Wedding Cupcake Tier

Ok so it has been awhile once again. My life as a new teacher has kept me busy what can I say. I hope to start baking soon again as I have 2 big cupcake orders this month :) Just easing myself back in.

In the meantime, here is a wedding cake and cupcake tier I made back in September for a friend of mine. I used fresh flowers to garnish each tier of cupcakes. The cake topper is just vanilla cake with a vanilla SMBC that I iced in a rustic way. I was really happy with the way this turned out :)

Circus Birthday

Here's another birthday cake I created for a friend's son's 1st birthday.  I was challenged with a circus theme that in the end turned out to be one of my favorite cakes I have done in awhile.  First time I've used rice krispy treats which I used for the top of the circus tent.  I also loved my lil' elephant - I didn't want to part with him ;-)

 Happy Birthday Knox!!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday

This weekend I created a cake for a very good friend of mine.  It was her son's first birthday!  When she told me she wanted to do The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle, my head was already swirling with ideas.  I have been wanting to do this themed cake for awhile.  Not just because it is so cute, but it has always been a childhood favorite of mine too ;-)  After scouring pinterest and the internet for ideas, I came up with this version.  I love the part when the caterpillar eats all the different foods and used that to design the cake board.  The caterpillar and butterfly were molded with fondant.

 

 

This was such a fun cake to make. Definitely one of my top cakes ;-)  Happy 1st Birthday Brayden!!

Golf Cake

It's been quite awhile since I've blogged last!  I finally graduated with my masters of arts degree in teaching and have been actively looking for the right teaching job.  I've also been taking advantage of my free time this summer by planning my wedding for next year.  As for baking, I did my first cake of 2012 a few weeks ago for some of our very closest friends.  

In October of 2010 my fiancee and I introduced two of our mutual friends - Charl and Nicole.  They feel in love and got married this past June 24th.  Since I was in the wedding party there was no way for me to do the actual cake for the wedding, so instead I made a groom's cake for the rehearsal dinner. 

Charl loves golf so we decided on a golf theme red velvet cake.  I cheated a bit and bought the golf cart, but personalized it by painting the South African flag on top (that's where he is originally from). 

Charl and Nicole - It was such an honor to be apart of your special day!!  Congrats!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I am dedicating this weekend's post to my mom! It's her birthday Sunday October 23rd. I made her a simple little cake with fun sprinkles - it reminded me of my childhood. It was my mother who instilled my love of baking. Here I am with my little pink mixer... scrambling eggs was what I did best at 4 years old ;-)

Aside from baking, my mom has always been there for me. She is a strong woman I've always looked up to. She made sure my brother and I had all the opportunities we could growing up.
But lately my mom has been going through a tough time this year after losing her job. I never really thought much of the economy these past few years, but when it affects your family you then realize what many other Americans are going through right now. I just want to say I know it can be hard, but I hope you can enjoy your special day. And each day find something that brings you joy! Love you mom & Happy Birthday!! ~Cara

Rona & Greg's Wedding

I had the pleasure of making the cake and cupcake tower for my friend's Rona and Greg's wedding this weekend. It was held at Glen Echo Park here in the DC area. What a fun location! It is so rich with history and has that vintage feel. Little fun fact: Glen Echo was built in 1891 and was the premier amusement parks in the DC area until the late 1960s. The wedding itself was held in the "Bumper Car Pavilion."

The entrance to the park with an old trolly from the 1900s

The Bumper Car Pavilion in the early 1900s
(I love seeing old pictures from past history)

The Bumper Car Pavilion today!

The cake and cupcakes were simple and fun. The cake was a basic yellow cake with amaretto ganache while the cupcakes included red velvet and a toasted s'mores cupcakes (a fun cupcake for the fall weather!).

The wonderful beautiful bride and groom

And last, I made a groom's cupcake with the old school Redskin's "R." I am not a skin's fan, but I'll do what I gotta do for my friends ;-) Congrats to Rona and Greg!! I had such a great time and thank you for letting me be apart of your special day.

