Cake-zaster or Cake-tastic

Well I can look at this last cake as either a disaster (cake-zaster) or a fantastic (cake-Tastic), either way it was a big hit and a HUGE learning experience.

So I had baked 6- 8in rounds and 2 10 in rounds over the course of a few days to complete not one, not two, but technically 4 cakes (2 per party). Not to mention that the previous week was a huge bake off with all the awesome treats going for an Honor Society Bake sale. Now I am not sure who contributed the most of the stuff but I did a large bulk of it. I had specific instructions to not go crazy and over board so as not to over do the others work of art. So I kept it as simple as I could, all products went out the door very tastefully done and I was quite proud.

So my cakes were all chocolate (I was kinda tired of chocolate after doing so many in a short time span lol). I had big ambitions for both parties and although they both ended up good, neither meet what I was going for in the beginning. The first to leave the kitchen was a 60th surprise party cake. My knife skills were defiantly put to the test as I choose to cut out a big 60 from the 10 in rounds and make cake pops out of the scraps of cake. I have to say the cake pops turned out awesome after I figured out the trick to making them. The filling was a Bavarian creme with smashed up oreos frosted with my chocolate fudge frosting. I then put the cake pops all around the cake and outline the numbers with them. I had also made a batch of white cupcakes with dipped chocolate frosting that spelled out happy birthday Tom as a border for the numbers. Now my first lesson for the weekend was not to put the cake pops (or any heavy decoration) on the cake until it had arrived at its destination. Not sure how it arrived to the location as I had to make a last minute decision to not attend and instead have it delivered with a fellow party goer. I was told it was very yummy and looked great so I gave myself a pat on the back and got started on the second party's cake (to be delivered in two days). 

So once I got started on the second set of cakes, disaster hit almost immediately. First, several elements were new tasks that I wanted to try that were just a bit too ambitious for a 1.5 day task. I made 4-5 batches of chocolate candy molds in the shapes of sea critters (sea star, sea horse, and sea turtles). Having never worked in with melting chocolates before or a mold, I finally got the hang of it about the end of the 3rd batch. Then I choose to work with LorAnn oils to flavor the frosting's with. Now the directions said 3-4 drops would be sufficient, but upon tasting they seamed not enough. Well I was not aware that they longer they sit, the more intense the flavors so the flavors were a bit over pouring once it was time to cut the cakes. Lesson 2 or 3 if you count the chocolate molds.

These cakes I had free reign with flavors, but chocolate was the favorite and highly encouraged. So I made 2 8in Chocolate Peanut Butter with chocolate peanut butter fudge filling and peanut butter icing. Ok so I got a little carried away lol... The second set was chocolate chunk with chocolate fudge filling and was supposed to be cheesecake icing but ended up being a bit of both the peanut butter and the cheesecake frosting's. Lesson 4 if your going to try and make a cake with peanut butter or to avoid it clearly label your containers of frosting in between stages. Especially when trying to be considerate of possible peanut allergies.

So the cakes were baked no big deal, they turned out really even and didn't have to trim that much off. Except when i turned the peanut  butter cake outta the pan it took the edge all the way around off the cake. Yeah yeah lesson 5 let your cake cool completely and when using new silicone pans make sure and spray the corners the first time or two (or after a very through washing) with cooking spray to prevent sticking. I was thinking oh no big deal a little stuck to the inside of the pan, re shaped the edges so they were level and round and moved on.

After dirty icing the peanut butter cake, I went to transfer it to a cake board. Now honestly I have no clue why I choose that moment to transfer it and why it just wasn'ton the board to begin with. Lesson 6. Well the cake managed to slide out of the sandwich type hold I had it in and fell top down onto the table. Now I am glad that this cake didn't end up on the floor since it could be salvaged. But yet again, it needed to be re shaped and re carved. Now i could not erase the big dent on one side of the cake so I quickly tossed a 3rd set of 8in rounds in the oven and was going to make a molded octopus and figured I could pipe the legs on to help hide the blemishes from hitting the table without loosing too much cake.

Having to take the time to bake the extra cakes for the mold I was set back 2 hours from finishing my cakes. Not to mention I had yet to drive to Tacoma where the party was being held, I had yet to pack and wanted to leave before it got dark. Once the now octopus head was molded I quickly wrapped it in wax paper set it on a cookie sheet and quickly dirty iced the second cake set and just put everything in my car. All my cake stuff and just about anything I could think of that I might need to finish the cakes and hit the road.

