Christmas Time is Here

Well it's that time of year to get into high gear and bake! Thank goodness for me, I don't have much baking to be done! My cousin requested a cake for her preschool class Christmas party and seeing as I have been dying to try out some fondant work, I thought, hey this is a great opportunity to do so!

I wonder what's inside?

The picture above is probably one of my favorite cakes I have made to date. It is a 3 layer yellow cake with regular buttercream icing. My red is not as red as I hoped, but I still love it and it wasn't difficult at all! It was pretty heavy to carry but completely worth it!

For the bow, all I did was roll out my fondant pretty thin and using a pizza cutter, cut thin strips. I attached them with piping gel and put a toothpick in them to make them stay up. (Don't worry, the toothpicks were removed when the fondant dried).

This is the extent of my Christmas baking, but I will later post the sugar cookies my mom makes every year, they are awesomely decorated!

It's Not Always Sweet...

Hello once again. Sorry it has been so long since I last posted. Here's what's been happening:
I've definitely cut back on making cakes since class has ended and it's given me a nice little break and a time to recuperate. I had my first official cake making job for one of my good friend, Megan Radowick, for her 24th birthday!

Me and Megan posing w/ the final cake!

I had huge plans to make her an awesome red velvet cake that I found from my moms old home-economics recipes with cream cheese frosting and cool music notes going all around it! I couldn't wait to start! I got home that week and made my cakes, froze them, and planned to decorate the night before I had to deliver. I get home and immediately greeted with my mom saying that it's not thick enough. I had to make a whole other cake to add some thickness to it. I whip up the cake and start making icing. I soon realize that the cream cheese frosting is not thick enough to do anything on it. At this point, I was frustrated that I already had to make another cake. I begin to frost the cake with the cream cheese icing anyways! As I'm in the middle of frosting, they start sliding off. The middle layer turns to mush and completely falls apart while I'm frosting the cake. At this point I'm so frustrated I almost started crying. I make some buttercream icing, take off the 2 salvageable layers that I have and frost it and put it together. As you can see in the picture above I got a new toy for my fondant. It basically is letter cookie cutters, really fun stuff! After all this it turned out and although I wanted to make something a lot more awesome, I need to realize my skill level is still quite novice. Megan and her family enjoyed the cake which is truthfully, the goal of every cake!

Now that the holidays have arrived I will be baking up a storm, as will my mom. She will be making her famous decorated sugar cookies. I will definitely blog about that!

The Grand Finale!

So last night was my third and final cake course with the Wilton decorating class. (There's another one coming up in February that I can't wait for!) Anyways, we had to design a final cake covered and fondant. We got to create whatever we wanted. I chose zebra stripes for some reason. I figured it would be easy, and it was.

Pink zebra cake. Inside is red velvet with butter cream icing.

I decided to create my "zebra stripes" in pink because I didn't want to stain my hands in black. I think it turned out pretty cute though.

Top Angle

I do have the bow that I just need to assemble to place on top, but I like the simplicity. I could always make a mini cake to place on top and give it a finished look, but for the time I had, I think it looks nice.

Well from here on out, all cakes/creations will be purely for fun and not "homework"

Spooktacular Cakes!

I didn't realize how long it's been since my last post. My deepest apologies. Not much has been going on these past few weeks in the world of baking, unfortunately. I have started my third and final Wilton Cake Decorating class which deals with Fondant and gum paste. (Our final is tomorrow!)

Anyway, Halloween was a few days ago so I decided to make a throwdown graveyard cake for my parents Halloween party. It turned out ok. Seeing as it was a thrown together cake, I can't complain.

Spooky graveyard!

I did a basket weave for the sides which turned out messy seeing as I was rushing myself. Any who, this was the creation! The tombstones were made from Milano cookies dipped in candy coating that I colored. I call this the lazy way since the other way involves candy molds etc. and I just don't have the patience.

A closer and fuzzier view of the graveyard.

My favorite thing about this cake would have to be the grass. It's so easy to do and actually looks like clumps of grass, which I think is awesome!

Vamanos!

Well, course 3 has begun and we're working with fondant. There's nothing to show so far but next week there will be!

Today I made a Dora the explorer cake for a friends party. I used the Wilton cake pan or else I would've been lost! Aside from her skin color being a little too dark for me, I think it turned out pretty nice for my first try.


Side note, I hope to never use this pan again, crazy hard!

Busy Baking Week Ahead!

It's a busy week ahead in the world of baking for me. Cupcakes for work, cupcakes and a Dora cake for Sunday and I can't wait! I'm a bit nervous about the Dora cake since it's something I've never done before but I'm up for new challenges. Also, cake decorating course 3 starts! This course is going to focus on fondant and gum paste, let the fun commence!

(P.S. I will be updating after all of these things are finished, just so excited I wanted to share them now!)

Maybe after my course 3 I could do this!

Cakes, Cakes, and More Cakes!

This week I've actually had a break from cake decorating class which is actually giving me time to catch up on what I've done so far.

Springtime, in September.

This is a cake that I made for my aunt Sheila's birthday. Just a plain vanilla cake, she can't have chocolate, with the Wilton buttercream icing. Once again the flowers on top are hershey kisses. The cake was a hit among the family.

The only problem I've been having with my cakes is moistness. Luckily I found a recipe (try www.hellmans.com) that keeps your cake moist for forever!

A field of flowers

The next cake shown below I actually got paid for! I guess I'm official. It was a cake for my mom's work. The flowers above are made from royal icing which hardens and turns into candy. They last forever!

Top view

Side view

Here's the final product. The plan was to make a 2 tiered cake (similar to a wedding cake) but I had enough from the 10 in pan.











The side view shows I still have some work to do with my icing, but believe me, this is better than it was 2 months ago!












Finally, here is my cake final for the Wilton cake decorating course.

Perfect day for a picnic!

This is the basket weave method. It is perfect for the sides when you actually want to put a lot of work into it! My hands still hurt from making this!

Sorry for such the long post but we're all caught up now! Let the creativity begin/ continue!

Kolache Queen

When I was in high school I always wanted to learn how to make kolaches. Not the ones with sausage, those are pig in a blankets. My grandma, my mom, and aunt were terrible at it. One day I found a recipe, baked them, and viola! They were good! Since then I've always wanted to enter a kolache contest and this past summer, I did. I won 3rd place out of 15 entries! Considering it was my first time to do so I thought it was awesome! I even made it in the local paper. Definitely a plus! I cannot wait until next year!

All hail the kolache queen!

My awesome certificate!

No autographs please!

These bad boys beat out a bakery's Kolaches!

Ready, Set, Bake!

A month or two ago a friend of mine talked me into taking a cake decorating class. I had the basic skills in cake decorating (frosting a cake) and figured why not, let's do it. Here we are two months later and I am completely addicted now. I always enjoyed baking, but now my stuff actually looks decent. I want a place to share my creations with everyone in hopes of one day become good enough to start selling cakes.

Here's my first creation:

My first cake creation inspired by Katy Perry's California Dream's Tour.

The cake above was my final cake for course one. Not completely perfect, but I'm still learning. The border is tie-dyed which I love and is not difficult to make at all. Like the caption reads, I got my color inspiration after seeing Katy Perry in concert.

Bake sale anyone?

Creation #2l:

I'll admit it, I got a little sloppy on the slides with this one. Besides that, I liked this cake a lot. It reminds of something you'd see the Stepford Wives bring to a bake sale. The roses on top are made from Hershey Kisses believe it or not.

This is just a taste of what I've created. I can't wait to share more of my creations, recipes, and techniques with everyone!