Nobody likes you when you're 23

I have not one, but three friends whose birthday fell on the same day. So I had to double up on the cake decorating! They're both French vanilla cakes with Italian Meringue Buttercream...

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but that IMBC has the potential to give me a heartattack. I always think I've ruined it! (and to be fair, I did ruin one batch by not mixing the egg whites long enough and overcooking the sugar...) But in the end, if you just walk away from the mixer, then 9 times out of 10 (or at least 2 times out of three this week), when you come back in 15 minutes, your icing will be perfect.

Also! Add lots of flavoring! That's the secret! I learned that this go-round. At least a tablespoon, maybe two, and definitely more than you think you need. :)

Anyway, here are some close ups!

An attempt at Lambeth. (with buttercream, not royal icing)

I might have butchered the lyrics, but you get the point!

Ducks!

So in the town I used to live in for a couple months, there was a road called Duck Slough. I still don't know how to pronounce it. And that story has nothing to do with the duck cake I made, I just thought it was interesting.

Now, to the cakes!

My roommate loves rubber duckies! And why not? They're cute! And since I knew she loved duckies, they were the basis for the birthday cake I made for her. Birthday cake AND cupcakes. Because, well... why not?

The only problem is, I am a procrastinator. Surprise. I swear that's what gets me everytime I go to make a cake. This time it was because I couldn't find the candy molds I needed, and I didn't have time to order them online. So I called or visited 4 or 5 craft stores, and none of them had rubber ducky molds!

Then inspiration hit, and I remembered the cake decorating supply store in Tampa. So I called them up, and guess what? They had one mold left! So I had to book it there before they closed, and silly me, I had to drive there in rush hour traffic. (Terrible idea, by the way. Someone on 275 totally almost killed me.) Never again, I say, will I procrastinate! Oh, how I wish that were true...

I am really glad that I finally made it out to Cakes Plus. It. Was. Awesome. They had a ton of display cakes that were gorgeous, and sold all kinds of supplies that I'm sure I'll need/want some day. Gumpaste flower molds, fondant, cake pans, you name it! I was like a kid in a candy shop. (That's funny right? Because they sold candy... It's a little funny?) :)

And luckily traffic wasn't too bad on the way home, so I got back in time to make the little candies, and decorate the cupcakes to look like bubbles. The cake, of course, was decorated in the same theme. (I tried to "ombre" the cake, but the buttercream I used wasn't smooth enough. I can do it at work, no problem, but the buttercream there is a lot smoother and lighter. I bet IMBC would take to the ombre effect perfectly!)

And that's the story of how I once again procrastinated, but somehow pulled off another awesome cake.

Happy Birthday Danielle!

Pretty Pearls and Ravishing Ruffles

We're just going to take a moment to ignore the monochromatic color scheme, and instead choose to focus our attention on how perfect this cake is for my fashion-forward, always-in-style little sister. And shout out to Mom and Dad for the Christmas present of oval cake pans!

Buttercream Ruffles

I absolutely love this ruffle pattern. And it is surprising easy to make, you just do a bunch of zig zag motions up the side of the cake. The best part is how fast it is to decorate, and yet everyone who saw it was just in awe... I know if I didn't know how to decorate cakes, I'd think this was a super complicated design.

My two favorite design elements are on this cake: simplicity and elegance. And it doesn't hurt that chocolate is my favorite either! :)

Happy birthday to me!

My birthday cake this year wasn't anything too grand or exciting, because my work schedule was a little crazy and I didn't have time to plan anything over the top, but I did make a cute little strawberry/lemon cake and some cake balls for my birthday party. And since it was my 21st birthday, afterall, I dressed the cake up with some limoncello and strawberry vodka. Also, I made cake pops. Because everybody loves cake pops.