Once I arrived in Tacoma, I got lost in a sewing frenzy trying to accomplish a diaper bag for my brother and his Julie who are expecting their first; little Troy the Turtle. The cakes were for his baby shower.  It wasn't until 1:30 in the morning that we stopped (so thankful for his grandma's, great aunt's and great grandma's help on it). At 6:30 am I was wide awake and ready to get things finished. So my photographer (Melina) and I started to finish icing the peanut butter cake. I had had so many issues and things just not go right that it became a troublesome cake.

But I am thankful for my sisters creative mind that convinced me to make the cake into a sea turtle with the octopus head now a turtle shell. I carved the leg holes out and the head out then went to town frosting it. Due to the damage from transport and falling a lot of frosting was used to hide the imperfections and to create the legs and head/neck since I didn't have time to mold them out of cake. We had managed to make it look super cool and very turtle like. I put it in my car just in case I didn't have time to get back to the house before the party as I rushed to finish the diaper bag.

 

At about 1:30pm (1.5 hours until the shower)  the melt down was on the brink. I looked at the cake and it had started to slide apart and had smashed against the side of the cake carrier. Fixable at this point but devastating that it didn't look as good anymore. After hitting (unintentionally) just about every pot hole the size of a tire or bigger possible, I got back to my moms with less then 30 mins to have the car loaded, shower and drive the 20 mins to the shower. I looked at the cake that once would have taken 10 mins to fix to find a melted, soupy mess... My turtle that I was so proud of was a blob of green, blue and yellow.

I refused to go buy a store bought cake and left the cake as it was and went to shower.  Once I had showered, we arrived at the party about 20 minutes late and I set out to finishing the second cake. IF your following along it had still only been dirtied iced. I quickly iced it up nice and placed all the chocolates on the edge wrote a message to Troy's family and friends and then begin to think about salvaging the turtle yet again.

My brother joked about it being a part of the recent weather events in Hawaii and I joked about it being turtle soup. His oldest sister joked about it being an animated turtle and slowly I had the will power to make the best of the mess in front of me. It wasn't perfect, but I got a lot of positive feedback and that lifted my spirits about presenting a deformed cake.

So the final lessons are transport properly, decorate on site if at all possible, and no matter the disaster never give up; You never know what kind of miracles will prevail.

Second Guesses that become tasty pieces!

                            

I am really glad that I didn't toss the "healthy" cupcakes. After trying them both warm and cooled, I placed them in the cool oven to store overnight to deal with in the morning... I was torn as to what I should do with them as I really didn't feel that they were of edible worthiness. Some of the reviews said that they tasted better after cooling. While I am not sure that I agreed with that I choose to frost them anyways.

I wanted to stick with the low sugar and semi healthy theme, since what good dose it do to put a ton of sugar into the frosting of a healthier cake?

In the frosting I mixed Honey (for the sweetener) cream cheese, and almond extract. then at the very end added shredded coconut for a wonderful texture.

I managed to make a really yummy frosting that sticks with the "healthy" part and they now taste pretty good.

 I do stick with the fact that the cake itself needs tweaking, but hopefully when I get around to that, I can duplicate the frosting. LOL We will have to wait to test it and find out.

Not sure if I mentioned it or not in the last post, but all these treats were taken to my doctors office for my doctor and his staff to enjoy. Everyone loved them and were so excited that I brought them in. Put a huge smile on every ones faces and that made me tickle inside with happiness... There is still hope that I can one day open a successful bakery. :D

And now the pictures I promised I would post :D :

Hershey's Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies

 

Mini "Healthy" Cupcakes with Coconut, Almond reduced sugar frosting



                                                                                                                                                      

Dark Chocolate Truffles, with Semi sweet Chocolate coating and Nuts, Powdered Sugar, Cocoa Powder, or White Chocolate

 

Final Display, Packed and ready to go in my Nifty carrier :D

Healthy Cakes/cupcakes?! and Truffles

I recently have been on a baking kick... Things take way longer then they should since I still am having to work in small stages, but none the less I am accomplishing great results in the kitchen. My last chocolate and cinnamon cupcakes were a big hit. I am still drooling over the fudgey frosting :D Since it wasn't exactly the taste I was going for, I made a second batch and oh boy were these delicious. The perfect combination of chocolate, density, and moistness. My thanks goes out to Hershey's Kitchen for the fantastic job of creating masterpiece recipes that I can duplicate at home. They have several that I want to one day try :D My chocolate loving friends will love me when I'm done lol.

