No Cake For You

I am playing cake Nazi right now only because I have been making lots of other goodies that I'm not sure are really worth posting about.With all of our traveling planned for the holidays I have been trying to limit the baking.  I have been swamped!! I'm hoping to get a Christmas cake in soon... Sorry for the oh so exciting and inconsistent blog. Hopefully 2012 will bring more time for decorating!

A Monster For My Little Monster

Meet Eddy

I was wonderfully inspired by pinterest to do a monster themed b-day party for Teagen. He just turned two and what better month than October to bring out all of the monsters :) Teagen had fun helping me make his "pake" and I am incredibly excited he is getting older because we can do more fun things together. He liked rolling the fondant balls to make the nose and buttons. He also helped make the hair by scraping the fondant with a plastic knife. Unfortunately, monster Eddy lost his arms in a terrible accident. We tried to repair him but failed. I guess it's good he is a monster and can get away with the no hands look. I will definitely have to work on that one especially if I try to tackle something that actually has to have arms. :) Oh and I just love his oh so sexy big lips. I didn't do that on purpose but I love them!

The Inspiration

Forty Niner Fun

FYI: I love football and my husband LOVES football. Us Fords are huge 49er fans and luckily this year my hubby's birthday landed right on the season opener game day. I just had to make a 49er themed cake to celebrate.

Dustin claims this is my best cake so far. I like it but I have a feeling it scored more points because the design was more up his alley than my usual pink and bows. I was shocked at how long the logo took me. I had to redo it a few times because I kept getting the letters off. At first it was all fondant, then I used buttercream for the letters to make it more exact. By the time I got the logo finished I was pretty wore out, which is my excuse for the funky looking football. I guess from far away it looks fine but up close, not so good... I ran out of brown coloring and sure enough the fondant kept tearing. I tried to make it look more worn and used to make up for all of the flaws. I actually used Dustin's favorite Monster Cookies for the center. It was similar to using rice krispie treats but a little heavier. Looking at the picture now I should have put the Birthday on top with the Happy but oh well. Can't change it now ;)

He was quite thrilled that I made him pose with the cake.

All decked out

Back to Baking

It has been almost 4 months since my last cake. Time has completely flown by. I am now the newest resident of Fargo North Dakota and have finally finished unpacking the last box. My cake making necessities are out now and I'm 100% ready to get back to baking. Perfect timing too because I just turned 27! Below is my oh so pink creation which according to my almost 2 year old son is "cute, cuuute". I'm not sure he even knows exactly what the word means but I'll take it! The horizontal stripes were really hard to get straight, especially after my extended no cake vaca. Stay tuned for more cakes now that I have officially set up shop.

Oh How I Wish

I think the world would be a much better place if we could have strawberries this size all the time. Is it crazy that I was wishing the cake would magically turn into a real strawberry? Fortunately, I am visiting my fav state (CA) where it's strawberry season and I have literally been eating a huge bowl of the best of the best every day. I'm just still sad it was cake and that is prolly the only time you will ever hear me say that ;) Oh and the Easter basket grass was my easy way of covering the cake board. Please just ignore it especially since it isn't even hiding the board.

Scrollin Around

Just for fun I practiced some scroll work. My hand was a bit tired but I like the end result. Of course it's not Valentine's Day but goodness gracious I just love red and pink :) The cake is strawberry with vanilla buttercream  and fresh strawberries for the filling. So yummy! I am way proud of myself for being able to get such a smooth surface with buttercream. Practice really does pay off!

Pinch Me Please

I'm not Irish and I know practically nothing about St. Patrick's Day. Every year I forget to wear green so I am super proud of myself for making a cake in time to celebrate. I have been working on creating cakes that have a smooth and flawless background. A good cake shouldn't need to be covered up especially at the base of each tier. I really hate having to put something extra on just to cover up. That is why I chose to make this cake so simple. To highlight that I was able to get the fondant pretty darn close to how I like it to look. Yeah!!!!

