Tiny Toes Theme Baby Shower Cake

It has been an busy start to the Fall season for me.  This makes three weekends in a row of baking for me.  Remember the friend where I made banana cupcakes for her Bridal Shower and chocolate chip cupcakes for her Bachelorette/Birthday party? Well, this time the sweets are to celebrate her baby shower!  The theme was based off of some party supplies named Tiny Toes with a mix of purple and pink as she is having a baby girl.

I made a mini topper cake using Dorie's Perfect Party Cake recipe as my friend wanted a plain white cake.  This cake was delicious; I love the hint of lemon in it.  However, it was very crumbly when I was cutting it up and serving it.  I wonder if it was because I used milk instead of buttermilk.

The cupcakes were made of the yellow cake recipe I stumbled across when baking with my niece a few months ago.  Don't you just love it when a cake recipe converts to a cupcake recipe flawlessly?  Frosting was a vanilla buttercream frosting; the other half was melted chocolate added to the vanilla buttercream frosting.  Of course, I had to use my Nielsen-Massey Pure Tahitian Vanilla Extract again.  The toppers were pink and purple marshmallow fondant circles imprinted with the letter L for Lea.

Train Theme Cake

Worked on another birthday cake this past weekend.  This time I got to make a cake for a boy turning 3.  I kept this cake a bit more simple by sticking to buttercream and fondant accents.  Also, instead of making Henry the Train out of fondant or whatever, I picked up a toy that he could just keep afterwards.

This cake came together with minimal amounts of hiccups.  If you remember, I couldn't wait to go back to this theme since it was last done for a Cake4Kids recipient.  I made sure that the train tracks made its way onto the board this time.  Also, it was great to have this cake turn out the way I imagined given I also made this boy's first birthday cake.  That cake almost broke me when nothing would turn out as planned.

Cake is 6in (2 layers) and 8in (3 layers) tiers of chocolate cake and chocolate frosting.  I used Pure Madagascar Vanilla Extract in the frosting for the first time and I am hooked on it now.  I wish I had a picture of the inside for you.  I have started to use an Ice Cream Scooper to measure out how much frosting I put in between each layer and it looks a lot nicer now.

Alice in Wonderland Cake

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of making an Alice in Wonderland cake for a 4 year old's birthday party.  I had fun creating subtle references to the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, and "Queen of" Hearts with this cake.

The flavor of choice was chocolate cake with oreo buttercream frosting.  I didn't think to make the oreo buttercream frosting just a filling.  So, this cake is actually filled and crumb coated with oreo buttercream frosting.  It made it a bit difficult to smoothly cover in fondant.

I gave this cake a mini topsy turvy look by trimming down the top tier.  I forgot to place the trimmed piece back on top of the cake to give it more of a slant.  It probably would've gave the cake a bit more support too as the layers of fondant weighed it down a bit.  The wrinkles at the bottom bothered me quite a bit.

Because I didn't want the hat to look squatty; I made it with 3 layer of cakes.  I love the height/look of the cake with the 3 layers.  Going forward, this will probably be the standard for cakes smaller than 6 inches.

Nyan Cat Cake

This cake for my brother's girlfriend was one of my most fun cakes to make to date.  It's based off of the viral YouTube video featuring the Nyan Cat.  True to form, I made sure to use a cherry Pop Tart for it's body which I had a friend confirm that it was definitely a cherry pop tart and not any other flavor.

 My favorite part was waiting for her to cut open the cake to reveal the rainbow center.  I used my go to white cake recipe, divided the batter into six separate bowls, and added a few drops of dye to each bowl.  To save myself time, instead of baking six separate layers, especially given I only have 2 8-inch pans, I layered 3 different colors in each pan.  I made sure to pour the batter of the top layer (red, orange, yellow) in reverse order because I knew I would flip it over when I stacked/frosted the cake.

This cake definitely brought back a lot of cake methods/tools I haven't used for awhile to save on some time as I have been busy.  Come to think of it, I haven't made a decorated cake for quite some time!  I used my tylose powder/water glue to hold the fondant to the pop tart.  I used the paper towel method to smooth the frosting.  I used food color markers to outline the cat for the 8-bit look.  I used my clay tool for all the fondant pieces that required even lines.

