Monday, February 18, 2013

Mini-Cupcakes!!!

Who doesn't love mini-cupcakes! They're a perfect little bite sized treat. I had some extra batter left over from the cakes I baked for class tomorrow (pictures of that cake will be up soon), so I decided to make mini-cupcakes. It actually worked out to make exactly 2 dozen.


I decorated them with green buttercream frosting and added the extra buttercream flowers I would not be using next week. I love the look of the mini-cupcakes with the larger flowers too!
So cute!!!



Friday, February 15, 2013

Gluten-free, Sugar-free Chocolate cupcakes

In an attempt to make a yummy treat for my in-laws I discovered a new gluten and sugar free cupcake recipe. They taste okay, not great but just okay. Absolutely need to perfect my recipe but for a first attempt they are pretty great. I also got to use the hearts and flowers I made last night.

The flourless dough:


Baked cupcakes actually looked better than I expected:



I whipped up some SugarFree vanilla buttercream to go ontop:
 
I topped the cupcakes with the buttercream and added the toppers I had made a few nights before (http://sherilynncakes.blogspot.com/2013/02/hearts-flowers.html) 



For Sugar Free and Gluten Free cupcakes...they look pretty cute! Haha! :) 


Hearts & Flowers

Last night, being Valentine's Day, I wanted to bake and make something fun. So, I pulled out all of my leftover frosting from class last week and worked on some different types and shapes of flowers, as well as some heart cuz well...it's Valentine's Day :)

















Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Figure Piping

This week in class we learned a wide variety of figure piping skills. A very wide variety :)

The first few that we learned were birds - ducks, swans, and a stork. I love these animals! They are adorable and can be used in so many ways on so many different themed cakes. I can't wait to try them on a real cake.






The next is a very adorable creature. It is supposed to be a dinosaur. I think he makes an awfully cute dragon. But in all honestly...he looks like an alligator. Haha! :) Whatever he is he is cute! It'll be interesting to find out how to use him on cakes. Maybe at the bottom of a volcano or in a little nest. I'll have to experiment with him.



The next thing I learned to pipe were grapes (like I said, a wide variety of things this week). I had the wrong tip this week, one size larger, so my grapes are more like table grapes and less like wine grapes but they work.



And the last thing that we worked on were clowns. Belch! I am not a fan. Will probably never make these again but it was an important lesson on spacing and placing things on the cake.


Sunday, February 10, 2013

Doll Dress Cake #1

My 7yr old daughter was truly excited for this week, so my dress was designed for her.
The main goal was learning a small zigzag and ruffles. I will be making many more dolls for all of my daughters friends, so I am sure the styles and varieties will change drastically.

I purchased the Wilton Doll Dress Cake Pan set for this project. I understand that it is possible to cut and shape a dress but for $20 the cake pan was just an easier option for me.

I baked red velvet this week, and made 2 batches of frosting colored pink and white (with a little red/green for the roses). I didn't fill my cake this week but I might split and fill it the next time I make it.


I mapped out my basic dress design, drew it with pink and then decided where I wanted me ruffles and zigzags. I chose ruffles for the dress, zigzags for the underdress.



When I finished my dress, I made three small rosebuds on toothpicks and placed them in her arms.


I also grabbed a few flowers to help embellish the dress and add a little detail.



Buttercream Flowers

Ooohhh! I am so excited to share this with you this week! One of my favorite weeks so far (saying a lot since its only my 3rd cake class ever! Haha!).
I am extremely excited with the many color and size possibilities for these flowers. Can't wait to play with them more!

The first flower I learned was a simple 5 petal flower, which could be used for any flower from a wild rose to a small cherry/apple blossom. Very versatile!



The next flower (one of my personal favorites!) is the sweet pea. A very simple and small flower, which can be piped onto a rose nail or directly on the cake. I love this delicate, small flower. Could be beautiful all over a cake in various colors.



We learned two different methods to make the next flower, a daffodil. Both worked but the second method is my fav! I think it just looks a little more natural, it does require a little more finesse but it's worth it. We also used orange piping gel for the inside detail. I love these! Super cute for a springtime cake!



And now onto our regular roses. We are making our roses on rose sticks, which I originally thought would be harder than the nail but I was super impressed with look of the finished roses. The first rose was a rose I made after switching colors, giving me the ombré effect. The second rose was just my traditional rose. I know they need work! Lol! 




After those we moved onto daisies. I had a harder time with these, but there were two techniques and the second (resulting in a hippy style daisy) was the one that I gravitated towards. It was easy and produced a nice result.



After that we worked on some bachelor buttons, one of my favorite real flowers. They turned out well, but I think I would've liked them better if I had colored them more accurately.


Our final flowers were the VERY basic drop flowers. Pretty simple buy used often in cake decorating.