Happy Mothers' Day!

I came across an incredibly cute cake the other day in my random blog searches. I looked at it and thought, 'I can do that'. So I did. And added my own little twist. 

One word. Ruffles. 

And who better to make a ridiculously cute ruffled cake for than my Mom. The cake in honor of Mothers' Day and to all the women in my life who have been Moms' to me. But especially for my Mom who is the person who will actually get to eat this little beauty. 

(I also got a new camera... can you tell I had fun editing the photos?)

cute fabric background too, huh? I'm kind of in love with it.

The cake was a white cake with a pink tinted buttercream icing in between the layers, then covered in a yellow tinted buttercream. The pink ruffle flower is also buttercream that I froze to get it hard enough to attach a little ways up the front of the cake with its' center being a large circle sprinkle (for lack of better word). The ruffle was incredibly easy to make using a petal icing tip. Sadly, I delivered the cake to my Mom and the flower kind of fell down the cake, but at least I got pictures prior to! And now I know... Add buttercream embellishments on site!

So there it is. 

A cute ruffle cake for my Mom. 

Happy Mothers' Day Mom. Love you lots! 

And thank you for instilling a craftiness in me that has kind of overtaken my life

 and allows me to feed my perfectionist personality! : )

Wedding Cake #5

When I first made my friend Chrissy's wedding cake, I never would have dreamed that I would continue making other wedding cakes. But here it is #5!

A friend from high school recently contacted me asking if I would be willing and able to make her wedding cake. I'm all over getting some more practice in, because really, deep down, this is what I would love to do with my life (however without formal training it's quite difficult, so I'll take what I can!). 

It started the same way that I've started any wedding cake (or cake for that matter) with lots of questions. What flavor? Do you like fondant? Color scheme? Do you have pictures of what you are thinking of? etc. She sent on a few different pictures pointing out what she liked from each cake. At first, I will admit I was a little skeptical about what this cake was going to look like. It had quite a few different elements going on that I wasn't sure how they would blend together.

Here is the general idea of what the cake was going to look like. The top tier and the bottom tier were going to have the same pattern on them, preferably swirls or the like. The middle tier was going to be covered in vertical stripes. The 3 tiers were all going to be different heights as well, with the middle tier being the tallest. The cake was going to be covered in a faux fondant finish (so smooth buttercream) in white, with the patterns being white as well. There was to be green ribbon on it, and I don't even know how to describe it, other than to look like a present. However, once you see the pictures you'll know that is the worst description ever. At the corner where the ribbon intersected the bride had asked for some bling. As for a cake topper, it was going to be a be-dazzled 'D', which the bride was responsible for finding. The cake also had to serve 60 people.

Now typically wedding cake slices are quite small, yet the bride asked that the cake be able to cut larger and still provide enough for 60 people, since her family was a big fan of sweets. The sizes that I chose ended up being, 5 inch top tier, 7 inch middle tier, and 10 inch bottom tier. With the height of the tiers, this cake could serve up to 115 people with the typical wedding cake slice.

A week before the wedding, the bride contacted me saying now the cake had to serve 80, and I assured her, that there would be plenty of cake, as well, the cake topper was now some flowers and giant rhinestones that her sister was providing, and they would be waiting at the venue for me to place on the cake. So now I had a patterned white on white cake, with green ribbon doing a criss-cross thing, bling, and some flowers on top. Again, I was getting worried about what this cake was going to look like when it was all done.

I was pleasantly surprised and proud of this cake when it was all done. Despite some trials along the way, including my sister sitting in the back watching the cake (we had stacked it before we left the house for the venue) making pained noises and small cries of worry everytime we hit the tiniest bump. Love you Mandy!

So here are the long awaited pictures after my ramble.... I hope you like them!

The middle tier

Close up 

                             

Yummy Layers

Finished product

Sorry for the weird long row of pictures. I couldn't figure out how to make them side by side! : )

And I will say the best part of making a wedding cake, 

is having the bride love it.... 

and she did!

The busy month of May!

Well, this month is going to be fun blogging!

I will get my most recent wedding cake up, today is the goal! But then I have a Mother's Day Cake in the plans for my fabulous Mommy, and my cupcake of the month. Also, I never did get my mini egg cookies made, so those may have to be a spring treat for May. I'm considering attempting sugar cookies again. I've come across amazing sites with some of the most gorgeous cookies I've ever seen, and I need to know if it's a skill I can develop or if I just should stay clear and admire everyone elses' cookie skills. And last but not least, I am going to California this month. Very spontaneous and so not like me, but I have to visit a friend and Disneyland is calling! So maybe, just maybe I'll take lots of pictures of all the amazing Disney treats to show you why you need to go to Disneyland, if only for the food! : )

Have a fabulous May! The weather is gorgeous here today, and I can only hope it will get better!

