Lego Star Wars Cake

In a workplace far far away.... I was asked to do another Lego cake! This time I was asked to do a Lego Star Wars cake for a nine year old's birthday. Since I have a Star Wars groom's cake in talks right now, I thought this would be a good starting point!

The client asked for an eight inch round chocolate cake with an edible death star topper and the Lego Star Wars logo on the side. They also were going to supply me with some little Star Wars Lego men to put on top. Now some people are talented enough to sculpt these babies, I am not included in this group of talented people! So plastic will do just fine!

The first challenge of the cake was the death star. I decided to use a rice krispies treat base covered in modeling chocolate and finally covered in fondant. Then finish decorating with fondant pieces. I whipped up some rice krispies treats and shaped them into a ball. I let the ball sit overnight to harden. Then I made some modeling chocolate and covered the hardened treat. The modeling chocolate layer helps create a smooth base for the fondant to lay against - don't want a lumpy bumpy death star! Finally I covered it in fondant. This part went pretty well. The death star was looking pretty impressive in my book for a first time attempt of working with rice krispie/modeling chocolate/fondant sculpture.

Then came the decorating.... nightmare! I couldn't get the fondant to go on a sphere and line up! So I decided just to mix it up and put different sizes on there to hide the fact I couldn't get any straight lines on this thing! I wasn't too pleased with the final product but everyone (even non-Star Wars fans) could identify what it was so I decided I was judging myself too harshly. Final touch was the "death ray." I simple took a plastic straw and cut half of it into pieces I could stick around the death star crater. Props to my friend Mike for brainstorming with me at work on this ingenious idea!

Once that was complete, I baked up two delicious eight-inch chocolate fudge cake layers. Whipped up some blue buttercream frosting and put the cake together. Then I attached the death star with some dowels to stabilize and added some "stars" with white pearl sprinkles. Then it was time to do the logo!

I found a copy of the logo on the internet and printed it the size I wanted it. Then I cut out all the pieces and used them as templates to cut out and piece together the fondant logo. I have a crafting knife that is specifically for projects like this. You need something sharp and clean to make exact cuts into the fondant. The logo turned out awesome! It was seriously my favorite part of the cake!

I especially liked the Lego symbol. I almost didn't do all the layering of the colors for it - boy am I glad that I changed my mind!

I attached the fondant logo to the cake with some more blue buttercream frosting. Then I piped a traditional border around the bottom, added a few more stars and positioned the storm troopers on top. It was complete! Definitely going to need to work more on this modeling medium. Thank goodness I have a few months to practice for the Star Wars themed groom's cake! Of course I'm going to need him to settle on a design to be able to practice...

So that's all for now. I hope that everyone has wonderful holidays and a stupendous New Years! Next cake on the books is a Care Bear Cake for my adorable niece's fourth birthday. See you in the new year!

Rice Krispie Treats Cupcakes

My daughter, Lana, is three years old and in her first year of dance class. She takes ballet once a week and absolutely loves it. Her ballet class is having a Christmas party this week and the parents are responsible for bringing in goodies to share with the class. I wanted to make something that tied Christmas and ballet together so I decided to make these cute little cupcake treats!

When you are making baked goodies for children there are several things that need to be considered. Allergies being the most important to think about . Young children who have allergies are not always old enough to think about what they are getting ready to put into their systems. Peanut allergies, soy allergies, there are a ton of them to think about! I thought Rice Krispie Treats would be a perfect treat that I could make little hand friendly as well as tummy friendly!

The Original Kellogg's Rice Krispies Treats Recipe

(from the Favorite Brand Name Bake Sale Cookbook)

3 tablespoons margarine

1 package (10 ounces, about 40) regular marshmallows or 4 cups miniature marshmallows

6 cups Kellogg's Rice Krispies Cereal

Vegetable cooking spray

1. Melt margarine in large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.

2. Add Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal. Stir until well coated.

3. Using a buttered spatula, press mixture evenly into 12 cupcake cups coated with cooking spray. Let cool.

4. Once the bars are cool, remove each treat from cupcake pan and place into a cupcake liner.

5. Decorate!

I decided to decorate my cupcake treats with two-toned buttercream frosting and sprinkles. I wanted to tie in a little ballerina (pink) with Christmas (peppermint swirl). Happy holidays everyone!

Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes with Browned Butter Frosting

I am on a new mission. To discover the most delicious cake flavors, frosting and fillings in order to make my cake creations as tasty as possible! I have about a dozen cake books and magazines featuring all kinds of sugary goodness. I decided to grab one and start from the beginning - making all the recipes that I think would work well in a very diverse taste test group (thank goodness to all my family, friends and co-workers)!

First on the list was Mexican Chocolate Cake with Carmelized Sugar Frosting. I had never made this type of frosting before and it looked glaze-like in the photos so I decided to switch it out with some Browned Butter Frosting for some stability. I had planned to place a seashell chocolate garnish on top and needed something I knew wouldn't slide!

