My "I tried to be Martha" Rainbow Cake

Let me start by saying that I absolutely LOVE the look of this cake.

I've made it several times, and am always trying to sneak another in here and there. Perhaps red, white and blue for July 4th, shades of pink and/or blue for a baby shower... ohhhh, the possibilities are endless! Almost everyone asked if each layer was a flavor.... Really? Would you want six different flavors in your mouth at the same time? Blech. Nope - all white cake based with food coloring. If you do a pink cake, you can make some with a strawberry flavoring. But keep the cake to one flavor.

The first time I made it was for my good friend Jenn's birthday. I was so excited to see how the finished cake would look. Making it wasn't bad. Easy, in fact... once I got down how much batter per cake. I can tell you that the puppies were loving the rainbow cake scraps.

Here's what the un-finished cake looked like when stacked:

The finished cake: (let me just say that a 10" round cake - six tiers - has over 4 lbs. of buttercream frosting!!!!

And here it is cut into.... Doesn't it look awesome??

Here's the link to Martha's post... Try this cake. You'll be so glad you did!!

Baby Shower Fun...

Making the goodies for Michelle's shower was so much fun! And if you know me, I tend to get a bit obsessive. Can you believe it? Me? Obsessive? Ha!

After I designed her invitations, had them printed, found a typo, fixed them, and had them reprinted and then mailed, I figured I had better get on the ball and do the edibles.

Let's start with the centerpieces and favors:
I purchased round galvanized tubs and wanted to make the centerpieces look like rubber ducks in tubs. Thankfully, Michelle's friend Allison came to the rescue and offered to make the "bubbles". We were up in the air about oreos or marshmallows - so she tried them both and decided that chocolate covered marshmallows were best. And so she made hundreds.... Yay!

I then wanted to put large duck cookies in each "tub". So I found an awesome cookie cutter in the shape of a large rubber duck and made those. I rolled them out pretty thick because I needed them to be able to stand up in the tub. I added a thick cookie stick and baked them to a light barely-golden brown. When cooled, I cut yellow fondant using the same cookie cutter and applied with piping gel. Easy as pie! At the shower, we stuck the duck cookie into floral foam to stand it upright, added some tissue paper and threw in the marshmallows. They were adorable!

For the favors, I bought a smaller duck cookie cutter, made thick sugar cookies and covered those with fondant, as well. Let me just tell you that "frosting" a sugar cookie with fondant is a gazillion times easier than frosting it with royal icing. And every one of them looks the same!

For the cupcakes:
I wanted to offer three different flavors of cupcakes, so I decided to differentiate between them with different cupcake liners. In all of my craziness, time was slipping away and I knew that I'd NEVER get the fondant duckies done in time - and that would have made me vomit. Sooooo I contacted a seller on Etsy and asked if she could make them for me. She was so awesome to work with and had them in the mail to me in a few days. She was truly a life saver!! Here's her shop if you want to take a look: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TwoSugarBabies I ended up making raspberry filled cupcakes, lava fudge, and peanut butter chocolate. I wasn't too fond of how the peanut butter buttercream was when it was tinted blue, but in the interest of time and sanity, it was what it was!! I frosted the cupcakes with a large round tip and made "bubbles" on top - then set the fondant duckie on top of the bubbles.

For Michelle's personal cake:
I wanted to make her her own cake to take home and enjoy - and she absolutely LOVES my raspberry cupcakes - so it was a no-brainer that she'd be getting a raspberry cake. I made a 6" round cake (3" high), filled it with my homemade raspberry filling and topped it with buttercream. Then I covered the cake with fondant. Let me just say that Michelle LOVED her cake. I gave her extra buttercream frosting, too -- and you know that baby Frankie was certainly pleased with Auntie Lisa that day!!!

Halloween Treats....

I know, sorry these are being published so late. It would be thoroughly embarrassing to post a Halloween post in December, but I'm right in under the gun!! I'm trying to catch up on my posts, so now you'll be inundated with cupcakes. Careful what you wish for!!

I had quite a few orders for Halloween weekend and knew immediately which cupcakes I was going to make for the kiddie parties. Mummies. I made these last year and they were a hit - so I figured they would be great, along with some "tombstones" this year.

The mummies are super easy to make - and the tombstones are even easier! Let's face it, I had 300+ cupcakes to make, and I was definitely looking to make something easy!!

Here's how to make the mummies:

The picture below shows 3 stages -- the unfrosted cupcake, the skim coat frosted, and the finished mummy. I always put a thin spread of chocolate frosting underneath the white "gauze" so that the eyes pop from the chocolate and the chocolate makes the space with the eyes look "empty". Ghoulish, if you will.

