Busy week of Cakes....Sweet 16...50th Birthday...Baby Shower.....Jenn's Bithday!

What better theme than "Hollywood" for a special girl for her "Sweet 16" birthday party.  So I stuck with red, gold, silver, and black to resemble the Hollywood theme.  I went with a red carpet down the center and stars revolving around the cake, with an added movie reel and video camera.  Definitely the most challenging part of the cake was the sign on top with Mallory's name.  It was heavier than anticipated and was hard to attach the wooden dowels into the fondant sign.  But after two tries I finally reached success!

Thanks again Candace for asking me to do the cake and I hoped Mallory felt like a Hollywood Star!

This next cake was for for my friends father-in-law on his 50th birthday.  As you can see, he is a big Vancouver Canucks fan!  This cake was chocolate, with a chocolate filling and vanilla buttercream!  Chocolate definitely seems to be my most popular flavor!  

Thanks Michelle for asking me to make the cake!

 So I attended a small baby shower this past weekend and wanted to bring a little cake to celebrate the occasion.  I knew the soon to be mommy, Lindsey, was allergic to gluten so I had to figure how to make a gluten free cake that still tasted good!  Well I went with a vanilla cake recipe and substituted a couple ingredients with gluten free products and the end result seemed to turn out fine.  Lets just say the batter did not taste good, but in the end the cake turned out great, very sweet, but good!

My first success at red velvet cake!  I have tried two recipes in the past and not been completely satisfied with the result, but this new recipe I tried was delicious!  And of course the best and only icing to pair with red velvet cake is cream cheese icing!  This cake was for Jenn, my cousin!  Her birthday happen to land on the same day of our Christmas gathering, so I decided to bring a cake along to celebrate her birthday along with Christmas!

My Nephew is one special Birthday Boy!

Well these special cupcakes and cake were for my nephew, Hayden. Hayden was one spoiled birthday boy because he had two separate birthday parties, hence the two different cakes. For his family birthday party I made neon green race car cupcakes. Hayden absolutely loves cars, so I thought it would be a good and simply idea. The race cars are molded out of fondant, and then I piped letters and numbers on the race cars with buttercream icing. Then for Hayden's birthday party with all his little friends I let him pick what kind of cake he wanted.  He loves the movie Cars, and loves the main character, "lightning mcqueen."  So I did my best to mold a real life lightning mcqueen race car on the top of the cake, and then thought I would do a race car flag with the checkers for the top layer, and match the red of the car to the bottom layer.  The flavor of the cake is all chocolate, but the top tier had a peanut butter filling, and the bottom tier has a chocolate fudge filling.  This cake was a lot of fun to make, and was definitely worth it to see the smile on Hayden's face!  HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY HAYDEN!!

First round of Christmas baking...

 Cranberry Bliss Bars & Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Well if you enjoy Starbucks cranberry bliss bars, then you will loves these because they are very similar.  They are topped with a cream cheese icing and craisins.  Not too chewy, but not too crunchy!
The chocolate peanut cups are my favorite. You only need four  ingredients, but it does take time to let the chocolate cups form.  All you need is peanut butter, icing sugar, butter, and hershey kisses.  You need to line a mini muffin tin with paper cups first, and then once you have melted some of the hershey kisses (or you could use chocolate chips) you brush the melted chocolate in the sides and bottom of the paper cups.  You can then put it in the fridge for 20 minutes.  You then check each chocolate cup and add more melted chocolate to the thin areas.  Then put in the fridge over night.  The next day you tear the paper cups away from the chocolate and you have a nicely formed chocolate cup that is then filled with a peanut butter, icing sugar, and butter mixture with a hershey kiss to finish it all off.

 Christmas Cupcakes
I did three different kinds of christmas inspired cupcakes for a christmas party I was attending.  The four cupcakes with the darker icing are hazelnut/nutella cupcakes topped with a gummy snowman or christmas tree.  Then there are chocolate cupcakes topped with buttercream icing and a christmas wreath.  Then there are pumpkin cream cheese cupcakes with fondant gingerbread cut outs and gold sanding sugar.

CHRISTMAS is here........time to bake!

ELEGANT WHITE CHRISTMAS TREE CUPCAKES!!!!!

Christmas is finally here, and it is time to start your christmas baking.  This recipe is by Paula Dean, and great for the holidays!  They are pumpkin spice  cupcakes, topped with a butter cream cheese icing, which is the best part.
To create the Christmas tree I used a wilton tip #21, (you could also use one size smaller or bigger) and created a center base before I started to pipe the rest of the tree.  I originally saw this idea in green, like a usual Christmas tree, but I also think that you could do it in any color.  Then I used silver sugar balls, and gold sanding sugar to give it that finished sparkle look.  You are able to get both of these decorations at cake decorating stores.  I get mine from scoop n save in Langley.

This is such a great idea for a hostess gift over the holidays.  If the christmas tree is a little too difficult, you can simply decorate the cupcake normally and then add the sanding sugar and silver sugar balls for a decorative touch!
 Baking Tip-  Do you ever notice that after you bake cupcakes, the cupcake liners sometimes fall off or separate from the cupcake?  Well I have came across this many times and finally found a solution?

To avoid this happening, make sure you fill the cupcake liners three quarters full so that when they bake they rise up and over the liner.  Also, make sure to remove the cupcakes from the pan right after they are taken out of the oven.  Both of these tips should help the cupcake liners stick and hold.
Stay tuned for more Christmas baking ideas!