August Cupcake of the Month!

Watermelon is the perfect picnic food...
Watermelon cupcakes are better!!
August Cupcake of the Month...Watermelon Cupcakes!

I took a new adventure!

Have you ever worked on a project, got about half way through and thought “This is ridiculous! I’m done. I’m not finishing this!” But then you start to feel guilty about not finishing so you finish the project begrudgingly? And then you complete the project and start thinking “I’m a freaking rockstar!”…?? I recently made and decorated cookies and this entire cycle happened to me.

I loved the baking part and used a nice recipe for no spread sugar cookies with a hint of almond flavouring. I then made some really nice royal icing and coloured it in all the colours I wanted.  I even took the time to make little disposable piping bags out of parchment paper. The cookies were to be sports ball themed and I had all my designs ready and since decorating cookies is still rather new to me, I had done extensive research and watched multiple videos on the correct techniques. I got everything ready and sat down at my kitchen table and got to work. I purposely baked extra cookies so I had a few to practice on. A rookie mistake I made was not realizing how much time was needed for a colour to dry before adding more icing. (Apparently it is hours). I also didn’t realize just how spreadable the icing consistency was and it doesn’t always stay in the lines you want it too. I was quite frustrated with myself at the half way point.  I had to do each cookie in stages to make sure the lines on the ball was visible, so I had trouble picturing the end result in my mind and I didn’t like how they were looking midway. I wanted to wipe off all the icing and start over on several occasions but with royal icing on a cookie…starting over isn’t as easy as it is on a cake.  I trudged through the rest of the project and when I got to the end I was so impressed with myself! The cookies turned out exactly how I imagined they would. According to my official taste testers, they tasted great, and the customer loved then and they went over really well at her party!

Would I decorate cookies again? I’d have to think long and hard about it and my arm might have to be twisted a little. They took a lot of time and patience but the end result was great!

 

July cupcake of the month!

Nothing beats a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summers day! Pink lemonade cupcakes! July cupcake of the month!

We scare because we care!

Monsters Inc. is one of my favourite Pixar movies and makes a great theme for a children’s birthday party!

I really enjoyed making this cake. Buttercream drawings are how I got my start in cake decorating. I love how vibrant and textured the decorations come out. Don’t get me wrong, fondant creates beautiful, smooth and detailed cakes, but there is something about buttercream that just makes it feel so authentic.

This cake was made for a little boy celebrating his first birthday! They wanted to make sure everyone at the party was happy so they requested the cake be half vanilla and half chocolate. I really like my vanilla butter cake recipe, so I made sure to use that and decided to try out a chocolate butter cake recipe for the other half. Both turned out great. Light and moist.  I used vanilla buttercream for all the decorations and was very pleased to be able to test out my new ‘americolor’ gel paste food colours to create Mike and Sully!

 

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake Cake

This cake is drool worthy. Salted. Caramel. Chocolate. Cheesecake. Cake. Seriously. This cake was sooo good. Basically is a smooth cheesecake sandwiched between two layers of rich chocolate cake, all covered with creamy salted caramel buttercream, topped with chocolate ganache, drizzled with more salted caramel, and sprinkled with sea salt.

I started off by baking moist chocolate cake in 2 round cake pans. I used my trusted double chocolate cake recipe with lots of cocoa powder and coffee to really bring out that chocolate flavour. I then baked a plain cheesecake, no crust, in my spring-form pan. After baking, I put the cheese cake into the freezer for 2 hours before assembling.

While the cheesecake was freezing, I whipped up a batch of salted caramel buttercream and made some dark chocolate ganache. I assembled the cake starting with a chocolate layer, than the cheese cake, then more chocolate cake.

I crumb coated the entire cake with the buttercream and placed it back in the freezer for about 20 minutes. I then put a final layer of buttercream on the cake and topped it with a generous portion of the dark chocolate ganache.

I poured the caramel into a piping bag and drizzled it over the top of the cake and then sprinkled it with large flake sea salt.

Everyone raved about the cake and I will definitely be making this again.

This would be the perfect cake for a special birthday or celebration, especially for those cheesecake lovers!

Cupcake of the Month

Dads and Bacon go together like cake and icing! Perfect Fathers Day treat! June cupcake of the month!

Every mother deserves flowers!

Mother’s Day always makes me think of flowers. I think about the cards children make their mothers in pre-school using finger paints to make flowers on the paper. I think about all the bouquets being sent around the world to Mothers who might live far away. I think about my Mother, whose mother’s day wish was her 3 children helping her garden.
Well I don’t garden. I refuse to. I do not enjoy it at all and you will never see a pretty flower bed at my house. Unless years from now I can convince my own children to garden for me…

 I bake though! I thought this year…why couldn’t I incorporate flowers into my baking? I found some recipes for lavender cupcakes and some dried lavender buds at my local health food store and got to baking.

These lavender-honey cupcakes are delicious! You get that beautiful, flowery smell from the lavender, but it definitely is not over powering. The cream cheese buttercream has a touch of honey which really adds sweetness to the overall cupcake.

I really enjoyed trying something new and unexpected and the results were fabulous and having the lavender colour in them just put these cupcakes over the top! These cupcakes would complement any summer celebration.  



Notice my new cake stands? They were a little side project. They are old pottery wheels that I took apart and sanded, repainted and put back together. They are heavy duty, made of metal and the tops spin. Good find!