Saturday, May 8, 2010

Why am I making all these cakes, you ask?

A few months ago I was diagnosed with Mono. Yeah I know, gross, whatever. So anyway before I had mono I only watched 3 shows - The Office, V, and Grey's Anatomy. But when I suddenly found myself on the couch all the time, I was forced to find some new shows. By the grace of God I came across the most awesome of all reality tv shows - Cake Boss! I am now a huge fan of Cake Boss. So the show made me think about cake all the time, because I really do love cake. If I could eat any desert all of the time, it would be cake. I love it.

So it started with a rose nail. I discovered that this cake decorating stuff is actually really doable and fun! It's super time consuming and tiring but at the same time it's relaxing and for me, a good de-stressor. It's a great way to get my mind off of things when I need to. The best part is it makes people really happy and I love that. It's a thoughtful and creative way to send a little blessing to someone.

Will I ever get into the cake decorating business, you ask?
If I ever get good enough, and if people actually want to pay me to make cakes, then maybe! Time will tell... But if I ever do start a business, it will definitely be called "My Dream Come True Cakes" for reasons I may choose to reveal to you by posting a video at a later time...

Flower Cup Cakes

I made cupcakes with the leftover cake batter from the pink red velvet cake. Cake boss tutorials are awesome. I watched the cupcakes one, which is how I made the pink ones. The chocolate flowers I experimented with and they turned out super cute!

Oh and I filled these cupcakes with my delicious vanilla buttercream. It doesn't get much better than that!








I Like This One!

Red Velvet cake with my homemade vanilla buttercream amazingly delicious frosting. So it started out a bit disastrous. My plan was to cover it white and use pink to decorate. I tried piping and at first it was looking good, but then it started falling apart! Maybe I shouldn't use buttercream for that... So i decided to cover the white with the pink frosting and then I added the borders and the dots and the flower on top. I winged it with the flower - had no idea what I was doing. But I lucked out!

I took this cake to a friend's house for Dancing With the Stars / margarita night and the girls loved it!













Best Frosting - Terrible Decorating

Well, the fondant flower is pretty cute. I made this buttercream frosting from scratch. Tasted unbelievably good. I couldn't stop licking the bowl. And then I couldn't stop eating the cake. (It was too sloppy to give away ;) )

Here was my main mistake: I microwaved the butter to soften it a little. It made the frosting melty and it would not work for decorating. Can you tell how it all slumped to the bottom? And the borders are droopy. I even tried putting the frosting in the fridge for a few minutes but it didn't help a whole lot. Obviously.



Leftover Fondant and Cakes




This is what I did with the leftover fondant and cake from the butterfly cake. I was able to make the fondant smoother than ever! But I regret covering each later individually. Too much fondant in there. But hey, I was experimenting!

Butterfly Cake

Remember my Alice in Wonderland-ish cake? Well my cousin's little 4-year-old sister was very sad because she so badly wanted her own butterfly. I couldn't disappoint my adorable little cousin!! So I made her her very own cake!

When she saw it, she flipped out! She said "Oh my gosh, this is the most beautiful cake I have ever seen!" I couldn't wait to cut the cake for her because I made the inside pink and purple swirled as an added surprise. She didn't care much about that.










Alice in Wonderland Themed Cake

My cousin was in a junior high school play, Alice in Wonderland. Those kids were more talented than I expected from a bunch of nerdy junior highers! My cousin was the best, though. :)

Anyway we went to dinner after the play to celebrate and I made her this sort-of Alice themed cake. (Note the blue butterfly...)

This cake was chocolate with store-bought vanilla buttercream icing, covered in marshmallow fondant. The flowers and butterfly are also made of fondant. I tried to dry the butterfly with the wings folded up but it didn't work out to well... Next time!



Sloppy Fondant Cake

I googled "fondant" and somehow came across a recipe for marshmallow fondant. It's super easy to make but takes a long time and a lot of energy. Also, the cleanup is not very fun. But it's cool to work with!

This was my first attempt at marshmallow fondant. It's cute with potential but really sloppy as you can see. This was also my first attempt to decorate a cake by piping. How cute is that flower on top though?




Icing Roses

Hulu - Cake Boss - "Buddy Knows Roses"
I watched this video, ran to Michaels, and bought a rose nail. Then I began to practice... :)




My First Cake Attempt

I saw this on Likecool.com which is a fantastic website. I had to try this cake. (Although I didn't use the diet recipe. I just used white cake mix and baked it according to the box directions).

Here's what I learned with this cake: Don't let the cake completely cool in the pan!! It will stick! So now I am sure to take the cake out of the pan after it cools for only 10 minutes. Remember...I'm only a beginner!