Thursday, June 30, 2011

Sometimes the cake IS the gift.

I had my first VIP client a few weeks back...My boyfriend's mother. So what do you get a woman who has it all?

A cake.

Jewelry Gift Box Cake
Bottom half of cake is fudge cake with a chocolate ganache filling, lid is vanilla butter cake, 50/50 fondant bow, tissue is made out of gumpaste, ring is isolmalt/fondant, necklace is made out of fondant, and cake board is covered in fondant to look like cloth.


Price: $100

Let's talk about the bow. Fondant bows are gorgeous but they take a lot of patience.  Each loop is created and then left to dry.  Be sure to measure them exactly the same or you'll end up having a crazy looking bow.  You will want to make about 10 loops at about 6 inches length before forming into loops, the 6 loops at about 5 inches long and then a few more at about 3 inches in length long.


Thank you to a fellow blogger for the picture.

Once the loops have dried, you would then assemble your bow, row by row using royal icing.  Its time consuming but the effect is beautiful.


My favorite part was the gumpaste tissue.  This was made by rolling gumpaste super thin and crumpling it up just a bit and then letting them dry on rolled up pieces of plastic wrap (forgive me for not having a picture to demonstrate).

An isomalt jewel I purchased at the cake store (I haven't tapped in to creating things with isomalt yet but I feel like that lesson is coming soon) was attached to a fondant ring.  The necklace was fondant, rolled up into little balls and then strung through floral wire and left to dry.

Today's Lesson: Don't forget the royal icing. Always keep extra royal icing around...never know when you'll need.

Royal Icing is the glue that holds it all together and I do mean everything. I ran out of royal icing and didn't have a chance to get more.  I ended up stuffing the gumpaste tissue in between the cakes and praying it would stay together. Lucky for me the cake wasn't going far. 

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Its Time To Go Shopping...

Today I went shopping. Trips to the cake store always makes me happy.  It's the highlight of my week.

There aren't make cake shops in NYC like the one I shop at.  There's always a mix of people shopping.  Anywhere from professionals to students to little at-home bakers like myself. There's plenty of things to look at and explore. This is where I go to find speciality items.



You can get inspired just by walking in...



 If you want to get into cake decorating, you must find your own little heaven like this.  You want to find a store that has a good selection and a nice price range. This way, you can make a better decision on how you want to spend your money.  If there isn't a store like this near you, there's always the Internet.

One of my favorite websites is http://www.globalsugarart.com/. This website is awesome- not only do they have a great selection but they have amazing deals as well.  It truly is my favorite online website.

The cake decorating hobby can be pretty expensive but its important to buy the highest quality ingredients for your cakes.  You don't want to be known as the one who makes pretty good looking cakes that aren't so good tasting. 





about $37 worth of materials

Today's Lesson:  Cake decorating will empty your wallets.

Solution: Unfortunately, there is no solution for this.  But remember if makes you happy then its all so worth it.






  



Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Birdie in a Bush.

A few months back, I made my first fondant figures and accents for cakes and cupcakes.  Before the piggy cupcake, there were the birdies.


I took these cupcakes to a friend's house, it was the first time I had given any of my products away.  I was pretty surprised by the reaction. Who knew about the power of a good cupcake!

Birdie in  Bush
Fondant birdie, buttercream grass, chocolate cupcake and crushed Oreo cookies to cover the bottom half to look like "dirt".



I was so new to cake decorating that I actually used a butter knife to make the details of the birdie.  Real decoraters don't use butter knives (Ha!). I also didn't have cupcake wrappers.  I know what you're thinking..."WHAT?!"  It's true. I didn't have cupcake wrappers.  So once again, with every cupcake or cake a lesson is learned...

Today's Lesson:  If you don't have cupcake wrappers...improvise.
 
The idea of dirt came from the fact the cupcakes were just ugly without a wrapper.  So I crushed the Oreos and covered the bottom half of the cupcakes with a chocolate buttercream.  I then just piled the cookies onto the cupcakes.  It was a little messy to eat but so much fun!  They looked liked I just pulled them right from the ground.


