Dinosaur Birthday Cake

It was birthday time again. This time for my friend Melanie's little boy. It was a dinosaur themed party, using the colors red, lime green, and light blue. I wish I could claim this as an original design, but for this cake I went to google images for inspiration and fell in love with a cake from the Artisan Cake Company in Portland, OR, and I ended up making one similar to it.


As you can tell from my last few cake adventures, I have fallen in love with making and using modeling chocolate. This time I molded my dinosaurs and trees out of it. I feel like a kid playing with Play-doh sometimes. Everytime I work with the stuff my older daughter wants to "play Play-doh" too (although she wants to use mine because she's discovered that the stuff actually tastes good).


I have to admit that my triceratops was my favorite of all the little guys that I made. Too bad they're not still around. I'd want one as a pet :) The sand was made from crushed up graham crackers--pretty good sand, but two days after doing this I saw on Cake Boss that they use brown sugar for sand. Duh--that would have looked so great if I would have thought of that earlier. Next time, I guess.


I know, I know--my little sea creature/loch ness monster dude isn't really a dinosaur, but he was just too cute that I had to include him. You see him eyeing that little cake?! He brought his appetite with him.


I found the trick to the waves was to ice that part of the cake in blue, then put dollups of white icing next to the edge of the blue, and using a small angled cake spatula, pull the white down and into the blue.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Andersen! Here's to another great year.

Valentine's Chocolate Box Brownie

This year I wanted to surprise my wonderful husband with something. I saw a similar idea to this a while back on Bakerella's site, and decided that with a few tweeks, this would be perfect for him. Here is how I did it:

I started off by making some red modeling chocolate out of a bag of red Wilton candy melts and corn syrup. It is super easy to make and great to work with. I decided to do this instead of using red fondant as directed in Bakerella's instructions because I can make it myself for cheap, and get a really rich red color. I also haven't found a good recipe yet to make homemade red fondant that is really red, and I hate spending so much on a little amount of fondant at the store. You can find the recipe at the end of the post.

I rolled out my red modeling chocolate about 1/8" in thickness and cut one heart the size of my heart cake pan, and one about 1/2" larger around. The easiest way to do this is roll it out on wax paper, then trace the heart on another piece of wax paper in both sizes needed, cut out the heart, lay it on the modeling chocolate, then use a knife to cut it out.

This can be done a few days in advance, and left on the wax paper until needed.

You then need to bake your cake in the heart pan--whatever flavor you want--or if your husband doesn't like cake you can do as I did and bake . . .

a yummy heart shaped brownie. Delicious. Level it off and place it on top of the larger modeling chocolate heart. Now if that doesn't look good enough, just wait . . .

Yes. Ganache. Everything tastes better with ganache. I made up a batch to act as my icing to glue things together. You can use frosting if you want, but nothing is much better than some rich ganache.

Carefully spread it over the top and sides of the brownie. The sides can be a wee bit tricky, so do those especially carefully. It doesn't require a lot of ganache, so if you are like me and make a full batch, you may have a lot left over. Put it to some good use. I recommend microwaved smores with a layer of it as your chocolate. Mmmmm.

Next place the smaller red heart on top. The ganche will help it stick to the brownie.

For the sides of the box, roll out the rest of the modeling chocolate into a long strip.

Cut a band long enough to wrap around the entire brownie, and wide enough so that it sits up about 1/2" higher than the box. Then starting at the top center of the heart wrap the piece around the entire box and cut off the excess. The seam smooths together quite well with the modeling chocolate.

And there you have a completely edible Valentine's box. Now what to fill it with? . . .

Well, I decided that if it was going to be for my husband, it would have to be one thing--chocolate covered strawberries. His favorite. These are quick to make. Just a bunch of washed and dried strawberries (really dried--we don't want any water ruining our chocolate), and some more candy melts--this time white and cocoa colored. Melt them according to the pkg. instructions and dip away. Once they've hardened you can decorate with the other color. I found that an easy way to do this is pour the chocolate into a ziploc bag, seal, and snip a TINY hole in one of the corners. Then all you do is squeeze while moving you hand back and forth.

Oops. That one in the center got a little too much . . . I might have done that on purpose. I mean really--I can't just let my messups go to waste.

Fill the box with the best ones. Do what you like with the rest. That shouldn't take too much imagination :)

A Valentine's treat sure to put a smile on his face.

Well, we had a great Valentine's Day. My 2 year old wanted to make something for daddy too, so we used up the rest of the brownie batter to make a small brownie heart that we covered in lots of ganache, and she went to town on decorating.

