Pretty Pretty Cake

I don't have a whole lot to write about this cake, except I love it.  I used a new technique to coat the cake before covering it,(find the directions here) notice my nice symmetrical shape on it?  I covered the fondant in sugar to give it a pretty texture, it was much easier to do then I thought it would be.  I mixed powdered sugar with water and, working in sections, brushed that on the cake then poured sugar over.  I didn't even have to hold cake on it's side, just barely tilted it then poured down. 
The inside is chocolate cake layered with a dark chocolate mocha ganache and a raspberry Italian buttercream. 

Here's a close up of the flower.  Again, so simple.  Just used my biscuit cutters in 3 sizes, thinned out on the edges then let dry ob an egg carton.  The 'seeds' are jumbo black sprinkles I just happened to have.  I knew stock piling every kind of sprinkle would come in handy one day. 

Happy Halloween

I love Halloween.  There's something about the Fall time that makes me so happy.  It's cozy.  I just wanna wear scarves, drink red wine, and get crafty.  Halloween is my absolute favorite.  I love the decorations, creepy cute treats, and of course all the candy floating around.  I was super excited to make this Halloween cake for a friend's daughter's birthday! And yes, I finally got my glowing cake.  The jack-o-lanterns glow!

The birthday girl said she wanted a Halloween cake with her name in spooky letters, so the bottom layer is her name made out of black candy and covered in black edible glitter.

21st Birthday Cake

I had a last minute cake order for a 21st birthday cake.  Guys are hard to make cakes for.  They can't be too frilly, pretty or childish, all the things I specialize in.  I actually really liked this cake.  It was simple and manly pretty, at least I like to think so.

It is a strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting with a bit of chocolate frosting just for the effect.  The bunting is made of miniature beer labels.

Portal Cake

Ever hear of a game called Portal? If you have, this cake should make sense. 
I really wanted the rings to glow.  I had a few ideas but couldn't find what I needed to make it work in time.  But don't worry, I will make a cake with glowing parts in the future. 

Wedding Cake

I did it.  My first wedding cake.  I was so nervous about this one.  Not at first, I'm always excited about a new cake project and think I can figure out how to make anything if I'm in love enough with the project, like I was for this one.  But going into it, at some point it dawned on me: this is for a wedding.  This is serious.  It has to be perfect. Oh s*#@!  Well, it turned out beautiful and perfect.  Sometimes I have to admit that maybe I have figured out a few things and know what I'm doing after all.  I loved this cake design from the beginning, the Bride had fabulous taste and was so nice to work with.  Her wedding was crazy beautiful and I'm so so happy I got to make her cake and be a part of it.

Speaking (well, writing) of beautiful, thank you to Breanna Peterson Photography for taking these fabulous pictures of the cake for me.  I'm sure I destroyed some of the quality of this pic by my saving and copying processes, but trust me she is an amazingly talented photographer. 

Skulls, crossbones, and glitter!

I have two reasons for this post. One, to show you these super cute cupcakes and pops I made for a little girls birthday party.

Terrible picture, I know, but cute cupcakes.  Also, the pops!  I was so happy with how they turned out.  They looked like they put on their little sequined black dress and was off to a cocktail party. 

Once again, terrible picture, but really they looked much better in real life. Glittery black pops, so fantastic.  On a side note, I don't like cake pops.  Not how they look, but taste.  They are doughy and not in a good cookie dough way, but in a gummy undercooked cake kind of way.  So I make brownie pops.  I just take cooked brownies and mold them into a ball.  They are already so moist that you don't need to add and frosting for binding.  Candy or chocolate covered brownies, yum!

The other reason for this post.  I had to mention the delicious cupcakes.  I'm talking crazy good.  I have mastered my chocolate cake and carrot recipe but have always had a hard time finding a good vanilla cake recipe.  They are always dry or taste like cornbread or too dense, or just blah.  Well after hundreds of recipes, I have finally found the one.  I'm in love. We might get married.  Me and Sweetopolita's Fluffy White Cake Recipe, it's true love. It's fluffy, moist, sweet, and perfect in every crumb.  Seriously, don't ever make any other recipe and never buy a box mix again.  It's pretty simple to make and SO amazingly good.  I have not just cheated but had a full on affair on my diet with this cake, and wolfed down 4 of these cupcakes since last night.  I can't help it they're insanely good. 
For the party I made this recipe adding mini chocolate chips (tossed in flour to keep them from sinking to the bottom), and a couple mini Chips Ahoy cookies.  I then topped it with my Italian Meringue Buttercream that I had added more mini chocolate chips to (sans flour coating). I might have to go polish off the last one that is sitting in my kitchen Yelling my name right now.  Excuse me.........