While we are on the subject, let's talk garnishes. The joy of cupcakes is their vastness in garnish ability! From exquisite chocolate curls to simple jimmy toppings and complex fondant modeling - the possibilities are endless! I want to experience it all! I went for the simple chocolate mold garnish this time but watch out! The more cupcakes I produce the more toppings I get to experiment with (and being a biologist in real life you know how I love to experiment)!

So what makes a chocolate cake a Mexican Chocolate Cake? A small addition of cinnamon to the chocolate cake batter! The cake ended up being really moist with a hint of the cinnamon. And Browned Butter Frosting? If you haven't had it yet - make it now! A little goes a looong way! Super rich but super worth it! These were so fun to make that I even got my daughter in on the decorating. Here's a picture of her super cuteness for you. She had just decorated a cupcake and held it up and said "Mommy, it's my first cupcake!" We were both so proud :)

Here's the recipe for all of my fellow baking comrads!

Mini Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes

(from Betty Crocker's SuperMoist cakes  for all occasions publication)

1 box Betty Crocker Supermoist devil's food cake mix

1-1/3 cups water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 eggs

1. Heat oven to 350F. Place paper liners in mini cupcake pan.

2. In large bowl, beat cake ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Divide evenly among cupcake liners. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

3. Frost cupcakes with Browned Butter Frosting (recipe follows). Top with a fun garnish!

Yield: 6 dozen mini cupcakes

Browned Butter Frosting

(from The Cupcake Bible)

Melt 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir until light brown. Remove from heat, let stand 10 minutes. Combine browned butter, 5-1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup milk, 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla and 1/8 teaspoon salt in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add additional milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, if frosting is too stiff. Makes about 4 cups.

Lego Cake

So I got the order for this cake on Thursday. Sort of a last minute thing. A guy who I work with has a son who is turning eight today. He had gone to several grocery stores asking for a Lego Cake but they all told him that they didn't do custom work. They wouldn't even make a cake and plop some Legos that he would have provided on it! A little ridiculous if you ask me. So he was discussing this problem at work and another guy who I am making a cake for in December sent him my way. At first I thought... I have one day to make this cake... I better do it up simple. Maybe one large Lego? That would be easy enough, right? And then I remembered the candy blocks at the Amish market and all the cool Lego cakes I have seen online. I could do better than that! Of course the first thing I did was ask the guy for artistic leisure on the design. He gave me the go ahead! Then I called up my husband to make me a stencil Lego pegboard to make the top of the cake. I was inspired!

Unfortunately the next day my daughter got a nasty stomach virus. The poor kid got her first unpleasant experience of regurgitation... in the refrigerated section of Walmart. So this cake was a lot harder than it should have been. I was shaky on the actual plan of attack and was running back and forth to check on my daughter and try to coax fluids and Tylenol into her. By the time my husband got home I was completely frazzled! I finally calmed myself down and thought - what is it I want to do with the design? I wanted to build up a Lego wall around the cake and then have the top appear to be a flat pegboard for further building. I also wanted it to look like it was under construction. Little Lego men builders and such.

First I frosted an eight-inch square chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. Then I tried to "glue" the bricks to the side. No good. Then I tried building the wall into the side of the cake. No good. By this time it was 7:30pm and I was really beginning to panic. I had no Lego cake and I had to drag my butt into work the next day! I took a breather and vented some frustration to my husband who quickly jumped into action and went to buy me some Lego construction pieces. It was just enough of a break and vent session for me to get it together and decide a new plan of attack. Build the wall first and then slide it up against the side of the cake. Eureka!

Of course I left one wall slightly undone... for two reasons. First of all... I ran out of candy blocks - but it worked to my advantage because I wanted the cake to look like it was under construction. So I tore down part of one wall, using some of the blocks to finish the edging on the cake and others to sprinkle around for the loader construction vehicle. Next I rolled out some green and brown fondant and used the stencil that my husband made for me to make it look like pegboards. Then I put it on top of the cake with the dump truck. Finally I spelled out the birthday boy's name with some more of the candy blocks.

And there you have it. A Lego cake. I think this design will go a lot smoother (and neater) now that I have done one and know what I am doing! It would be fun to do some different ones and customize it to the type of Legos that the birthday child likes! I also think that Lego cupcakes would be amazing! I just hope that it blew the socks of the birthday boy! I don't have much experience with designs for boys but I definitely would like to have some more in my cake portfolio. I have another Lego cake on the books for December. We'll see how that one goes! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

Apple Cider Cupcakes

 

It's official. I have gone cupcake crazy! Mini cupcake crazy to be specific. I, like most people obsessed with baking, have tons and tons of cake recipes that I am just dying to try. Cakes, cheesecakes, cookie cups - you name it! But I am shy about baking all that delectable goodness. Cakes go to waste at my house. Three people just don't want to eat a cake every week... or even every month! Family and fellow employees are always willing to take some off my hands but the transportation is a nightmare! So how will I ever get through all these delicious recipes to weed out the good from the bad? In cupcakes of course!