And of course I did the rosette style on the cake, because a) it's really super fast and easy, and b) it looks really pretty! So everyone wins! And I tried to do an ombre thing, but it was a bit of a rushed job and (don't tell anyone) I used canned frosting. I KNOW! I'm ashamed to even admit it. I wanted to make an IMBC, but I just ran out of time. It took 3 cans of frosting to do that 8" cake, though. Crazy, right? It still tasted good, though. :)

tye dye cookies

I love playing with colors, especially when there's icing involved. So when my mom asked me if I'd make cookies for my brother's disco-themed end of the year party at school, I immediately thought: tie-dye.

So my first venturing into the world of tie-dyed sugar cookies was both a huge mess and a great success. I say it was a huge mess because I had six different colors of royal icing in zip lock bags with a little corner snipped off, and there was no way to get the icing from the bag to the cookie without also getting it all over the everything else. (Shout out to Katie for helping me finish the cookies at one in the morning!)

But basically what I did was take the icing, which was a drippy consistency, as I learned from Cookie Craft, and randomly drop it on the cookies, then swirl it around a bit with a toothpick. So it was pretty psychedelic. 

For future cookies, I'll probably go back to using a squeeze bottle, instead of zip lock bags (I was too lazy to find some) and get some electric gel paste colors from Americolor. Now THAT would be fabulous!

I've even played around some with blending buttercream icing together, like this cake I made at Betty Cakes many weeks back. I love how the purple/blue/green blended together. The orange/purple and the green/pink, not so much, but this is something I want to look into more, because if I had placed all the colors together correctly, I think I could've made them all blend together in one beautiful rainbow of a cake.

I know this is weird, but even though I hate cleaning out icing bags (it's just so messy and greasy and colorful), when my hands (and, admittedly everything else) were all covered in a bajillion different icing colors, it looked so colorful and beautiful in a weird, avant garde sort of way.

Also, painting with royal icing: Is that a thing? Does it sound as awesome to you as it does to me? I need to find some painting classes to sign up for.

This One Really Did Fall Apart, and I Almost Did Too

So the other day at work was quite a nail-biting kind of day. I was supposed to deliver two cakes, but when I arrived at my first destination, and opened the van's trunk, I realized with great dismay, that cake #1 was broken.

The bottom tier of this beautiful three-tiered cake had slid apart, so the whole cake was leaning over and I was pretty sure I going to cry. Thankfully, the cake's recipients were very kind about the whole matter so I rushed back to the shop and had only an hour to fix this great catastrophe. But it's not like I could actually rush, because you have to drive like a grandma when you've got a cake in the back. But what could I do? I didn't want the other two tiers to break too!

How can I possibly let you know how terrifying this situation was? Even though I knew, "this is only a cake", and "I know I can frost this fast enough," and "This isn't the first time this has happened, and it won't be the last, so it's not a big deal." But. Still. I felt like I should've had TV cameras following me around today. This was some prime-time reality tv drama. Complete with exaggeration and hyperbole!

I ended up have to refrost the top two tiers, and the bottom tier had to be started over completely from scratch. Completely. From. Scratch. (Well, it didn't have to be baked, at least, thank God. We had some extra 10" cake layers lying around.) And there was only an hour and a half before the party started.

I don't think I my piping was as good as my coworker's was originally with the scrollwork, but the cake did look nice. And this time when I delivered, I packed up the three tiers separately and put it together on-location (which is also scary, because people are milling around and staring at you and the pressure is still on). And once I set everything up, it looked pretty good. Especially with all the room decor they had set up for the birthday.

So in the end, everything worked out fine. And the other cake that needed to be delivered was taken care of by one of my coworkers, and I'm so very grateful she was working that day too! :)

If You're Good at Something, You Have to Keep Doing It

So a long time ago, I made cakes that looked like this:

So when someone came into Betty Cakes and wanted to order a castle cake, I said, oh, sure I've done that before (and I left out the part where the towers fell over mid-way through the party, because, obviously, I had learned from that mistake and would not repeat it, so it wasn't relevant) I can totally make a castle cake for you, Customer. (I'm paraphrasing here. Also, I didn't talk directly to the customer.)

