Fab 50!

I recently filled an order for my 50th cake! Yay! This was an army themed birthday cake for my friend, Paula's, son. Since I used store-bought army man toys for the cake, it was actually pretty easy to make without a lot of challenge or difficulty. Since the cake was a milestone for me, though, I thought I needed a way to commemorate it. At 33 years old I got my first tattoo, a cupcake on the inside of my wrist. Because I was afraid I'd never be able to sit through another tat, I had the artist incorporate a letter E on of the stars, since all three of my daughters' names start with E. However, I've already picked out a couple of designs that I like for my next tat. It's true what they say - body art is addicting! Maybe for my 100th cake I'll have a pic of it tattooed on my other wrist....or possibly beside the cupcake and I'll be well on my way to a 'sweet' bakery item tattoo sleeve.

Sure! I Can Make That For You!

Have an interesting idea for a cake? Let me know! I love a challenge, so if you ask me to make someting in cake, I'm going to give it my best shot. This cake was for the 50th birthday of a co-worker's spouse. It was a 5 layer German chocolate cake filled with coconut-pecan frosting and covered with marshmallow fondant. This was my first experiment working with fondant tools to 'texture' the fondant - the end result was a roll of 'toilet paper' that was quilted and perforated to mimic the real thing. I even added a paper-towel roll in the center, for a more realistic effect. All in all I was pretty happy with it, and I learned a few new fondant tricks for next time!

Everything Cupcake!

Everyone's guilty pleasure seems to be cupcakes right now. And why not? They're cute, they're full of yummy deliciousness, and they're small enough that we don't feel too guilty about spoiling ourselves. For me this translates into constant challenges to come up with unique flavors (and yes, I CAN make chocolate/bacon/cayenne pepper cupcakes that are to die for!) For my kids and my friends at work it translates into lots of taste testing! Some of my favorite flavors have been white chocolate peppermint cupcakes with cream-cheese peppermint frosting and white cupcakes with lemon filling and cream cheese frosting. I also make some peanut butter cupcakes dipped in dark chocolate ganache and topped with peanut butter cream cheese frosting...possibly even more 'to die for' than the choco-bacon cupcakes! That recipe is thanks to my oldest sister, Viriginia....baking is an exact science, and writing a recipe almost takes a chemistry degree....and she should definitely have a chem degree for as good as she is at throwing ingredients together and turning it into something that is super de-lish. If you have an idea for an interesting flavor combination that you'd like to see wrapped up in a tasty little cupcake package for your next birthday party/business event/snow day then hit me up at lainagrace2@hotmail.com....I'm sure we can work something out!

Birthday Bugs!

Twice within a month I made these two cakes for different birthday girls. The sheet cake, in each case, was traditional buttercream frosting with grass piped on the bottom half and the sun and clouds piped in the sky. On the first cake I did, I piped the caterpillars out of different colored frosting - on this one, I chose brightly colored jelly beans to make them out of. I'm really thinking I like them better this way.

Not having a miniature ball pan, I improvised when making the lady bug 'smash' cake for the birthday girls. I baked them in a glass mixing bowl, frosted them and put them on the board surrounded by buttercream grass. The heads were made from black buttercream fondant on each cake - as was the stripe down the center of the back. On one cake I piped frosting spots, on another I cut circles from the black fondant...I'll definitely stick to this method in the future because it makes the cake look more 'finished,' I think.

I'm really hoping that these are just the first of numerous first birthday cakes that I'll get to make - it's a lot of fun to be such a big part of a baby's milestone first birthday.

My First Wedding Cake!

It's a day that will strike fear and immense excitement into the heart of any home baker: the first wedding cake order. Luckily for me, this one was relatively simple. The roses were hand made from gum paste. Not the best I've seen, but I thought they turned out pretty well considering it was my first attempt at sugar flowers. The cake was a basic white wedding cake with swiss buttercream filling and crumbcoat and marshmallow fondant. On the night before it was due, my friend Shasta came over to help in the kitchen - she's definitely the best sous chef a girl could ask for! Everything went great and by 11:30 that night I was ready to put fondant on the tiers. And that's when the trouble started. For some reason it just didn't want to work out for me. After mixing, kneading, and rolling it out (not once but twice) just to have it stick to my work surface and tear to shreds when I tried to put it on the cake, we decided to call it a night. She went home around 1:30 AM and I went to bed by 2. The next morning I was up by 6 to make a quick trip to the store and then get back home to get it finished. By 10 I had made two fresh batches of fondant and had covered and stacked all three tiers. i took a break to take the kids to my mom's house and then made it home and had the cake totally finished and ready for pick up by 2:00 PM. I'd say in the week before the cake was due I probably spent 30 hours on it. That's no small task when I work 40 hours a week at a full time 'day job.' I think the lesson that I learned from this cake is that I need a fondant sheeter. Oh - and a commercial kitchen would be nice too...maybe one of these days. Oh - and the other lesson I learned was a delicious accident, and here's the recipe for what Shasta named a PattyCakes Peach Cooler: 1 bottle dry white wine, about 1/2 cup peach schnapps, 1/2 to 1 cup simple syrup - to taste. This drink proves that necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention since the only cold beverage I had in my house that night was a bottle of white wine I'd been saving for a chicken recipe (which I still have yet to make!)

The coolest thing about this cake? It was for a nearly 80 year old couple who were married on New Year's Day. I feel really honored to have been a part of their day, and I'm really hoping that it's the first of many wedding cakes that I'll have the honor of making.