Basketball Cake

A small basketball cake for my Uncle Chap's birthday.

Caden's Blessing Cake

Blue and yellow themed caked with a large letter "C" block and button accents.

Chris and Lisa's Anemone Wedding Cake

My first wedding cake!  Lisa and I have been friends since our freshman year of high school and I was flattered that Lisa believed in me enough to think that I could pull off such a major task for their big day.  On top of this huge responsibility, she also asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding so I definitely felt a lot of pressure to help make her and Chris's day absolutely perfect.  I was happy to take on the task(s) for someone whom I love so dearly and for a couple who I truly believe is perfect for one another. 

Lisa based the theme of their wedding around the anemone flower.  Her centerpieces, bouquets, party favors, and invitations all included this beautiful flower. 

The bridesmaids' bouquets.

The bride's bouquet.

The wedding favors.  Homemade sugar cookies with an anemone design in royal icing. These were made by Lisa's sister-in-law. 

When we talked about the design of her cake, Lisa wanted something simple.  Together, we decided on a three tiered cake with just one or two anemone flowers, and gray ribbon to match the color of the bridesmaid dresses.

A sketch of the cake that I drew for Lisa.

Lisa and Chris made their cake toppers together.  They are painted Japanese kokeshi dolls.  I really love the little anemone boutonniere that Chris has on his doll.  They look like perfect little cartoon versions of themselves!  So adorable. 

The bottom tier of the cake was red velvet and the two top tiers were white cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.  I also made two 1/4 sheet cakes that were cut in the kitchen of the venue. 

The mini cupcakes were provided by Cat's Cupcakery.  Cat has really great and unique flavors such as ube (purple yam) and calamansi (a Filipino citrus fruit) along with popular choices like red velvet and vanilla.  Each one was delicious!  I should know.  I tried them all!

Photo courtesy of Jason Chan Photography

Congratulations, Chris and Lisa!  Thank you for hosting such a beautiful and fun wedding.  It will be a day that we will never forget! <3

Phil's SF Giants Birthday Cake

We celebrated a big birthday last Saturday.  My boyfriend, Phil, turned 30!!  He is a super low-key guy and didn't want to do much for his birthday so I made him this San Francisco Giants baseball cap cake and a few friends and I surprised him with it. 

 

I've been meaning to make an SF Giants themed cake for Phil for quite some time but I love surprising people (if I could surprise people for a living, I'd be awesome at it and extremely rich) and since we live together that's not the easiest task.  To me, turning 30 is a big deal so I felt that I no longer had an excuse to not make him a cake.  Luckily, I work from home on Fridays and this cake was surprisingly easy to make.  I finished the entire thing in one day and it usually takes me 2 to 3 days to prep and complete a cake.  Basically, all this cake is made up of is: one 7 inch round cake, and a bill made of fondant and gum paste. 

Me and the birthday boy!

 The big 3-0.

Carrot cake and cream cheese frosting.

Here are my tips if you would like to make your own baseball cap cake:

1) To make the bill, I took one of Phil's real baseball caps and traced the bill onto a piece of manila folder to make a template.  Use whatever you have on hand: cardboard, card stock, etc.  Something stiff enough to hold its shape and won't be cut into easily when you are cutting your shape out of the fondant.  

2) I used a 50/50 fondant and gum paste mixture.  Next time I would up the ratio of gum paste to fondant to allow the bill to dry faster and harder.  

3) To get a little shape in the bill, slide a piece of card stock underneath and push in the sides to create a round bump.  Tape the card stock in place with painter's tape (I always have a roll on hand) and allow the bill to dry.  You can even stuff some paper towels underneath the card stock for more stability.  Remove the card stock and paper towel when you are ready to present the cake.  

4) For the cake, bake two 7 inch layers of your favorite kind.  I used a carrot cake without nuts or raisins.  I omitted these ingredients because I knew I would have to do a little bit of carving and the nuts and raisins would make large chunks fall out of the cake.  All I really carved off was the edge of the top tier and two notches on both sides to give the cap a little life.  

5) I've learned to use cream cheese frosting only as a filling and not as my crumb coat.  The cream cheese frosting is much too soft and doesn't hold up to the warmth of my hands when I am smoothing out the fondant on the cake.  So instead I make a dam with Swiss meringue buttercream, fill with cream cheese frosting, and then use more buttercream for the crumb coat. 

