Round 2

If you all remember last week, (if you don't you can read about it here) I made a birthday cake and cupcakes for the son of one of my coworkers. This week it was time to make a cake and cupcakes for their daughter's birthday festivities. Instead of Legos, the request was Minnie Mouse. They sent me some ideas of what they would like, all of which included pink and polka dots. Obviously I was in.

Originally the order was for 40 cupcakes and a 6-inch cake, just like what I had made for them last week. But, if I've learned anything in my 26 years it's that sometimes things change and it's good to be flexible (I've learned other things too, but they don't all apply to baking). Instead of making a 6-inch cake, I was asked to make an 8-inch cake. And, instead of 40 cupcakes I was asked to knock the tally down to 1 dozen. Since I hadn't started baking anything at the time the favor was asked, making the adjustment wasn't a problem. I also offered to make 2 dozen cupcakes (or as close to 2 dozen cupcakes that I could get with the batter I would have) because I wanted to make sure they would have enough for all their guests. To get an 8-inch cake and 1 dozen cupcakes I was going to have to make 2 batches of batter anyway, so I might as well give them everything I got. I don't need any extra cupcakes sitting around.

As you all know, when I have an order like this, or really any cake or cupcake order I always bake and decorate on separate days. I like to spread out the work, it's a system that works for me. Of course the day I baked had to be the hottest day we've had in Connecticut all year. There were heat advisories across the state, temperature were in the 90s if not the 100s, but I think my kitchen was the hottest place of all. I tried to start baking as early in the day as possible so I wouldn't be sweating profusely into the cupcake batter. Sweat is not an ingredient for this recipe.

Just like last week I made 2 batches of batter, only this time, that was all I needed. It's amazing how much the workload is cut down when you only have to double a recipe as opposed to triple it. It was nice. I decided to make the cakes first because I had to have enough batter for those. Any extra cupcakes I got was going to be a bonus. I made 2 8-inch cakes (it was going to be a 2-layer cake). I used 4 cups of batter to fill each pan, which worked perfectly. I favor Wilton's baking pans because the cakes always come out level, and if you prepare the pans correctly (Crisco and flour), the cakes are easy to get out. I can never remember how long to bake the cakes in these pans. I threw out those instructions long ago... oops. I suppose it's something I could Google, but I never do. I started with 20 minutes just to be safe. It was not enough time. I added 10 minutes each time until the cakes were baked for a total of 40 minutes and they were done. I'll try to remember that for next time... or try to remember to Google it.

After the cakes were done I baked the cupcakes. I filled each three-quarters full and baked them for a total of 20 minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. Exactly the same way as I did it last week. I ended up getting 18 cupcakes when all was said and done. Not as many as I thought, but I was confident that would be enough cupcakes for the guests at the party.

While the cupcakes were baking, I started making the fondant (I'm a big fan of multitasking). Unlike last week I needed more than one color. I needed both pink and white. I knew it would probably take one batch of fondant to cover the entire 8-inch cake. Since it's so much easier to color fondant while you're making it as opposed to after it's already done, I decided it would be easiest to make an entire batch of pink and then a separate batch of white, knowing that I would have a ton of extra white fondant. While I was smart enough to figure that out, I wasn't smart enough to realize that when making a batch of white fondant and a batch of another color, you should make the white batch first. That way, you don't have to wash the bowl after you make the first batch (if you don't wash the bowl in between you run the risk of having your white fondant with a tint of whatever your previous color was). You can just keep on going, optimizing efficiency. Unfortunately this brilliant idea didn't hit me until I put the food coloring in for the pink fondant, and at that point, there was no turning back.

With the fondants both done, I wrapped them tightly in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge overnight so they wouldn't get too hot and sticky in the midst of our heat wave. I thought about making the frosting on the same day, but since it was so hot and I wanted the frosting to be as fresh as possible I decided to wait until decorating day for that.

Decorating day was also a regular work day for me. In other words I had to put in overtime to finish everything up. Fortunately the weather was much cooler, we had a storm roll in that sent the heat and humidity packing. I made a double batch of Martha's fluffy vanilla frosting, the same one that I used last time. I like to stick with what works. I was hoping a double batch would be enough frosting and it was. I even had a little extra that I didn't end up needing. I iced the cupcakes first because I wanted to make sure all the cupcakes got the frosting they needed. I knew I could frost the cake thinly enough to make whatever frosting I had leftover last. Turns out I was able to put three coats of frosting on the cake and still have extra. But, I thought more than three applications of frosting would be too much. The cake was heavy enough as it was.

