My House for my friend Donna

Donna, here's an updated picture of our house. I received your letter and sketches. Thank you!!! I am so excited to get started. I like what you did with the porch area. By looking at this picture, you will see that we're kinda heading in the right direction. I measured it and it's 8 feet wide. If you click on the picture it will enlarge it for you.

Cupcakes for Benefit

This Sunday my nieces and my daughters volunteered in a special event to raise money for children with Down's Syndrome. They were working the cupcake booth, so what better opportunity to practice some more!
These cupcakes were easy. I used the Cinch cake mix in yellow and chocolate, which are both very tasty. Then I decorated them in three different ways to add a little variety.

Cookie Class Part 3 - Fondant Cookies

Today was the last of our 3-day cookie course. We were asked to bring some cookies, colored fondant, the cookie cutters we used for the cookies, some Crisco and some corn syrup. Getting this ready was a breeze because I still had all the different colored fondant from my daughter's birthday cake. I'm glad I stored it properly in Ziplock bags.
I had never used fondant to decorate cookies and I must say that I was impressed. The result was a neater, more professional-looking cookie.
As additional decoration, we used the royal icing from the 2 day of class.

Sunflower Tuscan Cupcakes

My cousin Marianne enlisted me to make cupcakes for a Tuscan-themed party she will be having to celebrate her mother's and niece's birthdays today. She decided on a sunflower design and I got right to it.
I started baking the afternoon before. A lady from cookie class told me they sold a really good cake mix at Fresh & Easy. So, I stopped by on Friday and I was pleasantly surprised. I got two of their Cinch brand Deluxe Moise Yello Cake Mix for $1.09 each. Then, a few items adjacent to that, I spotted this Fresh & Easy brand Dark Chocolate Cupcake & Cake Mix. Being a mother and wife to chocoholics, I grabbed this one too. I think this one was about $3.
The cupcakes baked really well. They had a different look and texture than the ones I'm used to baking. I couldn't resist and had to taste one. I took one of the yellow ones and was pleased. I could taste the fluffiness of the egg a little, but it was really moist and tasty!
I started thinking these cupcakes would be too plain to just serve like that with icing on top. So, I got to thinking how I could make these "Tuscan." What exactly is "Tuscan"? I did a little research online and finally got inspired. I've never filled my cupcakes before and I had a cake filling I had purchased from Fabulous Cakes. It was this Bavarian cream. I am convinced this taste would go so well with the flavor of the cupcakes.



I wanted to add a little more jazz to it so I took out my handy-dandy Brandy! I mixed about an ounce into the Bavarian cream. I liked the outcome.



I filled my bag with the Bavarian cream and put a filling tip (Wilton Tip 230) at the end. Filling the cupcakes was a breeze! That little tub was enough for all 50 cupcakes!

Next came the decorating. I mixed my colors: golden yellow with a bit of orange to get the rich sunflower petal color; dark brown and a bit of black for the center.

I filled one bag with each color and used a Wilton Tip 22 for the center and a Wilton leaf Tip 67 for the petals. The decorating came very easily.


I packed the cupcakes to-go in my Cupcake Courier. I love this container! It holds 36 cupcakes and the rest I just put in my rectangular cake/cupcake holder. Now, I'm ready to go!

Tried the Cookies at Home

My daughters and nieces are having a bake sale and asked if I'd make something for them to sell. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get some practice decorating cookies.
It was easier because I had some royal icing left over from class. This cookie shape worked really well. My hand was steadier than it'd been before.

