Nap time.

I haven't departed the blogging world entirely.. I'm just taking a nap.

I guess the vanity cake and all of it's stresses (not exactly cake-related) took it all out of me and I needed a break.
Also, my daughter and I went camping this last weekend, and I've been trying desperatly to recover.

I will be posting again soon though, I'm working on a sugary, liquory cake-heaven, as well as the appropriate presentation for it. Soon my dearies, soon.

In other news, I am going to try to start up a personal blog, family and such. I'll link it once it's live.

Baked goods are the best goods.

Ain't that the truth.

Red Velvet Cookies

One day in summer (late July to be precise) I needed butter cream.. I made butter cream... and for some reason it tasted all wrong. So i tried to fix it by adding things. Cream Cheese being one of them. I ended up with a tasty cream cheese frosting.. and a need to start over and make some plain butter cream for the original purpose.

So what do you do when you have a bunch of cream cheese butter cream sitting around in the freezer?
You make Red Velvet! But I need a cake break - so I mooshed the general idea of Red Velvet Cake a bit to get some Red Velvet Cookies! Hurrah. They're tasty and soft.


Red Velvet Cookies
(This recipie makes like 500 times more frosting than you need, I'd scale it back to about 1/4 of this.)

3/4 cup butter (unsalted)
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 heaping tbsp cocoa
1 1/2 of those plastic little containers of liquid red food coloring (i only had neon colours, and so mine are kinda purply because i used 1 hot pink and 1/2 violet)
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp white vinegar (next time I think I would use 1/2 - 1 tbsp more)



Fluff together butter and sugars. Mix eggs in one at a time until well incorporated. In separate small bowl mix vanilla, food colouring and cocoa until a paste. Add to mixer and blend. Add flour ans salt and beat. Now, in a cup, over the mixing bowl, combine vinegar and baking soda. Make sure any fizzles end up in the bowl, mix with a spoon, and dump into mixing bowl - beat well.

Spoon onto greased cookie sheet in teaspoon balls, at least 3 in apart. bake in preheated oven at 350 for about 10 minutes or until fluffed up and done-looking.
let cool on sheet for 5 minutes, and then transfer to cooling rack.

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup salted butter
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup crisco
3/4 10 oz can (that would be 7.5 oz, yo) evaporated milk
1/2 cup or so cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar (not exact)
2 tsp vanilla

cream butters, crisco and cream cheese together. Add milk and vanilla, mix well. add sugar until desired consistency/taste.

You can have your cake - and cookie too!

How is it I've never seen a cookie cake? Seriously, why would you NOT do this?
Nice, thick cookies, frosted or, cake the texture and taste of soft cookies, whatever you think it is* - it's good stuff.


Chocolate Chip** Cookie Cake

1/2 Cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 table spoon baking soda
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
package of chips or nuts or whatever of your choice

Preheat oven to 350
Beat butter, shortening, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time incorporating completely. Beat in vanilla and baking soda. Beat in flour until combined. Stir in extras as desired (i used mini peanut butter cups)
Pour into baking dish of choice - I used two 6in round cake pans.
Bake until done - this is the hard part.

I pulled one out after 40 mins when it passed the toothpick test - turned it out on a cooling rack - and it started to drip uncooked middle! So test with a knife, press the center and look for a feeling of firmness. These took about 50 minutes each to finish cooking in the 6in round pans - they were pretty thick cakes though, so I expect they'd cook better in 8in rounds.

When they're cool you'll have a *really big* cookie, that's just soft enough to cut with a knife when cool.
I frosted mine with a very simple buttercream - no vanilla flavour added, to give it more of a "cookies and milk" taste.

*It's the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipie from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, with added eggs and baking soda.
**Chocolate Chips, Butterscotch Chips, White Chocolate Chips, Peanut Butter Chips, Mini Peanut Butter Cups.. etc

Really Big Cupcakes!

I have a large co-worker. Not large like you are thinking, no, large as in very tall. Big guy! He's like 6'7" or something. So anyway, one day, he was in Costco when he saw thier cupcakes - big cupcakes for a big guy! Cupcakes that would make him feel "normal"! He was so excited that it was decided these cupcakes must be purchased and brought to the weekend BBQ. I caught wind of this and tsk'tsked the cupcakes, assuring them all that i could make larger, better cupcakes!
So I did.
Least, I think I did. I, however, have a high opinion of myself.

I also made normal cupcakes, the size difference between the two is best demonstrated in the below photo, which portrays Des enjoying a normal every-day cupcake, and Zeke (the tall guy) consuming a GIANT CUPCAKE.


I should ahve made tiny cupcakes too. Next time!

Lessons Learned from the Vanity Project

Dan, having lived through me while making that cake wanted to be sure that I assess and record all the lessons learned about this cake - so it doesn't happen again!

