I think I'll Make Petit Fours

After I baked Katie's birthday day, I realized that I had some extra cake batter. What better to do with this extra cake than to bake it in a square pan, cool the cake, cut it into 1" squares, and freeze? Because what's better than petit fours?

I made a practice one with raspberry preserves and rolled fondant, with mixed results. I really liked the taste of the raspberry, but the fondant was just too sweet. Marshmallow fondant is good, but I don't think I could really eat more than a taste of it.

So I've been thinking, and doing some research, and I've come to the conclusion that I will pour dark chocolate over the petit fours, instead of fondant. I thought about white chocolate, but honestly I can't stand the stuff. Dark chocolate, however, is a different story.

In my research, I discovered that petit fours can cost as much as $2.50, and that Godiva petit fours look mouth-wateringly good. They can be easy to make, or finicky, and that there is a variety of ways to make them. All of this information was just so overwhelming!

The frozen cake is still in the freezer, but when I get a spare moment, I will certainly take the time to make these tasty little treats, and I hope that they taste as good as they look! (I also hope that the petit fours that I make will actually look good!)

Pretty Perfect Princess Penguin Castle Cake

Wow. This cake took some work. Three day's worth, in fact. Why is it that I always end up doing my most challenging cakes for Katie's birthday? (Last year I made my first fondant sculpture, and also stuck my toe into the world of candy designs.) Despite all the challenges, I am a better cake decorator for this cake.

As adorable as those penguins are, they took a lot of work, and a lot of marshmallow fondant (which, by the way, is very tasty, but really sweet). I missed out on watching the Sound of Music because I was making these guys! They were a lot softer that I thought they would be, but they spent almost 2 days in front of a fan, which sort of firmed them up.


This penguin, with instructions at Wilton's website, was my inspiration. Although, I used fondant, not buttercream.

The tower tops are also covered in blue fondant, then white cake sparkles. That was quite messy. :)

I used 2 1/2 boxes of white cake mix (I still don't understand why that crazy girl didn't pick chocolate), because I had 2 6" layers and 2 10" layers. The other 1/2 of the cake box went to the petit fours which are currently unfinished in the freezer until a later date.

I used the first recipe on this page. Really nice and creamy, but it didn't crust well enough for me (I think that's because I didn't use enough powdered sugar). Katie liked it though, and that's what matters.

Since we had her birthday party on Easter, I took the unassembled cake to my grandmother's house, along with my box of supplies (extra icing, the towers, the penguins, tips, bags, etc.) and assembled it there.

A word to the wise: if cake instructions call for dowels, use the dowels. I didn't, and that was big mistake. Can you see in the picture where the bigger 2 towers on top are leaning? Well, they definitely are, and they even cracked the cake! I stuck some straws (cut down to size) inside the cake, added some melted chocolate, and stuck the towers on top on that. Wow! Was that a mess! And it was baking chocolate, with no sugar added! Tasty, huh? The chocolate didn't harden fast enough for my impatient little self, so I added the white icing boarder that you see around the top towers to hold them in place.

That worked pretty well... until about an hour before dinner, when the tallest tower fell out! Ahh! But by that point, I was pretty passive about the whole thing: everyone saw the cake, I had pictures taken, it was still edible. So I used some more icing to stick the tower back and called it a day... until it was time to eat it!! :)

So there you have it. The pretty, perfect (well, mostly)princess penguin castle cake that I made my little sister for her birthday (which, by the way, is the day after the First Day of Spring, but she likes penguins, so penguins it was)!

P.S. I discovered that, although our house is on a hill that slopes down to the west, our over actually slopes down to the south, which is why all of my cakes always turn out lopsided. Because I'm very good at trimming them down, I usually try to fit the layers today so that the lopsidedness balances out... that doesn't usually work. I've said this before, and it remains to be true: my lopsided, leaning cakes have character. And if you hold the camera at just the right angle, nobody will be able to tell!

I used the Wilton Romantic Castle Cake Set for my inspiration, and also for the towers, window, etc. And it was only $10 with a coupon! Whoo-hoo!