Indian Wedding Cake

This weekend I did a cake for one of my friend's - Erika and her husband Sam. It was an Indian inspired wedding cake with an alpana design that she created. That puts a lot of pressure on a person (me! who is no professional) to try and re-create it, especially in sugar form. The alpana was used on the invitations, programs, and I had to incorporate it on the cake. I was so nervous!!

The program

To add to the tension, hurricane Irene was threatening nasty weather. I've delivered cupcakes in a blizzard - I can deliver a cake in a hurricane!! lol... In the end, the cake made it safely to the venue - Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. I wish I took pictures of how they transformed this place, but it was amazingly beautiful with red roses and purple hydrangea. The trees were sprinkled with red roses and tea lights. I was nervous my cake wasn't going to do enough justice!! But after I stacked it and added the finishing details it came together. I also got to see the bride and show her the cake - she was happy with the final result so I could finally relax!! Here are a few shots I took... can't wait to see professional pics :)

My cake getting it's glamor shots on ;-)

My favorite shot!

Congrats to Erika and Sam!!! Thank you for letting me be apart of your big day!!

Ruffled Cake

I know everyone has done this cake by now.... but I think it is so cute and simple, I wanted to try my hand at it too. With the upcoming wedding, I had to test a cake recipe before hand and this was the perfect opportunity to test the recipe and my piping skills. I can't wait to do this cake again sometime :)


I ended up with a vanilla buttermilk cake with peach and black berry swiss meringue buttercream. Very summery! For the peach SMBC, I put a few tablespoons of peach preserves in the food processor before adding it to the frosting to ensure there were no peach chunks to get caught in the tip of the piping bag.

I love the contrast of the blackberry frosting inside the cake too!

Had a little batter left over to make a few cupcakes as well :)

Tonight I will begin preparation for this weekend's wedding! No life this week, but hopefully worth all the hard work in the end ;-)

Happy 4th of July

This is one of the first years we aren't hosting a 4th of July BBQ and I must say it's been quite a relaxing day! We are headed to a friends house to BBQ later today and I always have to whip up something to bring. I picked up fresh blueberries, strawberries and rhubarb at the store last night and concocted this cake with the inspiration of Martha Stewart.

I used Martha's Strawberry Cream Cake recipe but instead of just plain strawberries to layer the cake with, I made a strawberry-rhubarb compote between the layers. Garnished it with fresh blueberries. Hopefully it won't be a pain to transport to the BBQ tonight... Happy 4th of July!The cake is made in 3 parts: the cake, the whipped cream and the compote. This recipe makes 2 8 inch layer cakes, if you want a 3 layer like mine, make and additional half of the cake recipe. Once the cakes and compote are cool you can layer away. I did have to torte the tops of the cakes to make them flat before layering. Compote and whipped cream can be made the day before. What I love about this cake is that rustic, simple look. Enjoy!


Strawberry-Rhubarb Cream Cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart

Cake Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1/2 tsp orange extract
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
  
• 1/2 cup whole milk

Cake Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter bottoms of 2 8-inch round cake pans, and line with parchment paper. Butter and flour paper and sides. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat butter and 1/2 cup sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla bean, orange and lemon extract. With mixer on low, alternately add flour mixture in 3 parts and milk in 2, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined. Spread batter in prepared pans. (I like to use an ice cream scoop to divide the batter evenly between the pans. All you have to do is count how many scoops you do in each pan ;-)
   

3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 18 - 20 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes; invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
   

Whipped Cream Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (from a 1/4-ounce envelope)
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (optional)
  

Cream Directions:

1. Place 2 tablespoons cold water in a small saucepan, and sprinkle with gelatin; let soften 5 minutes. Place saucepan over very low heat, and stir until gelatin is dissolved. Remove from heat; let cool.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat cream and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a large bowl until very soft peaks form. Continue to beat, and gradually add gelatin mixture; beat until soft peaks form. Add vanilla bean paste and mix for a few more seconds.
   

Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote
From Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

• 10 ounces (2 cups) fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and chopped
• 1/4 cup plus 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 10 ounces trimmed rhubarb, cut into 1/4-inch pieces (about 2 3/4 cups or 2 large stalks)
• 2 tablespoons water

Directions:

1. Stir strawberries, 1/4 cup sugar, and lemon juice in a small nonreactive pan; bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, until softened, about 3 minutes. Remove strawberries with slotted spoon; place in a bowl and let cool. Set aside pan with strawberry liquid.
2. Meanwhile, in another small pan over medium-low heat, combine rhubarb, remaining 1/3 cup sugar, and the water. Simmer gently, stirring often, until sugar is dissolved and rhubarb is almost tender, about 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer rhubarb to bowl with strawberries. Add strawberry liquid to pan.
3. Raise heat to medium and simmer until thickened and reduced to 1/2 cup, about 10 minutes. Let cool. Stir into strawberry-rhubarb mixture.

Vineyard Wedding

This past weekend I had the honor of making the wedding cake for one of my best friend's brother's wedding. When it came to the cake, the bride was very laid back and open to all ideas when we were discussing decor. The colors of the wedding were purple and green and It was going to be held at a local winery. So, when I think of a vineyard, I think rustic.

One of the farms near the winery

Entrance to the winery

With all that in mind, this is the cake I came up with. It's quite simple but elegant at the same time. Thank you to Tim, the bride's friend who supplied all the flowers for the wedding and had extra for the cake. I put hydrangea and roses.

I love this pic of the cake on the wine barrel

...and a close up shot of the cake

I love the rustic look. I also love how much less stress it is to put together this kind of cake. The stress came in when I got the weather report for the weekend: 90 degrees with humidity. Did I mention it was an outdoor wedding? We had to keep the cake inside until the cake cutting. Since I was attending the wedding as well it was no problem to help set up everything right before hand. I forgot to mention, the cake was a lemon cake with lemon curd filling and white chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. Yummy! For the guests we set up a cupcake table with assorted cupcakes.

To go with the rustic look, I decided to display the cupcakes on different stands and cake plates. This gave it depth and added to the rustic feel of the wedding.

The flavors were lemon raspberry, chocolate salted caramel, and carrot cake.

It was a beautiful wedding! Congrats Jon & Angela! Thanks for letting me be apart of your special day :)

Ashley's Baby Shower: Part I

This weekend I helped host my friend Ashley's baby shower! The two other girls (Erika and Heather) who helped put the shower together, have design experience and I love putting together these kind of events, so we made a great team :) We have been planning for the past few months now and it all came together this past Sunday. The inspiration was drawn from the beautiful invitation our friend Erika designed:I love it! How cute is the bird family?! The theme for the shower was birds with the color palate of green, blue and orange with hints of brown and yellow here and there. Our friend Ashley does eco-friendly fashion so we wanted it to be very natural and "naturey" as well. In this first post, I will post all the food from the shower.

Our menu and the frame I painted to match the shower theme.

Close up of the menu. We had sweet and savory items.

Cucumber and radish open faced sandwiches made by Erika. I also made the plate stand. I will post how I did that later :)

Desserts included: lemon blueberry cupcakes, chocolate orange cupcakes, a small lemon blue berry cake, bird's nest treats, coconut macaroons and fruit salad served in sugar cones.


So many pics, so little space... click to see these larger :)


6 inch mini lemon blueberry cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream for the mommy to be. Notice the birds match the birds on the invite :)


Everyone loves these homemade coconut macaroons! They have become a staple any time I do an event for my friends lately. They're so easy to make too!

For favors we ordered swirl lollipops and personalized them with our own sticker to match the shower as well a simple bow.

So you can't eat it, but a shower is not complete these days without a diaper cake! I like to keep mine simple, so I made a basket to hold a majority of the contents. Products included all natural baby products from my friend's website Mom To Mom Health!

Gotta wash it all down with personalized water bottles! Label designed by our friend Heather.

Stay tuned for the next post for part II.