New Page

I have added a new page titled Other Fun. Check it out to find out what else I'm up to :)

Swirly Good Fun

I was disappointed to find out that for the Relief Society birthday party I was to make cupcakes instead of a cake which they had originally asked for. Yes, cupcakes are cute and yes, they can be easier to make BUT they are certainly not what I would like to do if given the opportunity to make and decorate a cake. Cakes just use up more creativity and skill. To give my cupcakes added flair I added cute presents and hearts. I worked with trying to get the perfect swirl but unfortunately just didn't hit the mark. My brother in law seriously had the guts to tell me he thought they looked like pink and green piles of poop. (Sorry if that makes you wanna yak) He was very lucky I didn't say what I was actually thinking. Prolly would not have sounded too "lady like". So, evidently I need to practice some more swirls so that I never get told that again in the future. I will post how that turns out....

Cake Bars

In an attempt to create a cake recently I ended up with cake bars instead. I made a fudge cake which stubbornly stuck to the cake pans. I haven't had this happen since I first started baking but anything can happen if you are not paying attention.:) So to save my cake I just took out what I could from the pans and had a little fun. The following is how to make them:

Combine cooled cake with frosting or melted chocolate. I used the chocolate this time. Just microwave 12 ounces of chocolate chips with 1 Tbsp shortening. Mix after heating for 20 seconds and repeat until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. If you are using frosting, just add a cup to the cake. If mixture is too dry, add a little more. After the cake is crumbled and evenly mixed with frosting or chocolate, press into 9x13 baking sheet. Press mixture in evenly and then top with any combination you would like. For these bars, I used crushed pretzels and chocolate. Freeze until chocolate is hard. They are similar to cake pops just easier to make since you don't have to individually dip anything.

My Love Penguins

I just love these little guys. I was in bit of a rush to get them done so I'm not liking my clean up job but oh they are too cute. I love how chubby I was able to make them and yes I did want them laying down. They are supposed to be floating on ice or making snow p-angels :)  They went to a nice family in need and I'm hoping they did a good job cheering them up.

L.O.V.E.

Another Valentine's Day has come and gone. It is one of my favorite holidays. Mostly because of all of the oh so cute crafts and sweets you can make, especially with kids. Anything with pink, red or hearts and I'm sold. Teagie, my 16 month old son, helped me with frosting sugar cookies. He had such a great time eating and making a disaster out of the kitchen. Gosh, I love him so much!!! How could you not with a face like that?? ;)

This time I tried tackling mini cakes. A little bit of a challenge just because of the size but not as time consuming. I made chocolate and vanilla swirl cake by pouring a layer of the chocolate batter and then a layer of vanilla on top. Then I used a spoon to bring the chocolate batter to the top in select areas and then swirled the spoon around to get the look. Easy breezy. Once the cake was cool I cut out circle and square shaped pieces for each two tiered mini cake. Biscuit cutters and cookie cutters work well. Then just crumb coating and decorating like any other cake. Teagie helped make the cake pops which were made using the leftover cake and frosting. He again had so much fun. I can't keep him out of the kitchen which is actually a blessing for me considering how much time I like to spend baking and cooking. He did get mad at me though when I wouldn't let him chuck the cake pops across the room. Maybe next time.....

Isn't the red one just adorable? I wish it would have been my wedding cake!

Wild Thang

Round two for the banana cake. This time I watched it like a hawk. It turned out almost as good as the first but just not as level as the other one. I'm not sure if it's my perfectionist nature or if the bottom tier really is lopsided. Sometimes I think I stare too much at the cake that after awhile I just can't tell anymore.

The cake was delicious and well worth the second attempt. See the recipe page for the cake and cream cheese frosting recipes.

Not sure where I came up with the snake skin idea to go with a cute little purple bow but I think it works. For a trip down memory lane I decided to include my first cake.....remember poor lavender lumps? Can you believe how much of a difference there is. I am really glad that I can show such an improvement. Next time I will work on making a cute cake board.  They make such a difference in the overall look. The cake plate just doesn't go.

My Dog Ate My Cake... :(

I am so furious right now all I can do is blog! I spent pretty much my entire day baking what happened to be maybe my best cake EVER! I decided to try a banana cake and got this most wonderful recipe from cooklikeyourgrandmother.com. You have to check their site out and try the banana cake. I will post the recipe as well.

