Cookbook Cake

Happy Halloween

I saw on Pinterest a pumpkin shaped cake made using bundt pans. I used one box of Betty Crocker Devil's Food and one box of French Vanilla. Make sure to spray and flour the pan well so it doesn't stick. I made the frosting from scratch in two batches, one dyed green and one dyed orange. The stem is a ice cream cone sprayed with Wilton's Color Mist Spray. The jack o'lantern face is Wilton Sugar Sheet in black.

Buttercream Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) room temperature butter
2 tsp clear vanilla extract
2 tbsp heavy whipping cream
food coloring as needed.

I made one batch of green and then one batch of orange. I used the green to frost inside the round of the bundt, and to make the vines and the leaves.

NBX: Allie's Wedding Cake

My little sister got married this past week and I of course volunteered to make her cake. She searched the internet for a style she liked and came across this Nightmare Before Christmas themed cake and decided that it was the one. We have always said that would be her wedding cake theme because it is her favorite movie of all time (she played it so much I'm not sure the VHS still works). I didn't have a stand like the one shown, she didn't want names on it, just the stars, and the cake topper shown was, gulp, a $189 collector's item. So I tweaked it a bit and came up with a few designs stacking the cake, using a different cake topper, adding the stars differently. She like them but still wanted the layers to be separate so she suggested pillars of some sort. I found the globe pillars on Wilton's website, made up a final sketch for her and we both loved it. A design that she liked and it wasn't out of my skill level.

The final sketch:

There was a lot of shopping and planning ahead involved. My sister lives 2 hours away, so this meant I would be baking the cakes at my house, driving to her house and frosting/assembling them there to avoid melting and damage. I packed a huge box with all the tools I needed. I started baking cakes on Sunday night, then started the decorating Monday night and the wedding was Tuesday afternoon. The bottom and top tiers are Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge, middle tier is DH Classic White, all leveled and torted with DH Vanilla frosting. Cake pans were 3" high 12" 8" and 6" tiers. I used Wilton Sugar Sheets in black and dusted them with a mixture of matte purple and silver color dust using a dry paint brush. I measured and cut these into strips and affixed to the frosting. Next I cut the pillars to size with the globes and left the tiers separate to store in the fridge. I kept the bottom 2 wrapped on their plates with a small trash bag and the top tier (since it needed to stay the freshest to be preserved for their anniversary) in a cake keeper. I started this as soon as the baked cakes were cooled and rewrapped each layer until we got into the restaurant. The stars were all cut from white fondant 1/8" thick and threaded with floral wire. I left a few white and dusted a few with purple and silver color dust, or purple sparkling sugar. The cake topper was part of a collector's set but very inexpensive at just $15. Jack came in 9 pieces and Sally in 4 and these things were only a few inches high, kind of a pain to put together. The stars and cake topper were attached on site after the cake was assembled. I'm really loving the outcome, and congrats again to my sister!

The lovely couple and their cake.