I know that they take a little more work to bake and decorate each individual cake but in the long run it is a win situation. First of all cupcakes are baked in liners making clean up much more efficient. Second they are already "pre-portioned" to take the leftovers to work the next day (I find most people shy away from cutting a piece of cake but cupcakes are a nice grab and go for people). Not to mention decorating is a lot easier and I can eat a single serving to see if I like the recipe or not and then give the rest away. All in all... I totally get the cupcake crazy right now!

This week I tried Apple Cider Cupcakes. This recipe calls for an apple cider spiked spice cake topped with apple cider buttercream frosting. The spice cake is really moist. I would recommend using paper liners instead of foil. I used foil and the cakes were popping out of the liners before I could get them frosted! The frosting was a little tricky as well. The cider does not blend well with the butter until you get some of the sugar in there. Make sure you use all four cups of the confectioners' sugar! I somehow forgot the last cup in mine and my buttercream frosting was a little soupy and impossible to pipe onto the cupcakes. It was still tasty though!

Apple Cider Cupcakes

(recipe from The Cupcake Bible)

1 package (about 18 ounces) spice cake mix

1-1/4 cups apple cider

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts, plus additional for garnish

Apple Cider Frosting (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 24 standard (2-1/2-inch) muffin cups with paper baking cups.

(For mini cupcakes: Line 6 dozen mini muffin cups with paper baking cups).

2. Beat cake mix, apple cider, oil and eggs in medium bowl with electric mixer at low speed until blended; beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Stir in 2 cups chopped walnuts. Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.

3. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

(For mini cupcakes: Bake 10 minutes and cool in pans for 5 minute before transferring to wire racks).

4. Prepare Apple Cider Frosting; frost cupcakes. Garnish with additional chopped walnuts.

Makes 24 cupcakes or 6 dozen mini cupcakes.

Apple Cider Frosting: Beat 1/2 cup (1 stick) softened unsalted butter and 1/4 cup apple cider in medium bowl with electric mixer at low speed until well blended. Gradually beat in 4 cups powdered sugar until smooth. Makes about 3 cups.

I wanted to make my cupcakes a little more fancy so instead of the walnut garnish, I cut out some maple leaf and acorn nuts out of refrigerated pie crust with some wonderful pie crust cutters that I got for Christmas a few years back (they are from William and Sonoma and I love them!). Brushed them with an egg wash to get that nice gold color and popped them in the over for 13 minutes at 375 F.

And there you have it. Beautiful fall cupcakes made easy! Enjoy the leaf piles and wonderful weather now - winter is fast approaching and holiday baking is soon to commence!

Martha Stewart Style Halloween Cupcakes

First of all I would like to say that I know it is technically November and I am posting a Halloween-themed dessert. Due to Hurricane Sandy our Halloween Farm Party got pushed back a week. The hurricane wasn't too awful in this area, we did have three or four leaks in the house, and lost power for 2.5 days, but I was thankful to still have the house mostly intact and everyone safe and sound!

So have you ever seen those annoyingly perfect Martha Stewart-style cupcakes? You know , the ones that are all individually decorated with perfect embellishments that are probably made just for her show and don't exist in the real world? I have always wanted to make those types of cupcakes! And it just so happens that I stumbled across some fancy Halloween sprinkles at William and Sonoma on sale when I was out for my birthday a couple weekends ago! It was time to get down to business!

I choose to bake mini cupcakes instead of regular ones. Our farm party was for the kids and since they are all on the younger side right now - mini is better. I mixed up a batch of yellow cake mix which ended up making about 6 dozen cupcakes. Then I tinted up some buttercream frosting and got to decorating!

I choose purple frosting since most of the sprinkles were white, orange, green and black. It contrasted nicely. I used a large swirl flower tip to get a nice base for the decorations. The Halloween sprinkle kit had bones, bats, large pearls, regular sprinkles, large dots, bat and pumpkin sprinkles - it was awesome! And even after 6 dozen cupcakes I still have some left over for future Halloweens!

They turned out so cute! The kids and parents enjoyed them and I even had enough leftovers to take a tray of them to work the next day. Work people are always appreciative of left-over baked goodies. One thing I do not lack is taste-testers for all my creations!

I wish I had gotten some better pictures of them on the cake stands. I didn't even get a chance to snap a photo of the fancy cake stand I borrowed from my Mom for the party! Oh well, I am sure she will let me borrow it again for another creation! Another baking wish to cross off my baking bucket list!

And now comes my favorite time of the year! Holiday Baking!!! Stay tuned for more deliciousness!

(PS - I'm staying strong on the diet! Down six pounds and hoping to get through these next few months dropping some more! I have gotten extremely picky with my deserts since I can only have one a week. Forget Snickers bars and Oreos - I need cheesecakes and gourmet cupcakes if I'm going to waste calories!)