Happy Birthday, Ms. Reese!

So I finally finished those cupcakes on Wednesday night. Chocolate chip cupcakes with purple fluffy buttercream icing. My inspiration was an iris (purple and yellow), but I was told that these are her favorite flowers. I wish I could've made some out of gumpaste, or fondant, but I don't have any instruction books for that type of flower.

Despite that, I think that the colors turned out really nice. It's hard to tell in my picture, but the yellow sprinkles make the icing sparkle goldenly.

I delivered the cupcakes yesterday morning, and they were given to Ms. Reese later that afternoon for her surprise party. From the accounts that I heard, it was a really nice party and a happy birthday for Ms. Reese! I'm honored that I was asked to be included on this special day! :)

Eireann go Brach

This is the cake I spend Saturday (and a bit of Sunday) making. I am quite pleased with the result! I need to work on the icing consistency, as I would sometimes have icing that was too thin, or too thick, which isn't good for piping. I unfortunately had a bit of cracking on the icing but I covered that up with some shamrocks. Also, the cake slanted slightly.

Despite these flaws, I really think that this is one of the most beautiful cakes I've made. I just love daffodils! (Wouldn't it be cool if I could make these?) Last year I made an awesome St. Patrick's Day-type cake for Katie's birthday. I don't have any digital pictures of it, but it was better than this one, I think. (A fondant leprechaun and a candy rainbow adorned that cake.)

I am just so glad that this cake turned out as well as I had hoped. Especially since all I knew going into it was that I wanted daffodils, and the base icing was going to be light green. I just came up with everything as I went along.

The transport to school went well, and I safely carried the cake to its recipient. I think she liked it. ;) One of the assistance principals at school also commented on it. How awesome?! That really buoyed my spirits before math class! :)

No cakes for a while after this one. Just kidding! I still have Katie's cake and some cupcakes for this week, so stay tuned, and happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

Crazy Weekend-- Update

This weekend had been crazy-- and it's only half over! We still have Sunday to go!

I was able to bake a cake, and start decorating it. This is the St. Patrick's Day cake that Mrs. B asked me to make. I've made daffodils for it too! And they actually look acceptable! I did need a few more supplies, and (yippee!) Mom took me out to Michael's. We had to hurry home before another round of storms came in (good thing we did; there was hail).


I bought cake sparkles for Katie's birthday cake (5 days away), a cake box for the cupcakes (4 days away) and one for the St. Pat's cake (2 days away). I also bought a grass tip because, well, I didn't have one and will probably need it eventually. I was going to buy some yarn, but the big walls of yarn intimidated me at Michael's: so many choices!!!

Powdered sugar and cupcake liners were also on my list. Do you know how much powdered sugar I go through in this house? In the past week alone, I've used 3 pounds, and I still need four, maybe five or six pounds to tide me over until after Katie's birthday. We only have 2.5 pounds left and I just bought some!

The excitement of the Blog of Note has passed, and my daily visitors have decreased significantly (although I have more visits than I did before this crazy coolness). Now I'll have time to post more about past cakes because I won't be spending as much time reading the wonderful comments people have left and deleting spam- which is not wonderful (why does the Irish lottery... and the British lottery... keep spamming me? I live in the US!).

The time is getting late, and I need to head off to bed so I can wake refreshed and finish my to-do list for this weekend. I will post pictures of the St. Patrick's Day cake tomorrow before I box it up. Buenas Noches!

P.S. I decided to bake the cupcakes and Katie's cake later in the week so that they are fresher (instead of today or tomorrow, as I originally planned), but I might start with some details of the penguin cake tomorrow (towers, penguin figures, etc.). We will just have to see how it goes! I'll probably need more AP flour and unsalted butter first...

March 14th

Happy Pi Day!

Cupcake Spectacular

I finally finished my cupcakes! Yay! I made them last weekend, then stowed them away in my cake caddy. All week I've been putting off decorating them (Where does the time go??) but finally this afternoon, I realized that it must be done.

