Coming Out of Retirement

Ok so it's been over a year since my last post. I took a brief hiatus from baking for the public eye (aka, this blog) due to a cake-tastrophe in mid February of last year. I will not go into detail, but suffice it to say I still hear the blunt splat of pound cake on linoleum in my nightmares. Fortunately for you, I neither stopped baking altogether nor stopped taking pictures of my work. Also, I'm planning on baking a lot more in the near future, because I now have an office of well over 60 financial professionals that all have birthdays and are hungry for cupcakes.

This post will be a long one, for it will consist of the cakes/cupcakes that I've made over the past year that never got the exposure that (most of them) should have.

This Happy Holidays mini cake and cupcakes was made for my Aunt Peggy's neighborhood Holiday Party (in 2009... woops). I remember this one not giving me any problems aside from the epic failure of the bow that's on top. It ended up looking like a toddler's poorly tied StrideRites, so I plopped an extra cupcake on top. The cake was sparkly, but unfortunately you can't tell because my iPhone was (and still is) a 3GS and does not have the high def-bright-vivid-staringintothefaceofgod-like camera quality that an iPhone4 has (this will be a trend throughout this post).

So this one was really fun for me aside from the fact that it was made on the same day of Cakepocalypse Twenty Ten (which again, I refuse to discuss). I made it for a friend of my Aunt's (yes, Aunt Peggy gave me a lot of business) son's (I think) 40th (maybe?) birthday. Who can remember though, it was a year ago. Anycrap, this was a marble cake with chocolate buttercream. FOUR SQUARE MARBLE CAKES because I don't own a rectangular cake pan, I find this to be ludicrous (someone please send me one). The grass was made with my handy dandy piping tip that was made specifically for creating grass. I love Wilton. The squirrel, flowers, banner and trees are all fondant. Please enjoy this close-up...

What up, squirrel?

Well, this is the teeny tiny mini cake I made for Jay for Valentine's Day. LAST Valentine's Day. It was about the size of a post-it note and its only saving grace is that little guy on top. The rest was a train wreck as you can see from the mangled lettering and paper plate cake board. I got the idea from a rubber stamp my mom has that looks like this...

(Got this image from Holley's Hobbies http://helloholley.blogspot.com/ thanks Holley, very cute card).

Anyway, I was pretty proud of the way the little raccoon came out, and as I'm always down for a good pun, the "You Stole My Heart" (get it?! Raccoons are known to be theives... STOLE my heart... Priceless.) I was generally ok with the hideousness of the rest of the cake and my poor attempt at marbeling fondant.

A P.S. on this one: this cake was ALSO made on that same fateful day. I'm beginning to think that attempting to undertake three cakes in one day contributed to "the incident".

NEXT!!!! :

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of these cupcakes, but there were lots. They were made for my sister-in-law Monica's friend's bridal shower. They're obviously very similar to the Mickey Mouse Baby Shower of yesteryear, only the starfish are made out of white chocolate. This was my first attempt at molding chocolate and I highly recommend it. The stars were easy to make and freaking DELICIOUS. I'd say the best part of this endeavor was the fact that I got to use my Cupcake Courier for the very first time. Bro is off the HOOOOOOOOOK. And by "bro", I mean the Cupcake Courier. It will come in handy when I try to transport large quantities of cupcakes from Hoboken to Midtown East.

And finally....

I'm very sad, because this is the only picture I have of these cupcakes. You can't really tell, but they say "Showers of Happiness, Lauren", as they were for mine and Jay's and Monica's and Tommy's (and everyone's) friend Lauren's bridal shower. There are teeeeeny tiny rose buds next to each letter, which is why I'm pretty upset I don't have a close up picture of one of them, because those stupid things were a HUGE pain in the ass to make, but they looked cute. Biggest problem for this one: Summer in New Jersey. It was freaking HOT, and those letters were originally standing at attention atop a peak of fluffy buttercream. They drooped like Christopher Walken's face skin.

I would like to add that Lauren and Chris's wedding was the bomb.

Ok, I'm done now. Hopefully I can get back to posting more regularly as I have lots of cupcake recipes that I need to try.

Haley- Out.

Alsooo....

For those of you don't know (which is most likely NOBODY). I'm an aunt!!! Grant Joshua Haley was born on January 9th. He is phenom. No child is cuter. Congratulations Eamonn and Laura!!

Cupcake Baby Shower

I made this mini cake and about 45 cupcakes for a baby shower for my aunt's friend's daughter. She's having a little boy, and his nursery is Mickey Mouse themed, so I thought I'd try to incorporate that into the cake. I made the little Mickey heads out of gumpaste, and it was surprisingly easy and fun to do :) I wanted to make a big bow for the top of the cake, but I made the mistake of trying to assemble it too early and it fell apart. Sooooo, instead I made some fondant roses and put them on top, and it ended up looking 10 times better than it would've with the bow, so there was a happy accident. The cupcakes are some vanilla and some chocolate, and the cake is pound cake, all with vanilla buttercream. I was trying out a new recipe for vanilla cupcakes... one that was SUPPOSED to yield 12 cupcakes. I doubled it because I needed 24, but it ended up making over 40. Somebody did their math wrong and I DON'T think it was me haha. I was really happy with the way this one turned out. I hope everybody at the shower liked it :) Congratulations to the soon to be Mom!! (and thanks to my "photographer", Jay :) )