And so I made this:

Which, admittedly, took a large amount of time. And those cake sparkles on those plastic towers? *headdesk* So tedious. But sparkle-y.

And of course, everyone loved it (I'm not bragging, but it's a princess castle, what's not to love?!). ....Which means the next time somebody asks for this cake, it's my job to get it done.

Like this one. I'm getting really good at these. Practice makes perfect, and all of that. But this time I made the flowers out of buttercream, not fondant, so that went a lot faster.

So it's a good thing that I love my job, because if I keep getting better at this whole cake deal, people are going to keep asking me to make them cakes. And I don't see a problem with that situation at all!

My baby sister turned 18 and all she got was this awesome cake

Happy birthday, Katie!

This is the story of how I created a beautiful cake without my giant pantry full of cake decorating supplies, and successfully made it both delicious and delicious-looking.

The only problem (apparently) was that we had French vanilla cake mix in the house and being the efficient and non-wasteful person that I am (or lazy), I decided to use that mix. Even though Katie wanted chocolate cake. But I made her chocolate buttercream!

So this hand mixer is as old as my parents' marriage. But it still works! Mostly.

I tried to make zebra stripes in the cake itself, but I think I might need to work on my technique a little more. And also I used green-dyed cake batter, as opposed to white and chocolate cake batter...so it looked less zebra-y than it should've.

But, hey, it still looks good! Right?! And I even found flowery candles at Kroger, so my sister's love of all things flora shines through with this cake, as well as her love of chocolate.

And as a postscript to the title, she did get more than just this awesome cake. But I still thought it was a good blog post title anyway. So there.

Yes, I DO Make My Own Birthday Cakes

Flashback time!

People are always surprised when I say that I make my own birthday cakes. My mother gets annoyed, though, because she thinks that, the way I tell it, it sounds like she just quit making my cakes and left me stranded in the kitchen.

When that is sooo not how it happened.

See, I wanted to make my own birthday cakes. I still do. I wanted to pour through Family Fun magazine, and make a Teddy Grahm pool cake, or stick my pink Power Rangers Barbie doll in a tiered cake and cover it in sprinkles and call it a "dress." I think my mom had a pretty hard time getting me out of the kitchen when she was baking. And as the years went on, I pretty much kicked her out.

So when I proudly say that I make my own birthday cakes (and yes, I write "Happy Birthday Kelsie" on them, because why would I write "Happy Birthday Me" anyway?!), it is not because my mom has subpar baking skills or hated making her children's birthday cakes, because neither of those are true. It's because I love to bake. I always have, and I always will!

Two more days until I'm 19!

Kelsie's Cakes from "Back in the Day"

As promised in my last posting, I'm going to keep up with this blog while I'm still in college, baking or no baking.  So far, no baking. Which is really a shame, because I've had such a craving for those chocolate chip cookies I love.  Katie told me she'll send some in a care package for me, but either they're going to get stale and/or smushed in the box, or my family will decide they should eat them all without me.  Personally, I'm betting on the second option.

I did, however, scan about 20 pictures onto my computer and upload them to Flickr.  I don't have the dates for any of them, but I'm sure I could figure it out if I had a calendar and a lot of time to kill. Even though I don't remember the dates very well, I can promise you I remember the cakes.

It's funny to think that I've had cake on my brain since I was really, really little.  As in, three-years-old.  Granted, back then my ingredients were things like mud and flower petals, but it's the thought that counts, right?

There's no mud in this cake, though, just lots of sugar and cute little Teddy Grahams.  I found the instructions for this one on a magazine cover and mom and I put it together for my birthday.  When I say "my birthday," of course I mean Maggie's birthday as well, because when we were younger, we always had combined parties.  At the time, I resented it, but looking back, it really wasn't that big of a deal.  Sorry for giving you such a hard time about it, Mom.

