Cake Endeavours

I made these cupcakes for Miss E's day care Halloween celebration.  I had leftover strawberry batter from the last cake, so that's the flavour they got.  I made some orange butter cream icing and topped them off with a few leaves and vines.  Then I decided that they needed at stem.  I found pretzels in the cupboard and broke them up to make the little stems.

For this cake the birthday both had very specific mammals and fish (I hope have the classification right!) in mind; an orca (a.k.a killer whale), a great white shark, a humpback whale, and a shark whale.  Off to Google I went in search of pictures and more specifically colouring pages.  I had never heard of a shark whale before.  I found the pictures I was looking for and printed them off then traced them on to waxed paper then with a tooth pick traced over all the lines to make an imprint on the fondant.  As an after thought I realised that they probably weren't all to scale so I arranged them on the cake to make it look like the shark was closest and the orca further away.  Ha!  I did take some artistic liberties and according to Elisabeth did not do the humpback whale's tummy the right colour.  Geesh!  Here I was worried about Nelson not thinking they were realistic enough.  His second request was for a Neapolitan cake.  His mom was certainly not going to let me get away

My cousin Ben asked me to make a cake for his girlfriend's birthday and asked for a Starbucks coffee cup.  I tried to convince him that I should do a 2D version but he was all for 3D.  Drat!  :)  So, I sucked it up and procrastinated a lot and woke up this morning ready to get started.  First thing, I should have made the cake the day before so it could get firmer from being in the fridge over night to make it easier to trim.  It looked like a cake massacre all over the counter. In the end, I was able to get the essence of a coffee cup. The Starbucks symbol I did freehand.  Not my best work but hopefully, at least the essence. I made a 3 layer six inch perfect chocolate cake with salted caramel icing as filling.  It's also on the top of the cake.

Hopefully this cake looks more like the Mad Hatter's hat than a leprechaun's.  I just couldn't get the green to go any darker.  This is a three layer vanilla cake.  Butter cream icing with a hint of cinnamon as the filling and crumb coat. 

Today was Miss E's sixth birthday party and it was a lot of fun!  Her party was originally supposed to be in Bowmanville for Apple Fest, but with very unsure weather conditions we moved it to our party room very last minute.  In the end, it made for a very stress free time to get ready.  Taking Friday off work had a big hand in this though. :) I made all of the decorations for the cake 2 days in advance.  They were all done out of fondant.  My violet gel colouring must have turned because after almost using the entire container I barely got a purple out of.  Gel does have a shelf life.  Otherwise it was pretty smooth going making Rainbow Dash.  The outer covering was done in a pale green fondant using FondX again.  Love this product! For the cake itself I made a double recipe of the Versatile Vanilla Cake and divided into six bowls; about 1 3/4 cups each.  Then, added gel colouring for each of the layers and mixed it in. I baked each layer in a 10" round bake pan for 15 m

These are the best baking cups.  There are some really great designs out in the market that aren't Reynolds but they disappear as soon as you bake with them.  Especially if you're making chocolate cupcakes.  The design is completely lost afterward.  I first found these baking cups in the States earlier this year and bought a few packs.  Then, a few weekends ago at Canada's Baking and Sweets Show Reynolds had a booth there.  They are now available in Canada (rumoured to be available at Wal-Mart).  Woohoo!  I love these.  They are a little pricier than the "normal" ones, but are so worth it.  I ended up buying 5 packs for $10 at the show. 

Today we are heading out to my uncle's house for Thanksgiving dinner with my dad's family.  For dessert I made a pumpkin spice cake with maple cinnamon cream-cheese icing.  My cousin Ben's birthday isn't until November but we're paying homage to his day a little early since we probably won't be seeing him all together again until Christmas time.  He's a big fan of The Office, so I topped off this Thanksgiving dessert with The Office symbol. Ryan: Did this happen on company property? Michael Scott: It was on company property, with company property. So, double jeopardy, we're fine. Ryan: I don't think-- I don't think you understand how jeopardy works. Michael Scott: Oh, I'm sorry. What is, 'we're fine'?      

This cake was definitely a challenge!  I'm not sure that I would do 3 princesses on one cake again.  It was a lot of work.  But I think it turned out pretty good. :)  Snow White is my favourite.  The cake is 9 x 13 with two layers, one chocolate and one vanilla sandwiched with chocolate filling.  I used FondX fondant dyed blue to cover the cake.  FondX is easy to work with and definitely more forgiving than Virgin Ice.

On Saturday I went to Canada's Baking and Sweet Show and dragged Tbits and E along with me.  It was in the West End and I loathe driving west of Yonge St.  on the 401.  Lesson learned, do not bring children to the show.  There is nothing for them to do there except to constantly beg you to buy them sweets.  However, I was able to pick up some fun stuff.  Flour Confections had the 10lb bucket of FondX fondant on sale for a sweet deal.  So I bought two!  Also picked up some great spring punches.  I tried some of them out on the cake. This was a super fun cake to make.  I used the edible markers to colour in the butterflies (new punch) and to draw the antennae and little trails.  I covered everything in shimmer dust.  I love shimmer dust.  It's so girlie.  This was an 8" two layer marble (chocolate and vanilla) cake.

Seriously, I never get bored of making this cake.  It's a really good cake.  I still have to refer to the recipe, the original copy I printed out over 10 years ago.  It's pretty ratty; there's water marks, folds, tape stuck to it and it's yellowed.  I love it. :) This time, however I only need a 6" cake rather than a 3 layer 9" cake.  I made the full recipe and ended up with two 6" layers and 24 cupcakes.  I sliced each of the layers in half to make a four layer cake.  I used the full recipe for the filling and just over half of the icing.  Decorated with some fondant punched flowers and royal icing for the lettering. This cake is for a co-worker for her and her team to celebrate.