Father's Day and Independence Day

I'm back! We've been having some strange weather here. First we had 80 mph winds, then the power went out [which was out for 5 days >:( ] Then there was a lightning storm :(, and then a tornado! What in the world! Who would've thought VA was a hotspot for natural disasters :( Anyway, I've been super busy, not so much blogging, but with the baking :)

We were in NY for Father's day, but I had really wanted to make a cake pop display for my husband. I bought a super awesome cake stand just for the day :) Bought it from amazon for a reasonable price and reasonable shipping time :)

Anyway! The number of cake pops you can fit on each row made it incredibly difficult to figure out what to write. Happy Fathers Day would've left the top row blank and Fathers day would've been smushed together. Number One Dad would've worked, but again the bottom row would have only had  3 lettered cake pops on them. I ended up with Love You Daddy, which is what our son says all the time. I wanted to make sure I had alot of cake pops coated with chocolate because my husband loathes the Wilton Candy Melts. So made some grills, the original inspiration was from https://www.facebook.com/AlexLuv2Cook. I expanded on hers quite a bit though.

I made the hot dogs out of gumpaste because I didn't have any Mike & Ikes, the hamburger is a tootsie roll, and the tomatoe is a starburst.  I still wanted to add some color to the display even though I would have to use the dreaded Candy Melts :P I had seen some tie cake pops on pinterest which would also be ideal for fathers day. I made the ties out of gumpast also.

The finished product turned out really well. My husband loved the chocolate so it was wonderful and fathers day was a success :)

Then INDEPENDENCE DAY!! I so wanted to make a whole bunch of things for July 4th, but of course we lost power the week before and didn't get it back until the day before. I ended up getting invited to a BBQ 10 minutes before it was about to start. (that is not an exaggeration. l0 to six, i'm invited. Started at 6! Thanks for the notice :P) So obviously I didn't have time to make a cake. BUT, we did have some strawberries, and I had seen another idea on pinterest (yes, i'm addicted. don't judge) for patriotic chocolate covered strawberries. Luckily I had everything on hand. So I made a wonderful plate of chocolate covered strawberries. They were devoured in seconds and only took about 30 minutes to do.

Then the next day my husband told me we were invited to a BBQ on friday since he and his coworkers all had to work on the fourth. YAY! I get to make the flag cake I found on...guess where! yep. pinterest! She made hers 25 layers (who knows why :P), but I decided to make mine 13 because theres 13 stripes on the flag. I know, genius. :P I had to bake 8 cakes and make 2 lbs of icing for this monster.

 

The inside looks like, you guessed it! A FLAG! and awesome flag!

 

This cake weighed about 10lbs. We got in the car and put the address into the GPS and realized we were driving 65 miles for a BBQ. No Thanks! With a 10 lb cake on my lap :( luckily even my husband didn't want to go. Unfortunately now theres a 10lb cake in my refrigerator that would serve 30 people and only 4 people live in my house. :( Oh well! I also wanted to make some more BBQ cake pops for my husband to take to work. These ones came out SO much better than the first ones! I love them.

I made the steaks out of red starburst with an orange starburst around the outside for the "fat" and I made the chicken legs out of caramels

I made the hamburgers out of tootsie rolls and the tomatoes out of starburst

 I tried to make sure each one was different. 

I poured the red sprinkles as soon as I dipped them, to represent the burning charcoals

I did have an issue with these. When they warmed up, the sticks started collapsing :( so if you do make these, keep them cool.

I love them. They're probably my favorite thing I've ever made.

So they tasted great, and looked great, so once again, Success!!

Marathon of Baking

This weekend was super busy. I started some truffles on Thursday but couldn't finish them because the ganache needed to freeze. I made some Bailey's Irish cream ganache because after the whiskey ganache truffles, I decided I needed to make some more alcohol related truffles :). So then on friday I finished. Once again, this ganache didn't harden up enough to scoop neatly. And I used a melon baller this time instead of a portion scoop so I couldn't have gotten them out neatly even if they would've kept their shape.

They really looked just aweful. This was after I froze them overnight. Since I knew they weren't going to get any better I figured I'd just roll them with my hands and see how they turned out. They ended up mostly round shaped. I used Ghirardelli dark chocolate to coat them. Alcohol with dark chocolate is the best ever!
They were also impossible to dip. They wouldn't stay frozen enough for me to stab them and they wouldn't stay on top of my truffle dipper. I ended up cutting square pieces of parchment paper and setting that on top of the truffle dipper and then put the ball of ganache on top of that. I didn't dip them either. I poured the melted chocolate over them.

After they dried I had to trip the little "feet" off of them. They actually turned out really well.

Here's the finished product. I really didn't fee like melting more chocolate to decorate them with and since they were pretty nice already, I thought it would be ok.

 

Then while I was at school, I got a call for my SECOND! cake order!! She wanted a Spiderman cake with Spiderman cake pops for her sons 3rd birthday! And she needed it by Saturday! I knew how I wanted to make the heads and the eyes. I rolled out white gumpaste and cut them into a semi-tear drop shape. I made them on Thursday night so they would be dry by Friday.

