Buzz Lightyear

Buzz Lightyear Cake for a 2nd birthday.

I got to make Peyton's first birthday cake last year, seen here, so I feel privilaged to get to make his second cake this year!

This is a 2-layer vanilla cake with a chocolate mousse filling and a chocolate buttercream frosting, covered in marshmallow fondant.

I made the wings out of cardboard then covered then in fondant, so they aren't fully eidable!

Princess Aurora

I love trying new things and being tested with my baking skills, especially since I'm still very new at this and have so much to still learn when it comes to cake decorating.

Last week I got a call for a Princess birthday cake in which my customer wanted to order as a sheet cake. The birthday girl really wanted Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty but they were having trouble finding anyone who could do a Disney princess so they would settle for any princess. I of course did not want to disappoint a little birthday girl so I looked for ideas on-line and found a new technique to try out called Frozen Buttercream Transfer.

I found this great YouTube video found here that gave a really good tutorial. Basically all you need is a printed out image such as a coloring page at the size you need, wax paper, a cookie sheet, tape, and prepared buttercream in all the colors you need. First outline the image then start filling in practically like a paint by number. I froze mine for 24 hours before transferring onto my prepared sheet cake, peel off the wax paper and the pipe a boarder about the image since it's a bit thick.

And this is what I got!

Birthday girl Brynn was so surprised she actually got Princess Aurora on her cake!!

Hawkeye Graduates

Another school year has come to an end....congrats to all the new graduates of 2012!!

This weekend the University of Iowa is holding their commencements and we know two wonderful students who will be receiving their diplomas.

  These two special students requested chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

I adorned these yummy graduations cupcakes with tiny little graduation caps, cute little diplomas, the U of I Tigerhawk, and a “2012” pennant. I think they turned out adorable!!

Congrats Matt and Casey on your huge accomplishment!

DIY Cupcake Stand

Cupcake Stand Instructions (holds 48-120 cupcakes)

Source: http://www.sweetcreationsbystephanie.com/2010/03/cupcake-stand-tutorial.html

Supplies:  

3 foam core boards, ¼” thick Dimensions: 20” x 30” (available at Staples or Michael's)

Exacto knife

Ruler

Hot glue gun

Modge Podge adhesive

Paper (wrapping paper or ten pieces of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper)

Ribbon (5 yards)

Directions:

1. Make your cuts…

    a.) Foam board piece 1
         cut a square 20” x 20” = Tier 1
         cut a square 8” x 8” = Tier 4
    b.) Foam board piece 2
         cut a square 16” x 16” = Tier 2
         cut a square 12” x 12” = Tier 3

2. Cut your tier supports…using Foam board piece 3
    a.) for tier 1…cut 4 strips 2” high x 10” long
    b.) for tier 2…cut 4 strips 4” high x 8” long
    c.) for tier 3…cut 4 strips 4” high x 6” long
    d.) for tier 4…cut 4 strips 4” high x 4” long

3. If you plan on covering your stand with scrapbook paper now is the time. Cover all of your Tiers with paper using Modge Podge adhesive. If you are using 12 x 12 scrapbook paper, tiers 1 & 2 can be tricky. Cut 2 pieces of 12” x 12” scrapbook paper in half diagonal (see source link). Then use the  4 pieces and glue it on the board. Trim edges with an exacto knife.

4. While your tiers dry make your tier supports. Starting with the “foot” of the stand, glue the corners of the

2” x 10” together. Continue by gluing the rest of the tier supports together so they are all square.

5. Cover the tier supports with paper.

6. If you want you can hot glue ribbon to the edges of each tier. It’s easier to do this prior to gluing the tiers to the tier supports.

 7. The hardest part here is making sure the tiers & supports are centered.
    Hot glue the 2” x 10” tier support to the bottom side of the 20” x 20” tier.
    Hot glue the 4” x 8” tier support to the bottom side of the 16” x 16” tier.
    Hot glue the 4” x 6” tier support to the bottom side of the 12” x 12” tier.
    Hot glue the 4” x 4” tier support to the bottom side of the 8” x 8” tier.

8. Glue the 8” x 8” to the top of the 12” x 12”.  Glue the the 16” x 16” to the top of the 20” x 20”.
    Glue the two pieces together & you have your cupcake stand.

I wanted to keep my cupcake stand white so I would be able to easily reuse my stand for any occasion. In order for me to be able to change the ribbon colors out for each use I did not hot glue my ribbon, instead I used corsage pins round each layer to hold the ribbon in place. It also added a nice detail with the pearl pin top. Since I didn’t use scrapbook paper to cover any of the tiers, I wrapped additional ribbon on coordinating colors around each tier support to add a pop a color behind the cupcakes.  

This cupcake/cake stand was made for my first wedding! It is definitely light weight and easy to move/transport yet still sturdy enough to hold 100 cupcakes or a small cake topper.

Peacock Wedding

It's official, my first wedding is now in the books!

Congratulations again to our good friends Sean and Annette!

Saturday April 14th they tied the knot.

I was a bit nervous and intimidated, not only by the fact it was my largest order to date and not only because it was a wedding (more pressure!), but because it was our friends' wedding! I wanted to make sure I did a good job and everything was perfect for the bride.

