Groom's Cake - Vroom Vroom

One of my good friends Mary got married in September. I offered to make a grooms cake for the reception. Her husband is really into racing so we decided to try to incorporate his car into the cake.

This is an actual picture of his car that I lifted off of Facebook and then used as a model to make the fondant miniature.

I wasn't 100% sure how I was going to make the car. I bought red fondant in case I wanted to mold it out of that, but I wasn't sure how to get the white stripes on the side, so in the end I decided to mold it out of white fondant and paint it. I used AmericColor edible paints.

The inside of the cake is probably my favorite. I bought a checkered cake kit a while back and never knew what to use it for. When I asked what kind of cake they wanted, the bride said she liked white cake and the groom liked chocolate. I thought, I can do BOTH! And added bonus, it looks like a checkered racing flag. #Winning.

This is what the set looks like. (Bonus: hidden Mickey!) Pretty simple.

You fill the outer and inner most circles with one kind of batter...

And then the center ring with the opposite. Once all the rings are filled, you slowly remove the plastic...

Tah-dah! It's a little messy, but not as bad as you would think. Then you bake the cakes normally.

I made the almond butter cream frosting to fill between the layers.

All three layers ready to be frosted!

Then I rolled out some green fondant I bought (I used the Fondarific brand because I think it tastes the best out of all the ones I've tried) and covered the frosted cake.

Next I trimmed off the edges and added a black road, the fondant car, and some mini fondant cones I made.

Here's the cake displayed at their wedding! The ribbon around the bottom was money. It made the cake look 100 times better. It's a simple and easy way to make the edges look smooth.

Here's what the inside looked like. Now I want to go eat some chocolate. Probably going to have to buy my trick-or-treaters some more candy because I don't think what I have is going to last until Halloween!

Wednesday Review: Fun & Original Character Cakes

Fun & Original Character Cakes by Maisie Parrish is a wonderful book! 

What I Like:

·         It's another British book! We get to read about sugarpaste, colours, and humour! While there are weird terms I don't know like "tylose powder" and "gum tragacanth" (I'm assuming they're just the British way of saying things instead of baking terms I'm not familiar with) they are fully explained in layman's terms in the book.

·         This book is a wealth of information. It tells you how to color, store, and paint fondant. It includes tips on how to store, transport, and cut your cake after it's made. It also has a section dedicated to the equipment you'll need to make the models complete with labeled pictures and explanations.

·         Recipes! You know by now that I love when books include recipes. There aren't a ton of them but there is a paragraph included with the benefits of each kind of cake (how long it lasts, easy storage etc). Of course there is a fruit cake recipe. (ahhh the English.) And because I love all things miniature, I'm excited that there is also a recipe for mini cakes (though why it’s a different recipe all together I'm not entirely sure.) There's also a recipe for pastillage - remember when I had no clue what this was? Well along with the recipe is an explanation that it is a form of sugarpaste that dries very hard. Also - edible glue recipe. Need I say more?

·         There are over 30 individual characters described in the book and they all seem relatively simple to make. As Maisie puts it: "everything starts with a ball". There is a mini tutorial on how to make a mouse, monkey, lion, elephant, rabbit, crow, and dog before you even get into the project instructions. The characters are all very cartoonish which I love.

·         The instructions are very easy to understand and really break it down into a step by step process. I also love the fun tip that dry spaghetti can be used to support the fondant models. SO COOL.

·         "A little More Fun" section at the end of each project suggests ways to decorate cupcakes and mini cakes with the same theme to compliment your cake.

·         There is a list of suppliers in the back which include both UK AND USA (as well as a few other countries) And woohoo! There's a store in Springfield! I will soon be very poor.

What I don't like:

·         I have a love hate relationship with the Brits. While some of their crazy lingo is explained for us yanks, you may still need to Google some of the words/phrases. It's also measured out with the metric system - grams pshhh. While the amount in oz is also given, there is a disclaimer that it is not precise and I'd prefer it all in cups and teaspoons anyways.

Per usual, there isn't a lot I can find that I don't like about this book. It has fantastic tips, goofy characters, great pictures, and I want to go home and start baking immediately. 

Bridal Shower Desserts Part 3

Here are the rest of the desserts I made for Kim's shower! Did I mention how much I loved the color scheme? Because I LOVE the color scheme! First - a major shout out to Mackenzie who came over the night before the shower and helped me to make all the desserts. I would have been up till the wee hours had she not showed up!! For the heart shaped rice krispy treats we dyed the marshmallow goo pink and then cut them out with cookie cutters.

I got yellow and orange candy melts as well as chocolate chips to dip the hearts in. 

This is a great way to spice up your rice krispies!

Next I made my traditional wedding shower cookies in the shapes of dresses and cakes. I used lemon flavoring in my royal icing to give them an extra springy taste. I dyed some of the leftover fondant from my Hunger Games cake to make bows and flowers to decorate the cookies.

Then of course I doused them in disco dust!!

Wednesday Review: Sweet and Simple Party Cakes

I WANT TO MAKE ALL THE CAKES. Seriously - they're all beautiful in this book. Sweet and Simple Party Cakes by May Clee-Cadman is fantastic.