After the second batch of perfect chocolate cupcakes, I wanted to give my hand a go at making truffles. I know, I know I am a cake decorator (wanna be) and should be focusing on making amazingly good tasting  cakes and beautifully decorated ones at that. The recipe just was so inviting that although they were a very tedious process I loved how they turned out. I do have to say though that they needed to be tweaked for  more subtle chocolate loves like myself but once tweaked perfectly it will be a tasty addition that one day I can sell along with my cakes. :D

After making the truffles, I made some Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies, again from  the Hershey's kitchen recipe box. :D I have to be honest I have yet to try these ones as I just haven't been in the mood for a cookie. My roommate however has devoured a good handful of them. The other half a batch is going to my doctors office staff along with the truffles and part of the second batch of chocolate cupcakes.

With all this chocolate I felt I should include something vanilla/ non chocolate flavored. In wasting time online, I found several new recipes that were lower in sugar/carbs/ and calories. Not to mention that most of them are gluten free. I was really shocked to discover that they didn't use regular flour, but coconut flour or almond flour. Of course I had to give it a shoot and see just how good it could be.

I went to the local supermarket that had the largest healthy food section I know of and bought coconut oil, coconut flour and some blanched almonds. I had read online that blanched almonds sent through a food processor would be the same as almond flour. This was a more appealing idea as the almond flour on the self was almost $13 for a bag with about 2 cups in it. At this time I just don't have that kinda of money and the almonds were on super sale only $1.38 for two cups worth. Now I don't know how much it is going to take to make a few cups of flour but hey I can give it a cheep try right. If it doesn't work out well then I have some almonds to use for a topping on the next creation that I make where almonds would complement. :D

Once I got back home I whipped up the recipe for "healthy" vanilla cupcakes. Now, for starters I won't say that they are awful, but they surely are not amazing either. I think this recipe has potential to be great and until then I will keep the recipe a secret. Once perfected I will also give credit to my fellow blogger's who have opened my eyes to a more health consciences way of baking. I really hope that I can master this technique to add to my diversity of cake flavors and to be able to market to a diverse crowd.

Since I still have yet to decorate all the cupcakes, I will post pictures later this week. Along with that post I will also say how well received the goodies are with my doctors office. Thanks for reading, until next post have a good day. :D

Chocolate-Cinnamon Cupcakes

Yes the post reads right I (a non-chocolate lover), made chocolate-Cinnamon cupcakes today. Wow that's a lot of c's in one title lol. I have been searching for a good chocolate recipe for a while now that I could try my baking skills with. My roommate has said that her fellow classmates would enjoy special treats on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In my head, this provided me with a chance to try out several new recipes to find that new keeper for my recipe book and true chocolate lovers would provide me the feedback that I would need. Well I was not sold on this recipes flavors and moistness so maybe next week will produce a better one. If you have one to share with me, I am more then willing to give it a try. :D

I will say that this was a day of first for me in the baking department, aside from the fact that its my first ever chocolate cake. I don't even think I have ever made a chocolate box cake. So hers the firsts that I can think of  : First batter to be made with the use of the stove, first time I winged the amount of ingredients into the frosting (I will get to that in a bit), First cake I iced warm (the directions told me to),first time I was actually satisfied with frosting only the very tops of a cupcake and not covering the whole circle and sides I know see why the pros frost that way),  and the first time I managed to get done including frosting them with in two hours. I am proud of myself for this cake even if it doesn't look amazing, or wasn't the flavor that I was going for I still did a good job and I am learning to be quicker with my tasks.