A Little Surfer Cake

I have this problem. Well it depends on how you look at it I guess.  I have an obsession with cuteness, which when translated to cakes, means they tend to be, I don't know, immature? Kidish? Whatever, cakes are meant to be fun and not taken seriously, so my cakes are fun and whimsical. Ya, that's a good word to describe my style. Whimsical.  So anyways, I made this surfer themed cake. It was described as 'adorable' and 'super cute' which it was.  I loved it. When a friend commented on it, I said ya, it turned out great.  But here's the thing, it's for A Man.  This is when she burst into laughter.  Ah well, there should always a bit of humor in cakes.  For the record, while said boyfriend was not in fact 12, the customer was happy and I know it tasted fabulous.

30th Birthday Bash

Today was my boyfriend's 30th birthday.  He doesn't like cake or sweets very much, how the hell I ended up with a man who doesn't like desserts is beyond me.  So every year I try to come up with something different.  I've made him a meatloaf cake frosted with mashed potatoes, bacon roses, and German Chocolate Pie (why is it every man likes German chocolate?)
Things that he does like....whiskey and bacon, among other things.  So I made whiskey bacon cupcakes.

 

I just made my chocolate cupcakes, for those of you that haven't found this recipe I'll post again, because it is AMAZING and crazy easy to make:

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 tea baking soda

1 tea salt

1 cup oil

1 cup buttermilk (I never have this on hand so I just mix lemon juice and room temp whole milk)

2 eggs

1 1/2 tea vanilla

1 cup boiling water

 

Mix all ingredients (except boiling water) together then add boiling water.  This is a pretty soupy batter don't worry that's normal.

Bake 300 until just done. About 20 min for cupcakes 30-40 for cakes but all ovens are different.  Set timer for 15 then check every few minutes.

 

So easy, perfect cake every time!

 

Fill with ganache:

I don't have an exact recipe for my ganache, I add butter to mine to keep it soft, if you want it to harden up more, don't add.  No butter: equal parts chocolate and heavy cream.  With butter subtract amount of butter used from heavy cream, usually about 1 tabl per 8 oz chocolate.  I added whiskey until I could taste it.

 

Buttercream:

I almost always start with my Italian Meringue Buttercream then add my flavors to it.

mix 2 cups sugar

1/3 cups water in pan

clip on candy thermometer heat to 248 degrees

While sugar heating mix 5 egg whites and 1 tea cream of tartar in bowl of standing mixer with whisk attachment.  Mix until soft peaks form.

With mixer on lowest setting add sugar mixture.  Careful it's super hot!  Turn mixer on high, let mix till it cools down, about 15-20 min.  You want it at around 70-80 degrees, it should feel room temp.  If it's too hot it will not work! If it's too cool, it works butter the texture seems greasy or something, almost like a shortening frosting, blech.

Turn mixer to med speed.  Add room temp (soft) butter one tablespoon at a time.  Make sure totally mixed in before adding more.  This takes awhile. The mixture will start to deflate and my get either soupy or cottage cheesey looking.  Don't worry turn the mixer speed up a notch or two and keep adding.  I add anywhere from 4-6 sticks of butter.  When you get the right consistency add your vanilla bean paste (yes paste, my secret weapon in yummy frosting, also I use regular salted butter).

 

For this recipe I then added maple flavoring and chopped bacon.

 

The garnish:

Place cool bacon in pan.  Once starts to cook and fat melts,add a bunch of brown sugar (1/2 cup or so, cover the bacon), turn bacon over, coat with more brown sugar.

 

There, sounds like a lot of work, and well, it is.  But I'm a bit manic remember?

 

 

Candy Themed cake

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm a busy lady. I've got a 3 year old and a newborn to take care of plus my job that actually pays the bills, I do cakes and baking for fun.  When my friend asked how my schedule was and if I could do a cake for this weekend, my first thought was, probably shouldn't.  But then she told me the party theme, and I couldn't resist.  A candy themed party, how could I say no to that?  Just a little something I whipped up :)

Princess Cake

I have been a busy lady!  This is one of my many projects this week.  A princess cake for a little girl's birthday.  Since my daughter was born (she is 3 months today!) I have been a wee bit manic, and probably trying to do a bit too much.  What point am I getting at.....I'm so darn spaced out these days I forgot to take a picture of the finished cake!  So this is pretty close, she's actually holding a super cute heart wand, but ah well, easy enough to imagine. 
Hard to see in the pic, but the cake and crown are dusted with luster dust to shimmer in the light.  Lots of sparkle and pink for the birthday girl!