Wow!  I can't believe I finished this whole cake, and cleaned up all the evidence in one day!  After making this list of tips it seems like there is a lot more work than I remembered.  Time management in these cases is your best friend!!

SilhouPETte Birthday Cake

My friend, Christine, contacted me to make a birthday cake for her best friend, Jessica, who is the founder and owner of SilhouPETte.  Jessica makes really great custom silhouettes of your pet to have as keepsakes or gifts.  Christine asked me to make a cake mimicking one of Jessica's pieces using Jessica's own dog, Dixon, as the silhouette.

Can you guys tell the boo-boo I made?  The damask print on the cake board is upside down!  I'm so bummed about this too because I spent quite a bit of time thinking of how I could closely imitate Jessica's art.  I'm used to making round cakes so this is actually the first time I've ever even used a rectangular cake board.  I didn't pay attention to the orientation of the silhouette when I set it in place so I didn't notice that it was upside down until it was too late.  Blah!  So irritated that I made such a silly mistake. 

I have been customizing my own cake boards lately by covering them with wrapping paper.  I think that it gives the cake a little more of a dramatic effect.  When I let Christine know that I would be doing an oval cake on a rectangular cake board, to give the cake the feel of a SilhouPETte, she requested that the pattern on the cake board be damask and sent me a picture of one of Jessica's pieces as an example.  I looked in several different stores to try and find a wrapping paper with a similar damask print as what Christine showed me but I wasn't satisfied with what I saw.  So, after endless searching on the internet for different damask patterns, one image lead me to Etsy.  I didn't know this but there are a few graphic artists who sell packages of digital prints through there.  I used VNdigitalart.  I paid a whopping 3 dollars and they sent me a link to download about a dozen images.  Pretty neat, I think.  So, I printed out a few sheets of the image I wanted and pasted them onto the board.

To get Dixon's silhouette onto the cake, I printed his image in the size that I wanted, cut it out and glued it onto a manila file folder.  Then I took an X-acto knife and cut out a stencil along the edge of the image.

Sorry for the funky lighting!

I had made the template intending to use the cut out and not the stencil, but really either would work. 

One more for Dixon's ear so that it would pop out on the cake.

The cake was red velvet with cream cheese frosting filling. 

Please check out Jessica's stuff at SilhouPETte!  Christine is also an AMAZING event and wedding photographer.  Check out her blog at christinechangphotoblog.com.  I am moved by her photos every time. 

Sneak Peek: SilhouPETte Cake

Here's a first look at this surprise birthday cake. More about it coming soon!

Jenn's 30th Birthday Cake

One of the most beautiful and stylish girls I know had a big birthday this weekend.  Being such a special occasion I wanted to make a cake for her that could match her beauty and style.  So, I surprised one of my dearest friends, Jenn, with this ruffled, 2-tiered cake. It will never compare to how awesome she is but I still love how it turned out!

This was my first time making ruffles on a cake so I used this video as a reference. Ruffles are super easy to make and really add a dramatic effect.  The flowers and bows were 100% gum paste and the ruffles and letters were a mixture (about half and half) of fondant and gum paste.

It is really hard to achieve black using food coloring so I mixed together pre-made black fondant with white gum paste and added additional black food coloring gel for a darker color.  The bottom two layers of ruffles are a dark shade of slate blue/purple and actually black food coloring gel is a concentrate of really dark purple (to me it is at least) so I just used less food coloring there. 

Another reason why I didn't use all gum paste for the ruffles is because it just doesn't taste very good by itself, but adding it to the fondant gives it more stretch without it cracking. 

 Gumpaste roses.

 The big 3-0!

 Pink bow on the back of the cake.

The shininess of the bow comes from edible pearl dust. One additional thing I did to the top layer of ruffles was to trim to the tops (where it gathers) with a pizza cutter so that there would be a nice even edge.

