#9! I think....

It has only taken 4 months, but here it is. Again, sorry for the bad picture quality. I really need to remember to bring more than my phone.  Maybe I can attempt to steal some from the bride! I'll have to investigate and see what I can come up with!

This cake was a stressful affair. Are you excited for the story?? I know you are.

The only actual cake was the bottom tier of this cake, as there were going to be other desserts at the wedding for the guests, and the cake was basically there for the customary "cutting". It was a key lime cake with cream cheese frosting, covered in green fondant. The top 2 tiers are Styrofoam, also covered in fondant. The green progressively gets lighter as it goes up. It's hard to tell in the above photos due to lighting. It is a really subtle difference. Here is a picture of the cake prior to being displayed. It was level. I swear. I really need to work on my photography skills. Or maybe just take a picture with a level on top to prove it!

Making of the cake occurred the night before the wedding, as did the covering with fondant. I made marshmallow fondant as opposed to using store bought. I'm not sure if this was my downfall, or if it was just late, but covering the Styrofoam was a nightmare. By 2am I had basically decided I would send the bride a text message (on her wedding night btw, since her reception was the next day) and let her know there would be no cake. I decided that I would give it one more try and by 3 am, I had a covered cake. Then I promptly went to bed, covered in icing sugar.

The reception was in Calgary, so I had to transport. Some friends and I were invited to the family dinner so we had to be there early. We got up there and thankfully the cake remained intact. There were a couple of tiny issues, that I was able to fix, and of course hide with the beautiful lace.

The cake turned out! YAY! And the bride loved it! Double YAY!

And now, the stress. The mother of the bride passed away unexpectedly in February, and so we were using some flowers that had been on her wedding cake which she had saved for over 20 years. These things were fragile. And guarded under lock and key by the father of the bride. Understandable. I felt horrible taking the box from him. I carefully found a few flowers that were intact enough, and didn't include some lovely pink tulle, and arranged them on the cake.

During the family dinner, I was positioned in a way that I had direct eye line of the cake the whole time. The photographer came in, picked it up and walked out with it. My heart almost stopped. Not so much for the cake, but for those flowers! Oh my. What if something happened to those flowers.

The cake came back after having its photo session. And it came back intact. Sigh of relief. Roughly 10 minutes later however, I notice some guys looking at the cake and laughing a bit. Then they get up and start moving it. What is going on? More people come over, look at the back of the cake, and laugh. A woman goes and talks to the bride. She goes pale. Then seems ok. The bride goes and looks at the cake. Now keep in mind this all happening during speeches, etc. So I remain seating. Again, heart stopping. Finally the dinner is over. A friend goes on a mission to find out about the cake because I may die.

A small child had decided to put their hand through it. That's right. Ripped fondant and cake. I could have died! We hadn't even made it to the reception yet! The flowers however were not harmed, so a sigh of relief was had. But seriously, after my breakdown making the cake, this hit me hard. I had to go have a cry in my car. I get emotional over cake. Deal with it.

All in all, everything was good. The bride and groom were happy and they enjoyed it. That's all that matters right? None of the drama matters. If nothing else, it provides for a good story!

Congratulations Frances and Eric

Summer heat

This summer had been way too hot to bake. No air conditioning equals death in the kitchen.

Never fear, fall is here and I'm back!!!!

Stay tuned....

Bums & Panties

Aren't these so cute? I'm probably biased but I am so happy with how they turned out. This is also only small sampling of the different designs I came up with. Using a heart cookie cutter I was able to make the perfect little 'bums', and then using royal icing I went to work!

And in case you are wondering, I don't just sit around making panty cookies. Yay for bachelorette parties though, that allow me the opportunity!

Ombre Wedding Cake

The first wedding cake of the season was an 'ombre' wedding cake. The cake itself was a vanilla butter cake, with french vanilla butter cream frosting. The frosting was my fabulous crusting butter cream, so the top of the cake is actually just really smooth icing. The stripes were made from marshmallow fondant that was dyed pink, and then as I went up the cake I added more white fondant to the pink to lighten it. It turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. 

