Let's Get Caking!

Pineapple Pudding Cake

2012-02-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

This is going to be the most delicious, moist cake you've ever eaten! My mom made this cake when we were growing up, and it is one of my favorites. The recipe is very simple.

Ingredients:

A baked yellow cake
20 oz. can crushed pineapple
1 cup sugar
6 oz. box of Cook and Serve vanilla pudding *IMPORTANT - cannot be instant pudding
9 oz. carton of whipped cream
1 cup flaked coconut

Follow the package directions to bake a 9x13" yellow cake. While the cake is baking, heat can of crushed pineapple (including the juices) with the cup of sugar over medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.

Once your cake is done baking, while it is still warm, poke the top all over with the handle of a wooden spoon. Maybe twenty pokes should do it. Now evenly pour and spread the pineapple mixture all over the cake. The holes will ensure the pineapple juices go all through the cake.

Now, follow the package directions on the Cook and Serve pudding. As soon as it's done, take it off of the stove, and pour it over the cake. Spread the pudding evenly across the cake.

Now you need to wait for the cake and pudding to cool down completely before you add the whipped cream. Once cooled, spread the whipped cream across the cake. Almost done!

Sprinkle the coconut onto the whipped cream. You're done!

You can thank me later. :o)

Happy Birthday, Twilla!

2012-01-26T19:47:00.000-08:00

I made some cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting to celebrate my friend Twilla's birthday. I wanted to make Twilla's cupcake extra special, so I used gold luster dust mixed with a little water to paint the edges of the fondant flower and to make her name sparkle.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/cream-cheese-frosting/b8566164-81e0-44e0-872c-b0fbe53c3280
(I substituted 1 tsp. of coconut extract for the vanilla in this Betty Crocker recipe)

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant:
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Cake Bites

2012-01-26T19:21:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple different cake bites I've made recently. I like them because they're a lot faster to make than cake pops. (They're the same thing, just without the lollipop stick.)

Anatomy of a Vanilla Cake Bite

White Cake Bites with Rainbow Sprinkles

Decorated with marbleized blue fondant flowers

Here's a great Cake Bite tutorial:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/cake-pop-lesson-1-the-cake-ball/

Becca's Wedding Cake

2012-01-02T18:16:00.001-08:00

My sister Becca was just married and I got to make her wedding cake! I loved every minute I spent working on it. My youngest sister spent hours threading the pearls so they'd be easier to place on the cake. My parents made the cake stand. My mom ordered the gum paste orchids and dusted them with petal dust. Becca helped me arrange the flowers. This was definitely a family effort!

Here's a side view where you can see the brush embroidery flowers.

Here's a closeup of the brush embroidery.

Here are some closeups I took of the brush embroidery on the 10" tier.

Here's a closeup of the same tier after I used cocoa powder mixed with gold luster dust to shade the embroidery. The difference is subtle, but I think it's so pretty and adds a lot of depth.

Here's a closeup of the fondant plaque with their monogram.

Boxed up and ready to go. This cake had to travel 11 hours to the wedding site, so I used non-slip padding under each tier. I also wrapped each cake in a ton of bubble wrap. I wasn't going to take any chances.

STATS:

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Link to a video that demonstrates the brush embroidery technique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqbDTaauGO0

Link to the site where my mother purchased the gum paste orchids:
http://www.countrykitchensa.com/shop/food-items/medium-white-cattleya-gum-paste-flower/46/624/1661/631567/

Cake Stand Tutorial:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-icing-on-the-cake/3068807962/

Baby Shower Cake

2011-12-11T15:38:00.000-08:00

My friend Lesley hosted a baby shower recently and asked me to make the cake. The colors and theme for this cake were so fun, and I loved every minute of creating it!

I used chocolate fondant to cover the cake.

All of the decorations are made from homemade fondant.

Here's a closeup of the bear. I think making the blanket was my favorite part!

I wish I had a photo of the inside of the cake - it's a zebra cake. A zebra cake is made by separating your cake batter into two bowls. Then, you color only half the batter with chocolate. Then, you alternate the brown and white batter when you put it in the pan before baking. When it's sliced, you'll see a zebra stripe pattern. Here's a link to the zebra cake recipe I used:

http://www.azcookbook.com/zebra-cake/

STATS:

Rhonda's Ultimate Chocolate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3193/rhondas-ultimate-chocolate-mmf

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Zebra Cake
http://www.azcookbook.com/zebra-cake/

Christmas Packaging

2011-12-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine taught me how to make these cute little gift bags. I decided to put cake pops in them to give as presents. We used Wonder Under to attach the fabric to the bags. Here's a link to show you what the Wonder Under looks like if you want to use it. http://www.pellonideas.com/products/1001-805-wonder-under.aspx

I lined the paper bags with cellophane. Then I tied the cellophane closed with ribbon.

Here are the chocolate cake pops. I wrapped each cake pop individually with plastic wrap and tied them with ribbon before placing them in the paper bags.

Here's a link to a great cake pop tutorial:

http://decoratethis.blogspot.com/2011/02/cake-pops-tutorial.html

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday, Nathaniel!

2011-12-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

For Nathaniel's birthday party, he asked for Batman decorations. So, I made blue cupcakes (blue is his other favorite color) and decorated them with fondant bats. I printed out a Batman logo I liked and cut the shape out of the paper. Then I used that as a template and cut the fondant pieces out with a knife.

In my last post, remember how I said I wanted more filling because there wasn't much there?

Well, I think I went overboard because this is what they look like when you cut them open. It's hard to tell how much filling is going into the cupcake because you can't see it. Maybe next time I'll find a happy medium.

I decided to decorate a few with just white frosting and a fondant flower to take to my friend. I think they're kind of wintery looking, with the blue cake and white icing.

STATS:

White Cake Mix with blue food coloring added

Cream Filling
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cream-filled-cupcakes/

Frosting
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/vanilla-buttercream-frosting/39107a19-be94-4571-9031-f1fc5bd1d606

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf/comment-page-1#comment-11

Cream-Filled Cupcakes

2011-11-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

My son loves red...My son loves cupcakes...It's his birthday...What's a mom to do, but make red cream-filled cupcakes to send in to school?

That's just what I did, and it was a lot of fun!

Here's a link to a good tutorial on how to get the filling inside the cupcake:

http://www.blog529.com/2011/03/cream-filled-cuppie-cakes/

I used a piping bag and tip as the tutorial shows, only I piped the filling up through the bottom of the cupcake because I wanted the top to stay perfectly smooth.

Would you like to see the inside? Here it is!

Next time, I'll make sure to insert the tip farther into the cupcake. I wish there was a little more of that delicious filling, but other than that, I think they turned out great!

To decorate the top, I used the same technique I used on the chocolate cupcakes I made here: http://letsgetcaking.blogspot.com/search/label/cupcakes. After the cupcakes cooled, I dipped the tops in frosting that I melted down in the microwave. If you follow the above link, that post explains it in more detail.

I was surprised to find I had the perfect packaging to transport 30 cupcakes to the school, just sitting in my pantry. I never use the plastic lids that come with the disposable foil casserole pans. You know, the ones that look like this? http://www.kitchendance.com/sheetcakesize.html I had 3 of those lids, just waiting for a purpose, and I found one. Twelve cupcakes fit perfectly, and the plastic lid is tall enough that the plastic wrap I put on top won't mess up the decorations.

I hope you'll give these cupcakes a try. This was a fun project!

STATS:

Yellow Cake Mix (easy!)

Canned Frosting (easy!)

Cream Filling
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cream-filled-cupcakes/

First Wedding Cake

2011-10-31T06:03:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun this week decorating my first wedding cake! I loved it! A friend from church was making the cake, but had never worked with fondant. So, she asked me to help with the decorating. You know I accepted that offer in a heartbeat!

Would you like to see the finished cake? Here it is!

The fondant rose topper:

Closeup of the fondant quilting with sugar pearls:

Closeup of the tiny flowers:

Closeup of the fondant plaque:

Here are some things we did ahead of time:

I made the fondant plaque a couple weeks before we needed it. I printed off the couple's monogram in a font I liked in Microsoft Word. Then I free-handed the monogram onto the fondant plaque with royal icing. I shaped a mound of fondant into the curve of the cake pan we would be using for this tier. Then, I allowed the plaque to dry on the curved fondant, so it would fit well on the cake. Later, I used royal icing to attach sugar pearls along the edge of the oval.

Here are the fondant flowers, leaves, and monogrammed plaque. I made extra flowers and leaves just in case something broke, and to give us more options once we stacked the cake. I'm really glad we had extras because we ended up using almost all of the flowers for the cake topper. Initially, I thought we'd only use three, but we needed the topper to look fuller, so I'm glad we had the extra. (The blobs of fondant next to the roses are there to support the flowers until they can hold their own shape.)

This is just to show the difference it makes when you use luster dust. The flower on the right is plain fondant. The one on the left has been brushed with a tiny bit of shortening and some white luster dust. I love how it looks!

