Red, White, & Blue Cupcakes

I made these yummy little cupcakes for the 4th of July holiday.  Strawberry cupcakes, and blue or white buttercream and some patriotic sprinkles.

Seems pretty simple, right?

Not quite.  But then again, is anything ever simple for me?

I had a grand plan in mind, but unfortunately I had to sacrifice some of that dream in lieu of some missing ingredients.  Thankfully, cake decorators must be able to think on their feet, so I made some last minute changes to the final cupcake design.

What I wanted to do was make strawberry cupcakes (that part went as planned, except the cupcakes didn't turn out very red, so food coloring may be in order next time) with a deep blue buttercream (well, actually, I wanted to make Italian Meringue Buttercream , but I'll save that for a different day) and white star or nonpareil sprinkles.

Unfortunately, Target, Costco, and Publix do not have white sprinkles of any sort.  Publix does, however, have some pearly, princessy sprinkles that my dad bought, but I ended up with the red/white/blue mix of jimmies.

And I ended up making the icing half-and-half with the colors.  Sure, I could've made some red, but with that last few cakes I've made... well, to be honest, I cringed at the thought of mixing up more red.  I would like to head over to the Cake Art Party Store and try Americolor's Super Red gel , though, because I hear red icing is easier to make with that.

And I really like the cupcake liners that I found, unexpectedly, in the dollar section of Super Target.  72 cupcake liners for $2.  Not a bad deal.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe July 4th here in the U.S. and abroad!

(**Thanks to my sister Katie for taking the pictures**)

Happy Birthday, Kaylee and Sue Ann!

I was commissioned this weekend to make two birthday cakes.

The first is a sheet cake, half yellow & half chocolate, for Kaylee's 10th birthday (if you can't tell, she loves to play soccer).  Kaylee's mom has been a long time reader of my blog so I was pretty stoked that she asked me to make this cake. :D  I had fun making it, even if I never made a 2-flavor cake before, and I thought it turned out pretty awesome.  The soccer ball is a FBCT that I probably should've kept in the freezer longer, but it turned out fine in the end.

I also realize that this isn't the best picture, but I thought I would have time to shave my legs AND take photos before it was time for the cake to be picked up.  Well, time management was never my strong point.

And this second cake is a red velvet cake for my mom's friend Sue Ann.  I decorated it right after I finished Kaylee's cake, so Sunday was quite the cake decorating day for me.  I know this cake is a little more simple than the last few cakes I made (where are the flames?!), but I still like it.

One question that I think we should all think very deeply about is whether or not to use buttercream during the middle of June in the southern United States.  I know that's a thought that will keep me up at night. :-) As in, buttercream with real butter in it.  I know you can't tell, but my 50/50 buttercream (butter/crisco) definitely melted, so I made up another batch of icing with only Crisco and combined the two recipes, so I ended up with a 1/3 butter & 1/3 Crisco formula which still looked a little droopy.  I ended up with a lot of icing, too, so it's a good thing I made two cakes.  I really like the buttery icing, but I have a feeling I won't be using it much over the next few months.

(On second thought, I did use the Costco unsalted sweet cream butter, and I don't let its texture as much as the Kroger or Publix brand, so I may have to try again with one of those brands.)

I'm not sure how much baking I'll be doing this week, but Independence Day is this weekend, and I believe that calls for a cake (and yes, definitely sparklers ), and my friend Brian mentioned that he needed a cake, so we'll see if I'm making that any time soon.

The Grill Cake

Every year I try to make something cool and fun for Father's Day, which in the past has included a couple of golf cakes and even a cake where I piled on as much chocolate as I possibly could.

This year inspiration hit me and I decided to make a cake that looks like a grill, because my dad loves to cook out.

I thought my idea was original, but after a quick Google search , I realized that I'm certainly not the first to come up with this idea, although I still like to think that the execution is still all my own.

The vegetables and meats are all made from a gumpaste/fondant mixture which I colored and then "painted" for the grill lines.

(And by paint I mean a little bit of brown and black icing paste and a drop or two of extract.)

I'm so proud of myself for this cake, because I didn't procrastinate the night before and stay up all night working on this cake.  I did stay up all night, but that was a few days later when I saw Transformers. :-)

The fondant creations were all made a few days before, the cake was baked and decorated on Saturday, and I put everything together on Sunday.

The "coals" are just big icing blobs of various colored gray icing with some powdered sugar dusted on top.  The flames and the grills bars are just basic buttercream.  So it really wasn't a complicated cake, but it turned out really well.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

The Winners

Congratulations to Jennie, Kelly, Rafael, Frostedbetty, & Connie!

They'll each receive a copy of Confetti Cakes for Kids by Elisa Strauss.  Thanks to everyone who participated!

The Graduation Cake

So, I finally made my graduation cake.  It is, thus far, the biggest cake that I have ever made, and I really liked it.  Well, I wasn't entirely happy with it, though.  I definitely procrastinated and I feel that shows with the piping work and in all the little details.  Everyone said they loved it, but I was much more critical.

I suppose that if I had actually made the little gumpaste pieces 2 to 3 days in advance, as per directed, instead of 12 hours before (or less), then this cake would've been a lot better.

For example, I wouldn't have rushed around putting the bottom boarder on (I am ashamed of how sloppy it is) and the calculator would actually have calculator buttons on it, like a "+" or "=" or even "0" and the gavel would've looked like a real gavel (and I even had one to model from!).  And I probably would've made a few more little pieces to better display the 13 years I spent in public school, instead of just 4 (calculator, gavel, book, medal).

But I am a procrastinator and I think it shows in my work.  So before my parents go rushing off to send my portfolio to Duff Goldman or Colette Peters (I'm seriously nowhere near that good; my parents are crazy), I'm going to need to learn better time management.  And not wait until the last minute to plan the cake; this fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants cake design thing is just too stressful and seriously cuts into my sleeping time.

