50th Birthday Cake

Had an order for another friend. It was her father's 50th Birthday this weekend. She basically told me the color scheme and we worked from that. This is what I ended up with :) (Wish I got better pics but I assembled it at their house. They were kind enough to hold up a white cloth for me though ;-)

Flavors included: chocolate cake with vanilla swiss meringue and chocolate ganache as well as white chocolate cake with white chocolate swiss meringue and raspberry preserves.


I'm very happy with the result and hope the birthday party went well. Ya know, the more three tier cakes I do, the more I'm just amazed at how time consuming they can be. I need a sous chef!!

100th post: Black Bottom Cupcakes!

Wow! So I just realized this is my 100th post!! Time really flies when you're blogging I guess ;-) Well good thing I have a fun post today for my 100th.

One of my managers will be leaving us this week to go on to bigger things. I won't be there on the last day since I will be away, so I made them today instead. For flavors she said chocolate and raspberry... I came up with a Raspberry Black Bottom Cupcake. I took my favorite chocolate cake recipe and found a cream cheese filling recipe. I modified the cream cheese recipe by adding frozen raspberries that I thawed out and drained though a sieve. I took that left over syrup and added it to the cream cheese mixture. I also portioned off some of the cream cheese mixture to make regular black bottom cupcakes with tiny chocolate chips.

I don't like naked cupcakes, so I thought a light smooth swiss meringue buttercream would compliment the cupcake quite nicely. This is my first time successfully making a swiss meringue and it turned out so beautiful and yummy.

For decor, I was inspired by my manager's pregnancy. Sounds weird I know, but she always talks about how she misses sushi. So I made some fondant sushi toppers: california roll, sashimi, ginger, wasabi, and a good luck fortune cookie :)

Froggy

Here's a little sneak peak at what I'm working on for his weekend's cake. It's part of the theme for my dad's retirement cake :)


Isn't he cute?? I need some more practice with sculpting fondant but I'm happy with my lil froggy.

Rachel and Mike's Wedding

This weekend was the second wedding cake/cupcake tower I did for June. It was for our friends Mike and Rachel and this was my wedding gift to them! I think they enjoyed it a lot...and Mike loved the Redskins groom's cupcakes ;-)

What a great wedding you two :) Enjoy the honeymoon!!

Flowery Birthday

A flowery birthday order today... I ended up adding more fondant flowers than a usual order. I kind of get carried away if I'm really into something :)

Love this quote!

Purple and Orange Wedding

One wedding tower done... one more to go!! Here's a cupcake tower and cake I made for a wedding this weekend. Flavors included: red velvet, chocolate orange, and peanut butter cup :) A few days "rest" and I'll be getting things ready for another wedding for a friend of mine, for next weekend.

PS: Summer heat + cupcakes = NOT FUN!

I won!

I never win anything!! I entered the cupcake decorating contest at a cupcakery in DC called Hello Cupcake. We had to design a cupcake to represent a DC neighborhood or a political statement. I chose Chinatown and "Going Green". There were some really awesome entries! Here were mine:Lo Mein - to represent Chinatown, is a green tea w/ red bean cupcake topped with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. Icing was tinted with gel food colors then piped on and the peas, carrots and chop sticks are fondant.
Recycle - to represent going green, is green tea swirled with blue vanilla - to represent earth - and white chocolate cream cheese frosting. Topped with fondant flowers, vines, leaves and a recycle symbol.
Fortune cookie - to represent Chinatown, is a ginger cupcake topped with citrus cream cheese frosting. Decor includes edible star glitter (represent the stars in the Chinese flag), fondant fortune cookie and fortunes. It says "EAT CUPCAKE. BE HAPPY." and "HELLO CHINATOWN" on the fortunes.

Turns out the competition was only for decor, so they didn't get to taste it, but that was ok! My friends and family enjoyed the extras :) But anywho...

The winning cupcake....drum roll.... the lo mein one! For overall cupcake and "most likely to be eaten."

And here is what I won:
Can't believe it... I'm still in awe!!!!! Thank you Hello Cupcake and Kitchen Aid :) Congrats to all the other entries too :) And thanks to the judges!

UPDATE: There is a second leg of the competition! Please go vote online for my friend's cupcake (it's the cute elephant one :) VOTE HERE

UPDATE II : So I had NO idea my other 2 cupcakes made it to the online competition! So after you vote for the elephant, feel free to vote for the fortune cookie and recycle cupcake!

Bridal Shower

A past customer of mine (the one who I delivered cupcakes to during the snowstorm), ordered some more cupcakes. This time for her sisters bridal shower. I just used the theme colors of green, yellow and pink. I used the blossoms as well as the "K" monogram for her sisters soon to be new last name.

Jenn and Dawson's Engagement Party

One of my good friends from college recently got engaged. They celebrated their engagement tonight and my gift to them was cupcakes :-) She only told me to use blue and purple, and this is what I came up with.

