Kaaren's Kakes

Portal 2 Cake

2011-12-31T12:02:00.001-05:00

My son turned 18 in December. Ugh. I am old.

Anyway, we decided that for his birthday party, we would make him a Portal 2 Cake. It's a really great video game that I cannot wrap my head around. When the family plays it together, I just watch as they shoot portals, gels., etc. to jump from place to place. It's really intricate and well-done.

The main character in single-player is Chell. I decided to make Chell the main part of the cake.

Those boots were a pain.

Then it was time to make fondant, bake cakes and put it all together.

In the rush of the holidays and work, etc. etc. I had exactly one night after work to make the fillings, icing, stack the cake, dirty ice it and put the fondant over it. Needless to say, I ran out of time. My icing did not have time to crust, I did not have time to put an extra layer of icing or even attempt a second fondant layer, and as usual, I got lumpy-looking fondant because the icing below was not totally set.

The cake is not a lie!

Christmas Cookies

2011-12-19T17:33:00.000-05:00

It's that time again! Time for cookies.

I was in Panama last week for work and before I left, I decided to make some cookies for co-workers there. They were surprised and loved them. I had one co-worker's spouse try to figure out how she could get 100 cookies made and shipped to her by 12/29! LOL Too expensive, freight-wise. Another co-worker's friend thought they were professionally made and was asked where she got them so she could buy some too. :)

Thanksgiving/Fall Cake

2011-11-25T07:49:00.001-05:00

We had a house-full of people come over. In all, we had 12 adults (counting my 17-yr. old), 4 kids and 2 babies. We had a lot of prepping and cleaning to do, and I really thought I would not decorate a cake this time, but when I was icing my carrot cake, I decided to quickly decorate with the extra cream cheese icing I had. I found a design on Cake Central that was pretty simple.

PS. Never let your carrot-cake addicted sisters near a carrot cake.

I'm Here! With Coin Cookies

2011-10-17T23:27:00.000-04:00

If I told you all the things I've been up to, you would not believe me. Suffice it to say, from end of July to September, I was on 16 different airplanes, the computer died, we had all 3 of our cars break down or give us problems in the same week and had other various things occur.

The cake-making has been waylaid. Big time.

My son has been rehearsing for his school's production of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" for several weeks. Last week, Wednesday through Friday, were the performance evenings. Jacob played Hamlet. If you don't know about the play, Google or Wiki it. I, for one, love it, but I'm a literature freak and love Shakespeare, so I get "R&G are Dead."

I wanted to make something special for all the kids involved in the play, whether it be on or off stage. I decided to make cookies. In the play, they play with coins a lot. So, I made them one large coin cookie on a stick, and two smaller cookies depicting the Comedy and Tragedy masks.

Then last week happened and I ran out of time. I was decorating until midnight and 1 a.m. on two nights, and got off early on Friday so I could put the cookies all together for them. The mask cookies looked like a 5th grader made them; they were horrible. I was pretty proud of my coin cookies though.

Yummy Carrot Cake

2011-08-12T18:47:00.002-04:00

Hi all,

We have been traveling and now our computer is dead! Bummer!!

Using a borrowed laptop, I want to quickly show you the carrot cake I made to take down to my sister's house in July, to meet my new niece Ava.

I wasn't going to do anything special, until my son saw the basket weave instruction sheet from back when I took classes and he mentioned how he did not understand it. I took the cake and started a row, just to show him, and then just kept going. It looks really bad, and the side hit the side of the box on the drive down, but let me tell you, I make a MEAN carrot cake. My husband overheard someone say, when I was not around, "This is the best carrot cake I've ever had. Wow. Better than TooJay's!"

It says "Somebunny loves Ava"

We love you Ava! I can't WAIT to make your first birthday cake!!

Harry Potter Cupcakes

2011-07-10T09:30:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to make something Harry Potter style with my cakes, I just did not know what I wanted to do. I had extra fondant but not enough to do an entire sculpted cake and I didn't really want to make more fondant (i.e. lazy). What to do, what to do.

I went on Cake Central and found these ADORABLE Harry Potter cupcakes made by CC Member Rcajd. These are totally his/her creations I copied.

My nieces and nephew are visiting with their parents here at our home for several days. The girls, with my daughter, helped make these fun cupcakes.

They're all gone, by the way. Except Hermione. Not sure why they haven't eaten that one yet. :)

Super-Dads

2011-06-21T18:59:00.000-04:00

I hope all you Super dads had a great Father's Day.

We had a great one!

Chic Baby Shower

2011-05-03T20:12:00.001-04:00

Time for the baby shower cake! Remember I made little baby molds, then the buttercream transfer girl, then the gumpaste girl? That was all in preparation for my sister Vicky's baby shower cake.

Almond butter cakes atop carrot cakes.

Cream cheese icing over the carrot cake, decorated with chocolate MMF.

Fondant-covered almond butter cakes on top.

I made different colored stripes with MMF. I practiced these cute little rosettes too.

The final product, including some of the cupcakes I made.

50th Birthday Cake

2011-04-19T19:51:00.002-04:00

My son's aunt (his dad's sister; my ex-sister-in-law. I hate calling her an "ex" because my ex's family is wonderful. I love them and they love us right back) turned 50 this week. Unbeknowst to her, her father (Jake's grandpa) was planning a surprise 50th birthday party. He and my two other ex-s-i-l's called me 3 weeks ago and asked if I would make the cake. Of course!

I Googled pictures and found a cute design by the famous Pink Cake Box bakery that I decided to copy.

Three weeks early, I worked in the gum paste items that needed to dry and harden ahead of time.

(My sister & son both asked "Why does it say 'So?'" LOL)

The Friday before the party, I took a vacation day and got to work. I had baked the cakes Wednesday and Thursday nights. Now it was time to put everything together.

I rolled over 100 fondant balls.

The top cake above, was a carrot cake covered
in homemade marshmallow fondant.

The bottom cake was almond butter cake with buttercream, and fondant accents. What you see above are spaghetti sticks propping up the bow while it dried on to the ribbon on the cake. I pulled the spaghetti sticks out at the party.

I really liked how the topper came out.

Then, the problems.

I did not dowel the bottom cake enough. Carrot cake is definitely a denser cake than the butter cake. I only put about 5 dowels in the bottom cake, and more towards the center, not nearer to the edges. As time went on, we got droopage.

I was so bummed, but what could I do now? Nothing. Just learn for next time. The bottom should have been the carrot cake, or I should have used more dowels.

You can see the drooping already.

The party was great. The birthday gal was totally surprised, and everyone raved about the cake, droop and all.

The Aftermath!

Gumpaste Cut-Out; The Baby Shower Cake

2011-04-02T10:34:00.000-04:00

After I made the frozen butter cream transfer of my sister's invitation, she and I talked about it. In order for that exact-sized design to fit on the top of a cake, the cake would have to be baked in a 10" pan. Since that would be the top level, and she wants a two-tier cake, the bottom tier would have to be 12". We both agreed that would be too much cake for the small party. I could try to make the woman smaller, but it was a lot of work and I had another idea; make the girl out of gumpaste. She would be 2D, not 3D.

I copied the invitation on to wax paper to use as my template.

Working with the X-Acto knife. It was like putting a puzzle together.

Ta da!

The only things missing are one earring (it fell off and I need to reattach it) and the gold chain of her purse, which will be done at a later date, closer to the shower, in yellow royal icing.

I will someone stand her up on the cake. I am thinking of attaching a skewer to the back of her with gumpaste so it can dry securely, then I can insert the skewer into the cake.

The party is April 30, so I will post the completed pictures right after the party weekend.

Little Big Planet Cake

2011-03-27T17:38:00.000-04:00

For my daughter's 7th birthday, I created a Little Big Planet cake, per her request. The pieces were made way in advance. The actual cake was made in a mad rush! I did not count on there being a banquet for my son's Academic Team on the same night as I was to decorate the cake.

Below are some of the items I created based off the game and the Strategy guides we own.

One of my favorites with regard to how it came out.

I also created a Sack Boy. I love how he turned out.

I baked a round Wilton Ball Pan chocolate cake and covered it in fondant.

I then added some random green "land mass" shapes, added all the little round discs I created and added the little Sack Boy to the top.

Cute!

Next, I iced two each 10" almond butter cakes. This was where the rush came in. It was 10 p.m. and I was still making butter cream. That plus my icing skills stinking and you have a not-so-much smooth finish.

I piped a shell border, added some lettering and decorated some cupcakes (I had extra batter) and voila!

Frozen Butter Cream Transfer: The baby shower invitation

2011-03-19T15:36:00.001-04:00

I am making my sister's baby shower cake. She showed me the invitation and I decided to try a frozen butter cream transfer (FBCT) just to see if I could. I have only tried it the one time, and it was a goopy mess. I was much more successful this time.

This is the invitation I am copying.

If you want the image to be exact, you actually need to create a mirror image (kind of like I do when I am carving a stamp.) If there are words, you definitely need to do a mirror image. As there were no words, I decided to just leave it as-is. The cake image will have the girl on the other side.

Take some wax paper, outline it in black or brown. I chose brown because eventually, the cake this will go in will have chocolate frosting, and the brown will blend right in.

After the outline, you have to do some logistical icing. Things in the foreground (the lips, the sunglasses, the spots on the purse, the buckles on the shoes) have to be done first. I was very unorganized and kept getting up to get more and more piping bags.

Eventually, you'll have something that looks like this:

Yes, it's ugly. Notice you can't see her eyes, the spots on the purse, etc. That's because what you are looking at above is what will go on the cake. This is what will be stuck to the cake itself.

What you don't see until I pick up the wax paper is this:

This is what will show once you freeze it, place it on the cake and peel the wax off. It would look better if I have covered the whole thing is chocolate frosting, to match the cake. The frosting would have "squished" or settled everything nicely, and it would match the cake it is going on.

You get the idea, yes?

I'm going to make the crib with the flowers too and just hand-pipe the mobile. On the crib I will hand-pipe the cake's message.

I bet Buddy doesn't have to clean his *own* mess.

Oh Baby, Take 2

2011-03-15T20:34:00.000-04:00

Take 2 was a little better. Love this mold!