As you can tell, this was before I ever picked up my first Wilton instruction booklet or visited Cakecentral.com.  If I had to guess at a time frame, I'd say elementary school, maybe 1999.  But the cake still provided a lot of fun: going shopping for the ingredients, baking and icing the cake, putting the little Teddy Grahams in their Life Saver floatie devices, making a slide out of bubblegum, the giant lollipop who's purpose I can no longer remember... Oh, and eating all of the leftover candy later.  That was fun, too.

We still have that tablecloth, by the way.

This next and final cake I'm showcasing for today is the Barbie cake.  I'm pretty sure every little girl wanted a Barbie doll wearing a dress made of cake and icing, but how many little girls can say that they helped make that cake themselves?

Sure, it's not as pretty or "dress-like" as the Barbie cake my aunt Elsie made for her daughter, April, but it has chocolate AND rainbow sprinkles, so I'm happy.  I don't know if we had three different sized cake pans, or if Mom just cut the tiers to the appropriate size, but it was probably the latter.

That Barbie in the middle of the cake is my pink Power Rangers Barbie.  She was my favorite.  She had this cute little party dress (which she's wearing) and her kick-butt Power Ranger's suit.  I lost one of her gloves, though, which was a sad, sad day in my household.

So there you have it: two of my childhood memories, preserved in photographs of birthday cakes.  But don't worry, there will be lots of cakes and memories in the future!

Daily Double

Part A:  Hillary's Birthday

Ta-Da!  Hillary's fantastic 18th birthday cake to go with her fantastic birthday and party.  Sorry I didn't get a better picture but as it was already safely packaged in the box, I didn't want to risk making it un-safe. ;)  The theme was Jeopardy, because that is such an amazingly fun show and my BFF is uncommonly good at shouting out the right answers when watching it. (Fun Fact:  After we ate the cake, we actually watched the show.  Good timing, huh?)  The cake was also deliciously German Chocolate.  You know that super awesome coconut/peacan stuff that they put all over German Chocolate cake?  Yeah, I put it all over this cake, too, even if you can't see it.  It's between the 2 layers of cake and around the sides.  The buttercream icing on the top is flavored not with vanilla extract, but with coconut.  It smelled heavenly. =)

The party was a lot of fun, too.  There was a pool full of jello, two birthday girls, two cakes, a sombraro and lots and lots of fun.  I guess I already said that it was fun, but that's the only way to describe it!

So, Hillary, I hope you had an amazing 18th birthday and I'm very, very glad that you loved the cake so much!  It was an honor to make it for you!

Hillary took this picture after we sang "happy birthday".  There are holes in all the 6s because there were only 6 candles; 6 x 6= 36, the combined ages of Hillary and Sarah.

Time for cake and singing "Happy Birthday!"  Sarah's hand is green because of the Jell-O pool.  And she didn't realize that she was lighting "magic" candles that don't blow out. ;-)

Part B:  The 100th Post

Do you remember in elementary school when you celebrated the 100th day of school?  There were all kinds of fun activities:  counting out 100 pieces of fruit loops to string on a necklace, making 100 hats, counting to 100, counting to 100 by 2s or 5s or 10s...

In elementary school, 100 was a big deal.  Well, I may be as far removed from elementary school as a public school student can get, but the number 100 is still a very important number.

For example:

This is my 100th blog post!

Yay!  Fanfare!  Applause!

As far as the 100th post went, this wasn't the most exciting post:  I didn't have 100 fireworks, or 100 cupcakes, or even 100 pictures or something.  As a blog post about cake, however, I think my best friend's 18th birthday is terribly exciting.  And I hope that you do as well.  But, if you've stuck around for 100 posts (or even if you've only been reading my blog for a little while) then I think we probably do share the same ideas about exciting cake moments.  So to end this for today, I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your support, encouragement, stories, and pictures with me and I hope that you stick around for the next milestone!  Now I shall go and get ready for post #101 (cupcakes)!