So the frosting, was like a fudgy, smooth, finger licking good recipe. I loved it so much more then the actual cake. This frosting will also provide room for variations, I plan to add peanut butter to it next time and see if I cant make a great filling. I will defiantly be keeping this recipe and use it every time a cake calls for or the flavor would complement a chocolate frosting. :D This two was made on the stove and boy do my arms hurt from the constant whisking. I was scared that I had burnt it but nope, as tasty as could be. :D was even better when it had cooled and hardened a bit, but I can see why they said to frost the cake (cupcakes for me) with it warm. After drying it was like trying to spread play dough. It would stand very nicely for a base frosting or filling and again it tasted great.

I am so excited for Valentines Day approaching soon, as I have lots of baking time in my future and lots of people to make very happy. :D Thanks for reading, ideas, recipes, and requests are always welcomed.   Until next time, I will leave you with these photos!

Red Velvet Awesomeness

This just might be the shortest blog I write, it is the shortest to date. :D So today, my roommate had one of the best days I have witness her have in a long time. She got the internship of her dreams and asked me to bake a cake for her. Of course I didn't say NO... After asking what flavor she wanted we realized that Red Velvet was the one. She pulled out her recipe box and handed me a recipe for red velvet and accompanying frosting. 

I quickly got to work making my first red velvet cake and even better it was from scratch!!!!!! I then placed it in my brand new 6-8" round silicone pans. :D (thanks mom) and put it in the oven.... Like all cakes I had to wait for them to bake and eventually they were done.

I quickly got busy icing the cake. I have to admit I did not give it my best job, and nothing fancy was done to decorate it. But in the end it looked just about as good as it tasted.

                                                                                                                                                            

The two things I love about doing this cake aside from the fact that I did it LOL... Is that ONE) I succeeded in making yet another cake from scratch with a very delectable frosting (also from scratch and my new favorite since its not sickly sweet and can be very versatile) and TWO) I was able to bake it, frost it, and eat it in just about 3 hours. This is a huge thing for me, now granted I should have allowed the frosting to set up a little longer between the crumb coating and final frosting and I should have let the cake cool a bit longer and taken my time and put more pride in my work. But with all this aside, I have to give myself a big high five and a pat on the back. Thanks for following, I am one cake closer to achieving my dreams. So what will be the next cake?! Let me practice by doing a cake for YOU!!!!!

YaY for Dreams and new equipment....

I am not sure why, but it never crossed my mind that people would donate the kinda of bake ware I would be interested in purchasing to second hand stores or sell them at their garage sales. I have no issue buying anything else at the second hand stores so I am not sure where this mentality came from.

Recently, I have been a little bit of a downer. I have felt like very few of my loved ones are honestly and truthfully supporting me in  my passion to become a professional cake decorator. Comments will be made like "sure you could do it", but I wouldn't buy a cake from a stranger off the streets or an advertisement in the laundry mat" or "yeah I know you would be good, but don't make a cake for this or that it will be too hard to eat it or transport it." With all this negativity and the fact that I don't have much else to do in my day with my current injury, I am even more determined to play in frosting and get better at cake decorating. Maybe it's to prove them all wrong or maybe it's because I want to prove to myself that I can do it.

None the less, I went shopping with my mom to the local second hand stores. We had time to kill and she only was out to look for some miscellaneous things so up and down the isles we went. I ventured off down the dishes isle, not expecting to find baking pans or anything of use to me now. Honestly it was one of those days where I would see things that would be great to have once I have my own kitchen to stock or things that looked cool but I would never spend the money on them. Almost immediately I found baking pans in sets of 2 or more; loaf pans, round pans, square pans etc. All of them in great condition and because they had a perfect pair I was more intrigued /interested in buying them.

After showing my mom what "treasures" I had found, she quickly started pointing out other pieces that were around the corner. Only these were better, they were made of silicone. I love silicone and vow to one day complete my kitchen bake ware line with silicone bake ware, utensils, and anything else I can get my hands on that is made and is useful in silicone.

I managed to get out of the store with a set of 6" round silicone, 8" square, deep loaf, and a single 8" round silicone pans and other misc. things for about $20. To me this is a big deal, yeah they may not be purple or not all of them are  silicone, but they will help me to achieve other sizes of cakes. This is key to building my inventory and also to allowing me to have a variety of sizes/shapes to work with.