Truffle-Filled Cupcakes

 

So I saw this recipe by William and Sonoma for truffle-filled cupcakes. The idea was basically to bake a cupcake, insert a truffle while they were cooling and then frost them and add chocolate curls as garnish. I really wanted to try it... with a couple tweaks of course. First of all... I am on a diet. I know, I know. I am a baker. How on earth does a baker diet while baking deliciousness all the time? Easy. We cut out soda, replace chips and fries with veggies and allow ourselves one over-the-top delicious sugar-filled treat a week. 

This was my week for truffle-filled cupcakes.

So I baked up my usual white cake recipe cupcakes. Cut out a small hole in the tops when they came out of the oven (I have seen those fancy cupcake-corers in the William and Sonoma stores but I just used a good old-fashioned orange juice sipper). The William and Sonoma recipe called for their cupcake recipe but it had a lot of William and Sonoma specialty products that I was not willing to drive the hour it takes me to get to one of their stores and then pay ridiculous prices to use a tsp. here and a tbsp. there - never to use again!

I baked 18 cupcakes. I stuffed half of them with a dark chocolate Lindt truffle and and the other half with a white chocolate Lindt truffle. Then I let them melt into the cupcakes until they had completely cooled. A huge dollop of buttercream icing late they were looking a little... plain.

What could I do to make these bakery worthy cupcakes look the part? Well I needed some way of differentiating the dark and white chocolate apart so what better way then to garnish with another delectable truffle? And who doesn't love jimmies?

 

So there you have them. Be warned they are rich. I certainly had my sugar fill of the week from a single cupcake. Had trouble sleeping that night. That's what happens when you keep sugar from the system and then shell-shock it with one of these bad boys. As for the other 17... some very lucky family members and co-workers will be enjoying them. I am on my diet after all.

Under the Sea Cake

My little girl is turning three! And since she is obsessed with everything aquatic these days (especially octopuses, whales and sharks) my husband and I decided to throw her an Under the Sea themed party. I decided to do an ocean-themed cake with edible chocolate sea life critters. I was stumped on the topper for awhile. At the last minute I decided to take the leap and attempt some 3-D modeling. It took two tries and some rearranging of body parts but I think the end result was pretty awesome. Her little toy octopus was quite easy to accomplish. Here's a closer look at the two.

The 3-D chocolate molds were pretty easy but painstakingly long to make. Melting each color, painting it and refrigerating between each layer took so long. The end result was totally worth it though! If you ever make these, make sure that you make them in advance - this is not a last minute garnish! My favorite one was the starfish so here's a closer look.

So here is the deal for making this cake. Lana requested "pink" cake so I baked up two eight-inch yellow cake layers for the bottom layer and two six-inch strawberry cake layers for the top layer. I always bake my cakes a few days prior to construction so they are completely cooled when I decorate. If I am using buttercream frosting, I double-wrap the layers and place them in the refrigerator. Cold cake layers make a lot less crumbs than room temperature ones do. If I am using fondant I double-wrap the layers and let them stay at room temperature. Fondant has a nasty habit of bubbling out if you cover the cakes when they are cold. Always let the cakes completely cool before wrapping or you will get gummy cakes. Not what we want to deal with.

Next I made the candy plaques. I went to Michaels when they had their Wilton candy melts on sale and bought just about every color they had. Then I melted the colors as I needed them, "painting" in the candy cavity details first, and then filled them with the base color. (More detailed instructions of this process come with the purchased candy molds). Very slow and tedious. And yes, it is necessary to chill between each color or the colors will blend. The brushes that come with the sets are not very fine-tipped so I went ahead and picked up a painter's brush set while I was out. Made it a lot easier to do those teeny tiny details! This set was also set up to have the candy be on lollipop sticks so it was easy to put them on/in the cake. I had some plastic sticks which held up great. I would worry about paper ones getting soggy if the cake is made too far in advance.

The topper is a 3-D model made from gumpaste and fondant. I used instructions that I had from a British- based cake decorating magazine. Lots of cake decorating books have instructions in them for this process. I need a lot more practice and I feel it is something that you really just have to work at and get the feel for it. I was never good at sculpture work in art class. Actually I was never really good at anything in art class! Hopefully I will improve as I continue to practice. The construction of the cake is pretty simple. Stack cakes. Base frost with blue frosting. I left it looking messy to try to simulate the feel of water. The "sand" is vanilla wafers that I threw into a Ziploc bag and crushed with a rolling pin. Then I stuck my ocean critters around the cake, piped on some sea plants and plopped little Lana and her octopus on top. And that's how you do it. Simple, right? Happy Third Birthday Lana! Daddy and I love you so much!

Kung Fu Panda Cake

Everybody loves kung fu fighting! A girl that I work with has a daughter that turned two today. Her daughter, Sammi, is completely obsessed with Kung Fu Panda. The theme for her second birthday cake was a no brainer. I searched online for some ideas of a simple double layer 8" round cake design. My co-worker went through the designs I found and settled on this cute version with the movie title spin.

