Tag Archives: buttercream

Zoo Cake

Creative Cakes March 27, 2011 Comments: 2

My son turned 4 on Saturday.  He ordered up a “Giraffe Cake”.  I asked if it would be ok to make giraffes to put on the cake instead of a big cake that looked like a giraffe and he said, “Yes, and monkeys, and hippos, and tortoises ’cause those are my favorites.”  So I went to work. 

My son’s favorite color is green so naturally the icing had to be green.  I tinted vanilla buttercream grass-green and also a little moss-green for a contrast.  I also made a small batch of chocolate buttercream for the tree trunks.  The cake was chocolate, his favorite.  I stacked 6 inch layers on top of 10 inch layers.  The animals were all made from modeling chocolate.  This was my first attempt with modeling chocolate and I love it!  It’s so much easier to work with than fondant and it tastes way better.

The hippos had to be placed in blue water, naturally…

The  monkeys near a tree…

The tortoises in the grass with some leaves to eat.  We were informed that turtles are the ones that swim so these were tortoises. 🙂

And the giraffes were near his name, of course.

He was pretty pleased with his fourth birthday cake.  I have to say that I was too!

Cake Pops!

advertising, Creative Cakes March 9, 2011 1 Comment

I am so excited to announce that we are offering Cake Pops!  I mean, really, what’s not to love about these treats?  Cake, icing, all mushed together, and on a convenient stick!  Bakerella really knew what she was doing when she thought to make them into cute shapes. 

So I attempted to make the cupcake cake pops for my son’s school snack.  They are celebrating his birthday tomorrow since his actual birthday is during Spring break.  I used chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream.

I dipped them into dark chocolate for the cupcake part.  I inserted the stick and let that dry completely.  Then I dipped the tops into green vanilla because that is my son’s favorite color.  Then used some colorful nonpareils for the sprinkles and topped them off with a red M & M candy for the cherry on top.

My son was thrilled to see these displayed, knowing he will be sharing them with his friends tomorrow!

I also made some circle cake pops just to see how they would turn out.  This was my first attempt.  I used a few different colors for the candy coating and a few different toppings.

These are available for shipping, just in case you were wondering! 😉

Power Tools

Creative Cakes February 28, 2011 1 Comment

A customer called at the beginning of February to find out if I do power tools for cakes.  I answered honestly with a nervous laugh by saying, “No one has asked me to do a power tool before”.  She laughed too and said that is the response she has been getting from everyone she’s called.  I asked her to send me a picture of what she was thinking of and I would let her know what I could do. 

This was the picture she sent…

We talked details and she really wanted the cake to be without the fondant.  I said I would do my best.  Her friend was turning 50 and she happened to love power tools.  When someone is turning 50, it’s a big deal, right?  So this is what it came down to…

I bought a board at Lowe’s and Jeremiah cut it to the dimensions I needed to put a cake on it.  I actually may use wood boards for all my big cakes from now on.  It was so sturdy that I didn’t have to worry about all the weight from all this cake falling through the middle!  Jeremiah used the staple gun to attach the tape measure for the border around the board.  (Seriously, you really didn’t want me to be using the staple gun :-)!

The only fondant I used was for the “accessories”.  I made a tape measure that had the 50 on it for her big birthday.  The guide for the saw was fondant tinted grey and then sprayed with edible luster spray for a sheen finish.  I also did the cord and plug were out of fondant as well.

The “board” that being cut by the saw was a quarter sheet cake with buttercream icing tinted to the blonde shade of wood.  The motor was a 6 inch round standing on its side.  The saw blade was a 10 inch round cut so it would sit flat on the “wood” piece and iced with grey tinted buttercream.   The handle on the motor was 5 marshmallows put together with toothpicks and iced with teal tinted buttercream. 

I also added ground Nillas for the “saw dust”.  The cake was all chocolate which made the whole thing very heavy!  The customer was pleased with the finished product when she picked it up.  I was glad it came together.  So now, if someone asks if I can do power tools, I guess my answer is “yes” with a nervous laugh!

M-I-C-K-E-Y

Creative Cakes January 17, 2011 Comments: 2

M-O-U-S-E…Mickey Mouse (come on, sing it with me!).  Ok, enough of that fun.  On to the cake because that’s why you are really here, right? 

So my oldest daughter turned 9 last week.  For her actual party, she requested a Mickey Mouse cake.  She really wanted to have her favorite cake which is strawberry but really wanted the outside to look like Mickey.  So I suggested that we try chocolate and vanilla icing for the decorations.  So I made 2 six-inch rounds and a 10-inch round for the ears and face.  I tinted chocolate icing black and star-tipped the ears and top of Mickey’s head.  I then star-tipped the face with vanilla icing.  Then added black for the eyes, nose, and mouth with the star tip.

