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!

Bridal Shower Birdcage

Inspiration for this cake came from Pinterest. It is a birdcage bridal shower cake.

The cake was made with my wonder mold pan which has the dimensions of 8" diameter and 5" tall. To add some height and create more of the birdcage shape, I used an 8x3" round. The cakes were vanilla and I  torted both cakes and added a raspberry filling and covered them in sweet buttercream. The wonder mold was set on a cakeboard and I used dowels in the round to support the top cake.

I made the flowers a few days ahead of time, just large and small swirl flowers, to give them time to harden.

I hand cut the birds from fondant and handpainted the details on with food coloring. Then I made the birdcage handle from fondant and allowed them to harden for a few days also.

I tied a small string of baker's twine to a toothpick, centered it and stuck it in the top of the cake and ran it down the sides, lightly pressing it into the buttercream to divide out the lines for the birdcage.

The finished cake I set on my porcelain cake stand.

Cakes for a Cause

I had the opportunity to donate some cupcakes to a bake sale fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I baked 24 chocolate with raspberry filling and sweet frosting and 24 vanilla with strawberry and sweet frosting. I look forward to donating to their next event to help out their cause.

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