my first wedding cake <3

My sister-in-law got married this past weekend at St. Vincent Depaul in Chicago and the reception was held at John's Place. Anyways, I told her I would make her wedding cake. She had 2 weddings. This was the second one. The first was in Puerto Vallerta, Mexico. I tell you guys this because my husband's aunts brought me vanilla from Mexico because I didn't buy any while we were out walking around. I didn't realize how good the vanilla is from Mexico to bake with until they told me. Anyways, the wedding cake was yellow cake filled with homemade buttercream made with the vanilla from Mexico (which they were right, it was amazing, no extra flavoring needed- it was so rich and made the buttercream nice and smooth). After the 12, 9, and 6 inch cakes were filled, stacked and crumb coated they were chilled for a few hours. After letting them chill, the cakes were covered in homemade marshmallow fondant that was made earlier last week and tinted to ivory. I made 3 batches of ivory fondant and 1 white fondant. I then put the dowell rods into the bottom 2 tiers to hold the weight of the top tiers. They were then stacked on top of each other. The cakes were stacked on 6- 14 inch cake circles that were taped together and cover in ivory fondant and the edge wrapped with 7/8 in white ribbon. The cake was then put in the fridge to chill and equal out the temperature of the cakes. After chilling for about an hour I took the cake out to put some final touches on the cake. I ordered a lace mold from Global Art Sugar to use on her cake because her dress had beautiful lace so I looked for a mold to match as close to the bottom of her dress. So, I used the white fondant and rolled it into the mold (this took a little bit of research on how to get it to not stick to the mold- I realized the when I roll the bit of fondant into medium sized balls with greased hands and then rolled into a longer string- like a worm sorta). Then I had to pull the fondant out of the mold and use a small pering knife to cut arount the molded fondant. I then flipped the fondant over and brushed water onto the back of the molded fondant. I then picked it up and placed it onto the bottom of the base tier. I used a toothpick to smooth out the edges and make sure nothing was distorted in the detail. I then repeated this for the rest of that tier and the other 2 tiers. They were then brushed with what I call pixie dust. I know that's not the real name but that's what it reminds me of. It is edible light glitter that makes the lace and cake just pop and brings out the details of the lace. Then back into the fridge it went and transported to Chicago the next morning. After the wedding and all of the pictures, I went back to John's Place (reception site) to set up the cake by placing it on my cake stand and adding the cake topper. I was complimented many times and told again that the cake was amazing. My sister-in-law's face and expression was worth all the time and energy that was put into the cake. I could tell she loved it and that she was impressed with it. The staff loved it too. In fact, there wasn't a whole lot of cake left. It was another successful cake. I now feel more comfortable doing wedding cakes. To see the brides smile and love for my hard work is why I love doing the cakes.

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tiffany bridal shower

My next cake that I did just before thanksgiving was for a bridal shower. The bride had a tiffany theme wedding so the bridesmaid hosting the shower asked for a tiffany box cake and cupcakes in red velvet with french vanilla buttercream. So, I started by doing my research again. Looking at a bunch of pictures and reading posts. I made 3- 8" square cakes and 24 cupcakes. Next I stacked the 3 cakes and filled them with the buttercream and crumbcoated the cake and stuck it in the freezer to set. Then as I waited for that to set I frosted the cupcakes and added the small white fondant bows for their completed look. When the cake was set I covered it with marshmallow fondant colored to match the tiffany blue color. Then was the more difficult part- how to make it to have cover. So I cut the blue fondant to a square a little bigger than the cake and place that on top of the already covered cake and smoothed it out, making sure the cake is level constantly like a neurotic kid. It was my first paid for cake and so I wanted it to be more perfect than I normally need it to be. Next white MMF was rolled out and cut into strips and added to the cake for the ribbons. Then the bow was set and hardened over a few hours and then added to the top of the cake. The host and guests that had arrived before I left it couldn't believe it. I had comments of it being awesome and just what they pictured. Through all the bumps and hiccups - I live for those moments.

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It's a me, a Mario

For my godson's birthday- I was asked to do a toadstool cake. Of course, I can't do anything simple so I took my sports ball pan, rice krispies, cake mix, fondant and all othe tools and got to work. With much research into the Mario world (which I knew next to nothing about) I looked at pictures and party websites. So I started by making the rice krispie treats. Then I molded them into the stalk part of toadstool. Then I made up the cake mix and made small bricks and the top part of toadstool. Next up would be buttercreaming for the crumb coat. Then I covered with my marshmallow fondant. For finishing touches, I added green buttercream grass to fill in imperfections and gamps between the bricks. Total hours spent on cake ~10 hrs.