Oh Baby, Take 1

2011-03-07T21:45:00.000-05:00

One of my younger sisters is pregnant. It is a thing of wonder. Pigs are flying, hell's looking for ear muffs.

I purchased an awesome baby mold from Global Sugar Art. I want to make my sister something special. Don't worry. She doesn't read any of my blogs. Loser.

The Mold and Baby Take 1

You take gum paste, color it whatever skin tone you'd like, and place it in the mold. Put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes, take it out and peel it out of the mold.

I had to let it "sweat" for a couple of hours. Condensation makes it tacky to the touch. Unfortunately, I realized too late that I did not have the correct color petal/luster dust. Grrr. I decided to try thinned down gel colors. Bad idea. It made the gum paste tacky and looked bad.

The colors leaked and then I grabbed the wrong brush and brushed brown down her face. DOH! I gave the baby a rose for her hair, a ruffle diaper cover and made her some roller skates (this sister is on a roller derby team).

Well, this is why I practice!

On to take # 2!

Down the Rabbit Hole (Alice in Wonderland Cake)

2011-02-06T09:57:00.000-05:00

Red Velvet cake with cream cheese icing. Fondant & Gum paste accents.

This looks like a scene from a horror flick. Setting the pieces to dry overnight.

Carrot cake with cream cheese icing, covered in fondant.

Cake Monster!

Down the Rabbit Hole

"Off with their heads!"

The End. :)

Congratulations Eagle Scouts

2011-01-23T10:36:00.000-05:00

Congratulations Danny, Kyle, Zach & Josh on attaining the highest scouting achievement.

Eagle Cake Level 3

2011-01-22T08:53:00.001-05:00

Two 11x15 butter cakes.

The cakes are iced and I'm starting to put in the dowels.

I made the mistake of leaving wax paper underneath the cake. I never do this. It took David and me several minutes to get this paper off the bottom of the cake.

Here come the red fondant stripes.

The cakes are stacked and the blue butter cream border is added.

TA-DA!!

I am SO proud of this cake! Delivering it is going to be FUN (she says sarcastically.) There are about 48 cupcakes to deliver too. I will post more pictures of the Eagle Ceremony later.

Eagle Cake Level 2

2011-01-21T17:39:00.000-05:00

The top of the Eagle Cake is actually not a cake. It's the rice krispie eagle head. The middle tier is two 10" x 10" chocolate cakes with chocolate frosting, covered in homemade marshmallow fondant.

Isabel and I placed the white stars on the cake.

Then I decided to put the eagle on top, to see how it would look. Nice!

Next up will be the third/bottom section of the cake; 2 ea. 11x15 yellow sheet cakes.

Cupcakes and Icing

2011-01-20T13:50:00.001-05:00

The cake I am making for the Scouts does not leave any room for the boys' names, so I decided to bake two dozen cupcakes, put the boys' names on them and place them around the main cake. I purchased a Wilton tip # 1M (really large tip for cupcakes) and I love it. I piped 9 of the cupcakes with this really cute swirly pattern.

The other 15 were needed for the letters of the names. For these cupcakes, I decided to use the technique I used when making Isabel's Hello Kitty cupcakes last year.

Melt some frosting in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. Stir. Dip your cupcake
upside down in the icing.

Allow for the extra frosting to run off a bit.

Leave them be to dry for a bit. Ta Da!

I love the "ganache" look to them. While they dried, I started making the fondant letters for the names.

After placing them on the cupcakes, I used a bit of water on a paint brush to brush away the cornstarch I used to prevent the fondant from sticking to the letter cutters. These will be placed around the cake, with the other cupcakes in between.

Eagle Cake Topper

2011-01-18T22:28:00.001-05:00

Well, it's time to make the real Eagle Scout cake for four Scouts in Troop 196 getting their Eagle Award. I made the practice one back in November.

Homemade Rice Krispie treats.

Covered in homemade MMF, that my sister and I colored with food color gels.

He looks mighty mean

The rest of the cake will be baked and assembled later this week. I'll post updates as I go.

UPDATE: Level Two, Level Three, Day of Ceremony.

Cookies for Cousins

2010-12-25T11:03:00.006-05:00

Tis the season for cookies. Two of my sisters and their families are coming over for Christmas day dinner. I said "NO PRESENTS!" and they agreed. I did tell them I would make the kids some Christmas cookies.

My beautiful gal helps flood the cookies.

Merry Christmas Everyone, and God Bless Us All!

Cookies for Teacher

2010-12-15T21:11:00.003-05:00

Our daughter's teacher is new. Wet-behind-the-ears, just-graduated new. So young. Man, I am getting old.

Isabel thinks he's super. For Christmas, we decided to make him a cookie bouquet for his first-ever year of teaching.

She made him a card too.

Hope he likes them!

The Eagle Has Landed

2010-11-16T18:31:00.004-05:00

I've been asked to make an Eagle Scout cake for a friend's son and other Scouts all getting their Eagle Scout Award in January. This is Jacob's old Pack and Troop before we moved away 4 years ago.

After showing them a few cakes I could possibly make, we narrowed the field down to two. One of them involved two square cakes and an Eagle on the top made (see the cake made by Cake Central Member klbright here) of rice krispie treats (aka RKT.) I figured there's no time like the present to practice that Eagle. The bottom two cakes would be a breeze.

Here we go.

Look, it's GONZO!

Gonzo was covered in brown and white homemade marshmallow fondant. Then my daughter and I made the individual feathers using leaf cutters and a cutting tool.

Isabel draws the "mouth" with a food color pen.

Here Isabel uses the tool to striate the cutouts, making them look like feathers rather than leaves.

He's kind-of squat. This was using only one batch of rice krispies. I will most likely use two, to make him taller and thinner.

I tried working with luster powder, but it kind-of failed. He just looks like someone punched his eye. Tee hee. This is why I practice.

Bye Bye Gonzo. Om nom nom!

1969 Wilton Cake Decorating

2010-11-09T17:48:00.007-05:00

Ah, 1969. A good year. :) I volunteer at the local library's book store. It's a great place to find books for CHEAP prices (10 cents up to $3) that you don't have to return or worry about late fines.

Cleaning books, pricing and shelving them is fun, especially when we get first dibs on the books we're processing. Imagine my surprise when this passes through my hands.

"Modern Cake Decorating," by Wilton; 6th Edition published in 1969. The cover's not the greatest, but the book itself is in great shape.

I LOVE looking at it. Some of the designs are so dated they make me laugh aloud, but for the most part, a lot of the tricks and lessons are the same 41 years later.

Today, we're mortified is we can't get a super-smooth finish on cakes. Check these ones below out.

Hee hee!

The also show some neat borders and designs I've never seen before.

There's the rose.

There's a detailed section on making figures with royal icing.

My son saw this and begged me to find the pans and legs, etc. Yes, they are available on E-bay. No, I will not be paying $50-$85 for it, but it's pretty awesome, no?

Here is another display of making figures with royal icing.

I am excited about owning this book. Total cost?

$1.00

I love the library book store.

Happy Halloween Jack!

2010-10-29T18:28:00.004-04:00

Cat got your tongue?...and lips?

Much Better!

Just a quick (tall!) cake for the kids for Halloween.

Have fun and be safe this weekend!

My Sister's Cake, Wedding Day

2010-10-12T20:00:00.005-04:00

Congratulations to my sister

Brenda and my brother-in-law Freddy!

Hello!

My Sister's Cake, Day 2 & 3

2010-10-08T16:58:00.007-04:00

Day 2, Wednesday, was pretty much the same as day 1. The same exact recipe, the same exact pans. Oh, I made strawberry filling.

Day 3 was not Thursday. On Thursday we spent the day at Island's of Adventure with friends. Day 3 was Friday. I baked two 10"x3" chocolate cakes. I also made three batches of butter cream icing and one batch of peanut butter icing.

I torted and filled the two 12" cakes with the strawberry filling, stacked them together and crumb-coated (dirty iced) them.

I also stacked and covered the chocolate cakes in peanut butter frosting, and stacked and covered the 8" cakes in butter cream frosting.

That night, my sister Brenda and our friend Heather came over to help finish decorating the cakes with the fondant I made this week, and the gumpaste flowers we had all 3 made in August.

Heather

This is the 12" cakes already on the cake board with butter cream shells on the border and wood dowels inside to support the top tiers. I will be taking the cakes over to the reception hall, two hours away and assembling them there. Wish us luck!

My Sister's Cake, Day 1

2010-10-05T22:52:00.003-04:00

This cake, my sister's design, will be huge. The bottom tier is two 12"x3" almond butter cakes, each torted (is that a word?) and filled with strawberries, and then covered in buttercream icing.

The middle tier, two 10"x3" cakes, will be chocolate with peanut butter frosting.

The top tier, two 8"x3"cakes, will be the same as the bottom tier.

That's a lot of flippin' cake.

The pan for the bottom tier holds about 12 cups of batter. This meant my doubling my normal recipe and I ended up using 10 eggs, 6 sticks of butter, 5 cups of sugar, 6 cups of flour, vanilla and almond extracts, baking powder, salt and milk. For. One. Cake. Which I have to do again tomorrow.

I did have enough batter to make one of the 8" top layer cakes. Not as tall as normal, but I might be able to make do without creating yet another batch (after the second batch tomorrow.)

I need to empty the fridge, or borrow someone's. Holy Moly.

Gifts and Carrots

2010-09-22T20:44:00.006-04:00

As I was driving home yesterday from Wal-Mart, I drove by my front door. I hardly ever do this. My garage is on the side of the house on another street. I see my front door maybe once a week. As I drive by, I see a box there. Oooh, a box! Wait, a box? It can't be my Gymboree order; it's only been one day. A box? My birthday *is* Friday. Oooh, present!!

After unloading the groceries, I race to the front door. The box came FedEx and I recognize the last name. She's a fellow letterboxer. Wait, did I miss a memo? Why is she sending me something? Did I sign up for something? Did I forget to send something to someone? Color me confused.

I opened the box, read the note and squealed. She sent me this because she was helping pack up a house and she knew I would use it. She wanted to make sure the belongings she was packing up found a good home.

