Cherry Pie Cupcakes

My husband's school was having a fundraiser for a charity event and asked me to make something for it. I decided to make a dozen of these cute cupcakes for them to sell. They are super easy and super cute--all you need is the jumbo muffin pan and liners that Wilton puts out (I got mine at Michaels). Fill them 1/3 full of cake batter so they bake up about 3/4 of the way. Thinly ice them, then fill with cherry pie filling (I cut the cherries in half so they weren't too tall), and then pipe the bands and ruffle to finish them off (tips 47 and 103). Voila--you have cute cherry pie cupcakes.

First Birthday Fun

My little girl just turned one, so being that I love to do cakes, I was so excited to do a cake for her birthday. I had seen a giraffe birthday cake in a Wilton Yearbook, and since she loves giraffes (...okay, maybe it's me that loves giraffes, but I'm slowly brainwashing her to have giraffes be her favorite animal :)

My husband gave me one rule when it came to her birthday cake--no fondant. He wanted it to taste good for her when she dug into it and took that famous first bite that parents so look forward to, with camera in hand.



The giraffe's body was made from a football pan, the head from half of a sports ball pan, the muzzle from a mini ball pan, and the neck, ears, and legs from sugar cookies. It took a lot of time, and a lot of stars, but I finally got the cake covered.


I think that he turned out pretty cute. And I only used fondant on the hat and sign! That's pretty good considering that I love working in fondant.


The next decision to be made was what to feed our party guests. I found this idea at bakerella.com, and when my husband saw it, he thought it was the coolest idea, so that is how we ended up with these cute little "hamburgers" made from cupcakes (buns), brownies (meat), frosting (mustard, ketchup, lettuce), and sugar cookies (fries). That's my kind of hamburger!


I had a dilemma, though. I needed some way to tie the giraffe/animal theme in with the hamburgers and fries. That's where these little boxes came into play that I found at orientaltradingcompany.com. Too cute and too perfect to make little happy meals with the hamburgers and fries for all of the kids.

And as everybody knows, a happy meal must come with a toy or prize. Aren't these little bubbles adorable and totally perfect to help tie everything together?!

Everything turned out perfect for her party. The weather was great and the company was even better.

And here is our little angel, enjoying a bite of the giraffe's ear. I guess that she's more of a cookie girl than a cake girl. We'll see if we can change that :)

Baby Gracie's Cake

We had a baby shower for my friend Jamie who is due in December with a little girl (Grace). My friend Tosha and I worked on this cake together. We stuck to using pink, green, and brown to coordinate with the colors Jamie is doing for her nursery. We had a fun afternoon working on it together and were pleased with how it turned out.

The bottom is an 8 inch triple chocolate cake with vanilla icing as filling, covered in fondant. Tosha had a cute mini-bear pan that she used to bake up the bear. We covered him in tip 18 stars, and used fondant to decorate the rest of the cake with a bow and flowers.

Eagle Scout Cake

I just finished a cake for an Eagle Scout Court of Honor for my friend Lisa's son. I molded the medal out of fondant with the lettering on it in royal icing, and painted the "metal" parts with silver dusting powder mixed with clear vanilla to get it to resemble real metal.

The cake itself was a 12x12 butter cake filled with a strawberry cream and iced in lemon buttercream.

Brownies on a Stick

I saw something similar to this in Wilton's Brownie Fun book, so I decided to give them a try for our Stake Relief Society dinner that we had before watching the General RS Broadcast. I thought they turned out pretty cute.


I used the Wilton Brownie Pops mold, although it was pretty tricky to get them to come out of the mold without breaking (more difficult than their directions let on to be). I dipped them in melted chocolate candy melts and rolled half in toffee bits and the other in some cookies n cream crunch decorative sprinkles put out by Wilton. Next time I think that I'll try dipping them in caramel instead. Sounds more yummy to me.