Cookie Class

This was a real busy weekend. Not only did I make a 3 tier cake for my daughter's birthday, but I blogged about it during the fact. The party, which was on Saturday, was here, at my house. I did all the shopping and cooking, but my hubby did help with setting up in the backyard (thanks!). Our last guests left just after midnight. I have to say that it was a wonderful evening.
So, what do I have planned for Sunday? Some well deserved R&R? No way! I'm going to the 2nd of my 3 day cookie class at Fabulous Cakes.
This weekend we learned how to color flow on cut-out cookies. Our instructor gave us the recipe last weekend. I had a cookie after class and I've got to tell you - it's delicious!
The recipe is so simple, I will post it but I've got to give credit to Wilton. It's theirs:
1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 lg. egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
3 c. all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with electric mixer or stand mixer. Beat in egg and vanilla. Sift baking powder with flour. Add flour mixture, one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. The dough will be very stiff. Blend in the last of the flour. Do not chill dough. Roll dough out 1/2 inch thickness. Dip cutters in flour before each use. Bake cookies on ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet on top rack of oven for 7-9 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges. Cool completely before icing.
I love going to this class. It's a small one but there are women there that are very talented. I always get lots of tips from them and their work always inspires me. Here's what mine looked like. I know I still need lots of practice, but I'm very eager to do that.

3 Tier Cake Journal Part Five - The Day After

The cake was a great success! We had great food, great company and great cake! What else can a birthday girl ask for?
The night before, I was able to cover tiers 1 and 2 in fondant. I decided to leave the 3rd tier for the next day. I was also able to start on the decorations for both tiers so all I had to do the next day was add the gumpaste decorations I had already made to tiers 1 and 2, and do all of tier 3.
This is how they looked in my fridge.

Here's a picture of the name that will go on the cake. Using a pizza cutter and some gumpaste tools, I freehanded the name on fondant. I mixed a little gumpaste in each color so that it would harden when it dried. Once cut, I painted on some luster dust. Luster dust comes in all colors and adds lots of shine. Oh, it's completely edible, too.



I woke up, fed the family and got to work. On the agenda for today was to first cover the 3rd tier with fondant, stack on tier 2 and then tier 1. Finally would be the decorations.

I started out with a sturdy cake bottom that I purchased at Baker's Bodega in Pico Rivera.

I placed the first tier on there and cut wooden dowels to insert for support.

Next, I placed the second tier. This particular tier needed some fondant stripes all aroud. So, I thought it'd be good to put them on at this time before putting on the top tier.


Once the stripes were stripes were done and more dowels went in, I put on the top tier. The last part was easy! I put on the decorations and this is the end result.



By the way, here's the cake that I used for inspiration:

3 Tier Cake Journal Part Four - Whew!

Ok, I'll back up a little to let you know where I stand. About 45 minutes before I had to pick up my kids at school, I noticed the chocolate cake was not tall enough! I whipped up another box right away and stuck it back in the oven using the same pan and liner I had used previously (sans cake). I just sprayed it with a whole bunch of PAM.
I took the chocolate cake out of the oven and went to pick up my kids at school. When I got back I started cutting each cake and putting the filling in.

There are two ways you cut your cakes. One, you can use a cake cutter. It has a metal string which you can adjust to the size of layer you like. The way I used this time was just using my bread knife. You just have to be careful to go parallel to your workspace.

The filling technique I learned from Wilton was to first go around the entire edge of the cake layer with frosting. This will create a "pool" to hold the filling.

I bought sliced up strawberries with sugar from Costco. My family always likes the taste of white cake with strawberries.


I filled up my first layer, then stacked the second layer and did the pool and fill all over again. Then, I topped it with the third layer.





So, I did the first two tiers with no problems. I iced them and put them in the refrigerator.
Then I moved on to the last tier, the chocolate cake. I started cutting the layers but because this cake is bigger, I had problems. The layers were thin and started cracking. I saved them using my cake lifter (lifesaver!) to stack and unstack the fragile layers.
I put the icing pool in, the fudge I bought at Fabulous Cakes (I'd been dying to use this fudge. I'll let you know how it tastes once we cut the cake). Next, was the second layer: more pool, more fudge. Finally, I stacked the third layer.



That's where I am. I was very surprised that I ran out of frosting with the two smaller layers. I will have to make another 3lb batch, then store the leftovers for another project. Once I'm done icing the last tier I will roll out my fondant, which I dyed earlier in the week, and cover all three.

For now, I'm taking a break. I fed my family dinner and cleaned up the table and kitchen for the next phase...