So not only have I increased my inventory of pans, I also managed to pick up a cupcake stand that sells for about $30 new for about $2.50 (once I am done buying the extra part that I need it will be about $10 total). This is super exciting as now, not only do I have a fantastic way of caring my cupcakes around with my new 36/3 tier cupcake carrier that I got for Christmas, I now have a really cool way of displaying them. This specific stand I have wanted for a long time, but again it wasn't a necessity so I had to wait until the right time to get it. With this latest investment piece, I really hope that I can start finding reasons to make and display cupcakes and cakes. I know I am not the best, but I can only hope that people will start to see me as good enough to decorate their special occasion cake or cupcakes.

One a final note; I know my passion is increasing because I am now dreaming, and not just day dreaming, about building cakes and making them look fantastic. The other night I had a dream that I constructed a odd shaped building located near the Tacoma Art Museum out of cake. I have to admit this dream was the same night as I watched Ace of Cakes on the food network. After watching the show it got me to thinking how cool it would be to not only master "simple" layer cakes but also how much fun it would be to master shaped or "carved" cakes. In the near future I really want to make a monster truck cake that is 3D. So unless I get a better cake idea or a special reason to make a certain type of cake, my monster truck will be the next one coming out of my oven. :D

Thanks for reading my little tirade. God Bless

No cake, no new equipment, nothing but a realization...

What I have to say tonight is mearly a realization at how much the good Lord has been telling me to kick it in gear and get serious about decorating cakes.

A month ago, maybe even two months ago the sermon at Church was about how fear is the opposite of faith. I walked away with a fresh attitude towards my faith. It wasn't clear at the time what I was fearful of, and honestly didn't become clear until just recently. All I knew was that I had been impacted and knew that one day the new information and scripture I had heard would come in handy.

On Christmas Eve I was not able to sleep, I felt like a little child anticipating the arrival of Santa Clause. No matter what I did I could not sleep, so after fighting it for a few hours I finished my current novel that I had been reading and still I was awake. I finally got up, tired of lying in bed wide awake, and pulled out all my decorating supplies. For the next 4 hours, I played in frosting attempting to create wonderful works of art on my practice board.

As I finally get tired, I realize that I have put off my dream of being a cake decorator for the past two years. Making excuses for not practicing left and right. When telling a friend (Latasha Haynes of Latasha Haynes Photography, check out her blog/ work at http://www.photomelatashablog.com) about my Christmas Eve she gave me kind encouraging words and told me of her own day of realization. In just one year she has made her dream a reality, starting with very little and creating a business from the ground up all with the grace of God and the love and support of her friends and family. Now I know that photography and cake decorating is entirely two different things. However, she provided the mental jolt I needed to open my eyes and realize that everyone has to start somewhere for their dreams to become a reality.

It was then that I decided that I needed to start following my dreams and kick it into gear and what better time then the present to do just that. It was then that I set a goal for myself and my 2011 New Years resolution. With all this I knew that God has been whispering in my ear telling me I need to pick up my piping bag, and follow my dreams but that I need to rely on Him to guide the way. Don't get me wrong I knew this all along, but my New Years adventure reaffirmed this as I forgot to put him first and my cake was not a smooth process.

Well tonight I was a little down on myself, struggling with the fact that I have no money to purchase new equipment with and I have all these big ideas that frankly I won't be able to try out until I can start bringing in a revenue to pay for this dream. Honestly, I should really perfect my other skills first and not get a head of myself. Deep down I know that this is God once again keeping me in check and I appreciate that. After all He created our timeline and only He has the book that contains it. We all just have to go with the flow of it and know that He will only do things that make us stronger.

So while checking my facebook I was reminded of the sermon a while back about fear being the opposite of faith by Isaiah Haynes (the other half of Latasha Haynes Photography) in his note ( http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/latasha-haynes-photography/just-a-lil-something-i-wanted-to-share/485778681558) to the followers of their website. Now hearing the same words just a few short months apart, by two different people with no connection to each other really got me thinking "what am I afraid of"?

 I am afraid that I will never be good enough to sell my cakes and will never graduate to more challenging cakes like the ones I am in awe of. Those cakes that make it into magazines, are at the fancy weddings across the United States and are entered into contests on the food network or TLC. Multiple tiers, with fancy piping, amazing colors, and the potential for special effects. So yeah, I am afraid of failure, but I know and have to remember Philippians 4:13 " For ALL all things are possible through Christ" and trust that my dreams are in line with Christ's plan for my life.