Time to decorate! I was able to find adorable pink and white polka dot cupcake liners, so I used those for the cupcakes. In addition to those the cupcakes were decorated with small pink sprinkles that looked like mini pearls. I actually had them on hand from a previous baking project and thought they would be perfect for Minnie Mouse. I also made little Minnie Mouse toppers for each cupcake. I remembered to put one on a cupcake to take a picture of it, but forgot to put them on the cupcakes for the party. You forget things when you don't get enough sleep. So, if you want 18 little Minnie Mouse heads I have some for you! I did however remember to put the bigger one I made on top of the cake, so I have that going for me. In addition to the topper for the cake I also lined the bottom with a white fondant ribbon and added white fondant polka dots over the rest of the cake.

I knew everything tasted good because I'd made the same thing last week. But, as always I get a little nervous about how everything is going to turn out appearance wise, especially the cake. It turned out to be exactly what I wanted, and I loved it. It might be my favorite of all the cakes I've made so far. But, I do have a soft spot for pink and polka dots. Ready for the finished products?!

Here's Minnie Mouse...

And the mini Minnies.

Oh, Baby!

Happy New Year! I know, I know... it's been awhile and I'm sorry. The last 3 weeks have been madness in my neck of the woods. We've traveled out of town every week since Christmas which hasn't left extra time for much. But now, I'm back. Get pumped.

Project Cupcake will be back very soon. In fact, there's a cupcake waiting in the wings. First however, in the spirit of the new year, new beginnings and all things new I thought what's newer than a baby? And, what do women have before they have a baby? Yep, that's right, a baby shower. And, what do women eat at a baby shower? Yep, right again, cake!

Please forgive the not-s0-great composition of this photo. It was taken quickly and on my phone with the intention of sending it to my friend who requested it and no one else. It was only after the cake was gone that I thought I should post it and wished I still had the cake to take prettier pictures. Hindsight. Always gets me.

On to the details. My friend asked me to make this cake for the baby shower of a co-worker of ours. I have made this particular cake for baby showers a couple of times before. Once for my future sister-in-law and another for the daughter of my boss from college. I'm not a professional anything when it comes to baking, but I feel particularly comfortable when I make this cake since I've done it before.

I made a double batch of my chocolate cake recipe and used 2 8-inch square pans to make the cakes. When all the baking was said and done I had 4 8-inch cakes. I layered them which gave me 2 layer cakes. After the cakes were leveled and layered I cut each layer cake into quarters so I had 8 blocks total. The shower wasn't going to be too big and I figured I wouldn't need more than 4 blocks total for the shower, but I always like to have back up just in case I need it. In this case I did because once a couple of the blocks were frosted they started to lean and didn't look as level. Instead of panicking I just made new blocks with my extra blocks. Like the Boy Scouts say (or at least I think they do)... always be prepared!

Although it wasn't particularly warm, I still put the frosted cakes in the freezer because they're easier to work with when they're firm. As per my normal routine, I made the fondant the day before while the cakes were baking. I made 3 batches because I always like to have extra just in case I need it. I had more than enough.

Since the mommy to be didn't want to know the gender of the baby I was asked to keep the colors neutral. I like the look of white blocks with pastel colors, so I kept the blocks white and incorporated light green and light yellow. I colored the fondant myself using green and yellow Wilton gel food coloring.

I printed out the letters from my computer, cut them out, put them on top of the fondant and traced around them with a knife giving me the shape of the letter in fondant form. For the shapes I used a star cookie cutter that I had on hand. For the edging of the blocks I just rolled out fondant and used a pizza cutter to cut out uniform strips that I placed around the edge of each block.

I didn't attend the baby shower myself, but I was told everyone loved it, and most importantly the mommy to be was very happy! Oh, I almost forgot... it's a boy!

Make It a Double

I interrupt this regular scheduled post about cupcakes to bring you 2 things...

