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 :)

A month of cakes

I haven't been on in a while, sorry :)  I made this cake a few weeks ago.  It was for a couple girls at my work.  Their girlfriend's birthday was coming up and they wanted a funny cake.  I made them a Poise pads cake.  It was pretty funny.  I told them I don't want them to buy me a cake for my birthday :)

I also forgot to post the next cake.  Paul's cousin Tyra turned 17 the end of July.  She LOVES Hello Kitty.  I hear her room is covered in it.  So I made a cake for her.  Simple, but she loved it.

My girlfriend Tessa wanted me to make her a big cupcake cake for her 30th birthday this year.  That was the same weekend as the wedding cake I just did, so I had to tell her no.  We just saw her Tuesday and were seeing her again Friday.  I told her I was baking this weekend and she said she wanted 1 cupcake as a joke.  I surprised her with 1 cupcake :)  I have never done just one before.  It was a little weird to put a whole muffin pan in the oven with one cupcake and the rest water.  She was very surprised and loved it!  I got the idea from mycakeschool.com.  I love her blog and all her ideas!  That is where the grilling cupcakes came from as well.

Lastly, my nephew was baptised today.  Brayden Anthony.  I made a yellow cake with buttercream frosting.  The cross is made from white chocolate melted.  The accents are fondant.  I had a whole other idea in mind and then after the cake was frosted I changed everything.  I think it turned out alright for totally off the top of my head at last minute. 

I believe that is it for now.  I have another wedding cake due in two weeks.  I am about to start buying everything for it.  It will be a simple cake, but like all wedding cakes will take more time and care to put into it.  I will post the progress and end result for you all. 

In the mean time, I hope you all have a great holiday weekend and will leave you with a pic of Brayden after the baptism.

Wedding Bells

This week was the wedding.  I started baking on Wednesday.  Finished baking on Thursday.  6 hours total to bake all the cake.  Thursday night I had all the cakes frosted.  I woke up at 6:30 Friday morning and finished the cakes.  I put on the black ribbon and made the fondant pearl border.

The cake had buttercream frosting, Bavarian cream and strawberry filling inside a marble cake.  I had a little mishap once I got to the hall to set it up.  I am not sure if it was the heat or the ride, but part of the border fell off of the 2nd tier.  I was able to re-attach it.  The lady at the hall assembled the flowers on the cake after I left. 

My friend Jennie loved the cake!  Because I am not a licensed baker they were not able to cut and serve the cake to the guests.  So, a few of us decided later in the evening to sample it.  It was fun.

It turned out very well and I will start thinking about the next wedding cake I have to do in September.  I am not sure how many more I would like to due because of the pressure it brings to be perfect.  We will see what the road ahead has in store.

I have one due this Friday for my great grandma, stay tuned :)

Happy Birthday!

Last weekend was my birthday.  We had a cookout at my girlfriend's home.  I decided to make cupcakes for myself.  I saw the idea and had to make them, they were just so cute!  It was a yellow cake with buttercream frosting.  The hot dogs and hamburgers were nilla wafers with frosting for the fixings. 

When I was at the cake store a lady told me everyone was coming in to buy the push ups. (I sold them half my order of 100 a while back).  She said they were on Betty Crocker website so that is why they were in demand.  When I was baking the cupcakes I wanted to see what the fuss was about.  Sure enough, there they were.  All festive for the Forth of July.  So I said I want to make those!  I had half a yellow cake mix left from the cupcakes so I made some.  There was a very good tip online, to make mini cupcakes for them.  So much easier than what I did before!  I made a 9x13 and cut out the circles.  What a waste of cake I was doing.  So I whipped up a batch and made some of my own.  My blue had a green tint from the yellow batter, but they still turned out cute.

Paul and his buddy, Joe, both turned 30 this past week.  Joe made Paul a beer sign saying "Forcier's Beers".  Paul thought it was the coolest thing that Joe put time and effort into his gift and wanted to do the same.  I came up with the idea for a beer cake.  Both guys love beer and have made it together before.  It was a few day process and Paul helped with all the steps.  The bottle is made from corn sugar and granulated sugar.  You heat it up and then pour into a mold and it makes the bottles.  The ice is the same mixture poured on crumpled foil.  We made the wood sides from fondant.  I scored them and Paul painted on the brown.  We peeled labels off beer bottles and glued them onto the bottle with corn syrup.  Overall it was a great hit!  Joe at one point started to eat the bottle, label and all.

I just finished my girlfriend's wedding cake.  The wedding is tomorrow.  I will post pics of the finished cake after the weekend.  Hope you all have a great weekend!



B & B

I made the baby shower cake. It was a marble cake with buttercream frosting.  The accents are all made from fondant.  These are the colors of the nursery.

I prepped everything for making the cake pops.  Paul and I even found a design to make for them.  I never made them :(  I started to and then lost interest.  I have a 30th birthday cake coming up for a friend of Paul's.  And I will be making him a beer bottle cake.  So I made the sugar bottles today instead :)  Paul helped with the pouring process.  It is so much easier with 2 people doing it.  I made a total of three bottles.  I made the mold last fall out of rubber latex.  I can keep reusing the mold.  It took about 4 days and 15 coats of the latex, but the mold works great.  The bottles are corn syrup and granulated sugar heated up and then poured into the mold.  Since I do not have a dishwasher I had to boil the measuring cup to get the hardened sugar off the cup.  It is a process but they look real. Plus you can smash them just like glass.  Here is a finished bottle.  I cooked it a little longer to give it the dark beer effect.

The plastic and saran wrap is there so there won't be any fingerprints.  The bottle is a little sticky and will pick up prints very easy.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and have a great holiday weekend coming up :)

I'm Back :)

Well, I am back!  I got burnt out this spring with all the cakes I was doing.  I took a much needed month off from baking.  I have a cake due this weekend.  I needed to go to the cake store for a couple items for it.  I walked to the back of the store and inhaled.  That works every time!  The smell of all the candy melts and chocolates back there is so comforting.  It pulled me back in.  I have some leftover cake and am looking forward to making some cake pops for fun this weekend.  It has been a while for that. 

I do have a few cakes coming up in the next few weeks.  My best friend is getting married in 2 weeks and I am honored to make her cake.  I also have a cake due for my great grandma in 3 weeks.  It will be a busy July for me.  I will keep you all posted.

I just got my nephew Jake's first birthday photos and have to share them with you.  It turned out that he really liked the cake and you can see it in the photos.  He is so darn cute :)

How adorable!  I will show you the cake that I am doing when it is all done.  It is for a girl baby shower.  And, hopefully I will have cake pops also to show off :) 
Until then have a wonderful day!