Isn't her creation beautiful? She had a blast decorating it, and her daddy LOVED it.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Modeling chocolate recipe:

1 140z pkg wilton candy melts

1/3 cup light corn syrup

Melt the candy melts according to pkg instructions. When all melted stir in corn syrup and stir until all incorporated. Turn out onto some wax paper and let set up for a couple hours, then wrap in saran wrap and store at room temp until needed. Usually works better if you make it up at least a day before hand.

When ready to use it start kneading it until it is smooth and can be rolled out. It may be pretty hard at first so you might need to knead a little at a time until it is pliable and easy to use. Sprinkling a little cornstarch on your surface will help prevent it from sticking. I like to roll it out on wax paper for that purpose too.

It can be stored for several weeks at room temp.

Tangled

I got to do a Tangled/Rapunzel themed cake this week for a friend's daughter who was turning 4. I have to say, I had a lot of fun making this cake. I got to try a few new techniques that I have been wanting to do, and had fun learning as I went along.


What would a Rapunzel cake be without the tower? I molded this tower out of rice krispy treats, and covered it in modeling chocolate. I heard on Cake Boss one time that modeling chocolate is definitely something good to have in your "arsenal of cake decorating methods"--and now I see why. It is easy to smooth out seams when covering something, and is great for molding shapes and objects.

This was my favorite part of the cake--the quaint rock bridge--also made out of modeling chocolate. Can I have one in my backyard? Blue piping gel over a blue piece of fondant made a very real looking river.

The cascade of hair was fondant with gumtex. I put some wire in it to give it a little more structure. I tried texturing it a little with a razor blade to make it seem a little more like hair, then brushed it with some gold luster dust.

The trees were also a modeling chocolate experiment. It worked. I just wish I would have thought earlier to make a little "Wanted" poster for Flynn Rider to stick on one of them.

A few final touches with some candy rocks, piped grass, and fondant flowers made it a fairy tale ending.

Amaretto Truffle Icing and fondant flowers

I LOVE chocolate. Seriously, whoever said diamonds were a woman's best friend obviously was a man, because being a woman, I beg to differ--I think it is chocolate. I honestly don't know how I went 5 WHOLE YEARS without eating chocolate because of a bet with a good friend. Those definitely were years of sacrifice for me (and would you know I just received a letter from my friend indicating that she is on year 11 of no chocolate--can you say WILLPOWER?!)

Well, the past couple months have been hard--I am again off chocolate, this time because of my darling baby girl, who gets very fussy when I do eat it. Let's just say the holidays were very difficult--there was chocolate everywhere--but I resisted . . . until I got this book from my dad:

OK--that is a title I want put on vinyl lettering and plastered on my kitchen wall. There are soooo many amazing looking recipes in here that I just had to start trying them.

In this project I tried 2 of them. The cake was the Sinful Chocolate Cupcakes recipe and the icing was the Amaretto Truffle Icing recipe. Both looked delicious. I was slightly disappointed with the cupcake recipe, but then again all I had on hand was fat free sour cream, and it called for the fat-full stuff, so I'm guessing that may have had something to do with it. Still, not bad (but I am bound and determined to one day find the most perfect chocolate cake recipe, and will try recipe after recipe until I do).

On the other hand the Amaretto Truffle icing was delicious--and rich. Very rich. I love almond flavoring, so this hit the mark for me. It's kind of a mix between chocolate ganache and chocolate buttercream with a dash of almond. Definitely a keeper.

So I combined these two recipes into this birthday cake for a friend. Yes, I gave it away, and didn't eat it all (lucky for my baby I just tasted the cut off cake top with some icing for critique purposes :)

Then I whipped up a batch of marshmallow fondant to make my colorful flowers (recipe at end of post). I mixed in some gumtex with it to make it more of a gumpaste so my flowers would harden a little more).

These flowers were simple to make. I just used the medium flower cutter from my Wilton fondant rose cutters set (although another flower cutter would work just as well I presume). Just roll out your fondant/gumtex mixture, cut the flowers out (and use a knife to cut into them a little more so the petals will separate a bit more), and dry them in some tinfoil molded into a cup shape. I used my large lily nail to press my foil part way down to make the cup shape. Allow to dry (give a couple days at least--I only did one day and mine didn't harden as much as I wish they had--maybe I should have used more gumtex too). Rolled up balls of fondant can be glued in the center of the flowers with a little clear vanilla extract.

Just put the flowers where you like for a beautiful finished cake. Yum. Did I mention I love chocolate? Only 9 more months until I can really eat it again . . . but who's counting?

(I recommend checking out that book Chocolate Never Faileth. Unfortunately due to copywrite I can't reproduce the recipes here for you).

