Anatomy of a Cake!!!

These are pictures of a cake I made for my friends Matt and Casey's baby shower. The flavor was vanilla butter cake with Bavarian Cream and chocolate Bavarian cream filling. The fondat is homemade Marshmallow fondant. Yummy!!

Here they are, enjoy.

Cakes baked



Cakes filled and ready to be frosted




Cakes frosted




Cake covered in fondant, stacked and ready for the Partay!!



Topper made out of gumpaste to look like the invites.



What do you think, does it look like the invite?



I also made the favors:



The best part of it all was that everyone loved the cake (big bumps and all) and the flavor too.

And now back to the business at hand:

BAKING!!!!

Hey everyone. Yes, I know I've been gone forever. But I have a good reason. I've been super busy BAKING!!! Don't believe me? Well, the proof is in the pudding (ehem, frosting)

Here's my Finale Cake for course 4. Isn't it cute? well, I think so, so there.



These cuties are based* on Bakerella's mini pumkin pies. I loved making them.



*and yes, I meant loosely based

And this is the adorable cupcake bouquet. LOVE it!! Thanks Amalia!!!



That's it for now, folks. But I promise I'll be posting the Anatomy of a Cake tomorrow or maybe Saturday.

You come on back, you hear!

Is this the cutest way to propose or what??

Wedding Cake Pops

She said YES!!!

Baking for the Hubby

So today I was running around, looking at recipes and trying to sketch a cake for a baby shower on the 7th and talking to John about it. He, with a serious look in his face tells me: How about you make a chocolate cake for practice? LOL I wasn't planning to make chocolate cake for the baby shower cake, but I got the hint.

Made John a Chocolate Chiffon cake with raspberry filling and chocolate ganache topping. I have to admit that it is from a mix, BUT I doctored up the devil's food mix and used a cake doctor's recipe- Hmmm. It has raspberry filling- the recipe in the book did not have a filling, but that's how I roll. LOL, it also has fresh rasberries and powdered sugar on top. I ate a little bit and it tasted yummy. John loved it and I'll see what Sophia says tomorrow when she gets a piece. This child LOVES cake, especially cupcakes which she calls cakeys. LOL

So here's a pic of the cake....



John deserves this cake. He's been studying very hard and he just got a 96 on one of his tests. Go daddy!!!

My creations (so far)

Here they are in chronological order. Please be warned- some of these are not for the faint of heart (yeah, I said it some of my(babies)cakes are ugly. lol)But hey, I'm improving every day- practice helps!!




First cake Wiltons course 1



Second cake- I hate these clowns (creepy!! and look at at the "professional" icing job. lol Wilton course 1



This cake I made for my friends' Cheri and Kurt's baby shwoer. (I know what kind of a friend am I, giving them this cake? hahahaha) But baby Jonas was born healthy )not thanks to me) and I offered to make his first birthday cake. They accepted- what can I say? I have great friends. lol



This is the final cake for course 1. My roses look so puny. I really must practice my Wilton rose.



My first fondant-covered cake. I'm in love. Wilton course 3



Final cake- Wilton course 3



I made this Fruit Basket for my niece's Kaylin 1st birthday. It was a princess theme-cause she's titi's little princess. I need to get a picture of her in her little tutu. Oh and I also made the invites.



Along with the fruit basket I made these chocolate princess lollipops. I also made little white chocolate wands as the favors. (need a pic)



Cupcake bouquet. Cutest thing ever.

You will notice I don't have a cake for course 2 ;( I couldn't finish the course. My instructor had an emergency and was gone for 3 weeks, when she returned my schedule had changed so I couldn't do the finale cake. I guess I'll have to retake it.

And to end this fun post, I have to say that I made my first ever marshmallow fondant and I LOVE it!! Hmmm, is just sooo yummy. I think I might eat the fondant by itself and no even bother with the cake- I can always shape it like a cake and cut it in slices. hahahaha

On that funny note, I leave you my friends (thanks Leelee for being my lone subscriber). Gotta get ready for my Gumpaste and Fondant course on Thursday. My life is all kinds of exciting.

Coquo ergo sum

(Or loosely translated "I bake (cook) therefore I am) I'm sure Descartes would be happy I'm using his quote in this manner.

Have you ever done something that made you feel like you "were"? well, if you have that's how I feel about baking. If you haven't PLEASE i beg you go find a hobby, a job just "something" that makes you happy. I think I've found that in baking.

For full disclosure- I LOVE crafts. All forms of it: sewing, knitting, scrapbooking, stamping. I was born and raised in a country were arts and crafts were a subject all throughout Junior High!! I will also admit/confess that I am the laziest person EVER! So my cards or my scrapbooks are half way finished, which I think is the reason I love baking so much- there's no tomorrow when it comes to baking, or as I like to say it: Frosting waits for no one. hahaha

After baking cupcakes for years, I finally decided to enroll in the Wilton's cake decorating classes at AC Moore. I took course 1 and LOVED it. Not so much making those buttercream roses, took course 2 and learned how to use color flow and Royal Icing. I just completed course 3 and I met my true love: Fondant!!! well, it tastes yucky (at least the Wilton does) so I have been looking into making my own with one of my favorite foods: marshmallows. Hmm I can just taste it.
I'm already enrolled for course 4 starting this week (10/8) and this Sunday I'm taking a cupcake bouquet- gotta expand my horizons you know.

I have been very lucky to have a friend who's a master cake maker/baker. This woman ROCKS!!!! her name's Leelee and you have to see her creations. She's amazing at cake making and she's even better at sharing all her tips, recipes, etc. If you're reading this and live in the Miami area check out her website . Actually, check out her website even if you live far. lol She's a sweetheart and she takes wonderful care of her customers. Love you Leelee mi compa!

Leelee has sent me to check out cakecentral.com and this is the place to be if you want to learn to bake, decorate or just look at cakes. Check this out too.

Enough about me, I hope you stick around to see my creations and see how much I grow in this sweet journey. I promise I'll be more diligent in posting pics and other items in this blog than the other 2 (!!!)...