Happy Easter!

Cadbury Creme Eggs. Need I say more?

Ok. I guess I can say more! This months' cupcake flavor was 'Cadbury Creme Egg, in honor of Easter, and the adorable Cadbury bunny.... I mean come on... who doesn't love these commercials?

This particular cupcake was an adventure. I followed a recipe I found online, but not really. The cupcakes themselves are just a plain devils food cupcake. Nice and simple. You can make them from scratch, but I went the easy route and trusted Betty Crocker. I decided that since I was adding a crazy icing and some ganache, it would make up for using a mix.

The icing was a buttercream icing with the creme part of 20, (that's right, 20) Cadbury Creme Eggs. I cut open 20 eggs and scooped out the insides. It was not the easiest process. Very sticky. And the bowl of filling looked kind of gross after. I wish I had taken a picture. The filling was kind of stiff when I scooped it out, but as it sat in a bowl it became gooey and melted. Bizarre. The icing recipe that I was adapting also called for 8 cups of icing sugar. I used 4, and the icing was still incredibly sweet. I don't know if I could have handled the 8 cups. I may have given myself diabetes just from smelling it!

Once the cupcakes were cooled, I enlisted my sister to put a small hole in the center of each cupcake. This was accomplish using a 'slurpee' straw. Worked like a charm. Then ganache was poured into the cupcake. The ganache was made from the chocolate shells. It was quite thin, so it was absorbed into the cupcake. Yum. These babies are going to be nice and gooey! After piping some of the crazy sweet icing on top, I used some of the left over shells as toppers. I also had purchased the Cadbury Creme Egg Minis (personally I like these more than the big ones), and cut some open to put them on top. I think it ended up looking rather cute.

These cupcakes were incredibly sweet. After eating one, I decided I needed to find people to give them to. Thankfully I was in Edmonton visiting my sister when I made these, so she and her room mate were lovingly left a few. Now I just need to find some takers for the rest. Don't get me wrong, they are delicious, but again, the smell alone may bring on diabetes, so I really shouldn't eat more than one... well, maybe two.

Any takers? 

I'll even deliver! : )

Happy Easter!

Hot Chocolate

I love hot chocolate. It makes me happy. It's a great drink on a cold day, when you just want to curl up with a book or watch a movie. It also compliments toast and peanut butter wonderfully. There are so many varieties of hot chocolate out there as well; the classic milk chocolate, milk chocolate with mini marshmallows, dark chocolate, white chocolate, mint chocolate, rolo, hazelnut, irish creme.... I could go on and on..... But this kind of hot chocolate is not one you drink. It may just make an already classic and fabulous treat even more fabulous. In fact, I'm not sure if I can go back to the original after this.

Hot 

Chocolate 

Rice 

Krispie 

Squares

That's right. You read that correctly. I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I can't. I found the recipe online one day when randomly searching. Someday I'll come up with something this amazing all on my own!

All you do is add 6 Tbsp. of hot chocolate to your melted butter and marshmallows. Just follow the regular rice krispie recipe. Another tip: Use cocoa rice krispies instead of the original. Once you add the rice krispies to your melted marshmallow mixture, mix in some more marshmallows, and once it's all smoothed out in the pan, gently press more marshmallow on top of your krispies.  

Now you can enjoy hot chocolate even on a hot day! 

Banana Split Cupcakes

Yum. That's all I can say about these. They weren't too sweet, and I actually felt kind of healthy eating them, and not like I was gorging myself on sugar. The recipe I used can be found here. A cupcake full of strawberries, pineapple, banana, chocolate chips, and wal-nuts? How can you go wrong. I think my favorite part is just adding the chocolate syrup after to make them look like little ice cream delights!

The only thing that I would change, is that I had used bananas that had been frozen. So my icing was a little runny, just because the banana was kind of watery. Next time, no frozen bananas! Then I'll be able to make the icing pile much higher like in the picture I posted previously! Enjoy!

Wow.

After posting so often for a short period of time, it seems weird that I haven't posted anything, but not to worry! The end of this month is full of more baking! I have my 4th Wedding cake, due for delivery on Good Friday, then Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes for Easter, and Cadbury mini-egg cookies, and hot chocolate rice krispie treats in the works! So more yumminess and drooling on the keyboard to come!

Oh, and I did get my banana split cupcakes made before the end of March! I am just awaiting pictures from my lovely photographer (she has 3 kids, so she's a tad busy!) As soon as I get them, I'll let you see and share the recipe! They were delicious! (I ate 2! Which is a big thing for me, since I rarely eat what I make. I enjoy giving it away more!)