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Bridal Shower

This is a few weeks old now, but i thought I'd share the awesome cake i made for my friend's bridal shower. She loves the topsy turvy look but her fiance said it doesn't look like a wedding cake - so i decided that she will get her topsy turvy cake (and to much surprise an Alice In Wonderland Theme Bridal Shower). Her colors are cornflower and latte - and no bridal shower is complete without a little pink in there. The words are the chorus lyrics to the song that she and her fiance are going to dance to their first dance with. They've picked "Pieces" by Red. Made of Butter Golden Cake and Buttercream filling and MMF. My husband and I totaled up the amount of hours i spent on this cake and came up between 17 and 18 hours!!! Holy cow Batman!!! I'm just glad that everyone seemed to enjoy the cake.

Yummy Chocolate Ganache

I recently found a quick and easy recipe for chocolate ganache - yum!!

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

boil cream. pour over chocolate chips and stir together, will look runny until all mixed.

My First Topsy Turvy Cake

Hello. I know I don't update on here nearly enough, but I wanted to share that with the help of my sister last Friday (because I was finishing up with a nasty cold - but was no longer contagious, don't worry) I made my first topsy turvy cake!!! I started on Wednesday with baking and making the fondant and buttercream frostings that I was going to need. I made 5 batches of MMF (Yum!), 1 batch of regular buttercream and 5 batches of banana cream buttercream (yes, banana!!!) Any ways, the cake tasted awesome and got many compliments on it.

I wanted to share the links that I used to help me in creating my cake. You must give credit where credit is due. And besides, it would have been a huge mess and would have just ended up wishing I could do something that cool. :)

Janell's Cakes made this awesome quick video on YouTube - that is very helpful to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DxHY_F53ClJ8

There is also a site that has pictures and kinda does a pretty decent job at explaining each step (which is helpful incase you don't get what is going on in the video b/c there's no narration.)

http://cakecentral.com/articles/6/how-to-make-a-topsy-turvy-whimsical-cake

http://www.mysweetandsaucy.com/2009/02/topsy-turvy-cake-tutorial/

Anyways, I just wanted to share and say look out cake world, here I slowly come! :) One day, I will be able to create master pieces with cake and other edible items (my favorite is rice krispies - easy to mold and make). My next step is to defiantly learn how to make flowers. I mean - you can't make a wedding cake usually without knowing how to make edible flowers. I can't wait to make wedding cakes for my friends and family so that I can actually one day make them for people I don't know and be proud to say I made their wedding cake and added to their most beautiful day and the start of their new lives. But, until then, I am going to work on my small cakes and flowers.

MMF

Hello everyone. I tried making Marshmallow Fondant and have never made fondant before, but may i say it was so easy and tastes WAY better than the store bought stuff. I found though, you have to grease everything. The first batch i made was too sticky but after it sat over night in plastic wrap it was fine, the second batch was totally fine to use right away. :)

Batch #2
Batch #1

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MMF Recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 (454 gm) bag of mini marshmallows
2 tbsp. water
5-6 cups of icing sugar
1 tsp. of lemon,orange or almond extract (optional)

1. Put water and marshmallows in a GREASED microwaveable bowl. Microwave for 1 minute on high, let sit for 1 minute and then remicrowave for another minute.

2. Carefully remove the bowl from the microwave mixing the marshmallow "goop" with a GREASED spoon or spatula. I then poured it into my Kitchen Aide Mixing Bowl (The bowl's metal or i would have just used that bowl). Add 6 cups of confectioners sugar (i found that it needs 6 cups to not be sticky) - Add 1 cup at a time. Use the dough attatchment (Greased) to mix the marshmallow "goop" with the sugar.

3. In order for the dough to become smooth, you must then grease your hands and knead the dough with your hands. When smooth, place in plastic wrap. (It is helpful to lay out the plastic wrap prior to kneading the fondant with your hands.

Let it sit and you're good to go :) Enjoy!

1st Post

This is my first post on here. We'll see if I can figure this out. :) Here are a few of my cakes to date. I just started doing cakes not too long ago and am learning so much by reading stuff online. I have a few more cakes that I will be doing and will post as I go along. :) Hope you enjoy.

This was for this past easter - yay chocolate bunnies :)