So one of the things I dislike doing is finding supplies for cake making.  There is a baking supply store that is somewhat close to me but if I ever forget something it is not convenient for me to make that extra drive out to.  That is usually where I buy my fondant and other supplies.  Lately, the Michael's store by me has really increased their baking supply inventory, adding lots of stuff from Wilton and also Duff Goldman's (from Ace of Cakes) brand of cake decorating tools and buttercream fondant.  I read somewhere that his fondant is actually very good so I used it for the first time on this cake.

Right out of the container you can smell how buttery it is and working with it was great because it stretches really easily without causing cracks or holes.  I think this is the smoothest my cakes have every looked (underneath the ruffles).  I will definitely be using the Duff brand of fondants again. 

The flavor of the cake was devil's food cake with a dark chocolate ganache filling.

 
Happy birthday, Jenn!!!

Purple Striped and Dotted Birthday Cake

Life has been particularly hectic lately, but I wanted to take a few moments to share with you all the birthday cake that I made for my goddaughter, Makayla, and her younger sister Alyssa.  Being 11, Makayla's favorite person in the whole world is Justin Bieber.  So obviously, her cake is purple because that is Justin's favorite color. 

Such cute little smiles.  Alyssa, Makayla's sister, is the middle one with the life vest. Part of the bow fell off but I guess that's just want happens when you put a cake in front of a bunch of 3 year olds that want to touch it. 

Back view of the cake.

The inside of the cake was vanilla cake with vanilla toffee bit buttercream.  Here is the recipe for the buttercream (but it's basically just vanilla buttercream with a bunch of toffee bits thrown in).  If you're not sure where to find toffee bits, I found these at Safeway in the baking section, next to the chocolate chips.

Vanilla Toffee Buttercream

5 egg whites
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 pound (4 sticks) butter, softened at room temperature
1 8 oz bag of Heath Bits O' Brickle Toffee Bits

In a saucepan, bring about an inch of water to a simmer.  In a bowl of an electric stand mixer, whisk together egg whites, sugar and salt by hand.  Put bowl over simmering water and continue to whisk until the mixtures is warm to the touch and the sugar has dissolved.  

Transfer bowl to electric stand mixer.  Using the whisk attachment, beat the mixture on high speed until glossy stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes.  

Change to the paddle attachment mix on medium speed.  Add butter a few pieces at time until incorporated.  The mixtures will look like it is separating.  This is normal.  Continue to beat on medium to medium high speed until the buttercream smooths out.  

Remove the bowl from the mixer and mix in toffee bits by hand.  

Yield: About 6 cups

Red Velvet Rose Cake for Lisa and Chris's Engagement Party

 

I'm almost embarrassed to blog about this cake.  This is what I made for my long time friend Lisa and her fiance, Chris, for their engagement party over the weekend.  I'll tell you why I wasn't happy.  

I saw I Am Baker's rose cake tutorial on Tastespotting and was really anxious to have the opportunity to try out the technique.  Her cake is friggin' beautiful.  Well, as you can see my cake looks nothing like hers.  Mine is like the sloppy mutant version of her perfect bed of roses.  

Full view of the cake.  Doesn't come close to the original.

I have a few theories as to why mine didn't turn out exactly as planned.  Ignoring the fact that I have somewhat poor piping skills, the first thing that went wrong was that I was working with cream cheese frosting.  It tasted delicious but it did not hold up to the heat of my hands in the piping bag.  So, the longer I held the bag the more that it melted and drooped as I piped.  Next time, I think I'll need to keep the bag with frosting in it in the fridge for awhile so that it is nice and cold.  Also, I should have put on a thicker layer of frosting after the crumb coat and before the piping.  The red velvet cake really shows through the gaps between the roses and that bugs the heck out of me.  Thank goodness that the taste of the cake made up for the appearance. 

I understand that this technique is not meant to come out perfectly.  That's why I love the original rose cake by I Am Baker.  There is a classic, rustic feel to it but the way that my cake looks gloppy really is not good enough for me.  

Close up of the bottom layer.  I chose the best shot from the best angle.  Overall, the cake was not so pretty.

Even though I got many compliments on the cake, I wasn't happy.  I knew I could have done better, but I had no time to try again.  Maybe I'm being too critical.  My feeling about the cake is (and I'm quoting Cher from the movie Clueless here) that it's a Monet.  "You see, it's like the painting. Seen from far away, it's okay; but up close, it's a big ol' mess."  From far away the cake looked nice but up close you could see the sloppiness of it.  And no, I'm not embarrassed to be quoting Clueless, a definitive coming of age 90's film. 