Chococat Cake

It's getting a lot harder for me to take pictures in natural light around this time of year!  My brother was taking this cake to work the next morning and I was only able to snap a few shots before bed.

This cake reminded me on how much I dislike using store bought fondant to cover an entire cake.  The last time I covered an entire cake in fondant, I ended up ripping a lot of the smooth edges off my cake and redoing it.  Fortunately, no edges were ripped off but the cold weather made it extremely difficult to knead the store bought fondant.

Cake was chocolate cake with strawberry frosting as requested by recipient.  I hope she enjoyed it!

Hello Kitty Cake - Full Body

Hello Kitty seems to be extremely popular amongst my friends.  I have made Hello Kitty cakes for several birthdays as well as a baby shower now.  This time around, the recipient requested a full body Hello Kitty.  This cake requires minimal fondant decorations; however, don't let that fool you.  It took me a bit of time trying to figure out how to exactly cut out the clothes to cover the fondant body in 2d fashion.  Also, I actually made the body and head separately and placed the two cakes together on the board at the end.  I don't know whether that was smarter or not but it worked out for me luckily.

I got to try out a new recipe combo on this cake as the birthday girl wanted mocha cake and buttercream frosting.  I used this tried and true recipe for cupcakes from Brown Eyed Baker which thankfully converted nicely to cake as well.

Blue Velvet Cake

Given I already done an iPad cake this year, I originally wasn't planning to blog about this cake (hence no pictures besides these ones which were off my friend's camera).   However, after sitting here eating a slice of leftover cake, I knew I had to share the recipe for this amazing blue velvet cake.  It is very similar to my version of the red velvet cake; it's very moist and dense.

I had a lot of bulge the last time I made the iPad cake, so this time, I spent extra time forcing/allowing the cake to settle.  After filling the cake, I took a sheet pan and placed it on top of the cake (protected with saran wrap).  I stood up on a chair and placed as much weight as I can on the cake.  In addition, I left a container of flour and sugar on top of the sheet pan for 30+ minutes while I cleaned up.  This allowed me to scrap off the bulge of frosting before proceeding.

Blue Velvet Cake
adapted from Food Network
Makes 1 8-inch round cake

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp blue food gel paste (2 ounces liquid food coloring)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar

 Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.  Line and spray 2 8in by 2in round circle pans with parchment paper and baking spray.


Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, and salt into a medium size bowl.  Set aside.


Dissolve the food gel paste into the vanilla extract in a small bowl.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, mix until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time and mix well after each addition. Add the food gel paste/vanilla extract mixture; mix well.

Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk.

In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture; mix well.


Pour batter into pans. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely before frosting.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cake

This isn't the fall-esque baked goods I promised; however, it is my brother's birthday today.  As a child of the 80s, there was nothing more fitting than making him a TMNT cake.  Last year, I knew I wanted to make him the Optimus Prime cake but this year I had no idea how to improve upon that. My sister came up with this great idea, even sketching me the picture to follow.  I love that it is very different from the typical TNMT cake.  I am partial to believe she just wanted to make cute fondant animals again given she did an awesome job helping with my last cake.

For this cake, I dabbled with isomalt for the first time.  We used an empty paper towel roll wrapped in parchment paper.  Once the isomalt was ready to work with, we quickly wrapped it around the tube and cut out the paper tube once it set.  Then, we cracked it to have all the ooze spilling out.  The ooze was simply frosting dyed green.

Because I didn't know how else I would write his name in "teenage mutant ninja turtle" font as my sister suggested, I did a frozen butter cream transfer using a computer print out I did of his name in said font.

Additional cake details - The cake was strawberry cake (a mash up/adaptation of my two favorite white cakes, here and here) with vanilla butter cream frosting, covered and decorated in store bought and homemade fondant.

