December Cake

This past weekend I created my December Cake; or should I say cupcakes. They were ornament cupcakes. The cake was gingerbread and the icing was cream cheese. I had a lot of trouble while making the icing. This time I was not able to do the Buttercream icing; it didn't come together right. I ended up using the Wilton Buttercream icing that I used to use. After I frosted the cupcakes I cut out fondant circles the size of the cupcakes to go on top. Once all the fondant was on I got to do the fun part, decorating! I colored all of the cupcakes with luster dusts. Luster dusts are mixed with lemon juice to make a paint. I painted the cupcakes different colors and started doing some piping on it. I would also put small silver dragees on top for decoration. I then placed the hooks that I already made on top. When I decided on the flavor of my icing I didn't think about the time from preparation to eating. The cream cheese icing, ideally, should have been refrigerated. Overall I think the cupcakes turned out alright and I learned a lesson or two.

November Cake

I have completed yet another cake from "Confetti Cakes For Kids." This month I did Hamburger and Fries cupcakes. They were a chocolate cupcake. I took them to class today and they were a big success.  On Saturday I baked the cupcakes. They were extremely delicious. I also got busy creating the marzipan decorations. I made the fries and that took a long time. I dusted each fry with yellow powdered food coloring and then highlighted with brown powdered food coloring. Then I moved on to the hamburgers. I had to make patties, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, and buns. I made all of these with marzipan and powdered food coloring. Instead of making all of my cupcakes hamburgers and fries I decided to make two fries and three hamburgers and the rest cokes. I did this to save time and money (marzipan costs a lot). For my coke cupcakes I dyed the icing brown and frosted it sloppily. On Friday I had made rock candy to take place of the ice. I crushed the candy up and sprinkled it over the top of the cupcakes. For the finishing touch I cut a straw and placed it into the cupcake. They cupcakes looked great especially since this was my first time working with marzipan.

It has been a while since I have blogged. Since then I have given two sets of cakes to my class. The first cake I already told you about. It turns out that Buttercream icing freezes very well and works perfectly for "Ice Cream Cupcakes." I took the cupcakes to class and brought toppings along. There was fudge, cherries, and sprinkles. The cupcakes looked exactly like ice cream sundaes! Everyone loved them and said they tasted excellent! I would have to say that "Ice Cream Cupcakes" are a success! This weekend I did my cake for October, they were "Pumpkin Mini Cakes." I worked all weekend on them. On Saturday I baked the cakes. I made apple cinnamon cake. I had to make two batches to make sure my class had enough cake. The cake had to baked in sheet pans and then cut into circles and then carved into pumpkins. Then on Sunday I had to cover the cakes with fondant. I had some problems with this part. The shape of the cakes are irregular so making the fondant go on it was hard. A lot of the time the fondant started ripping. I got my cakes covered finally and then I had to work with the gum-paste. This also presented a problem because I had to mix it up. I had never worked with gum-paste before much less make. For the first batch I made it way too runny and had to add more powder. I got my gum-paste made and did the faces for the pumpkins and the stems. My pumpkins turned out pretty well, not as well I would like, but I am proud of them for my first time. I will improve throughout the year hopefully and when I do these cakes again they will be even better.

The Beginning

I have started my Personal Growth Project. For this month's cake I am doing Pumpkin Mini Cakes. They are in the shape of pumpkins! This Sunday I practiced carving cake into a pumpkin. I had to bake the cake in a cookie sheet. Then I had to cut circles out of that cake. I then stacked up the cake. The icing that I used was cream cheese so it was runnier than I would have liked. The pieces of cake kept sliding around! From that experience I learned that I needed to use a stiffer icing. I carved the cake into balls and then cut indents in to give it the bumpy shape. Overall for my first time carving cakes I believe that I did a pretty good job! Today I am making some little Ice Cream Cupcakes. I did not plan on making these cupcakes for my project, but I figured it would be good practice for making the icing. The icing that I will be using throughout the year is different than the recipe I normally use. This recipe was the real Buttercream (made with meringue.) I had some trouble heating up the egg whites and sugar because I didn't have bowls and pots that were the right side. I ended up holding the bowl of egg whites and sugar over a huge pot of boiling water. That resulted in the mixture not heating very well. I was worried that the meringue would not come together, but surprising it started fluffing up while it was being whipped. I was so happy so I continued on and added the butter. The butter started deflating the meringue and by the time all the butter was incorporated the mixture was really runny. I started freaking out, but continued on and added the vanilla. A crazy thing happened then, the icing turned all granulated and gross then suddenly changed thick and fluffy like it was supposed to! I am so proud that on my first attempt, at this much harder recipe, was a success! I had to freeze the icing so I could scoop it like ice cream so that is where it is right now. I am a little concerned about this because I don't know how well it freezes. The Ice Cream Cupcakes recipe called for a different type of icing, but the whole reason to do these was to learn how to make the Buttercream. I will see how it works out and post the results and pictures later.