He's so awesome. The cake I had planned was actually larger than the finished project by 2 more cakes - but at the last hour, we decided that the cake stand just wouldn't be sturdy enough to hold it all. He was my voice of reason as I started freaking out, claiming that the cake was a huge disaster and mistake (about 11 pm night before cake delivery).

So anyway... here are some points to consider while making a large cake with a specialty cake stand.

• Even if you have months to plan, everything will still fall apart at the final hour, and usually end up OK


• Test and verify the integrity of your cake stand BEFORE putting the cake on it


• Assemble on site if at all possible


• If your favorite piece of the whole thing breaks, it's OK because no one will notice the gluing except you


• Royal icing is an awesome glue


• I need to practice laying fondant. Like - a lot


• Poured sugar is mysterious and devious, perhaps learning more in depth the science behind it all would help. Who knows, man I hate working with sugar.


• Storing poured sugar: wrap well in plastic wrap. Make sure any gum paste or fondant pieces with it are totally dry first. Use silica gel - be sure to check and dry out the silica if needed often.


• When cooking poured sugar, once you reach clarity, turn the burner way up.


• Leveling a cake is a two person job.


• A Dremel is not just a garage tool.


• Husbands are amazing and quite indispensable. Listen to the husband, he's sane while on the last night before the cake is due - you are not.


• Measure the fridge and your cake stand before anything begins


• Figure out and plan how you will transport the cake ahead of time. measure the car and your cake stand before anything begins.


• Clean as you work. clean clean clean. leaving it all for after is a bad idea because you'll be exhausted


• Yey Rockstar!


• If you have a cake in multiple pieces that will end up being under one sheet of fondant, be sure that you have a board big enough to hold the whole thing, 'cause you're going to have to *move* it all as one piece.

KMR Make-Up Academy Vanity

DONE.
Finally.
I just got back from dropping it off with Kristi Ryan, the make-up artist, teacher, and owner of KMR Make-Up Academy, which is now open!

This cake has been... a bit more than I knew it would be. It didn't end up like I thought it would, but I think I'm happy with the results. Krstie was very excited about it, and that's the thrill about cake making.

I learned so much from this cake. I feel like I should blog about it all, but really, for now, I'm going to sit here with a big beer while Des naps and stare at the TV for a while. I'm exhausted. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Brandy for helping me get it there :)

Here are some photos.




This cake is 24" x 16" in the vanity, and 10" diameter in the chair.
The Chair is a white cake with lemon butter cream and MM fondant.
The Vanity is white cake with butter cream and fresh sliced strawberries, all under MM fondant.
The mirror is a combo of poured sugar and gum paste.
The accessories are all gum paste.
The cake stands are wooden bases covered and styled with gum paste.












And here is my original planning design. Mad Photoshop skills here.

KMR Cake Update

Today I painted (Yes, I've been really taking my time on this thing. The event has been pushed forward enough that I've been lazy about actually working on it)
These still un-finished pieces are sitting on top of part of the cake stand. I have gum paste EVERYWHERE. And the other day, I took a Dremel to some of the larger gum paste pieces! (Instead of sawdust, i was covered in sugar!) It's been an adventure.

Des painted too.

An Itsy Bitsy Wedding

My friends Chris and Brandy were legally wed yesterday (Yey California!!!) in a small ceremony. I decided to make a small wedding cake to mark the event - because you just have to have cake! It's fashioned to look like a single sugar cube (we always gifted Chris sugar cubes for her birthday, it's an old joke/tradition - and coincidentally yesterday was also Chris' birthday!)
The interlocking hearts are poured sugar.
The cake was a simple white cake.
Chocolate ganache between the layers.
Violet buttercream and white chocolate fondant, all dusted with loads of sugar.




I really wish I had gotten better photos. I need to actually start staging things instead of taking haphazard, last minute "OH! I should blog this!" photos.

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts all on a summer's day

Had some berries going bad, so Dan requested I figure out what to do with them.

The tart is reminiscent of a delicate Orange Juilus flavor, the berries add a nice bite to it all. After Dan's first bite - of the still-warm-not-quite-set-I'm-too-impatient-to-wait-till-it-cools-all-the-way-tart was a sudden - distracted from WOW - "Oh MMM!"

Orange Cream Berry Tart

Shortbread Crust

2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp or so salt

preheat 350
Beat butter, shortening and sugar till light and fluffy
mix in flour, salt, and baking powder
press into greased pan on bottom and up sides - it'll be rather thick.
prick all over with a fork to avoid too much puffing
Bake 15 minutes or till just starts to turn golden brown.

Orange Cream Tart

4 eggs
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2/3 cup orange juice
2/3 cup whole milk or cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients, mix to blended well, try not to overmix. Strain out the larger egg yolk lumps as you pour into the cooked pie crust.
Cook in oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes. the middle will be runny - it'll become sold as it cools. Cool completely.

I topped this tart with three different berries, blackberries, raspberries and .. white raspberries?