 

 I went out and bought every type of Wilton Icing writer pen that they make. But of course none of them worked. I made vanilla cake pops with Vanilla Icing. I used my portion scoop to scoop them but had to wait until they were frozen to shape them into balloon shapes I coated them with Red Wilton candy melts. While they were still wet I put the little eyes on. Since none of the Wilton pens worked I tried to use chocolate tinted black. That still didn't look like I wanted it to so I tried piping gel. That worked better. I liked that one the best. They turned out ok, but not as perfect as I would've liked

For the cake I also made Vanilla cake with Vanilla icing. I tinted some red and some black. I decided to just to a Spiderweb since later the cake pops were going into the cake. The lines on the side of the cake were the hardest because it was difficult to drop the icing onto the cake into the right spot.

Since she wanted 12 cake pops, I decided to shorten the sticks on the outer eight, then put four in the middle. It turned out really well. The only issue was the cake wouldn't fit inside the cake carrier and I couldn't put any plastic wrap over the top because it would've stuck to the piping gel. 

Finished product

I also had some cake pops left over, so I decided to put blue sprinkles on top. It seemed very spidermany though I can't really say why.

After I delivered these I decided I'd try my hand at some gumpaste roses since I've never done anything that advanced before. The first one I made I didn't roll the gum paste thin enough so the rose came out a little off. You can't see the bottom, but it was squarish :(

The next one came out better, but was much thinner. I liked this one much better

I just got my mini-tiered pan set in the mail :) My neighbor just had a baby girl so I decided to make her a welcome home cake. And since baby's are mini people, I decided to make a mini cake :) I had to cut the top off of the top tier because I filled the pans a little too full.

The middle and bottom tier turned out better.

 

I also bought a baby mold. It was super tiny so of course it was just the right size for this cake. I melted a bunch of white chocolate and added in two orange candy melts to make the perfect peach colored baby. Its so flippin cute I don't think I could actually eat it. But maybe Johanna will have more luck :) The only issue I have is there was a defect in the mold. So little babies nose didn't come out right. But its still super cute.

I made some Vanilla Icing and tinted it pink. These little mini tiers were impossible to frost. It took me a long time to actually get them to look nice but I managed :) I also decided I wanted to make some purple icing for baby's name (Emma) and a blanket on top for baby to sleep on. I mean, look how flippin cute this cake is!

It is a little bit taller than a pen :)

Thus concludes my marathon. I had to quit so I could actually clean my house before I go back to school :)

Teapot Cake

Oh my goodness, my  very FIRST order!!!

I was so happy to get this order. Not only was it my first one, which all by itself is exciting, but it was a super cute teapot. So obviously the most important part of the teapot is the handle and the spout. Which coincidentally are also the most difficult. Not only to shape but also to keep attached to the cake. I saw a few different types of handles and since this was for a sweet little girls 5th birthday, I decided to make a really cute one rather than just a plain ordinary one. I made both the handle and spout out of gumpaste. I prefer it to fondant because it dries really hard and still manages to taste better. My original spout was completely solid but after a few days I had a sudden epiphany. I was laying in bed and practically jumped out when I realized it might be too heavy.

 

I also finally took out my Cricut cake decorator machine!!

Since I've head the sugar sheets Wilton came up with are useless, I decided to roll out my own gumpaste. I'm not sure if I should have rolled it thinner, or let it dry a little bit before I cut it, but my little plaque didn't turn out so super. It wasn't terrible, but it also wasn't as neat as I would have liked. I let this dry for a few days but I ended up not using it. It didn't look as nice as I wanted it to. I ended up freehanding an oval out of gumapaste and used that as the plaque instead.

 I saw a few different teapot cakes which used the Wilton sports ball pan to get their teapot shape. Since I didn't feel like carving several cakes into a ball I decided this was definitely the way to go. I got really luck too because I got the last sports ball pan at Michaels. This thing comes with very explicit instructions. FOLLOW THEM!!! To the T! I skimmed them and I was like "How hard could it be?" Well I got my answer. The batter overflowed because I put too much in each ball half. They didn't cook correctly, and they wouldn't not come out of their mold. At all. As you can see, it looks not so good. :(

 So the next time, I read through the instructions 6 or 7 times. And as you can see, they came out really well. And, yes, I do know they look like boobies! So if you're looking to make a booby cake, the Sports Ball pan would be your best bet :)

 

The only issue I had was a tiny bit got stuck to the cake. I made this the bottom part of the teapot and filled it in with a boatload of frosting.