Even though this didn't match the decor exactly, I wanted to use my cute little bumble bees again. Ended up putting them on the top tier. (I also bought this new cake plate at home goods today too, which i loooove ;-)

Congrats Jenn and Dawson

I love packages!

My package from Global Sugar Art arrived yesterday! I love packages, but it's funny you forget how much you just spent on it after it arrives lol. Anyways, I had ordered a few things including a blossom cutter and veiner set, which one of my cake friends recommended to me (Thank you Rene!) Here are some blossoms I made today... I use white fondant, then painted them with a little edible petal dust. In the center I put a few dragees. They will be used for this weekends bridal shower and engagement party cupcakes :)

Erin and Karl's Wedding

The big day finally came and the wedding cake was a success!

It was my very first wedding cake I've ever done. Leading up to the big day I had a cake consultation with the bride to decide the design and a cake tasting with over a dozen different flavor combinations. I was so nervous up until they cut the cake! It such an important center piece to a wedding which is added stress and nerves.

The bride ended up deciding on a three tier cake with blue flowers and swirly pipe work around the flowers on the cake. For the top, she wanted something beachy but would also reflect each others personality and things they enjoyed. And this is what we came up with...

Cake Details

Bottom Layer: Almond cake with raspberry jam filling and vanilla bean frosting
Middle Layer: Chocolate cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting chocolate frosting and raspberry cream filling
Top Layer: Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting
Flowers/leaves: Gumpaste
Fondant to cover cake: Homemade marshmallow fondant
Topper details: Everything was hand made with fondant except the chairs. On her chair- Roxy towel, Diet Dr. Pepper, and a book. On His chair - MP3 player with head phones and a towel with his favorite band's symbol. Both had a pair of flip flops. Sand is made with graham cracker crumbs with a little pixie dust mixed in to give it a little shine.

Groom's Cupcakes
(and Spongebob Birthday Cupcakes one of her friends)

Cutting the cake!

All the cakes I've been making so far have been "practice" for the big day. Some things have learned in the last year about getting ready for the big cake:
1. Prepare prepare prepare! For example you can make all the gumpaste flowers and fondant accessories well in advance. Bring as many tools with you to the venue and be prepared for anything.
2. Always try a new technique. For all the cakes I have been done leading up to the wedding cake, no matter how minimal, I always tried something new - a new technique, flavor, design, etc.
3. Try really hard not to sweat the small stuff. As a cake designer we see the smallest imperfections that the client would probably never notice or have any idea. Enjoy their happiness :-)

Congrats Erin and Karl!
You had a beautiful wedding now go and enjoy that amazing honeymoon :)

Lauren's Birthday

I happened to have off today and wanted to work on some of my piping skills. It also happened to be my friend Lauren's birthday so it was a perfect excuse to make a cake :)

I really love the royal icing piped lace look - it's a white cake with black "lace"- that I have been seeing a lot on Cake Central. I decided to do my own interpretation of it. 1) I didn't want to do the exact same thing and 2) My piping skills are NOT up to par ...haha. The cake was a tall 6inch round cake with 3 layers. Almond cake with layers of amaretto buttercream and amaretto chocolate gananche. I also made homemade marshmallow fondant to cover the cake as well. I also added the gum paste flower on the side. Overall I'm happy with it, but I want to work with royal icing a lot more. You can do some really beautiful things with it :)

Happy Birthday Lauren!!

Jen's 30th Birthday

We had great time rocking out with our friends for Jen's 30th birthday. My favorite quote by Holly, "We have ace of frickin' cakes coming!!"

Here's the cake and cupcakes I put together. My only inspiration was the candles. So I went with that color palate - blue, purple, lime green and black. For some reason zebra came to mind and this is what I came up with. All cake, frosting, and fondant used to cover the cake is homemade. I did use store bought fondant for the bow and curls because it's sturdier :)

Getting Ready for the Weekend... Again

It is Thursday night once again (well Friday morning now as I write this) and that means cakes and cupcakes for Saturday! Just getting things ready for an order for a good friend of mine. Made some more fondant tonight...

Guess you can say I really get into my work ;-) I know, I can wear plastic gloves, but I didn't have any and by now I'm just used to having rainbow colored hands by the weekend *lol*.

Damask Birthday

My good friend from college ordered a birthday cake for her Mom's surprise _ _th birthday ;-) She gave me pretty much free reign as for design of the cake. I decided on elegant but I did not want it to look like a wedding cake.
This was my 2nd time at a fondant tiered cake...WOW I have come a long way!!

I hand made the fondant for the whole cake. I just like the taste better, but I definitely see why bakers just buy it - I got a good arm work out making it and then rolling it out for 3 cakes! The damask design is an edible transfer. First time ever using one - and boy that was FUN jk. The middle tier is real ribbon w/ a gumpaste name plate.

So happy with the outcome. I learned even more for next time...oh and I can't forget to thank my wonderful BF for his help ;-)