Back to Baking

After a few crazy weeks of work and not much baking, I was finally able to devote a few hours to my kitchen this weekend. I'm happy with my "core" recipes - recipes that I LOVE - but I'm always on the lookout for new things to add to my repertoire. Tried a few new things this week:

1. Covering cupcakes in fondant. These came out pretty well for my first try! It's not terribly hard to do. I ran out of time for decorating ... but they're still cute and delicious!

Chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing and fondant, with fondant flowers:




2. Pastry Cream

Perhaps more so than cake flavors, I really want to expand my offering of cake/cupcake fillings. I saw a recipe for raspberry pastry cream this week, and just had to try it.

The pastry cream itself is really easy to make. You basically add boiling milk to a mixture of egg, cornstarch and sugar, heat until thickened, and then add a bit of butter and vanilla. Once it is chilled, I added some seedless raspberry puree that I made. It is VERY raspberry! Alone, it's a bit on the tart side, but when paired with a sweeter cake, it's absolutely delicious. This white cake is definitely one of my favorites.

Raspberry Cream Cake - White velvet cake with raspberry cream filling and buttercream icing:




I also made some more chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream yesterday:

Homemade Cupcake Wrappers

Cupcake Wrapper Tutorial can be found HERE!

Inspired by Nicky from Small Things Iced (I LOVE her gorgeous cupcakes!!), I decided to make my own cupcake wrappers last night. I recently ordered some of the fancy laser cut ones, and while I like them, I can't say that I love them as much as I thought I would. They are pretty, and really make cupcakes look elegant, but they are really expensive for what they are ($1+ just for one!).

I bought a bunch of nice card stock and some scissors that cut fancy edges, and went to work!

I'm still getting used to cutting straight lines with the fancy scissors, but these aren't bad for a first try! They are time consuming to make ... but so worth it. These are closed with a little tab in the back just like the laser cut wrappers.

Birthdays, Christmas, and Cookies

Whew. It's been a really, really busy week. I've been baking pretty much non-stop since Sunday afternoon. Dog biscuits on Sunday (my dog *loves* them, and I've heard that a few other doggies do too! Who doesn't like peanut butter flavored treats?!), 3 kinds of cookies on Monday, and 8 cakes between Tuesday and now. I am SO ready for a nap! This is going to be a really long post, just to warn everyone!

Starting with the birthday cake that my friend Jenni made for me (thanks SO much Jenni!!!):


The cake was 2 layers of chocolate with a layer of vanilla cake in between, chocolate raspberry ganache filling, chocolate buttercream, and fondant roses and leaves. Yum! Check out her blog, All Things Jenni - she makes some really great cakes, tarts, sushi, etc!

Holiday Cakes:

Carrot cake with cream cheese icing and fondant bow:


Chocolate cake with buttercream icing and fondant bow:



I unfortunately don't have a picture of the cake I made for my family's Christmas dinner, but it was a white cake with chocolate filling and frosting, dusted with confectioner's sugar. It had a really nice texture and flavor.

Birthday Cakes:

Chocolate barbie princess cake, with buttercream frosting, fondant dress, and gum paste flowers:



The following present cakes are for a 1st birthday party for twin girls. The tiered carrot cake is for the adults, and the 2 chocolate cakes for the birthday girls!

2-tiered carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and fondant bow and flowers (the lighting is a little off on these 2 ... the frosting isn't quite as yellowy. I need a better place to take pictures!):


Top view:


Side view:


Chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and fondant bow and flowers:


Side view:


Chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and fondant bow and flowers:


Side view:


Fondant flowers drying:


Bow loops drying:


Cookies
A small break from cakes! I sent a bunch of these to California with my boyfriend. I hear they are pretty delicious :)

Chocolate espresso snowcaps, ready for the oven:


Chocolate espresso snowcaps, ready to eat!


Snickerdoodles:


Chocolate chip cookies, ready for the oven:


Chocolate chip cookies, ready to eat!


My kitchen is finally starting to look "normal" again ... The amount of powdered sugar, butter, chocolate, and many other ingredients that I have gone through this week is simply astounding. I even tried my hand at making my own fondant, which was surprisingly not all that hard. Takes some practice to get the consistency right I think (mine was a little bit on the dry side), but it'll be really nice to be able to make chocolate fondant and other yummy flavors.

On a sad note, my trusty Cuisinart handmixer died this week. I was making buttercream in a metal bowl, and pushed down a little too hard - one of the beaters jammed against the bottom of the bowl. So sad. So, I've been using my Kitchenaid much more this week. I am learning what speed to beat/mix/etc - it's taking a little time. Might be just about time to invest in a second mixer bowl, and a grater attachment (let me tell you...hand grating 6 cups of carrots with the little teeny holes of my grater isn't exactly easy!).

After a nap this afternoon, I'm going to plan what's next. I just can't seem to leave my oven off for too long ... :)

Make way for ducklings ...

Lots of 1st birthdays lately! This week I got a request for a duckie themed cake and cupcakes. I'm really, really happy with with way things turned out.

Chocolate cake with chocolate filling, buttercream frosting, and fondant decorations (bow, dots, bubbles), and a real rubber duckie:



Side view:


Warning: the following content is extremely cute!

I haven't done cupcakes for a while - but after these cute little things, I think I'll be making them more often! I'm really happy with how they came out, particularly the fondant ducks. They weren't even that hard to make! The first time I looked at them all together, I think I giggled almost non stop for about 10 minutes...they're just that hilariously cute.

Chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting and fondant ducks:



Duck close up, front view:


Duck close up, side view:


Ready to go, in a cute cupcake box :)

Impossible is nothing

So, I'm working on a project for a certain company at work, and I thought it would be fun to make a branded cake for the team to celebrate the last day we'd all be together at work before today's snowstorm/the holidays. And I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with the result!



It was a red velvet cake with buttercream frosting and fondant logo. And it went *fast* at work. All I had to do was stand in the hallway with the remaining 6 slices of cake after my team had some, and all of a sudden it was gone!

Oh and by the way ... the performance and style logos are next!

I really do need to find some smaller cutting implements. My gum paste tools aren't quite sharp enough for the precision that this required ... so I opted for a small paring knife. A little bit scary. As soon as the holiday shopping madness calms down - I'm going to have to go in search of some new cutting implements!

Working from home today, waiting for the snow. I have a cake and cupcakes to make for a 1st birthday party this weekend; what better way to spend a snowy night than to make fondant duck cupcake toppers? :)