 Saturday morning I packed up the car and woke my husband up to help me deliver the goods. He even helped unload and set everything up.  

Annette wanted to keep it simple with white and chocolate cupcakes. I made half white vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream tinted peacock blue/green and half chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream.

They requested a small cake topper to cut into for the cake cutting. It was white vanilla round cake with vanilla buttercream covered in marshmallow fondant with hand painted peacock feathers, adorned with matching ribbon and charm.

This was my first time ever doing any hand painting!! Annette actually gave me the option to just use real peacock feathers or to leave it without. I was going to use the feathers but decided the week of the wedding to give painting a try....so I Googled ideas. It was pretty simple, use the colored gels from any craft/baking store in the color(s) of your choice with a bit of vodka (it dries faster than water and doesn't leave your fondant wet), along with a good paint brush or a few depending on how many colors you use.  So I went for! And I must say, I'm pretty pleased with they way it turned out ;)

 I even made the cupcake stand, which I will post directions on a how-to soon.

It was a lot of fun but a lot of work. I'm just glad the bride and groom were pleased!

My Easter Bunny

This cake caught my attention because it's not your ordinary Easter cake. Who doesn't love a big fluffy butt? Especially a bunny's butt!

My husband even wanted me to make it. Plus it's semi-homemade...from a box that is!

Happy Easter!

Bunny Butt Cake
Source: Betty Crocker

• 1 box cake mix
• water, oil and eggs called for on cake mix box
• tray or cardboard covered with wrapping paper and plastic or foil
• 1 can frosting
• red color color
• 1 large marshmallow, cut in half
• 3 cups shredded coconut
• green food color
• 2 strawberry or cherry taffy candies
• 1 fruit roll-up, orange or berry punch
• 3 green colored sour candies, seperated into strips
• contruction paper

Heat oven to 325°F. Grease 1 1/2-quart ovenproof bowl (8 inches across top) with shortening; coat with flour (do not use cooking spray). Lightly grease 3 muffin cups in regular-size muffin pan. Make cake batter as directed on box. Pour cake batter in 3 muffin cups, filling two-thirds full. Pour remaining batter into 1 1/2-quart bowl.

Bake cupcakes 17 to 21 minutes, bowl 47 to 53 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove cakes from muffin cups and bowl; place rounded sides up on cooling racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour. If necessary, cut off rounded tops of cakes.

Spoon frosting into large bowl. Add red food color to make desired pink color. Place bowl cake on tray cut side down; spread 1/3 cup frosting over cake. Use frosting to adhere cupcakes to bowl cake for feet and bunny tail. Use toothpicks if necessary. Place marshmallow halves, cut sides down, on tops of 2 cupcakes to make heels of feet. Spread thin layer of frosting over side and top of cake to seal in crumbs. Freeze cake 30 to 45 minutes to set frosting.

Spread remaining frosting over cake. Sprinkle with 2 cups of the coconut; press gently to adhere. Shake 1 cup coconut and 3 drops green food color in tightly covered jar until evenly tinted. Surround bunny with tinted coconut. Use rolling pin to press strawberry candies into 2 large rectangles. Cut 2 large ovals and 6 small circles out of candy. Press onto bottoms of bunny feet, using frosting if needed.

Roll up fruit snack to make carrot shapes. Cut green sour candies in half crosswise; press into large end of each carrot to make greens on carrot. Cut ears from construction paper; wrap ends that will be inserted into cake with plastic food wrap. Insert into cake. Remove ears, plastic wrap and toothpicks before serving. Store loosely covered.

Our Reveal!

We recently had our 20 week doctors appointment and ultrasound, in which we were luckily enough to be able to find out little Dex's gender! We decided to have our families over for dinner to reveal baby's gender to everyone at once and in person! Since I'm a little bit of a baker I wanted to try making a new type of cupcake but that could still be used for that very purpose. So I went with was is called a Hi Hat Cupcake.

This is what they are suppose to look like...

but mine were a complete FAIL!

The marshmallow frosting turned out a disaster, I don't think I got it hot enough or maybe the gel tint ruined it, I don't know. But I wanted to show I still make mistakes and things don't always go as planned in the baking world. I usually don't share many of my failed attempts at dinners or baked goods but this one was a complete and utter flop!

I, of course did not fully prepare these cupcakes a head time, I decided to wait to put them together after our appointment with only an hour and a half in between till our families were to arrive.  Poor planning on my part!

Fortunately for me, even though the frosting never got to the consistency I needed it still tasted wonderful so I tinted it and made it the filling inside the cupcake.

It's all about improvising! 

 Plus, I always keep left over frosting in the freezer and was so thankful I do so, I already had extra chocolate cream cheese frosting in there so I quickly defrosted and whipped up to top off my cupcakes. They turned out awesome!

The blue cupcakes are my failed attempt at the frosting not going my way. The chocolate are my improvised version.

We waited until after we ate dinner for the reveal....to help build the anticipation of course ;)

We gave Carter the first cupcake to bite into so he could reveal if his new cousin would be a girl or boy.

 Cupcakes reveal BOY!!

The large majority thought for sure it was a girl, but everyone is thrilled to have another little boy in the family.

We are so excited to meet our little man in August!