What I Like:

·         It's well laid out. There's a small introduction and then it dives into recipes and techniques. It lists the equipment essentials, discusses different icings and fillings, and how to assemble your cake. The design sections are divided between pastels, whites, and brights. (I may like this because the last 2 rhyme.)

·         Mini cakes. This book has a lot of ideas on how to decorate mini cakes. You can either cut out rounds from a normal cake or use mini cake trays. MUST FIND THESE IMMEDIATELY.

·         Polka-dots. I'm a HUGE fan of polka-dots and a few of their cakes are decorated with different color polka-dots - easy and awesome. (also they're RAINBOW!!)

·         Everything looks really easy to do. I'm not sure if it actually is, but this book just makes it seem so simple. Maybe because each decorated cake doesn't have a ton of different things on it. It's the KISS principle.

·         They show you how to trace designs directly onto your cake using a pin/toothpick and tracing paper. Then you can trace icing over the indents for an easy way to get fancy uniform designs.

·         It pairs mini cakes or cupcake designs with a big cake. So you could make both to fit all into one theme, or just one of them depending on what you have time for.

·         There's a whole section on how you can use items like ribbons, silk flowers, jewels, and feathers to decorate your cakes.NEAT!

What I don't Like:

·         I don't have time to do all the baking I want.. or all the running I'd need to do if I could do all the baking I want.

This is a great book - wonderful pictures and ideas. There is really something about the simplicity of the designs that keep all the cakes looking beautiful. There's not one in here I wouldn't want to make! 

Wednesday Review: Wedding Cake Art and Design: A Professional Approach

To continue with the wedding theme this week, I am reviewing Wedding Cake Art and Design: A Professional Approach by Toba Garrett. Like the subtitle says, Garrett focuses a lot of the book's content on the professional cake designer: the steps to take when working with a client, how to write up a contract etc.

What I like:

·         Chapter 1: Designing the Cake lays a great foundation of cake knowledge. It covers color, texture, theme, shape, and décor.

·         Chapters 2-11 showcase different theme ideas like romantic, textured, seasonal, and floral designs.

·         Each chapter opens up with a hypothetical couple - a little background on who they are, what kind of cake theme and taste they're looking for and how the cake designer developed that into 2-3 sketches. Then Garrett shows you how to make each of the cakes.

·         SO MANY RECIPES. TWELVE different kinds of cake! They all sound delicious. There are also recipes for marzipan, gum paste, a ton of buttercreams, royal icing, ganache, pastillage (I don't even know what this is), curd, and jam! oh my gosh I am really hungry all of a sudden.

·         At the end of the recipe chapter it tells you the best pairings of cake, filling, icing, and fondant.

·         Also includes templates you can xerox.

What I don't like:

·         All the cakes use Fondant. Granted, it's not the only thing they use. As I said before there are about a bajillion different icing recipes in the back of the book. And frequently multiple kinds are used in the decorations, but it'd be nice to see a cake without fondant as well.

·         Chapter 12 is all about setting up a cake design business. Whether it's best to work from home or rent office space, what equipment you will need to buy, what you need to do legally to establish a business, how to network. Etc. Not very useful for me.

I think my favorite part of this book is the recipes. I need to see if I can make modified versions of the cakes because obviously I won't need a whole wedding cake (unless somebody wants me to make theirs??) I think I'll try one for a holiday or birthday coming up soon. There was a really cool fall looking one so maybe for Thanksgiving! 

Wednesday Review: 20 to Make - Sugar Animals

This week's Wednesday Review is coming to you *gasp* on Thursday. I meant to go home Tuesday night and pick a book to review but Mardi Gras celebrations got in the way.

Oops! ON TO THE REVIEW!

Search Press's 20 to Make series covers a variety of crafts including glass painted projects, jewelry making, wedding favors, and knitted items.  I own 2 in the series and they both have to do with dessert decorating (shocker!).  Frances McNaughton, the author of Sugar Animals, is a demonstrator for the British Sugarcraft Guild. HOW DO I JOIN!?!?! She's made sugarcraft props for a variety of movies as well including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Chocolat. It's always fun to read British books when they talk about "colouring" their "sugarpaste." I NEED TO MOVE TO THE UK ASAP.

What I Like:

·         Great pictures. Each animal has its own 2 page spread. One side shows the individual parts you will need to make. Each part is numbered with corresponding instructions to make assembly very easy. The other side of the spread shows the animal fully assembled in some sort of cute pose.

·         There is a tutorial section in the beginning highlighting the basic shapes you will need to master to make each animal. It also tells you the tools you will need and how to best join the shapes to create your masterpiece.

·         Some of the designs are ADORABLE! My favorites are the panda, hippo, kangaroo, tiger, koala, lion, monkey, and zebra.

What I don't like:

·         I'm not as big of a fan of the lizard, snake, camel, or seal designs.

·         There's no recipe for sugarpaste included. Not that it isn't easy enough to type into Google and find 30 different recipes, but I always appreciate when I can get all the information from one source.

This book is a great resource if you want to make decorative animals for cakes/cupcakes. You could even make them with clay for figurines or ornaments!