First, I'm putting Project Cupcake on a brief hiatus for December. After some contemplation I have decided that keeping up with cupcakes and my holiday baking while working full time, plus my normal everyday life responsibilities is just too much at once. And, since I can't quit my job, and the house still has to be cleaned one of my baking items had to go. Since I give Christmas cookies as gifts to friends and family not baking for the holidays just wasn't an option, so I decided to take a little break from cupcakes. But don't worry, come 2012 we'll be back on track.

Second, since I've been sick the past couple days (I have a head cold that is getting the best of me) I haven't baked anything. I don't want to potentially infect anyone with my germs. Therefore, I'm bringing you a blast from the fairly-recent past. If you can't have cupcakes... why not have cake?

As I've mentioned before (I think) co-workers occasionally ask me to make cakes for birthdays, bridal showers, etc. This request was for 2 birthday cakes, one for a 6-year-old (I think) boy, and a 2-year-old (I'm positive) girl, brother and sister. Their birthdays are about a week apart and I made their cakes last year as well... repeat customers! Trevor wanted a Lightning McQueen cake (a character from the movie Cars for those who don't know), and Kate doesn't care because she's 2, but her mom asked for something pretty and girly and sent a picture of a cake she liked to serve as inspiration for me.

Before starting each cake I did some Google image searching to learn everything there is to learn about what Lightning McQueen looks like. I had a base knowledge of what he looks like, but I needed specific details. I found some good images and saved a few on my computer of Lightning McQueen from several different angles (yowza!). I continued my Google searching to see what other people had done to make Lightning McQueen cakes because this would be my first attempt at truly sculpting a cake and making it 3D. I didn't want it to be a complete failure and ruin Trevor's birthday party. No cake equals no fun, at least it does at my birthday parties.

After completing my research I decided to make 2 9x13 cakes and layer them. Then I would sculpt from there. Plus with using 2 9x13 pans I knew exactly how many batches of batter I would need. The cakes were both chocolate, so I used the same recipe for both cakes and just tripled it to have enough batter for both. It worked out perfectly.

I wasn't sure how to start sculpting, but I know from my sculpture classes in college that once you take something away, you can't really put it back (Mom and Dad would be so proud that I'm using those tuition dollars!). There's a little more wiggle room with cakes, since frosting is a baker's form of glue, but still, I'd rather not have to go that route. In my Google research someone suggested drawing out the form of the car on a piece of paper and then putting it against the side of the cake and carving along the edges of that to get the shape. This seemed like a great idea, so that's what I did. It worked out great and I got the basic shape of the cake. I did a little more carving around the edges and "touching up" to get as close to the shape of the car as possible. To be honest, it looked a little wider than I liked, but overall I was pretty pleased with my first attempt at sculpting a cake. Once the sculpting was complete I threw on 2 layers of vanilla buttercream frosting and popped that baby in the fridge.

The next day (after 8 hours of my day job) I came home to do the remainder of the decorating. Two days prior I made the frosting and fondant and left them waiting patiently in the fridge until I was ready for them. I made 1 batch of red marshmallow fondant for Lightning McQueen and 2 batches of white, one for Kate's cake, and then another to have for the details of both cakes. I ended up having more fondant than I needed, but I'd rather have too much than not enough.

First, I covered the cake with the red fondant and watched it start to sweat. That's what happens when you take a buttercream-frosted cake out of the fridge and cover it with with fondant in a non-air conditioned, humid house. But, I wasn't too concerned because I knew at some point it would stop sweating once the temperature evened out, and the fact that it was wet made it easier to stick on all the details (the next morning when the cakes were picked up they were both sweat free thanks to sitting in their respective cake boxes in a dehumidified basement overnight). I made several different color fondants from one of the white batches for the windows, wheels, lightning bolts, numbers, headlights, taillights and any other detail I can't remember. For the wheels I had previously made rice krispy treats and cut them into circles using a cookie cutter. I covered those with fondant and stuck them to the cake using toothpicks so they wouldn't flop over. Lightning McQueen won't be lightning fast if he's missing a wheel. I finished up some of the small details, such as outlining everything and the wording by piping on some of my leftover buttercream icing. Finally, Lightning McQueen was finished. I'm very proud of my work, and Trevor loved it, which is the most important thing. Being the perfectionist that I am, I think it could be better, and I'm sure the next one will be.

