So much to tell!

I don't even know where to start! I haven't been on in a long time. I've been so incredibly busy!

Let's start with the last weekend in April, Melissa's baby shower and the cake competition. Here's the cake I did for the shower. Chocolate cake, peanut butter icing, crushed Reese's cups. Yum.

Belly Cake!

From the side.

And then the competition... Here's my cake. Beginner Tiered category.

3rd place!!! Not too bad for just starting, huh?!

Holy Cupcakes!

Wow! It's been awhile since I've updated. I keep meaning to, in all honesty, but by the time my two munchkins go to bed I'M EXHAUSTED!

A few things!

On Saturday Terry and I hosted Cakeapolooza! Overall I have to say it was a success! We made TEN different types of cupcakes for everyone to try. We handed out surveys for people to fill out. I learned a lot and got a lot of good critisicm and feedback. Want to know what we had??
The Pucker Up! Lemon cake filled with Fresh Lemon curd and topped with a Raspberry Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Garnished with Poppy Seeds!
The Berry Bliss! Berry cake filled with Raspberry sauce and topped with Rich's Bettercreme.
The Caffeine Junkie! Mocha cake filled with an Espresso Chocolate Mascarpone cheese filling.
The Dreamsicle! Orange cake filled with Fresh Orange curd and Vanilla Buttercream. Garnished with a candy Orange slice.
The Devil's Kiss! Chocolate cake filled with Chocolate Mousse and iced with Chocolate Ganache.
Hi Hats! Chocolate cake topped with a Marshmallow Meringue dipped in Chocolate.
The Plain Jane- White cake topped with Vanilla Buttercream and sprinkles.
The Crushed Velvet- Red Velvet cake filled with Cream Cheese Mousse and topped with Vanilla Buttercream.
Cheesecake Dreams- Cheesecake cake baked on top of Graham cracker crust, filled with Cherry pie filling and iced with Vanilla Buttercream.
The Elvis! Banana cake filled with Chocolate Ganache and iced with Peanut Butter Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Garnished with Bacon.

 The overwhelming favorite seemed to be the Pucker Up. It was a definite favorite of mine. Everyone had very different opinions though. Some would love one flavor while others hated it. My favorite was the The Elvis. Not just because it was the most "adventurous" but also because I think it tasted the best. The bacon played up the saltiness of the peanut butter. Together they tuned down the sweetness of the ganache filling and can I just say that my banana cake freaking rocked. Seriously. It was so good. I'm actually surprised that some made it to Saturday. I kept coming up with excuses to eat them!

I took lots of pictures, which I will upload and share as soon as I locate 1. my camera and 2. my upload cable.

My competition is fassssst approaching and I have SO much work to do on my cake. I've finished the treetop tier but that's about all. Once I finish the cake I'm working on now, I need to buckle down and finish it.

That's all for now. Like I said, I'll put pictures up later. Today I'm heading to Baltimore to the SYSCO food show with my brother! I'm SO excited!!

Business!

So I'm writing a business plan! It's overwhelming and honestly, I haven't a clue where to start but still, I'm writing one! Sometime next week I'm presenting it to Maryjane at the Market Bagel and Deli in the hopes that I'll be able to go in and bake (legally!!) and sell my goods! I'm so excited! This is an incredible opportunity for me and such an honor, considering that I've only been seriously decorating cakes for less than 3 months. I have a lot of work ahead of me in the next few days. I've got an entire business plan to write. I've also emailed one of the wives I met a few weeks ago that is a photographer. I'm hoping that she'll be able to come take some pictures of some cakes and cupcakes so I can present a portfolio along with my business plan. I can't believe how quickly everything is coming together and working out. It's amazing but so scary at the same time. Sorry this entry isn't about a specific cake but I had to share my good news!

It ain't all unicorns and rainbows...

Or is it?

When I turned 8 years old I had a unicorn themed birthday party. I'll never forget it. I had a white and purple shirt with a unicorn on it and purple jean shorts. I loved it. For my cake my mom had taken my shirt to Giant and photocopied it and the printed out an edible image. The day of my party she worked and I remember being SO impatient for her to come home from work because it meant it was time for my party and I'd see my cake. It was gorgeous. Chocolate cake with Bettercreme and purple reverse shell boarders on top and bottom edges and my unicorn in the middle. In purple writing it said "Happy 8th Birthday, Kara!"
It's the only birthday cake I can really remember vividly. And today at 25 I still look back on that particular birthday cake and smile.

I had the opportunity to make a birthday cake for my friend Rachel's daughter Ava. She was turning 4! The request? Unicorns! I had such a good time making this cake, it was  a real delight! I made an 8 inch Chocolate fudge semi circle (baked in Pyrex bowl), 1 dozen chocolate cupcakes and 1 dozen vanilla cupcakes (that I did in rainbows!) Everything was iced with American Vanilla Buttercream.

Rainbow cupcakes in bouquets!

The cake!

 Happy 4th Birthday, Ava! I hope that in the many  years ahead of you, you are able to look back and remember this cake fondly! Just like I did with my unicorn cake. Happy Birthday, sweetie!