OOOOOH! AHHHHH! It is so pretty. And HEAVY! And Pretty!

What a wonderful gift! This definitely will get used. As a matter of fact, one sister asked how large it was. I have a feeling Sis wanted to see if the wedding cake I was making for her would fit. :) (Sorry, B. Your cake is ginormous.)

I was *just* thinking, as I was driving home yesterday, that I had carrots I needed to use up (I hate food going to waste.) Tonight, I made a carrot cake (my favorite) and used the pretty stand.

THANK YOU, AMANDA (from Seattle)!!!

Wicked

2010-09-09T22:25:00.004-04:00

As you know, or not, I am a fan of both the book and the musical "Wicked." I saw the show twice in Jacksonville last year and was smitten.

It's been, what, two weeks since I baked a cake? Ha! Lord. Anyway, I decided I wanted to make a Wicked cake.

I printed the musical's logo/poster and then traced it on to wax paper. I spread out my various colored fondant and used the wax paper as my guide, as I poked trough the way, on to the fondant. Then with that little knife below, I carved out the designs.

I baked a chocolate cake and frosted it with a peanut butter frosting. Mmmmmm!

The entire cake was covered in marshmallow fondant that I made myself and colored green. I didn't take a picture of that; wish I had. Then I started placing and fitting all the fondant pieces I had cut out, like a puzzle.

Elphaba's nose and lips were done with food coloring pens and red edible glitter for the lips. Glinda's eyes were hand-drawn with edible food color markers too.

Ta Da!

I also used leftover green and black to put a little decorative touch to the bottom of the cake. (i.e. hide the faults.) :)

Wedding Cake Redux

2010-08-22T09:04:00.005-04:00

Remember that post where I said I would not do a wedding cake? Right. Well, immediately after that post, my older sister calls and asks me if I would be available to do a wedding cake in October. I told her no, that I was sorry but I was not comfortable making a wedding cake for anyone and to say sorry to whoever had asked her to ask me. She then said "No silly, for ME."

She getting married on 10/10/10.

AAAAAAAAAAACCCCCKKKKKKKKK!

I agreed but told her not to be mad if I mess it up. She poo-poo'd the idea of me messing it up.

This weekend, she and our friend Heather came up to help with making gumpaste flowers for her cake (hence the roses from the previous post.) The roses were actually the hardest thing, because she chose very simple 1-D flowers.

We made a practice mini-cake while they were here. The one she wants will be three layers, taller (more cakes stacked atop each other per level) and hopefully not as crappy.

I look pretty exhausted. (We had a full day of going to the cake supply store down in Orlando, then Michael's, then lunch, then drive back and go to Wal-Mart to grocery shop, to then bake a cake, clean the cake mess, prepare mini-meatloaves and mashed potatoes, then clean up the dinner mess, then start decorating the cake. )

Our friend Heather.

Then, of course, we ate. :)

Roses

2010-08-21T22:22:00.001-04:00

I made some gumpaste roses this Friday night.

Weekend Quick Kakes

2010-08-08T09:22:00.002-04:00

On Friday, we had dinner with my husband's immediate family (parents, 3 siblings/spouses/nieces/nephews, paternal grandma) and I brought along those Mexican-themed gum paste pieces I made.

Since a cheesecake was requested by the birthday boy, my M-I-L made her recipe and we just stuck the pieces on the cake.

There was also a request for a strawberry cake by the birthday gal. Since I was traveling and had the Maine Cookies to make, I declined making one beforehand. They had purchased the strawberry Pillsbury boxed cake and frosting. You will remember I tried it once and was not a fan. TOO SWEET, too runny.

I went ahead and baked them, stacked them after putting fresh strawberries and icing in the middle, and iced them. The bottom ribbon decor was done with a plastic baggy and an old tip my M-I-L found in one of her drawers. It was rough using the super-runny icing, but for a boxed cake, it came out OK.

Cookies for Maine's Nautical Past event

2010-08-02T19:24:00.001-04:00

I volunteered a cookie bouquet as a raffle item for a letterboxing event: Maine's Nautical Past, coming up this weekend.

I better hurry up and get these mailed! Not all are going. Some of the "mistakes" are staying right here at home. :)

(clicky-clicky makes the pictures bigger-er)

That crazy nation one with white blobs went right into David's stomach, while the anchor with the brown poo (supposed to be a rope, but it melted) was promptly eaten by yours truly.

Here's the bucket I decorated for it.

I won't mail it like this, obviously. I'm mailing it all separate and PRAYING it all arrives in one piece!

Olé!!

2010-07-31T16:25:00.004-04:00

Hello, I'm still around, just haven't made anything exciting. Well, I did make a coconut cake for a visit to one my sister's house. It was tasty but the icing was too buttery. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Last night, I made some gum paste toppers for a cheesecake my M.I.L. will be making. We're having a Mexican-Themed party and these are for the birthday person's cheesecake. Olé!

Tonight, I have to start on a cookie bouquet for a raffle. I donated my skillzzzzzz! :) I'll post that within the next 2-3 days when I am done.

Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-04T10:13:00.000-04:00

Will You Do My Wedding Cake?

2010-06-21T21:39:00.000-04:00

I've been asked that question twice already. It scares me to death. The first time I answered yes, to a friend of a co-worker of my husband. Then the co-worker got fired two days later and I never heard from "friend of the co-worker" again. Phew! Cool.

The second time, I told my friend "No."

How can I possibly make a cake for THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF YOUR LIFE?!?

The thought gives me hives.

Between driving and work, I am away from home 10 hours a day. By the time I get home, I have to worry about dinner, dishes, making sure the laundry gets done, the kids take their baths, etc. etc.

When I bake a cake for someone, I'm not sure they understand the sacrifice of my time and sleep. I do it for the fun and practice, but it takes a toll. I only have one oven and one fridge. Most cakes you see out & about that are really tall are two or three cakes stacked together per level. For instance, the graduation cake was 3-levels; 12", 8" and a ball pan. The 12" level consisted of two 12" cakes. I own one 12" pan. A 12 inch x 3" cake takes over an hour and ten to an hour and thirty minutes, for the one large cake. I had to do that twice. In the meantime, the middle layer is 8" x 3". I have two 8" x 3" pans, BUT the baking temp and times are different from the 12" pan, so I can't bake them together. Same with the ball pan.

Having one oven limits the amount of cakes I can bake at a time. Having a full-time job limits the amount of time I have in a day to bake. Then, there's the fridge. For the graduation cake, I was throwing away leftovers in order to fit 5 cakes in there.

I wish I had room to bake and freeze cakes for later use. I don't, and the thought of making a cake and having it FAIL or FALL and my not having any back-up cakes freaks me out to no end.

So, until the day comes that I can have a stockpile of cakes, butter cream and fondant at the ready, plus lots and lots and lots of practice...I'm not making that wedding cake.

Finishing the Graduation Cake

2010-06-05T21:09:00.009-04:00

I love (not really) how I panic RIGHT before finishing a cake. "It's going to look bad." "It'll taste horrible." It happens each and every time. I'm a nut.

Here's the mortar board I made. Fondant-covered cardboard.

There are the 12" x 3" cakes I baked. I'm torting and filling at this stage.

Here are the 12" cakes, stacked and crumb-coated.

This is the small ball pan cake, covered in buttercream

The same ball pan, covered in black fondant, with the mortar board on top and gum paste numbers.

The bottom cake is actually two 8" carrot cakes iced and stacked on top of each other. The 12" cakes were in the fridge waiting to have fondant added to them

Here are the 12" cakes, covered in marbled purple mmf.

TA DAAAAA! The cake was a hit. Rachel kept saying "It's perfect," even when I wasn't within her view.

Congratulations Rachel!!

Graduation Gal w/Cap

2010-05-29T12:37:00.004-04:00

Gumpaste Graduation Gal

2010-05-27T18:41:00.005-04:00

My ex-sister-in-law Denise invited us (my husband David, too) to her daughter Rachel's graduation dinner party. Rachel is Jacob's first cousin on his dad's side; Denise is my ex-husband's sister. My ex-in-laws are all really terrific. I said yes, and after I hung up, I sent Denise a text message: "Want me to make the cake," to which she replied "YES!!!!"

I have the cake idea in mind (Thanks to Cakecentral.com, of course) and I started to make the gumpaste accents early so they would harden in time. One of the things that will be on the cake is a mini-Rachel in her cap and gown.

I started with the torso. I made the blouse and added some decoration to them collar.

Next up, I made the legs. She'll be kneeling.

Her school colors are purple and gold, and her cap and gown will be purple.

Time for the face. Hi Rachel!

Notice the hands holding the diploma.

"Rachel" was left to dry a couple of days, and then I got.....dum dum dum, a clay extruder! You can find them at Michael's or buy them on-line at Amazon.

So, why'd I get one?

TA DA!!! HAIR! I LOVE IT!!!

Next up will be placing her cap on her head, and then on to making and decorating the cakes. The party's not for over a week & 2 days, and I am so excited!

Practice that Buttercream

2010-05-16T22:33:00.002-04:00

I took cake classes in order to actually work with buttercream. Everyone now wants to to fondant, but I wanted to get the buttercream technique down. Unfortunately, the class was not what I had hoped. For Course # 1, the teacher didn't have us bring practice cakes in at all until the last of 4 classes. Other people I know who took the course had to bring a cake each week. Ours did not. He said it was a waste of our time. I disagree. He also was very clique-y with some women he knew who were taking the class, and I was disappointed with Course 1. THEN he says Wilton was changing their classes and there would be no Course 2. We skipped to course 3. So still no buttercream work. I almost want to take the classes again (he's moved on and is not teaching anymore.)

I have a hate/hate relationship with buttercream. I scour the Internet, I read, watch YouTube videos, change up my buttercream recipes over and over, and I still can't make a nice, smooth cake (which is probably why I have yet to attempt a wedding cake. if I can't make it perfectly smooth, what's the point?)

I purchased some $2 angel food loaves from Walmart to practice on. The first time, I tried making the buttercream as smooth as possible. You can blow up the pictures to see. I can't get the edges right and it's frustrating.

I decided to practice roses while I was at it, but my buttercream was to soft and the petals kept rippling.

