Birthday Cakes Everywhere!!

This first cake was a white cake with rasberry creme filling. I made the marshmallow fondant and had a great time making Nemo and his Dad. My dentist's daughter Nisha turned 2 and loves anything and everything fishy. This seemed like a natural fit. I purposely made the ocean fondant thicker than normal so it would look like water at the bottom of the cake. I also set the cake on a larger cake round to be able to add more things to the "ocean floor." I fashioned a "gone fishing" type sign out of white fondant and wrote "Happy Birthday Nisha!"

This was a birthday cake for a one year old that I know. Ellie was more excited with the fondant #1 than the cake. It was a 3 layer chocolate fudge cake with milk chocolate butter cream filling and icing. The fondant was homemade using the marshmallow fondant recipe that I like so much. I also made coordinating chocolate cupcakes with light pink butter cream and chocolate sprinkles. Eventhough little Ellie was feeling a bit icky from the flu---everyone had a great time at the party!

Lollipop...Lollipop...

I have been blessed with an amazing church...we have a fantastic youth ministry that is growing and changing everyday. This month they are going through a series called "Gospel Journey Maui---the students meet Wednesday and Thursday evenings for a video presentation and discussion. I asked our youth pastor if per chance he would like me to provide snacks for the students and adult leaders----food makes everything more fun...right??

This past week I made rice crispy treat "sushi" --- forgot to take pictures of it!! Yesterday was sugar cookie lollipops----patriotic ones of course! The concept is very simple and can be used with refrigerated dough like Pillsbury or your favorite homemade recipe. Keep in mind that if you use store bought dough it will have more spread. Once you have your dough, dye it with gel food coloring (more vibrant color is achieved that way), roll "snakes" and twist them into one long rope, then coil the rope into a circle. I pressed them down on to the silpat lined cookie sheet to get a better round shape, inserted the wooden stick and then baked at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

To jazz them up and make an easier treat for traveling we covered them with a cellophane bag and tied it with some red curling ribbon.

Happy 4th of July!!!

The "Dude" Cake

We had a unique problem this weekend at Hey Cupcake. I had promised a young man that I would make a birthday cake for him. He as seen some horrible things in his young life and when he asked me to bake him a birthday cake, I was honored. He only had one request, and that was for his cake to be a "dude" cake and not girly at all. Okay --- a dude cake shouldn't be that hard...right??? Houston we had a problem...

Our problem was like an octopus...it had many arms...first I had injured myself the previous week, breaking a toe which made standing difficult. Second, I had had micro surgery on a molar in my mouth the day before, as well as 5 fillings and some reconstruction on my front teeth---translation: I was down. The last two problems were probably the most problematic of all---it was 104 degrees in Sunny Northern California yesterday, making the kitchen were we work in a hot box---not at all the primo conditions for fondant work. The last problem was we didn't have a clue what to make!

After scouring the internet for pictures of what could possibly be considered a "Dude" cake, we sat staring at each other without a clue. I had baked and frosted a 3 layer chocolate cake, it was waiting for us in the freezer. Meg made two batches of fondant...it sat waiting to be colored on the counter. Finally a thought came to us...something not "Birthday" at all...something silly and fun. How about a hamburger...we did have a 3 layer cake, although it was frosted together at that point. We did a bit of cake surgery and split it apart. We both dyed the fondant the appropriate colors and set to construction. It went amazingly well, the fondant was very warm and sticky towards the end...but all in all I think we did a great job.

Happy Birthday Dude!!! Have some cake!!

One Million Little Cakes

In all honesty it was more like 400 little cakes---but after filling, dipping, dipping again and then finally decorating...it felt like a million.

I catered a Ladies Tea two weeks back. Our menu consisted of Crustless Quiche, Petit Fours (lemon, double vanilla & strawberry), fresh fruit, mocha truffles, cupcake bonbons and butter cookies. I found a new love in candy melts---they coat like a dream and are available at my local grocery store in bulk. One problem with them is you cannot use gel or liquid coloring on the white melts---they will sieze---HORRIBLY, I might add. Michaels carried the 3 colors that I needed, other colors are available online. We also made all the top fruit decorations out of fondant. It was tedious work, but they made the petit fours look so much nicer.

After the tea was over, I sat back for awhile and rested, knowing I had completed a job well done...then 4 days later I slammed my foot into the metal leg of our futon...and broke my toe.

Cinco de Mayo...Hey Cupcake Style

Cinco de Mayo was yesterday, I thought I would do something silly and make cookie tacos.

The shells were made from pizelles that we hung over dowels and as they cooled the bent into the taco shell form. For the meat I made a simple chocolate brownie cookie, ground it in the food processor and then added some vanilla butter cream to make it hold together.

Every great taco has lettuce, cheese, sour cream and tomatoes...for the lettuce I rolled green gum drops out with my hand crank pasta roller, the sour cream was marshmallow cream, the tomatoes were cut up Swedish Fish and the cheese was vanilla candy melts dyed with orange coloring gel.

Amazing they were very well received!!

The Littlest Petshop...

Today is a special day...my dear friend Valerie turns 11 years old. Valerie is funny, great to hang out with and really awesome at Wii!! She has lived next door to us since she was about 2 years old, my first memory of her is her constant asking me "What's your Name?"

A couple of weeks ago she was playing Wii while I happened to be making cupcakes. I asked her if she would like me to make her birthday cake, knowing that was coming up quickly. After checking with her parents and getting a design theme figured out ---we settled on the octopus from the "Littlest Petshop" line of toys.

Our octopus proved to be a challenge to make entirely in fondant----so she was first constructed in foil and then covered in fondant. Other than the foil she is completely fondant and edible. Valerie's cake request was simple, vanilla cake, vanilla icing. We decorated the cake with corresponding polka dots and a magenta banner.

Happy Birthday Valerie---you are one in a million!

A Trader Joes Inspiration...

It's funny how sometimes the strangest things become and inspiration. Today I made an 8 layer cake frosted with chocolate buttercream---sort of a knock off of a cake I saw on Bakerella's site back in February. I didn't have enough parchment paper to do all 14 layers, so I made as many as I could...8.

I had originally thought I would frost the cake with buttercream and then add a fondant bow and ribbons, like in the previous cake. I really wanted to give the fondant covered cake another go ---so I made yet another batch of marshmallow fondant and dyed it "Tiffany Blue."

As I was looking around at my horribly messy kitchen I noticed a package of Trader Joe's Blueberry Bran Muffins, the label was blue and brown with a leaf and twig design. I did it in reverse --brown on blue. I am getting a better feel for fondant work---although it still scares me just a bit.