Entries Tagged 'cake' ↓

My little niece turned 4 years old this Saturday and she wanted a Dr. Seuss  Horton Hears A Who birthday cake, chocolate with raspberry filling. I was more than happy to supply her with one! This is my first attempt at a “Topsy Turvey” cake. It didn’t turn out as perfect as I would have liked but I think good enough for the first try. I definitely learned a lot and will be doing things differently on my next “Topsy Turvey” cake. I made the who family out of SugarVeil. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my SugarVeil system. I have only had it for a few weeks now and have been completley amazed at how versatile it is! Horton is a cupcake that I carved and covered in fondant… I wanted it to look like he is sliding down the cake. Daughter says that he was a very clumsy elephant. I also made some cupcakes with “Specs” to match the cake. I myself have not seen the movie but my daughter schooled me on it. She said that the cake MUST have Specs on it. Apparently these are the little flowers that the who’s live on.

My brother Clay graduated high school today… SSHHH don’t tell him that I am actually proud of him. I like to give him a hard time and make him think that I don’t like him. But he has turned out OK! I made him this little bad boy today. It is his favorite; German Chocolate Cake. Made in his school colors.

I made this cake for a friend of my husband. He wanted a special cake for his wife on mother’s day. I think this little baby did the trick! The cake itself is my Chocolate Cherry Dr. Pepper cupcakes…. Turned into a cake. Although I had to use cherry flavored butter cream instead of the 7 minute frosting. It was still just as tasty. The butterflies were made of gumpaste and royal icing, and airbrushed color; I made one fly using white wire. All of the flowers are gumpaste, and the cake is covered in fondant.

I had really big plans for this months Daring Bakers Challenge….The challenge was Dories Perfect Party Cake; and I was going to make a beautiful 3 tier topsy turvey cake with a cupcake sitting on top. But, that didn’t happen. I got way too busy. Oh well maybe next time. This month was exciting because we got to deviate from the exact recipe and fill it with what ever we wanted.

The cake itself is moist and light with a slight hint of citrus. However, the butter cream definitely had a lemon flavor… but it was not over powering. It was light and airy. Perfect combination of sweet & sour. For my fillings I made a brandy soaking syrup, topped with raspberry preserves, and topped that with white chocolate cream cheese. I topped it all off with raspberries, blackberries, and mint that had been soaking in rosewater. It didn’t look as pretty as I would have liked. But it was a SPECTACUALR combination! Plus I got to use my Agbay knife and that is ALWAYS fun for me. I love that my cakes always have perfect layers and is flat as a board!

All in all this challenge was a great success. I didn’t come across any problems. Everything was pretty straight forward. My only complaint is that I hate lemon zest. Let me clarify. I LOVE the flavor that the lemon zest gives the cake… but for some reason I dread having to zest a lemon! It is like nails on a chalk board for me. Plus I inevitably always scrape my knuckles on the grater… then get lemon juice in it! So, I had to be extra careful on this challenge.

Here is the recipe as I prepared it:

For the Cake

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour (updated 25 March)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

Getting Ready
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, and then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

Brandy Soaking Syrup

• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons brandy

In a heavy saucepan on medium heat bring water and sugar to a boil. Take off heat allow to cool and add Brandy. With a pastry brush moisten the top of each layer of cake.

Then follow this warm raspberry preserves (it is easier to spread when warm)

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling

• 3 large egg whites
• 11 ounces white chocolate
• 2 – 8oz. packets of cream cheese at room temperature

In a heat resisting bowl over a sauce pan of boiling water, whip egg whites on high speed with an electric mixer for 5 minutes. Continue beating while adding in cream cheese 4 ounces at a time. Continue to whip for another 3 minutes. Take off heat and set aside. In a separate Pyrex bowl melt white chocolate over sauce pan with boiling water. Stirring continuously till creamy. Add chocolate to cream cheese mixture and whip for 2 minutes. Spread a thick layer on top of raspberry preserves.

For the Butter cream

• 1 cup sugar
• 4 large egg whites
• 3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the butter cream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.
During this time the butter cream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.
You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white butter cream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the butter cream and set aside briefly.

So my boss totally kicks ass. I’m not kidding, NOR AM I SUCKING UP! She is a totally cool chick! Her birthday was last week and she didn’t tell anyone, so we (her whole team) totally missed the boat. OB (one of my co-workers… that is what we call him) decided to collect money to buy her a cake from HEB. Well, Amanda (my boss) is totally pregnant and been digging all of the chocolate cupcakes that I have been bringing around. She practically got on her knees to get a 2^nd Chocolate Cherry Dr. Pepper Cupcake. So I decided to volunteer my cakin’ services to give her a kick ass cake. The team all chipped in for the ingredients, and the cake design was all up to me. Being the ever clever girl that I am; I told Amanda that it was my dads birthday and that I needed suggestions on the flavor cake to make for him. Her face totally lit up when she was describing what I should make for him. She even started clapping her hands in giddy joy. She suggested chocolate cake with raspberry & white chocolate cream cheese filling. So that is what I did!!