Let me start at the beginning: last weekend, somehow, I found time between 99 cookies to make these dark chocolate cupcakes. I added a twist though: I substituted a teaspoon of vanilla extract with orange extract. The smell coming from that oven was heavenly!

But then I had to decorate those 99 cookies, so the cupcakes were put on the back burner. I tossed them in my Cake Caddy and that's where they've been all week. Where has the time gone? Personally, I have no idea.

Today is Friday, though, and I realized that I have the whole weekend ahead of me (no matter how swamped it's going to be). The time is now. The fluffy buttercream icing with orange extract must be tried!

Even though the icing recipe warns that it gets a little ugly, I was sweating a bit as the lumpy mass in my mixer became lumpier. However, some time and some high-powdered mixing later, the mixture became homogeneous, and all was well. All that mixing did take longer than expected, though, so that was a bummer.

Hey, the effort was worth it. As you can see from the pictures below, the icing (which was halved, as well as made with 2 teaspoons orange extract and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract) looks pretty nice on my dark chocolate orange cupcakes. They smell delicious too!!

The fairy cakes are decorated simply, with a #12 tip in a pastry bag and with Cake Sparkles. I thought about some complicated stuff that I could've done, but in the end I decided "less is more." But, hey, you can see for yourself...

Dark Chocolate Cake

Category: Chocolate Cakes
Prep. Time: 15 min.
Cook Time: 40 min.
Difficulty: Easy

Introduction:

This is the BEST scratch cake I have ever made! I received lots of compliments on it the first time I made it and plan to use it again and again. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 cups granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cups cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
[Kelsie's edit: I used 1 tsp orange extract; 1 tsp vanilla]
1 cup boiling water

