U.S.S. Dean

For one of my Boss's birthdays, I decided to make a cake.  He is into sailing, so I tried to figure out something to do with that.  I had a hard time figuring out how to make a 3D boat out of food, without spending a million hours on it.  So, I ended up running to the store and looking for a toy.  I found this cute little boat.

I just did variations of blue for the water and put in a little island on top with brown sugar.  However, it wasn't until I was putting on the boat when I realized that I was putting the boat on the island, which makes no logical sense.  Oh well.  I secured the boat with a dowel and added a small sale.

The cake was chocolate with fresh strawberries and vanilla frosting.  It was really tasty and I was proud seeing I didn't dedicate much time.

Cake Balls

My first time making Cake Balls was a huge hit (I had previously made cake pops for Christmas).  I made Red Velvet for my Boss's birthday.

So, I made them again for Boss's Day.  I made Red Velvet with Cream Cheese frosting, Chocolate with Chocolate frosting, and Vanilla with chocolate and vanilla frosting.  They were another big hit.

I put them in these glass containers I found at Hobby Lobby and whipped up a cute little tag on my Cricut and it instantly became very impressive.  I put a little bit of tissue paper at the bottom of the containers so they wouldn't stick.

These cake balls I made by hand and varied the sizes.  I do have a cake pop maker by Baby Cakes, but when you do them by hand and roll in all the frosting, they taste so much better.  Very moist.  If you don't know how to make Cake Pops/Balls, I recommend "Cake Pops" by Bakerella.  She's the best and I read her book, which is how I learned.

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!

Halloween, Boo!

I saw so many creations and inspirations from Wilton, that I had to make a Halloween cake.  Inside, I made the Halloween themed funfetti and outside is vanilla buttercream.

I started with the mini-cake and decorated a web.  I bought a Wilton icing for this, since it's hard to get a true black.  The icing would be crazy from time to time, but overall, it got the job done.

Then after frosting my cupcakes, I worked on what I thought was color flow.  I guess I didn't pay that much attention on tv when I saw Cake Girls do this trick.  I thought they just used Royal Icing.  I think what they actually used was Color Flow.  Either way, about half of my tombstones came out alright, so I was proud to use them.

I was so excited about the tombstones, you have no idea.  Then, I finished up the remaining cupcakes and moved on to the challenge:  the spider.  I made the spider completely out of fondant.  I just modeled him how I wanted and layed him on the cake.  I couldn't be more proud of how he turned out.

Overall I loved everything about this cake / cupcake creation.  I think it's my best so far.

Teacher Appreciation

Our primary had a Teacher Appreciation dinner and I offered to make cake.  I tried to make a tiered cake.  I will still need to work on it, but it worked out alright.

The cake was chocolate and vanilla for one and vanilla and vanilla for another.  My husband helped a lot with this since the cakes seemed to not want to work with me.  Overall I think they turned out alright.

I loved the little apple out of fondant with a chocolate candy for the stem.

Cupcakes

I tried out cupcakes for the first time.  I was unsure on how much batter to place in each cup, so some of them were off in size.  They were very tasty lemon cupcakes with vanilla frosting.

However, the cupcakes themselves are super easy to decorate.  I was kind of disappointed by them.  I did shaggy mums and some other flower I kept calling the Rockstar.

There are cake people, cupcake people, and dessert people.  I am cake people.  However, I now know I can do cupcakes if I need to.

Decorating Basics

Now that I’ve passed the second Wilton course, I thought I should go back and do Basic’s with the instructor I enjoyed.  However, it would be my last since she doesn’t teach Fondant & Gum Paste or Tiered cakes.  I’ll have to do that on my own.

For basics everything started to make sense!  I had been missing out on helpful quick tips and things that save a lot of time.  This is one of the cakes we made using a #12 tip.

We were suppose to trace the design and do one, but since things were finally clicking, I free handed the fish and made a coral design.