First start by infusing your cupcake with frosting. Everyone loves a little surprise when they bite into a cupcake and are greeted with frosting. My fans are spoiled now -- because every cupcake they bite into they expect to be infused. I've created monsters. hahaha -- that's my Halloween humor for the day. :)

Gently frost the top of the cupcake with a chocolate frosting (I use buttercream). Then use a pastry bag with a flat tip to shape the outline of where the eyes are going to go. Using 2 M&Ms, place them slightly on the bottom eye strip for the eyes.

Then outline the entire cupcake - and fill in the rest of the "face" (except the eye space) with your buttercream "gauze". Your LAST gauze strip should slightly overlap the TOPS of the M&Ms.

And now for the tombstones...

I saw these online a few days before Halloween and thought they'd be fun to make for the kids. And so, so, so simple! What could be easier than crushed Oreos and Milano cookies??

I infused some chocolate cupcakes with buttercream, then generously frosted the tops of the cupcakes and rolled them in finely crushed Oreos to give the look of dirt. How yummy!! Then, I took a Milano cookie, used an edible marker to write RIP on it, and stuck it in the "dirt". Voila! The kids loved 'em!!

Does your Family Tree have some loose leaves??

I don't even remember where I came across this idea, but I instantly fell in love with it. Maybe because I'm a glutton for punishment and nothing I ever make is simple. Something about these random "messy" trees and the cute little leaf sprinkles just made me all warm and fuzzy inside. OK, that's an exaggeration. I just thought these were super cute and wouldn't take too much time to make.

I used a base chocolate cake - and infused the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. I then tinted the buttercream green (I left the infusion white - because there was just something "odd" about biting into a cupcake and seeing green cream).

For the trees, I melted some Mercken's chocolate in a double boiler and transferred it to a squeeze bottle. I freehanded some trees onto parchment paper - and learned after too many times - to leave a longer truck to stick into the cupcakes. As soon as I piped the trees with the chocolate, I used a tweezer to place the leaves where I wanted them. I know, I could have just sprinkled them on the trees, but I'm too anal for that. I found the leaf sprinkles in a variety pack at AC Moore/Michaels -- but found a 12oz bag of them online, so I'm all stocked up now.

I lightly frosted the cupcakes with my off-set spatula and then used a Wilton grass tip to pipe the grass on the cupcakes. Once the trees were hardened (just a few minutes), I very carefully stuck them in the cupcakes towards the back so I could sprinkle some extra leaves towards the front. Click on the picture below to see a larger image.

I loved this design so much that I think I'm going to use them for our place settings for Thanksgiving dinner. You'll notice that I made larger fondant leaves and put names on them. I'll do that for each guest and put their cupcake on their plate at the table.

Little Miss Ladybug Cake & Cupcakes

This was probably the most fun project I've worked on to date. I was asked by a customer to make a ladybug cake for her daughter's first birthday. She showed me something similar to what she wanted and my first impression was "oh boy... how do I do THAT??". And then the wheels started spinning. We're talking about a first birthday party. With kids. And lots of them. What a disaster a tiered fondant cake would be -- to cut, to serve, to eat. So I suggested cupcakes and a smash cake for the birthday girl.

I decided to use butter cream for the smash cake (for those of you who don't know what a smash cake is, it's a little cake that gets "smashed" for photos) because the point of a smash cake is to be, well, messy! Fondant wouldn't give you the same effect. But for the cupcakes, I wanted a clean, smooth look to them that butter cream wouldn't give.

I used a ball pan for the smash cake body. It's pretty big - maybe 6" diameter. For the head, I flattened some black fondant into a round disc. I then used my edible paper and food coloring printer to print a "face", and adhered that to the black fondant disc when it hardened. For the body, I used a star tip for the pink and black, and of course added green "grass" frosting around the base. My hands were KILLING me when I was finished, but it came out great and the customer LOVED it!!

Then it was time for the cupcakes. I needed 75, so I did three different designs - 25 of each. Each had a different cake flavor and a different butter cream infusion and thin spread of frosting underneath the fondant.

