Chocolate Everything

10-26-09 I made this one to take to a potluck in honor of a couple very special ladies in my life. It was chocolate cake with white chocolate icing filling. I also tried out for the first time making hand made chocolates for this one. The candies came out pretty well, I may start using them in other cakes now that I have a little confidence in how to make them. All that chocolate needing something to pop on the cake. So I added a small amount of aqua butter cream icing on the sides as well as a few dots on top.

Feeling Blue

9-18-09 This was created for a family birthday party for 9 Birthday people. I went through several designs, and finally, I just winged it after a few minor disasters with this one. What I learned: 1) ALWAYS level the bottom layer, even if you're in a hurry to get the second on the top so it doesn't stick to the pan. 2) Always make one and a half the amount of icing suggested by the pan for it's size. 3) Make sure all your ingredients are in your home before beginning the process. 4) Don't be so hard on yourself, Mrs. perfectionist, it's just cake. It's not like it's the cure for cancer... Ok, I'm still working on number 4, but I still had fun with it, and that's the important part.Though I am not happy with the top of the cake at all, I do like how the sides turned out. It was a marble cake with butter cream icing as the filling as well as the decor.

Word World

09-13-09 Word World! Yay! Did cupcakes and a 6 inch round for the birthday boy. Funfetti cake with cream cheese icing. Sprinkles on the cupcakes and a decorative paper medallion placed in each. The small cake was decorated like the logo they have on everything in word world. 3 rolling hills done with the grass tip so the grass is at three different angles to distinguish them apart from one another. Complete with white fluffy clouds in a blue sky.

Seashells and waves

08-27-2009 I admit I cheated a bit in the fact that the seashell chocolates are pre-made by a Belgium company. I put waves complete with foam on the sides of the cake and tinted the top sand color. The cake was a Funfetti one filled with pudding in between the layers of cake. The font I also used a trick to create. In order to achieve the penmanship I desired I printed out what I wanted to say on the cake in the correct size and font on a regular piece of paper. After printing it out I used a quilting pin and punched wholes into the paper following the lines of the type while it was over a clean folded towel. Then I placed the whole punched paper onto to the cake where I wanted the font. I then sprinkled cocoa powder over the paper and used a small paint brush to ensure the cocoa went through the wholes. Removed the paper to find my outline and traced it with my desired frosting.

Chocolate Lasagna

08-07-09 mmmm, chocolate lasgana... I got to make my own birthday cake this year as an added treat to getting my new Hamilton Beach mixer as my present. I absolutely love it! The top design is made from melted mini chocolate chips. The cake is a butter fudge and the icing is an almond butter cream. 3 layers of cake, 2 inner layers of icing include chocolate chips to infuse even more chocolate in every bite. mini chocolate chips are stuck to the lightly iced sides. In true lasagna style, the layers of filling are trying to escape all along the sides. Doesn't it just look delicious.

Just because

07-29-09 I just felt like making a cake with my kids, so I made this one. I used strawberry cake and canned strawberry frosting iced in the "casual" frosting method. Jumbo confetti sprinkles randomly placed on the sides by the kidos. I used two cookie cutters to put an imprint into the top of the icing and then sprinkled colored sugar sprinkles on the lines it made. The larger heart was made of purple sprinkles, while the smaller was green. The outside edges were outlined by more jumbo confetti sprinkles, half blue, the other half yellow.

Cinderelly

6-20-09 This is actually a replica of Cinderella's dress that the mice and birds made for her, that eventually got ripped to shreds by her step-sisters. I thought that to be kind of appropriate since we would be cutting it to pieces in the end. The dress was a cream cheese pound cake in doll cake pan form, with 3 more layers of 2" cakes to get enough height to put an actual doll in the middle. All the icing was butter cream that was hand smoothed, colored, and piped by yours truly. I couldn't get bows to look like anything other than a mess of frosting, so I ended up buying some fabric ones at Joanns. They just so happened to match the color I had tinted the frosting perfectly. The torso of the doll was also decorated with butter cream. The cupcakes were strawberry with canned vanilla frosting and jumbo confetti sprinkles. The cupcake papers and crown toothpicks were a Wilton combo thing.

Scribble Art

4-1-09 Cupcakes were strawberry cake covered in butter cream icing. Since it was for a very active 4 year old I decided scribble art would be right up his alley. Using primary colored icing I simply "scribbled" the colors on them in various patterns. I wanted to stick a crayon in each one, but with all the scare about things from China containing lead around this time, I figured it was better not to. There are candles that are made in the shape of crayons that I could have used, but ran out of time to go on a hunt for them.

Batter Up!

3-28-09 Made 24 cupcake baseballs as well as a 6 inch cake for the birthday boy. The cake was chocolate and all were covered with butter cream frosting. I used the grass tip as the bottom border of the 6 inch cake. Light blue sky colored icing for the rest of the cake. I used a cookie cutter to imprint the outline of the baseball cap. The baseball cap was for the Angels as Nolan Ryan had once played for the team and this was the birthday boys name sake. Two flying baseballs were on the side of the cake as well. The most difficult part was placing all the little red lines of stitching on each cupcake. I was definitely glad to see them eaten as I had been looking at them up close for far too long a time.

