Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Class 3: 3D Icing charaters/flowers

3rd class! Loved last night's class! That first star cake really had me bumming, I hated that cake..lol. This week was supposed to be clown character cakes, if you know me, you know clowns scare me, so I searched and searched for something else to use, I almost gave up and was just going to leave them headless until I saw some St. Patty's day ornaments that had some leprechaun faces in them as well as some pots of gold, clovers, and rainbows. So I grabbed them up (last package) I took them back to the baking isle to make sure they were about the right size compared to those creepy clowns. When I got them home I glued them onto the top of a dowel rod and tada I had my character heads! They turned out so stinking cute! We also started the rose and did some other flowers, even though I have known a lot of the stuff we have covered already, I am learning what you can actually do with all of these tips that I have had for years!







Monday, March 1, 2010

Cake classes!

Woohoo! I start my first decorating class tonight! It will be nice to have the opportunity to learn from a professional! I am so excited!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for cake that looks like ice cream! !

This cake was made by request of one of my favorite customers! She has definitely challenged me on her requests and I am so thankful for it! I also appreciate her trusting me with creating these treats for her special occasions!

You rock Randi!


Ingredients:
  • 2 boxes of your favorite cake mix or double your favorite cake recipe
  • Icing, for this cake I used 1 can of chocolate frosting (I tried making my own for the first time and it didn't work out right, so I used this in a pinch)
  • I also used buttercream icing, for this cake I doubled the recipe below.
  • 1 Package of ice cream cones
Butter Cream Recipe: Makes about 2 1/2 cups frosting
  • 1 package powdered sugar (16 ounces)
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat sugar, butter, milk and vanilla with electric mixer at low speed until well blended and smooth. If frosting becomes too thick, beat in additional milk by teaspoonfuls until the frosting is of spreading consistency.

~The Cake~
Prepare the cake mix according to the box directions and pour batter into your choice of cake pans (I used two 9" rounds for this cake), see suggested baking time on recipe or box directions, once done allow to cool completely before frosting. Once your cake has cooled you are ready to frost your cake layers, generously cover the cake in the icing, especially on the sides so the cones will have a nice sticky surface. Now that it is all covered, put it to the side and resist the temptation to eat it all before you finish your project!

~Cupcake cones~Preheat oven to 350F and prepare the cake batter according to the directions. Place ice cream cones in muffin pan and fill about 1/2 to 3/4 full. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until done, allow to cool completely.

Once cooled it is time to cut the cupcake cones in half. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be, I did have a few cones that broke while I was cutting them, so the extras came in handy, plus they were a good snack!. The number of cones you will need depends on the size pans you use, for the 9" cake it took 10 cone halves. Once you have the required number of cones cut up, start placing them around the outside of the cake, be sure you push them into the icing a bit so they will stick, this also covers up the rough or uneven edges from your cutting. You can also put a little dab of icing on the "foot" of each cone if you feel it needs it to help them to stay in place. Now the fun part, take your buttercream icing tinted with your choice of colors and have fun, swirl it around the top of each cone to give the appearance of a complete ice cream cone, add sprinkles, drizzle chocolate, just have fun with it.

Creative tips- Try using white cake batter and tint the batter before baking to give a colorful surprise inside! Try using waffle cones instead of the flat bottomed cones, I plan on trying this for my next ice cream cake and of course I will put some pictures up!

This cake is sure to put a smile on their faces and satisfy their sweet tooth!
















Thursday, February 25, 2010

Humpty Dumpty baby shower cake

I thought I would start with a few of my older cakes I have made. I wish I had thought to capture the whole process, but I wasn't really thinking about doing a blog at the time. I am in no way a professional, I just figure my own ways through trial and error (usually a lot of error!) These pictures aren't all fancy, again I wasn't taking them for blogging purposes.

I made the Humpty Dumpty cake for my sister's baby shower! I was so excited when I came up with the idea to make this cake, but I will admit I was terrified that it was going to turn out wrong because I didn't have a back up plan for her shower. Thankfully I got lucky!

I was buying a lot of cake pans from a local lady and she had the egg shaped pan that she gave me because she couldn't find the other half of it, I was dying for something to do with it! The only problem was trying to figure out how to keep it from tipping over in the oven. I just took some aluminum foil and made a "nest" for the egg to sit in (good ole mother nature!) I just used a regular 9 x 13 pan for the wall.

I had piped the lines for the bricks and thought that they were just too plain and bright white so I took some of the chocolate icing and mixed a in some water to thin it out, then used a new, clean damp paper towel to dab the mixture onto the bricks to give them some texture and color.

For Humpty Dumpty, I piped his arms directly onto the cake board and piped his legs up from the side of the cake to the top to give the appearance he was sitting on the wall with his hands resting on the top of the wall. I used the image off of the stamp I made the shower invites for, as a reference for his over all look.

He wasn't perfect, but he sure turned out cute!

Beginning of our journey

Here we go, for my first blog I will introduce my craft team. They love to help me or destroy my work, as their mood fits. They also love to hang around waiting to see if they get to be taste testers. Yes, there are 9 of them.

Omalley, Esme, Echo

Sam, Mercutio, Mojo

Elphie, Toby, Major