Ni-Hao, Cake!

 

My baby brother is 5 years old!  Can you believe it?  The little guy is growing up!  In fact, we visited the Georgia Aquarium recently and I can remember when we went to the Tennessee Aquarium years ago when Adam was only 2.  He sat in a stroller and wasn't nearly as excited about seeing big fish or "Dory" fish like this time. He was still cute back then though!

If you are unfortunate enough not to have a little person in your home who does not watch Nick Jr., then you are probably wondering who the heck is on Adam's cake.  Meet Rintoo!  He is a fun-loving, albeit mischievous five-year-old tiger on Ni-Hao, Kai-Lan, the most adorable show on TV ever.  (To give you some quick background in your are unfamiliar with Kai-Lan and co.:  it's a show about a little bilingual Chinese girl who teaches kids how to speak Chinese-- like Dora the Exporer-- and also about the culture while teaching important lessons like sharing.)

Anyway, Adam asked me to "please make a Rintoo cake (!!!!!!)" so even though I had no idea how I was going to decorate this lemon cake 24 hours before it was completed, I knew Rintoo would be there.  (In fact, I didn't even know if he wanted a "circle" cake or a "rectangle" cake until I was about to pour the batter in because he kept changing his mind!)  But I found a cute image of the happy tiger and decided that he needed a speech bubble to wish Adam a happy birthday, and I used that to make a frozen buttercream transfer.  (I remembered to reverse the image!!)

The flowers and mushrooms make the cake look a little girly in my opinion, but I tried to make the cake themed around the show as much as possible.  The icing was thinned down to make the transfer, so the flowers are a little droopy.  Something else that I would've done differently:  the words are written with a #5 tip but I think a #3 would work out better.

Overall, I'm pleased with this cake, especially considering that I didn't start baking until 9pm the night before the party and that I decorated between coaching Adam's soccer team, working at the concession stand, and watching James' soccer game.  Saturday was very busy!  Adam was pleased with the cake too, I believe, even if he didn't actually eat any at the party (?).  James, however, had two slices (and remember, he's the one who claims not to like cake) and Mom liked it too.  Although, the cake was lemon flavor, so that might have something to do with it.  I thought it tasted alright (I used a Duncan Heines box mix with an extender).  But it looked cute!

I won't be posting for a while because Hillary's birthday cake is up next and she has requested that I keep her cake a complete secret until reveal time, including blog posts.  So I won't have any updates about that until the beginning of next week.  In the meantime, perhaps you could check out my Facebook, Flickr or Twitter.  See you next week! ;-)

GO Dawgs! =]

The bulldog cake is done! I am so proud :) Mom says this is my best cake yet, as far as the detail goes. I'm not sure I agree; I made a cake once with a fondant leprechaun and a candy rainbow that was a lot of work. However, this is my most detailed FBCT.
Can you tell that the dog is faced the opposite direction of the picture I used to trace it? I will never forget to make a reversed image to trace, though!

The icing (red and black) was bought pre-colored. I could've made my own red icing (I bought 2 more tubes of it) and black, but that was a lot of work, and I'm lazy. I mean, it *is* the first day of summer.

The tube I used for the border was #16 star tip, and I made little shell alternating with the red and black. The alternating was made easier by the fact that I have 2 star tips (yay!). The FBCT was made with a #1 tip (of which I only have 1) with a #5 or 7 (I can't remember, but I think it was the 7) for the white icing backing. By the way, the white buttercream is homemade.

Can you tell that the dog is a different 'shade' of white than the rest of the cake? I added a little ity bity dot of black icing to make it a little more gray.