Tonight I took the second Walmart angel food cake out of the freezer to try a different buttercream recipe I found on-line.

After smoothing it as best I could, I hand-piped Jessie from Toy Story on it. I am proud of my Jessie, just cause I drew it by hand. :)

The icing is still not smooth. I don't know if I should KEEP piling more on, or what. I am so over buttercream.

Someone help!

This was the end product. The wording was not anything I would do for anyone else, I was messing around, filling space on the cake. Isabel ADORED it.

Pottery Party Cake

2010-05-02T12:45:00.005-04:00

A friend was throwing a surprise birthday party for his wife at a pottery painting place, and he asked if I would make the cake. I decided on a cake about pottery painting. :)

This is a carrot cake with chocolate cream cheese icing. All the items on here are edible. I made the cup, the cat, the tile and the plate. My sister Brenda made the paint brushes and the paint pallet. As added cuteness, I drew the family on the tile and Brenda engraved their 4 kids' names on 4 of the paint brushes.

I'm not too concerned with the icing; it's supposed to look like a table. It could have been smoother but I was frosting this at 10 p.m. on Friday after work and I was pooped.

The birthday momma was surprised! and everyone enjoyed the cake.

Ponyo Cake

2010-04-26T10:34:00.005-04:00

If you haven't heard of Hayao Miyazaki, get on board with us. We're discovering him and Studio Ghibli too.

The movies he's done for Studio Ghibli include:

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Castle in the Sky
My Neighbor Totoro (seen it)
Kiki's Delivery Service (seen it)
Porco Rosso
Princess Mononoke (seen it)
Spirited Away (seen it, own it)
Howl's Moving Castle
Ponyo (on the Cliff by the Sea) (seen it, own it)

I can't embed the English-dubbed "Ponyo" trailer; Disney owns the rights to the English-version, but here it is so you can see it on their site: Ponyo Trailer.

Such a cute film. HAM!! (we yell that a lot. If you've seen the movie, you know why.)

We wanted to make a Miyazaki-themed cake. We started with "Our Neighbor Totoro," but after thinking it over, and buying "Ponyo," we changed our mind. Here is the picture we based the cake off of.

I baked two 6x3 cakes and stacked them. I carved them down a bit to try to get a tapered pail look. I made homemade fondant and colored it green. I iced the cakes and covered them with the green fondant.

Side bar: I am not happy with the MMF recently. I have a love/hate relationship with it. For some cakes it is great; mainly flat ones. But when covering a shaped cake, it is just too thin and looks bumpy. I don't know if it is Florida Humidity doing the deed, but I am not happy with it.

The rim that would hold the water ended up being Rice Krispee Treats, molded into a rim and covered in green fondant.

While all that was going on, my big sis Brenda colored and shaped the gumpaste Ponyo.

I created blue Jell-O, boom, bam,

Ponyo Cake.

We can't stand the cuteness!!

Baby Shower Cookies

2010-04-20T22:16:00.002-04:00

Prepare for cuteness! There were made by my sister Brenda (she did all the faces) and I for our sister Lissette's baby shower this past weekend.

Sweeeet!

Moose in Boxers, a Pain in the Butt and a Prince Fan

2010-04-10T20:41:00.004-04:00

Where, oh where, did we ever come up with these ideas? *grin*

I was making cookies for an out-of-state co-worker who kept asking (over and over) when he was getting cookies. He's a avid hunter, and I had Moose cutters. Not that moose are hunted, are they?? I wanted to use my moose cutter, ok?

My sister and I worked on the cookies. She made three ginormous ones, so the batch you see is rather small.

This is for the hunter co-worker.

I was making the moose cookies, and I remembered a "special" moose, who has a thing for boxers, so I decided to add some boxers to this batch. My co-worker will have no idea why the moose are wearing boxers, but it makes me grin.

While I was making the above cookies, my sister decided to make some cookies herself.

My sister is staying with us to help in my son's recuperation from surgery. She made this LARGE cookie. It is about 6-7 inches long. The lips are another cookie placed on top of the butt. My son thought it was funny.

She also decorated a cookie for Isabel and another one for David and me.

She is also a huge Prince fan. Huge. She hand-crafted the dough for the Prince symbol cookie and used my ginormous bear cutter for the bear one. These cookies are 6-8 inches long.

Cinderelly, Cinderelly

2010-03-28T13:56:00.006-04:00

"Cinderelly, Cinderelly, night and day it's Cinderelly!" I had an idea for a cake, and when my sister came up for a visit, the idea changed into something else. We were on Cake Central, "ooooohing" over this picture and decided to try it.

My sister Brenda took charge of making the mice, while I

took charge of baking the cakes, stacking them, coloring the fondant and covering the cakes and doll torso pick.

I *love* how she made the teeth!

Can she be ANY SWEETER?!?

Brenda made the pin cushion while I made the buttons and beads.

I made the bird on the dress. There was a second bird, but it was too big and too heavy to fit.

Isabel loved it.

Here it is. Lumpy, I know. I really don't know what's up with me and the lumpies. But we like it!!

Wedding Cookies

2010-03-22T21:51:00.002-04:00

How did I forget to post these? These are older than the bikini and Spongebob cookies. Next time I make these, the tuxes will be white with black outlines. Nothing says "yuck" like black teeth and tongues, as well as the acrid taste of black food coloring.

Bikini Cookies

2010-03-17T22:06:00.003-04:00

Because I can, that's why. Just something funny I made for my sister Vicky. I got the idea from Cake Central.

Spongebob Cookies

2010-03-13T10:13:00.005-05:00

These were very labor-intensive. Lots of colors to mix and flood. I had to do everything by hand, so they're a bit wobbly. I made these as a surprise for a friend.

I'm not sure, after all the work, that I'd like to make these again. They take so long. But they are cute, no?

Birthday Cakes - Hello Kitty style

2010-03-06T18:21:00.004-05:00

Yes, we are on a Hello Kitty kick. First the cookies, then the cupcakes for school and now, the birthday cakes.

I was too busy and too rushed to get pictures as they were being made. I lost a day (long story) to a dress rehearsal Jake had to go to Friday night (the party was Saturday), so my baking schedule got kicked into overdrive.

Here are the final pictures of the two cakes I made for her party. Why two? She wanted carrot cake and I was not sure if everyone invited was a fan of carrot cake, so I made a butter cake as well.

I hadn't put the inscription on the cake yet.

On the left, we have the carrot cake with cream cheese icing. On the right, an almond butter cake, with butter cream icing, covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and gum paste accents.

Birthday Hello Kitty Cupcakes

2010-03-01T06:30:00.002-05:00

Happy 6th Birthday to my wonderful angel-muffin.

I decided to make Hello Kitty cupcakes for her class. Her birthday is today, Monday March 1 and she will be in school most of the day. I opted for boxed cake mix because it is quick and easy. I also opted for premade frosting as well, so I could try a new trick I learned off the internet.

I took the icing, tinted it pink, and microwaved it for 5 seconds, took it out stirred it and microwaved it another 5 seconds. This made the premade icing very runny. We took the cupcakes and bobbed them up and down in the icing (see Isabel below.)

We then set them on wax paper to set. Look how pretty they look and how smooth.

We then used royal icing to outline some Hello Kitty head shapes onto the icing. Do not use the thinner "flooding" consistency to fill or flood them in; too runny. We used the same icing we used for the outlines to fill them in.

After they dried, I used some black royal icing to make the eyes and whiskers. The nose and bows were made using Food Color pens.

Voila! Hello Kitty Cupcakes.

UPDATE: We are not allowed to bring home baked goods to school.

What a sad, sad world.

My co-workers and family will have to enjoy these labors of love my daughter and I made. We ended up buying premade ones from Wal-mart. :(

Words Fail (a Cake Wreck)

2010-02-25T18:11:00.006-05:00

I am by no means professional. I was pretty much self-taught until I took two Wilton classes last fall. I've only made silly/cutesy cakes. I wanted to try something new and classy.

I also decided to try a new recipe at the same time as being new and exciting with the decorating.

I am an idiot.

The cake itself was very tasty. I got this recipe from Cake Central. It was like eating a soft Oreo. The problem was they all broke coming out of the pans. All 4. In the soft cake, I placed a strawberry filling. Then I decided to try a new icing recipe; chocolate ganash. So, new cake, filled with strawberry, & new icing.

All is well, sort of, until I try to ice it with buttercream. The broken parts broke even further. The cakes were leaning. The home made fondant was sticking, the ganache was oozing from under the fondant. ARGH!!!!

I gave up.

I didn't want red icing. I wanted a red ribbon, but the ganache made it impossible.

It's also "bowl-shaped because there was no way to carve this cake level. It tore.

Words failed me. Oh wait. They didn't.

If at first you don't succeed...

pitch a fit, swear you're never trying a fancy cake again and go to bed angry.

Then wake up, breathe and know you will try again.

Hello Kitty Cookies

2010-02-12T12:55:00.009-05:00

First, you order some cookie cutters. From Japan. Not kidding. Overpriced but what can I say, I wanted them. :)

The smaller cookie cutter is a set that has feet which are supposed to slide into the body. We baked, cooled and iced the cookies. Here are the feet.

There's that tongue again. :)

Cookies don't bake exactly the same, so you are never going to get the feet exactly the same every time. Getting these to stand was a chore.

When all is done.......Om Nom Nom!!

Superbowl Party Cake

2010-02-07T15:12:00.008-05:00

We were invited to a Superbowl Party. Now, we none are sports fans (except for me, and pretty much only when it involves my Alma Mater, the Florida Gators.) We're going for the food and company.

I offered up a carrot cake, as its been the cake of choice these past two weeks. I decided to add a little fun to the cake.

Say Hello to the New Orleans Saints fan. Cool hair, eh?

This is a ratty couch. Hey, it's my first couch, give me a break. :)

Here are bug-eyed lady and her man, Saints Fan.

At their feet are some snacks, cups and a Colts football cap.

Here is Mr. Colts Fan, standing up, holding his arms aloft. What is he whooping at? Why is Mr. Saints Fan pointing? WHAT are they looking at?

This.

The frosting's ugly, but I still like it!