PDF Tutorials by CakeJournal

So, have you ever checked out a wonderful blog named CakeJournal?
If you haven't, you should. She is wonderfully talented. She does beautiful work. Her cookies are especially amazing. Recently she made PDF tutorials and made them available for download. Check them out.
www.cakejournal.com

While you're there, check out the rest of her entries. I think you'll enjoy them =]

46 days.

That's how long until my first cake competition. I'm getting nervous and excited all at the same time. I have no hopes of winning or even placing but I'm hoping to gain some experience and possibly some new ideas and techniques from it. The Great American Cake Show is in MD, April 30th and May 1st. I'm planning on entering two things, number one a tiered cake in the Beginner category and six cupcakes also in the Beginner category. While I have my entire four tiered cake planned out, I still have NO idea what I want to do with my six cupcakes other than knowing that I want to enter them.

I did some work on my cake today. Since I'm using cake dummies, I have already started my fondant decorations. I estimate that in just decorations, I should be using around 4 pounds of fondant. For my top layer, an 8 inch round, I think I'll need around 500 fondant leaves of assorted colors. I'll try to upload a picture of my sketch in the next day or so but tonight I wanted to post what I finished. The topper. My theme is Owls. They are incredibly popular right now, especially in cakes. So without further ado, here they are. The topper of my cake and right now the thing that I'm most proud of.

The guy

The gal

The couple. I LOVE THEM!

Well, I hope you like them! Like I said, I'm SO proud of them! Anyway, they've really helped me get excited about my cake. I can't wait to post pictures of the finished product! Love you <3

Hats Off!

Well, I did it! After only seeing the recipe a few times I made Hi Hat cupcakes! So incredibly excited by the results!
I first saw these cupcakes a few months on Bakerella's blog (check her out, she's amazing!) and my interest was peaked. But I forgot about them. Then a few days ago while on CakeCentral, I noticed a picture of some under "Most Saved Pictures." That was it! I just HAD to try these! I found a few recipes online and figured out which one I wanted to try. I ended up going with a basic recipe that I tweaked a bit.
So I started off by making my favorite, go to chocolate cake recipe. I made 24 cupcakes. (Quick hint I learned on CakeCentral. If you want a nice dome on your cupcakes, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and then turn it down to 350 degrees once you put your cupcakes in. Perfect dome every time). After they were out of the oven and slightly cool, into the freezer they went!

CUPCAKES! 

While they were enjoying their cold nap, I started to simmer a pot of water on medium high. In my Kitchen Aid bowl I mixed 5 egg whites with 1 cup of sugar. I placed it over the simmering pot and stirred for about 5 minutes. Most recipes recommend that you have a candy thermometer so you can tell when the eggs reach 160 degrees F and thus are pasteurized. However, you can figure this out without one. Sugar's melting temperature is higher than 160 degrees F so if you feel your mixture and it's not grainy, then you're good to go.

Excuse my pasty, white hand. 

Here's where it got a bit time consuming. After the double boiler, I popped the bowl on my mixer (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE and have named her Stella) and started it up to medium high. It took Stella about 15 minutes to whip the egg whites and sugar into a beautiful meringue. If you have a hand held mixer, you do this step while the bowl is still on the double boiler. Be prepared, it's gonna take awhile. After I saw stiff peaks forming, I added some vanilla and mixed again. After a minute or so, I stopped Stella and put in a full jar of Marshmallow Fluff. Back on medium high for a few minutes.

Stiff (yummy) peaks! 

Perfect. And delicious!
I filled my piping bag and used a Wilton #12 tip to pipe the "hi hat" part of the cupcake. Just your basic swirl.

Whirls' Swirl. Holler. 

Once I got them done, I popped them back in the freezer for 20ish minutes.

Chilling out in the freezer. 

While they chilled, I melted 12 ounces of chocolate chips with 3 tablespoons of my oil in the microwave and put it in a cup sized Pyrex to cool.

I took a cupcake out of the freezer and turned it upside down and plunged it into its chocolatey bath. Yeek! I was terrified! But it all worked out okay! I love them!

Here goes nothing! 

Whew! It worked! 

Before

After

A few things I learned:
1. Adding Marshmallow Fluff to my meringue made it taste great but made it a bit soft. Even with cooled chocolate, my swirls melted a bit and lost their swirly shape. They're more Bowler Hats than Hi Hats, lol. I think if they would have stayed in the freezer for an hour or so they would have held their shape better. Oh well! Next time I guess. I definitely plan on making some for Cakeapolooza.
2. The amount of icing is only good for 18 cupcakes, not 24. So you'll have 6 lonely, topless cupcakes left over.
3. Something about my freezer makes cupcakes commit suicide. Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was knowing that their fate was to be plunged head first in a vat of chocolate, either way I had two jumpers =[

The jumper =[ 

Oscar helped clean up the frosting. 

4. I am DEDICATED to this blog and my "art." I tasted a naked cupcake, I tasted one with the marshmallow meringue and finally, I tasted a finished one. Yep. I love you guys that much I MADE myself try one each step of the way.
Anyway, I remembered to take LOTS of pictures, but as it turns out, my camera is on the fritz again. It and I have an on-going argument about uploading pictures so I'll try my best to get them up shortly. Hope you enjoyed this, even without pictures.
Next project: Stacking an 9 inch round on top of a 6 inch round as practice for my entry in the Great American Cake Show in Westminster next month.