Sorry for the kinda crappy pictures. I forgot my camera and only had my phone. I'm hoping the bride and groom got a good picture of it and will be able to send me a copy.

Tutorial for how to do the ombre effect.

The recipe for marshmallow fondant is super easy, and I was quite proud of myself for making it. It tastes so much better than that crappy Wilton stuff.. .sorry Wilton.

Marshmallow fondant found here, or just read below

All you need is:

1. Marshmallows - they can be big marshmallows or mini ones
2. Icing sugar - You'll be mixing the icing sugar into the marshmallows to make a dough, have an entire bag on hand, but I didn't use the whole bag
3. Food colouring
4. Flavoring oil - This is optional. If you don't add this your fondant will be sweet and flavorless which works well if your got all the flavors your want in your cake already

Step One:

Take a couple of handfuls of marshmallows and put them in a microwave safe bowl. Add a couple of drops of water and toss the marshmallows in it until they are all a bit damp. If you are going to just make one colour then put the whole bag of marshmallows in the bowl and add a couple of teaspoons of water. If you're going to put flavoring oil in, add it now and add less water

If you want to make a bunch of colors, melt the marshmallows in batches as it is easier to add color to the melted marshmallow than to actually add the color to the dough.

Step Two:

Stick the marshmallows in the microwave for ten seconds at a time until the are puffed up and easily stir into a goo with a wooden spoon. Tip: Grease your spoon with butter, things can get a bit sticky. (Even with the butter I still found it quite sticky)

Step Three:

Add food colouring  to the melted marshmallows until you get the colour you want. The icing sugar with dull the color a little, so make it brighter than you would actually like it to be.

Step Four:

Start folding icing sugar into the marshmallow goo until it becomes a soft and fluffy dough. Grease your hands with a bit of butter and turn the marshmallow out onto a table sprinkled with icing sugar. Continue to knead in icing sugar until the fondant is stiff enough to roll out.

If you add too little icing sugar the fondant will be very sticky- Just add more icing sugar

If you add too much icing sugar the fondant will be very stiff and hard to roll out - knead in a little bit of butter. (I used shortening)

And there you have it. Super easy to follow instructions on how to make fondant that actually tastes good and doesn't get solid as a rock. Thank you again Pinterest. You led me to the wonderful link (I have at the top of the instructions) and then allowed me to learn something new!

Doughnut Cupcakes (Muffins.... toe-MAE-toe, toe-MA-toe)

Hello. My name is Tiffany, and I am addicted to Pinterest. Yep. I had told myself I wouldn't cave, but I did. You can follow me here. Hee hee. Shameful plug.

I found this recipe for 'Glazed Doughnut Muffins'. I say cupcakes. They are more muffin tasting, but I feel the sweetness of the glaze makes them a cupcake.

Recipe:

Ingredients for Muffins (Cupcakes)

1/4 C. butter

1/4 C. vegetable oil

1/2 C. granulated sugar

1/3 C. brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 2/4 C. all purpose flour

1 C. milk

Ingredients for Glaze 

3 Tbsp. butter, melted

1 C. icing sugar

3/4 tsp. vanilla

2 Tbsp. hot water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups or spray with non stick cooking spray.

2. In the bowl of a mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter, oil, and sugars until smooth. Add eggs one at a time. With mixer on low add the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla extract until just combined.

3. Add the flour alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with flour until everything is combined.

5. Spoon batter into cups and smooth tops. Divide equally among the tin. Bake for 15-17 minutes* until they are a pale golden brown and springy to touch. Rotate the pan half way through baking. Cool for 5 minutes in tin, then 10 minutes on a wire rack.

6. To make glaze mix together ingredients and whisk until smooth.

7. When cupcakes have cooled slightly, dip the top in the glaze. Allow the glaze to harden and dip again.

*I only put mine in for 15 minutes and the bottoms were a tiny bit burnt, so make sure you are watching them!

