Wedding Cake!

My first wedding cake- hooray!!

I was excited and a little nervous because I haven't made such a big one, or one of such importance!

But it was fun and the Bride loved it!

They chose a cinnamon cake with cream cheese frosting.

See that cinnamon-y swirl?? 

Remember my other post about the flower nails? 

Well, I'm just loving using them! 

I also learned that instead of dowels, straws are a great option!

They displace less cake, and I'm not worried about leaving a splinter in the cake!

I was also excited because I read that milkshake straws work better because they're so much bigger, and I found some in the ice cream section at Winn Dixie.

So, the cake wasn't very intricate, but still just lovely!

I used a 'diamond' banding around the bottom of the cake that was 5 rows tall, and then added the big diamonds on the corners.

After talking to the bride and her friends, there was a discussion about freezing the top layer for the anniversary. The bride wasn't too keen on adding another layer to the cake, but the friends were insistent to the tradition. 

I remembered that my mom found these great little mini cake pans for me. I told her I could make one for both the bride and groom, and in their favorite flavors: Lemon and Red Velvet. 

I used the recipes from Ming Makes Cupcakes, since I didn't need a large batch, and the pans were closer to cupcake size. 

But, I didn't tell her the surprise. After speaking with her friends, we decided to make the cakes a little special for each of them. 

A loves Chanel and purple, so it was no contest to make a purse-themed bag!

I started with the classic quilted look from the purses:

Next, I added a golden chain and made the logo out of gumpaste.

Then, for D's Red Velvet, his sister found out his favorite shoe:

The Air Jordan XXIII

I decided to take the swirly design and add it to the bottom tier. 

Looking back, I probably should have made the second tier have some little laces loop around, but hindsight is 20/20!

I did make the crazy jumpman and the number 23 out of gumpaste, and I think they turned out just fine. 

They even got added to the special table for the bride and groom, instead of the big cake display. 

I call that a success!

First 'Real' Cake Order!

I have an email just for cake stuffs. 

It's synced to my iphone accounts. 

It is never used. 

Which is sad because it has the cutest ice cream background that makes me so happy!

But then.....

I got an email in it for an order!! 

Hot dog!

She lives in my building and her friend remembered my little flyer from a networking night the office hosted.

The order was a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, decorated with zebra stripes and a pink bow!

In case you're looking for an excellent red velvet cake recipe, look no further! I got this one from my favorite baking blog: Bakerella!

You start by mixing the liquids separately from the dry ingredients.

Then, it looks pink, so you add more red food coloring.

Sift together your drying ingredients, including the cocoa.

There's just a hint of brown, but that will combine with the vinegar and food coloring to make a nice red for the cake!

Now, for the combining!

Pour right into a little well. Makes it easier to ensure you don't have clumpy flour parts on the bottom.

You might be concerned that it will still be pink, but after mixing it, compare bowls:

Definitely redder, about as red as a spatula. 

That's good enough!

Pour into the ginormous pan, being careful not to knock over the flower nails. 

Don't know about that?? 

Add a few to the inside of a large pan (upside down, of course) and they'll conduct heat during baking to help you have a more even (flat) cake!

See how the nails stay upright in the pan? What a great trick!

Once the cake cools, you have to flip it out with those flower nails. 

It's a little tricky. 

Especially on a 16" cake. 

But still possible!

A few tiny holes are totally worth having an even cake for decorating!! 

You may not even have to cut a bit of it!

Next up: Frosting!

Damming is mostly for when you are stacking layers. You're dam frosting is a little stiffer to keep the rest of the frosting/filling from smooshing out, but it works nicely for getting an even amount on a large cake.

And God bless the disposable icing bag inventor!

 Snip the tip, fill it up, squeeze it out, throw it away!!

Now, the nice icing will make it easier to smooth the fondant.

One big piece lays right over the whole cake!

Don't worry about seeing the frosting lines. They'll smooth right out!

Make sure to work the corner so it doesn't have wrinkles.

Trim the extra and start on your pink ribbon.

Then, you can add little funky black pieces. 

(ps- I don't ever make my own black fondant. It's just too tricky to get it not gray. And with that much coloring, I'm sure the flavor would start to get wonky. Go ahead and buy Duff's brand. I won't tell!)

Dust off any excess powdered sugar.

Add a fondant (gumpaste is totally what I should have done instead! much stiffer) bow and you're ready to go!

Late night craving...

Okay...let me just tell you first off - these aren't cakes!

But they are stinkin' delicious!!

So, last night S and I are watching the Hell's Kitchen finale and of course, it made me hungry. Unfortunately this was about....10:30 or 11 pm! But, what can I say? I like food and if I'm hungry, I'm gonna eat!

I looked in the fridge to see what we had that could be made quickly and remembered I had some cream cheese and crescent rolls....mmmmm....Sopapilla Cheesecake came to mind!

But, true to fashion, I did not have enough of those ingredients....or a pan in the correct size (yes, my sink was full and I'll do them today, okay??)

That's when it hit me! Muffin tin!

So, here's what I came up with:

• 1 package of cream cheese
• 1 lid's worth of Mexican vanilla (sorry! this is how i frequently measure this!! It's about the size of a 20 oz. Coke bottle lid, FYI)
• approx. 1 cup powdered sugar (approximate b/c I kept pouring in until it seemed spreadable and tasted good!)
• --- mix first 3 ingredients and set aside - probably easier if my cream cheese had softened!
• 2 heaping plastic spoonfuls of country crock, melted (note - change to butter!!!)
• 1 can of crescent rolls
• powdered sugar and cinnamon for dusting

Because I was working with limited ingredients I needed to make my 8 rolls fit my 6 muffin pan.

First I made a slice across 1/3 of the half that were laid out:

Then I took the 2/3 side (from the bottom half to make a square) and put it in the muffin tin. Easy to do for 4 of them. For the last two, I had to take the 1/3 'scraps' and put them together to make a square too.

Then I took 2 heaping plastic spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture (probably too much in hindsight but I was trying to split all that mix by 6!) and plopped them on top of the roll.

When filled, take the corners of the square and fold over the cream cheese mix and pinch together.

Then, take your butter spoon over each roll - mine ended up at about 1 1/2 spoonfuls each - basically you just want to make sure there's butter on top, and some butter in the bottom b/c you don't want this getting really crunchy.

Then sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

Throw it in your oven (pre-heated to 350) for anywhere from 10-14 minutes (depending on your oven - just watch them to make sure they don't over cook!)

I probably should have let them cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. But I didn't want to! So they were pretty tricky to get out without my heaping cream cheese mix spilling out. See?

I did a little magic with a spatula and tongs though.

Pay no attention to the little one in the center. That was leftover dough with some strawberry jelly thrown in there for the hubs. He's a fan of strawberries.

They are almost as good looking as they tasted!! 

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

(The only thing I'd change is using about 1/2 the amount of cream cheese b/c there just wasn't enough breading for the ratio I prefer. Oh, and butter. Butter is always a better flavor option, but we had about 1 tablespoon left.)