Assembling the cake:

Here is Holly, measuring and cutting the wooden dowels with clean pruning shears to support the cake tiers. Here's a great tutorial on how to do this:

http://www.bakedecoratecelebrate.com/techniques/dowelrodconstruction.cfm

You may be able to tell that some of the dowels stick up a from the fondant a bit more than others. This is okay, and you should not cut them down to meet the cake. The dowels need to be the same height, so that the next tier is level. Here are the dowels in the bottom tier, spaced about 2" apart.

Wedding Cake Tips:

1. Each time I make a cake, things seem to take longer than planned - allow yourself plenty of time.
2. Make everything ahead of time that you can (like the flowers and fondant plaque).
3. Use sturdy boxes to transport the tiers - you don't want your beautiful cake falling out of a flimsy box onto the ground. Holly custom made some boxes out of thick cardboard. They worked great!
4. Cut squares of non-slip rug padding (like this stuff at Walmart) to place under the cakes while you travel. This will prevent the cakes from sliding around while you drive.
5. Enjoy it. This was such a fun project!

Mummy Cookie

2011-10-23T00:49:00.001-07:00

I had a little fondant left over from the cake pops, so when I made cookies today, I decided to experiment. Here's my little mummy.

I rolled the white fondant really thin and cut it into strips. Then, I just started laying them onto the frosted cookie. They eyes are green balls of fondant, and the black is royal icing.

Happy Halloween!

STATS:

Marshmallow Fondant
http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm

Royal Icing
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing

Creepy Eyeball Cake Pops

2011-10-23T00:35:00.001-07:00

I volunteered to make some baked goods for my son's school this week, so I decided to make some cake pops.

I used fondant for the blue and green irises, and I used royal icing for the red veins and the pupils.

I found some cute boxes to package them. I used a small Styrofoam round inside the box to help the cake pops stand up.

Here's a link to a simple cake pop tutorial:
http://decoratethis.blogspot.com/2011/02/cake-pops-tutorial.html

STATS:

Basic Marshmallow Fondant
http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm

Royal Icing
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing

Purple Bridal Shower

2011-10-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

I made this cake for a friend's bridal shower. Her favorite color is purple and she loves dogs, so this is the design I came up with. This cake was huge - three 9x13" sheet cakes stacked and iced!

After the above photo was taken, I outlined the dog's bow tie in purple.

Here is the sketch I made of the dogs, if you'd like to use the pattern:

I decorated the side of the cake with Jessica and Andy's initials. I thought it looked okay, but felt like it didn't look finished - or something was missing.

I decided to pipe trios of dots around the heart. It's a small detail that I think made a huge difference. It looks kind of lacy, don't you think?

I also made cake pops using the scraps left from leveling the cake. It was carrot cake and very moist, so I only used a Tbsp. or two of frosting in the cake pop mixture. I dipped them in white candy melts and sprinkled them with white edible glitter.

STATS:

Royal Icing Transfer to make dogs
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=648450&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=15
(Once you click the link, scroll down for the tutorial.)

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting for the cake filling
http://deborah-harding.suite101.com/pumpkin-cut-out-cookies-a160005
(Once you click the link, scroll down for the recipe.)
This is the most delicious cream cheese frosting you will ever eat!

Crusting Cream Cheese Icing for the outer layer of cake
http://www.food.com/recipe/crusting-cream-cheese-icing-frosting-297863

Basic Cake Pop tutorial by Bakerella
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/back-to-the-sweets-bakerellas-signature-cupcake-pops/

Happy 8th Birthday, Addie!

2011-09-24T09:20:00.001-07:00

This cake was for a sweet girl turning eight years old. A child's 8th birthday is special in our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) because that is when he or she can choose to be baptized. She wanted the cake to be purple and sparkly.

The tiara is made from royal icing piped onto an oatmeal container. Here is a link to a great tutorial if you want to give it a go:

http://cakecentral.com/articles/129/how-to-make-a-royal-icing-tiara

Here is a free pattern for a tiara I found online. http://cakecentral.com/gallery/40748 It is the same pattern I used, except I replaced the top section with a CTR shield (a symbol in our church that stands for "Choose the Right").

The cake is covered in homemade fondant and decorated with royal icing. Here it is before the tiara.

I was really worried that the fragile tiara would break on the drive to deliver the cake. So, I quickly made some fondant flowers to bring along as a backup.

Luckily, the tiara arrived safely, and I only had to reattach a sugar pearl that fell off.

The finished cake!

Happy birthday, Addie!

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-09-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

I found this recipe a few years ago, and it is my favorite chocolate chip recipe by far! The cookies are chewy, the edges don't burn, and the cookies are delicious! (Just make sure you follow the directions exactly, even down to the parchment paper.) I'm not sure where I found the recipe, but I shared it on a friend's blog in 2009:

http://jbeanrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/04/perfect-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

Take time to browse through Jill's blog. She's collected a TON of great recipes!

These were an experiment. I wanted to make some big cookies, and these guys were HUGE! I used maybe a little more than a quarter cup of dough for each one. Usually these cookies bake in 10-12 minutes, but these giants took about 18-20 minutes.

I washed and saved some restaurant take-out containers because I thought they were really pretty. I figured that I could put them to good use. These cookies are for my good friend Kristi. Thank you, Kristi!

Happy Birthday, Haley!

2011-08-26T19:48:00.001-07:00

This cake was for the cutest 5-year-old girl! Her favorite color is yellow, and she wanted a dog cake. So, this was the result:

I came up with the idea of making a dog collar out of fondant and used it as the top border. I really like how it turned out. Although, I was a little disappointed to discover I wasn't the first decorator to think of this design. :o)

The little puppy and her toys were really fun to make! Here's my lesson learned, though:

Measure first, THEN start making your fondant figures. I made the puppy on the left without using the cake pans or finished cake for size guidelines. I realized after it was finished that it was WAY too big for the size cake I made. I wouldn't be able to fit any words on the cake along with the puppy. So, I made the smaller puppy on the right, which fit just the way I wanted. It worked out because I ended up liking the second one better. She looks more playful I think.

The cake was chocolate (Haley's request). There was a chocolate cake layer, then a brownie layer, then another chocolate layer. In between those I spread chocolate chip cookie dough frosting for the filling. Yum!

STATS:

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Mom's Amazing Frosting Recipe
http://letsgetcaking.blogspot.com/2009/08/moms-amazing-frosting-recipe.html

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Filling
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7600/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-icingfilling

Yellow Cake Mix Cookies

2011-08-24T05:44:00.000-07:00

I always like to keep a box of cake mix in the cupboard. Not only for a quick cake, but quick cookies, too!

I used a yellow cake mix for the cookies. They are outlined and filled with glace icing. The flowers are made from fondant and sugar pearls.

STATS:

Cake Mix Cookies
http://letsgetcaking.blogspot.com/2009/10/cake-mix-cookies-recipe.html

Glacé Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar : 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup : 1 Tbsp. milk (Adjust amount of milk to achieve desired consistency in icing. I usually end up adding 3 or 4 extra Tbsp. of milk to get a thinner flooding consistency.)

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Blue Mini Cake

2011-08-15T14:11:00.001-07:00

I made this mini cake for a wonderful lady from my church. She always takes time to listen to others and goes out of her way to serve them. I wanted to do something nice for her, so I made this!

The cake is covered in homemade fondant and decorated with blue royal icing. I decided to decorate the top of the cake with her first initial: J.

The cake ended up being about 4 inches in diameter. I baked a lemon cake in a 9x13" pan, then I used a cup as a template for the little circles for the layers of the cake. I just turned the cup upside down on the leveled cake and cut out the circles using a sharp knife.

I filled and frosted the cake just like I would have a regular-sized cake. The only difference was I had to be a lot more careful when I smoothed the fondant over the cake. It is easy to accidentally pleat the fondant due to the size of the cake. This was really fun to make!

STATS:

White Almond Sour Cream Cake (I used lemon flavor)
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7445/the-original-wasc-cake-recipe

Buttercream
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/vanilla-buttercream-frosting/39107a19-be94-4571-9031-f1fc5bd1d606

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf/comment-page-1#comment-11

Black Cherry Filling

-10 oz. Polaner Black Cherry jam
-4 oz. box of cherry gelatin

Scoop jam into a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 30-60 seconds until it's melted slightly and easy to stir. It should be the consistency of a pie filling and nice and smooth. Add the box of strawberry gelatin straight into the jelly and stir until the gelatin powder is dissolved. This is enough filling for an 8" torted cake (filling three layers).

Happy Birthday, Rachael!

2011-08-15T07:31:00.001-07:00

I've wanted to make this cake for a long time - the giant slice of cake! I baked a 9x13" cake, then I cut two large triangles from it. I torted and stacked those slices, and I frosted them in delicious buttercream. The decorations are made from homemade fondant. My sister-in-law, Aubrie, and I had a great time decorating this together! The kids helped by cutting out the circles. Happy birthday, Rachael!

