Graduation/Fire Marshall Cake

Ok, so I haven't blogged in almost a year. Life with a toddler is so busy! Now I have a whole list of blogs to post and I plan to get most of them done today! So here we go- post number one!

A good friend of ours recently graduated with his masters degree and got a new job (fire Marshall!) Here is the cake I made for his graduation party.

Little Monsters Baby Shower

Ok, so I know it's been awhile, but between taking care of my baby, going to Germany and London and planning for various events I've been SO busy.

Last weekend was my sister-in-laws baby shower. I was in charge of the Invitations and cake. For the nursery, she chose a monster theme, and I decided to follow suit with the shower.

Invitation

Cake

Diaper Cake Gift

This weekend we are going to my Aunts house for a "family reunion" type of get together. I'm making Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcakes. Stay tuned!

Congratulations Cake

My Aunt recently got remarried and she had a small get together with the family to celebrate. I was asked to bring the cake. I don't use flowers too much on my cakes since they can look a little old fashioned at times, but I thought that this was the perfect occasion to use them, and I think the result was cute!

Gender Reveal Cake

Saturday was the big day I got to announce to my family and friends the sex of our baby. Having known since Tuesday, it wasn't as hard to keep a secret as I thought it would be.

At the party, people kept trying to read into everything to figure out what the sex was by clues. My sister-in-law said "your nails are painted pink" to which I replied "but my toes are painted blue." A friend commented that Greg was wearing a blue shirt, and I told them that 90% of Greg's shirts are blue! I had to inform everyone that there were no clues and they would have to wait to cut into the cake I made to find out what it is!

We made everyone choose a team and wear a necklace based on their choice. It was 9-boy to 8-girl.

So after some delicious BBQ made by Greg, it was time to cut into the cake. We let the Grandma's do the honor since we already knew what was inside.

 You can see from the blue filling that IT'S A BOY!

Team Boy

Team Girl

We couldn't be happier to finally know the sex. Now it's time to start planning all the details in preparation for November 15.

Superbowl Football Cake

Last year for Superbowl, I made football cupcakes. This year I decided to go for a cake instead! I looked on Amazon, and decided to purchase the Wilton First and Ten Football Pan. I baked the cake (Funfetti, my husbands favorite!) as normal and then decorated it with chocolate butter cream. It was simple, but everyone liked it!

Dirty Thirty Martini Cake 2

My first dirty thirty martini cake was such a hit, I had to try again for a friends thirtieth birthday. Enjoy!

Dirty Thirty Martini Cake

A friend at work asked me to make a birthday cake for her sister's 30th. Her theme was dirty thirty, and she wanted a pink martini cake. I baked a 9" x 13" cake and cut it to be shaped like a martini glass. I frosted it in white, and then added pink fondant to make the "liquid". I added pink sugar to the rim, made two lemon twists out of fondant and then added text to the cake.


My biggest problem with this cake was the lemon twists flattened out by the time I delivered the cake. Since I only used fondant, I think the moisture got to them. Next time I would use gum paste so they harden and don't flatten!

I do plan on creating another dirty thirty martini cake for another birthday this November, however it will be a dirty martini with olives instead of a pink martini with lemon twists. I will post pictures after I make it.

Baby Shower Cake: Baby Blocks

We had a baby shower at work and I was asked to make the cake. Apparently, I am getting quite the reputation around the office for being the "cake boss". 

I went with the theme of the shower, which was blue and brown (for the future little baby boy!) and owls.

The baby blocks were formed with rice crispy treats, and the owls, bow and polka dots were made using fondant. I had a few problems (like the blocks drooping and the bow cracking) but overall it turned out really cute.

The cake itself was chocolate with raspberry filling (the guest of honor's favorite). I used chocolate cake from a box and frozen raspberries. For awhile after I put the raspberries on the cake, the cake looked as if it was bleeding out the bottom. Next time I may have to drain the frozen fruit first, however I did get a lot of good review on the taste of it and how moist it was since the raspberry juice soaked the bottom layer.

Guinness Cake (inside and out)

Last night we had a going away party for a friend who is going to study in Ireland. I decided to make a Guinness cake for the celebration. When researching photos online of cakes shaped like a Guinness glass, I found a recipe for chocolate cake made with Guinness! Here is the recipe I used:

2 c. guinness
2 c. (4 sticks) butter
1 1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
4 c. flour
4 c. sugar
1 tbsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
4 eggs
1 1/3 c. sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring stout and butter to a simmer in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add  coco powder and whisk until smooth. Cool Slightly. Wisk flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to blend. Using a mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl. Add stout-chocolate mixture to the eggs and beat to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Bake about 35 min.

This recipe is supposed to make 3 8-inch round pans. I used a 9x13 pan, and needed to up the baking time. I also had a lot of extra batter, so I made a small 6-inch round pan with the extra, which my husband took to work! If I did this again, I would half the recipe and use a 9x13 pan.

For frosting, I made Wilton's chocolate butter-cream. I also made a batch of non-chocolate butter-cream for decorating.

I couldn't be happier with the end result, I think it looked like a Guinness glass, and the cake tasted very delicious and moist!

Vegas Themed Bridal Shower Cake

I can't beleive I didn't post this sooner. I made this cake back in May for a co-workers bridal shower. Her wedding theme was "lucky in love", so I made her a vegas themed wedding cake! This was my first experiment with fondant at home, and I was happy with the way it turned out!

Wilton Gumpaste and Fondant: Week Four

Week Four was spent entirely decorating our cake. We started by rolling out our fondant. This was the easy part, although I think I rolled mine out a little to thin. Once we got the fondant on our cake, we were supposed to lift and smooth it out until it set nicely around the cake. Since my cake was so tall (three layers of strawberry and white cake with fresh strawberry's in between) it was very hard to get the fondant to lay flat. I had a lot of folds in the fondant, and since it was so thin it started tearing.

My original plan was to put light purple and yellow stripes on the cake. As I started adding the stripes, I realized that if I also added dark purple stripes the same color as the fondant on the cake, it completely covered up the sides and the folds/tears. At this point I was very satisfied. I know it wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good for my first try!

I then added the carnations, daisy's and calla lilies that I prepared before class and then the leaves. Overall, I was very satisfied about the way it turned out! I can't wait to try using fondant again on my next cake and perfecting my skills.

Wilton Decorating Basics: Week 4

The final week we learned how to do letters in both print and cursive. We also learned the Wilton ribbon rose. Then we got to decorate one final cake however we wanted. Since I feel like the roses are a little old fashioned, I used drop flowers on my cake. I cannot wait to start the next Wilton class, Gum Paste and Fondant next Wednesday!