Michael and Tasha's Wedding Cake

I had the privelege of making the wedding cake for my brother-in-law and his cute new wife this past week. It was quite an undertaking, but everything came together and I loved the way it turned out. Even better is that the bride loved it. That's all that really matters.

I did 6, 9, 12, and 15 inch tiers. 2 were a chocolate fudge cake with vanilla buttercream filling and the other 2 were a butter cake with a chocolate ganache filling. I covered it in fondant instead of icing it in buttercream because it was an outdoor reception in August, and I just didn't want to run the chance of it melting. The stringwork and roses were done with royal icing and some of the other little borders were done with buttercream. My mother-in-law did an amazing job with the flowers for the cake as well as everywhere else (she is an amazing florist and is fabulous at doing flowers for weddings). They cut it about 2/3rds of the way through their reception and it all got eaten (except the top tier of course--that's for their 1st anniversary). I'm glad that it tasted good too.

Baby Shower Daisy Cake

My friend just adopted a cute little girl that they named Daisy. To celebrate I made a Daisy cake for her baby shower. I did a butter cake with homemade strawberry jam for the filling, iced with a lemon buttercream. I was very happy with how it turned out, and just a little sad that I actually couldn't be there for the shower. (I had to leave for San Diego for my brother-in-law's wedding and to make the wedding cake.)

Father's Day Scrabble Cake

For my husband this year, I surprised him with a "Scrabble Cake." I actually just made rice crispy treats, since he is not a huge fan of cake, iced it in a thin layer of vanilla frosting, then covered it in fondant. I used chicklets for the scrabble tiles and Reeses PB whoppers for part of the border along the lower edge. It was really fun to plan out and decorate. It was fun on Father's day morning to see the shocked look on his face when he walked into the kitchen. Since I love scrabble, I sure had a good time making this surprise for him.

Graduation Chocolates

My brother Doug is finishing up his residency in ENT at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and while I was out there visiting them and watching their kids for a few days while he and Nicky went to a conference in Arizona, I decided to try a little treat craft with my niece and nephew that they could give to their dad when he got home. They are little graduation chocolates that I saw on Bakerella's blog. She used Reese's Peanut Butter cups, Godiva chocolates, and Air Head Xtremes, using a little melted chocolate candy coating to glue everything together.

We actually got the carmel filled cups (I think that it is the Sam's choice brand) that Walmart carries in the candy aisle due to my nieces peanut butter allergy, and 2 kinds of the Ghiradelli chocolates (the ones with little krispies in it didn't work as well because they have a bumpy tecture--oops). We had a fun time making them, and the kids were SO excited to give them to their dad. Congratulations on finishing your residency, Doug!

Birthday Brownies

I thought that I'd try something a little bit different for my friend Tosha's birthday. Instead of cake, I made little brownie birthday cakes. They were a lot of fun to do, although I have found that working with brownies is a little more difficult than cake because they tear so much. Next time I think that I'll try making a more cake-like brownie by adding in that extra egg the recipe says to do for that particular consistency. It might be easier to work with. We'll see.

Flan Cake for Cinco de Mayo

Here is a fun cake that I made for Cinco de Mayo. It is a recipe that I got while serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Laredo, Texas from Lupita Santoyo. Lupita would make this for us all the time. Thank you Lupita for the wonderful memories and the yummy cake. Here is the recipe:

Flan

1 can sweetened and condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

3 eggs

Cake

1 box cake mix with the ingredients the box calls for (pick whatever flavor you like; my favorite is strawberry, but the one in the picture is lemon)

• Combine all the ingredients for the flan. Put this in a well-greased bundt pan first.
• Prepare the cake by mixing all the ingredients together and pour this carefully in to the bundt pan over the flan mixture.
• Bake for 45 minutes at 350F
• Clean out your ev. mild and sw. and cond. milk cans and fill 3/4 of the way with water. Place these on either side of your cake while it is cooking (keeps the cake very moist).
• Place pan on a cooling rack to cool.
• Carefully flip cake onto a serving place after at least 10 minutes of cooling.