Anyways, I got the cake all wonderfully crumb coated, just waiting for the fondant layer. Went to help my hubby with something and went back to check on the cake only to find it GONE! Totally and completely GONE! Oh my heck I am still mad. It almost felt like having the Thanksgiving turkey destroyed. I worked so hard on the dang thing and was so excited that this cake might actually be my best one. It was perfectly level, moist, but sturdy at the same time. I made two tiers and filled each with a new cream cheese frosting recipe I found. Why oh why couldn't Bear, our very large brown lab, have picked one of my disaster cakes to devour? I secretly hope he gets just sick enough to learn his lesson. Maybe 16 oz of cream cheese will teach him not to mess with my goodies!

Moral of the story.....Do NOT leave your precious baked goods within reach of any animal, child or husband. Who knows exactly what havoc they can wreck. Ok, I feel a little better now. I am still dying to have some so I will just have to try again soon :) Thanks for reading my rant!

The "I HATE WINTER!!" Cake

So most of you who know me are well aware of the fact that I hate the snow and I hate, hate, hate winter! It prolly wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't soooooooo long. I just happen to be a girl who loves the sun, loves the heat, and could seriously live in a swimsuit and flip flops by the pool or beach everyday if I could. That being said for some reason I am living in a place where the snow just keeps on keeping on. BLAH! I decided my next cake would be completely opposite of a winter wonderland because frankly there is no such thing. :)

I know the design is a bit funky but I like it. I absolutely love, love, love my flower. The cake has elements that reflect all of the things I love; water, waves, flowers, sun and shimmer. All nice spring and summer things.

Now for the surprise, this is not really a cake. I decided to take a shot at making a display cake. So it's all styrofoam covered in fondant. I imagined covering a piece of foam a heck of a lot easier than covering cake but it was far from easy. Cake is difficult because it is not sturdy and can fall apart if you are not careful but the foam doesn't have any give to it so it shows EVERY little flaw in the fondant. I had the hardest time working out all of the bumps, tears, air bubbles, etc. There are actually two layers of fondant on each tier along with a layer of the blue. Glad I was able to cover it up. At one point I wasn't so sure the thing wasn't going to end up in the trash. I have learned though that with patience you can usually either fix or at least cover up most flaws.

 The flower is made out of gum paste.  All I did was create several different shades of the turquoise by mixing the food color with the gum paste. The darker shade has a little bit of navy mixed in.  Then I rolled out each in a circle and formed the shape I wanted using a foil cup.  I let each one dry enough so that they were still a little soft in the middle. This is so I could layer them without each layer being too hard which would make the flower stand out a lot more. It also made it easier for me to work with it without breaking any layers. I added the swirls and loops and center then dusted a few areas with edible dust and glitter.

Time For Change

I decided that with a new year comes a new blog design :) It only took me forever to figure out how to add a new font again. Thanks to kevinandamanda.com!! Why can't I just remember these oh so important bits of random information? I think designing the blog might be more difficult than decorating! I stayed up most of the night pulling my hair out with this. There are a few touch ups left to do but those will happen shortly. Anyways, hope you like the new look and the new cake designs soon to come!!

Winter Lovin

I can't believe it has been so stinkin' long since I have not only posted but made a cake!! For an update we are still in limbo as far as where we are going to live.  Everything is still packed so of course that makes all things caking difficult.  It is my new years resolution to get back on top of creating and posting.  I still love love love making cakes so motivation is definitely not a problem ;)

Congrats Sally and Zach (pictured here with my only December cake)!! They recently got engaged and luckily I was able to find out about it before he popped the question.  I was able to surprise them with this cake on the same day as their engagement. They are such a cute couple and I absolutely love this picture.

I wanted the cake to be simple but cute so I opted to try out my piping skills again with this design.  I really love how it looks and will work on getting the dots more uniform and in straighter lines next time.  Red and pink do happen to be my fav colors but what better colors to use to celebrate love and Christmas in one ;) Oh and I forgot to mention how nervous I was giving this cake to Sally because she is a culinary student and makes way better goodies than me by far ;) Hopefully I didn't remind her too much of why people should go to culinary school instead of trying to teach themselves.... Again, congrats Sally and Zach!