Buttercream Ruffle Cake

After much success with my strawberry cake recipe last week, I went ahead and made the same cake flavor again for my cousin's birthday cake.

When my husband and I sampled the extra cupcakes, we both agreed that the taste and texture was just as good as the last time.  Since this cake was for my cousin, I was able to stick around and taste the actual cake as well.  Unfortunately, the cake was dry and dense; not like the cupcakes at all.  However, I suspect that the cake was not as moist as I anticipated because this time around, I grabbed a container of nonfat yogurt instead of full fat yogurt.  This would definitely make a difference in moisture.

To decorate the cake, I went with a popular buttercream technique that I have seen on Pinterest.  After crumb coating the cake, I scored lines up and down the side of the cake about 1 inch apart to make sure my ribbons would be the same size as well as straight all the way around.  The ribbons were made using the #104 tip with the smaller end facing out.  I ran out of frosting or else I would've added at least a quick border around the top of the cake.  For the lettering, I used my candy mold again to keep it simple and clean.

Spiderman Cake (Cake4Kids.org)

This Spiderman cake was for another Cake4Kids recipient.  I used the frozen buttercream transfer technique to make Spiderman's face as I only had a few hours after work to put it together.  My sister helped by using candy melts in my new ABC mold to write our "Happy Birthday Jose" while I was at work.  I love how clean it made the cake; it looks ten times better than my piping skills.  This will definitely be a new go to technique for me.

The cake flavor request was for strawberry cake and I was excited to give this cake flavor another go.  I have tried recipes with strawberry jello, strawberry puree, and strawberry yogurt but I couldn't recall an absolute favorite.  This time, I used an adaptable white cake recipe as the base and substituted the sour cream for strawberry yogurt and gave it a boost of strawberry extract.  My sister, who sampled the extra cupcakes, deemed it the best strawberry cake ever!  We now have a new house favorite.

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.

Spongebob Squarepants Cake

My nephew loves Spongebob; so, I had to try and make him a cake for his 9th birthday.  Because it was for family, I experimented with new cake flavors.  It has a layer of vanilla cake (from Annie's Eats), strawberry cake (adapted from Cake Central), and Sylvia Weinstock's yellow cake (from About.com: Home Cooking).  It was frosted with swiss meringue butter cream (adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes) and then covered in marshmallow fondant.

I must've done something wrong as the yellow cake recipe did not win myself nor my sister over.  However, we loved the vanilla cake recipe!  If I can't get my yellow cake recipe right, I might make this my go to.  I almost got my strawberry cake recipe down, too.  I just need to go and buy some strawberry extract to boost the flavor a bit.  I didn't like the italian meringue butter cream I made last time but this swiss meringue butter cream is a bit tastier.  It's still an acquired taste as I'm so used to the sweetness from an american butter cream.

Can't wait to see my nephew's face when I show up with his birthday cake, later today.

UPDATE: My nephew pointed out that I forgot to put the red and blue stripes on Songebob's socks!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I would eliminate the refrigeration after the crumb coat to see if my cakes remain moist.  Well, I needed the frosting to firm up a bit before applying the fondant so I did end up putting it in the fridge.  However, I made sure to saran wrap the cake first and I didn't leave the cake in the fridge that long.  The cake was just as tender/moist as the day I made them.  Success!

Strawberry Chocolate Cake

With leftover cream cheese frosting and chocolate ganache in my fridge, I whipped up a strawberry cake (as it compliments both flavors) for an after dinner dessert with my family.  The last two times I made strawberry cake, it was so dense!  So, I gave it another try by adapting my new favorite white cake from scratch.  The flavor was perfect but still too dense for me.

Little Mermaid Cake

 

My sister asked for a birthday cake based on her all time favorite movie. So, I gave it a try. It was made with two layers of strawberry cake (from Cake Central) and yellow cake (adapted from Cake Central) each. The layers were filled and crumb coated with a cream cheese frosting. The whole cake was then covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.

  

  

  

  

 

My First Fondant Cake

Sources: Strawberry Cake adapted from All Recipes, Creamy White Frosting adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, and Marshmallow Fondant adapted from All Recipes