Nature is Tier-ific

This is my first attempt at a tiered cake. It was a lot easier than I was anticipating to actually tier the two cakes, but still a tricky experience to undertake. Joe is an experienced landscaper and irrigation professional who loves chocolate. So, it made since to use an irrigation piece for the 0 in 30 with some blue tinted piping gel as water around it. Leaves outline the top tier with kindergartner style trees on the sides. The top of the bottom tier is covered in green butter cream icing using a tip to create the look of grass, with a few red and white flowers randomly placed in the meadow. The sides of the bottom tier were simply frosted with chocolate icing and chocolate cake crumbs placed around as the border to resemble real soil. It was a lot of fun to make, but definitely stressful to deliver. I was so afraid something would happen on the ride it felt like 3 hours when in reality it was probably only 15 minutes away.

Dog Speaks

03-12-09 This cake was created for a birthday party for a 2 year old who loves a particular show that airs on PBS. I hope that my attempt in recreating this talking dog in an icing form at least resembles her. I thought it would be a neat idea to use the phone cord to write the name, but it could have used a few more loops in the a and n. The border on top was rosettes, and black dot outline of a bone was in three places on the side of the cake. In between the bones were the letters of the alphabet, as Martha ate alphabet soup to allow her to speak. The cake itself was a white cake mix and butter cream icing. The cupcakes were nothing spectacular as far as decorating goes. The party was for a girl and since the theme was puppies I simply iced the cupcakes, used pink and purple sugar sprinkles and them piped on a little paw print on each one to tie them into the theme. It was fun to make, but a word of advice when it comes to using the black icing...only put it on the cake at the most the day before the cake is presented or else it bleeds, and keep it out of the refrigerator as the moisture in the fridge will also make it bleed. Hope you liked this one

Dr. Pepper cupcake

2-2-09 Chocolate cupcakes that were infused with a little bit of Dr. Pepper. I did this by using Dr. Pepper in place of the water the cake mix that I used. Topped with some canned chocolate frosting and a maraschino cherry. Delicious.

Key Lime Pie

Here are some facts about the Key Lime using my favorite online resource Wikipedia:

The Key lime (Citrus aurantifolia or Christmas Swingle) is a citrus species with a globose fruit, 2.5-5 cm in diameter (1-2 in), that is yellow when ripe but usually picked green commercially. It is smaller, seedier, has a higher acidity, a stronger aroma, and a thinner rind than that of the Persian lime (Citrus x latifolia). It is valued for its unique flavor compared to other limes, with the key lime usually having a more tart and bitter flavor. The name comes from its association with the Florida Keys, where it is best known as the flavoring ingredient in Key lime pie. It is also known as West Indian lime, Bartender's lime or Mexican lime, the latter classified as a distinct race with a thicker skin and darker green color.
C. aurantifolia is a shrubby tree , to 5 m (16 ft), with many thorns. Dwarf varieties are popular with home growers and can be grown indoors in winter in colder climates. The trunk rarely grows straight, with many branches that often originate quite far down on the trunk. The leaves are ovate 2.5–9 cm (1–3.5 in) long, resembling orange leaves (the scientific name aurantifolia refers to this resemblance to the leaves of the orange, C. aurantium). The flowers are 2.5 cm (1 in) in diameter, are yellowish white with a light purple tinge on the margins. Flowers and fruit appear throughout the year but are most abundant from May to September ^{[1] [2]}.

My key lime tree seems to produce fruit between September to January. and I haven't noticed any thorns either, but they are DEFINITELY key limes.You can tell because they are small, really acidic, have that thin rind, and turn yellow when they are ripe.However, what I really find interesting about the key lime that is not listed on the site is the fact that it is a lime that is green on the inside and yellow on the outside.

One of my dad's favorite desserts is the key lime pie. He was born in Miami so maybe that had something to do with it, but maybe not. He is actually coming for a visit and will be helping me repair a few things around the house. This little blog addition is his payment for all that help. It's really a simple recipe and doesn't take much time to bake at all. Plus, it tastes sooooo good. Just click on the image to get a better view of the recipe. Too bad they don't make scratch and sniff blogs.

Computer Language

12-23-08 A bit of a throw back to the computer geeks out there. I made this one for my brother-in-law who works in an IT dept. When writing the message on top I noticed my font was a bit large to fit on the cake. So I decided to put the ending elements that wouldn't fit on top on the sides. Hince the "Find the missing ELEMENTS" phrase on the front of the cake. Though this looks like fondant, it's simply butter cream frosting that I worked on getting smooth.

Elegant in Gold

11-23-08 Believe it or not, these are birthday cakes.One was chocolate, the other carrot cake. Golden Icing with pattern imprints in dots on the side. Each was topped with a flower ring and 3 ivory candles.

Tailor made

11-7-08 Chocolate cake with white butter cream icing. Several props were used for this one which include buttons, thimble, spool of thread, 2 needles, a threader, and a measuring tape. The recipients favorite color was purple. As you can see the font job wasn't horrible, but still needed improvement. This is due to the fact that I used a template that you push into the icing to leave an indent that is then traced over with icing. At least you can make your own phrases with this type of device. However, to me it seems very cold to say "Happy" in that type of font. Hopefully my lesson has been learned.