A close up of the ribbon rose.

Here's a link to a tutorial for ribbon roses:

http://www.make-fabulous-cakes.com/fondant-ribbon-roses.html

STATS:

Mom's Amazing Frosting Recipe
http://letsgetcaking.blogspot.com/2009/08/moms-amazing-frosting-recipe.html

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Happy Birthday, Mariah!

2011-08-08T03:00:00.000-07:00

Recently, one of my very best friends was able to drive out and visit with me for an entire week! Becky and I had a wonderful time, and one of the things we wanted to do together was decorate a cake. Becky wanted to make a cake for her niece's birthday party, but that was more than a week away (not to mention more than 10 hours away in another state). So, we decided to make fondant decorations for Becky to use on the cake she would bake later.

We made homemade fondant and then made the loops for the bow and the tag. After packing the dried decorations in a box with a TON of padding, we kept our fingers crossed that the decorations would survive the long car trip and the heat wave. Luckily, all but one piece survived, and Becky did an awesome job decorating the cake!

I LOVE the colors Becky chose and the different sizes of dots! I also like the detail she added of using a fondant "string" to "tie" the tag to the cake. I think this cake turned out so cute, and now I need to find an excuse to make one!

STATS:

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

2011-07-21T05:52:00.000-07:00

For Hannah's cake this year, I first cut out a bunch of small flowers from fondant. Then, I attached sugar pearls to their centers using royal icing.

Hannah said she wanted brownies in her cake. So I stacked the cake using a brownie layer, a cake layer, brownie and cake. I spread a little buttercream between each layer. I've never used brownies in a cake before, but we all really liked it! I covered the cake with white fondant and piped the border using buttercream. I attached the flowers to the cake with royal icing.

I bought a Tinkerbell toy for Hannah's birthday and decided to use it on the cake. We could use it as a decoration, and then she could play with it later. The only problem was that Tinkerbell's tiny feet wouldn't hold her up. Even after building up a little mound of fondant around her legs, she wouldn't stay up. So, I tried "gluing" her in using royal icing. The icing was taking a long time to dry, and it was getting late. I propped her up against a corn starch container and hoped the icing would dry over night and Tinkerbell would stay up. Luckily, it worked.

In the morning, I just added a few more leaves and flowers to the mound, and attached the decoration to the cake with royal icing. Voila!

STATS:

Royal Icing
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing

Betty Crocker Buttercream
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/vanilla-buttercream-frosting/39107a19-be94-4571-9031-f1fc5bd1d606

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Chocolate Dipped Cupcakes

2011-07-16T03:40:00.001-07:00

This chic little cupcake is surprisingly easy to make...using a cake mix and a can of frosting!

Follow the package directions to bake 24 cupcakes in cupcake liners. (The cupcake liners will stabilize the cupcake during the dipping process.) Allow to cool completely.

While the cupcakes are cooling, start kneading some modelling chocolate to make it pliable enough to roll. Then roll the chocolate out to about 1/8" and use a small flower cutter to make the tiny flower decorations. Quickly remove the flower cutouts from the board or counter you are using before they harden. Attach a sugar pearl to the center of each one using royal icing.

Get ready to dip! Scoop the canned frosting into a microwave save bowl. The frosting will need to be heated to a thin consistency for easy dipping. Start by heating in the microwave for 10 seconds, then stir. If it's still too thick, heat for another ten seconds and stir. Continue until you achieve the right consistency.

Hold a cupcake upside down by the liner, and dip it straight into the frosting. Pivot the cupcake a little to make sure the frosting covers the edges. Slowly remove the cupcake and twist it to keep any frosting from dripping over the edges. Place cupcake right-side up on the counter and arrange one of the tiny chocolate flowers in the center of the chocolate while still the chocolate is still wet. The chocolate will set up as it dries.

These cupcakes are going to a local food pantry that asked for cupcake donations. The reason I chose this frosting and design is because they asked that each cupcake be individually wrapped in a plastic sandwich bag. I thought these would be perfect because they're not too tall and the frosting wouldn't be easily smashed. They were very easy to bag up and still looked pretty.

I'll definitely be using this method again. It was quick and a lot of fun! Give them a try!

STATS:

Modeling Chocolate
Melt 10 ounces of chocolate chips in a microwave or in a double boiler. Stir in 2 ounces of light corn syrup. Stir for about a minute until well combined. Spread on waxed paper and allow to cool at room temperature for 2 hours. When cool, break large chunks off and knead until soft. Store in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag for up to a month. Break off small pieces and knead when you are ready to make something with your modeling chocolate. Return to refrigerator for 10-15 minutes if it starts to get too warm and sticky from the heat of your hands.

Royal Icing
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing

Oven S'Mores

2011-07-12T07:07:00.001-07:00

For Family Night last night, my kids asked if we could make S'Mores. We were going to attempt to roast them on the grill after our dinner. Sadly, the sky turned dark and in rolled a huge thunderstorm. The night turned out to be even more fun than we planned, though. The graham cracker box had instructions for making S'Mores in the oven, so we gave it a go. They turned out really pretty, and the kids were able to help! It was a great time - eating the sticky goodness while watching nature's beautiful fireworks from inside our home.

Oven S'Mores

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
-Line baking sheet with foil

(Now the kids can help)
-Break the graham crackers in half and place squares on baking sheet
-Place one large marshmallow on top of each square

-Put them in the oven for 5 minutes
(Make sure to turn the oven light on so the kids can watch the marshmallows grow!)

-After 5 minutes, pull the baking sheet out and place 2 squares of chocolate on top of each marshmallow.
-Allow chocolate to sit and melt for 1 minute.
-Top each S'More with another graham cracker square.

Wait until the S'Mores are cooled down enough to eat (not too long), then devour!

Yellow Heart Cookies

2011-07-12T06:43:00.001-07:00

These were just some quick cookies I made from a store bought cookie mix. The frosting is a Betty Crocker recipe and the flowers and leaves are made from homemade fondant.

STATS:

Betty Crocker Buttercream
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/vanilla-buttercream-frosting/39107a19-be94-4571-9031-f1fc5bd1d606

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf/comment-page-1#comment-11.

Lego Cake Pop

2011-05-10T07:32:00.001-07:00

I made Lego cake pops to go along with the Lego man cake we made a few weeks ago. I just haven't been able to post it until today.

If you've never made cake pops, you can find a basic tutorial by Bakerella here:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/back-to-the-sweets-bakerellas-signature-cupcake-pops/

Instead of making balls, just shape the cake mixture into cubes, then continue to follow the directions for regular cake pops. I made the circles on top out of yellow modelling chocolate. Really easy and cute!

STATS:

Modeling Chocolate
Melt 10 ounces of candy melts (or any kind of chocolate) in a microwave or in a double boiler. Stir in 1/3 of a cup of light corn syrup. Stir for a couple of minutes until well combined. Spread on waxed paper and allow to cool at room temperature for 2 hours. When cool, break large chunks off and knead until soft. Store in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag for up to a month. Break off small pieces and knead when you are ready to make something with your modeling chocolate. Return to refrigerator for 10-15 minutes if it starts to get too warm and sticky from the heat of your hands.

Lego Man

2011-04-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

My friend asked me to help her make a Lego man cake for her twin boys' birthday. We had a great time putting it together! I had a lot of fun doing it and definitely learned a lot along the way.

The base is made from 1/2" foam core board, decorated with fondant on the edges and real Lego base pieces for the green center. (The twins came up with that awesome idea!) Then we hot glued a dowel into the board to stabilize the cake.

Lesson #1: The dowel should be inserted through the cake after covering in fondant. If you think it's hard to get a smooth look with fondant on a regular cake, try doing it with a huge dowel in the way.

Piping the frosting dam to keep the chocolate chip cookie dough filling from squishing out.

Here is the cake after carving it to look like the body of a Lego guy. After two layers of cake, we inserted two short dowels and placed a piece of cardboard wrapped in foil to prevent the weight of the next two layers from squishing the bottom layers.

The cake after a nice coat of buttercream has been added. To get it nice and smooth, dip a knife in hot water. Scrape off any icing that collects on the knife every couple of swipes, then dip in the hot water again. It works great!

Covered in green homemade fondant. This was definitely a two person job. It was difficult to transfer such a large piece of fondant and to be able to poke the dowel up through the center of it. But Stacie and I somehow managed it!

Here is one of the legs before it was covered in fondant. We used rice crispy treats to make the head and legs. I smoothed a little royal icing over the rice crispy treats, but I probably should have used more. They ended up looking a little lumpy from the cereal.

Tip #2: The arms need serious support. How to do that? I still don't know. I made the arms out of rice crispy treats and covered them in fondant. They were really cute, but after I attached an arm to the body, the weight of it kept pulling the fondant off the body and the arm wouldn't stay up. Here's the poor body after the arm mistake.