 From my Instagram app.  It makes things look puuurty.

The rose cake has not conquered me!  I will try again! 

30th Triathlon Cake for Drew

One of the cutest couples that I have the pleasure of knowing are Drew and Val so I was delighted when Val contacted me to make a surprise cake for Drew's 30th birthday.  Drew is an avid athlete and triathlon competitor.

When Val told me she wanted a triathlon themed cake, I immediately knew it would be a challenge.  As I always do, I looked up ideas on Google and I took much of my inspiration from Pink Cake Box's Ironman Cake (Pink Cake Box has an awesome blog.  I check it daily. You should too).

My main concern was the bicycle.  When I did a search online, I saw plenty of... how do I say... really shitty looking gum paste bikes on cakes.  So I was worried that I couldn't pull off any sort of decent looking bicycle on my own cake.  What I ended up doing was using angel hair pasta as the spokes on the wheels and glued each strand of pasta onto a disk of gum paste.  I modeled each piece of the frame and then attached them together on the cake.  Most of the gum paste work (all the heads, the swimmer, the legs on the runner) were done several days ahead to allow drying time.  On each tier I used a grass piping tip (Wilton #233) to make green shoots of grass and added chocolate rocks. 

The inside of the cake was white cake with cinnamon buttercream.

Cinnamon Buttercream

4 egg whites
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 sticks butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

In a bowl of a stand mixer, combine egg whites and sugar.  With the bowl set over a pot of simmering water, whisk egg whites until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch.  Remove from heat and with a whisk attachment, whisk mixture on high for approximately 6 minutes until glossy stiff peaks form.  Change to a paddle attachment and on medium speed add butter a few tablespoons at a time.  When the mixture begins to look like it is separating turn the mixer to medium-high speed and continue to beat until buttercream comes together.  On medium speed, add vanilla and cinnamon.  Mix until combined.  Reduce speed to low and continue mixing for another minute to get the bubbles out.  Makes about 4 cups of buttercream.

Blue Daisy Cake

Blue daisy cake with bumble bee.  Inside is chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream and a vanilla pudding filling. 

Alana's First Birthday Cake

This cake was for Amanda's daughter, Alana who turned 1 this weekend.  The cake is a pink velvet cake with vanilla buttercream.  To make the pink velvet, I adapted Sylvia's Red Velvet Cake recipe.  The recipe is below.  The design is based off of a banner from a party store that Amanda had sent me a picture of.  

The pink velvet batter.

An interesting detail are the checkered patterns on the big butterfly and big flower.  To create it, I cut strips of two shades of the same color and basket weaved them together.  I used a rolling pin to press the strips together then cut out the shapes that I needed.

Pink Velvet Cake

Yield: 2 (9-inch) pans

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon Dutch process cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon pink gel food coloring

1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Grease and flour cake pans.  On a piece of parchment paper, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar on medium speed.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Turn the mixer to low and alternatively add the flour mixture and buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour mixture.  Beat in the vinegar and food coloring.  Then add the vanilla.   Divide batter evenly into the pans.  

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.  Let cakes cool in pan for approximately 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

Alana's Baptism Cake

A quilted ivory fondant cake with a pink and white cross emblem and white flower border.  There are pink letter blocks spelling Alana's name.  A pink bow and more small white flowers top the cake.  The inside is white cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.

Hello Kitty Cake

This cake is for my cousin Jessica who is turning 19 on February 3rd.  For her, I made a Hello Kitty cake topper with cascading flowers.  The cake is devil's food cake with chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream.  

Since Martha Stewart hasn't let me down, I used her recipe for mocha cake.  I made the full recipe, which I mistakenly thought would only make one 8-inch cake and ended up making approximately 3 dozen extra cupcakes.  Whoops!  This is why math is important, kids!  I'm sure that if I cut the recipe in half I would have been in good shape.  

I'm starting to feel pretty confidant in my figure sculpting and I'm really happy with the way Kitty came out.  The video from my previous jungle toppers entry was super useful and I used similar techniques as the ones used for making the elephant.