Now I do not pride myself to be any type of sculptor. I actually claim to be a rather terrible artist who just happens to know how to manipulate cake. So this cake design made me excited but extremely nervous. A lot of times with these well known cartoon characters the intention is good but the outcome is less than desirable. It's not just enough to make a cute panda on a cake, there is the pressure to make it look like the beloved character that the child is expecting to be gracing their birthday cake. And believe me, they know the difference!

First I baked up a layer of yellow cake and a layer of chocolate cake. Then I mixed up some buttercream frosting and dirty iced the layers. Usually I make my own fondant but I decided to do the purchased fondant for this particular cake. Two reasons why:

1. Bought fondant comes in true black and true red, nearly impossible colors to make at home.

2. Store-bought fondant is firmer than homemade, making it easier to cut out and construct the panda.

So I covered the cake in the true red fondant and then began constructing Po the panda. First I found a drawing of Po in one of his kung fu poses. Then I sized and printed it to fit on top of the cake (leaving room for the writing of course). Then I took tracing paper and traced each part of the panda. I used these as templates to cut out the different pieces of the panda. Then I put him together like a jigsaw puzzle, adding some 3-D elements to give him more dimension. The belt was made by putting thin chunky strips of fondant in alternating colors, rolling it flat and cutting out the belt. The patch was put on top of his pants and "stitched" on with buttercream icing.

Last but not least I cut out the message and piped a matching yellow border around the bottom of the cake. And there you have it - Kung Fu Panda cake! I love how it turned out. I especially liked Po's face. I think it was a pretty close likeness. At least everyone at work was able to tell who it was when I delivered it today.

It was a good start in learning how to sculpt characters. I will definitely need a lot more practice before going fully 3-D though! I hope that the little birthday girl likes it and has a great second birthday. Happy Birthday Sammi!

Now it's time to start concentrating on my own little girl's big day! She's turning three this year and I'll give you three hints to the theme of her party... sharks.... dolphins... and octopuses!

Apple Streusel Ice Cream

I have a confession. I have never made homemade ice cream before. I have seen it done several times but have never paid attention to the details. I probably should have. Especially since my sister-in-law, Abi, and I chose a rather impressive recipe to begin our ice cream making skills with:

Apple Streusel Ice Cream

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons plus 4-1/2 teaspoons cold butter, divided

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 cup chopped peeled Golden Delicious apple

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

ICE CREAM:

1-1/4 cups milk

3/4 cup sugar

1-3/4 cups heavy whipping cream

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 jar (12 ounces) caramel ice cream topping

For streusel, combine the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl; cut in 3 tablespoons butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in pecans. Press into a 9-in. pie plate. Bake at 350°for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are browned. Cool slightly; break into small pieces. Cool completely.

In a skillet, melt remaining butter. Stir in the apple, sugar and cinnamon. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until apple is tender; cool.

In a large saucepan, heat the milk to 175°; stir in sugar until dissolved. Cool. In a large bowl, combine the milk mixture, cream and vanilla. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Fill cylinder of ice cream freezer two-thirds full; freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions. Refrigerate remaining mixture until ready to freeze. Add apple mixture to each batch of ice cream; freeze 5 minutes longer.

Spoon a third of the ice cream into a freezer container. Top with a third of the streusel mixture. Drizzle with a third of the caramel topping. Repeat layers once. Top with remaining ice cream. With a spatula, cut through ice cream in several places to gently swirl layers. Cover; freeze overnight. Garnish with the remaining streusel and caramel topping.

Yield: 1-1/2 quarts

Abi and I started the ice cream on Thursday night. We baked up the streusel and sauteed the chopped apples in a butter, cinnamon and sugar mixture. Last but not least, we mixed up the vanilla ice cream ingredients and popped them in the fridge to chill overnight. Friday night we got together to freeze the vanilla ice cream. We read the ice cream maker instructions and decided it wouldn't be too bad. Put the ice cream mixture into the cylinder, place the cylinder into the bucket, fill bucket with layers of cold water, ice and rock salt per instructions and turn on for 50 minutes. Plain and simple, right?

Forty-five minutes later I began to get concerned. The ice cream maker instructions said that it usually will turn itself off once the ice cream is done. And since the mixture we put in only filled up half the cylinder I thought that it would get done in about 30 minutes. So I turned off the ice cream maker and lifted the top to find.... soup. The mixture hadn't frozen at all! Abi and I (both being ice cream-making virgins) were unsure what our next plan of attack was going to be. We finally decided that maybe we put too much cold water and not enough ice and rock salt around the cylinder so we dumped and started over again.... and after a few more set-backs we finally got it up and churning again. Fifteen minutes later we checked again and.... we had partially frozen ice cream!!! We put the apple mixture in and let it run some more. About fifteen more minutes went by and the ice cream maker shut off. We had our ice cream!!!