I tinted some vanilla buttercream red for his tongue.  And since I didn’t really want to mess up all those stars by writing on his face, I just wrote “Happy Birthday Mazie” in the leftover red icing right onto the cake board that my husband made out of a card board box.  I just put some foil over it to make it look nice!

By the way, just in case you were wondering, the chocolate icing tasted very much like dark chocolate with the strawberry cake!  I’ve never paired the two before.  I will probably do it again soon.

Strawberry Cake

Cupcakes January 13, 2011 Leave a comment

Yesterday was my daughter’s birthday.  She turned 9 and I’m still in disbelief!  Her favorite cake is strawberry with strawberry icing.  It started out being her favorite because it’s completely pink.  But strawberries are her favorite fruit so naturally the flavor was favored too!  Last night we had a little family celebrating with swirly topped cupcakes and a star-shaped mini cake for the birthday girl!

You can’t beat the sweetness of a pink girly cake for a pink girly girl!  Happy Birthday, Mazie.

Happy New Year

Creative Cakes January 3, 2011 Leave a comment

A good friend of mine happens to be a New Years Baby!   So this year our families got together to celebrate.  She requested something lemony.  I made a lemon cake with lemon pudding filling and lemon icing.

So I decided to be a little creative with the stacking.  It was a fun and festive cake.  Happy Birthday Rachel!

Chocolate Ganache

basic cakes December 14, 2010 1 Comment

So if you are a chocolate lover, you would definitely love this cake.  It is a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing and chocolate raspberry filling.  Oh, and I can’t forget the dark chocolate ganache…

A client ordered this cake for her Christmas party this past weekend.  I know this cake is decadent because the first two rounds decided to stick to the pan.  You gotta love baking at this altitude!  No fear, the next two turned out perfectly (these were the cakes given to the customer, of course) but we don’t just waste cake around here.  So my family enjoyed the flopped one.  YUM!

LEGO cake

Creative Cakes December 3, 2010 1 Comment

My daughter is on the robotics team at her school.  They built robots out of LEGOs and programmed them to do things.  They competed against other robotics teams at UCCS in November.  While they didn’t progress to the next level, they did do an awesome job.  Tonight was the team’s final meeting.  My daughter insisted that I make a LEGO cake for everyone to share. 

She wanted the cake to be chocolate and the icing to be colorful like LEGOs.  I used mini marshmallows for the links on the smaller blocks and regular sized marshmallows on the larger block.  I stacked them up and took them to their meeting tonight.

The kids thought they were pretty cool!  I was pretty pleased with how they turned out too.

Small Tiers

basic cakes, Creative Cakes, Decorations November 13, 2010 1 Comment

My mom bought me this pan set for an early birthday present.  I decided to try it out. 

First of all I love the way it makes the smallest cakes.  There 2 each 4 inch, 3 inch, and 2 inch in the set.  I have to say that I am not a fan of dark pans but these worked very well.  Second, I love how the cakes baked.  The whole cake was done in 30 minutes of baking time (which for here in Colorado Springs says something!)  The cakes cooled and I went to work.

I used my chocolate cake recipe and had more than enough left over.  In fact, I probably could have used the rest of the batter for another whole cake.  I used them for cupcakes instead, in case you were wondering!  I also used vanilla buttercream icing.  I wanted to try out the Duff Cake Tattoos to see how they worked and what they looked like on a cake.  They are edible and easy to use!  It makes the cake look pretty sharp, don’t you think?

Just to show how small the tiered cake rally is I put it next to a 5X7 of my husband and kids

After I made the cake, I was talking to my husband about it.  We both think it would be a cute cake to duplicate a wedding cake for an anniversary or for a fabulous birthday party with only a few guests!  For whatever reason, this is a fun, fancy cake!

Happy Halloween

Creative Cakes, seasonal goodies November 1, 2010 Comments: 4

How about a fun cake for Halloween?  I decided to make a chocolate cake and decorate it for Halloween.  I tinted some vanilla buttercream violet and iced one 6 inch and one 8 inch cake.  I used black tinted buttercream and put some webbing onto the cake.

I made 3 spiders out of a black fondant/gum paste mixture and placed them on the webs.

I dusted the spiders with gold shimmer and gave them eyes.

Happy Halloween!

%d bloggers like this: