Hello Kitty Birthday

How fun! This cake by itself has no artificial color or flavor (especially if you use real vanilla in the buttercream as opposed to clear vanilla extract). The piping on top of course has artificial colors, but it's a healthy cake, if one can call cake healthy.

Fresh Strawberry Cake

24 oz strawberries, stems removed. = 3/4 cup strawberry puree

1-2 tsp sugar

1/4 cup milk

4 large eggs

1 Tbsp bourbon vanilla extract

2 1/4 cup cake flour, sifted

1 3/4 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp.

Combine strawberries and 2 tsp sugar in blender to make puree. Reserve 3/4 cup. Refrigerate remaining puree.

In small bowl, combine puree, milk, egg, vanilla and mix with fork until well blended. In bowl of stand mixer, add sifted flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix to combine. Continue beating at slow speed and add butter. Mix until combined and resembling moist crumbs. (Very important to use the butter softened, it affects the texture).

Add liquids and beat at medium speed for about 1 minute or until full and evenly combined. Stop mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl and hand beat for 30 more seconds.

Divide into 2, 8" rounds, greased and floured and with cut parchment. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees, rotating after 20 minutes. Cool in pans on wire rack 20 minutes then invert and continue to cool to room temp before moving racks into fridge to chill.

Strawberry Buttercream

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tsp clear vanilla
1/4 cup mashed/pureed strawberries

Add all ingredients to bowl of stand mixer. Beat on medium until fluffy.

For Hello Kitty's face, I used a reverse image and piped clear piping gel onto waxed paper, then transferred the outline to the cake and pressed over the lines. Peel off the waxed paper then pipe in the colors.

Things might get cheesy...

...when you make a rat cake?

I tried a new vanilla cake recipe since the last one somebody said tasted a bit "cornbread-y". I think it was the buttermilk. This cake is sweet! And light! And fluffy! I like it better and so do my taste-testers.

White Cake
2 cups baker's sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) room temp butter
1 tbsp + 1 tsp clear vanilla
4 eggs
3 cups cake flour
1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour 2 8" rounds. Cut parchment to size
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture one cup at a time. Beat until combined. Slowly add milk. Divide batter between pans and bake for 35-40 minutes. Cool on cooling rack 20 minutes in pan before removing.

Buttercream
6 cups powdered sugar
2 cups (4 sticks) room temp butter
4 tsp clear vanilla
4 tbsp heavy whipping cream

Cream together butter and sugar, beat on medium for 3 minutes. Add vanilla until just combined. Add heavy whipping cream and beat until light and fluffy.

Logan's Graduation

Chocolate Cake 

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups butter, room temp

2 tsp vanilla

6 eggs

4 cups cake flour, sifted

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cup milk

12 oz semi sweet chocolate baking bars, melted and cooled

In mixing bowl combine sugar, butter and vanilla. Add eggs and beat for 1 minute. Add melted chocolate. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add milk. Prep 11x15" sheet pan with Wilton cake release. Bake for 55-60 minutes at 325 degrees. I rotate my pan after 20 minutes to ensure even baking. Cool to room temp on wire rack then move to fridge to chill before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting
6 cups powdered sugar
4 sticks (2 cups) room temperature butter
2 tsp clear vanilla extract
2-4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
food coloring as needed

Mix together butter and sugar in stand mixer for 3 minutes on medium. Add vanilla and cream and beat for another minute. Divide and color. I used Delphinium Blue and Royal Blue mixed and Orange and Copper mixed to get the shades I used.

Buttercream transfer for the high school mascot. 

How-to: Buttercream Transfers

Buttercream transfers are an easy way to add a design to your cakes by using an illustration, cartoon or coloring page and coloring them in with frosting. I use a full butter frosting as opposed to a butter/shortening mix because the butter freezes better and is like whipped ice cream. Make the frosting and divide and color as needed.

Buttercream Frosting
6 cups powdered sugar
4 sticks (2 cups) room temperature butter
4 tsp clear vanilla extract
4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
food coloring as needed.

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, beat for 1 minute. Add heavy whipping cream, beat for 3 minutes, until fluffy.


First thing you need is to draw or print out your designs. You have to use a mirrored image of what you want on the cake because you flip it over.

Next cut out wax paper squares to fit over the image allowing 1-1.5 inches around image to handle the paper and apply tape.

Find some kind of flat surface like a cutting board, sheet pan, or in my case, 8" rounds, that fit into your freezer. I like that the pans are metal and conduct heat so they stay cooler longer while you pipe on them. I put my pans in the freezer first so when I start piping it doesn't move. Tape the image to the flat surface then tape the wax paper over it. 

So this part I missed, but you want to start with what is in the foreground of the image and pipe it first. Next do the outlines and fill in with frosting. Use a toothpick to maneuver the frosting into any tight corners. Go around the perimeter with the same frosting color as the background of your cake (prevents color bleeds). Then apply another layer of just the back ground color over the entire image. Place it in the freezer for 5 minutes. Pull it out and use a Viva paper towel (it doesn't have texture or inks) to smooth it level. Just place the paper towel over the frosting and smooth gently with your hand or a smoothing tool.  Place back in freezer for 15-20 minutes until hard. 

After the frosting hardens, flip the image onto the cake. If it is pliable, put it back in the freezer or else it won't stay on the cake and will stick to the paper.  Slowly peel off the wax paper.

At this point you can pipe any embellishments, add writing and pipe borders.