Be it the Colts or the Saints, I hope everyone has a fun time watching the game this evening.

A Topper for a Friend

2010-02-07T10:18:00.007-05:00

Remember the birthday cake I made for my friend Jose? Click here. I made the cake for him on his actual birthday, which landed on a Wednesday. His wife threw him a 40th birthday party yesterday, Saturday. She had saved the "Jose" topper and gave it to the person making Jose's cake for the party, asking her to put it on the cake.

Jose's wife Nelly calls me on my cell as I am driving home from work on Friday, and asks me if I could please make a figurine of her so she could place it on the cake next to Jose's figurine.

Here she is, without her teeth.

Here she is, almost assembled.

The problem with gumpaste is that it needs more than 24 hours to harden. I had less than that to get it made and to her, so I was very worried.

At the party, we placed the topper on the cake and propped her up because she was stil soft. Nelly loved her!

Owl Carrot Cake

2010-01-27T19:09:00.005-05:00

I found this adorable idea on the web. Just use Google Images and search "owl cake" and you'll see what I mean. I can credit the person, but several people have done something like this, so whoooo is the original designer? The first lady on Flikr, the second one? This person? I don't know, but thank you !

Sidebar: That's the thing about cake decorating, that even my teacher said; Nothing is really an original design. Everyone "borrows" from everyone else. I won't say "steal" because we're a sharing community of decorators. If you're a stingy decorator that doesn't want to share, then boooo to you.

Isabel and I created the pieces using fondant and gum paste and let them harden a bit overnight.

The next night I shredded some carrots and got to work on the carrot cake. While they cooled, we (Isabel and I) made the homemade cream cheese icing, and lightened it with a small touch of sky blue gel food coloring.

The cake was iced, the pieces placed, some gum paste trees and flowers made (real easy as I already had the fondant colored from the night before) and here it is.

Mmmm. Carrot cake is my favorite.

Football Cookies

2010-01-20T21:04:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know this blog is called Kaaren's Kakes, but I can also be creative with cookies, can't I? I purchased some football cookie cutters on clearance for $2 at Wal-Mart and thought I'd give them a go. I am having fun with cookies.

Fighting Away 40; 40th Birthday Cake

2010-01-14T19:43:00.004-05:00

My coworker Jose turned 40 on the 13th of January, so I decided to make him a cake to honor this momentous occasion.

Isabel helps make some grass

After some coloring and sculpting of gum paste, voila!

He thought it was funny and his wife and kids thought it was hysterical and teased him.

Hello Kitty Again

2010-01-07T23:01:00.004-05:00

Our daughter is a little Hello Kitty obsessed lately. She has also been excited about the fact that her birthday is less than 3 months away. Naturally, it's going to be a Hello Kitty-themed party. I Googled and found SO many cute designs, but she wants a specific one.

Cutting out the oval shaped head using a pattern found on-line.

Isabel decided Hello Kitty needed to be watching me, so she put her on the counter. You can see that I was attempting the frozen buttercream transfer. Yea...an hour in the freezer and it still didn't work.

Here I am using my new turning, tilting turntable. Merry Christmas to me!

Ta Da! I had to hand-draw the eyes and nose, because the frozen buttercream did NOT freeze, even after an hour. I might just do the eyes, nose and bow out of fondant for the party. I did like my icing. Not super-duper smooth, but nice enough.

WHOOPS! Almost forgot the whiskers. Here we go. All better.

I Made Cookies

2009-12-27T09:31:00.006-05:00

I made cookies, and yet posted about them on my other blog. Doh!

Click here to see that post.

I also decided to make cookies for our pal, Niki. Remind me to NOT attempt starting a task like this at 8:30 at night.

I hope she likes them. :)

Companion Cube Cake

2009-12-22T20:43:00.003-05:00

This was made in like 3 hours, using horrible boxed cake. Horrible because boxed cakes are way too soft/moist to hold up to sculpting, etc.

My son was turning 16. We took him to a fun dinner and he had a large birthday cupcake there, but when I asked him if he wanted a cake the next evening, he said yes. Thinking about it for a bit, I settled on a companion cube from the video game "Portal."

Again, BOXED cake and 3 hours. I wasn't putting forth a huge effort, as you can tell by its asymmetrical corners, etc.

And yet, he loved it. :)

Happy Birthday

2009-12-04T17:31:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday to my letterboxing pal, Dawn. Yesterday we stopped by to see her new home, wish her a happy birthday and present her with this.

Thanksgiving Table Cake

2009-11-30T20:20:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

We visited family and had a fun time. More on my other blog, but as far as cakes go, here is the cake that I made with the help of my daughter, age 5, and my nieces, ages 9, 5 & 4.

HOT kitchen from the oven, the stove, the people = STICKY fondant. I was worried for a bit.

The girls helped color the MMF and the gum paste. We made a table cloth, plates, silverware, bread, peas in a bowl, cranberries in a bowl, and I had made earlier, the turkey and the candelabras. Here is the FUN-tastic cake.

Hello Kitty Quick Cake

2009-10-28T19:50:00.006-04:00

Isabel loves Hello Kitty. She also adores Nightmare Before Christmas, but that's another post.

She has been bugging me for a Hello Kitty cake for some time. So, one night watching TV, I decided to break out the gum paste, gel color and assorted tools, and sculpt a Hello Kitty figure and some flowers.

Click the pics to see them bigger.

I made a box cake and used canned icing. WOW, do I dislike canned icing with a passion! I just used it because this was a quick thing for us here at home, but man, after making my own, canned stuff is runny and gross.

I had enough batter to also make cupcakes.

When I called her away from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" dvd to see the cake, ....

....this super-happy face made my day.

"It's a Hello Kitty Cake!" she squealed, followed immediately by "Can I eat her arm?!?!"

Happy Mole Day this Friday!

2009-10-21T15:45:00.010-04:00

Happy Mole Day! (10/23)

What do you mean, you don't know what Mole Day is?!?! Don't worry. Until 2 days ago, I had no idea what it was either.

What is a Mole? Thanks to http://www.chemistry.co.nz/mole.htm, a Mole is:

the amount of pure substance containing the same number of chemical units as
there are atoms in exactly 12 grams of carbon-12 (i.e., 6.023 X 10 to the 23rd Power [I can't get the superscript to work on this post]). This involves the acceptance of two dictates -- the scale of atomic masses and the magnitude of the gram. Both have been established by international agreement. Formerly, the connotation of "mole" was "gram molecular weight." Current usage tends to apply the term "mole" to an amount containing Avogadro's number of whatever units are being considered. Thus, it is possible to have a mole of atoms, ions, radicals, electrons, or quanta. This usage makes unnecessary such terms as "gram-atom," "gram-formula weight," etc.

Since it is 10 to the 23rd power, 10^ 23, chemistry students celebrate "Mole Day" on October 23rd.

Jake asked if I could help him make a "Mole" cake for class on Thursday (as on Friday the 23rd, schools in our county are closed). Sure, why not. Sounds like a hoot!

Jake colors the gum paste grey.

The mole gets put on top of the hill.

Jake rolls out the leaves in the background while I cover the mole's opening with "dirt." (crushed Oreo's)

Jake works on piping some numbers in the cake and adds the leaves he cut to it as well.

Ta Da!!

Happy Mole Day!

Mice in a Pumpkin

2009-10-17T20:07:00.003-04:00

I decided to try a cake from one of my Debbie Brown instructional books. This one was a pair of mice inside a pumpkin.

I made my round ball cakes and scored them to get them to look like the grooves in the pumpkin.

I also made a small 8" cake with extra batter I had. I ices both the pumpkin cake and the 8" cake and then proceeded to color my Marshmallow Fondant.

The MMF was not cooperating. It was too sticky. I am not sure if I added too much water the day before when I made it, or if the kitchen was too hot. All I know is that the MMF was sticking to every surface and would not smooth out. UGH, talk about frustrating!!

The end job was cute enough and my co-workers enjoyed it.

Into the Oven

2009-10-10T17:10:00.006-04:00

No, I don't mean the website I shop at (which is a great place to shop for cake supplies). I mean, a turkey into the oven.

I wanted to practice some cakes for Thanksgiving. I want to make one for that day, so I decided to try one out. Over at Cake Central, do a search for "oven" and you'll see all the ones I based this cake on.

On the first night, I worked on the small items that I wanted inside the oven. I created a turkey, a roasting pan, potatoes, carrots and a sack of potatoes out of gum paste and left them out overnight to harden.

Cute!!!

The next night, I baked four 8x8 square cakes. Two chocolate and two almond butter. I also made cream cheese icing. I stored them overnight, so they would be completely cool before I carved and iced them.

I carved out a space for the interior of the oven. Difficult and messy.

I iced each later with the cream cheese icing, and re-stacked them. I then covered them with white fondant and began the hard task of getting the opening to look like an oven opening. It was a pain and I'm not 100% satisfied with what I did. (I know. When am I ever?)

My burners are wonky. :) But I do like my towel and oven mitt.

Here is the cake. The back board is just that; cardboard. Others who made this cake used Rice Krispee (sp?) Treats (also known as RKT in cake-people jargon) molded to look like the backdrop and covered with fondant. RKT is light and pliable enough to make many things, but not having puffed rice, or wanting to go to the store, I settled for cardboard. :)

I love my turkey though, and Isabel insisted on the bunny slippers. A couple of pictures on Cake Central included cook books on the oven and bunny slippers on the side. She saw them and was adamant I make them, so there they be. :)

Frozen Buttercream Transfer

2009-10-04T18:54:00.006-04:00

My teacher mentioned a process called Frozen Buttercream Transfer, where you take any picture you like, create it in buttercream on wax paper, freeze it, and then transfer it onto your cake. It's great when re-creating logos, popular cartoon characters, etc.

The trick to it, though, is to paint it in layers, with the "front" layer painted first and the background colors painted over those. Here's my first attempt.

I will warn you, it stunk. :) But practice makes perfect.

Find a picture you like and print it.

Place your picture under a bit of wax paper. Create the outline in black. with icing using a #1 or # 2 tip. Notice I also colored the bats in the moon as well.

Start filling in the smaller things, like the sun, the yellow windows and the purple detail on the roof.

