roll out...

So, while I think I've mastered the art of fondant creation and application, you can't really do much if the cake is crooked, lumpy, too small, etc etc. I definitely have some work in front of me. Sigh. It was so beautiful in my head!