Batman Cake (Oreo Cake)

For my niece's birthday party, I made a chocolate cake with Oreos baked in the batter.  She is currently obsessed with everything Batman so I used the frozen buttercream transfer method to quickly decorate the cake.  My sister helped by using the same method but with melted chocolate to make mini toppers for the cupcakes.

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.

My Little Pony "Fluttershy" Cake

Not only did I make nutella brownies for Valentine's Day and cranberry bliss bars for a coworker's birthday, I made a birthday cake for my sister this week.  It is a known fact that she loves My Little Pony.  Given how busy I was, the best I could squeeze out was a buttercream transfer of her favorite pony, Fluttershy.  I did try to make it fun by making it a rainbow cake inside, as seen on my Instagram account.  I went with a yellow cake which I split into 6 bowls and dyed the colors of the rainbow.  Frosting was an orange butter cream frosting which my brother said tasted like Fruity Pebbles.

Orange Buttercream Frosting
A Baked by Jen Original
Makes enough to fill and frost an 8-inch cake

Ingredients:
4 ounces of cream cheese frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter
1/2 cup of shortening
1 teaspoon of orange extract
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
6 cups of powdered sugar
1-3 tablespoons of orange juice
1-3 tablespoons of milk

Directions:
Beat cream cheese, butter and shortening together.  Add extracts.  Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time.  Add orange juice and milk until desired consistency is reached.

SF Giants Cake

For my friend's husband's birthday, I suggested making a cake and she requested a small and simple one, as we would just be having dinner at a restaurant with a few family members and friends.  (Last year, I made him an iPad cake.)  I made him a 6-inch chocolate cake covered in vanilla buttercream frosting.  I brought back a favorite technique of mine for this cake, the buttercream transfer.  It was the easiest way to copy the logo of his favorite baseball team onto it.  The fun part was that I purposely picked a chocolate cake in order to fill it with an orange frosting to mimic the team's colors on the inside as well.

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.