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.

Cherry Coke Cake

A Cherry Coke cake with Vanilla Coke buttercream and maraschino cherries. The cake is two layers, 8" round filled with more cherries. I followed this recipe  except that I used less coke and added vanilla to the buttercream.

Cherry Coke Cake
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 cup Coca-Cola
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup maraschino cherry juice
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8" pans. Combine all ingredients in bowl of mixer. Pour into cake pans and bake for 35-40 minutes. Move to wire rack to cool.

Vanilla Coke Frosting
1/2 cup butter, room temp
3 cups powdered sugar
4 Tbsp Coca-Cola
1 Tbsp clear vanilla extract

Cream together butter and sugar. Add coke and vanilla. Beat until combined.

Halloween Cake

Boo! I made a Halloween cake! Chocolate cake, raspberry filling, vanilla whipped cream frosting and sweet buttercream borders. The black piping is black sparkle gel, which is like piping gel. For the spider webs, just make circles small to large, then drag a toothpick from the center out.

Rosenberg Wedding Cake

Ivory wedding cake with black scrolls and bead border. Four tiers: 6, 8, 10, 12" and two sheet cakes 11x15". Real red roses on top. Vanilla white cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream. Since I used fresh flowers on this cake, I first set down 6" doilies, and piped a mound of buttercream. I placed the cut flowers into the mound and the vertical flowers I used flower spikes to insert them into the cake.

 I baked the cakes on Thursday. There were a total of 10 cakes since each tier on the large cake had two 2" cakes to make them an exact 4 inches in height once stacked. That was a total of 7.5 hours bake time. I leveled and filled them on Friday. Made buttercream Friday and frosted and piped the scrolls and borders on that day. Nine and a half hours for the work on Friday. I trimmed and placed the flowers Saturday morning at the reception site. I assembled the tiered cake completely at home and delivered it that way. Very nerve-wrecking! But I was confident since I used my cut pillars for support that the cake was level and I inserted a total of 4 skewers, sharpened to pierce through the layers of cake boards, that I wouldn't come apart. It was extremely heavy, probably close to 50 pounds of cake on my lap! I got to use my new silver hammered cake stand also.

The cake tasted great too (as I was a guest to the wedding, I actually got to have a slice, which is rare). The best part of the day was hearing the bride, Angela across the room "Oh my gosh, I LOVE the cake!" I didn't send her any pictures of the cake before the wedding, her reaction was priceless and made me tear up!

 Final set up. The globs of buttercream and doilies on the cake aren't the most attractive but I didn't want to stick potentially pesticide ridden flowers directly onto the frosting.

 My final cake sketch.

The florist told me to put the roses in hot water overnight to get the blooms to open. I didn't mind having flowers in vases to wake up to the next morning either ;)

The final set up at the reception.

Sheet cake 2

Sheet cake 1

I was also in charge of setting up/styling their table. 

Their first cut.

Just little old me, serving up cake!

Corbin's First Birthday

My best friend's son's first birthday was a blast! With a smash cake for the birthday boy, cupcakes and a sheet cake.

The sheet cake was an 11x15" sheet, chocolate cake with strawberry jam filling, frosted with sweet frosting.
The smash cake was a 6" round, same cake, filling and frosting. The cupcakes were extra chocolate batter, no filling. The theme was dots, so I did a dot border around the cakes and sequin sprinkles on the cupcakes.

Good Luck

This cake is a good way to say goodbye!

Sheet 11x15"

White Chocolate Cake
5 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
12 (1 ounce) white chocolate bars, chopped
1 cup hot water
2 cups (4 sticks) butter, room temp
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 45-55 minutes. I made 2 of these cakes and leveled them to have the 2 layers with the strawberry glaze in between. 

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. Doubled to allow for crumb coat and to frost. 

Strawberry Glaze
16 oz fresh strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tsp lemon juice
1 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. 

Jennifer's birthday cake

My boss (!) ordered a cake for his wife's birthday. He said he wanted it all about fresh fruit and a chocolate cake. I'm using my tried and true chocolate cake recipe, layered with raspberry glaze, all wrapped in a light lemon cream cheese frosting, and topped with more raspberries, and chocolate shavings.

Chocolate Cake 

1 1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter, room temp

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

2 cups cake flour, sifted

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

6 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. In two, 8" round baking pans, spray with oil, coat sides with cocoa powder and line with parchment paper. Divide batter between pans and bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool to room temp on wire rack then move to fridge to chill before frosting.

I used fresh raspberries in place of strawberries to make a glaze to go in between the 4 layers of chocolate cake. 

Raspberry Glaze

16 oz fresh raspberries

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tbsp cornstarch

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

2 (8) ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
2 lbs. confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
juice of one lemon

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

Sonya

I met a lady last week and somehow we got to talking about cakes. She asked if I could make one for an upcoming client meeting she had. She specifically wanted my UV Cake vodka whipped cream frosting, a vanilla cake and fruit. I drained the juice from a jar of maraschino cherries and added the remaining vanilla vodka from the "Corduroy" cake, the remaining cake vodka leftover after the frosting was made, a little water to cover and some sugar; soaked while baking and frosting. The vodka's I buy are shooter sized, perfect to have enough for individual cake recipes. The cakes were baked in 8" rounds.

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. Divide batter between two 8x2" pans greased, floured and parchment cut to size. Baked at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. 