On to cake No. 2 for little Kate. Hers was much easier which is why I saved it for last. I knew Trevor's cake would be a lot of work and I wanted to have as much energy as possible to tackle it. Kate's cake was a 6-inch round, 3-inch deep cake. I cut it in half so it would have layers and frosted it with 2 applications of buttercream before I started decorating. I covered it twice with white fondant because the first pass was a little thin in some places and I didn't want to risk it ripping. Especially with the moisture issue I was facing and the fact that I had more than enough fondant. I made several colors of fondant for the flowers on the cake; yellow, orange, blue, pink and purple. I bought Wilton flower cookie cutters from Michaels and used those to make the flowers. They worked great. I cut out about 6 flowers in each color, more then enough since I was working with a small cake, but I didn't want to have to go back and make more flowers later if I needed them.

Before I put any of the flowers on the cake I wanted to get the number 2 on it. This was the only specific request that was made fore the cake, everything else was up to me. I used some pink fondant and rolled it into a rope, made it into the shape of a 2 and put it on the top of the cake. Next, I put on the flowers in a not so organized or patterned fashion. I didn't want to use too many, because I wanted the cake to look pretty and dainty, but I didn't want it to be to sparse because I didn't want the cake to look naked. For the finishing touches I attached white pearl sprinkles to the center of the flowers with some of the leftover buttercream frosting. It was a really nice touch and made a difference, it made everything look complete and finished. I don't know if this is my favorite cake that I've ever made, but it's definitely high on my list. It's so dainty and pretty and lovely... just like the birthday girl.

I Think I Made a Mousse-Take

Recently I made this cake for the birthday of one of my co-workers kids. If you haven't already guessed, his name is Josh and he turned 3. I've done some things for other co-workers in the past, the Angry Birds cake for example, and am asked now and again to do birthday cakes or other cakes for various occasions. In this case I was asked to make a Toy Story cake based on some pictures I was sent with the request for a yellow cake with a chocolate mousse filling/icing. No problem. I took a look at the pictures and sketched out what I wanted to do. I decided on the sizes for the cakes and took inventory of what I would need. I have a go-to recipe for yellow cake that I've been using for awhile. It's easy to do and I personally like the cake. I do not however have a go-to recipe for chocolate mousse. Normally when I get requests for cakes the customer opts for buttercream. So, I had to do some research on what chocolate mousse recipe I wanted to use. I found one I liked and went with it.

With my lovely stand mixer the baking process was relatively simple and pain free. When I bake for a request I usually do it over a 3-day period. On the first day I bake the cake(s) and make the fondant. On the second day I make the icing, cut/shape the cakes if necessary and decorate. The third day is pick-up/delivery day with any last-minute fixes beforehand if necessary. For the Toy Story cake the process didn't start out any differently.

I'm always a little nervous when I bake per request because I always want the end result to be perfect and for my customer to love it. Especially since in most cases they're paying me for the cake, and because it's usually for an important occasion in their family that I want to help make special with a cool cake. I was confident with the Toy Story cake until I realized one thing after it was too late to do anything about it (as usual, perfect timing). The mousse would need to be refrigerated after it was applied to the cake so it wouldn't melt. It was at least 80 degrees out when I was working on the cake, and very humid. Even keeping it in the basement, which I normally do with buttercream cakes when I'm not working on them, wouldn't work for the mousse. I didn't want a runny cake. I use a marshmallow fondant that I make myself and I knew it would be a gamble putting it in the fridge and using it to cover a cake iced with chocolate mousse because of the moisture factor. When marshmallows meet moisture it can equal a sticky, yucky mess. But, I weighed my options and in my eyes, I would rather have a cake that tastes good (the whole point of a cake is to eat it, especially for a birthday) and doesn't look perfect, than a cake that's perfect, but tastes like garbage. So, after I was done with everything, I was ecstatic with the result. I thought it looked great, maybe my best yet. I wrapped it in Saran Wrap (mistake!) and tucked it safely in the fridge for the night.

