Birthday Treat!

Banana Caramel Cream Cupcakes


Well it was my friend's birthday, and surprise surprise......I wanted to give her some baked goodies!  But I wanted to try a new recipe!  So I new that my friend liked banana bread, so I went on the hunt for a banana flavored cupcake recipe, when I came across this banana caramel cream cupcake recipe that looked delicious.  I always knew that chocolate chips were a great addition to banana bread, but just wait till you taste a little bit of banana, chocolate, and caramel......divine......well at least I thought so!

Here is the recipe.....I found it on bakers royale blog!  Which is a fantastic baking blog and has many more recipes that I want to try!

Banana Cupcake 
8 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon  baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon allspice
2/3 cups mashed bananas
1/3 cup sour cream
3 tablespoon milk
Instructions:
1. Beat butter, sugar and eggs on medium speed (adjust up to high for hand mixers) until light and fluffy.
2. Sift and stir in dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Set aside.
3. Whisk bananas, sour cream and milk until incorporated.
4. Fold banana mixture into remaining ingredients until incorporated.
5. Fill cupcake hole 2/3 and smooth out top with the back of a spoon.
6. Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes.
7.  Cool completely on rack before assembling.  Remove baking cups from cake.

Filling and Frosting
1 ½ cups caramel sauce  (store bought or see my homemade version here)

20 Kraft caramel squares & 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Place caramel squares and cream in a sauce pan and melt over low heat for approximately 7-8 minutes.

2. Caramel sauce is ready when it is free of any solids. 

½ cup heavy cream, whipped 

2 medium bananas (medium ripened), sliced

1/3 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:
1. Fold 3 tablespoons of caramel into cream. Set aside.
2. Cut cupcakes horizontally into thirds.
3. Reassemble cake with remaining caramel sauce and bananas.
4. Cover tops of cupcakes with caramel cream.
5. Place chocolate chips on top!

Baby Shower Cakes

Well you can't have a baby shower without having cake right?  So a couple weeks before doing this cake, I saw this tutorial in a cake magazine for this little baby giraffe and I loved the idea.  So when this cake was ordered I immediately wanted to incorporate the giraffe into the cake! I was very happy with how the little giraffe turned out, he is so cute!  This cake was for a friend, Danielle, to celebrate her first born, Simon!

So I have been seeing these baby bum diaper cakes everywhere, and I think they are just adorable!  So when I had another baby shower cake ordered, I jumped at the chance to try this new idea!  So I had to experiment with the babies bum a little bit to get the exact shape of the bum I wanted.  But in the end I was very happy with how it turned out!  Then I simply finished it off with a chocolate buttercream and basketweave around the outside.
Thanks so much Wendy for asking me to do the cake!

The basketweave again!  It looks hard, but honestly it is quite simple, and I love the look it gives!  It is also a nice option if your customer doesn't want the whole cake to be covered in fondant.  This cake was for a little baby girl named Willow.  So I added the tree branches to resemble the name, and then fondant pink baby feet on top!

Summer time!!!

 Well its summer, and its raspberry season!  One of my favorite times of year, and one of my favorite fresh local treats!  This cake was for my friend's mother-in-law's birthday.  My friend, Carrie, named this cake "Raspberry delight!"  It is a white/vanilla cake with a raspberry whipped cream filling, and a vanilla pudding/whipped cream frosting, topped with fresh raspberries!  This kind of frosting is one of my absolute favorites, and is a nice change from your traditional buttercream.  It is very light and fluffy!

Cupcakes, cupcakes, and more cupcakes!!!

 Cupcakes are becoming more popular than ever!!!  Here are just a few pictures of the latest cupcakes I have done.

 Strawberries are now in season, so I made fresh strawberry cupcakes with strawberry whipped cream frosting!  Along with a variety of other flavours....red velvet, vanilla with chocolate buttercream, and chocolate with caramel!

 Oh yes, these cupcakes have little mini fondant pacifiers/soothers on them.  I thought it was the perfect touch for a baby shower.

So for these last cupcakes I tried a brand new coconut cupcake recipe, and it was a definite success.  Lets just say, they have A LOT of butter, but they are delicious and have just the perfect of amount of coconut!

Latest Wedding Cakes

 This lovely red rose cake was for a wedding anniversary party! It was my first time working with tiers that were slightly raised, because I had to fit the roses in between each layer.  It definitely is trickier and little bit of a balancing act, but it all worked out in the end.
The red roses were all fresh, and I used about 5 dozen.  But I love the look that the red roses gave to the cake.  They definitely completed the look and made it stand out with bold colour.
This is one of my favorite cakes.  Its very simple, but stunning at the same time.  Thanks so much Karen for asking me to make the cake!

Now this next cake was for my dear friend Jennifer's wedding.  The top and bottom layer I used a stitching tool and pearl sugar beads, and then the middle layer was just a free hand design that accents the ribbon on the top and bottom layer.  I absolutely love the design on the ribbon, and surprisingly I got it at Michaels.
There was a few different requests from the bride, groom, and others in terms of the cake flavour, so we decided to do three different flavours.  The bottom layer was chocolate, the middle was red velvet, and the top was gluten free vanilla.  So hopefully everything was satisfied:)
The final touches to the cake were the hot pink dogwood flowers, which were made out of gumpaste and fondant.  They didn't curl up as much as I wanted them too.  A good tip I learnt is that the thinner you roll the gumpaste/fondant flower the more they resemble a real flower and the right shape and curl to them.
Thanks so much Jenn for asking me to do the cake!!!!!!

