Twilight cake

I am not a fan of Twilight, but my good friend is. I surprised her with this cake which has all the elements from the cover of each book. The chess pieces, the apple, the ribbon, and the flower. All the decorations where made from a gumpaste/fondant mix. I have to give credit to my husband who did the chess pieces. He did a great job don't you think? Well, this cake took about 3 days to make- the decorations needs drying time. The cake is a butter and french vanilla flavored with 3 layers of bavarian creme. I would have liked to get a picture of her slicing into it, but she didn't want to cut into it just yet. I think she admired it for a day or two before finally digging in=) Oh, I also made the cake board. I did a "marble" technique with red, black, and white fondant. It looked like a marble cutting board. It's very easy to make. As a matter of fact, here is the tutorial I used to make the cake board.

Matching birthday cake & dress

I saw this cute dress at Target when my daughter was 9 months old. I bought it knowing that I was going to have her wear it for her 12 month old photos. I thought the design was so cute that it would be perfect to match a cake to her dress for the photo shoot. I did a "practice cake" a month before- and i'm glad I did it. I learned A LOT from it- like not to use buttercream for the brush embroidery effect, not to fold the fondant for the sash (I ended up just overlaying 3 different sizes of the sash on the final cake), and that it was easier to level and tort the cake when it had been cooled in the refrigerator first.

This is the "Practice" cake and the filling- guava cake with guava gel filling (this was also the first time I tried this recipe-it basically was white cake mix with guava nectar substituted for the water. It wasn't all that great.)

And the actual cake we used for my daughter's 1 year old photos:




Oh, and here is one of the photos of my daughter with her cake:

My baby is 1 today!

I made my very first Topsy Turvy cake for my daughter's 1st birthday. It was mini sized. I used a 6" round cake pan, a 4" Wilton spring form pan, and a biscuit cutter for the top tier. I used this tutorial to make the cake. I covered the cake in Marshmallow Fondant. The cake flavor is White Almond Sour Cream made from scratch. It's a moist, dense cake, which is excellent for carving. The almond flavor can be substituted for any flavor you like.

White Almond Sour Cream Cake

2 boxes white cake mix
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teas. salt
8 egg whites
2 2/3 cups water
4 Tbls. vegetable oil
2 cups (16oz carton) sour cream
2 teaspoon clear vanilla flavor
2 teaspoons almond extract

Mix all dry ingredients by hand using a whisk in a very large mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat on low speed for 2 minutes. Bake at 325 degrees. For the cake pans I used, it took about 35-45 minutes. Just do a cake check after 35 minutes to check for doneness.

***One recipe makes: one 14" round + one 6" round
or one 16" round
or one 12" round + one 10" round
or one 12x18" sheet cake
or one 12" round + one 8" round + one 6"

Half a recipe makes: two 8" rounds
or two 6" rounds + 6 cupcakes

My attempt at making a Guava Chiffon Cake.

While we were in California, my best friend brought a sinfully delicious Guava Cake from Kings Hawaiian Bakery. It was so light, fluffy, and oh so yummy. I had to try to make it since there aren't any Kings Hawaiian locations in my area, let alone the whole state. I couldn't bring it home with me because it has to be refrigerated. I don't think they ship them either.

I used this recipe from Star Bulletin. I didn't use the cream cheese frosting because King's Hawaiian's frosting was whipped cream. The guava topping wasn't all that great. I think the recipe below for guava gel topping tastes much better. I have tried it before on a sample cake I was making for my daughter's birthday.

Guava Gel Recipe:

2 C Guava juice
1/2 C Sugar
1/4 C Cornstarch

In a medium sauce pan, bring the 2 cups guava juice and sugar to a boil. Make a paste out of the cornstarch and a small amount of water. Remove guava juice from heat and stir in the cornstarch mixture. Return to heat and bring back to a boil and boil for one minute. Cool in refrigerator.

I wish I had a picture of the cake, but by the time I remembered to take a pic, the cake was devoured.

The result: The cake was moist and fluffy, but it was still heavier than the King's Hawaiian cake. I am still searching for the perfect chiffon recipe. I'll let you know when i've found it!

Whut up peeps!

I made these Peeps cupcakes for Easter. The cupcakes are boxed Devil's Food Cake, cream cheese icing, colored with Wilton gels. The "eggs" are M&M's.

Hope you all had a Happy Easter!