The cake was overall a success, though, even if the first red velvet cake I made fell apart (cake balls!) and I basically covered the entire kitchen in red dye.  (My hands are still pink, to be honest.)

The recipes I used:

• Colette Peter's White Cake (I did not taste this cake, but I'm told it was tasty) and
  
• Grandmother Paula's (Deen) Southern Red Velvet Cake (which was super dense; I wonder if self-rising flour would be better than cake flour? But I'm scared to change the recipe...)  This was an amazingly delicious recipe, and everyone (myself included) thought it was awesome.
  
• My buttercream recipe-- the BIG batch.  I filled up a 2-quart tupperwear pitcher of icing! :-)  I still have some left over which is currently sitting in the freezer awaiting further use, of course.

I also made cupcakes with my previous school colors. :-)

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Confetti Cake for Kids

With all the chaos that has been going on in my life, from getting a new oven to wrapping up 13 years of public school and finally graduating, I completely forgot that I wrote a review for Elisa Strauss' book Confetti Cakes for Kids.

So, for your reading pleasure, I now present to you my take on a book that is filled with some of the most amazing cakes/cookies/cupcakes by the inspiring Elisa Strauss (who also has a blog, by the way.  You should check it out for more cakey goodness).

First of all, let's start with the pictures.  Maybe because I'm a kid at heart (being only 17, after all) or maybe because the book is written about kid's cakes, but this book is filled with some very colorful pictures, which is always a plus for me.  I can get a little bored reading pictureless cookbooks, but I didn't have to worry about that in CCK.  And speaking of kids, my little brother enjoyed looking through the book with me, so it certainly appeals to everyone young and old.  Hopefully he doesn't expect me to make anything quite so fancy and flawless yet!

You think Confetti Cakes for Kids has an adorable cover?  You can't judge a book by its cover, but in this case, that's OK, because there are lots of charming pictures between the covers.  Like the Quinceañera cake (I wish I had a Quinceañera) and the ice cream cupcakes and the beach pail cupcakes and the iPod cake and the...  Alright, alright, you get the point.  But talk about looking too good to eat (that's actually cake?!)... and these are just the photos!

So once I finally finished gushing over the gorgeous, flawless pictures, I got down to the meat and potatos of the book and started reading.

I am an avid reader and I was not disappointed.  If you've never decorated a cake before, then this book is definitely helpful:  there's all kinds of tips for beginners, as well some tools that you might find useful (like a KitchenAide mixer, maybe?).  And if, like me, you've been doing this for a while, don't worry, you'll find something helpful, too.  Like how to cover a round cake in fondant, something that seems daunting but the instructions are clear and (of course!) the pictures help, too.

Needless to say, there are plenty of recipes, like Confetti Cake's most requested cake flavor: chocolate.  (Mmmm. I would request it too.) And I seriously want to try peanut butter buttercream.  If you, like I, get hungry after reading a recipe book, then your tummy definitely will be rumbling after you read through these recipes.

I could go on and on about the merits of this particular book.  If you've checked out the Confetti Cakes blog (or maybe you're lucky enough to check out the actual bakery in NY) then you know what I'm talking about.  However, I don't want to bore you with my review when you can just read the book yourself: it will be much more satisfying, I'm sure.

So there you have it.  My humble little homage to Confetti Cakes for Kids.  Maybe my review has inspired you to go out and buy the book yourself, or at least look for it at the library, and you won't be disappointed.  But maybe you'd like a free copy...?  Good news!  I can give away 5 copies of CCK to a few lucky Cakes by Kelsie readers who live in the US (no PO Boxes; sorry for any inconvience).  How, you may ask?  Just leave a quick comment sharing your favorite childhood cake and next Saturday I'll randomly choose 5 readers to receive a copy.  If you win, I'll get in touch with you, so make sure you leave your e-mail address too.

P.S. I'll have pictures up of my graduation cake soon, if everything goes smoothly.  Thanks for your patience!

Finally! Some Oven Love :)

If you had not heard the news via twitter, then you are in for a treat:  the oven is in!

Yes, that's right, Dad finally flipped the last switch and turned on that shiny, stainless steel appliance of joy and baking. :-D

So last night I made a trip out to Wal-Mart in order to prepare for the baking fest that lies ahead of me.

I made a box of brownies yesterday (I know, I know, I'm trying to stay away from box mixes, but I wanted to try out that oven ASAP) and they were yummy.  See?

Only one brownie left. :-(

Today, when I got home from school early (just one of the many perks of being a senior), I bake strawberry cupcakes... alas, also from a box mix.  But that's because I've never made strawberry cupcakes before, and wanted to jump right into the baking.  Soooo, I do feel like I cheated a little, since I'm trying to go "homemade" all the time.  But the next time (sugar cookies, I hope), I'll do it the homemade way.

I also found some whipped icing at Wal-Mart (in the Craft/Martha Stewart/wedding section) which I used to ice these yummy little cuppies.

The only problem that I have is that the oven does not beep very loudly when it preheats (not a big problem) or finishes cooking (a much larger problem).  Also, I think it only beeps once, instead of obnoxiously repeated, like Old Oven.  So I may have cooked these guys a little long.

However, they are so yummy, as all of my family can attest to.  I may have piled the icing on a little too high, though, because we had some icing noses going on. ;-)

More updates can probably be found on my Facebook page and/or Twitter, because I can update more easily to my phone, but rest assured that I will be blogging faithfully this summer about all of my baking endeavors before college.

And I'm making my graduation cake next week.  It's gonna be awesome!

(And in other cake news, have you heard of Cake Boss?)