 

 I saw another cake that used these little tiny gumpaste flowers to hide where the handle and spout are attached. I loved the idea so I made a bunch of those too. I ended up needing more later though

I forgot to take pictures because I'm a dummy, but for the teapot lid, I used my actual sugar bowl lid as a model for the gumpaste to dry around. I cut a small circle in the middle so it would sit flush with the lid, then made a gumpaste ball to sit on top of it. This is the cake with the original spout. However, about 30 minutes later I noticed the spout was sagging. Luckily, because of my epiphany, I had made another spout a few days earlier, which I also forgot to take pictures of.  I modeled the hollow one around the one I had already made so I at least had a use for the first one. I stacked the teapot onto 2 layers of Fun-Fetti vanilla cake with vanilla frosting.

 

I put the flowers on after I took the first spout off and replaced it. However, being the genius that I am, I didn't give the second spout any support, so it started to sag too. This was after I had already put all my lovely little flowers on it, so I had to make more to hide the damage. I inserted a BBQ skewer through the spout and all the way through the teapot to make sure the spout would STAY in place! And it did :)

  

I used more gumpaste flowers to decorate the bottom tier. I piped my very best pearl border around the bottom of the teapot to hide the cakeboard. I also piped the ittiest bittiest pear boarder around the spot where I put the teapot lid on.  I also piped a small shell border around the bottom tier.

  

Right around now is when my client asked me to put some purple on. Well I wasn't sure how I would because it was already mostly decorated. However, I am extremely crafty :) I decided to make some even tinier gumpaste purple flowers to add to the handle and spout, and piped the birthday girl's name on my new and improved plaque.  Even though I formed the plaque on the cake pan, it didn't fit exactly flush. So I tried to pipe another pearl border, but my icing would just not cooperate. So I used a flower tip and piped them instead.

  

Here's the finished cake: front view

  

Cake Finished: Back view

  

So in between all the cake decorating and flower making, I also had to make some teacup cake pops. She asked for raspberry, and the icing recipe I used for Raspberry Icing was nothing but Raspberry puree and powdered sugar. I thought this would be raspberry enough and I didn't want to overload them with raspberry. So I made the same vanilla cake as the rest of the cake. They were delicious cake pops, but you really couldn't taste the raspberry at all. Apparently 2, 8 inch cakes make 51 teacup pops. 

 

 I did coat all of them, but I didn't end up making them all into teacups. I made 15 teacups in both pink and purple. I used little heart sprinkles i already had to decorate the front of the cups. I used Wilton candy melts for the plates and handles. If I wanted to be super fancy I could've made them out of gumpaste, but candy melts taste better than gumpaste, and that's what 5 year olds care about

Originally we wanted to put the teacups around the cake, but they were too big. It would've look ridiculous.

Stay tuned for pictures from Skylars birthday!

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Disclaimer: Better Cake Than Never in no way condones the actions of the IRA and I appologize if the name offends. However: This is the name of the cupcake and will remain so for association purposes towards the cocktail.

My husband asked if I could make some of these for his office for a potluck (and free advertising for me). I found this recipe at browneyedbaker.com. These cupcakes are not for children :) I started with the batter obviously, which has a cup of Guinness in it. It looked so smooth and beautiful.

 

Then I mixed up the other ingredients, added this to the egg-sour cream mixture and added they dry ingredients. I folded in the dry ingredients like the recipe said but it was extremely lumpy and gross looking. So I whisked for a few minutes which added some air bubbles, but eliminated the lumps.

 

The air bubbles went away after a few minutes in the cupcake pan. I wish she had said an actual amount to add into each cup, because I ended up having alot of batter left over after using an regular size ice cream scoop. So I used a smaller portion scoop for the rest and ended up with too little to fill all of them the same amount. When I baked them, the center of the cupcake never pouffed up like normal cupcakes. I had to check them over and over especially since they were all different amounts.

 

I used Jameson for the whiskey Ganache, because its pretty much the best Irish whiskey there is :). The ganache came out great. It tasted great and was really shiny. The recipe made way to much ganache for the amount of cupcakes (24) I made. I still have about a 1 1/2 cups left after filling all of them pretty generously.

I cored the cupcakes with a large star tip. It was a little difficult because the cupcake insides kept sticking inside the tip.  It didn't take too long and afterwords I was left with a bunch of cupcake centers to snack on :)

The icing turned out great. It looked great and tasted great.

I used the same tip as browneyebaker because I loved the way it looked. I also sprinkled them with a tiny bit of green sparkles just to add a little something extra. I snuck one out and tasted it, and boy! They were delicous. 

 

I'll definitely make these again. The only issue I have is they don't come out of the wrappers very easily, but I don't know how I could fix that. Any suggestions? 

Since I had so much extra ganache, I decided to make some more truffles. This ganache hardened up much better than the last one.

The didn't scoop perfectly, but they kept their shape enough and weren't so incredibly sticky so I could actually smooth them out after I scooped them.

Once again, I had to add shortening to the chocolate. This was before doing anything and it still wasn't smooth enough to coat anything. I don't know whats wrong with these Wilton candy melts but they're not being my friend lately. I still managed to get all my truffles coated and they look super cute this time.

I decided to add the little hearts because I didn't want to be all lame and do the same thing I did with the last batch :P

Success!!