I ended up covering up the mess with flat pieces of fondant shaped like arms. The arms looked okay, just a little deflated. :o) I love how the hands turned out! They are made out of modeling chocolate. (So is the yellow circle on top of the head.) The head was huge and we used almost an entire box of rice crispy cereal to make it!

Happy birthday, Austin and Allan!

STATS:

Head and legs - Rice Crispy Treats (RKT)
http://www.ricekrispies.com/recipes/the-original-treats.aspx#/recipes/the-original-treats

Body - Chocolate and Vanilla WASC
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7445/the-original-wasc-cake-recipe

Chocolate chip cookie dough filling
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7600/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-icingfilling

Hands - Modeling Chocolate
Melt 10 ounces of candy melts (or any kind of chocolate) in a microwave or in a double boiler. Stir in 1/3 of a cup of light corn syrup. Stir for a couple of minutes until well combined. Spread on waxed paper and allow to cool at room temperature for 2 hours. When cool, break large chunks off and knead until soft. Store in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag for up to a month. Break off small pieces and knead when you are ready to make something with your modeling chocolate. Return to refrigerator for 10-15 minutes if it starts to get too warm and sticky from the heat of your hands.

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Lemon Breakfast Bread

2011-04-06T05:29:00.000-07:00

I found the recipe for this Lemon Breakfast Bread over at Transplanted Tastebuds. It is delicious and so moist! I'll definitely be making it again!

Here's a link to the recipe if you want to try it out.
http://transplantedtastebuds.blogspot.com/2008/08/lemon-breakfast-bread.html

St. Patrick's Day Magic

2011-03-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

I love working with glacé icing! It's so much fun to add different colors to the cookies, and then swirl the icing around and watch pretty designs appear.

For the swirls, start by flooding your cookie with one solid base color. While the icing is still wet, pipe short lines in a swirl pattern, starting from the outside of the cookie and working in. Try alternating colors (I used dark and light green) for a fun effect, like this:

Now, drag a toothpick through the center of the lines, starting from the outside of the swirl and working to the center. Just follow the shaky black arrow I made in Microsoft Paint.

Now watch this beauty magically appear!

For the shamrocks, you will use a similar technique, just in a different pattern. Flood a cookie with white icing. While it is still wet, pipe 4 green lines in a square pattern. Drag a toothpick through each line, from the outside of the square to the center. Here is a diagram that might help you better visualize the process.

A little leprechaun magic...and you've got yourself a tasty four leaf clover!

I tried out a new recipe for my husband's grandmother, Memé, who loves lemon-flavored treats. I'll put a link to the lemon cookie recipe in the "STATS" section of this post. It's delicious!

STATS:

Lemon Cut-Out Cookies:
http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/2010/07/frosted-jumbo-animal-cookies.html
(After you click the link, scroll down to the bottom, and you'll see the recipe.)

Glacé Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar : 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup : 1 Tbsp. milk (Adjust amount of milk to achieve desired consistency in icing. I usually end up adding 3 or 4 extra Tbsp. of milk to get a thinner flooding consistency.)

Video tutorial for piping wet on wet icing and the marbling technique
http://www.universityofcookie.com/2010/12/fun-and-easy-way-of-decorating.html

Dress "Cookies"

2011-02-28T06:49:00.000-08:00

The theme for this month's cookie club on Cake Central is "dresses." Here's a link to the cookie club forum for this month. http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-708322-.html Check out the other entries. They're really cool! I didn't have time to make cookies, but I had some leftover fondant and decided to play with it this morning. I made the "cookie" about 3 inches high. Here is what I ended up with.

I didn't like how the dress looked with the ruffle around the neck, so I took that off. Then I added some tiny roses at the bottom.

I also decided to carve some of the fondant away from the neck area to make the hole bigger. Then I added a drape of fondant to the side and a sugar pearl.

Happy Birthday, Alison!

2011-02-22T03:18:00.000-08:00

I baked this cake in a square glass casserole dish to get the shape and size. I used a yellow cake mix for the cake, then I filled it with a strawberry filling. I frosted it with vanilla buttercream and decorated it with homemade fondant.

The fondant recipe I like calls for corn syrup (which helps with pliability). I omitted the corn syrup when making the fondant this time. I didn't realize what a difference it would make when covering cakes. It was difficult to cover this cake smoothly (it cracked and wouldn't smooth over the corners of the cake. The fondant works well without the corn syrup if you just want to cover cookies, though. Lesson learned - don't leave out the corn syrup if you want to cover a cake! I think it still turned out pretty, though.

Happy birthday, Alison!

STATS:

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Strawberry Filling

-10 oz. strawberry jam
-4 oz. box of strawberry gelatin

Scoop jam into a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 30-60 seconds until it's melted slightly and easy to stir. It should be the consistency of a pie filling and nice and smooth. Add the box of strawberry gelatin straight into the jelly and stir until the gelatin powder is dissolved. This is enough filling for an 8" torted cake (filling three layers).

Share the Love

2011-02-21T19:23:00.000-08:00

I was asked to teach a cookie decorating class for a week night activity at my church. I was so excited for the activity because I LOVE cookie decorating and couldn't wait to teach others what I love to do.

I brought in homemade fondant and glace icing. I ended up using about 10 pounds of confectioner's sugar to make all of the icing (6 for the fondant and 4 for the glace). We planned to decorate about 200 cookies.

The techniques I taught were:

1. Outlining a cookie with glace
2. Flooding the cookie
3. Using the "wet on wet" technique to create swirls and hearts in the glace
4. Rolling fondant and cutting out shapes to attach to cookies
5. Making a 5 petal fondant rose

I brought some little fondant embossers I got at Michael's craft store to let everyone use. I love all of the creative ways people found to decorate their cookies! I've only used the stamps to make a simple design in the center of a cookie, but they found so many other ways to use the embossers. Now I'm excited to use them again!

I wish I had gotten pictures of all of the cookies made. I only got a few pictures (and it was after the cookies were already covered in plastic wrap). I also wish I had gotten some photos of the glace decorated cookies.

Here's a look at just some of the cookies everyone made. I love how creative and beautiful they all are!

The best part of making cakes and cookies is sharing them with the people we love. It's a wonderful thing to spend time creating something beautiful to share with family and friends.

STATS:

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Glace Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar : 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup : 1 Tbsp. milk
Adjust amount of milk to achieve desired consistency in icing.)

How to Swirl Icing Tutorial Video from University of Cookie
http://www.universityofcookie.com/2010/12/fun-and-easy-way-of-decorating.html

Simple Rose Tutorial
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1149096

Sprinkles!

2011-01-10T03:56:00.000-08:00

We were able to spend Christmas with my husband's family this year. My mother-in-law wanted to decorate a cake with my kids to celebrate Jesus' birthday. My children had a great time decorating the cake and it turned out really cute! They used lots of sprinkles, animal cookies, and M&M's.

Here's a look at the inside:

STATS:

Betty Crocker Vanilla Frosting
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/vanilla-buttercream-frosting/39107a19-be94-4571-9031-f1fc5bd1d606

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Filling
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7600/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-icingfilling

Circus Animal Cookies
http://www.motherscookies.com/ProductDetail.aspx?product=17311

Red Baron Cake Pops

2011-01-10T03:42:00.000-08:00

My dad is a pilot, so for his birthday I tried to make some cake pops that looked like the Red Baron.

Here's what I did:

1. Dip the whole cake pop in white candy melts for the face. Let dry.
2. Roll the back half of the cake pop in melted chocolate for the ear flaps of the helmet.
3. Dip the top of the cake pop in chocolate for the top of the helmet.
4. Attach brown M&M's for the goggles.
5. Attach small circles of white fondant to the M&M's for eyes.
6. Pipe black royal icing for the pupils and mouth.
7. Use red modeling chocolate for the scarf.

STATS:

Basic Cake Pop tutorial by Bakerella
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/back-to-the-sweets-bakerellas-signature-cupcake-pops/

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Modeling Chocolate
Melt 10 ounces of candy melts (or any kind of chocolate) in a microwave or in a double boiler. Stir in 1/3 of a cup of light corn syrup. Stir for a couple of minutes until well combined. Spread on waxed paper and allow to cool at room temperature for 2 hours. When cool, break large chunks off and knead until soft. Store in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag for up to a month. Break off small pieces and knead when you are ready to make something with your modeling chocolate. Return to refrigerator for 10-15 minutes if it starts to get too warm and sticky from the heat of your hands.