Cupcake Wars

Tomorrow is Kodiak's Cupcake Wars, not quite as impressive as The Food Network Channel's but exciting none the less.  I was too excited to wait to show what I have come up with...basically some of the yummiest, cutest cupcakes ever. 

This is a chocolate cupcake filled with a whipped mocha ganache topped with a raspberry Italian buttercream rose.

 

And this cutie-patutie cupcake is a chocolate cupcake (I know, not very creative here using twice, but I was feeling a wee bit lazy & it's just so good!) filled with a milk chocolate ganache, topped with a salted caramel Italian buttercream, more milk chocolate ganache and decorated with sprinkles, maraschino cherry and a striped straw.  It's so cute!

 

 

Flower Pot Cupcake

I have this super talented photographer friend (http://www.breannapetersonphotography.com) that offered to take pictures of my family and our newborn last week.  They turned out fabulous, of course, and I'm super excited about them.  What does this have to do with a cake blog you might be thinking, well I'm getting to that.  I have been wanting to make these super cute flower pot cupcakes.  The other day was said talented friend's birthday and I realized I had the perfect reason to make them.  So far she has only gotten a virtual version on this cupcake because she has been 'out of town' (I put that in quotations because we live on an Alaskan island that doesn't really have towns, but she is at her parents cabin about 40 miles away.  Everyone here just says 'out the road' How do we know what road people are referring to? That's simple, there's only one. Yup. This is why I bake so much). Aaaaanways, It'll still look good when I finally see her, just not sure how great the taste is gonna hold up.  Ah well, it's the thought that counts right?

Texture Cake

There has been a big trend in texture cakes, so I figure I better get on the band wagon and figure out how to make them.  I do actually love the natural look, and I especially love how forgiving they are to make.  Although I'm trying to be more of a perfectionist and really try to make professional level cakes, these go along nicely with what my boyfriend used to call my slogan: "it's not just good.  It's good enough" Cute, I know. 
Here is my first attempt, keep in mind I did most of this with only one hand, seriously.  My daughter likes to nurse or be held 24/7 so I'm learning how to do pretty much anything with one hand, yes I am holding her as I write.  I find that if I put her on her boppy pillow and I lean forward I can do a lot at my table.  I also just used any random cakes I had in my freezer, which explains the slightly odd choice in sizing. 

Cake Batter Popcorn

I'm not the biggest fan of popcorn, but if you add some sugar and butter to it, then ya, I'm into it.  This recipe is cute, and yummy.  My boyfriend thinks I'm ridiculous because if I make a dessert that's too good, I have to throw it away.  Let me explain. I have zero self control when it comes to treats.  If I can't give it to anyone quickly enough I will eat it all, so before it all attaches it's self to my butt, it goes to the can.  I may be ridiculous, says the man who can make a single candy bar last a week, but at least my jeans still button. 

Recipe:

1 box yellow cake mix

1 bag white chocolate chips

2 Tbl veg shortning

1 bag microwave popcorn, or 6 cups popped

sprinkles

1. melt white chocolate

2. add shortning

3. mix cake mix into chocolate

4. pour and mix into popcorn

5. spread over wax paper to cool

6. sprinkle (while still warm)

7. let cool

8. eat

9. hide or give away before eating all!

10. or eat it all....



Butter Cake

With a name like 'butter cake' how could it be bad?  Then when I found a recipe by Momofuko, I knew I had to make it.  This dessert is rich, creamy, sweet, and, yup, buttery.  Basically not the best thing to have in my house when I'm trying to loose my dough belly after having a baby.  But, 'butter cake', need I say more?

Here's the magical recipe:

1 box of yellow cake mix (1 pound)
4 ounces of butter, melted
3 eggs
8 ounces of cream cheese, softened
1 pound (3 1/2 cups) of powdered sugar
1 tsp. of vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8 x 8 inch pan with parchment paper, I was out so I just sprayed pan with oil, worked fine.
2. Make the base first: mix together cake mix, butter and 1 egg.
3. Pat into pan, create an even layer.
4. Make the ooey gooey layer: Cream together the cream cheese, 2 eggs, sugar and vanilla.
5. Pour gooey layer over cake layer, spread to edges.
6. Bake for about 40-45 min or until edges are golden brown, center should be a creamy yet solid consistency like cheesecake or heaven.
7. Cool completely in pan before cutting into 1-inch sqaures with a clean, dry knife. For best square results, pop into freezer and chill before slicing.