I didn't get a picture of the next thing, which was, color in the main color, the black of the house. It does not matter if you get into any of the yellow, because the yellow is down on the paper first, up front. If back gets behind it, you won't see it, because the yellow is the front layer.

Once you're done, you can also add a smear of the icing that's on your cake. I figured later that this really was not needed, but every instructional I read said to.

Place your buttercream transfer in the freezer. Prepare your cake, making sure that the buttercream on the cake is firm and set. (mine was not).

After at least 15 minutes in the freezer (can make these days and days ahead of time), place the buttercream side of the wax paper down on your cake. Gently peel off the wax paper, rubbing it down if you need to loosen some of the buttercream off the wax paper.

Voila. Buttercream transfer. It's kind-of goopy, but I'm getting the idea.

Practicing the Basket Weave

2009-09-27T00:46:00.005-04:00

It was my birthday on the 24th. I did not make my own cake, thank you very much. David got me a cake from Wal-Fart.

My dad and step-mom were coming over Saturday, and I wanted to make them some cake, since mine was almost gone (and had enough red food dye to stain fingers and teeth for days).

The two stacked cakes were kind-of lopsided.

It wasn't TOO bad.

I couldn't decide what to do on top. I was going to try and make some roses, but the icing was way to soft to attempt it. So, I just wrote Happy Birthday on it and added some little flowers with bows.

Mmmm. Almond Butter Cake with homemade strawberry filling and buttercream icing.

Twilight Revisted

2009-09-13T12:50:00.014-04:00

I made a "Twilight" cake earlier this year, just to see if I could. This time, I decided to make it a one-tier (4 layer) cake, and give it as a gift to my boss and his family.

My boss' wife loves to cook. She loves new recipes and trying them out is a treat for her. At least once a week, sometimes more, I am treated to fantastic lunches, courtesy of plates made for me for lunch, sent over by his wife.

I decided to make a "Thank you" cake for her. She recently devoured the "Twilight" series of books (my boss' words.) They also have a 15 year old daughter who has read some.

Vanilla butter cake, with homemade raspberry filling, butter cream icing, covered in homemade marshmallow fondant.

The marshmallow fondant and cakes were made yesterday. I torted, filled, iced and refrigerated them.

Creating a dam of icing, so the filling does not ooze out the sides.

Mmmmmmm.

This morning, I took the iced cake from the fridge and got to work.

Marshmallow Fondant.

I had one heck of a time getting the chess squares down the side. It was not pretty. Good thing I could hide the bottom edge wreckage with the red ribbon.

Here is the final product. I made the chess pieces, flower and ribbon out of fondant and gum paste I colored with gel food coloring. The wonky apple is real. It was the only one I had in the fridge and it's all lopsided. I will be shopping this afternoon for groceries, so I'll pick up a nicer one.

This will be taken to work tomorrow, so my boss can take it home.

Escape Da Cakes

2009-09-08T20:01:00.006-04:00

Just cause it's so dumb, it's funny. :)

Hey Uniqua, You're Really Brave and Strong!

2009-09-04T16:45:00.009-04:00

If you are a parent of young children, toddler age, mostly, you will know who Uniqua is. All others, meet The Backyardigans.

It's really a fantastic show with music and stories galore. Isabel adores it. Her favorite is Uniqua (Not Urbanesca, Mo), the pink one who is...well, we're not quite sure what she is. She's a 'uniqua.' A Unique animal. Isabel calls her a bug.

Isabel: Make me a Uniqua cake. Are you making me a Uniqua cake? When are you making me a Uniqua cake.

Alright already, I GIVE.

The cakes were huge. I was attempting a new recipe and it made 12 cups of batter. That's a lot of cake people. Here they are, iced and in the fridge for a bit so the icing can get hard a bit.

I overdid it on the icing. I really did. This above icing was tinted pink.

After I iced the cake, I colored, rolled and cut the darker pink spots for Uniqua's face.

One happy gal. Seriously, look at how TALL that cake is?

Here she is. I was going to make her antennas out of fondant, but I did not have the patience to tint the white fondant the light pink color, so I made them out of pink metal wire.

The cake is tall. Isabel loved it.

Now, if only I can hire a staff to clean up after me.

Edible Shoes

2009-09-01T19:27:00.005-04:00

There are several talented people out there who make cool cakes. One that I have been wanting to try is a shoe box cake. The shoe box? Easy Peasy. The shoe? Not so much.

I went on Cake Central's website (wow, that site is addicting!!) and found a tutorial on how to make a shoe out of gum paste. This Sunday, while the kids played a video game and David watched..probably Stargate, I sat down for my first attempt.

Here is what I made, before adding glittery dust to it. The support for the arch is too high. Next time, I'll able it better to get a better arch.

Here's a top view. See the "designer" label? :)

So, yea. Ignore the rough edges. It's my first one, but I am glad I have the tutorial to show me how!

Basket Weave

2009-08-28T17:54:00.006-04:00

This past Tuesday's cake decorating class contained the one thing I really, really, really wanted to learn; making the faux basket look.

I brought in a homemade cake, with homemade icing. The teacher explained it but when he was done, I was still totally lost. He left the class room to go get some tool he was talking about, and a classmate scooted over next to me. She had done the basket weave in another, discontinued course, and showed me how to do it. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy!

Ignore the cut in the cake on top. I grabbed a tool, and ran it across. And the bottom? Just me trying to get rid of the rest of the icing in the bag. Just look at the basket pattern. I really like it!

Also, click the pics to make them larger. That top icing looks pretty darned smooth this time, don't you think? I'm slowly getting the hang of it. :)

Tiffany Box Practice Cake

2009-08-23T23:37:00.007-04:00

My youngest sister, Lissette, came to visit tonight, Sunday, and Monday. We decided to practice a "Tiffany Box" cake for our other sister, Vicky. Vicky's throwing a bridal shower and asked both of us if we could make the cake. Lissette is also a cake decorator. She has a blog but is (her words) lazy about updating it.

Before she arrived, I worked on the gum paste bow for the box, cutting the bow pieces out and dusting them with platinum dust.

The ring below was made with gum paste and a fake "rock" off a barrette I bought for $4 at Michael's. I also dusted it with platinum dust, but I am not sure you can see it well in this picture.

Before she arrived this afternoon, I baked four thin 8" square cakes. We used 3. The fourth I'll use for cake class on Tuesday. I also made icing.

This evening after dinner and putting the kids to bed, we got to work. We iced the cakes and put them in the fridge so the icing would harden.

We spread out the marshmallow fondant (she'd still been using Wilton brand!! OMG - gross. She was SO impressed with the MMF, she's going to make some herself next time around).

We started putting things together. I wanted an entire piece of fondant over the cake, she wanted squares. We went with the squares. This made it a little difficult with the edges. We ended up coloring some icing the same color as the fondant to sort-of hide the edges. I think it worked really well for a practice run.

The bride-to-be's name is Nikki, so the name on the box reflects that.

Here are my sister and I. I joked on FB that we would call our cake company "924 Cakes." (Nine Twenty Four Cakes). Why? She and I were both born on September 24, 16 years apart.

Getting ready...

2009-08-22T18:13:00.002-04:00

to make a practice run at a cake my sister requested. So, be on the lookout for something cool (I HOPE!)

Wonky Cake Attempt

2009-08-07T23:39:00.011-04:00

Also known as the Topsy-Turvy cake, a Wonky Cake is a cake that just defies gravity. It looks like it is about to topple over. There are several tricks to this cake style, the first being...the cakes have to be tall!

I set out to make two of each sized pan cake I was going to attempt. (Hence the chocolate cake that I overfilled. I was going for height and failed).

There was a lot of baking going on. I so wish I had a second oven and duplicates of the pans I own. I spent several several hours making cakes, baking, cleaning, cooling, to start all over again with more pans.

Six cakes later (2 ea. of 6", 8" and 10" sizes), I called it a night.

The following evening was time to make the MMF (crazy mess), Peanut Butter Butter cream icing, Oreo Cookie Cream Cheese icing and some regular butter cream icing.

Peanut butter icing. YUM!!!

Cream cheese icing with Oreo cookies mixed in it. Heaven.

NOW comes the fun part. Fun as in hard really. LOL One cake is split right down the middle and iced. The second cake is split at an angle, then flipped around on itself, creating a really steep hill. This is all iced and put on top of the straight cut cake.

The cakes are then iced all over and put in the fridge to let the icing harden.

Starting with the largest layer, I traced and cut out a circle the size of the cake that will go on top of the biggest one. The largest being a 10" cake, I cut an 8" circle out of wax paper and used it as a template to cut an 8" circle into the 10" cake. This circle is then carved out of the 10" cake, making a level area for me to put the next cake into.

See, it's all an illusion. Although it looks like the cakes are tipping, they are actually sitting level. Tricky, huh?

This cake above is then covered in fondant and wood dowels are cut and placed in the center to give the support to the next cake going above.

(fondant was too sticky/mushy)

The same exact thing is done with the 8" cake. I cut a 6" circle, and scoop out the cake, ice it again, cover it with fondant, and then place the 8" cake on top of the 10" one. This picture below shows the 8" cake "inside" the 10" one, while the 6" one is being covered to be put on top of the 8" one.

After placing them all together, I decorated the cakes using fondant and colored icing.

So here's the final product. It's not pretty but not bad. My first attempt at this. The fondant was too soft (MMF). I think if I attempt this again, I'll use the professional grade (NOT Wilton) stuff.

Note: The stars on top are actually supposed to be suspended by wires. I should have made very very thin out of gum paste a few days ago, so they could dry. The fondant was too heavy and the wire was to thin to hold the stars up.

Here are some stars made of construction paper, so you can see what I meant to make with the stars.

Cake fall down, go boom!

2009-08-07T23:19:00.004-04:00

I decided to make a chocolate cake. I went with a recipe from the 500 Cakes book I bought a few months back. All was going well.

Isabel insisted I be "Tasha" of the Backyardigans. She colored the mask herself.

I filled the pan with batter and put it in the oven. About 35 minutes later, I smell burning from the oven. The cake was overflowing over the sides and batter had fallen on the hot elements. Great. I overfilled the pan and now I have to clean the oven.

