Anchor Cupcake Tower with Small Navy Cake

This week I had a request for some cupcakes, with a small cake to top the cupcake tower. It was for a birthday/navy/going-away party.

I immediately thought of anchors for the cupcake toppers. So I went and picked up a chocolate mold that had anchors the size I needed. I also picked up black, white, and yellow candy melts to make the anchors. As well as some pearl color mist to give them a silver shine/shimmer. 

I painted the yellow candy melts into the chocolate mold (where the rope was showing around the anchor), and then poured melted grey candy melts (made using black and white) over the top. Tap it a few times on the counter to work out the air bubbles, and place it in the freezer to set for a second or two. Then turned out onto wax paper and sprayed with the pearl color mist.

I LOVED how these turned out!!! They looked exactly like real anchors, with that pearl shimmer making them look like metal. They turned out better than I could have wished for! 

After having the toppers finished and set aside, I started planning out the small cake that would be the topper on my cupcake stand. I had a styrofoam dummy cake (that is used to practice decorating, or as a filler in larger cakes to cut costs) that was exactly the right size (a 6in round) so I was able to get on my computer, play with some graphics, print them and size them to fit on the cake perfectly. 

Then I was able to send that image off to my local decorating store, where they printed off the image on an edible sugar sheet. It was a really amazing process. Makes me want to have my own image printer. 

I was able to cut the images out and simply place them onto the icing. 

They really turned out amazingly! I love the crisp look of it. And, as someone who is kind of artistically challenged, it was the EASIEST way to add major impact to your cakes! 

Sadly the day I delivered this cake it was very hot and it was made out of cream cheese frosting....so, yea...it melted a little. Just slightly lopsided, but still very beautiful all put together. 

Overall I am very happy with how this cupcake tower turned out. 

Everyone there really loved it!

And as a little gift from Mom to her new sailor, a 'mom' tattoo :)

Black & White Damask Cupcakes

My friend was having a baby shower for her (upcoming) baby girl. She asked if I could make some cupcakes for it and, of course, I jumped at the opportunity. 

The colors/theme for her party was black, white, hot pink, and a damask pattern. I was lucky enough to find this amazing damask cupcake stand and hot pink foil cupcake papers. PERFECT for the theme of the party!!! 

I also made some bow toppers out of candy melts (in black and white) and sprayed them with a pearl color mist. They turned out well. 

I made 12 vanilla cupcakes...

And 12 chocolate...

Then placed the black bow on the vanilla cupcakes...

And the white bows on the chocolate cupcakes...

Then, when I got to the party, I arranged them on the damask cupcake stand. Trying my hardest not to smear black/white frosting on the wrong cupcake :) 

But I am very happy with the final product! The whole stand looks great!

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!!!

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 :)

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.