The flan ends up on the top of your cake. It tastes really good with Cajeta sauce drizzled over it (look in the Mexican food section of your grocery store). If you can't find that then a carmel or chocolate sauce will work, depending on the flavor of your cake and what sounds good to you.

Rice Crispy Present Cake

A couple of weeks ago I had to demonstrate how to cover a cake with fondant for one of my classes. I actually just made up some rice crispy treats and pressed them into one of my cake pans instead of making a cake, because my husband is sick of cake and wanted something different. (This works great when you are doing a multi-teir wedding cake, and the wedding party doesn't really need that much cake--just do rice crispy treats for the bottom layer--the kids will love it). After my class I came home and decided to continue decorating it. Maybe I'm obsessive compulsive, but I just can't let someone eat a half-decorated cake. Well, it didn't last long after I decorated it. My husband bit into it within a few minutes of me finishing it up and taking pictures. I agree with him--a rice crispy treat cake really is so much better than a regular cake. Yumm.

April Fool's

My April Fool's Day was pretty busy. I started teaching another round of Wilton classes for the month of April (Courses 1 and 3). Here is a cake that I made during my Course 1 class to demo a few things. I finished it up in my Course 3 class showing them how to do string work on a cake. It was a fun cake to quickly put together for my classes. When I told my friend Erica a few days ago that I was going to have another cake this week with nothing to do with it, she said she would gladly take it, so I gave it to her for a month belated birthday cake (I know--it's not too birthdayish, but that's okay, right?)

The day before April Fool's I was asked to teach the Achievement Day girls some cake decorating for their activity. We did some April Fool's cupcakes. They decorated them to look like spaghetti and meatballs with a side of peas and carrots. It was an idea I got out of the Hello, Cupcake book (I keep telling you, I love this book). The girls did a great job and had a lot of fun making their "well balanced dinners." I'll ask them on Sunday if any of them fooled their parents with their dinners they made :)

Sarah's Birthday Cake

My visiting teachee had a birthday last week, so I whipped up a quick cake for her. I saw one similar to this one in one of the Wilton course books that I teach from. It looked fun, so I gave it a try.

My one learning experience from this came as I tried to make the filling. I searched several stores to find something called Danish Dessert. It's a box mix used to make strawberry or rasberry glaze/sauce/filling. I used it all the time when I lived in Utah. Well, I came to find out that stores in Las Vegas do not carry this item. I found a recipe online that stated it tasted just like the boxed Danish Dessert. Well, I tried making it, but iIt didn't set up like they stated it would, so I had to go back and thicken it with cornstarch. Unfortunately I think I got a little bit cornstarch crazy and put too much in. It thickened it more than I wanted and had a cornstarchy taste. Oops. I know now to stock up on Danish Dessert next time I go up to Utah.

Tip of the Day--Quick Rising

Here is a quick baking tip for today. Normally when you are baking bread products (loaves of bread, dinner rolls, sweet rolls, etc.) you must let the dough rise until it has doubled in size before shaping your bread. This usually takes an hour or more unless you use a little trick to make the bread rise quicker. After kneading the dough, place it in a microwave-safe bowl sprayed with non-stick spray. Place the bowl in the microwave and microwave on high power 5 seconds for every cup of flour in the dough (ex. if you used 6 cups to make the dough, you would set the timer to 30 seconds). Next, turn the dough over and microwave again, but half the amount of time (ex. now it would only need 15 seconds). Now just pull it out of the microwave and cover with a cloth until doubled in size. This will usually cut the rising time in half. It is a great timesaver. Happy baking.

The Beginning

Welcome friends, family, and complete strangers whom I have never met and probably never will. This is my new site dedicated to my passion--and sometimes obsession--of cake decorating (and anything else having to do with baking and candy making). In some of my posts I will share projects that I have done and/or tips, techniques, and tricks for creating edible masterpieces. I hope you enjoy this site and come back often.