Sugar Cookies for Jill!

Well these special wedding cake sugar cookies were shipped all the way to Memphis, TN for my dear friend Jill.  She was having an engagement party that sadly I could not be there for, due to the millions of miles in between us.  So I couldn't exactly send a cake or cupcakes in the mail, so the next best thing were sugar cookies.

I wasn't too sure on how the cookies would look once they finally arrived, but I bubble wrapped them like crazy so there was no way they were breaking or sliding around.  And good news, they all arrive safely, a few little bumps and bruises to some of them but overall the delivery was a success.

Can't wait till for wedding in September!  Hope you enjoyed the cookies JB!

 Well this cake was for my Dad's birthday!  I wanted to experiment with a new recipe.  The best time is always with family.  So this cake is called a hummingbird cake.  It slightly resembles a carrot cake but it contains bananas, pineapple, and pecans.  It is very moist and paired with cream cheese icing.  And the verdict from the family was great!  It does have a strong banana taste (not so much pineapple) but overall I would say this recipe was a success.  Another one to add to the list!  If you want the recipe it is from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.  And here are two more pictures of my latest work, I guess sports was the theme!!!!

Who doesn't love polka dots???

Well I definitely had fun making this baby shower cake, and loved the final result of it.  The cake inside is chocolate, with a chocolate fudge pudding filling, and a vanilla buttercream frosting.  Then of course, perfected with the outer layer being fondant.  The polka dots were quite easy to make, and the clothes line and little girls clothes are all made out of fondant.  I have to thank Audrey, my friend who asked me to make the cake, for that great clothes line idea.  I absolutely love that idea, and you could also do boys clothes as well, if the baby shower was for a boy.  Then I thought I would finish off the cake with a fondant border around the bottom all tied together with a bow in the centre.  Bows may look hard to make, but believe me they are extremely easy and there are so many videos on youtube that can walk you through the process.

Thanks Audrey for asking me to make the cake!

Birthday Party/Baby Shower

Well lets juts say that covering a square cake in fondant is much harder than it looks.  Getting those perfectly square corners may look easy but they are very deceiving.  Although this cake still turned out well, I would say it was not perfect.  But I am very much a perfectionist when it comes to my cakes, so I am hardly ever completely satisfied.  But anyways, in the end this birthday present cake was so cute and the corners were definitely better than my last square cake.  I guess I will just have to resort to practice, practice, practice!

Thanks Jane for asking me to do the cake!

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!

Chocolate Delight for Leanne!!!

This special cake was for my cousin Leanne's birthday!  I was inspired to do this cake from a picture I saw in a magazine.  The first step in making this cake was to make the chocolate squares that surround the outside of the cake, which can get a little tricky.  I melted milk chocolate and white chocolate in a double broiler until it was completely melted and smooth.  Then I spread it onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.  I spread it just thin enough that it would still be able to cut once solid.  So then I set the chocolate in the fridge to harden.  Once hardened I then cut the squares with a knife.  But the trick is to dip your knife in hot water before cutting to help the chocolate from breaking.

Then the rest of the cake was three layers of chocolate cake with chocolate chips in it.  I used a fudge pudding filling for one layer, and then a hazelnut buttercream for the next layer of filling.  Then I topped it with alternating hazelnut and vanilla buttercream. YUMMY!!

Lemon Fresh

This is a brand new recipe....Lemon Cupcakes! If you are a fan of lemon, then you will love these cupcakes.  They are sweet, but also have a slight lemonly tart flavour to them. To create the lemon flavour in the cake and the icing, I use grated lemon zest.  I also used a small amount of yellow food colouring to tint the icing a soft yellow.  Then to perfect them I used yellow sprinkles and little pearl white sugar candies.  You could also use little candy lemon wedges to decorate them, which would go along with the lemon theme.  I just got a little lazy and settled for sprinkles and sugar candies.  If you wanted to spice things up and add more flavour besides just lemon, I thought you could add blueberries.  You would then have a lemon blueberry cake, with a lemon icing!

My very first wedding cake....thanks Michelle and Raymond!

Well here it is.....my very first wedding cake!  Now let me tell y'all, making a wedding cake takes a long time......and A LOT of fondant!  No lie,  I actually got a work out rolling out all that fondant. Just a nice helpful hint that I learnt the hard way.....don't use shortening to grease your counter before rolling out fondant, please use sifted icing sugar, and continue to apply more sugar after a couple rolls to make sure it doesn't stick to the counter.  The little white daises you see on the corners of the cake and down below are such an easy and elegant way to accent a wedding cake, especially using white on white.  Once each flower is made I put them on flower formers to dry over night and this way they don't lay flat on the cake, but curl up and form a more real life flower structure.  They are time consuming but definitely worth the added touch.  I simply used white pearl dust to make them have a shiny and glittering affect.  Then I used fresh gerber daises and ribbon to complete the cake!

Thanks Michelle and Raymond so much to allowing to me to make your wedding cake, because I know it was my first and there was no guarantee....lol!