Marshmallow fondant
1 package (16 ounces) Kraft white mini marshmallows
2-5 Tbsp water
2 pounds (about 8 cups) sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tsp clear flavorings (vanilla, butter, almond) optional

Melt the marshmallows and 2T water in a greased microwavable bowl in 30 sec increments, stirring between until mixture is melted. At this point you can add in your flavoring if you want.

Place 1/2 of your powdered sugar in a pregreased Kitchenaid with greased dough hook attached. Pour marshmallow mixture over top (and scrap out all using a spatula). Knead fondant on medium speed. Continue adding powdered sugar in 1/2 cup increments until fondant is not sticky. By the end I usually have to knead a little bit more sugar in by hand on a well-greased surface. The amount of powdered sugar you need may vary depending on the humidity of where you live.

It should be done when it is pliable and non-sticky. I like to wrap mine in a couple of layers of saran wrap and let it rest for a couple of hours before using it. It can be stored for at least a month if coated with a thin layer of crisco, wrapped tight in plastic wrap, sealed in a ziploc bag, and stored in an airtight container.

Cupcake slippers

Guess what we found in my daughter's stocking Christmas morning--yep, these darling slippers. I just had to show you. Cupcake slippers--perfect for her--a girl that spends a majority of her day pretending to bake cupcakes in her little kitchen. She must be my child--obsessed with cupcakes and cakes. I just wish they made them in my size too!

(These are from The Children's Place in case anyone out there falls as in love with them as much as I did when I saw them).

Deck the Hall with lots of Cupcakes, fa la la la la. . .

What a wonderful time of the year. I can't help but smile just thinking of the Christmas season during the year, and when this season finally comes, I get so excited for all the many fun activities to do and treats to make. I have to admit, this year I haven't done as much with regards to making treats. I'm still trying to adjust to having 2 children from 1 (did I tell you yet?!--We were blessed with another adorable baby girl the end of October-6lbs and a head full of brown curly hair--we sure have a lot to be thankful for this season especially).

I did find some time to make these cute ornament cupcakes for a Relief Society activity. It was an idea I got from Hello, Cupcake. Pretty simple to make, and totally adorable.

I chose to use my jumbo cupcake pan instead of the normal cupcake size (well, I was kind of forced to do that--I realized the night I was making them that I only had jumbo cupcake liners in my stash, and I just didn't want to go to the store), but I really liked how the jumbo size worked well with this idea. Just frost, roll in some decorating sugar, and decorate with twizzler pull and peels, mini M&Ms, spice drops, fruit rollups, and whatever else you have on hand and voila--cupcakes fit for a tree (although I don't recommend decorating your tree with them.

One tip I learned (the hard way)--it is much easier cutting the fruit rollup into the shapes you need if you leave it on the plastic wrap it came on while cutting. Happy decorating and a very Merry Christmas to you!

Pie Night

During this holiday season, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite family traditions--Pie Night. Yep--an evening dedicated completely to eating pie (you can't get much better than that!)


It all started many years ago when my mother got tired of spending so much time making so many wonderful pies for Thanksgiving, only to have them go uneaten because we all were too full after our Thanksgiving feast to eat any pie. She didn't want her hard work to go unnoticed (and uneaten), so we started having Pie Night. The night before Thanksgiving, all our immediate and extended family that was around would get together and eat Mom's pies. It expanded year after year from a few pies to a couple dozen, as all the sisters and aunts would make pies too to bring. It has become a true Pie Feast.

We have shared this tradition with our friends the past few years since we are away at medical school and have been unable to travel home for Thanksgiving. It has become a tradition that they too look forward to each year.


The fun part is to see (and taste) all the different varieties of pies that people bring. Every year I make a few different pies for the night, but each year there is one recipe that I always make--one that I was introduced to while on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints down in southern Texas. It is called Crunchy Carmel Apple Pie (recipe from the bhg.com website). I wanted to show you a simple, yet cute technique to dress your pies up using this recipe (minus the pecans--we aren't huge nut fans here).


This pie has a streusel-type top, so I couldn't do any decorating with a pie-crust top, but I decorated the rim of the pie by simply cutting out little leaf shapes from an extra 1/2 batch of pie crust that I made.
Just layer the leaves around the edge of the pie before baking.
Then wrap the edges with tinfoil for the first half of the baking time so they don't get overly browned.
You'll end up with an interesting and decorative edge to your pie. And for those of you with young kids, it is a great way to get them involved in the baking process. My daughter loves to help me cut out the shapes with our cookie cutters.
Don't forget the caramel sauce on top before serving! Maybe a few of you out there will try this tradition next year with your family. I offer one suggestion: cut small slices--then you will have room to try all the yummy kinds of pie.
I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving, full of family, friends, and an outpouring of gratitude for all the blessings we have been given. Have a safe Christmas holiday season, and never forget the true reason for the season--the birth of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.