Final steps - took out the apple ice cream, layered the streusel and some caramel filling through it, swirled it with a knife and popped it into the freezer to freeze overnight. And now for the big debut....

Gorgeous, right? Looks like it was scooped out of a Edy's carton. I'm sure that it will taste way better though since it is homemade! Abi and I sampled a tiny bit last night and I think I can safely say from the taste test that it is pretty amazing. Sort of a apple crumble a la mode. Will definitely be making some more ice cream recipes before the summer is out!

Ooey Gooey Blonde Brownies (also known as Butterscotch Marshmallow Brownies)

The original name of this recipe was Marshmallow Brownies but after making them I felt this was not an accurate description of this delectable concoction of butterscotch, chocolate chips, marshmallows and walnuts! First I whipped up the batter which ended up looking a lot more like gooey cookie dough or seven-layer bars filling than brownie mix!

Then I smooshed it into a glass baking dish and cooked it according to the directions. I tested them with a toothpick (which came out clean) so I took them out and let them cool completely before attempting to cut them for our company that was arriving for dinner that night. About five minutes before company arrived, I decided to slice some up and get a few pictures. But when I tried to take them out of the pan they were just a big ooey gooey mess! I had a minor panic attack thinking that they weren't cooked! Fortunately after some inspection (and taste testing) I found that they were cooked just really chock full of all the ingredients which led to a delightful and delectable chewy blondie brownie filled with chocolate chips, gooey melted marshmallows and walnuts. Therefore I decided to rename them as Ooey Gooey Blonde Brownies.

I highly recommend eating these brownies with a plate and fork (although if you do pre-cut them they will crust up a little around the edges so you could eat them by hand). Here's a copy of the recipe:

Ooey Gooey Blondie Brownies
(Butterscotch Marshallow Brownies)

1 cup (6 ounces) butterscotch chips

1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 eggs

2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups miniature marshmallows

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

In a saucepan over low heat, melt butterscotch chips and butter; cool for 10 minutes. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar and vanilla. Add butterscotch mixture; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to batter and mix well. Stir in marshmallows, chocolate chips and nuts. Spread into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Bake at 325° for 25-30 minutes or until brownies test done with a toothpick. Cool before cutting.

Yield: 3 dozen

Later this week, my sister-in-law and I are going to get together to make some homemade ice cream. After that I have another cake on the books! Stay tuned! 

Oatmeal S'more Cookies

I finally got my Mother's Day present! A classic KitchenAid Mixer! I got my cookbooks right out to find something to make with it and test it out. I thought cookies would be a good start since they are simple but require thorough mixing... and Lana can help too! I got all the Taste of Home June/July issues that have been collecting dust on my bookshelf out and promptly found a recipe for Oatmeal S'more Cookies. Sort of a chocolate chip cookie that gets some oatmeal, chocolate chips and mini marshmallows tossed in to resemble the campfire favorite. Here's a copy of the recipe if you would like to try them:

Oatmeal S'more Cookies 
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup miniature marshmallows

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, shortening and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in oats, chocolate chips and marshmallows.

Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 11-13 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 1-2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

Yield: about 6 dozen

I loved how when they cooked the marshmallows on top of the cookies got brown and bubbly like a roasted campfire marshmallow! It made seven dozen batches so I packed up a few dozen and sent them to family members for taste testing. Now lets see how much of a dent I can make into my massive dessert recipe collection...

Pink and Zebra-Stripped Cake

I did a Hello Kitty birthday cake about a year ago for a little girl who is the daughter of an old high school friend. She's turning six this year and knew exactly what themed birthday cake she wanted this year - hot pink and zebra-striped! I have seen how to zebra-stripe fondant on several shows and tutorials but had never attempted to do it myself. Here was the perfect opportunity!

I started out by baking two 8-inch by 2-inch yellow cakes and two 6-inch by 2-inch chocolate cakes. Then I made two batches of fondant - one white and one as bright pink as I could. I'm not sure how they get hot pink so I just had to do pink. Note to self to experiment with that later. I bought the black fondant because it is impossible to get true black unless you purchase it. I made the topper first because it needed to dry for a couple days to stand on top of the cake. I cut the 6 out with a cookie cutter and then laid it on top of some black fondant, cutting a background 6 (freehand-style) with a cutting wheel. After it had dried for 12 hours, I flipped it over and attached a lollipop stick to the back with another piece of black fondant.

I covered the chocolate cakes with pink fondant; zebra-striped the white fondant with black and covered the yellow cakes. My husband helped me stack the cakes and then I just decorated! I cut the A out with a craft knife and homemade template (also compliments of my husband). Last but not least I bordered the edges with a fun "party hat ruffle" and attached the happy birthday banner.

This cake was a lot of fun to make. I learned a lot about covering cakes with fondant:

1. Just crumb coat the cakes you are covering. Too much icing will cause the cakes to be lumpy and the fondant to stretch, tear, slide and get goopy. Technical, right?