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Grease and flour two 9in pans or one 13x9in pan
3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together dry ingredients
4. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes
5. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into pans
6. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
7. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks

~~~~~~~

Fluffy Buttercream

Category: Frostings
Difficulty: Easy

Introduction:

I was looking for a fluffy but not very sweet version of buttercream.I made this combination of shortening,egg whites and butter and the end result is a very light icing perfect to cover cakes and to crumb coat.

Ingredients:

3/4 cups egg whites(pasteurized or about 5 big eggs)
[I used meringue powder: 5 tsp powder and 5 tbsp water for 1/2 recipe]
2 cups shortening (I use the 1 cup pkgs and cut them in pieces to make it easier)
[Or 1 cup, as in my case]
1/2 cup butter (1 stick softened a little and cut into pieces)
[1/4 cup; definitely want this to be soften!]
4 to 5 cups of confectioners sugar
[I used two cups, and that was perfect for me]
2 tbsp flavor of your choice (vanilla,almond,orange etc)
[2 tsp orange; 1 tsp vanilla]
2 tbsp milk or heavy cream [1 tbsp 2% milk for me]

Directions:

*Always make sure that your bowl and utensils are clean,dry and free of fat or liquids before whipping the egg whites for best results.
Whip the whites slowly at first until they get foamy.Add the extract,increase the speed of the mixer and start adding 1 cup of sugar slowly.Keep whipping until the meringue is shiny and stiff.
With the mixer in medium start adding the shortening and the butter a bit at a time.At the beggining the mix will look weird but that is normal.Change the mixer to high and mix until your buttercream looks homogeneous and fluffy (abt 5 to 15 min)
Start adding the rest of the sugar by 1/2 cups,add the 2 tbsp
of milk or heavy cream and keep whipping until the sugar is well incorporated (abt 5 more min).
The buttercream must be transfered to an airtight container and can last at room temperature for a few days or be refrigerated 1-2 weeks.

Smile!

Alright, so I didn't find my camera yet, but I decided to take pictures of the cookies with my camera phone before we ate all the leftovers (we already delivered the cookies to their intended destination). They are really tasty.

I used Alice's cookie icing recipe from Cake Central and Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix- three bags' worth! For the face features, I used melted semi sweet chocolate chips and a #2 round tip. (I just melted a dash of veggie oil and a handful of the chips in my homemade double boiler: a metal bowl on top of a pot half-filled with water. Just don't let the water boil, or you'll have a mess.)

On an aside, at every grocery store I ever go to, Betty Crocker has the monopoly for sugar cookie mix. Surely Publix should have their own store brand?! We need a little competition to drive the prices down. ;) Sure I could make my own sugar cookies, but in the past I've never had luck with that, and I didn't want to experiment with the 99 cookies that I made this time.

My brother thinks that the cookies look like the Wal-Mart smiley face, but I think there are some marked differences. Like the fact that they are cookies and delicious and have chocolate on them. :)

Anyway, this is how I spent pretty much all of yesterday, after being tired of playing in the snow. Unfortunately, because of my lack of camera, I didn't get any pictures. But I had fun until I decided I was too cold. Thankfully, the oven was warm!

Help Me, St. Anthony!

I finished my smiley face cookies for the club at the elementary school today! They are adorable, if I may say so.

However, I can't find my digital camera, so I can't post any pictures. Sorry! However, I'll keep looking. I also baked cupcakes, although I haven't iced them yet (I ran out of powdered sugar after icing 99 (!!) sugar cookies).

I'll get back to you soon!

(St. Anthony, by the way, is the patron saint of lost items, if you didn't know.)

Quick Question

I went to Publix today to buy some ingredients for baked goods. However, I couldn't find meringue powder (or powdered egg whites) anywhere.

My question is this:
Does anyone know where I can find this product? Does Publix usually sell it, but I looked in the wrong place? What about Wal-Mart? I'm pretty sure Michael's does, in their cake decorating aisle, but I won't be going there for a while. If anyone could help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it!

I did however find everything else I need (including the parchment paper that was on sale!!) for baking this weekend! :)

Update! I went to Wal-Mart this afternoon and found, in the cake decorating section, a really big can of Meringue Powder. Thank you to everyone who responded to my question! Your help is much appreciated! Now, I need to get off this computer and start making cookies!

Crazy Binge Baking Weekend(s)

Here's what I've got going for me this weekend:

* Make smiley face cookies for my brother's friend's mom's club that she's starting at the elementary club.
* Make cupcakes for the Cupcake Spectacular (which I may donate for the Beta Club Bake Sale).
* Buy a few ingredients that we don't have.

All of that plus my sister has competition, the KoC at church are having their monthly breakfast fundraiser, it might snow, homework, the usual.

Then the next weekend:

• Make the penguin cake (that's a load o' work right there!)
  
• Make something (hopefully!) for somebody's birthday who may or may not read this blog
• Maybe make a St. Patrick's Day cake
  

So it's really like 2 weekends in a row that I will be baking up a storm! Now. I'm procrastinating on my biology homework, but I really needed a break because all of this exam review is giving me a headache. Back to work!

On one last note: we went to the school today to get my class ring, and they had a cake there from Publix. I don't want to diss Publix cakes, because I've seen some beautiful ones, but somebody really didn't do a good job with these roses. The flowers started out nice, in the middle, but... the last row of petals looks rushed and, well, ugly. Like somebody didn't take the time to make them look as nice as the rest of the flower. Oh well, the cake still tasted good!

A rose that I made,
not perfect, but I took
my time

Caketastic Contests

I finally figured out what I want to do for my entry in the Cupcake Spectacular 2008, hosted by Arfi Binsted at HomeMadeS.

I will let the design be a surprise until I actually make the cupcakes and feel pleased with the results. No need to get all excited about an idea if I change it at the last moment, huh? ;)

No need to worry. These cupcakes should be pretty spectacular, right? All I need now is a couple of ingredients and an afternoon to myself this Saturday.

I am also formulating ideas for Taste of Home's Cute Cookie Contest. The deadline for that contest is still a few weeks away, but I need to really get the ideas going. I Googled 3-D cookies, because I was at a loss as to what to make for that category. I think I know what I'm dealing with now, and man, are those creative juices flowing! Good thing "you may enter as many items as you may wish!" So, if I have time after those cupcakes, I'll make some cookies!

One last note: I found out today that cupcakes are called fairy cakes in Britain, and I must say that I like that name a lot better!