Price: $40/One dozen
I knew I wanted the birdies to sit on "grass".  I used a grass tip from Ateco but there are so many different kinds you can get.   When using your grass tip, remember to let the buttercream come out a bit before you stop piping. You can make the grass as long as you'd like, however, be careful with making it too long because your grass will then look like green hair.  The grass piping should go in the same direction to give it a more natural look. I had never made grass buttercream before so my grass was all over the place.

This week I'm working on cupcakes for a BBQ. I'll let you know how that turns out


Picture of my modeling tools


Monday, June 27, 2011

Piggy Cupcakes

Piggy Cupcakes by a lil' bit of cake
Piggy Cupcakes, a photo by a lil' bit of cake on Flickr.

Price:$75/24 cupcakes

There once was a piggy who went to the market...

So I have this friend who wanted me to make cupcakes for her daughter's birthday. It was an "Olivia the Pig" birthday extravaganza. SO CUTE! I thought .........Piggy Cupcakes!. 

The great thing about cupcakes is there aren't many things that can go wrong with them.  Cakes, on the other hand, can go terribly wrong.  There's this great blog that does a nice job proving this-http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/. Pretty hilarious. Anyway....

PIGGY CUPCAKES
Chocolate Cake with a red vanilla buttercream swirl on top. Piggies are handmade from fondant. Cupcake liners complete the look.

I got this great idea for making the piggies from http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-a-fondant-pig-2.  I made the piggies a few weeks in advance.

As I've said before with every cake (or cupcakes) there is always a lesson learned, in this case, two lessons learned.

Today's Lesson: 1. Never put store your fondant figures in a clear container.
2. Red Buttercream will drive you nuts.

So here is the thing with fondant. You pretty much make anything you want and store it for however long in advance you'd like.  If they get even a hint of sunlight, the color of the fondant figures will fade.  I placed my piggies in a clear container on a shelf for 2 weeks.  When I went to use them they were a shade of pink that I certainly didn't use.  To fix the problem, I made more piggies of the original shade of pink and mixed the two different types of piggies on the cupcakes to get give the cupcakes more dimension.

As for red buttercream, it was my personal hell.  I didn't realize that red food coloring has a awful bitter taste if you use too much (you need a lot of red food coloring to get a pure shade of red). I ruined a nice batch of buttercream this way.

Fix the problem:  1. Store your fondant figures in a dark and dry place. Fondant is just fun to use but  storing fondant incorrectly can make you cry.

2. When making red buttercream use a  "no taste" red food coloring.  I used Wilton's "no taste" food coloring.  Make your buttercream a few days in advance so that the coloring can deepened before using.

Price: $75/24 cupcakes

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Happy First Blog Day To Me!

I had dinner with some friends a few nights ago and one of them said to me "why don't you start a blog?". Hmm...well that's an idea. Why don't I?

So here I am.

Today I presented my latest creation which was inspired by a cake I saw online. 

Fish Cake 
It was my first carved pound cake covered in fondant filled with pineapple buttercream.  The water was vanilla buttercream. The fish and worms were 50/50 fondant and the cake board was covered with chocolate flavored fondant.

A little history of me and fondant.   I've only really played with the idea making fondant cakes since about March. It wasn't as scary as some may think.  To be honest, I think the scariest part about fondant is paying all this money for the sugary bliss and then ruining it. Arrgggh! That would be awful!

So I haven't done many cakes but I've learned so much about the do's and don'ts of cakes and cake decorating.  So here I am to share my lessons with you.  I have noticed that with every cake I decorate there is always a lesson learned. So here it goes...

Today's Lesson Learned:  Fondant and Refrigeration don't mix.

Try never to put your fondant cake in the refrigerator.  When you take your cake out of the refrigerator, a nice "sweating" will accumulate on your cake. This condensation occurs when the cold of your cake comes in contact with the warmth of the room.Your fondant will soften and possible disintegrate and your 50/50 (50% gumpaste/50% fondant) cake accents will soften and potentially break. Your cake can potentially warp.

Potential Fix: You can try to bring your cake to room temp in a air-conditioned room and/or have a fan directly blowing on the cake. This will help to dry up the condensation.


Fish Cake

Fish Cake by a lil' bit of cake
Fish Cake, a photo by a lil' bit of cake on Flickr.