After over an hour, I opened the oven and this happened.

Foom! Implosion. I have never ever had that happen. Weird. I heard people talk about it in cake class, but this was a first. I guess since I overfilled the pan, the center was just not getting cooked. What a waste.

New Theme

2009-07-31T23:46:00.001-04:00

What do you think? I've got a new template and am still tweaking.

What do you/don't you like?

EDIT: At work, I can't see the cute bird that says "Sweet Blog" and the cupcake over above my picture. At home I can. Can you all see it?

I've been playing with it for over an hour and now it's time for bed.

Holy Cake News, Batman!

2009-07-31T17:38:00.001-04:00

I am SO excited.

Cake Wrecks will be IN TOWN in September for a book signing! First stop!

HECK YEA, I'm going!! Also, I will be bringing a cupcake "wreckplica" for the contest. And if she needs a cake, I'll make one too.

Wh00t!

Oh So Pitiful

2009-07-24T19:57:00.000-04:00

This post will probably not make any sense to most you. This is an "inside joke" for members of the "Pity Party." Enjoy and PLEASE comment.

All pictures can be clicked to be made bigger.

See this above? These are the leftovers from several cakes I made to create this FUN Minnie Cake a couple of days ago. We're not chocolate cake fans, so it's just been sitting there for two days. I'd been staring at it, wondering why I thought the shape was so familiar.

Then tonight, it hit me.

Please note, this was made in HALF AN HOUR using leftover stuff I had lying about. It is NOT my best work. It's quite pitiful, but party members will still get a kick out of her.

Icing the blob.

Covering the blob with sticky fondant (hot kitchen = sticky fondant).

What? Huh? WHO can this be??

TA-DA! I am not sure if an official name has been selected, but here she is. My half-hour Pitiful attempt for your enjoyment!

Minnie Mouse Cake

2009-07-22T21:25:00.001-04:00

Yea, another cake. My friend Karen from Miami was going to be up here for her birthday at Disney (you get in free on your birthday) and I asked if we could get together. She said sure...if I made her a cake. Ok, I'm kidding. She asked if I could, and I said yes. When I asked what she would like, she said she did not know. Something Disney? "Surprise me," she said.

Sunday night, I made the gum paste mouse heads, ears and bows.

Tuesday night after work, I baked the chocolate cakes.

This is her idea of "cleaning the bowl."

Also on Tuesday evening, I cut out fondant dots and made a fondant bow which I stuffed with tissue to keep the "open" shape, and put them on sponges to dry overnight.

Wednesday evening, time to decorate. The cakes were torted (cut in half horizontally), filled with chocolate icing, put back together, covered in chocolate icing and then covered in colored fondant, as seen above.

Here's where I talk about how I like to practice. Those who read my blog know, I am all about the practice. But I did not have time to do a practice run. Here are the things I learned that I would do differently, if I make the cake again:

Don't make the cut-out bows before-hand. They are too hard and getting the HEAVY bows to stick was hard; I used toothpicks and broke 2. Next time, I will either attach the bows while they are still soft to the Minnie heads, or make the bows out of icing.

Measure the big Minnie ears as compared to the bow. The bow is the right size for the cake, according to my sis V, but the ears are lost behind it. (she got a picture message sent to her on her phone).

Here is the final product. Notice I put the birthday girl's initials on the cake. That's where the two broken-bowed Minnie heads would have gone, but I really like the initials there.

I love how this turned out!

Baby Shower Cake for Kim and Adam

2009-07-19T13:32:00.003-04:00

Having the practice cake under my belt (or apron, as it were), I started working on the two-tiered shower cake for Kim (ThreeHearts on AQ) and Adam. The design is from a cake decorator, Louise, on Cake Central. Thursday evening the cakes were made, cooled and wrapped in cling wrap to retain their moisture. I also made the chocolate fudge icing & refrigerated it for the next day's assembly process.

Here I am Friday evening around 6 p.m. coloring the homemade fondant a light green.

The larger of the two cakes got torted, and I spread a layer of chocolate fudge icing in the middle and placed the top back on. I did the same thing for the smaller cake.

Jake kept me company and amused me with random YouTube videos on his lap top.

Here's the smaller cake, covered in the MMF.

Isabel helps roll out the gum paste. We needed to make the flower that the baby was to sit on.

Here are the covered cakes, plus a huge piece of fondant for the baby to sit on, her flower and some leaves. The baby was made out of gum paste the previous weekend when my sister was here. She helped with all the little insects, which was such a time saver. As it was, she and I spent 3 hours working on all the gum paste decor, and I had spent 5 hours baking cakes the night before.

Isabel and I cut out more flowers; I did not have enough. She and I did purple, yellow, blue and orange.

The last thing to do was make the icing for the "grass." Basically, the "grass" was there to cover the bottom edges of the two cakes.

Remember me smiling above? Yea, this is me around 10 p.m., hour 4. My feet were KILLING me.

Here is the final product.

Here is Kim, cutting into the cake.

Here is the AFTER photo. LOL. It was very good.

Kim & I at her baby shower.

Baby Shower Practice Cake

2009-07-18T19:14:00.000-04:00

After making the MMF, I decided to practice making a cake for a friend of mine (Kim - ThreeHearts on AQ) who was having a baby shower in 2 weeks. I have a thing. I make practice runs because I am always worried if I don't, I'm going to get something wrong. I like the practice, but what, I thought, am I going to do with this practice cake?

The same week I was planning on making the cake, I met with fellow letterboxers drgdlg (Darren and Desi) and their daughter Raileigh, who were down in Florida for a vacation. We met at a state park and had a fun breakfast and attempted to box. Knowing they were leaving on the 10th, I asked them what they were going to do for Raileigh's 10-month celebration cake (they make her cakes or cupcakes to celebrate every month of her first year. So cute!) which was the 11th. When Desi said she wasn't really sure yet, I offered to make them a cake and meet them on the road back to Georgia for the hand-off. This way, I get the practice, they don't have to worry about coming home exhausted and having to make a cake.

This below is the MMF I made a couple of days earlier.

And here is the final one-layer version of the cake I was going to make Kim. Kim's was set for two layers. It is not my original design, just something I found on a Google Image search.

Practice is good because comments I received were 1) Jacob saying the baby's eyes wigged him out and 2) my sister V saying the hands and legs wigged her out. LOL Practice makes perfect.

I met Desi and Darren at a McDonald's at an exit near our home off I-4, where we made the quick hand-off of Raileigh's 10-month birthday cake.

UPDATE: CLICK HERE to see Desi's post about the cake, with pictures.

MMF

2009-07-18T08:16:00.000-04:00

No, I am not being crude and calling you an MMF.

MMF = Marshmallow Fondant. Not sure what the extra M is there for. My sister-in-law suggested that it was because MF just sounds wrong. :)

MMF is a home-made fondant using, you guessed it, marshmallow and powdered sugar with a teensy bit of water). On the recommendation of a couple of friends, I decided to try it. I searched the web and found this recipe for MMF. I was skeptical but thought, what the heck. The marshmallows and powdered sugar were inexpensive, especially when compared to the fondant I normally buy. I DO NOT use Wilton fondant. It is disgusting. I use Satin Ice.

I was a little worried at the onset. It was sticky and I thought the powdered sugar would never blend with the marshmallow.

Jacob helps me, by adding water as I felt it was necessary.

After about 10 minutes, I got fondant! The right texture and a great taste! I was beyond excited. Now I could make fondant as needed and spend less doing it.

It was time to try it on a cake. I tinted it green, rolled it out and covered my cake.

Fantastic! I will post more on the cakes I have made recently soon. They are a surprise, so I can't post until the end of today, July 18. :)

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

2009-07-02T17:02:00.000-04:00

Practice, Practice, Practice.

Cake classes have been fun BUT the instructor does not have us bring a cake to class each week, or ever. We're supposed to practice at home. I've been practicing making roses and writing letters, etc. but have yet to make an entire cake and ice it.

Soooo, I decided to try, and BOY do I need practice how to ice a cake to look smooth. I think this is why people are moving towards fondant. This is HARD!

I love that I learned to make a dam to stop the filling from oozing out the sides and ruining the icing. I'm putting a Hunt's pudding cup as filling. This is practice and I wasn't going to kill myself making chocolate filling. This is another nifty trick my instructor taught us.

Then, came the icing. I'm pretty sure it was not thin enough. I ended up picking up crumbs - a no-no. Then I plopped the small cake on top of the top one, and did not get it centered. Oh well.

The icing's supposed to look like this: (NOT MINE - some random picture from a Photobucket search for "Wilson cake." Just look at the icing. I was not about to make all those flowers and leaves, etc.)

but ended up with this.

I gave up and doodled a heart on it. I don't think the icing was thin enough. I will say that this cake was the best-tasting cake ever! Almond butter cake with (fake)butter cream icing. The top layer had vanilla pudding in between while the bottom one had chocolate pudding. The almond flavor was divine!

I think I am going to go to Wal-Mart and buy pre-made cake loaves, like little mini banana bread-style cakes, and them practice icing on those, rather than make cakes over and over. Once I get the icing done, then I will bake a cake.

Decorating Classes

2009-06-25T22:01:00.000-04:00

As you know, I've been mostly working with fondant as my cake medium. I've wanted to work more with regular icing and see how that goes, so I've been taking the Wilton classes that Michael's Arts & crafts stores hold. I started with Class # 1. We're dealing with standard decorating.

The basics: How to make icing, how to fill bags, how to make shells and lines, letters, flowers and leaves. It's kind-of challenging. I tend to get frustrated because by the time I think I have something down, class is over.

Tonight, I decided to try making roses. The teacher has a trick of starting the bases of the roses with a Hershey Kiss. It's fun.

The icing was a bit thin, so the roses kept drooping, but I think, all in all, I did a good job on these.

Baby Shower Cake - Pea Pod

2009-06-07T22:05:00.000-04:00

I was searching Google Images for Baby Shower cakes ideas. I found some cute Flikr pictures from Simply-Sweets.com for a Pea Pod Baby cake, so I decided to give it a go.

I made the pea pod out of gum paste a few days early, so it could harden.

