Recent cakes...

Ok, not necessarily "recent" but anything since the last post 3+ years ago...

An Under the Sea cake for my friend's 2-year old:

Million Dollar Pound Cake:

And the recipe...really the best chocolate pound cake ever!! (If you can make send of all the writing...)

A going away cake for a chef and his wife at our church:

Texas Sheet Cake cupcakes- mmmmmmm!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes for Pastor's 60th. Recipe from Ming Makes Cupcakes.  

Gluten-free cupcakes for Stephen's work:

Going away cake for Stephen's coworker:

Bridal Shower cake for a co-worker's daughter:

Part of the spread! It was the most beautiful bridal shower I have ever seen!!

First cake in Liberia: happy 1st little baby! It was Stawberry, with Strawberry glaze (big sister's choice).

First real cake in Liberia:

It was sooooooo watery I thought the recipe must be wrong! It looked like hot chocolate soup!

But it baked up nicely!!

On the African lapas fabric (inspiration) 

That's all for now!

Thank you!

I love to craft. 

Sewing, card-making, baking, painting...

But I haven't had time to do a whole lot lately. 

Speaking of, I only have 4 weeks til school starts and I still have some many pillows to sew!

Oh, but back on topic...

Tonight I got to use two hobbies together!

The principal at my school requested some 'thank you' cupcakes for some people who had helped do a little cleaning at the school office without being asked. 

And since she basically gave me free creativity reign, I knew where to start!

I picked up these great cups a few weeks back on clearance:

And I got to work on a little homemade stamped card.

(If you'd like to get some great quality stamps or want some crafty ideas, visit my friend Lily's site!)

Next up- the flavors!

This one is a Heath Chocolate Cupcake with Cocoa Buttercream.

This is a Butter Vanilla with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Next up is a Marshmallow-fluff filled Chocolate Cupcake with pink Buttercream Frosting.

And, lastly is a Lemon Cupcake with Strawberry Filling and a Strawberry Buttercream Frosting. 

Wouldn't you love to see these 4 at your door?!?

Then I added little thank you card pops with the cake descriptions on the back.

And finally- wrapped and ready to go!

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!

Late night cupcaking!

The end of school had me making two batches of cupcakes.

The first were goodbye cupcake's for K's class. 

She left about 10 days early to spend time at Granny and Grandpa's in Texas, so we had a send-off: 

Hugs and Kisses!

The same night, I decided to make different cake and frosting flavor combinations for her teacher. She and her husband hired me for their wedding cake and needed to make some decisions! 

It was fun getting to create flavor combinations. 

I think I sent them about 20 different ones!

I know I have some other pictures (with better views of the labels because I don't remember what all I came up with) but I can't find it at the moment. 

I promise to find it and edit the post soon!

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!