Busy Birthday Weekend!

This weekend was filled with lots of birthday cakes and cupcakes, not enough time and some stress.  But all in all-the cakes and cupcakes came out great.  I let the pictures do the talking! I made cupcakes for my co-workers.  Which were gone by the end of the night, and not everyone got one!  So I will have to make some more- but they were a huge hit!

Here I am with my Aunt Lillian's Birthday cake- I have missed her birthday the past 4 years while at school, and so I was finally home to make her birthday cake.  She loves old movies, so I made a film spool and put her favorite movies on the film (Gone with the Wind, The Parent Trap, Casablanca and It's  Wonderful Life).

I've made this Minne Mouse cake once before, but this time around- I had SO much trouble with the fondant.  So I had to think on my feet and dye some new fondant and it finally came out great.  Below are my 2 cousins who were at the birthday party- they LOVED the cake!

Bake on!

FORE!!!!

As I have said many times before...(maybe not here,  but in person!)  Cakes make great gifts!  It's a great way to show someone you love just how much you care.  It gives them something delicious to enjoy and it can incorporate anything about them, their favorite color, pastime, hobby, band, sports team etc... You can say pretty much anything with a cake.

Well my best friend is away at graduate school, and missing her dad's big 60th birthday.  Soooo..since her family is my 2nd family- she asked me to make her dad a cake.  As an avid golfer, I searched to find him a great golf cake to make for his special day!  I settled on combing a putting green, water, and a sand trap.  I showed up at her house and delivered the cake a few minutes before her dad got home.  He saw me as he walked in, and was like "ahhh...I have a cake" he walked into the kitchen and this lovely cake (if I do say so myself) was sitting right there for him!  Happy Birthday Mr. D!!!

Next time you want something special...just think of a cake! and BAKE ON!

Baking Blunders

So I must admit, with all of my experience baking, I have made some mistakes and caused messes, burned myself and once almost blew up the microwave.  What good baker doesn't get her hands dirty, have a few burn marks and end up with flour everywhere?  At least that is my mentality!

I think the best story I have is how I tried to make Ice-Cream bon bons!  My best friend and I thought they would be a fun addition to our annual 4th of July BBQ.  Sounds great, right?  NOT.  We bought some ice-cream (chocolate-vanilla) and let it melt down a little so we could scoop it easier.  We made nice little ice-cream balls and let them re-freeze.  We then melted molding chocolate and butterscotch to cover the ice-cream balls with.  BAD IDEA!  I used a double boiler for the chocolate, and then decided to microwave the butterscotch.  Well...I left the metal spoon in the dish, then melted the butterscotch too much that it burned and ended up melting the microwavable bowl.  Disaster!  As my friend and I tried rolling the ice-cream balls in the melted chocolate, the ice-cream started to melt and they no longer stayed in shape.  Her and I ended up eating what was left of the chocolate and ice-cream and totally forfeited the idea of Ice-Cream bon bons!

Another great one...I was making an Angel Food Cake for my aunt (she's diabetic, and there is less sugar in Angel Food Cake).  Well, I made the mix and put it in a bundt pan..it was a little high but I figured it would NEVER bake over.  Well I placed it in the oven, set the timer and went on with my daily tasks.  Soon, I started smelling something funny.  Lo and behold, the cake baked over and spilled all over my mom's oven!  The batter burned on the bottom of the oven, I took it out and burned my hand and tried to salvage what was left of the batter.  Let's just say- I finished the cake and learned a hard lesson about how much batter to put into a pan!

Hopefully you can learn from my blunders- but stories like this make baking exciting!  And scars always make good stories!  Remember, BAKE ON!

CoOkIe CaKEs!!

I know I have spoken about how much I LOVE to bake cookies, especially cookies from scratch- but you know what is even better than individual cookies?  COOKIE CAKES!  And I am not talking about a generic large cookie, or a Ms. Fields cookie cake- I am talking about a really individualized, personalized, delish cookie cakes!

