Happy Birthday, Alan!

My husband loves cheesecake, so that's what I wanted to make for his birthday this year.

 

I decided to go with individual mini cheesecakes. They don't take as long to bake and they cool down a lot faster than a standard-sized cheesecake. 

You know how messy the muffin tin gets when you try to divide cake batter (or cheesecake batter, in this case) between all of the cups? Here's a tip to make the whole process easier and cleanup quicker. 

Get a large cup and a quart size zip top plastic bag.

Open the bag and place it inside the cup.

Fold the top of the bag over the rim of the cup.

Carefully pour the cheesecake batter into the bag. I use this trick all the time to fill decorator bags with frosting. It is so much easier and frees up both hands.

Remove the bag from the cup and zip it shut. Snip off one of the bottom corners with some clean scissors.

 Now you can easily squeeze the cheesecake batter into the muffin cups without spilling all over the tin. Look, I even did it left-handed while holding the camera with my right hand. :o)

See? No drips!

Now they're ready to bake and garnish however you want. You could add chocolate, blueberries, mandarin oranges, whipped cream...whatever you like. 

 

Happy birthday, Alan!

STATS:

Individual Cheesecakes Recipe

http://www.joyofbaking.com/Cheesecakes%28Individual%29.html

The Last of the Four Mini Cakes

That sounds like a great movie title, doesn't it?

 I like to call this one: The Beakless Owl Monster from Space (which, now that I think about it, would also make a great movie).

Here's the back of the little cake monster:

I had a lot of fun with this little guy. I didn't really have a set plan in my head for the design. I just wanted to try new things. I used floral wire again to make the 3 floating eyes. I used homemade fondant to make the eyes, the bug, and the tail. The fur is buttercream frosting that I piped on with a star tip.

I used frosting bullets (some people call them frosting plugs) in order to get the two-tone (orange/yellow) effect in the fur. Frosting bullets are a great way to keep the colors from smooshing together in the piping bag and also help with cleanup. Check the STATS section for tutorials on making your own frosting bullets.

Time to Get Caking!

STATS:

Photo Tutorial on Frosting Bullets
http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=152756&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

Video Tutorial on Frosting Bullets
http://www.karenscookies.net/Cookie-Decorating-Video-Color-Mixing-Bag-Filling_ep_74-1.html

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

Mom's Amazing Frosting Recipe
cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Mini Circus Cake

Here is another 4" mini cake I made for the auction.

The flag pole is a long lollipop stick. (The kind you would use for making cake pops.) I used food coloring mixed with a little vanilla extract to paint the triangles on the bottom. I didn't have frosted animal cookies on hand, but we did have some plain animal crackers in the cupboard. So, I added my own frosting and sprinkles - which brings me to...

Lots and LOTS of sprinkles!

I mixed up a little powdered sugar and water to make a glaze. I brushed the glaze on top of the cake and then added the sprinkles. I tried all kinds of things to keep from making a mess, but no matter what I did, I couldn't prevent hundreds of those tiny colorful balls from bouncing around my kitchen floor. But, I think this fun and bright little cake made it all worth while.

Happy Caking!

STATS:

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

Mini Brush Embroidery

This little cake is just 4 inches wide. It's another one I made for the auction.

I used a clean brush to "paint" food coloring directly onto the fondant covered cake. Once the food coloring dried, I piped white royal icing on and used a small brush to pull through the icing - creating the brush embroidery effect. I love how this one turned out!

STATS:

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

Brush Embroidery Video Tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqbDTaauGO0

Mini Popcorn Cake

This cake is only about 4 inches in diameter. It was so small and so fun to make!

The cake is covered in homemade fondant, and the tickets are made from the same fondant. I used a clean paintbrush (used only for cake decorating) to "paint" the stripes onto the cake. If you'd like to paint on fondant, just mix a little gel food coloring with some vanilla extract to dilute it, and use it just like you would use water colors.

The popcorn is made from miniature yellow marshmallows. I used clean scissors to snip each marshmallow in one direction, and then again across the first cut to make an "x." Then, I pushed the cut pieces out a little and used a small brush to paint yellow food coloring inside the cut for the popcorn kernel.

Wouldn't this be a fun cake for a movie party?

Happy caking!

STATS:

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

Blue Mini Cake

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).