Buttercream: Why They Invented Fondant

So, admittedly this cake is pretty horrendous. Buttercream is next to impossible to make smooth (especially when you don't have the correct tool, OR enough icing... I had neither). I just wanted to make a completely buttercream cake because I hadn't tried it yet. It wasn't easy, and it came out looking like... well, you've seen the pictures. But hey, it was my first try. I'm sure I'll get better with practice. The only good part of this cake is I got to use the candy pearls that Eamonn and Laura gave me :)

Laura's Baby Shower!

Laura, my sister-in-law, had her baby shower yesterday. She and my brother are expecting their first baby (a boy!) in the beginning of February!! Everybody's soooo excited and we can't wait for him to get here! In the meantime, I made the cake for the shower. I got the design idea from a rubber stamp that my mom has (which is actually what the little topper is made from). I thought the clothesline idea was different and REALLY cute. It didn't come out as perfectly as I wanted it to, but isn't that always the case? Anyway, my sister, Alison, gave me a BIG assist on this one by helping me cut the little clothes out of fondant and making the topper, so thanks Al!! Its pound cake again (and it probably will be pound cake forever, unless the person its for wants something different. Pound cake is GLORIOUS) with vanilla buttercream. I got a TON of cake stuff for Christmas, including a silicone roling mat, a silicone rolling pin, and an AWESOME tool carrier, so I had a great time playing with all of it!

Everyone at the shower seemed to really like the cake, the only problem was carrying it 3 blocks from our parking spot to the restaurant. The shower was in Hoboken, so I was afraid Buddy Valastro was gonna walk by and point out all of its flaws. Luckily that didn't happen :)

Congratulations Eamonn and Laura!! Can't wait to meet the Little Nipper!

Fa La La La La La La Snowman.

I made this snowman cake for a holiday party at my boss's house. It was my first attempt at pound cake and let me tell you, I am NEVER making a cake that ISN'T pound cake again. Its PERFECT to work with. Leveling the layers was 10 times easier than it has been with the previous cakes although I had a bit of a slip with the knife, OH and I'll remember this cake forever cuz I got a nasty burn on my elbow when I was taking it out of the oven. But battle wounds aside, I think he came out pretty cute. Its all pound cake, but the bottom tier has vanilla buttercream, the middle has chocolate buttercream, and the top has peanut butter buttercream. I am now in the market for a Scrooge McDuck vault that I can fill with peanut butter buttercream and swim in. Its delicious.

I hope everyone at the party will like it!! Merry Christmas everyone!!

Happy Birthday Mrs. H!!!

I made this cake for my boyfriend Jay's mom's birthday, which is today. Happy Birthday Mrs. Hribar!! I really wanted to use some of the fondant shape cutters that I got for my birthday, so I thought this would be a good opportunity. I decided on the daisies because they're a little more sophisticated than the "funny flower" shape cutters that I have (and love). Also, this was the first time I got to use my pearl dust, which you can see best in the closeup picture. I laughed a bit cuz I thought it made the cake look like Edward Cullen's skin, which worked out great cuz Mrs. H is a HUGE Twilight fan. Unfortunately when I was putting it into the box I was transporting it in, I smushed the letters on the top. I felt like an such a moron. The rest of it was fine and you could definitely still read what it said, but it was stupid nonetheless. So, here is what your cake was SUPPOSED to look like Mrs. Hribar :) Hope you had a great birthday!!

In other (good) news, I just got asked to make the cake (well, cupcakes) for my Aunt's neighborhood's holiday party, aaaaaannnnddd they're paying me!! (so does that make me a professional??) Very exciting stuff! I feel like a legitimate cake decorator now! Bring on The Food Network!

Gobble Gobble

Here's my Thanksgiving cake! As simple as it looks, I nearly threw myself into oncoming traffic on several occasions while making it. I only have an 8 inch square pan, so i just trimmed an inch off each side of an 8 inch cake to make the top layer. MISTAKE. the sides were too weak to hold the buttercream and I wanted to stab myself with my (incredibly blunt) icing spatula. Good news, though, is that I got to use a TON of my birthday presents! I used my turntable (thanks Tommy and Monica!) my leaf icing tips (thanks Aunt Peggy!) my aforementioned icing spatula (thanks Alison!) my cake lifter (thanks Mom and Dad!) and my new apron and disposable pastry bags (thanks Mr. and Mrs. Hribar!)
It also took me the better part of forever to figure out how to make leaves that weren't square. Guess I just have to practice though. And God help me I will one day make a rose as fast and as beautiful as Buddy Valastro .

Wait a minute...

The time stamp on this is WRONG. It was 2:30am when I made that last post, not 11:30pm. Please stop thinking I'm lame because I said 11:30 is late. It's not. 2:30am however, IS late. I'm going to bed.