I feel these would be perfect with a nice warm glass of hot chocolate, and with the rainy days ahead of me, I guess I now have some yummy treats to keep me warm!

Happy Baking!

Wedding season!

Wedding season is upon us! I have one done, 2 more to go (and who knows, maybe that number will increase!)

I'll try to get the first wedding up over the next week. Life's been a little hectic lately!

I love MiniEggs

And now so do you. Especially on cake. Chocolate cake. With chocolate Icing.

Mini Fruit Tarts

This weekend I attended a 'High Noon' Tea. It was a function put on through church that my fantastic roomie was in charge of. She had mentioned to me that she didn't think she was going to do a dessert, and me, being me thought that would never do. So what goes better with our British tea, than fruit tarts.

Can you spot the 'hidden Mickey'.... Hello. My name is Tiffany, and I am a Disneyland addict.

I found this recipe on the Kraft website.

Super easy.

Super quick.

Super tasty.

Ingredients:

18 frozen mini tart shells

1 pkg. (4 serving size) Jell-O vanilla pudding mix

1 C. cold skim milk

3/4 C. thawed Cool Whip Light Whipped Topping

Fresh fruit

Directions:

1. Bake the tart shells according to the package and then allow to cool.

2. Beat the pudding and milk with a whisk (or an electric mixer) for 2 minutes or until combined and slightly thickened. 

3. Stir in Cool Whip.

4. Fill the tart shells (I piped mine in, just because I thought it would look nicer than being spooned in)

5. Top with fresh fruit.

Seriously so easy.

Plus I made this pretty amazing hat. What is the good in pretending to be British if you can't wear a big hat with a sparkly purple bird on it??

Happy Saint Patricks Day!

It just so happens that my friend Laura celebrates her birthday the same day! So how do we combine the 2 celebrations? Green cake of course!

I used my trusty crusting buttercream icing on the cake and added a little 'Irish Creamer' to stick with the theme. You can't see it in the picture but there were tiny shamrock sprinkles in between the layers as well.

So Happy Saint Patricks Day to all you Irish folks!

And a Happy Birthday to Laura!

I'm BACK!

It's been awhile since I last posted. This doesn't mean I haven't been baking. As I am ALWAYS baking. But I just haven't done anything new..... until now.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

As always, a fantastic picture thanks to the fantastic Chelsea.

Recipe adapted from 'Fake Ginger'


◦1 package (18 ounces) white cake mix
◦3 egg whites
◦1 cup of water
◦1/3 cup, plus 1/4 cup of frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
◦2 tablespoons vegetable oil
◦pink food coloring
◦4 cups sifted powdered sugar
◦1/3 cup butter, softened
◦lemon candies, for decoration




1.Preheat oven to 350. Yields 24 cupcakes, so get your pans ready!
2.Beat cake mix, egg whites, water, 1/3 cup concentrate, oil, and a few drops of food coloring (I used Americolor Gel in electric pink.) in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed for 2 minutes. Spoon batter evenly into tins.
3.Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.
4.To make frosting, beat sugar, butter, and remaining 1/4 cup concentrate* in medium bowl with mixer at medium speed. Beat in a few drops food coloring(Same color as the cupcakes but I added a few more drops to give a little more dimension to the cupcakes). Frost cupcakes (I used an open star, and it was cute, however I wish I had a larger open star) and decorate with lemon candy.

*I had actually read the recipe wrong and put all of the concentrate listed in the recipe into my cupcakes. However, I still had a ton of concentrate left over so it still worked. My icing was actually more made up than the one that I found. So mine were probably a little more tart than they should have been, but they were still super tasty! And I have witnesses. People actually did like them. Promise. And the cupcakes still worked with the 1/4 cup of extra liquid.

So, if you are fan of pink lemonade and of tart things, I highly recommend these cupcakes.

Also in other news, I have 3 wedding cakes that I have already been commissioned to do this summer, so I will be sure to post those as they happen! I'm so excited to try some new techniques (marshmallow fondant) and be a part of some more memories!