Isabel helped me cut out baby-themed shaped from the same gum paste. These would be used on cupcakes I decided to make to complement the cake.

Aaaaak! An Arm!!

Immediately after taking this picture...I touched his eye and made a mess of it. Argh!

Last night I made the cake and the cupcakes. I wanted them to be completely cooled before I started to decorate them.

Yum!! Homemade chocolate icing (semi-sweet chocolate squares, butter, confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla extract).

I dumped the a.c. in my house so the kitchen would be cool. I did not want to have the fondant be sticky and gross, like the last cake attempt I made. :(

Speedy!

Isabel helps me smooth the fondant over the cake.

I placed the "pea in the pod" on the cake, along with the leaves and vine.

Here are the cupcakes (no big deal) and the cake. The baby shower is tomorrow. It is for a co-worker of David's. The shower is a surprise. She does not know of it, nor does she know I am making the cake and cupcakes as a gift to her. Due to a conflict with a class I am taking (more on that later), I will be late to the party. David and Isabel will be taking these items to the party and I will meet them there about 45 minutes late.

Stroller Cake Mess

2009-05-30T09:41:00.000-04:00

It must be in the water. I personally know four pregnant women right now. One of them, David's co-worker is having a shower, so I tentatively said I'd like to make the cake. She doesn't know it, so if I don't, none the wiser.

As you know by now, I am all about the testing (Wall-E takes 1 & 2, the Chick cake fail). I want to see if I can do it before I get the final products (Final Wall-E, Final Chick Cake).

I am also all about wanting new cake recipes, because although the recommended Madeira recipe for making shaped cakes is solid enough for carving, it tastes like a brick.

I tried a new recipe from the 500 Cakes book. I can't even remember which one. Why can't I remember? Let me show you.

The fondant is colored (she's having a boy).

The cake's in the oven.

I have a cappuccino while I wait. (bonus points if you can tell me about my mug).

The cake comes out of the oven, it cools, I cut it in half, place a raspberry jam/whipped cream mixture (homemade) in the middle. I cover it in homemade butter cream icing and get to work.

Now, the instructions are all wonky. Place it on its bottom, put a ring around it, flip it over & cover it in fondant, flip it back and tuck the fondant over the ring. There was a lot of flipping back and forth going on. The last flip, caused this:

I wasn't even upset really. It was a new cake recipe, so I knew it might fail. The cake was delicious, just not strong enough to hold up to the weight of the fondant and all that flipping. I left the cake on the counter, in a cake carrier, and we picked at it for a couple of days.

TAKE 2

THIS time, I am back to the Madeira recipe I hate. I figure I'll make a great tasting rectangular cake, frost and decorate it, and then put the Madeira stroller cake on top. People can eat the good cake while admiring the Madeira stroller cake.

Immediately I realized it was too hot in the kitchen The same fondant as before was mushing, sticking, it was bad. I was disgusted and to the point of tears. I texted David to say that i was *not* making the baby shower cake.

Fairy Isabel (who last week realized that Isabel rhymes with Tinkerbell) liked it. But she's 5. ;)

I tried to smooth the fondant around the stroller, but every indentation of my fingers remained. I used my cake smoother and it tore the fondant. I wanted to chuck the thing in the garbage.

Call me obsessive, but this is NOT something I want to have at a baby shower.

Ladybug Cake

2009-05-15T17:05:00.000-04:00

From one of my Debbie Brown cake books.

While the cakes cooled, (the small one's just for snacking. I had extra batter that I did not want to go to waste)

I colored come white fondant green to color the cake board, and

I whipped up some home-made cream cheese icing. Yum!

The cake was cut in half so I could add icing to the middle of it, then I covered the whole thing in more icing.

I covered the cake in red fondant.

I scored a line across her back, making the wings.

I made her head with a black ball of fondant and secured it in place with both sugar water and toothpicks. Licorice antennae were added with fondant black balls on the ends. Isabel helped me add the black dots on her wings too.

Isabel and I covered the green cakeboard with yellow petals.

I scored her mouth with a circle cutter. She's one Happy Ladybug.

Nothing Fancy but It's Good

2009-05-06T18:45:00.000-04:00

I purchased this book. Not sure why I blogged about it on my regular blog though. You can get caught up there.

I decided on making a Coffee & Praline Layer cake. I won't give the recipe, due to copyright yada yadas. Go buy the book. It's good and low priced on Amazon. I'm just trying to find good cake recipes for underneath my fun cake projects.

The cakes themselves were not too difficult to make.

While the cakes cooled, I made homemade praline. Note to self: MELTED SUGAR IS MOLTEN LAVA! Holy SMOKES!!

This was my first time working with mascarpone (NOT MaRscapone, MaScarpone). It was very easy to work with and really bland, until you added the powdered sugar. This above was colored this way due to adding coffee to it, and was only half-way done. There was more sugar to be added, which thickened it up.

The bottom cake was iced, another layer stacked on top, both cakes were iced, the home-made praline was cracked and sprinkled on top and voilà ! [It's not "Wahhlahh", people. (Yes, I saw that written like that fairly recently.) It's French and basically means, Look There! Voi from Voir (look or see) and La (there). Look There! voilà !]

The coffee icing was excellent, the cake was firm but not dry. Great cake recipe, but if you're a coffee-hater, this one's not for you.

The Sun Rises and Twilight is No More

2009-04-13T00:36:00.001-04:00

I have been asked a few times, and the answer is, Yes. Yes, it is sometimes painful to cut into your pieces of art. Alas, it must be done.

I am still looking for the ever-elusive best-cake-ever recipe though. The outside looks amazing, but it's the inside that counts. The recipes I have tried, and I have tried many, are still not good enough for me. *sigh*

Twilight Cake

2009-03-27T23:17:00.000-04:00

OK. I'm a Twilight Mom. I admit it. Not the stalkery-crazy kind, mind you. Yes, the books started off a little juvenile, but she got better. They are fun, they are fantasy and they have Edward.

I search the 'net and find several people making Twilight cakes, fantastic Twilight cakes, so I thought I'd give it a go. I bought some black and red fondant from Into the Oven, because there is no WAY I am going to color white fondant black. It would take forever and kill my arms in the process.

Here we gooooooo.

First, I realized..I have a lot of pans. This was me trying to figure out how to stack them. I opted for two layers instead of three, of the dome pans in the background.

I got a fantastic, wonderful cake recipe from Bakerella. This recipe was SO tasty! But the larger if the two cakes was so moist, it fell apart on Thursday night while I was trying to move it! Oh well. I kept the broken cake pieces in a plastic container and we've been munching on the pieces.

Tonight, I go back to my old, firmer butter cake recipe and make a rather large 10 " cake. (The 6" one from last night survived (pictured below).

While the large cake cooled, I covered the smaller one with fondant, and began making the chess board.

Next came covering the larger cake all in black and stacking the cakes.

I covered the bottom of the small cake with a red fondant ribbon, created the red chess piece and the "bloody" flower, which was bloody hard.

The larger chess piece. Yea. Difficult. I put it on a skewer to give it support. I won't even tell you what Jacob and I ended up naming it by the end.

Off to Wal-Mart I went. I was out of apples.

The apple for "Twilight," the flower for "New Moon," the ribbon for "Eclipse" and the chess board and pieces for "Breaking Dawn."

Here is the final product.

Wall-E, the Final Cut

2009-03-07T18:48:00.000-05:00

Here he is folks. Wall-E for Isabel's birthday party.

Wall-E, sans hands.

Side view, with one hand holding flowers.

Lighting the cake. It was a fun birthday party for our girl.

Wall-E Cake, takes 1 & 2

2009-02-19T18:30:00.000-05:00

A few weeks back, we rented Disney's "Wall-E." Isabel was in love. We had the movie 3 days or so, and she must have watched in 4-5 times.

I decided to have a Wall-E themed party for Isabel's 5th birthday. Five! Aack! I digress.

I wanted to try my hand at a Wall-E cake and scoured the net for ideas.

Take 1

I went the fondant route the first time. That was A LOT of work. Click on the above picture. You can see my attempt at covering the "wheels" with fondant. Having to color fondant a velveeta cheese yellow, and black and grey was time consuming. I got frustrated.

Then, Florida had a cold snap. YES we did. It was 27 degrees one day. So, the heat in the house is on...and Wall-E became mush. Melted fondant mush. I was pretty much over it and Wall-E take 1 went into the garbagio.

Take 2

I found this Wall-E cake on the net. Isn't it fun? They used off-the-shelf cake mixes and icings. They did a great job, so I throught I'd try it this way instead. No fondant. Just icing and lots of it.

Icing the cakes was NOT fun. Box cakes are just too moist. They crumble. It was a mess. The grey strip was icing on their cake. There was no WAY I was going to apply gray icing over yellow icing. I decided to use a strip of gray fondant. THIS strip above was too thick and its weight slowly dragged it down the side. I took it off and made a new, thinner one.

Check out the mess above.

Yea. Not pretty. TEST RUN!

Then there was the "how do I make the arms, eyes, and neck" thing. I spent some time using cereal boxes to make the shapes, then I colored them with grey paint.

Below is sort-of the finished product. Sort-of because I did not paint the head/eye area grey yet, nor did I cover the neck with icing to hide the tube there. I didn't want to waste my time.

I need to make his eyes smaller, and they were a PAIN to make. (Aweee, droopy Valentine roses). And I think I'm going to cover the next cake in yellow fondant, but not the wheels. I like the wheels as is. I need to find black piping icing in a teeeeeny tube to make the words. These words here were made with little bits of black fondant and I don't like them. I'm also not going to use box cakes. I'll make a home made cake.

Oh, and I'll be ordering a back-up cake from Publix. :)

Update: Want to see the Final Take? Click here to see the Wall-E cake for the party.

Meet Marjorie

2009-01-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

Take two on the chick cake. Take one was ducky, really.

I'm a perfectionist, and so I can pick pick pick, but all in all, it came out swell.

Isabel saw me writing on Marjorie, and HAD to do it as well. Marjorie was given a tattoo on her heiney.

Marjorie attended the Central Florida Letterboxing Winter Gather today, where she was photographed and enjoyed by some of the attendees. :)