My 1st baby shower cake

Between school and work I have not been great about posting but am going to try to do a better job in 2015 :)  Enough excuses... on to the focus of this post which is the baby shower cake that I had the pleasure of making for my boyfriend's sweet cousin over Thanksgiving weekend.

Jess & Brad are expecting a little boy, Jack, and are planning on a Monster theme for his nursery.  I made a Pinterest board of different baby monster ideas for inspiration.  You can see it by clicking here.

Anytime I get a request for a cake I start a board to gather inspiration.  In this case, Jessica liked this monster cake the best:

I found it on Pinterest but my pin pointed to Arte de Ka for the source.  If you follow the link there are some truly amazing cakes there.

Here is a pic of my attempt which I think is decent considering it's only my 4th fondant covered cake....

If you blow this pic up you'll see some of the lessons learned/mishaps on this one.

1. My middle tier's "ears" are higher.  I tried putting them on the side but that layer was a chocolate box mix and was WAY too soft to support them.  They were fondant and I was using bamboo skewers that I had snipped to length.  I changed to straws and added them at the top for more support.
2. The eye in the middle.  Again, the softer layer and bamboo skewer did not go well together.  Changed the support to a straw and moved it up to let the top of the layer support it more.  Next time I'll use more of a chocolate pound cake for better stability.

The top and bottom layers were "wedding cake" flavor using the WASC recipe on cake central.com.  All 3 layers were frosted with Italian buttercream and covered with Renshaw fondant which I really liked and would be happy to use again.  It was easy to work with right out of the package and was not as hard to get started with.  I couldn't find my fondant smoother so I wasn't able to get quite as smooth a finish as I would have preferred but overall the tiers ended up being nice and straight and I was very happy with it.

Happy baking and please ask any questions.... I'm happy to respond!  :)

Not a cake but.....

Lost and Found... apparently I forgot to publish this.... it's from October of 2013.  Enjoy!

Pioneer Woman's Prairie Sushi... 

Today was a food day at work to celebrate a coworker's birthday.

Normally this has cupcake written all over it but not at this place.  My peeps tend to bring in pre made sugary breakfast items so that any cakes/cupcakes don't get any love.  

In desperation, I appealed to my Facebook peeps for a fresh perspective and some ideas.  My aunt reminded me of tortilla pinwheels filled with a salsa and cream cheese mixture that we used to see a lot at family functions.  

That made me nostalgic so they were the clear winner (another suggestion was banana cherry cupcakes which bear some further investigation at a later date).

Although I was always a fan of the traditional pinwheels, I really wanted to give these an overhaul into something a tad more substantial and sophisticated.

Behold the power of Google.... I found this snazzy little update by the great Pioneer Woman herself http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/05/tortilla-rollups/

TMNT Cake

Last weekend I had the pleasure of making a teenage mutant ninja turtle cake for a 3 yr old's birthday.  

This is only the 3rd fondant covered cake I've made and I think it turned out great but you be the judge!

The buttercream layer before smoothing

Nice Side

Not so Nice Side

This pizza is BY FAR my favorite part of the cake.  The only thing I would do differently next time would be to make the pepperonis lighter and paint them with the darker pinkish red to speckle them.  I adore the black olives and green peppers.  For the peppers, I used my small butterfly cutter, halved them and then used that cutter again to define pepper slices.  

Finished product, sans pizza.  For the turtle heads I used modeling chocolate made with green white chocolate disks.  The masks are fondant.

The completed cake

The fondant I used was a marshmallow fondant.  I used a package of berry blue jello that I mixed in when the marshmallows were melted.  I did that step before I mixed in any of the powdered sugar.  I can't remember where I saw that tip but it was definitely not my idea.  If anyone knows where that originated please comment so I can give them proper credit.

The other thing I did for this fondant is incorporate the "secret ingredient" from The Artisan Cake Company.  Please check her page out, it really worked beautifully and the taste was great.  By the time I was done, it had a very faint berry taste.  I used a 1.5 lb package of blue Wilton fondant and didn't have to add any additional color. 

Also, she says in her video that you can use it right away and she's right.  However, the next time I will definitely give myself more time in between completion and delivery because you could still see some powdered sugar on the pieces.

Hope you enjoy.  I would love to hear any tips or tricks that others use on this type of cake.

Hello Again & Wedding Cupcakes

It's been awhile.  I'm not completely sure anyone reads these so I don't think it's a problem per se but I would like to be more consistent in my postings  Honestly I have not done as many cakes.

I'm not going to lie, I've been pretty discouraged about Kansas' lack of cottage law.  And, professionally speaking, I made a decision to work on my degree which has taken a lot of my time.

The upside is that I've been pretty busy this month and made some wedding cupcakes for a friend and a teenage mutant ninja turtle cake.  The TMNT cake was only my 3rd fondant cake and I think it turned out phenomenal (especially as compared to my 1st attempt - the poor R2D2 failure).

First the wedding cupcakes.

My friend Misty was having a rather large wedding.  Unfortunately I had to decline the opportunity to make the cake.  She asked me originally to do a 3 tiered fondant covered cake that would serve 250.  My tiny kitchen couldn't handle that kind of action.  Eventually we settled on some cupcakes instead. I ended up making 2 dozen each of 3 different flavors & 75 chocolate covered strawberries.  I made Orange Creamsicle, Chocolate with Chocolate Ganache Filling and Peanut Butter Fudge Buttercream, & Chocolate with Chocolate Ganache Filling with Butterscotch Buttercream.

