Last Minute Holiday Cake

I gave myself way too short of time to do this cake.  I was amazed that I turned it out so quickly, but it was a mess and I wish I could have taken the time to fix it more.

It's red velvet with cream cheese frosting.  I have never decorated the cake fully with the cream cheese.  This recipe I found was half buttercream and cream cheese.  It appeared to work well at first and tasted very good.

However, I even got the frosting to a whipped stage and there was still little chunks of cream cheese that I couldn't get rid of.  They were so tiny, but when you are piping, they find their way out.  If you can see my lettering, I was doing okay until the bag burst on my very last letter!  So, I went over it and had to call it a day.

This was a very simple cake, but a feat for sure.  It's suppose to be a wreath and have poinsettas on it.  Below the rope border looks great though!  Even with all the flaws, it tasted great with the berry medley in the center.  I don't know if I would recommend the mix with cream cheese, but it does taste so much better with it.

Happy Holidays!

For a Holiday cake, I decided to do chocolate with mint filling.  For the filling, I chopped up Andes mints and it was so delicious!

For decor, I tried a rope border that was new for me.  The rope work came out much better then my dots and even my shell border on the bottom.

I did better with the writing, but I should have taken the time to mix in a little piping gel to make it smooth.

For the top, I made cake pops for the first time!  I have an autographed book by Bakerella that my mother got me.  The pops are actually much harder than I expected them to be.  You have to be very fast when you work with the candy coating.

I just loved the cake pops once the hard work was over.  They were made out of red velvet and they were so cute!

My Wonderful Christmas Gift

My parents bought me the most wonderful mixer for Christmas.  It's so much better than using a hand mixer and my arms are so grateful!

It's a Breville, which I wasn't familiar with at the time.  However, now after going to the store and doing some research, it's way better than a Kitchen Aid.  Kitchen Aid does have the famous name and many accessories, but this is so efficient in the mixing settings, timings, etc.  It's actually scraps the bowl clean, too!  It is amazing and I can't say more good things about it other than I am so happy I got one!