2 hours until deliver. This is my last post for today. :) Actually, it'll be my last post until Friday; I'm going on vacation! =]

The letters were piped with #3 (red) and #1 (black) tip. Originally, I was just going to do the red, but it looks good with the black. I realized today why whenever I wrote on cake previous to this one, the handwriting was messy. Well, my icing was thin enough. I had thinned the buttercream for the FBCT and used that same icing for the lettering. Because it was thinner, it came out of the piping bag easier, and my handwriting actually looked nice!! Dad wanted to know whose daughter I was; my handwriting is far more superior than his for us to be related. ;-)

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!

coming soon...

I don't know how soon I'll be able to post these, but my grandpa has given me some digital pictures of cakes I've made in the past few years. I'll go ahead and put the pictures up, but I'll add the accompanying words to it later, when I get the chance. Sorry for the delay!

Click here for more about this cake

(I apologize for the quality of this las picture;
it was the best one I had!)

Happy Liturgical New Year!

Today, the first Sunday of Advent, marks the start of the new year for the Catholic Church. So, as in all celebrations, I baked a cake!

I tried out some new skills when I made this cake. Alas, no poinsettias! Perhaps cupcakes later in the season...

The first new skill I used was the "Frozen Butter Cream Transfer." It was unnecessary, since the design was basic enough, but I thought now was a good enough time to try out a new skill.

The next new skill I tried was a whipped icing recipe. That was fun to make, and the resulting icing was very tasty. The down side was the lack of sugar, so next time I made whipped icing, I will added double the sugar. =) (Sorry Mom, I know you don't like all that extra sweet goodness!)

While it is unfortunate that I did not get to make poinsettas, or even try out my new MM fondant, I really liked making-- and eating-- this cake. I look forward to making more whipped icing, and experimenting with taste, and also practicing the transfer so that I can eventually do more complicated pictures.

So far, the new year has gone off to a great start!



One last note: the butter cream does not store so well with the whipped icing, because the moisture is too high... so next time I'll try the piping with the whipped icing.

GOOOOOAL!

This cake was quite a kick at this 9-year-old's birthday party. I really scored with this one.

Okay, okay, enough with the witty puns. But in all seriousness, I thought this cake was awesome!

And as a friend (Hillary!) said, the grass looks really good, and it didn't take me near as long as it looks, because I have one of those nifty tricks of the trade to make decorating a lot easier. I used a star tip for the grass, but instead of one opening, it has 3 star-shaped openings so that the cake can be decorated in one-third of the time! Cool, huh?

And I love the contrast of the chocolate lettering with the green frosting... almost like mud and grass, right? And speaking of chocolate, the icing was really tasty. I used butter flavored Crisco, since I knew the icing didn't have to be white. Although not as good as real butter (which does not hold up in this Georgia climate), it was still a very tasty buttercream. And the cake itself was chocolate, an added bonus.

The net is made up of royal icing that dried over night. I actually made three nets. Dad actually broke one, but I promise (!!!!!!!!!!) I don't hold it against him, because I broke the other one. And that's why I made three.

The soccer ball is actually a little clock that stopped working. The birthday boy got it from one of his soccer seasons, I think (he's played seven), and he graciously let me use it for his cake.

The only thing I don't like is that the J looks funny... but that's just how I write them. Oh well. And the writing is a bit off-center, but again, the person who really matters didn't care. If the birthday boy likes it, so do I!

There was definitely no foul with this cake!

Patrick Star

One of my favorite cakes is this Patrick Star cake. I think I love it so much because of how much the birthday boy loves it. The happiness of a four-year-old is so contagious!

I also love how smooth the icing turned out, as well as all of the colors. Perfect! And the bellybutton, which is so cute!

The cake doesn't look exactly like Spongebob's undersea pal, more like one of Dora's stars actually, and that is because I used Wilton's star shaped pan. I could have cut out my own Patrick-like shape to make him more "Patrick-looking" but doing it in the star pan gave him a lot of charm and whimsy. Especially concerning a four-year-old, the more whimsy, the better!

(star image from http://purpletoad.net/adopt-misc.html)