3 Tier Cake Journal Part Three -Frosting

There's a great little shop my Wilton cake instructor told me about. It's called Fabulous Cakes and Frostings in the city of Whittier. She told me I could find Brite White and this other tub with hi-ratio shortening - that make the most delicious frosting you can make. Another added benefit is if you're looking for a frosting that's super white, this one is it!
I called the store just to make sure and was told to mix it this way:
Hi-ratio Shortening
Brite White
3 lbs powdered sugar
flavorings
2/3 cup water - added little by little

So what you do is put in the big tub of Hi-ratio shortening first and mix.




Then put in the little tub of brite white and mixed some more.




Next, add your flavorings. In my case, I used Mexican vanilla. Then an oz. of brandy - mix again.
Now, little by little, put in your sugar.



When it starts to get too stiff, add some water.
Do this until you've run out of sugar and water.

The result is over 3 lbs of medium consistency brite white frosting!! As you can see, almost half of this 8 quart pot is full.

Oh, I think I hear a ring! YES!! It's the oven. The cakes are ready.

3 Tier Cake Journal Part Two - Baking

It's 11:30am and this is where I am: I made two boxes of Duncan Hines German Chocolate cake mix. Normally, I would not use boxed cake for an event cake, but I don't have a great chocolate cake recipe and I'm in a little of a time crunch.



So, I need to fill a 12 inch round cake pan for the third tier, and I also need a little for one layer of a 10 inch (which will be the second tier).



I sprayed my two pans with PAM, cut round circles of parchment paper to line the bottom.





For good measure, I put extra PAM over the liners.



I poured the mix into the pans and off to the oven they went!




Next, I'm off to make the frosting!

3 Tier Cake Journal

After being away for a while, I've come back at a very busy time. I'm right in the middle of making my daughter a cake for her birthday tomorrow. I wanted to blog about it, most importantly, as a reference for myself. So that next time I work on a cake this size, I won't be running around like a chicken with my head cut off wondering what to do next! Hopefully, this will also give you an idea of how to plan out your own cake.
So, I started a couple of days ago. After dividing and dyeing the fondant, I called my cousin Marianne and her daughter over so that I can get their help with the decorations that will be going on the bottom tier. I got the idea from the first season of Cake Boss. My daughter liked the sweet sixteen cake featured. So we talked about it, and decided on something like it.


Yesterday, I baked two of the tiers but was disappointed to find, only after baking them, that they weren't going to be nearly tall enough to accommodate the type of decorations we were planning on. So, this morning I stopped by Walmart to stock up on more supplies I was going to need.
My plan is to make the top tier a white cake with strawberry and cream cheese frosting filling.
The second tier will be one white, one chocolate, then another white layer with fudge and strawberry filling.
Finally, the last tier will be three layers of chocolate cake with fudge filling.
I plan to finish the baking today, fill them, and give all three tiers the crumb coat of white icing. Maybe tonight I'll cover them in fondant. This way, all I have to do tomorrow is put the decorations and finishing touches.
On a side note, I already noticed something I would do differently the next time. I'll make my frosting a week before to have on hand when I crumb coat my cakes :-)
Wish me luck!

Ladybug Cake for my Niece

My niece's birthday was coming up . I was shocked when she asked me to make her cake, especially since her mom works at Albertson's where she could've chosen any of their many delicious and beautiful cakes.

She told me her theme was ladybugs and that she would like a 3D ladybug on here cake, not just one piped onto it. I was glad she had that kind of confidence in me.

So, I got to work a couple of days before the event on the ladybug. I used Wilton's ball mold for the body and a half of a cupcake for the head. I used a sharp boning knife to shape the half-ball into a sort of oval shape to more closely match the natural shape of a ladybug.

This was my result. I got many compliments. Little did the guests know that the sides of the top layer on which the ladybug rested were only decorated because I couldn't get a smooth finish! I used super-soft icing that just wouldn't stick! I got a little creative and incorporated the "grass" look into the design of the cake and at the same time solved the little problem I was having.