Every once in awhile for the rest of the night I opened the refrigerator door and peered in to make sure it was still there, and looking the way it did when I first put it into the fridge. All looked well until I woke up the next morning, a half an hour before the scheduled pick-up time to check on it. The fondant on the top layer was becoming a sticky, soggy mess (just like I feared it would!) and was stuck to the Saran Wrap so when I pulled off the Saran Wrap, I pulled off the fondant too. I wanted to cry. Luckily it was only on the top layer (in hindsight had I used a thicker layer of fondant, I may have been in the clear and avoided this problem entirely). My mind immediately began racing... how am I going to fix this?!?!?! There I was in my Hello Kitty bathrobe (dig it) in the midst of a panic attack. Then I remembered that I had saved some already colored fondant (hooray for doing something smart) that I had used for that layer. I grabbed that, a cutting board, some confectioner's sugar and a rolling pin and got to work re-covering the spots of mousse that had been exposed. I couldn't recover the whole thing because I didn't have a lot of fondant left, so it wasn't a seamless fix. But, it was either that or a hole in the cake, and I didn't want that. It was the best I could do with the time and resources that I had. The final result didn't make me want to completely cry, though it was extremely disappointing to me that it wasn't perfect. I am and will probably forever be a perfectionist. This quality causes me great stress in my life, thanks mom and dad. In great news, I found out the day after the party that the cake was a huge hit. Everyone at the party loved how it looked and most importantly how it tasted. I couldn't have been happier. In the end, that was all that I wanted.

As with anything I learned some valuable lessons from this whole process.

1. Always save some back-up fondant just in case.

2. Covering a mousse icing with fondant probably isn't going to work out in the long run, or

at least not when it's very hot and humid.

3. Refrigerating a mousse-iced cake with fondant isn't going to work either.

4. Wrapping a mousse-iced cake covered with fondant in Saran Wrap also isn't going to work.

5. Moisture and humidity are no cakes friend, no matter what it's made of.

Anyone make baking mistakes like mine? What did you do to fix them? Could you fix them? Misery loves company... and advice!

Angry Birds

When I was asked to make an Angry Birds themed birthday cake I wanted to say yes, but in my head all I was thinking is "what the hell is Angry Birds?" I'm usually pretty knowledgeable about what's "cool" but all I knew about Angry Birds was that Mike Tyson made a video about how to overcome your Angry Birds addiction. It's hilarious. You're welcome.

I asked some friends and learned that Angry Birds is a video game. At least I think it is. All I know is that you can play it on your cell phone, and I think on your computer through Facebook. In the game angry birds are trying to protect their eggs from green pigs that are trying to steal their them... I think. You can see that my research was very extensive. All I really needed to know for cake purposes was what the game and its characters looked like. Thanks Google images!

I was given about a week's notice for the cake, normally I prefer more notice, but I took it on anyway because my schedule would allow. There was a certain cake that I would have loved to try to do, but I just didn't have enough time. I looked through the images Google provided for me and came up with one that I thought was simple enough that I could get done in the amount of time I had, but it would also look cool to a 6-year-old. Kids are the toughest critics.

Making this cake was my first experience of having to really shape a cake because I wanted to make one layer of the cake look like the main character in the game. If you haven't already figured it out, I'm now an Angry Birds expert (not true). The base of the cake was going to be made up of 2 10-inch square cakes and I thought if I also made the top layer of cake there would just be way too much cake. Since I thought it would be easier to carve and shape, I made the top "bird" layer using 9 x 13 pan of rice krispy treats that I cut out into the shape of the bird. Then I just covered it with fondant and decorated to make it look like the main character. It worked out perfectly.

This was also the first time I used all my own fondant, meaning I made it and I colored it. In the past I've only done cakes where I've needed white fondant so I don't end up needing to color it. If I do need any specific colors I just buy the Wilton packages that have 4 colors in them and use those. They have a pretty good variety. However, the Wilton packages didn't provide enough quantity of the colors I needed in one package. Since it was cheaper (all about saving a buck!) to color it myself than buy multiple $10 packages of pre-colored fondant, I ventured out on my own and gave coloring fondant a try. I made the fondant one day, and used the Wilton jars of food coloring gel (they're awesome) to color it the following day when I was going to decorate the cake. While it's hard work, coloring the fondant worked out really well, it also worked out my forearms. Hooray for multi-tasking.

Putting the cake together was fairly simple. The hardest part was just working out all the decorating details on the bird. I used Wilton tube icing (have I mentioned that I like their products?) for all the black detailing, which was the most nerve-racking part. I was in the home stretch at that point and didn't want to mess up. I did a couple of practice runs on a paper towel until I felt comfortable (piping icing always makes me nervous) and went for it. I loved it, and Colby did too.