More Cupcakes.......

 Well this was my first time using chocolate ganache, and it is very easy to do with cupcakes, but not so easy to cover a cake in ganache.  To make ganache all you need is dark chocolate and heavy/whipped cream.  Once you have prepared the ganache and have let it cool, then all you do is take the cupcake and dip it in the ganache and then let the excess drip off and once it has stopped dripping then place on the counter to set.  The flowers I added to both cupcakes are made out of white and dark modeling chocolate!  You could also use fondant, but modeling chocolate tastes much better than fondant!

Sunflower Cupcakes

For these cute cupcakes all you need are a few simply ingredients.  You need OREOS for the center of the sunflowers, and then I bought GREEN WINE GUMS  and sliced them very thin to use as the leaves. You could also use fruit leather as well.  And then for the petals, you simple get a ziploc bag and cut the corner like a top of a triangle.  Fill the bag with you icing and when you pipe it out of the bag, it will give you a perfect pedal look!  I used chocolate cupcakes, with a new Peanut Butter frosting which was to die for!!!  But make sure to use a icing that had a good consistency because if you icing is too soft the pedals will not hold its shape on the oreo

What's better than Jewelry and Cake put together????

Well this cake was inspire by a friend.  My friend's Mom was having a surprise 50th birthday, and her husband was actually getting her something from Tiffany's, so they wanted a cake that looked like a Tiffany's Box.
This was my first time using fondant, but the only part of the cake that is fondant is the white ribbon and bow, and also the jewelry on the cake board.  The rest of the cake is just covered and smooth with a buttercream icing, and I used a turquoise gel food colouring to tint the icing.  Turquoise is a very bold color, so you don't need much to colour the icing.
To make a fondant bow it is actually quite easy.  You cut out four strips, two a little big bigger if you want the bow to be bigger than the ribbons( which I did) and a smaller strip for the middle of the bow.  To attach the bow together you can use water or clear vanilla extract.  Make sure to attach the bow together and let it dry before placing on the cake.  There are also many videos on youtube on how to make a fondant bow, which are very helpful!  Gotta love youtube!!!!

Mastering the BASKETWEAVE!!!!

The basketweave definitely looks harder than it actually is!  It is just quite time consuming and if your icing is too stiff (which mine was) your hand gets very sore! But ANYONE can learn how to do the basketweave!
 So this cake I made for my second cake class, and it is chocolate cake with chocolate chips.  It is three layers with chocolate fudge pudding in between the layers, and a buttercream icing which I colored yellow with gel food coloring.  Helpful hint: try to always use GEL food colouring because the gel food colouring will not change your consistency of the icing. For all the flowers I used royal icing.  Royal icing is simply made out if icing sugar, water, and meringue powder.  This type of icing dries very hard and is perfect for making flowers that hold their shape and look great, and they are also edible.

Boobilious Cakes...Great Cakes for Lingerie Showers!

This Boob Cake, as I like to call it was for my friend Michelle's Lingerie Shower.  This was my FIRST DISASTER CAKE!  I dropped the first cake on the ground when I was flipping it out of the pan.  Then I made a second cake and it didn't come out of the pan like I thought, and it fell into pieces and was one crumby mess. At this point I was ready to through the cake everywhere and cry...lol!  Third time was the charm!  Luckily I had my Mom step in and help, and she suggested using parchment paper at the bottom of the pan.  NOW I ALWAYS USE PARCHMENT PAPER, just to make sure the cake easily comes out of the pan!  For the boobs you can use a wonder mold pan, or I used a glass measuring cup.  Just simply fill the measuring cup a quarter of the way full with cake batter.  Once they are baked, you may need to shape them and shave them down a bit, but it's as simply as that!

This second Boob cake I made for another friend that was also named Michelle!  I just did chocolate covered strawberries around the outside for an added decorative touch!  This cake is a hazelnut cream cake, with a hazelnut filling and a vanilla buttercream icing!
Thanks girls for letting me make your lingerie cakes for you.....I had a blast decorating them!

Helpful Easy Tips for Baking!

These are some great easy heplful tips I learnt from my first cake class!
1.  Bake your cake at 325 degrees instead of 350 degrees, which alot of recipes say. Baking your cake at this cooler temperature will help keep it moist and not dry!
2. Don't spray the sides of the cake pan, it will make them hard and crunchy!
3. Add meringue powder to your buttercream and this will make the icing harden so it is much easier to smooth!

 This is a two layer devil's food chocolate cake that I also made for cake class.  I simply used a greeting card as my template and used it as my design for the whole cake.  I used a cardboard cake circle that you can get at michael's craft store for my cake base.  But I recommend covering the cake board, because my looked like crap after the cake was made!  The buttercream icing is very messy and the grease from the icing made the cake board look nothing but ugly by the end...hahaha!

From the Beginning.......

I always thought that store bought baking was a SIN!  I grew up in a house that never had store bought baking.  For as long as I can remember my Mom always loved to bake, and I always loved to be her little helper with the hope of eating lots of the dough!  Now I have discovered my own love for baking and cake decorating! So I decided to take some Wilton Cake Decorating Classes.  

This is my first cake I made from class.  THE CLOWN CAKE!  The only think that is not edible on the cake is the actual clown's head.  The clowns are actually really easy to make, they just take a lot of icing, and it must be the right consistency!