Whitney and Joey's Wedding Truffles

Last August, I got to attend my beautiful sister's wedding in the Palmyra Temple.
I am so happy for Whitney and Joey, and grateful to have a new awesome brother-in-law!
They are so great together!

It started raining while they were having photos taken outside after their wedding…
But, those two wouldn't let a little rain spoil their special day!
They are the cutest couple and so happy!

I can't help thinking of a certain musical every time I see these photos.
Can you guess which one?
These lyrics might give you a hint...

The sun's in my heart...

...and I'm ready for love.

Did you guess it?

It's...

Singin' in the Rain!

Now that you've got that song stuck in your head, let's talk cake!

Whitney asked me to make their wedding cake, and her one request was that she wanted it filled with chocolate chip cookie dough filling. Unfortunately, there was no way I could transfer a wedding cake from two states away in the heat of the summer, so we decided I would make truffles instead.

Their last name begins with a "W," so I decorated the truffles with "W" drizzles.

...and tiny hearts. :o)

The white truffles were filled with a peanut butter Buckeye filling.

You might want to warn people beforehand that these things are addictive,
and they also come with a little kick...No, it isn't alcohol. :o)

The "kick" is cayenne pepper, and it's amazing. Trust me.

These chocolate ones are filled with the eggless chocolate chip cookie dough.

I will link to the recipe at the bottom. It's great as a cake filling, but if you want to be able to roll the dough into balls for dipping, you will need to eliminate the frosting base.

Congratulations, Whitney and Joey! And Happy 1st Anniversary!

STATS: 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Filling

http://www.cakecentral.com/recipe/7600/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-icingfilling

Peanut Butter Buckeyes - with a kick!

(The cayenne is listed as an ingredient at the bottom, under "Variation."

http://www.jif.com/recipes/peanut-butter-buckeyes-392

Guest Sweet: Cake Bites for a Wedding

One of my mom's friends was recently married and asked my mom to make the cake, along with some cake bites. The cake looked beautiful, and I love the vibrant colors of the ribbon and the butterflies!

The butterflies are made from gum paste, and they were carefully cut out by hand. My mom then used food coloring mixed with almond extract to paint the beautiful colors onto the butterflies.

Here is the cake set up with just some of the 650+ cake bites she made for the wedding reception. If you look at the flower arrangement behind the cake, you will see how perfectly she matched the fondant ribbon and butterflies to the wedding decor.

If you've ever made cake pops or cake bites, you know it's no easy task. Candy melts and melted chocolate can be finicky and difficult to get perfectly smooth when dipping those fragile rounds of cake. For this project, my mom tried using Paramount Crystals in the candy melts, and she said they made a HUGE difference. Adding the Paramount Crystals to the melted chocolate produces a more fluid product, making the overall process much easier and faster.

Tips for making cake bites:

- Use only half a can of frosting (about 1 cup or 8 oz.) for one baked cake mix. If you use more, the mixture will be too soggy.

- Use a Tbsp. to measure and scoop the cake ball mixture. Make sure to level it, and you've got the perfect amount for a cake ball.

- The Tbsp. will make the perfect size to fit inside 1 1/4" mini cupcake liners.

- If you don't own a chocolate dipping fork http://www.bakedeco.com/detail.asp?id=8306&categoryid=336#.UA_-zPUn2So, you can make do with a disposable plastic fork. Just break off the two middle fork tines, and it'll work just fine.

STATS:

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

Candy Melts
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?sku=pg_candymelts

Paramount Crystals
http://www.confectioneryhouse.com/paramount-crystals

Mini Cupcake Liners
http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Mini-Muffin-Cups-Count/dp/B0000AE61X

Happy Caking, Everyone!

Brush Embroidery Cookies

My brother Christian and my new sister-in-law Amber recently celebrated their marriage at an open house in Maryland. I was able to attend their wedding and reception (which were held in Utah), but I couldn't make it to the open house. I really wanted to participate in some way, and I decided to make cookies for the celebration.

These were dark chocolate cookies with a hint of cinnamon. This was a new recipe for me, and I really liked the flavor. They're delicious!

I used glace icing for the white background. After allowing the icing to dry overnight, I used royal icing to add decorations on top. I used a #2 writing tip to pipe the design. The flowers and leaves were done using the brush embroidery technique.

I used homemade green fondant mixed with modeling chocolate for the green background on these cookies. This technique is much faster because you can just roll out the fondant mixture, cut out circles, and attach them to the cookies with a little glaze. Very quick and easy. These were lemon sugar cookies.

To keep the cookies fresh, I wrapped each cookie in plastic wrap. To package them, I placed a big piece of bubble wrap in a box and then one layer of the wrapped cookies. I continued to layer plastic wrap and cookies until the box was full. I sent the cookies USPS. Luckily, the cookies traveled well and arrived in good shape. I think the biggest thing is to make sure there is no room in the box for the cookies to jostle around. If there is any extra room, they can shift during transport and break.

STATS:

Chocolate Roll Out Cookies

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Roll-Out-Cookies-240668

Glace Icing

http://cakecentral.com/recipe/toba-garretts-glace-icing

Royal Icing

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

Tutorial on how to flood cookies with royal icing or glace icing

http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/blog/2011/07/outlining-and-filling-cookies-with-royal-icing/

Brush Embroidery Tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW0kxZ8wK4Y



Becca and Daniel's Wedding Cake

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/

First Wedding Cake

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!

Purple Bridal Shower

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/

Creative Pumpkins

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