2. Only use as much fondant as you need to cover the cake! Using too much will just cause frustration. You won't be able to roll it out to the appropriate thickness and the weight will cause it to tear when trimming the edges.

3. When zebra-striping fondant, make sure that you cut the strips thin and you add them before rolling the fondant too close to the appropriate thickness. If you add them later, they will not form a uniform piece!

I am very pleased to say that my goal of drawing conceptual cakes has been progressing. This cake is proof of that! Of course I did not design the cake (I was sent a picture of the style and just tweaked it to fit the birthday girl) but it is a great start! Happy 6th Birthday Aryn!

PS ~ My mixer is still broken but thankfully I have a great mom who let me borrow hers to help make this creation happen! Brave woman with my history of mixer damage! I'm glad to say that the mixer was not harmed during the making of this cake :)

Fancy Recipe Cakes

My sister's birthday is here! I gave her a choice this year - a fancy decorated cake like she usually gets or a fancy recipe cake that would taste amazing. She choose the latter. So I busted out my Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan and looked up the recipe for a Black-and-White-Chocolate Cake. The recipe is for a delicious concoction of yellow buttermilk cake filled with layers of dark chocolate cream and white chocolate whipped cream and then friosted with the white chocolate whipped cream. I had been wanting to try it for while - so excited!

I made the cake layers no problem. Dark chocolate cream? Check. White chocolate whipped cream? Oops. My mixer broke! It was a disaster! Luckily I had some leftover buttercream frosting from a cake I had made the previous week so I filled the cake with the dark chocolate cream filling then frosted the cake in buttercream and decorated with a dark chocolate drizzle and sprinkles. It tasted delicious but I'm definitely going to have to retry this recipe once I get a new mixer! Josh and I have been married for almost eight years and I have broken three mixers in that time period. It may be time to shell out the money for a KitchenAid mixer...

Pink Ombre Cake

 

So ombre cakes are all the rage right now. In case you're not a cake world groupie like myself, ombre is a fancy word for graduated color. So when it was time for me to make a 21st birthday cake for my sister-in-law, I knew it was time to experiment with some color. My sister-in-law is as crazy about this style as I am and is always sending me pictures of beautiful ombre cakes she finds on the internet. I had some leftover pink fondant from the first birthday cake that I made earlier this month so I decided to go with a pink theme. First thing that I needed to decide was the type of flower I wanted to put on the cake. Since my sister-in-law is turning the big twenty-one this year I wanted to make something soft, elegant and grown-up. I decided on dogwood flowers because they were big enough that I wouldn't have to make a hundred of them to cover the cake and have a nice elegant look to them.

I made four different shades of pink, from almost white to a nice medium pink. I mixed some white gumpaste into the pink fondant to make the colors and to help them dry so they wouldn't droop on the cake. I only have three flower forming cups so I made three flowers a night for four nights in a row. It really helped me focus on getting them just right! Next I baked up three paisley chocolate cakes and then I mixed up about 18 cups of frosting. Way too much frosting! But it is better to have too much than not enough - it is hard to duplicate a shade if you run out. I'm sure it would be impossible when dealing with a graduated color cake! I stacked the cakes and frosted them with buttercream, light at the top and dark on the bottom. Then I mixed up some of the layer icing to make sure the borders added to the ombre effect. Last but not least I attached the flowers, starting with the darkest and ending with the lightest on the bottom.

Then I took a whole bunch of pictures because I love this cake! One of the better ones I think I have done up to this point. I put my camera into color accent mode for this last picture to really show of the color of the icing as it gradually goes from light to dark. It turned out beautiful. Happy birthday Abi! You have become a beautiful young lady over all the years I have known you!

Peyton's First Birthday

Last Sunday I received a phone call from my husband's best friend's wife asking for a first birthday cake for their youngest daughter, Peyton. May seem like a little late planning at first but the real deal was that they had tried to contact a bakery to do the cake several times and the bakery never returned their phone calls. Bummer. But at least I got to do the cake! I hadn't done one in awhile so I was gunning to get creative. I baked two 12" by 18" cakes (one chocolate, one vanilla) and frosted the entire thing in BC frosting. Peyton's mom had sent me a photo of the napkins she had bought for the party and I pretty much took the design and transferred it to the cake. Kneaded up some MMF, colored it according to the design and cut it out into cute shapes to decorate the cake. Then I made a mini version with the birthday girl's name on it and presto - cake and smash cake for 60 first birthday party-goers done in less than a week! I was pretty impressed with the turnaround on it myself, especially for how large it was in the end. Coming up at the end of the month is my annual back-to-back sister birthday cakes - stay tuned!

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not Cake

 Valentine's Day practice cake complete! It's amazing how all the work that was put into this cake ended with a mere 20 minutes to put it all together into this beautiful creation! Let me go over the things that I have accomplished (and the things I have learned) from this cake...