Customers always wonder how I make my cookie cakes, and they are actually quite simple!  What makes them unique is how I decorate them and how I really infuse personality into the decorations.  But step by step cookie cakes are a snap.  First, make your batter (or you can even press out pre-made cookie batter) into a shaped pan.  Whether you use a rectangle or circular cookie sheet, you can shape the cake however you like.  Just place all the batter in the middle and spread evenly throughout the sheet and then bake for the normal amount (anywhere from 12-15 minutes).  Next up- after it cools just decorate it as you please.  Feel free to check out my cakes, comment, or ask questions.

BAKE ON!

When you wish upon a star!

So a new trend in my cakes...DISNEY cakes!!!  I mean it all started when I made a Tinkerbell cake for my best friend Erica.  It was the first time I attempted to make a Disney character and actually make the face!  I used a mold for her face and then I just followed the contours of the mold to make her face.  I think the defining part of that cake was her hair.  I used a special tip that gave it a very textured feel, and more realistic (for yellow hair!)  Check it out below!

Also, since I just started the new doll cake phase I made yet another Disney Princess!  This time, I chose to do Cinderella.  I was debating between making her or Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and well...who does not love Cinderella's dress?  She came out beautiful!  I had some trouble with the ribbon detail along the bottom.  But I actually think the sweeping marks of the icing knife gave the dress some body and life!  It was a huge hit!  My co worker's niece goes "It's a doll?  and a cake?  I can keep the doll and eat it?!!"  She was ecstatic- which made it worth it all!  Always does.

That's all the Disney I have for now...up until a Hannah Montana cake coming up later this month!!  Stay posted!  and Bake ON!

Serving our country..one brownie at a time!

So my boyfriend just joined the Navy and while he spent 2 months in boot camp eating not the best of food, all I wanted to do was send a package with baked goods for him and his friends.  However, he was not able to receive packages- so for his graduation I made sure I brought him enough cookies and brownies to last him and his friends maybe maybe an hour. 

I went all out and created these miniature brownies that had peanut butter chips on the inside...but that wasn't the most creative part of the brownies!  I bought a stencil from Michael's with an anchor on it- and I then proceeded to use powdered sugar and stenciled anchors on the top of brownies for little sailor brownies!  They not only came out adorable, but they were delicious too!  A new trick I want to try is actually piping peanut butter into the center of the brownie for a softer center than the PB chips!

Now that he is out of boot camp and on base- I can send him food! Since I love brownies and I figured they would ship the easiest- I made regular brownies.  But since I was missing one of my key additives- I cut up dark chocolate Hershey's bars and tossed them into the mix- and OMG they came out amazing- my mouth was watering just smelling them!

Seeing that I am going out to visit him in 2 weekends, I want to bring some fresh goodies for him and his shpmates- I was thinking of making some peanut butter cookies with hershey kisses?  Or I was thinking going with simple chocolate chip cookies- classic, but everyone loves them!   We will see how much time I have next week- after packing and what not...maybe I will do both! 

Expect some more posts about the military- because I am going to start a service baking project for the troops! Keep an eye out!

 here are the sailor brownies!

here is my sailor!
BAKE ON!

It's Beauty and....Andi!

So this was the first year I have been home for my cousin's birthday!  So, of course I was recruited to make her cake.  Starting August 1st - Andi asked me if I was making her cake that day...I told her she had to wait until her actual birthday.

Well- yesterday I set to work on making her Belle cake.  It was going to be her beautiful yellow/golden ball gown with Belle inside!  I didn't tell her what I was making, but I could feel her excitement throughout the day when she would ask if her cake was ready!  I bought special/edible gold sparkles for the cake so that Belle could shimmer! 

I made the cake- and added a base so that there was enough room for the Belle doll to fit through...as I placed her in the center of the cake- I realized I had mis-judged the height!  The cake started to split!  AH!  So instead of panicking- I slowly removed the doll and iced the cake with a rough coat of yellow icing...this kept the cake together and formed a great base!  I then piped ribbon like icing around her dress and added the sparkles!  I slipped Belle into the cake and voila!  It came out awesome and Andi was ecstatic! 

She came running up to me and goes "Thank you for making my Belle cake, Vicky"- worth it every time!