Black & White Cake

I've been pretty busy lately and have a lot of posting to catch up on.  This latest cake is one of my new faves, had to get it posted. 

Cookies and Cream Cake

This little cake had several makeovers.  I started off doing a floral technique, but didn't really like how it looked, then it got covered in fondant, then I tore that off and third times the charm, ended up with this sweet little cake.  This cake was being donated to St Mary's to be auctioned off so I really wanted to keep it mostly buttercream.  I think the majority of people don't know what to do with fondant, and I believe for people to want to bid on it, it needs to look beautiful and tasty.

This is a cookies and cream cake,:chocolate cake layered with vanilla bean buttercream mixed with crushed Oreo cookies.  There is a really great tutorial on this flower technique found here http://www.mycakeschool.com/blog/pretty-pink-flower-cake/

A Springtime Cake

I may have had a small break down while making this cake.  I originally wanted to do a basket weave around both layers, but if you don't do it absolutely perfect it will look like a hot mess, which is what mine looked like.  I ended up scraping it off and starting over 3 times.  After that I cursed a little at my boyfriend, freaked out and yelled, (once again at my poor innocent boyfriend) 'why do you let me do this to myself?! I suck! I'm never going to make another cake again!' Then I changed tactics, and pulled off a pretty cute cake.  Cake orders back on. Ha ha ha.  Devin loves it when I make cakes. 
This is a hot milk cake with pastry cream and fresh strawberry filling frosted with vanilla bean Italian buttercream.

Nature Cake

For this cake I had to enlist my oh so helpful boyfriend.  I wanted to carve it into a mountain shape and was too scared to hack into it myself, so I forced my boyfriend to play cake with me.   So I pretty much handed over the knife and let him go at it while I sweated, cursed a little and panicked in the background.  I also only had a day to bake the cakes, make the frosting and all the fondant pieces and put it together, so I was a little frantic.  In case you're wondering what I look like while making a cake, my boyfriend was also kind enough to illustrate for you:

Yup, that's pretty much accurate, except I don't have a goat leg.

Anyways, the cake turned out pretty cute.  I had the hardest time covering it with fondant, and with the time crunch I ended up falling back into my favorite stage, the 'ah fuck it (oh excuse me, but this stage does include profanities), good enough' stage.  There was a very obvious seam in the back and a huge hole on top which is how the mountain got it's very snowy cap.

My Dad kept saying 'wow' and it was the most amazing cake ever, gotta love the unwavering support of the parents!  I thought it was an okay cake.  I do love my moose and wooden sign, it really made the cake I think.

More Truffles

Next week is my best friend's birthday.  I'm super sad I can't be with her while she has her birthday breakdown, happens every year, so I wanted to send her some chocolate to help since I won't be there.  I made my favorite, brownie bon bons.  I wanted to make them extra cute, so I had the idea to make them look like little sundaes.  Put a cherry on something and the cuteness level instantly goes up.

I also made some covered in white chocolate, and some in a peanutbutter ganache (use peanut butter chips instead of white or chocolate chips)

Happy Birthday Anna Banana, I love you! 

I know, I'm kinda ruining the birthday surprise, but it probably won't show up looking this cute so I wanted you to see them before they showed up as a box of crumbs and melted chocolate!

Welcoming Ella Grace

There is a bit of a baby boom going on here in Kodiak, a girl baby boom too.  Maybe it's the cold weather, maybe it's the lack of things to do in the winter, but myself along with several other women here in Kodiak are pregnent, almost everyone having girls too.  My friend Breanna is due with her baby girl, Ella Grace, next month and yesterday was her baby shower. 
I was asked to make my favorite kind of cake; the 'just make what ever you want' kind of cake.  This cake was inspired by a cake I saw on Pinterest, oh what would I do with out this site?
Did I also mention she's a super talented photographer,? See her amazing work! http://www.breannapetersonphotography.com/   She took these pictures for me, so I finally have a decent picture of one of my cakes, so excited!  Thanks Breanna, and I can't wait for girly play dates! 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Secrets!

I learned a trick today.  Ever wonder why the cookies at bakeries look so much tastier?  Weeeell, now I know.  I, along with several bakers out there, have been in search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie.  I have found a really great recipe, the one I used today is very similar to the previous one I have always used, but that recipe is very testy.  It doesn't always come out how I want or has previously.  The secret to a moist and chewy chocolate chip cookie is using more brown sugar then white, adding extra egg yolk, and melted butter.  I have heard that using bread flour makes a chewier cookie because of the high gluten content, but with as much baking supplies I have on hand I never seem to have any of this. 

