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.

Allie's 20th Birthday

I asked my sister what kind of cake she wanted and she said, "Chocolate!". Next was what type of frosting, buttercream or whipped cream? Chocolate buttercream it was. AND she wanted Snickers on top. She is pregnant, you know. I thought of making the cake Snickers flavored but she didn't want to have peanuts on the cake. So I made the chocolate cake, caramel buttercream filling and chocolate buttercream frosting from scratch and added the Snickers on top. This cake traveled 2 hours with no melting after an overnight stay in the fridge. Happy 20th Birthday, sis!

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 2, 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. I rotate my pans after 20 minutes to ensure even baking. Cool to room temp on wire rack then move to fridge to chill before frosting.

Caramel Buttercream Filling

1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening

1/3 cup butter, room temp

2/3 cup Smucker's caramel topping

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Use paddle attachment combine butter and shortening. Add caramel and vanilla extract. Slowly add powdered sugar. Scrape down sides . If too dry, a milk 1 tbsp at a time.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
3/4 cup butter

1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening

2 oz semi-sweet chocolate baking bars, melted and cooled

1 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp salt

2-3 tbsp milk

2 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Combine all ingredients except milk and powdered sugar. Alternate adding powdered sugar and milk until fluffy.

"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.

Baby Shower Spice Cake Cupcakes

The second treat featured at the baby shower were these Spice Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting, blue sugar crystals and cupcake picks. I used blank 4x6" index cards and created the circles and words in Microsoft Paint to make the cake picks. I printed them out in doubles, cut around each circle then glued them together with a toothpick in the middle.

I also created the signs for the treats and folded them in half. I did not get a chance to make fresh cinnamon buns-from-the-oven however, I was too exhausted from two days of baking and decorating to pull that off.

I used the 1M Wilton swirl technique with a 10" decorating bag and a star tip 195 (?). The cupcake stand is a cardboard, assemble yourself Wilton kit that I added some of the same It's a Boy! ribbon to with a hot glue gun.

I grouped the cake picks on each level of the cupcakes and voila!

Baby Shower Sugar Cookies

My sister had her baby shower at 23 weeks on December 1st. We decided to have it so early because she is due in March and didn't want to have people driving in the snow in January. I volunteered to do decorations and make the sweets. The baby's nickname is Sugar until she can pick a name for her little boy. The nursery is going to be guitar/rock 'n roll theme. So her best friend and I decided we would do sugar and spice and everything nice, snips and snails and puppy dog tails, and focus more on the boy theme of it. We also incorporated a playlist based around the sugar theme and Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me (since it is a baby shower for the mom) was our rock 'n roll choice.

My idea was already set around sugar cookies and some kind of spice cake. I had seen some baby onesie cookie cutters and the cookies were made into pops. I knew that would be fun! I used Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix (1 large and 1 small bag) to make 20 cookies total since we were unsure of a final head count. I used Wilton color flow mix and followed the directions for regular consistency and flow consistency. This was dyed blue with Wilton food coloring in royal blue. I used tip 1 for the outline and once the icing was thinned a used a larger petal tip to fill in and a toothpick to spread to all the edges.

I was going to add Baby and the snaps to the onesie once the color flow had dried but I had spent 8 hours working on these cookies and gave up. It took a lot of flour on the cutting board and rolling pin to keep from sticking. I rolled the dough out to 1/4", cut the shape, placed it on the cookie sheet with parchment paper, placed a stick 3/4 of the way up the length of the cookie, cut another and placed it on top. Make sure to get out any air bubbles between the layers and around the stick or your baby will look like it has a hernia.

Once the cookies had cooled enough to be iced, that was allowed to harden for a few hours. The next day I wrapped them in treat bags and tied a ribbon around them to tie them closed.

At the party we couldn't think of a cute way to display these so we just made a pile with a cute sign in front.

Aren't they adorable? They were a hit and since the turnout was small, everybody took some home with them.

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.