Clone Army

10-31-08 Here I attempted to create an army of edible clone trooper helmets. I simply used a box of coconut flavored cake mix and baked it into mini cupcakes. I used white cupcake papers and modified canned icing. By modified I mean that I had to add powdered sugar to the icing so that it would be stiff enough to keep shape and to crust slightly. The details were piped on in black cake mate icing using Wilton tip 2. The dome of the helmet was created by really piling on the icing, waiting for it to crust, and then making the point on top of the helmet by squeezing it gently between two index fingers. The size was perfect for the kids and by their standards just enough icing. I still didn't feel as though they were able to be recognized as what I had intended so I put a picture of a clone trooper helmet near the tray of them. It was a lot of work, so I suggest that if you are making them for a party you definitely want to get an RSVP from each guest before deciding to dive into this major ordeal. I made a total of 72 mini helmets with one cake mix and 2 cans of frosting. Hope you all are inspired to think up your own twists on the common cake to better fit your themes.

Classy

10-07-08 Elegant, yet simple Birthday cake. It was an orange spice cake with butter cream icing. I used piping gel and parchment to transfer the image onto the cake so that I could trace it with the icing color of my choice. In this case I wanted white. I thought it would go nicely with the skin tone color of the cake itself. I used a ribbon curl design on the upper portion of the sides and a tip 3 border at the base. A touch of pink on each star as well as a few randomly placed dots finish it off.

Thank God

09-01-08 Course I of the Wilton Cake Method is complete. Here is my final cake, a bit different from the text book version we were supposed to create, but no one said I couldn't use my own creativity here.

It is a French Vanilla Duncan Hines cake mix with a chocolate pudding filling. The icing is slightly chocolate by mixing a tube of Wilton Chocolate icing in with 3 cups of thin Buttercream icing tinted peach in order to give it the sand tone. 6 Roses in a bouquet with a mauve/purple bow. Shell border of white at the base of the cake accented with semi-sweet chocolate chips. The top border is a mixture of zigzags and stars with a chocolate chip topping each of the stars. Strings of purple on the sides of the cake to tie the color from the bow into the rest of the cake. "Thank God" written in green as a multi-purpose message. Thank God for chocolate, thank God my roses came out okay, thank God for the opportunity to take this class, and as a reminder to all not to forget to Thank God daily. Course II starts next week, but no need for a cake until the last class, but don't worry, my son's b-day is coming up soon, so there will be another cake posted in a couple of weeks.

Garden of Cupcakes

8-26-08 Cupcakes made for the Wilton Cake Decorating class. We learned the swirl and regular drop flowers as well as piping figures. I thought a little garden would be a nice cupcake spread...complete with 2 cuddly teddy bears.

Pineapple Goes Girlie

08-18-08 Pineapple Inside-Out Cake Inspired from my daughters bathing suit. This is the first cake I made in Wilton Cake Decorating Class.

Pineapple flavored Duncan Hines cake mix baked in a single 9 in by 2 in round cake pan with Bake even strips. I leveled the top off of the cake while it was still in the pan. I then let cool for 1 hour and cut it in half to form the two layers. A mixture of "Stiff" icing and crushed pineapple (drained extremely well) laid in the center and then topped with maraschino cherries made up the filling. Iced smooth with Pink tinted thin icing just as the bathing suit was. It was very tricky to ice it so smooth, and my perfectionism was driving me crazy. I also found that my thin icing was a little too thin and had to keep it refrigerated once on the cake. The pineapple was drawn on top then done with a star tip. Two shades of green made up the leafs and the borders. Light green stars on the top edge are linked together with a string of white icing. The base edging was a string of dark green dots.

From the Big Blue

9-12-07 Made for a 3 year old's birthday. Decorated by myself with some help from my brother. The actual cake was baked by my mother-in-law, Pam.

How it was done:
The top was iced solid white and template for name was placed on top. It was then sprayed blue and then patted with additional white icing to give it the water look. Then the template was removed. Beige icing was placed on the sides to look like the sand an the bottom of the ocean and fruit roll ups cut in strips to made the seaweed. Dark Blue icing piped around the base and top edges. Nemo figurines purchased from the Dollar Tree placed on top with three candles. Happy Birthday written with a sea foam look. All different colored sugar sprinkled around the base to look like special sand. Viola!

Fudge Force

This is really a brownie with fudge to hold the Burger King toys in place. Another Star Wars inspiration for our Star Wars collecting friend, Jason. As you can see there is room for improvement everywhere for this creation, but hey it's a brownie! 02-18-2006

Planet Hoth

Planet Hoth from Star Wars. This was the first cake I made on my own for a birthday of a friend who has an impressive Star Wars collection. I do not remember the type of cake it was, but there was a lot of coconut to signify snowy icy conditions. That little toy on top was something that came from a Burger King kids meal. Though I matched the color of the icing very well to the vehicle, I definitely needed some practice on my handwriting technique. 02-18-06