Wow! Lots of time means lots of changes!

So it's been a very long time since I've updated on here!  Summer was way too hot to be baking so I didn't do too much.  I did make my ex-coworker a fun garden cake since she absolutely loves gardening when she's not baking.  I got the idea from Martha Stewart.

Garden Cake

It was such a cute white picket fence with chocolate wafer crumbs for dirt, green sprinkles for grass, fondant for flowers and vegetables (carrots, eggplant, tomatoes, pumpkins, and zuchini).  All of these vegetables are currently in her garden-well hopefully they survived the hurricane!

view from the top of the cake

closeups of the veggies on the garden cake

So this cake was made in June and since then I haven't done too much baking.  With no air conditioning in the kitchen, there is no way to work with fondant without it getting wrecked or having to do it over several times.  I was also busy trying to find a new job and figure out my timing for moving back to my hometown in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  I have also been planning my wedding since my boyfriend proposed after our vacation in July.  I have made the tough decision to move back before him since he is stuck in his job until February.  I moved back last week and we have planned to visit each other at least once a month.  Luckily, he will be here tomorrow! Yay!  So that's my story for now.  If anyone knows anyone I can connect with in Milwaukee, I would appreciate it because I love talking and learning about baking!

Until next time, happy baking!

Kay

Busy Busy Week!

Wow! It has been a crazy busy 2 weeks!  Last week my mom came out for Chris' graduation.  She was here Tuesday night through Sunday morning.  It was really fun even though I had to work for most of  the time.  The graduation was awesome and even better...the food!  My mom helped me out and we made pulled pork sandwiches, fruit skewers, potato salad, tuna macaroni salad, veggie pizza, and his favorite snicker brownie cupcakes.  

It was really fun.  I used Reese's cups then put a square of Hershey's chocolate on top.  I piped the tassels with half orange and half blue for Purchase's colors.  Everyone loved them and they were really cute!

Next up was this week.  A friend of mine introduced me to a friend of hers looking for a cake and cupcakes for her son's 1st birthday party.  He is very into Yo Gabba Gabba.  A number of my friends don't have kids yet so they're reactions were the best..."Yo Gabby what?"  Haha!  I didn't know too much about the show but I had seen pictures.  She sent me a picture of a cake she liked and then said she wanted the faces of the characters on the cupcakes.  I was excited because they're such fun colors and cool looking characters.  They were just picked up tonight and they were so excited.  It sounds like the party is going to be a blast- the characters face painting for the kids, bubble machine, character shirts for the kids, lots of fun Yo Gabba Gabba games and decorations.  I wish I was a kid!

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

 

Chocolate cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes

Now, it's time to go relax.  Until next time, happy baking!

Kaitlin

Spring in New York

Creme Brulee Cake decorated as cherry blossom branch  cake

Yes, yes. I know.  This post has been a long time coming and I'm sure most of you have already seen the pictures of it on Facebook or Twitter.  I was reading a book called, Always the Baker, Never the Bride.  It's a great book that is a story about a woman who is the head baker at a small bakery and gets recruited by a newly renovated one stop wedding facility.  The author includes a few great recipes, but the masterpiece of the book was this Creme Brulee cake.  The author didn't include the recipe unfortunately, so I had to use some other recipes with a few variations.  The basics are the cake is a sour cream cake, I used creamy vanilla icing in between the layers and covered it in buttercream.  I was also tempted to add some caramel frosting between the layers as well.  I also put Simple Syrup made with dark brown sugar in the base of the cake pan then poured the cake batter over and baked.  In the end, this cake came out fabulous!  I will make it over and over again!  Surprisingly, I've never had Creme Brulee before but others who tried definitely got a taste of creme brulee event though it wasn't the same texture.  I think it was a major success considering one of my co-workers, who never eats my desserts that I bring in because she only eats non-fat/sugar free food, actually tried it.  That may have been because I left out the fact that it was covered in buttercream!  Haha! Oh well!

These are a few more pictures detailing the outside of the cake with the branch and flowers.  It was so simple to decorate for this look.  I've seen the trend popping up lately and I figured what better time to make a cherry blossom branch cake than Spring in New York.  The trees are in full bloom here and I just love the aroma.  However, nothing beats walking past the large planters on the sidewalk in the city that are filled with lilacs.  They just have such a great and powerful scent that you can practically smell them from a block away.

This is the inside of the cake.  Doesn't it just look amazing.  I love how the simple syrup gave a difference in color and it just stands out so much.  I can't wait to make it again.  It has probably in my top two of cakes right now.  It's difficult to decide between the funfetti cake and this.  That rainbow chip frosting that goes with funfetti cake is just hard to top!

Until next time, happy baking!

Kay

Happy Birthday Erin!

Luckily enough I met Erin on a recruiting trip for the swim team for our college.  We decided it'd be a great idea to choose to be roommates so that we didn't have to be stuck with some crazy stranger.  We then went on to be roommates for 4 years.  Over the weekend she turned 26 and her awesome boyfriend decided to throw a surprise party (that didn't end up a surprise since he couldn't keep a secret! Haha!).  I offered to make the cake to celebrate and asked him and one of her sisters about her latest likes and hobbies.  The main one they gave was facebook games.  That was an interesting idea but I wanted other ideas.  Craig mentioned skulls and Lauren mentioned books. The books was a great idea but seemed too simple so I decided to go with the skull option.

Erin's most favorite cake is funfetti with rainbow chip frosting.  It's my favorite too!  I used to make it in college randomly because I was craving it.  The cake wouldn't last long.  So I covered the cake with black fondant, wrapped red ribbon on the bottom of each tier, the iced skulls with glittery white icing gel.  I made the large skull out of fondant and the bones and 26 are made out of chocolate.  I got the idea from Dudeman's blog and adapted it a bit. It tasted awesome and everyone was surprised by the cake.  Craig kept trying to take credit for it at the restaurant but not many people believed him.  Haha!  I think I will make cake pops out of the left over cake parts.  I will also be attempting the Jelly Belly Contest.  I will post pictures as soon as possible!

Until next time, happy baking!!

Kaitlin