Bob Vila's Instructions for a Gingerbread House

2010-12-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

These instructions are great (and funny!).

http://web.archive.org/web/20080630065534/www.bobvila.com/HowTo_Library/Building_a_Gingerbread_House-Miscellaneous_Decor-A1534.html

Gingerbread Saltbox Template
http://web.archive.org/web/20060217182140/www.bobvila.com/Downloads/Gingerbread_Saltbox.pdf

Gingerbread Gable Template
http://web.archive.org/web/20060217182128/www.bobvila.com/Downloads/Gingerbread_Gable.pdf

Gingerbread Colonial Template
http://web.archive.org/web/20070122170247/www.bobvila.com/Downloads/Gingerbread_Colonial.pdf

Gingerbread A Frame Template
http://web.archive.org/web/20060217182133/www.bobvila.com/Downloads/Gingerbread_AFrame.pdf

Pirate Cake Pops

2010-11-30T04:55:00.000-08:00

Things I've learned about cake pops:

1. They're not as easy as they look.
2. They are time consuming, but worth the effort.
3. Add a little vegetable oil to your candy melts to get a smooth look.

(Thank you for the tip, Heather!)

Heather made some awesome pirate cake pops from Bakerella's new cake pop book, and I had to give them a try. My son saw the pirates Heather made and said, "THAT'S what I want for my birthday!"

Here it is!

...and a little pirate cake to match!

Shiver me timbers! Those are some cute pirates!

...but not as cute as my own little buccaneer! Happy birthday!

Cake Pop STATS:

Cake Pops
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/back-to-the-sweets-bakerellas-signature-cupcake-pops/
Here's a tutorial Bakerella did for The Pioneer Woman Blog

Glace Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar : 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup : 1 Tbsp. milk
(Adjust amount of milk to achieve desired consistency in icing.)

(I didn't have an edible food marker or sprinkles on hand, so I used glace icing for the polka dots and the face. They turned out fine, but if I make the pops again, I'll try to use the right stuff.)

Cake STATS:

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/vanilla-buttercream-frosting/39107a19-be94-4571-9031-f1fc5bd1d606

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant (for the polka dots)
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Dress Shirts

2010-11-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

I made these cakes for the culinary display table at a talent show at my church. I wanted them to look like the clothes a senior missionary couple would wear. Everything is edible on the cakes.

I made the collars a few days before because I had to keep them propped up with extra fondant while they dried so they would keep their shape and stand on their own.

I made the large beads for the necklace by rolling a little purple and white fondant together and then rolled small pieces into balls. The tiny white beads are just sugar pearls I bought at Michael's. (The same thing I used for the bubbles on the duck cupcakes). I attached the beads to the cake with royal icing.

The name tags were made with royal icing. I just piped black rectangles onto waxed paper and allowed them to dry before using a #1 piping tip to pipe the letters on top. (Next time I will use plastic wrap because the waxed paper was kind of hard to remove.) The tags have our church's name (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) written on them in Spanish to symbolize a missionary couple serving in a Spanish-speaking country.

STATS:

White Almond Sour Cream Cake
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7445/the-original-wasc-cake-recipe

Mom's Amazing Frosting Recipe
http://letsgetcaking.blogspot.com/2009/08/moms-amazing-frosting-recipe.html

Rhonda’s Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Royal Icing
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing

Black Cherry Filling:

Heat a jar of Polaner black cherry jam in a glass bowl for about 30 seconds in the microwave. Add a 3 oz. box of cherry Jell-o and stir. That's it! Your filling is ready to use!

Unless I'm wrong, which, you know, I'm not...

2010-11-15T09:11:00.000-08:00

My husband loves the detective show Monk, so I decided to go with that theme for his birthday cake. I had a few issues while making the cake, but it turned out okay.

So, I made two royal icing transfers a few days before I needed them. It was a good thing I made two because I ended up making the letters too big on the first one, so I couldn't fit the whole message on it...also the first one broke. They looked pretty good to begin with...

...but, over the next two days, the black food coloring started to bleed into the face. I got lazy when I was mixing the royal icing to a flooding consistency and made the face color WAY too thin. This is what caused the black to bleed into it.

Pretty gross looking, huh?

I made more icing for the face and piped that on top. It ended up being a little bumpy, but not too bad.

I also made the transfer too big for the top of the cake, so it cracked when I trimmed it down. Also, the candles couldn't stand on it, so we stuck them into the side of the cake. My kids loved that and we called them our pirate cannons. It was pretty fun to watch my husband try to blow out the candles that way, although we had melted candle wax all over the plate and side of the cake.

Happy birthday, Alan!

STATS:

Royal Icing Transfer
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=648450&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=15

Purple Flowers

2010-11-03T06:53:00.001-07:00

This is a pumpkin spice sugar cookie decorated with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and fondant for the leaves and flower.

These are the same cookies, but decorated with circles of fondant. I used the back of a butter knife to press lines into the fondant.

I made thank you tags by printing an image I created in Photoshop, and then taped the printout to card stock. Next, I folded the card stock over a plastic sandwich bag and stapled it shut.

P.S. The cinnamon cream cheese frosting is DELICIOUS! Try it out!

STATS:

Pumpkin Cutout Cookies with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
http://www.suite101.com/content/pumpkin-cut-out-cookies-a160005

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Spooky Spiderweb Cookies

2010-10-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

I made these same cookies last year, but I thought I'd add purple to the mix this time.

Here's the post from last year with instructions on how to make the web:

http://letsgetcaking.blogspot.com/2009/10/spiderweb-cookies.html

STATS:

Pumpkin Spice Cookies
http://www.suite101.com/content/pumpkin-cut-out-cookies-a160005#ixzz0zF5vLGwd

Glace Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar : 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup : 1 Tbsp. milk
(Adjust amount of milk to achieve desired consistency in icing.)

Happy Halloween!

Creative Pumpkins

2010-10-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

This month's theme for the Cake Central Cookie Club is "non-Halloween cookies you can make using Halloween cutters." I decided to make a wedding cookie shaped like Cinderella's pumpkin carriage.

The tricky part was getting the wheels to stay on. I used thick glace icing to attach the wheels to the carriage and some folded up napkins to hold them in place until the icing dried.

The cookie is decorated with glace icing, fondant, sugar pearls, and gold luster dust. I used my parents' initials for the monogram. I wish I hadn't added the luster dust...I think it looked prettier without it. Sometimes simpler is better.

I made this cookie for my sister's birthday, using her initials piped down the center.

STATS:

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Glace Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar : 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup : 1 Tbsp. milk
(Adjust amount of milk to achieve desired consistency in icing.)

Pumpkin Cut Out Cookies
http://www.suite101.com/content/pumpkin-cut-out-cookies-a160005#ixzz0zF5vLGwd

Duckies

2010-09-30T19:19:00.000-07:00

I've seen some really cute baby shower cakes online, decorated with bubble-shaped fondant and a real rubber duckie. I thought it would be fun to try a similar design on a cupcake.

First, I made tiny ducks out of fondant.

I used sugar pearls (big sprinkles) around the edges and a few on top for the bubbles.

My three-year-old got to decorate her own. She was so proud!

Look at that perfect line of little pearls she placed one at a time, all by herself!

STATS:

Box mix of lemon cake

Buttercream Frosting:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/vanilla-buttercream-frosting/39107a19-be94-4571-9031-f1fc5bd1d606

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant:
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Luggage Cake

2010-09-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

*** UPDATE: He's going to México! ***

Time to knead some sugar into homemade fondant. This gets really messy, but it's fun!

I baked two 9x13 yellow cakes and placed them next to each other before frosting them with chocolate chip cookie dough frosting. Yum!

I covered the cake in 3 sections of fondant (instead of one big piece like I normally would). I layed the sections down slightly overlapping each other to create the raised seams.

I used a toothpick to poke little holes in the fondant for the stitching. Yes, it was tedious and I'm sure there is a faster way or better tool to use, but it worked.

I printed out my brother's initials in a font I liked. Then I taped plastic wrap over that and piped over the letters using royal icing. I let the icing dry and then painted it with gold luster dust. Once it dried again, I peeled the plastic wrap off and used the royal icing letters for the monogram.

I printed off images of a passport, name tag, and flags at home and used the printout to order a frosting sheet printed with edible ink from a bakery. I cut the images out of the frosting sheet and attached them to fondant with white piping gel.

Everything you see is edible. Ta-dah!

I can't wait to find out where my brother is going on his mission!

STATS:

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Rhonda's Ultimate Chocolate Marshmallow Fondant:
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3193/rhondas-ultimate-chocolate-mmf

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frosting:
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7600/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-icingfilling

Royal Icing:
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing-1

Daisies and Ladybugs + Caking with Kids

2010-09-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

My six-year-old son loves to cook and help in the kitchen. He designed this really cool pirate cupcake. It has blue water, black sand, and he even added toothpicks for posts to hold up a hammock for a pirate. He has such a good imagination and creative ideas! He was disappointed that I couldn't think of anything we had on hand for the net, but he was still happy with his cupcake and he shared it with me. What a great chef!

We worked on our cakes together in the kitchen. Mine was just a quick cake for a friend.

STATS:

Box Mix of Lemon Cake
Buttercream Frosting (green background and flowers)
Glace Icing (ladybugs)

Happy Birthday, Becca!