Happy Birthday Mom!! (aka, Mom's Birthday Cake Part 2)

It is FINALLY done. If you look at the time stamp on this post you'll see that its late, and I'm very tired. It took me somewhere in the realm of 10 hours to make this cake, but I actually finished it. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! The cake is chocolate chip with buttercream filling. I have NO clue who's gonna eat this massive amount of cake, but I really wanted to try a cake with taller tiers as they're much better to decorate because of all of

the surface area. Its a little bumpy and lumpy, but I'm hoping that will be remedied when I get the right tools for trimming the cakes and smoothing the icing. We'll see though, I could just be a lumpy cake maker.

Until then, though, I hope you all like my newest cake (especially you, Mom! Happy Birthday!)

Mom's Birthday Cake Part 1

I just finished baking 9 layers of chocolate chip cake for mom's birthday (which is on Wednesday). 3 layers each of 10 inch, 8 inch, and 6 inch round cakes. I only have one 6 and one 10 inch pan and 2 8 inch pans so it took me freakng FOREVER to bake all of them. Even if I did have three of each pan it would've taken forever because unfortunately the oven in my kitchen is not an industrial size Vulcan pizza oven. The kitchen at my office would be an AMAZING place to start my cake business. It's got a cutting board top island that is no joke 10 ft by 6 ft, 2 giant ovens and a refrigerator that a small colony of penguins could make a nice little home out of. If only they'd let me use it for free. Or maybe pay in cake.

Pictures of Mom's finished birthday cake to come soon!

Happy Halloween!!

SO. I went to the store and finally bought myself a 10 inch and a 6 inch round baking pan. Henceforth, my first 3 tier cake and the biggest cake to date. This was also my first experience with modeling chocolate, which I made myself. I made the pumpkins and the grave stones out of it, but it gave me a bit of trouble because of how greasy it was. I guess I handled it too much or my hands were too hot, but I plan on fiddling around with the recipe a bit to see if I can remedy that, cuz it really is great to sculpt with.

Another mistake I made was making the ghosts out of buttercream instead of fondant. They're way too messy and I wasn't too happy with it. What I WAS happy with, however, was my zombie hand coming out of the ground. I thought it was a decent touch :) I was also happy with how the "grass" came out. I think it looks sort of spooky in a way.

A mistake my mom and dad made when trying to eat it was cutting into the bottom tier first. Its 3/4 of the way eaten, but whats left is having some stability issues because of their rookie move. Way to go mom and dad. Mom, your birthday cake is next, so remember this: EAT THE TOP TIER FIRST!

Gettysburg Alumni Weekend 2009

The weekend of October 17th was Alumni Weekend at my alma mater, Gettysburg College. I'm so glad I got to go and see all my friends from school and hang out like we used to. I missed those clowns.

I wanted to make something special for the occasion, and that resulted in my very first tiered cake! I saw the argyle design on a cake once and I wanted to try it out myself. It didn't come out perfectly, but I thought it was cute nonetheless. The top tier is yellow cake with buttercream filling and the bottom is chocolate with buttercream. The "Alumni Weekend '09" sign was my first attempt at lettering, so it's pretty poor but it got the message across. This was ALSO my first time coloring fondant and it was a pain in the butt. It took forever and my hands hurt for days after. I used liquid food coloring, which was a mistake. ALWAYS use gel. Lesson learned. The G on top is one of Gettysburg's logos (my favorite) and I wanted it to be standing up on top of the cake, but it wasn't strong enough to stand on its own nor did I have the structural supports to help it.

All my friends at Gburg seemed to really like it though! Thanks guys!

My First Cake

This is the first cake that I ever decorated using rolled fondant. I made it after the Phillies clinched a spot in the playoffs, but we could all REALLY use this cake tomorrow night for game 6 of the World Series. GO PHILS.

It's a chocolate cake with buttercream filling. The "P" is made out of gum paste, but everything else is rolled fondant. I made the fondant myself from a recipe on foodnetwork.com, but I added a little something to try to make it taste better, and it worked out pretty well.

Little tidbit about this cake... when I was cutting the P out of gum paste, I managed to cut through the several layers of parchment paper that was underneath it into the rolling mat thats been around way longer than I've been alive. So my mom's rolling mat is now a proud supporter of the Philadelphia Phillies for life.

My First Blog. I hope I don't sound like an idiot.

So, here I am, but more importantly, here are my cakes. I've started this blog so that my family and friends can see the cakes I've baked and decorated recently, butttt if a stranger stumbles across it and wants me to make them a cake and pay me for it, thats cool too.

I'm a novice at this. I've only been decorating cakes for the past few months, but I absolutely love it and I make a DELICIOUS batch of buttercream icing (if I do say so myself). I'm trying all kinds of techniques and different mediums: rolled fondant, modeling chocolate, royal icing, buttercream, painting, etc. I just bought my first rose nail (which was 99 cents, so jackpot) and piped the first thing I've ever piped that looks remotely floral. It was a proud day for me. I'm completely self-taught as of now, but I'm DYING to go to culinary school for pastry arts so I can really start a career with this.

So here we go. Every cake I make I'll be sure to add to the blog ASAP.

Hope ya like 'em!