Frozen Buttercream Transfer

Cake4Kids held a photography class for its volunteers and I offered to make the cake for the event.  I used the opportunity to practice a new technique and to use my new pastry scraper.  I even piped borders for the first time!

I'm not surprised that the only other all buttercream cake I decorated was a 6-inch lemon chiffon cake I made for Mother's day.  Buttercream cakes scare me more than fondant cakes!  However, aftermaking this particular cake, I am a little less scared.  I love how smooth the pastry scraper got my frosting.  I didn't even have to revert to my go to paper towel method.

So, the new technique I got to practice was making a frozen buttercream transfer.  I love how simple and clean yet fancy the cake looks because of the added touch!




First, I traced a picture of my dog Patches that my brother created for me onto a piece of parchment paper and taped it onto my cutting board face down.


Then, I traced over the lines using the Wilton Ready To Use Icing Tube in black with a #2 tip.

Next, I filled in the picture accordingly with my go to vanilla buttercream frosting using an angled spatula.

Then, I created an additional white border around the entire image to help make it pop once on the cake.

Last, I covered the entire image with frosting; pressing down slightly to remove any air pockets.  I froze the image overnight and the next morning, I placed it onto the cake and the parchment paper peeled right off.

First Birthday Cakes

I don't know what I was thinking. The last time I agreed to making two cakes in one weekend, I told myself to never do that again. I guess I thought I could really do it this time with very minimum stress, hah!!!




The jungle theme birthday cake actually didn't give me too many problems. It was a chocolate cake with oreo mousse filling and chocolate buttercream frosting covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.  All the fondant animals were secured to the cake with tylo glue.  I loved how it turned out!








As for the Baby Elmo theme birthday cake, it almost broke me.  I didn't even want to take a picture of it but in the end I did a quick snap of it in the box right before delivery; hence the bad quality picture.  I went with my go to carrot cake and cream cheese frosting.  The plan was to wait for the cream cheese frosting to crust in order to use the Viva towel method and skip the fondant covering.  I'm one of those that don't fridge fondant cakes and believe anything dairy should be refrigerated.  However, I couldn't get the cake layers on the top tier to stop sliding; so, I just skipped putting it on the cake and focused on the bottom tier.  And then, the carrot cake was so moist and all these crumbs were getting pulled off and stuck in the frosting.  I did do a crumb coat but I was slowly entering the wee hours of morning (and losing my sanity) and probably didn't give it enough time to crust.  I slapped everything on and crossed my fingers that it would stay put.  The only thing I liked about the cake was the baby elmo, the number one, and the sesame street sign made of gumpaste which I made days in advance!

Shelf Stable Mousse Fillings

The carton of Pastry Pride that I picked up contained about 4 cups of liquid and I only used 1 cup for the filling on my last cake.  Because the carton said, once thawed, product keeps fresh 3 weeks in fridge and do not refreeze liquid, I had to do something soon.

Given that it's 90+ degrees in the Bay Area this week (I know, crazy, right?), I decided against turning on the oven and baking a bunch of cupcakes and cakes to fill.  Instead, I made the mousse fillings, sealed them up in plastic containers, and popped them in the freezer for a later time.  I assumed I could freeze it once whipped since it's suppose to be the non dairy, shelf stable version of Cool Whip.

I made oreo mousse filling, cheesecake mousse filling, and kahlua mousse filling.

Step 1: Empty the pudding mix into a small bowl


Step 2: Add 1-3 tablespoons of hot water to form a thick paste and set aside (Note: It should be thinner than as pictured because I ended up with "cheesecake" tasting bits in mine.)


Step 3: Whisk the thawed Pastry Pride in a mixer to stiff peaks
 

Step 4: Spoon a small amount, about 1/4 cup, of the whipped Pastry Pride into the bowl of pudding mixture and stir to lighten


Step 5: Scrape the mixture back into the bowl of whipped Pastry Pride


Step 6: Mix until combined
 

Blue Daisies Birthday Cake

I made this cake by request for my brother's girlfriend for her Mom's birthday.  She asked that I incorporate her Mom's favorite things: flowers, the color blue, and chocolate cake.


This became my favorite cake to date as I was finally able to replicate a design from the book, Sweet and Simple Party Cakes and work with a filling besides buttercream. Two things that has been on my list to try for quite some time now.

The cake was covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.  For the flowers, letters, and butterflies, I made them the night before to allow them to dry out.  Unfortunately, the day of, I realized that the larger flowers wouldn't work and had to remake a bunch of smaller flowers.

I made my go to chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream frosting but it was the oreo mousse filling that took it to another level.  I finally got a hold of Pastry Pride, a non dairy whipping cream, from Smart & Final out here in CA.  This allowed me to make a shelf stable filling which I adapted from Cake Central.  The possibilities are endless as long as you can get a hold of a box of Jello pudding in your flavor of choice or extracts to flavor the vanilla one.  I can't wait to try the white chocolate, cheesecake, pistachio, and butterscotch flavors.