This cake isn’t nearly as impressive as the Rose cake, but know that it made me proud.  I’m so glad that I finally have learned some basics and can do things that every cake decorator should be able to (like make dots!).

Flowers & Cake Design Course

I loved the Flowers in the Wilton class.  I learned roses, violets, primroses, daffodils, lilies, and more.  I worked hard each night after class to perfect them and really worked out my forearms.

When it came time to do the final class, I was ready and had built up an inventory of flowers.  I made a white cake with raspberry filling.

Then I did chocolate buttercream for the basket weave.

All together I loved this cake.  I could improve with my color coordination, but I was so proud of this cake.  I absolutely love it and think it’s great.

And, I even passed the course!

Fondant Flowers

I have been looking all over for cake decorating classes, but haven’t had success.  I finally found a basic’s course, but the teacher was awful!  She didn’t even know how to ice a cake!  There was a different instructor for Flowers & Cake Design, so I thought I’d join that class and see how she was.

I loved the instructor.  She was very understanding and helped by telling stories of experience rather than consulting the book.  I was so glad to meet her.  For one of our classes, we learned Fondant flowers and how to use cut outs.  I thought I would use this technique for my cousin’s daughter’s 1^st birthday.

The cut out flowers are very cute on their own and very easy to use when you first learn them.  I made the cake vanilla and had vanilla buttercream.  It was very simple, but very cute and I will be using the cut outs more in the future.

Strawberry Vines

After making my Grandmother’s cake, I was curious to work on my vines again.  So I whipped up another cake.  Vanilla with Strawberry inside.

I tried to add little strawberries and replicate the vines I did before.  This was a bit disappointing since it wasn’t how I wanted.  I figure it didn’t come out as well since it wasn’t made with the same love.

Color Striping

Just around the corner from the Gluten-Free Heart cake I made, was my mother-in-law’s birthday.  It gave me another chance to try another Gluten-Free cake.  For this one, I tried a box mix that is made by Betty Crocker.  It was White cake.

I also thought I’d try color striping since I had seen it on TV.  Before I filled my bag with the pink vanilla buttercream, I striped the bag with more pink coloring.  This made a very cool striping effect for the lines I put though the cake.  This was a very simple cake, but I loved the colors.  However I do need to keep an editing eye.

Gluten-Free Hearts

For this cake, I wanted to make something my mother-in-law could eat since she has celiac disease.  I found a recipes online for a flourless chocolate cake.  I decided to also do chocolate frosting to attempt to make it extra delicious.  If you know someone who has a gluten intolerance, you’ll know that pretty much everything that is Gluten-Free isn’t good and tastes poorly.  So I did my best.

I decorated the cake with just a little bit of pink, but mostly just white vanilla buttercream.  I kept with a heart theme and just went to town how I felt.  It wasn’t a perfect cake, but it was good to make and know how to work with Gluten-Free recipes.

Sticking with the Star Tip

Now that I was in Oregon, it was my sister-in-law's birthday and I just had to make her a cake.  Again, I only had one trick up my sleeve.  So, since she is into theater, I did the drama masks all with the star tip.

My hand hated me after this cake, but my sister-in-law seemed to like me, so I guess it all evens out!  The cake was white cake with vanilla buttercream, her favorite.



Wilton 1

I finally signed up for Wilton cake classes!  I was so excited to take them!  My first week was just explaining what would happen for the other classes.  The thing that was most important is the explanation of how to make buttercream, the consistency, and differences of brand and product used.

The following week, we were suppose to bring a cake and already have it frosted.  I think I did quite well.  Did you know you really shouldn't just grab a spoon and smother the cake, there is actually technique and a few ways to be successful with it?!  Amazing!

We learned a few different techniques and then were told to make this rainbow cake.  I was very proud of my results.

It's just a star tip over and over and over again.  However, when you take a step back and look at it, it's quite pretty.  I even did little clouds and attempted a border at the bottom of the cake.

I was so excited for this class and absolutely loved the teacher!  She was so helpful.  I couldn't wait til I went back again!