Mason's Piñata Cake

White Chocolate Cake
5 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
12 (1 ounce) squares white chocolate, chopped
1 cup hot water
2 cup ( 4 sticks) butter, softened
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
2 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt. In double boiler, melt together white chocolate and hot water. Cool to room temp. In mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Stir in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk. Mix in melted white chocolate. Pour into 11x15" sheet pan, bake for 45-60 minutes. 

Buttercream, m&m's and whipped cream frosting in between the layers.






















Whipped Cream Frosting
4 cups heavy whipping cream
8 tbsp powdered sugar 
2 tsp clear vanilla extract 

In mixing bowl, combine heavy whipping cream and sugar. Beat on medium high until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla, beat for 1 minute.

Buttercream Frosting
6 cups powdered sugar
4 sticks (2 cups) room temperature butter
4 tsp clear vanilla extract
4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
food coloring as needed.


Cream together butter and sugar. Beat for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, beat for 1 minute. Add heavy whipping cream, beat for 3 minutes, until fluffy.

Frozen buttercream transfers:

Use the mirror image when doing buttercream transfers.

Start with foreground, outline, then fill. Then cover the back with the color of the frosting on the cake, white in my case. Try to get the frosting level. Let freeze until hard (usually about 15-20 minutes) otherwise the buttercream will stick to the wax paper.

Position on cake. Pull wax paper away.

I piped on the tail and filled in any gaps. 

Flag border piping.

Pipe on bridle and reins, wording and bottom border. Voila! 

Easter Cupcakes

A coworker ordered 72 cupcakes to divide between her 4 school aged children's Easter class parties at school. I found inspiration for designs online and by looking at all the Easter merchandise we have currently around the store. We chose 5 designs: a "grass" (tip 233) and "dirt" (crushed Oreos) covered cupcake with jelly bean "eggs", bunny face, chick hatching, dyed eggs, and flowers. I sketched 3 varieties of flowers and 2 varieties of dyed eggs. Due to the time that it took to make them, I ended up only using bunny faces, grass/eggs and the flowers.

Vanilla Cake
1 cup butter, softened
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
2 tsp clear vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and yolks one at a time. Add vanilla. Alternatively beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture until just combined. Use ice cream scoop to divide batter into cupcake tins with liners. Baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Take this recipe by 3 for 72 cupcakes total.

Buttercream Frosting
12 cups powdered sugar
8 sticks (4 cups) room temperature butter
6 tsp clear vanilla extract
4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
food coloring as needed

Mix together butter and sugar in stand mixer for 3 minutes on medium. Add vanilla and cream and beat for another minute. Divide and color. 

3 boxes of 24 each makes 72 Easter cupcakes. 

Joaquin's 3rd Superhero Birthday

POW! We're talking superheroes now! I recently met a cousin of mine who just turned 3 and my aunt asked me to make his birthday cake for his party.

Happy Birthday Joaquin!

Half sheet pan 11x15x2" takes 11 cups batter, most cake recipes or mixes yield between 4-6 cups batter, so you can either double a recipe to get roughly 8-12 cups or triple the recipe and measure out the 11 cups and use the remaining to make taste tester cupcakes. I just doubled the recipe for each layer and baked 2 layers. The strawberry glaze is torted between the layers. The entire cake is frosted with the whipped cream frosting. Borders and designs are all buttercream. 12 hours of work total, phew!

Vanilla Cake (doubled)
2 cups butter, room temp
3 cups sugar
5 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
4 large eggs
6 egg yolks
4 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups low-fat buttermilk

In mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sift together with a fork. In mixer add eggs and egg yolks, one at a time. Add flour and buttermilk, alternating, beginning and ending with flour. Mix until just combined. Spray half sheet pan with misting oil, coat with flour and line with parchment. Make sure to get corners well. Pour batter into pan and bake in oven preheated to 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Move onto wire cooling rack and allow to  cool for 20 minutes before releasing from pan. Run the edge of a plastic offset spatula around edge of pan to release sides then invert onto rack. Continue to cool to room temperature and move into fridge to chill. I did 2 layers so each layer consisted of the double recipe above.

Delicious strawberry glaze.

Strawberry Glaze
32 oz fresh strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp cornstarch

In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. In a medium saucepan, add strawberries, sugar and lemon juice, bring to boil for 10 minutes. Stir in cornstarch mixture and lower heat, simmer for 3-5 minutes. I added 1/4 tsp of no-taste red food gel to make sure this came out a true red and not a pink. Strain if desired, but continual stirring will break down any remaining chunks and leave a pulpy glaze, which I like. Refrigerate.

Whipped Cream Frosting
4 cups  heavy whipping cream
8 tbsp powdered sugar
16 tbsp clear piping gel
2 tsp clear vanilla extract

In mixing bowl with whisk attachment, add heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar, beat on medium high speed until stiff peaks form. Add piping gel and vanilla. Mix until just combined. Use immediately and refrigerate cake after frosted.

 Frozen Buttercream Transfers

Colors!

1-1/2 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cup shortening
1 tbsp clear vanilla extract
12 cups powdered sugar
6 tbsp milk

Cream together shortening and butter. Beat in vanilla. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. Add milk. Divided into parts to make red (use red-red, no-taste red gel colors and mix in a little bit of the glaze), blue, green, yellow, white, and black. Print out or draw a mirror image of the design you would like to use onto paper. Tape this onto a flat sheet like a cookie sheet. I used a cake board cut to fit into the freezer. Tape a piece of waxed paper over the image. Draw outlines, then fill in with colors. Move to freezer and allow to chill for 20 minutes to an hour. Press onto cake and lift away waxed paper. 

WHAM

BOOM @?*!

ZONK

BANG POW