Jessica & Brian

 Jessica and Brian are family friends.  It was such an honor to have Jessica ask me to make her cake.  She just wanted something small for them to cut for pictures (They had sheet cakes from a *gasp* grocery store bakery, but in their defense, the groom's father manages said grocery store).  Although she just wanted a photo op, this is three tiers of lucious chocolate cake, none of which was served at the reception.  Still totally fun to make, and since the wedding and reception are hours away from where I live, I had the opportunity to work in the kitchen at the reception site.  Love love LOVE the stainless steel counters!


 I made the Gerbera Daisies from gumpaste and my fancy daisy cutters. They are quite painstaking, but totally worth the effort!

 The cake on the reception table.

Jessica and Brian cutting their cake!

The Spooner Sisters

My friend and former cake decorating student, Trina, referred me to some of her friends who are a wonderful group of women and seemingly really love cake, since they are some of my best clients!  They really like to challenge me with their ideas, but it's always fun!

Diva Cake!  My first shoe!  There's some tissue holding the shape until it dried.

 

Mardi Gras cake.  They added a little more flare to it at the party.

Louisiana cake (are you noticing a theme here? ;) ) Little did I know, they actually had a crwafish boil at the party!  All they told me was a Louisiana theme!

I think this might be one of my favorite cakes I've made.  The crawfish (crawdads here in the Midwest) corn and potatoes are all sculpted from fondant.  The corn and potatoes are even cake inside!

Strawberry Shortcake!  Layers of vanilla cake a fresh strawberries inside.



Dora the Explorer



Elmo



New Orleans Saints.
That is an edible image on the second tier.

Spidey Cake!

Pretty little cake!

WWF Smackdown

Wedding Cake *ribbet*





The first time anyone has ever submitted

 a sketch to me for their cake design.



I think I nailed it :)

 

Some Cute Little Cakes

Minnie Mouse Smasher cake

Zebra Smasher cake

 

 Sometimes if I have little bits of frosting left over in several colors, they all get swirled into one.  I have dubbed this "frankenfrosting" :)

 Princess Castle and Smasher

 

Sporty Baby Shower cake



Noah's Ark

I had the honor of making my grand-nephew's first birthday cake. My nephew and his family came all the way from Chicago to celebrate. At first, he asked about having me ship something to them. I'm so glad they decided to come here, because I got to make this for Noah. I spent hours scuplting little animals from fondant, and could have spent many more. It was so much fun!

All is Right with the World Again

I had been without internet at home for several months, but got it back yesterday, so brace yourself for a whopper posting.  Lots of cakes since March!  Here's a few...

Captain America!

 

Circus!

 

Curious George and Trains

 

Shiver Me Timbers!

 

Texas Rangers

 

Divorce Cake

 

My mom's 60th Birthday cake.  Lord of the Rings

 

 Artist Graduation Cake

 Brave.  Yes, I cheated and purchased the figures.

Ohio State

 

Ohio State.  Genuine candy buckeyes made by me.
Apparently this is some sort of religion in Ohio ;)

Spidey Cake

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes!

I think I found this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker on Pinterest and couldn't wait to try it.  Last week I made it as a cake and donated it to a cake auction for an American Kidney Foundation benefit.  My cake auctioned at $600!  I'm told two doctors were in a bidding war over it because of the flavor.  None of the other cakes went for more than $200.  My cake set a record for money raised at these events :)

Here is my cake in the lineup.

Since, when making chocolate cake, I have a hard time straying from the best chocolate cake recipe ever, found here, I modified the Brown Eyed Baker one (whose was adapted from someone else) to fit my preferences.  This is a Guinness chocolate cake with Jameson chocolate filling and frosted with Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream. 

For the Chocolate Cake
2 C sugar
2 eggs
1/2 C vegetable oil
2 C flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 C cocoa
2/3 C sour cream
1 C Guinness Stout
Cream together the sugar, oil and eggs.  Sift together the dry ingredients and stir into creamed mixture.  Typically, after creaming the first ingredients, I dump in all the dry ingredients, start up the mixer, and slowly pour in the liquids, then up the speed of the mixer and let it run until it's all well blended.  For cupcakes, pour about 1/4 C of batter into each liner and bake at 350° for 18 minutes, for a cake, decrease the flour in the recipe to 1 3/4 C, divide the batter into 2 oiled (Bakers Joy cooking spray) 8" pans and bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

For the Filling
1 stick of maragarine, softened
2/3 C cocoa
3 C powdered sugar
2 T milk
2 T Jameson whiskey
Combine margarine and cocoa, blend in powdered sugar, alternately with milk and whiskey.  Beat until well combined.
The other recipes I've seen for these cupcakes call for hollowing out the center of the cupcake for the filling.  I believe this is a completely unneccesary step and just jabbed the tip of the icing bag into the center of the cupcake and gave the bag a good squeeze.  I think this is a better cake to frosting ratio.

For the Icing
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 C vegetable shortening
4 C powdered sugar
1 T meringue powder
4-6 T Bailey's Irish Cream
Cream together butter and shortening, add powdered sugar and stir to partially combine, add Bailey's one or 2 tablespoons at a time until it stirs to a consistency you like.