1. Gumpaste Roses: I had an earlier post on these so I won't do a big repeat. Mission accomplished!
2. Covering cake boards in fondant: Originally I thought this was the stupidest thing ever so I refused to do it. Thought it was a waste of time, fondant and energy. I was wrong. I am trying to "up my game" as a decorator and that includes presentation - the cake board being a huge part of that presentation! I have tried covering cake boards in wrapping papers - no good. The grease from the cake and icing seeps into it. Fondant is sturdy and can be colored/ decorated to match the theme of the cake. Will be doing future work (and more challenging designs) with this.
3. Covering shaped cakes in fondant: Not that hard. Same as any cake - take your time and smooth from the top down!
4. Quilting: Going to need some work on this one. Pressure is key to making it look even and purposeful. The sides of the cake really need to be thought through to know which lines cross. The sides of the top of the cake turned out beautiful since that was about the point I figured out what I was doing... will be practicing more in the future since I really liked the end result.
5. Piped ruffle border: I practiced this one a lot on wax paper beforehand. I knew I was using black icing and there was one chance to get it right. Beautiful! Will be using a lot in the future! Next time I think I will try also piping over the top line with a bead border to give it a really finished look.

All in all a successful practice cake. Got to do a self-designed, simple yet dramatic cake. The color scheme is one I had been wanting to try for awhile now. Simple bold colors that really gave a clean professional look to the finished product. I chose to name this design the "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" Cake. Valentine's Day is definitely a holiday that brings on high emotions in both directions. I wanted to create something that included everyone in this holiday whether it was an I never want to forget or I can't wait to forget this day!

Monogrammed Snowflake Brownie Cupcakes

So we have a family dinner every Saturday night in my family... or I should say families. We rotate every other weekend between my family and my husband's family. This weekend is my husband's family's weekend and I was asked to bring something sweet. I wanted to stay away from Valentine's Day since I already have a cake in mid-design so I decided to do one of my favorite things - snowflakes! Lana and her cousin Elise just learned all about snowmen at the library this week so I just decided to keep the theme going :) Lana and I whipped up a batch of triple chocolate brownie cupcakes. Then I cut out some snowflakes and embellished each one with the first initial of a dinner guest. The extra cupcakes were topped with a secondary snowflake. Monogramming is very in right now (especially for weddings) so I figured this would be a good thing to have in my cake portfolio :) Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... cupcakes of course!

Let Them Eat Practice Cakes!

The practice cake has officially begun! Here are the finished roses that will be the main focus for my February practice cake! What is a practice cake? It's a cake that lets me practice all those techniques in cake decorating that I have been dying to try! Since I don't have any cake orders this month it is the perfect time to create and execute a self-designed cake. My husband has been urging me to do this for the last 6 months. Since it's the only way I'm going to advance my cake decorating skills, I have finally seized the opportunity. Back to the roses... I am really happy at how they turned out. The roses themselves were not hard to do but the stems were a completely different story! My husband challenged me to forgo the traditional green paper wrapped floral wire and instead cover the wires in gumpaste to make the flower look uniform. It took several attempts to achieve this. And I don't even want to talk about attaching the leaves! Hopefully I will either get better at it over time or discover an easier way to accomplish rose stems and leaves. Stay tuned for the finished cake later this month!

The Challenges of Gumpaste Flower-Making...

This weekend I had some time to try fashioning some gum-paste roses. I have never made them before but would like to put some on the practice cake I am planning for February. They are a lot harder than I was expecting. I have made roses before using fondant but the gum-paste just seemed to be so much harder to use! It dries out a lot faster and the "glue" to hold them together is terribly messy. Above is the end product to my first attempt. I used the single petal method to make this rose, the Wilton instructions and I weren't getting along. I liked the color that I made but wished it had leaned more to the pink rather than the purple as it dried. The end rose wasn't exactly what I was shooting for - I wanted the rose to be more open - so the next morning I did another attempt...

 

I tried a marbled delphinium blue for the second flower. I left it slightly unmixed to give it a marbled, highlighted look. Very natural affect in the end I think. I attempted the Wilton method again and this time it sort of worked. This flower unfortunately  was dropped , crushing the center, and then I smashed it trying to get the petals higher than the middle part. Although I think I figured out the Wilton method this time around, I was not happy at all in how it turned out so I tried one more time...

Third time's the charm! This is how I expected the flowers to look using the Wilton method! Although now after all the work I think I prefer the first single petal style. This method gives the rose a more natural look but the single petal method gives it that crisp look - a clean perfected flower to place on a cake. This last rose gave me enough practice to really know how to soften the petal edges though and which sides to place on the flower to have them curl towards the center or away from the center. Hopefully my flowers for my February cake will be successful!

Jungle Dirt Cups

Not only did Elise get a super awesome Go Diego cake for her birthday but I also made her some jungle themed dirt pudding cups for our family birthday celebration. I simple whipped up some dirt pudding, spooned it in between two layers of Oreo crumbs and then slid them into some jungle cupcake wrappers and topped them off with giraffe toothpick toppers. Simple and easy, yet looks like you fussed!