Tall Cake

My cake decorating classes are limited now that I've completed all three Wilton courses.  Thankfully, my instructor told me she was offering a one day class, Tall Cakes.  The course was about how to construct stacked cakes & we were instructed to bring a 10" cake and a 6" cake. Until the day of the class, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the cake, which meant I still hadn't decided how to decorate the cake.

Luckily, my instructor came to my rescue and taught us how to pipe corneille lace.  I added a few flowers, and I was set!

The bottom layer is a rich chocolate cake, layered with dark chocolate swiss meringue buttercream and strawberries.  The top layer is white almond cake layed with dark chocolate swiss meringue buttercream.  The cake was iced in dark chocolate swiss meringue buttercream, or, my new favorite frosting.  The lace piping was done with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.  I used royal icing apple blossoms and primroses (look familiar?) for a finishing touch.

Flower Cake

My final cake for Wilton's Flower & Cake Design Course:

For my final cake, I used an 8" square cake.  The cake is white almond vanilla, with raspberry filling.  I frosted it in Swiss Meringue Butter Cream, which was also used for the piping detail.  The flowers are made from royal icing - on the sides are apple blossoms and on top are primroses.

Blog update

I added new pages to act as a gallery of different cupcakes, cakes, and treats I have made but not blogged, & an "about me" page!

Check them out!

Baptism Cake

Here's another cake I did this weekend... I was busy!

This was a baptism cake for a baby girl.  The mom requested a simple design, and this is what I came up with:

White almond cake, filled & iced with vanilla almond buttercream.  The cross is made out of fondant flowers, and the cake also had a pink fondant stripe border around the bottom.

Baby Shower Cake

I made this two-tiered cake this past week for a baby shower.  The bottom layers were white cake with vanilla buttercream, and the top layers were red velvet, also filled with vanilla buttercream.  The cake was covered in marshmallow fondant.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Swirled Brownies

Peanut butter and chocolate is a classic combination.  I'm also a fan of cheesecake swirled brownies, which meant that peanut butter cheesecake swirled brownies had to be a winning combination.

I did cheat a little and use a box mix for the brownie base - I went with a Hershey's dark chocolate brownie that you add the special dark syrup to - since I was short on time.  The peanut butter cheesecake swirl was easy to mix up, and these brownies baked up beautifully!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Swirled Brownies
from Annie's Eats
For the peanut butter cheesecake swirl:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
6 tbsp. sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray.  Prepare your favorite brownie batter.  Pour the brownie batter into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top with a spatula.


To make the peanut butter cheesecake portion, combine the cream cheese, peanut butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until completely smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Blend in the egg and vanilla until incorporated, scraping down the bowl as needed.
Drop spoonfuls of the peanut butter mixture over the brownie batter in the pan, creating a cobblestone appearance.  Use a knife or wooden skewer to gently swirl together the peanut butter mixture and brownie batter.  Bake 30-35 minutes, until the center is just set.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature.  Cover and refrigerate until well chilled before slicing and serving.

Spaghetti & Meatballs

I made some delicious spaghetti & meatballs for dinner last night...

APRIL FOOLS!

Ok, so I made some delicious cupcakes last night.  And made them look like spaghetti & meatballs.  Super easy & super cute!  You still have time to make these and fool someone today!

What you'll need:

24 cupcakes - use your favorite cupcake recipe (I used my go-to chocolate cake recipe)
1 batch of buttercream icing (recipe below)
Icing/food coloring (I used Wilton's Buttercup)
24 Ferrero Rocher chocolates (I used the Rondnoir dark chocolate ones)
1 jar of strawberry/raspberry jam or sauce

Bake cupcakes and let cool.  Prepare buttercream icing:

1 stick butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup shortening (used to help the "noodles" hold their shape)
4 cups (or 1 lb) powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 to 4 Tbsp heavy cream

Cream the butter and shortening with a mixer until well mixed and fluffy.  Gradually add in the powdered sugar, and then beat on medium speed for a minute.  Add vanilla & half of the cream.  Beat until combined & fluffy.  You want a thinner consistency here, so use the rest of the cream as needed to achieve a loose, but not runny, frosting.  Color with a yellow icing gel to get a noodle color.

Pipe onto cupcakes using a piping bag and #5 tip.  If you don't have a piping bag or tip, you can use a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off.  To make the noodles, simply hold the bag about 6 inches above the cupcake and squeeze.  The noodles will really form themselves, just move the bag around to completely cover the cupcake in noodles.

Once the noodles are piped on, place your jam in a bowl and stir to loosen it up.  Place the chocolates in and cover them in jam, then spoon onto the top of the cupcake.  You can add an extra dollop of jam on top of the meatball and help it spill down the sides.

See how easy it was?  You still have time to whip up a batch and fool someone!

Cupcake idea from Hello, Cupcake!