Winter Wonderland Cake

As I mentioned in my previous post, Cake4Kids held their inaugural Cake-Off4Kids Event last Saturday. There were about 50 cakes and 250 volunteers, family, friends, and supporters of Cake4Kids present to help Cake4Kids raise funds for their push to file for non profit status.   Even after putting in a lot of behind the scenes work for this event, I knew I wanted to bake a cake for the competition too.

This 6-8-10 tier white cake (from Baking Illustrated) with buttercream frosting covered in marshmallow fondant is my largest/heaviest/tallest cake to date.

The theme was inspired by my love of penguins.  I had a lot of help from my sister who made most of the fondant animals while I baked a lot of cake.

I have been using A Better White Scratch Cake recipe from Cake Central for over a year now but the recipe from Baking Illustrated is my new official go to white cake.  It was so light and fluffy and moist.  It probably isn't ideal for stacking and carving but given the right support, you can apparently stack anything.  And, in this case, I was able to carve out a portion of it for a slide.  I should've done the cut all the way around but I wasn't sure how it would hold up. Also, I baked the top tier in the Wilton Sports Ball pan instead of carving it for the same reason.

My 8-inch cake pans are actually 8.5 inches in diameter.  Hence, when placed on top of the 10-inch tier, there was absolutely no space to place the penguins.  Not pictured are three of the penguins which I simply had standing around on the back of the cake instead of my planned snowball fight.

My favorite one, if I had to pick, is the penguin making snow angels!  Again, due to lack of space, he had to be on top of the igloo but I think it sort of works.

Transporting the cake to the location 20 minutes away was nerve wrecking.  I have to thank my boyfriend for staying calm and getting us there in one piece.

Taking part in this event, from start to finish, was a lot of fun; the sweetest part was winning the best decorated category!

Desserts for a Bridal Shower

The week following my first wedding "cake", my sister, again, talked me into doing something I have never attempted to do.  I helped her put together SEVERAL different desserts for her friend's bridal shower.  The theme was Fall In Love sprinkled with Disney; given the wedding would be in September and the honeymoon in Disneyworld.  Over a span of two days, my sister and I worked together to make the following desserts:

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Leaf Shaped Fondant Toppers

Lemon Cupcake with Raspberry Frosting

Caramel Apples

Candied Apples

Candy Dipped Pretzel Rods

 Minnie-esque Sugar Cookie Favors (Pictured w/o the Personalized Names)

On top of all of this, my sister with the help of a friend also made all of the decorations; from the banner to the tissue pom-poms to the food label cards with Disney Characters on them.  She even went as far as making leaf shaped tortilla chips!  It was a lot of work but definitely a lot of fun helping put together a full on themed party.

Cupcake Stand Topper Cake

When my sister heard that her friends would be ordering cupcakes with no cake topper for their cupcake stand at their wedding, she offered my services to them.  It was a bit nerve wrecking thinking this was going to be at someone's wedding but it all came together without a hitch.  Cake was 3 layers of chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream frosting and chocolate buttercream frosting.  Entire cake was covered and decorated in marshmallow fondant.  I wish I was provided with ribbons but instead I made fondant ribbons.

In addition to the cupcake stand topper cake, I made over 50 fondant daisies for their cupcakes.  I love how everything looked after the professionals came and set it up with the stand and real flowers.

Elmo Cake

My nephew celebrated his first birthday over the weekend!  Of course, I had to offer to make a cake for the occasion.  When my cousin told me he loves Elmo, I was so happy to get the chance to redeem myself as I made one last year for a friend and the cake was a disaster for me.

This turned out exactly as planned, to a point, thankfully.  This was a standard white cake with vanilla buttercream frosting.  For some crazy reason, I thought royal icing would be a great idea to make Elmo's fur.  I should've stuck to buttercream frosting and a #234 pastry tip.  Also, when I carved out the shape of Elmo's face/head, because I used an 8-inch square cake, I had these straight sides.  So, I fixed that by adding some cake spackle - a mixture of cake and buttercream frosting.  After the crumb coat, you can't even tell.