And the secret to achieving that bakery looking cookie:  Instead of rolling your dough into smooth balls, you want a textured jagged ball.  To make this first roll you dough into smooth balls then break them in half, take the two halves that came apart from each other face them upwards to be the new top of your dough ball and squish the bottoms back together.  Does that make sense?

So instead of this...

Do this....

And you'll get this....

Yum!  I would post a pic of the cooked smooth ball dough to show you the difference but of course the damm thing decided to rebel against me a cook into the most perfect circular cookie I have ever made.  Ha ha, but still I love the textured look of these cookies.  Here is the recipe:

2 cups plus 2 tbl all purpose flour
1/2 tea baking powder
1/2 tea salt
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted then cooled until just warm
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tea vanilla
1 - 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Whisk together (this is a lazy way of sifting I use often):
flour, baking soda, salt
Set aside

Mix together by hand or with whisk in mixer:
sugars, melted butter
beat in egg and yolk, & vanilla

Add dry just until incorporated

Add chips

Do fancy secretive dough balls

Bake 325 JUST until edges set and middle still doughy.  Leave on cookie sheet when you take out of oven, they will continue to cook and set up to that perfect chewiness.  They have to cool completely to be at their best, I know SO hard to do but worth the wait.

Wha la!

Brownies, Reeses Peanutbutter Candies, & Cheesecake. Oh My!

I woke up in a bad mood yesterday.  Then I made the made the most decadent dessert I could think of; a  brownie topped with peanut butter cheesecake topped with chocolate ganache and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.  I think my thighs inched a bit closer after eating this, but I did feel a whole lot better.  The powers of chocolate and peanut butter never cease to amaze me.

It also works well as a cupcake...

 I got the recipe here: pipandebby.com  I didn't add the reeses pieces to the cheesecake, and I used a bit more cream in the ganache.

Buttercream Rose Cake

This weekend is the Give Your Heart to Hospice event here in Kodiak. I am so thrilled to be a part of it.  I was asked to donate a cake to be raffled at the event, and couldn't be happier to do it.  It is Valentines themed so I wanted to try out the buttercream rose cake.  I am absolutely in LOVE with this cake, I hope many others are too and it earns lots of money for the Hospice.

It is a layered chocolate and raspberry hot milk cake with vanilla bean and raspberry Italian buttercream.  The pink was tinted with raspberry sauce, made from just cooking down and straining raspberries.  I don't like using food color in frosting, this tastes and looks so much better.

This is not the greatest picture, I'm sure I could get a better one tomorrow on the glass stand I made for it, but I was to excited to share!

My First Ruffle Cake!

So I have been slightly obsessed with ruffle cakes.  I finally figured how to make them.  Simple really, you just need a whole lotta frosting.  This one isn't perfect, but hey when are my cakes?  Can't wait to make another.  This one was for a Christmas party. It was a chocolate cake with an Egg Nog Italian Buttercream.  I just made my basic Italian Buttercream then added Egg Nog, as much as I could while keeping the consistancy about 1/2 cup. 

A Cowboy Birthday

My little cowboy turned 3 last month (!).  When I asked him what kind of a party he wanted first he said 'a blue one', okay I can work with that, then he said 'and a cowboy one.'  So we had a blue cowboy party. 
I wanted to do something a bit more grand and detailed for his cake, but I was having some serious problems with this one.  Every cake I made stuck to the pans, definitely time for some new ones, so I had to remake all of them which means I ran out of flour, of course.  I also used my Cricut for the first time, which is awesome but took HOURS to get the hang of.  At this point I was sadly over this cake.  I know, I know it's my own son's birthday and I just wanted to run to Safeway and buy an ice cream cake or something (gasp!)

I have to include some party pics cause they are so cute.  All the kids got cowboy hats, mustaches, bandannas, and Sheriff badges, they were so cute!

Super Bowl Cupcakes

I grew up in the Bay Area, so of course I was excited to follow The 49ers successful run this year.  They didn't make it to Super Bowl, I contemplated being a poopy pants and refusing to watch the Super Bowl, but in the end I couldn't resist making some cupcakes and going to a game day party.  I've done the 'hamburger cupcakes' for the last few games, so this year I had to do something new.  Hot Wing Cupcakes.  Ya, kinda grossed me out too, but they were super fun to make and I kinda like the gross factor.  But really, the wings dipped in the buttercream- not all that bad.  The cakes on their own were kinda good too, spicy.  I found the recipe here:  http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2012/01/buffalo-chicken-super-bowl-cupcakes.html  I changed the frosting a bit, adding cream cheese and using half the amount of sugar it called for.