Somehow I managed to not get a picture of the butterscotch ones.  But here's what I did get:

Orange Creamsicle - we sprinkled some shimmery pearl luster dust

Chocolate with Chocolate Ganache Filling and Peanut Butter Fudge Frosting

And now for the whole display put together:

There were a couple of monster berries... we captioned this one as, "One Berry to Rule Them All"

I'm going to split the TMNT cake to its own post... see next :)

German Chocolate Week

This originally appeared on my GinjaCrafts blog here on January 20, 2012

So, this is, apparently, German chocolate week.  Sometime last week I got a Paula Deen article that included a twist on the traditional German Chocolate cake.  It had a buttermilk based chocolate cake, a cream based custard coconut pecan filling, and chocolate ganache.  Last Friday, I got hit up by my sis to make her Dad's b'day cake.  When I heard his fave was German Chocolate, well, ya know.....

I think it turned out to be a passable option.  However, I found it so rich and dense that I couldn't eat very much of it.  Very sweet.  I did really enjoy the chocolate frosting boost from the ganache though.

So, although it wasn't 'bad', it wasn't going to make the keeper file (Sorry Paula!  You know I love ya girl!)  Fast forward to this work's potluck.  What a perfect opportunity for a German Chocolate remake. 

I will start by saying that due to time constraints I went to the box for the cake.  Figured easier and quicker for week night baking and of the pieces I wanted to revamp, the frostings were higher on the list. 

Thus began the internet search for the perfect coconut pecan frosting/german chocolate cake recipe.

This first link get's honorable mention for having an amazing host of yummy cupcakes and ideas.  The Cupcake Project has a great post on German Chocolate cupcakes and although the presentation wasn't my fave, it does include history of the cake (which is because of the chocolate, not the country of origin). 


For my cake, these are the winners!  I'll post later and let you know how it went over with the guinea pigs/coworkers :)

This chocolate cream cheese buttercream won because I thought the tangy-ness of the cream cheese would cut the sweetness of the coconut pecan frosting.  So without further ado - THE Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream (and decoration inspiration) I went with.


The Coconut Pecan Frosting I used was a Martha Stewart recipe.  I have to say - this had the best caramel smell as it was cooking.  Just heavenly!

Blueberry Cupcakes with Meyer Lemon Jam filling and Whipped Vanilla Frosting

This was originally posted on my GinjaCrafts blog here

Apologies for this being late... I saved it as a draft and am just getting back to it....

I can't wait to tell you about these fabulous blueberry cupcakes I took to my friend's house.  His birthday was on January 22 and I was going to his house for dinner.  Knowing he wasn't a baker (to be honest his cooking skills surprised me as well), I asked him what his favorite cake was.  He said he'd been craving blueberry cake with warm cream poured on it.  Well, with that as inspiration I set out to find something that would invoke the essence of that.

First, let me just say that there are not a lot of straight up blueberry cake recipes.  Blueberry muffins, sure.  Blueberry cake... not so much.  I didn't want something as dense as a muffin, I wanted light fluffy cake.  And, although I get that blueberry and lemon pair beautifully, I was very conscientious about making sure the blueberry was the star.  Again, going for berries and cream comfort, not summery blueberry lemonade :)

I ended up deciding on a catering cake recipe I found here. 

As soon as he said blueberries and cream, I knew exactly what frosting recipe I wanted to try.  My friend at work had been telling me about this whipped frosting that started as a roux of milk and flour... that's right folks... I said FLOUR.  That recipe is here.

While on my quest for the perfect blueberry cake, I did come across this blueberry jam recipe to use as a filling.  I couldn't resist :)


Now, I am a gild the lily kind of a person... so I also made some sugared blueberries and candied meyer lemon peel for the garnish.  If you've never done this (I hadn't), just google it - it's super easy.

Sugaring the blueberries involved dipping in a beaten egg white and then rolling around in granulated sugar.  See - not that tough...

The candied peel took a little more effort but was totally worth it.  You basically boil them in a cup of water until soft and then you pull them out and add a cup of sugar.  You bring that to a boil and then add the peel, simmer until translucent.  Strain the peel, reserving the syrup for yummy things like iced tea, and let sit and dry out for a few hours (I twisted mine).  The last step is to roll in some granulated sugar which keeps them from sticking to each other or anything else.  Careful, if you have a lemon fetish like me you might not have any left for garnish!  I could NOT stop eating them!  Pics eventually but for now at least I got the hard bit down and out :)

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cupcakes

This was originally published on my GinjaCrafts blog on 2/8/12 here:

So, what started as a birthday cake has snowballed into weekly cupcakes.. or so it would seem!  Last weekend I made the most fabulous chocolate peanut butter cupcakes.  Why were they so fabulous?  Because, dear reader, they were dipped in chocolate at the end making them reminiscent of the best Reese's peanut butter cup EVER!  I won't reinvent the wheel by reposting the entire recipe when it can be found on my favorite blog.  Visit Jenny's blog for the recipe, stay for the company.

If you aren't following this blog, you should be!  She is so inspirational.  Not only for being candid about being a breast cancer survivor, but for her unique view on the challenges so many of us face day-to-day.  She's open about her struggles, doesn't try to be perfect, but does try to learn from them and share with the rest of us so that maybe we can learn a thing or two about ourselves as well.  Reading her blog is like sitting down to coffee with a friend.  You feel at ease immediately.

Ok - a tad off topic but I seriously love her blog.  Back to the cupcakes!  I made 36 of these puppies and they disappeared in a blink.  I am not even the biggest peanut butter fan and I was in love with this buttercream.  I love swiss meringue buttercreams anyway because they are so smooth and less sweet than american buttercream.  If you've never made a swiss meringue buttercream, be advised that it does take a bit more work but the results are delectably worth it!  Let me know if any of you try it!