Batman Cake (Cake4Kids.org)

I finally got a chance to bake another Cake4Kids cake.  I don't think I have made one since January!  This one was a doctored white cake mix cake with vanilla buttercream frosting.  I used a mix of homemade and store bought fondant to cover and decorate the cake.  One of my favorite cakes for this organization to date.  Simple and sweet.

iPad Cake

I can't believe how fast kids are growing up these days.  A year ago, my nephew requested a Spongebob Square Pants cake for 9th birthday.  When I asked him what he wanted me to make for him this year, he replied with an iPad cake and all the apps!

This cake was a white almond sour cream cake (adapted from Cake Central) with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream (adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes).  The frosting didn't hold up well with all of the fondant laying on top.  I noticed a lot of bulging and air pockets later on.  Next time, I would treat it as a filling and use a sturdier frosting as a dam. 

The details were  made with a mix of store bought and home made fondant.  I used royal icing on the cake and an edible food marker on the banner for the lettering.  The bottom was heavily coated with silver luster dust.  I say heavily because I realized too late that I didn't have enough white fondant.  So, I ended up mixing together all my available fondant and I happened to have a lot of pink fondant.

Just like last year, he wasn't shy about pointing out my mistake.  I forgot the camera lens.  But we fixed that by sticking the candle there.  Overall, he was very happy with his cake as I was to make it for him.

A Giant Cupcake Cake

I'm not really sure where this Killer Cupcake is from but it was on my brother's girlfriend's Evite for her birthday party this past weekend.  Last year, I made her the R2D2 cake and Star Wars sugar cookies; and it was my sister's great idea to make the Killer Cupcake on the Evite into a cake for her this year.

I have been waiting for an excuse to make a giant cupcake cake with a candy liner since I've seen it done around the blogosphere.

I've used a mix of blue candy melts and white chocolate bark to make the cupcake liner.  After two coats and 30 minutes total in the fridge, it popped right out of the pan.  Reminded me of the time I made the cupcake bites (cake truffles).

The cake didn't fit perfectly into the candy liner so I did trim the edges a bit.  Because of the lack of frosting covering the bottom layer, I did torte it 2 times and piled the frosting on.

I also torted the top half of the cake, filled, and crumb coated it with frosting before covering it with fondant.  Because the top layer ended up narrower than the bottom with the candy liner, I trimmed the fondant a bit wider to make it appear like the "frosting" is spilling over.

With the leftover batter and frosting, I made some cupcakes as well.  The yellow cake is one of my go to recipes while the chocolate frosting was a new one from Hershey's.  I do not know why it took me this long to discover this frosting.  It is one of the simplest frostings I've come across while tasting so rich and full of chocolate flavor.  Definitely, adding this to my go to list.

UPDATE: The cupcake image which was on the Evite that I was inspired by is by Natalie Dee.

Flower Pot Cakes for Mother's Day

I worked on two cakes this week, one for my Mom and one for my boyfriend's Mom for Mother's day.

Both cakes are chocolate cakes with chocolate buttercream frosting covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.  The "soil" on the cakes is a mix of crumbled chocolate cake and vanilla cake which my boyfriend suggested; how ingenious!

I only let the fondant flowers dry out for a few hours but I suggest allowing them to dry over night in flower formers or egg cartons to avoid looking so flat.  Also, I wrapped the cake vertically in fondant which I noticed later caused a lot of sagging.  Next time, I would cover the cake upside down in fondant then flip it right side up.

SJ Sharks Cake

My brother happened to be attending a birthday party the same day I was doing a demo on how to cover a cake with fondant for the Cake4Kids' volunteers; so, I offered to decorate the cake for him to take with him.

The birthday girl is a huge SJ Sharks fan, so I went with a simple and clean design focusing on the logo.

The funfetti cake (doctored cake mix) with vanilla buttercream frosting was covered with marshmallow fondant and a braid border was added.  The braid was made by twisting two ropes, made with the clay tool, together.

It took me quite awhile to figure out how I would cut and layer the fondant pieces to actually get the SJ Sharks logo to pop.  I'm glad I eventually figured it out.