I had been wanting to make a whimsical wedge cake for a while. I had this designed in my head already and was just waiting for the perfect occasion. Plus I got to use my new airbrush… and my even newer Agbay Cake Leveler. By the way, if you don’t have one RUN OUT AND GET ONE!!!! This was my very first run with it. I must admit it was very complicated to set up. But once I got it all adjusted EASY PEEZY!!! OMG I have never seen such PERFECT layers in my life!! Totally worth every penny… I can’t recommend it enough!

So, it is Irene’s birthday this weekend. She is one of the coolest chicks that I know…. she is Da Bomb!!! So, what better cake to make her than a bomb cake. Mocha cake with creamy chocolate Ganache filling and covered with chocolate fondant. This cake is totally a choco-holics wet dream! I used semi-sweet chocolate for the ganache to balance out the sweetness from the mocha cake. I hand painted the cake board and cake to make the colors more bold… and used a sparkler to make it look like it is going to BLOW…….KA BOOOM!!! I sure hope that she likes it.

My moms’ friend is getting married and my mom is a bride’s maid. Her friend originally wanted me to do her wedding cake but, I didn’t want my mom to get stuck in the middle if her friend was unhappy with it for some reason. The compromise was that I would do the bridal shower cake. I am really happy with how it turned out. It has been a long time since I have done a wedding cake that I actually had trouble covering the cake in fondant. Took me 2 tries before I remembered my handy dandy fondant smoothing tool!!! I felt so stupid…. I can’t believe how many hours that I wasted trying to smooth it and not being able to figure out why it wasn’t working. DUH!! Well, once I remembered my handy dandy $3 tool… I was off and running!

The bottom tier is coconut with caramel filling. And the top is Collette Peters Coco Loco… and I have got to say that Collette’s recipe for Coco Loco is hands down the best tasting chocolate cake EVER!! And that is truly saying something. The only problem is that it did not bake flat… it was a big ole dome!! I even followed the instructions just like she said and baked it at 275°. I don’t have the book on me or I would post the recipe (I am at my sister in laws house); I will definitely post when I get home.

So husband got me this fancy smancy airbrush for X-Mas. Only problem was when I got it and took it out of the box and tried to use it…I realized, that I had no idea what I was doing and made a big ole’ mess.

Luckily for me, Browen had just put together an airbrush class here in Austin, hosted by All In One Bake Shop well; Browen is in my book right up there with Collete Peters. To think that I could actually get to meet her and learn from her… so excited!!!

Unfortunately for me daughter had the flu that week and I was praying that I would not get sick. I did NOT want to miss out on this class. Somehow I managed to escape the flu. But, I was late to class because I was trying to make sure that Stasia was all taken care of. So I ran out of the house forgetting my cell phone… and my camera!!! Of course I got lost, and could not call. And arrived to class 30 minutes late AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!

But it is ok, I jump right in. Like a sponge I absorb EVERYTHING that Browen has to say. I become a master with my airbrush. While people are busy writing their names, I am drawing skulls & cross bones. Totally patting myself on the back with such pride. Browne taught us so many tecniques before you knew it the entire class had painted a beautiful sunset over water onto a cake board covered in butter cream.

Next, she tells us that we are going to sculpt a frog. OMG, my ears totally perk up. I am so excited…I can TOTALLY DO THIS! I love to carve cakes!! Well, I made a boo boo and carved too much off of the neck (just like she told us not too – way to listen Luki) and his head started kissing the floor. So, I was so busy dicking around trying to fix it while I was putting my fondant on… that I was missing a demonstration up at the front of the class. So, I left my froggie for a moment to see the demo… it is very important to me that I not miss a single word. When I come back, YUP my fondant had dried – OH NO!!! And there was no Crisco for an emergency save! So needless to say my froggie is totally retarded. But, on the other hand without Browen I never would have made a froggie.

All in all it was a very cool class. It seemed to me that I was the only local there though. Everyone else was from out of town/ out of state. But the real kicker was, after class when everyone was having their picture taken with Browen…. I just had to leave because I had left my camera at home. I am such an idiot. I wanted to go home and cry.

No matter how many times I kissed my stupid froggie…. he NEVER turned into a prince… or even a decent looking froggie.

So my customer was dead set on a cake in the likeness of a fish. I truly believe that if I had made a cake to look just like a fish, that everyone would be so grossed out, the stupid thing wouldn’t get eaten. So, she agreed on the compromise of a cartoon like fish. This stupid thing had to be hand painted because at the time I did not have an airbrush. It was so aggravating the colors kept streaking and needed 2 coats. Took me forever!! I think that the results came out OK….. but I totally fucked up the little fish that are swimming around the big fish. I can’t believe that I had cut them out to swim in the wrong direction! Well, I am naturally blond so what intelligence I have is artificial.

But anyways Husband got me an airbrush system for X-mas so hopefully that will save me some time in the future…. and I am sure it will look a lot better than my feeble paint brush.