Autumn

I made a few cupcakes over the past couple weeks.  First ones were for a fundraiser.  My lia sophia manager was having a fundraiser for her sister who has lung disease.  They were having a bake sale so I made cupcakes for them to sell. It is yellow cake with buttercream frosting.  The pumpkins are made from candy melts poured into a mold.  Then  I bought some leave sprinkles for the final touch.  Shannon said the cupcakes were a hit!  Good to hear.  I bought the containers at Lynn's cake store, worked perfect for the occasion.

I tried a few new recipes.  I made my brother in law cookies and cream cupcakes for his birthday.  They turned out excellent.  I also made a yellow cupcake with chocolate chips inside.  I think the recipe was okay.  Will try and find a better recipe to use.  I decorated them as pumpkins and acorns. 

The acorns are made from pecans dipped in butterscotch.  I have never tried to melt butterscotch before, a little hard to do.  It did not want to get totally smooth to dip.  Here is a before shot with the tops done.

Lastly, I just finished a carrot cake for a girl at work.  Her sister is getting married this weekend.  They are having all kinds of desserts and just wanted a little cake to cut for pictures.  The bride's favorite cake is carrot cake.  I made this recipe from scratch.  Had to practice a couple weeks ago to see if it was a good recipe.  Turned out the first one I picked was a winner.  It is topped with cream cheese frosting.  Num :) 

I have had fun making all the different cupcakes these past few weeks.  And also the homemade cake.  I am searching for recipes now and will hopefully start to cut back on the box cake. 

I have a birthday cake due in 2 weeks.  Our friend's little man is turning 1.  Should be a fun cake to make.  Till then, have a great day and thanks for looking!

Wedding Bells

This week I had another wedding cake.  I took Thursday and Friday off work to work on it.  I like to have extra time for the big cakes in case something goes wrong and needs more work.  I don't take much vacation so most of it is used to bake :)  I borrowed some mixing bowls from my mom to help the process go smoother.  It was a 4 tier cake with buttercream frosting and a chocolate filling so that is a lot of different mixes going on.  Her bowls were huge, I loved them!!!  I had hardly any sugar spray from them being so deep.  I think I will have to go out and buy a bigger bowl for next time.  Here is a comparison, My bowl is the small bowl (which I thought was a big bowl)  My mom's puts mine to shame.

Like I said it was a 4 tier cake.  That is a lot of cake to mix. I made 12 cakes, 2 batches of buttercream frosting and one chocolate frosting all with a hand mixer.  I have had it for a while and am surprised I didn't burn it out this time with all that.  I went to Bed Bath & Beyond and gazed longingly at the Kitchen Aids thinking how much my shoulder would have loved not to have worked that hard in two days.   I am hoping when we get a house to be able to purchase one.  Right now we just don't have the counter space for one.  Someday......  I used Paul's aunt's recipe again for the chocolate.  It is so bad for you, hence why it is so good.  For you to get an idea, it calls for 2 cups butter.  Yes a whole package!!

The cake turned out good.  I still have some learning to do and am not sure I want to continue with wedding cakes.  They are very time consuming and have to be perfect.  Talk about pressure.  We will see what happens in the future. Here she is:

You can't tell that well in the photo, but the colors are lilac purple and navy blue. 

The next cake I have is in October.  My girlfriend's son is turning 1 years old, so that will be a fun cake.

Till then, hope you all have a great day!  Thanks for looking :)