2010-09-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

This was a fun cake to make because I got to decorate it with my sisters and my mom (plus a friend)! We took turns piping the border and we all made some flowers out of homemade white modeling chocolate. Ta-dah!

Becca made the biggest flower and I thought it turned out really pretty. Here it is!

STATS:

Sylvia Weinstock's Yellow Cake:
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/news/02/09/sylvia.weinstock/yellow.cake.html

Raspberry Filling:
Heat jar of Polaner seedless raspberry jam in microwave for 15-30 seconds, until spreadable. Stir in packet of raspberry jello until jello is dissolved. That's it!

Modeling Chocolate:
Melt 10 ounces of any kind of chocolate you like in a microwave or in a double boiler. Stir in 1/3 of a cup of light corn syrup. Stir for a couple of minutes until well combined. Spread on waxed paper and allow to cool at room temperature for 2 hours. When cool, break large chunks off and knead until soft. Store in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag for up to a month. Break off small pieces and knead when you are ready to make something with your modeling chocolate. Return to refrigerator for 10-15 minutes if it starts to get too warm and sticky from the heat of your hands.

Have fun!

Black and Blue Cookies

2010-08-30T06:11:00.000-07:00

I used homemade fondant for the blue circles, a fondant stamp to make the paisley design in the center, and glace icing for the dots.

First attempt at using a stencil to decorate a cookie.

Homemade stencil. I think it turned out okay (and worked pretty well) for using the plastic lid from a Utz snack container. :o)

STATS:

No Fail Sugar Cookies
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/2055/no-fail-sugar-cookies

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
(Minus the corn syrup. I didn't want the fondant to stretch.)
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Glace Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar : 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup : 1 Tbsp. milk
(Adjust amount of milk to achieve desired consistency in icing.)
(I added a little cocoa powder along with brown food coloring to make the brown icing.)

Pink and Brown Cookies

2010-08-20T04:47:00.000-07:00

Spillage

I used too much white icing as the base on this one. Once I started adding the stripes, the icing flooded over my border.

Salvaged...sort of

Once the icing set, I used a sharp knife to cut away the spilled icing. Then I piped dots around the edge to cover up the mess.

Swirls

Plaid and Hearts

Flower

Chocolate Swirl

STATS:

Khalstead's Modified No Fail Sugar Cookies (using butterscotch flavored pudding)
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/15218/khalsteads-modified-nfsc

Glace icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar : 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup : 1 Tbsp. milk
(Adjust amount of milk to achieve desired consistency in icing.)
(I added a little cocoa powder along with brown food coloring to make the brown icing.)

Raspberry Almond Cookies

2010-08-04T18:31:00.000-07:00

I found this recipe online and it is so good!

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/raspberry-and-almond-shortbread-thumbprints/Detail.aspx

Ball of Yarn Cookie

2010-08-03T12:52:00.001-07:00

On cakecentral.com, there is a forum section that is all about cookies. Every month, the cookie club chooses a different theme and the members design new cookies and share new techniques with each other. The theme this month was "Inspirational Women." I decided to make a cookie that reminded me of my grandma.

These are strawberry cake mix cookies. Grandma always has a great garden and let us pick strawberries from it. She also taught us how to make strawberry jam. She taught me how to knit and crochet, so I decided to decorate the cookie to look like a ball of yarn.

I layed a flat circle of fondant on top of the cookie, then I used a sharp knife to carve the lines into the circle fondant. Then I just rolled a small piece of fondant into a thin "snake" and coiled it on top to look like the end of the yarn.

Cake Central Monthly Cookie Club

2010-07-16T07:08:00.000-07:00

July 2011 - Christmas in July
June 2011 - Birds and Blossoms
May 2011 - Under the Sea
April 2011 - Hot Stuff
March 2011 - Easter

October 2010 - non-Halloween cookies you can make using Halloween cutters
September 2010 - Toys and Games
August 2010 - Inspirational Women
July 2010 - Independence
June 2010 - Lazy Summer Days
May 2010 - Nautical/Beach
April 2010 - Spring

June 2009 - Creative Use of a Cookie Cutter
May 2009 - Family Vacations

July 2008 - Summer Movies (no pics)
June 2008 - Sailing
May 2008 - Graduation
April 2008 - April Fools (no pics)
February 2008 - Using Heart Cookie Cutters

October 2007 - Halloween Monsters
September 2007 - Fall Colors
August 2007 - Games
July 2007 - Hollywood
June 2007 - Weddings
May 2007 - Mother Goose/Nursery Rhymes
April 2007 - Royalty
March 2007 - March Madness
February 2007 - Girly Things
January 2007 - Wishes (no pics)

December 2006 - December
November 2006 - Fall/Thanksgiving/Things to be Thankful for
October 2006 - Halloween/Cookies for a Cause
September 2006 - School
August 2006 - Bugs
July 2006 - Beach
May 2006 - Flowers
April 2006 - Spring/April Showers

The Post that Started it all!

Independence Day Cookie

2010-07-11T15:38:00.001-07:00

I wanted to make something patriotic for the 4th of July and decided on cookies. I knew I didn't have much time to decorate individual cookies, though, so I decided to attempt to bake a giant cookie. I lined my cookie sheet with foil and sprayed it with cooking spray before I baked it. I just used the same sugar cookie recipe I always use and baked it at the same temperature. I needed to add only three or four minutes to the cooking time.

I used a cooling rack to help flip the cookie out of the pan so the bottom wouldn't burn as it cooled. Then, I used another cooling rack to flip the cookie right-side up.

I was really disappointed to see that the rack left deep grooves in the cookie. I was upset at first, thinking the lines would mess up my design and make the glace icing flow in the wrong directions. Then, I realized something...there were exactly 14 bars on the cooling rack, which made 14 lines in the cookie...which created 13 perfectly straight stripes across the cake. I was able to ice the cookie with the image of the American flag quickly, without having to painstakingly measure straight lines. I couldn't have planned it any better.

The flag has exactly 13 stripes and 50 "stars." Go ahead. Count 'em. :o)

*Next time I would use less cookie dough. This baked up to be about half an inch thick. I think it would have been better if it was only a quarter inch thick, making a better cookie/icing ratio.

Happy Birthday, Aubrie!

2010-06-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

I wanted the inside of the cake to have a rainbow of colors, so I divided the cake batter into five small bowls and added food coloring. Then, I just dropped spoonfuls of the batter into the cake pan.

This is how it looked baked.

I found an image of a hibiscus flower online and printed it out. Then I used the pin prick method to make an outline of the flower on my fondant-covered cake.

I used glace icing to make the large flower.
(1 cup powdered sugar: 1 Tbsp. milk: 1 Tbsp. corn syrup...add milk a small amount at a time to the desired consistency.)

I used homemade marshmallow fondant to cover the cake and to make the small flowers attached to the side of the cake. I used a small flower-shaped fondant cutter to cut out all of the tiny flowers. I used glace icing to attach them to the cake.

A tiny dot of glace icing was piped into the center of each flower to finish the cake.

Play Ball!

2010-06-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

Sugar cookies with glace icing. These were really fun to make!

Sand Dollar Cookies

2010-06-07T12:45:00.001-07:00

Cake mix cookies with a little Mexican vanilla and butter flavoring added to them. Glace icing and some edible glitter on the center of each cookie for some sparkle.

Baby Blue Cookies

2010-05-24T06:27:00.001-07:00

Chocolate cake mix cookies with royal icing.

These ones are my favorite:

Piano Recital Cookies

2010-05-18T07:14:00.001-07:00

I made these cookies for a piano recital at my house. They are sugar cookies with pink marshmallow fondant and glace icing for the piano keys and treble and bass clefs. Next time, I think I would use black icing for the treble and bass clefs because they're kind of hard to see.

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant

No Fail Sugar Cookies

Glace Icing

Gourmet Recipes Link

2010-05-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

Get ready for a link to a whole bunch of delicious sounding cakes!

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df4f9hbq_46cs9f28fs

You'll find the recipe for a Cinnamon Roll Cake, Cheesecake Lovers Cake, Apple Pie Cake, Peaches and Cream Cake, and on and on...The list is huge and they all look delicious!

Pink and Black Cookies

2010-04-21T18:33:00.000-07:00

Sugar cookies decorated with royal icing.

I like to try to personalize the cookies.

Some tiny flowers.

The butterfly was made the night before using the royal icing transfer technique.

Click here for detailed instructions on royal icing transfers. http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=648450&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=15 (You'll have to scroll down a little.)

I wrapped each cookie in plastic wrap.

Packing up.

All boxed up and ready to go!

Spring Flower Cookies

2010-03-31T04:17:00.000-07:00

I decided to try my hand at making some Duff (the guy from Ace of Cakes) roses out of fondant. They were pretty simple to make, but some definitely turned out better than others...as you can see.