UV Cake Vodka Whipped Cream
3 cups heavy whipping cream
5tbsp powdered sugar
1tsp Wilton Color Flow mix
2 tbsp UV Cake Vodka

Whisk together cream and sugar until stiff peaks form. Add color flow and vodka until combined.

Drunken Cherries
6 oz maraschino cherries, juice drained
3 tbsp Vanilla Vodka
1 tbsp Cake Vodka
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
Add all into the jar with the cherries. Soak as long as needed.

Cake for Aaron

(Excuse the terrible picture, the lighting was bad and the chocolate glaze wasn't cool enough so it ran everywhere. I also sprinkled the cake with some powdered sugar and will never make that mistake again.)My co-worker let me brag about my cake baking skills and said that he would buy a cake from me every week so that I could practice my recipes and decorating because he thinks I'm good at it and would like to see me with my own cake shop someday. (Why, thank you!) I don't have the time to bake a cake once a week at this point in my life so I figured I would make one he requested to start out with. I used the same strawberry cake recipe as the 4 year anniversary cake. Added a strawberry glaze between the layers and frosted with strawberry buttercream. I drizzled a chocolate glaze over top and topped with chocolate covered strawberries. He obviously fell in love with my Chocolate Covered Strawberry cake but I wanted to make it better! This cake recipe is taken directly from this foodie bride's website.

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 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
1/4 cup mashed/pureed strawberries

Strawberry Glaze

16 oz fresh strawberries, stems removed

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tbsp cornstarch

Whisk together water and cornstarch in small bowl. Combine remaining ingredients in a pot and bring to boil. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add water/cornstarch mixture, bring to high heat and whisk 3-5 minutes or until thickens. Cool. Refrigerate leftover.

Chocolate Glaze

4 oz semi-sweet chocolate baking bars

1/3 cup butter, softened, cubed

Simmer over double boiler until melted.

I dipped the strawberries in this and set on waxed paper over a chilled wire cooling rack so the chocolate would set faster. Then refrigerated them while I frosted the cake.

Our 4 Year Anniversary

I wanted to make a fun cake for our 4 year anniversary and came up with this: Fresh Strawberry cake with Tres Leches soak; Strawberry Glaze filling, and Whipped Cream frosting. I found "traditional" recipes for strawberry cake that used 1 box of strawberry gelatin mixed into the cake batter. I am, however, opposed to horse hooves in my cake and wanted to make it completely fresh and from scratch. I saw this recipe from FOODIEBRIDE and just fell in love. I baked per recipe but these are the ingredients I used.

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 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 ofstand 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.

The strawberries on top were simply cut into thin slices and sprinkled with white sugar to bring out the sweetness and left to sit on a plate while I worked on the cake.

Tres Leches Soak

12 oz evaporated milk

14 oz sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tbsp Bacardi rum

Combine all ingredients. Once cakes have cooled, level off the dome and pour into cakes.

Strawberry Glaze

16 oz fresh strawberries, stems removed

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tbsp cornstarch

Whisk together water and cornstarch in small bowl. Combine remaining ingredients in a pot and bring to boil. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add water/cornstarch mixture, bring to high heat and whisk 3-5 minutes or until thickens. Strain. Cool. Refrigerate leftover.

The glaze about halfway done cooking. The strawberries break down to almost nothing.

Whipped Cream Frosting

3 cups heavy whipping cream

5 tbsp powdered sugar

1 tsp Wilton color flow mix (to stiffen)

2 tbsp Bacardi Rum

Whisk heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar on medium speed until stiff peaks form. Add remaining ingredients and whisk until combined.

"Lauren"

I made this cake as a birthday cake for my friend/co-worker's 22nd birthday/going away party cake. I used one box Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix, prepared as the box said, but used the cherry juice from a small jar of maraschinos and added water to it to get to the amount needed. Divided the batter into 2 parts and baked them in 8" round pans for 40 minutes. I made the whipped cream frosting from scratch. Whisk on high until stiff peaks form. I leveled the cakes, filled with whipped cream and sliced cherries, inverted the second cake on top and finished with the rest of the whipped cream. I used tip 4B to make the shells around the top and bottom, the Happy Bday and topped with the remaining cherries. I am highly impressed with the thickness and spread-ability of the frosting. I didn't need to crumb coat. Just slapped it on there and smoothed it out. I picked out what little crumbs did surface with a toothpick.

Happy Birthday Lauren!

Smooth sides and nice shell work. Proud of myself for that.

P.S. I ate the remaining 3/4 cup of frosting and boy is that stuff delish!

Whipped Cream Frosting

3 cups heavy whipping cream

5 tbsp powdered sugar

1 tsp Wilton color flow mix

2 tbsp UV Cake flavored vodka

Whisk heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar on medium speed until stiff peaks form. Add remaining ingredients and whisk until combined. The color flow mix helped to make a stiffer whipped cream that didn't melt.

"Chocolate Covered Strawberries"

How can you go wrong with this combination?! Chocolatey-strawberry yumminess. I made this cake one day out of boredom and a craving. The bottom layer is DH Devil's food pudding cake. A strawberry glaze layer (that I didn't realize was sweetened with splenda, EWWW!) so I sprinkled a little powdered sugar to give it some flavor and real sweetness. Second layer is DH Strawberry pudding cake. Cake is covered in DH dark chocolate frosting. The chocolate covered strawberries used semi-sweet chocolate melted in microwave, dipped and allowed to cool. So good. I need to make more craving cakes. They are always satisfying. Wonder why?