My first thought was to have Brittany help with the little fondant ladybugs. They had to be made days in advance because they had to dry enough to make the dots on them with the edible marker. So she helped... for 10 minutes. Then it became boring for her. But that was a HUGE problem because hers were perfectly shaped and mine looked horrendous. No bribery in the world would make her take days to make me ladybugs. Two days before the order was due, at way past midnight.... Erik and I were working on some of the other details while I was stressing about making hundreds of ladybugs.... and there it was. Right there on my counter, caught out of the corner of my eye.... PERFECT!! I noticed that my flip measuring spoons are perfectly shaped (1/2 circle) -- and the smallest size was a perfect ladybug size. Honestly, that shining moment in my non-double oven kitchen made me feel like I had just won the lottery. Ok, maybe not a million dollar lottery, but maybe a $10 scratch-off. So I went to work popping out little ladybug bodies for the next 15 minutes and 200 were done! I went to bed with a huge smile on my face that night!!! Here's Erik putting dots and a stripe on the bug bodies... and a shot of some of the bug bodies waiting for their heads.... haha

I used a round cookie cutter to cut the fondant cupcake covers, used a leaf cookie cutter for the leaf, a flower ones for the flowers, and rolled the stems out and thinned them at the edges. I think the next time I make these, I'll make larger circles on the pink ones. They look a little lost to me.



So, so, so much fun to make these!! And they gave me the courage to make some more fun fondant toppers. I'm working on a HUGE Mario Brothers theme for a party this weekend. Stay tuned for a recap and some pictures!!

Make a Splash!

So you may remember in a previous post that I always use a pastry bag/tip to frost -- but on certain projects, that's just not possible. I had a party order last week for a friend's son's birthday pool/pizza party. She's a great mom - and planned a wonderful party for the kids. They had pizza makers come with their portable ovens and had each of the kids make their own pizzas. Great fun! It was also a pool party - and what better treat than cupcakes decorated in the theme! (of course!!).

So I made these..... vanilla cake with a vanilla butter cream infusion - topped with delicious butter cream frosting - and a cookie!! The cookies are decorated with an edible printed frosting sheet, attached to the cookie with royal icing and edged in sanding sugars.

It was also Matthew's daddy's birthday - so he was quite surprised to see a cookie for him, too! it totally made my week when my friend Roseann left me a 2-minute voice message on Monday telling me how everyone LOVED the cupcakes and how Matthew savors one each night after dinner. Nothing is more precious than a little boy with a blue tongue savoring his birthday sweets!!

Here's a close-up of the edible printed papers for the cookies...

Basic Buttercream Frosting... I've tried probably a dozen recipes for basic vanilla buttercream. They're all so similar - many just a little more of this or a little less of that. Here's the recipe for one that I don't find obnoxiously, overpoweringly sweet...

Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter, softened
3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla (I use a potent vanilla - if you use regular vanilla, increase to 1 tsp)

Cream butter, then add sugar one cup at a time. When combined, add milk and vanilla. If you like the frosting more fluffy, add a little more milk.

Peanut Butter Perfection

This is probably my most requested cupcake. Eyes light up when I walk into the dance studio holding a tray of these babies. I've even had friends order them by the dozen for their own birthdays with no intention of sharing. These are spectacular. You'll see!

Make your standard-size chocolate or devil's food cupcakes (though you may also consider using a muffin pan so you get a bigger cupcake because these are THAT good!!)

For the Peanut Butter Creme filling:
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 TBSP unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
4 TBSP milk
Mix the peanut butter and butter together with an electric mixer. Add the sugar gradually. The mix will be crumbly. Add milk one TBSP at a time and beat on medium until fluffy.

Using a pastry bag with a large star/round tip, poke the tip through the top of the cupcake and squeeze the filling in. You'll feel it bulk up and when it starts to come out the top where the tip is, it's enough.

For the Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing (Wilton's):
Ingredients:
* 1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening (I use Crisco)
* 1/3 cup butter (I use salted)
* 3/4 cup peanut butter (sometimes I put in a full cup)
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (use a GOOD vanilla)
* 4 cups (approx. 1 lb.) confectioners' sugar, sifted
* 4-6 tablespoons milk (more milk = more of a whipped frosting)
Makes: About 3 cups

Instructions: Cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add peanut butter and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk, one tablespoon at a time, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Keep icing covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Re-whip before using.
I used a large star tip (Wiltons 1M) to pipe the icing on the cupcakes -- it goes very quick and looks professionally done. The picture above was NOT done using a 1M... when I make my next batch of PB, I will take some new pictures.

For toppings, I've used: micro chocolate chips, chocolate sprinkles, chopped Reese's, brown sanding sugar, etc. These were made using a 1M and shows some of the toppings I use. (Yes, I know these are vanilla cupcakes...)

Note: I will often use the peanut butter buttercream frosting as the filling. If you find it easier to make only one recipe, go ahead and use the buttercream for both.