The last one is my favorite. Here's a link to a good tutorial if you want to try it out. http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1149096

Instead of rolling out the fondant and cutting out small circles, I chose to roll balls of fondant and flatten them out with my fingers to make the circles. I think that's why my petals ended up a little thick.

Overall, I think they turned out really cute. I used Peggy Weaver's marshmallow fondant recipe for the fondant. The icing is Toba Garrett's recipe that I thinned down a little by adding more milk. The cookies are strawberry cake mix cookies.

Peggy Weaver's Marshmallow Fondant
Toba Garrett's Glace Icing
Cake Mix Cookies

Valentine's Cookies

2010-03-01T09:22:00.001-08:00

Garden Cookies

2010-02-26T05:52:00.001-08:00

These are all sugar cookies decorated with royal icing. I had cookie cutters for the flowers, but I just used a cup to cut out the circles for the ladybugs. For the fence and sign, I used a sharp knife and cut out the shapes I wanted.

Red Flower

Orange Flower

Ladybug

Garden Fence (This one is my favorite.)

The plate of cookies!

Winter Piano Recital Cake

2010-02-02T08:37:00.001-08:00

To make the diamond pattern in the buttercream frosting, I waited a couple of hours for the buttercream to crust while cooling in the refrigerator. Using a ruler and a toothpick, I marked off one inch intervals along the top and bottom edges of the cake. Then, I used the back of a butter knife to match up the toothpick marks and create the lines for the diamonds. (It's strange because the diamonds didn't end up looking uniform in size even though I measured and marked off everything first. I think part of the problem is trying to use a straight edge to mark the curved surface of the cake.)

I think the white dots made the diamonds look a lot better. I used a #2 writing tip to pipe the dots in white buttercream. The dots had little peaks on them from lifting the piping tip away and I didn't like how that looked, so I dipped my finger in water and pressed the peaks down to make the dots nice and smooth.

I used the pin prick method and some free-handing to pipe the treble clef onto the top of the cake. There are a couple of different ways you can do the pin prick method.

1. Trace the image you want onto waxed paper, cut it out, then place the waxed paper image onto the cake. Use a sharp pin to prick through the paper into the frosting, so that when you lift it away, you will just need to pipe over the dots left in the icing (sort of like connect the dots).

2. Trace the image onto waxed paper and cut it out. BEFORE placing it on the cake, use a pin to prick through the paper (with a towel or styrofoam behind it). When you lift up the paper, you will see the bumps on the back of the paper left from the pin going through. Place this onto the crusted buttercream icing and gently rub over the image. This will leave the pattern on the frosting and you can pipe the design on top.

I used the first method for this cake. I had some problems with it, mostly because the paper kept pulling back up off the cake every time I lifted the pin. I'll try the second method next time.

I decorated the top and bottom edges with shell borders. The bottom edge just has a reverse shell border. I layered two borders on top of each other for the top edge. I used a regular shell border underneath a reverse shell border. Follow this link for instructions on how to make the reverse shell border: http://www.bakedecoratecelebrate.com/techniques/reverseshell.cfm
Here's the link for instructions on the regular shell border:
http://www.wilton.com/technique/Shell

I used a White Almond Sour Cream (WASC) recipe for the cake and a raspberry filling for the inside. The WASC is delicious and easy. You start out with a regular old cake mix, but add some yummy ingredients like sour cream and almond extract. Here's a link to the WASC cake recipe:
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7445/the-original-wasc-cake-recipe It calls for a generous dash of salt, but I always leave that out. It tastes fine without it.

The filling is just as good and only has two ingredients: seedless raspberry jelly and raspberry jello.

-10 oz. jar of Polaner seedless raspberry jelly (I just used Polaner because that's the one that was listed on the original recipe, but I'm sure others would work just as well).

-4 oz. box of raspberry jello

Scoop out the entire jar of jelly into a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 30-60 seconds until it's melted slightly and easy to stir. It should be the consistency of a pie filling and nice and smooth. Add the box of raspberry jello straight into the jelly and stir until the jello powder is dissolved. This is enough filling for an 8" torted cake (filling three layers).

Don't forget to make a frosting dam before you add the filling. The frosting dam is just a ring of thick frosting that you pipe around the edge of a layer before you add the filling. If you don't do this, the filling will leak out the sides of your cake, even after it's frosted. You don't want a bleeding cake!

Winter Cookies

2009-12-07T06:37:00.001-08:00

White royal icing sprinkled with edible glitter (it's hard to tell in the picture, but they were sparkly)

Blue fondant circles with snowflakes piped with white royal icing

Blue fondant circles with royal icing swirl

Swirl sprinkled with edible glitter

Winter cookies

Fairy with Dragon Baby

2009-12-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

Royal icing transfer I made of a pretty image I found online:

Spiderman: Part III

2009-11-30T18:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Nathaniel!

Royal Icing on Cookies

2009-11-24T08:04:00.000-08:00

Royal icing is so much fun to work with! I like how smooth and shiny it looks. Here are some autumn-colored cookies I decorated recently with royal icing.

For the hearts, I piped short orange and horizontal lines onto the red icing while the red icing was still wet. Then I dragged a toothpick through those lines, creating the hearts.

The polkadots are really fun to do! You have to work quickly so the first layer of icing doesn't dry before you finish piping your dots. Use a thinned royal icing to add the orange dots while the red icing is still wet. The dots will settle and spread, creating a smooth, flat surface. For the sort of houndstooth looking one, you pipe orange lines onto the wet red icing, then drag a toothpick through the lines (first from left to right, then right to left).

The great thing about royal icing is that it looks so smooth, and after you let it dry for a few hours, you can stack your cookies without ruining the icing.

Spiderman: Part II

2009-11-24T07:16:00.000-08:00

Here is the royal icing transfer of Spiderman I started back in October:

This is the coloring page I used to copy the design. The main body of spiderman was traced, but I freehanded the webbing and spider.

It's finished! I ended up not using the edible marker for the webbing. This morning I decided to pipe the webbing using a number one tip and royal icing. Every little line, curve, and spider is piped with love...and my hands are still shaking. :o)

German Chocolate Cake

2009-11-15T19:55:00.001-08:00

This was my first time applying simple syrup to a cake layer. (Simple syrup is just 1 cup of sugar boiled together with a cup of water until the sugar dissolves. For added flavor, you can add a little vanilla, almond, or orange extract to the syrup once it is cooled.) This will ensure the cake is nice and moist. For this size cake, you only need about 1/3 of the syrup mixture. I found out after I made the cake that once you apply the simple syrup, you should let it rest for a couple hours before frosting your cake. This will allow the syrup to evenly spread throughout the cake layer.

I decided to trim the edges off of the cake before I added the coconut pecan filling because I think I overbaked it a little (oops!).

Frosted and smoothed. Almost done!

And.....Tadah! The finished cake!

This was my first attempt at a reverse shell border. Here's a link to a tutorial for the border if you'd like to try your hand at it:
http://www.bakedecoratecelebrate.com/techniques/reverseshell.cfm

Musical Cake Sketches

2009-11-08T18:33:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago I made a whole bunch of doodles and sketches of cake ideas for a piano recital cake. I don't know if I'll ever end up making any of these cakes because I decided to go with a different design for the recital (which I'll post later in December). At any rate, I had a lot of fun sketching these.

Lion House Cheesecake by Becca

2009-11-04T11:38:00.001-08:00

My sister baked up this yummy cheesecake on her birthday. She found the cheesecake recipe in a Lion House cookbook. (I'll have to ask her which one it was in.) I'm impressed. I've never made a homemade cheesecake before. I like how she decorated the cheesecake on top. Here's a pic:

Cute, huh? The cheesecake isn't bad, either...ba, dum, bum! Good one, eh, Becca? :o)

Cake Mix Cookies Recipe

2009-10-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

I got this recipe almost 10 years ago from a friend in high school. I've used it many times since then. Thanks, friend!

1 box of cake mix (any flavor)
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs

Mix ingredients together in large bowl. Drop by tablespoon onto cookie sheets (12 to a pan). Bake at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes. That's it! Easy-Peasy!

Have fun trying out new combinations: chocolate cake with white chocolate chips, german chocolate cake frosted with that yummy coconut/pecan frosting, carrot or spice cake frosted with cream cheese frosting, etc...

Spiderweb Cookies

2009-10-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

These cookies are fun to make.

1. Outline a circle with royal (or glace) icing.
2. Fill in the circle with a bright fun color, using more royal icing (but thinned a little with water so it flows easily).
3. Create a spiral on top using a small writing tip and black icing.
4. Working quickly (before the icing starts to set), drag a small knife or toothpick from the center of the icing to the edges, creating a spooky web.

Have fun!

(These were decorated spice cake cookies. They're very easy to make. I'll post the basic cake mix cookie recipe next.)

Spiderman Cake: Part 1

2009-10-28T11:41:00.001-07:00

I'm going to make a Spiderman cake for my son's birthday next month. I already started working on the decorations because the royal icing transfers can be made ahead of time. This is how the transfers look now. I want to buy a black edible marker to make the web designs and spider for Spiderman's suit.

If you want to try to make your own royal icing transfer, here is a link to a great tutorial:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=648450&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=15

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

2009-10-19T04:06:00.000-07:00

I decided to try using fondant to ice some sugar cookies again. These were for a Halloween party we went to over the weekend. I used the recipe for Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant again. I also used a recipe I found a few years ago for the sugar cookies. I'll post that later.

As soon as the cookies came out of the oven, I transferred them to a cooling rack. While they were still warm, I placed the circles of orange fondant on top. The fondant warmed up just enough to adhere to the cookies. Then, I used a fork to create the curved indentations on the fondant and the back of a knife to make the straight line in the middle.

Lots of cookies!

A close-up

Using Fondant on Cookies

2009-10-14T04:07:00.000-07:00

Here is my first attempt at using marshmallow fondant on cookies. I think they turned out really pretty. They were also delicious! I used Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant recipe. (You can find the recipe here: http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf )
I cut out the fondant circles and used a fondant stamping tool to make the decoration while the cookies were baking. As soon as the cookies came out of the oven, I placed the fondant circles on top. The heat causes the fondant to melt (just slightly on the bottom), causing the fondant to adhere to the cookies. The black dots are made of royal icing. Yum!

Large Royal Icing Transfer

2009-10-02T06:13:00.000-07:00

Left: Outline piped in black royal icing Right: Drawing I used for transfer

Hair and lips filled in with maroon royal icing

Face filled in with skin-color (or as close as I could get) royal icing

Close up of eyes

Ta-dah! Finished! Now she just needs to dry for at least 24 hours. I'll let her sit for a couple days, though, just to be sure. The transfers will fall apart if they are not completely dry.

If you want to give this technique a try, here is a link to a great tutorial:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=648450&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=15

First Time Torting a Cake

2009-09-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

The Golden Nut Award

2009-09-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to receive the Golden Nut Award! It was awarded to me by the author of my favorite blog, Nuts in a Nutshell. Thank you, Cat. I love it!

Pink and White Cake Pops

2009-08-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Follow the same basic recipe as the Chocolate Apple Cake Pops. You can use any flavor cake and frosting that you want. Use white candy melts for dipping. You can use a different color candy melt for drizzling, or you can use frosting (which is what I used).

Shape the cake/frosting mixture into balls instead of apple shapes. Coat in melted white candy. Decorate with squiggles, dots, stripes, etc...

Allow to dry, and voila! Pretty Cake Pops!

Chocolate Apple Cake Pops

2009-08-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

1 baked and cooled chocolate cake (can use cake mix or any favorite recipe)
2/3 can of your favorite pre-made frosting (or your favorite homemade recipe)
14 oz. bag red candy melts
pretzel sticks
green royal icing

lollipop sticks

Crumble entire cake into very large bowl using fingers.

Add about 2/3 of can of frosting to crumbled cake, using fingers to incorporate well. Use slightly more or less frosting, depending on the consistency of your mixture. It shouldn't be dry and crumbly, but it shouldn't be sticky either. It needs to be able to hold together when you start shaping it.

Shape into quarter-size balls. (You'll end up with about 45 or 50.) Pinch one end in a little to give it the tapered shape of an apple. Create an indentation in the top of the "apple" with your finger. Place apple-shaped cake balls into the refrigerator to help them become firm.

While they are cooling, start melting your candy melts. Heat for 30 seconds at a time on 50% power in your microwave. Stir every 30 seconds, and repeat until the candy has completely melted and looks smooth. Boil a cup or two of water in a tiny pot. Remove from heat. Place bowl of melted candy on top of the pot of hot water. This will keep the melted candy warm and smooth, without burning it.

Retrieve cake balls from refrigerator and place a lollipop stick 1/2 way up through the bottom of each ball. Dip in candy melts and use spoon to coat evenly. Place sticks in styrofoam blocks to allow candy to harden.

While the candy is still soft, place 1/4" piece of pretzel stick on top of each apple cake pop. Allow to completely dry and harden (15-20 minutes). Pipe leaves onto apples using royal icing. Allow to dry completely before wrapping.

And...a close up of the cute little apple!

All dressed up and ready to go!

Thanks to www.mylittlecupcakepop.com and http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ for the inspiration!

Sweet Quotes

2009-08-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

"You are the best at what you do the most."

- (something I read somewhere)

"To affect the quality of the day - that is the highest of arts."

-Henry David Thoreau

"A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand."

-Author Unknown

"There is nothing better than a brownie on a paper plate."

-David McQueen

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

-Aristotle

"Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them."

-Aristotle

"Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great."

-Mark Twain

"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him."

-Johann Wolfgang von Geothe

Frosting Dough

2009-08-23T23:10:00.000-07:00

1/2 cup white frosting
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

Combine ingredients in medium bowl; knead until a smooth dough forms. Wrap airtight in plastic wrap until ready to use. Store at room temperature. Makes 1 cup.

Tint and roll out like fondant. Roll to 1/4" thick and cut out desired figures for cake decoration.

Recipe found at womansday.com:

http://www.womansday.com/Recipes/Classroom-Chalkboard-Cake-Recipe

Eggless Chocolate Cake

2009-08-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

2 cups hot water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine dry ingredients in large bowl and mix well. Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl. Add wet to dry and whisk. Pour into 2 (lightly greased) 8-inch round cake pans. Bake 35-40 minutes. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove and finish cooling on baker's rack.

Mom's Amazing Frosting Recipe

2009-08-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

16 oz. bag confectioner's sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1/2 cup shortening
pinch (less than 1/8 tsp.) salt
1 tsp. vanilla
a little less than 1/2 tsp. butter flavoring
a little less than 1/2 tsp. almond flavoring
a little bit of milk (add just a little at a time until you have the right consistency)

Mix it all up, and voila!

Recipes

2009-08-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

Cake Mix Cookies
Chocolate Apple Cake Pops
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Filling/Frosting
Eggless Chocolate Cake
Frosting Dough
Gourmet Cake Recipes
Lemon Breakfast Bread
Mom's Amazing Frosting Recipe
Pineapple Pudding Cake
Pink and White Cake Pops
Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
Rice Krispies Treats
Whipped Cream Buttercream
WASC Cake

Playing with Leftover Fondant

2009-08-03T06:30:00.001-07:00

I had some leftover fondant from the cake and decided to experiment with making little figures out of it. I think the pigs turned out really cute. The rose is kind of chunky looking, but it's not too bad. Peggy Weaver suggests adding food coloring when you're first mixing up the fondant, instead of trying to add it later because it's hard to get an even coloring throughout the "dough." That makes sense for large pieces that would cover the whole cake. But, I added just a drop of pink to a small piece of fondant, and it didn't take long to get a consistent color.

The top design was fun to make. I laid a thin sheet of pink fondant on the bottom, then wove very thin strips (1/16" wide) on top. I then used a cup to cut the fondant into a circle. I think this would be a cute cupcake topper. You could make cherry filled cupcakes, then make the topper using red on the bottom and a good pie crust color for the lattice top. Then add some tiny red cherries molded out of fondant and a braided border to look like a cherry pie. I think those would be some cute cupcakes! I'll try that later.

My Very First Fondant Cake

2009-08-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to try using fondant on a cake after seeing shows like Ace of Cakes and also seeing beautifully decorated fondant wedding cakes. I found Peggy Weaver's recipe and instructions for marshmallow fondant online (Marshmallow Fondant Recipe). Her recipe only uses a few ingredients (powdered sugar, marshmallows, water, and shortening), so I thought I'd give it a try.

Results:

1. The fondant was fun to make and work with. It was pretty messy at first, but that's all part of the fun!

2. The fondant was very smooth. I didn't have any problems with cracking.

3. I did have a difficult time transferring the large circle of fondant to the cake, though. I read on a few different sites that you should roll the sheet of fondant up around your rolling pin to help transfer it to the cake. I did this, but it was difficult to get the fondant onto the cake without it pulling and tearing. In the process, I ended up dropping the rolling pin on top of the cake with the fondant, which left a pretty large dent. I'm sure I just need more practice. I've also seen that you can use a rubber mat or cutting board to transfer the fondant. I'll try that in the future.

4. The fondant was VERY sweet. I've never tasted any kind of fondant before, so I can't really compare this recipe to anything. But, when I tasted the fondant on its own, it sent a shock-wave through my body. Wow, it was sweet! However, it seemed to mellow when eaten with the cake and butter cream frosting.

5. The writing looks sloppy because I was low on time and decided to just cut the corner off of a plastic sandwich bag instead of using a pastry bag. I ended up with extra strings of frosting and the lines are too thick. Next time I will start earlier and take a little extra time to use a piping tip and pastry bag.

6. All in all, I think it turned out pretty well for my first try. I'm excited to continue experimenting!