Cake, Cake, and More Cake!

Cake, Cake, and More Cake!

In the past five days I have made a wedding cake and grooms cake, a fathers day cake and four birthday cakes, and a baby shower cake. Not only am I exhausted but my kitchen looked like a 100 pound bag of powdered sugar exploded. I had contemplated taking a picture ans showing the world but then decided that it was too scary for public viewing.

I have never in my life used so many cake mixes, my wedding cake alone had 15 in it. That is 45 eggs. I was on my feet for two days straight. I could not have dont it without my stand mixer. Thanks to my wonderful family I have two Kitchen Aid mixers that are awsome. If Idid not have them I would not be making cakes. The brand that you choose does not matter, just make sure that it is heavy duty enough for large bathces of cake and icing. Decorating cakes is a tedious job and having a good mixer makes it just a bit easier. It is also good to have a hand mixer for the smaller batches of cake or royal icing.

Another thing that is good to have when decorating cakes is a dishwasher. By the time I got through with cakes on Saturday I did not have one clean dish. Poor Clay didnt even have a fork to eat lunch with and i'm not entirely sure how or why I used so many forks. And then the poor guy asked me what i was cooking for supper. If looks could have killed i would be a single girl today. I, unfortunatly, do not have a dishwasher. After having one my whole life it is quite a shock to move out and have to wash all those dished by hand. My very small kitchen that usually takes about 15 min to clean even on a bad day took 2 hours. And two days later i am a little ashamed to admit that I still have not washed all of my cake pans. (my head hung in shame)

I guess what im trying to tell all begining cake decorators, be prepared. It is never going to be as easy as you think. Allow plenty of time for mishaps, dont just assume all with go according to plan. For example, I had a cake that was being picked up in the afternoon, I had finished and had 3 hours until pick up time, which never happens for me, i went to take a shower and my dog climbed up onto my little picknick table for the kids to the high chair on to the counter and licked 1/3 of the icing off of the cake. It WAS bad, poor Daisy almost died that day! In the end all was okay and I had a new cake by the time the person got their cake,but it was stressful. So just be prepared!

Sorry no pics yet but will post some of my new cakes soon as i finish recovering from the past couple of days!

Peanut Butter!!

This post is dedicated to Cory! Hope you enjoy it!

Peanut butter, what kids doesn’t like peanut butter? It’s sweet and sticky and delicious. Still to this day I would rather have a peanut butter and banana sandwich than any other kind of sandwich. As a kid it was the only thing I really liked to eat and would eat it straight out of the jar. Not only is it yummy, it gets gum out of just about anything thanks to its natural oils. Thankfully my mom only had to do this a couple of time(maybe more, who keeps track of those things).

Today’s task was to make a 1st birthday cake to one of my best friends little boy.(pictured at the top of the page) The bottom tier was Strawberry Shortcake(French vanilla cake and strawberry filling) and the bottom was a take on Peanut butter cups.

To accomplish the bottom layer I altered the ingredients of a traditional butter cream to make it a Peanut Butter cream(which I accomplished very successfully if I do say so myself.) First I added a stick of butter and creamed it with smooth peanut butter until both were creamy. Then add a ½ tablespoon of vanilla. Next, add three cups of powdered sugar one cup at a time. When doing this your buttercream will start to get very stiff so add milk or water to thin it out as needed. This is one of my most favorite icing I have ever done. I used this butter cream as a filling and a regular to decorate the cake. I am leaving to go to the party shortly and will let yall know how they like it!

I also make Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cupcakes. This recipe is simple also, take a simple choc cake mix and add ¼ cup chocolate syrup and a cup of chocolate chips. When the cupcakes are through cooking, let cool and top with peanut butter frosting and sprinkle chocolate chips on top. YUMMMY!

Cory, I hope you enjoy this recipe! I am searching for other fabulous and unique peanut butter recipes and will talk about it more!

Eat Me

My love of cake and all things sweet and sugary started when I was sixteen. For almost seven years I have been experimenting and teaching myself the art of cake decorating and baking. My family and friends have been great testers for me. Those scenes in Alice and Wonderland, where Alice eats the cakes and cookies with “eat me” on it but she is not sure what to expect is close to what my family and friends experience when they eat one of my concoctions. Sometimes it’s good and other times it’s really bad. But thankfully they continue to be my taste tester in hopes that my mistakes become less and less!

I have had homemade cakes go flat, burnt to crisp cookies and mousse that I whipped into butter because I forgot about them.. Baking is a precision form of cooking that when the recipe is not followed, it most likely will flop. And you also have to pay very close attention to the clock! You cannot, I repeat cannot get caught up in stalking your Facebook friends because you will forget what your doing and most likely burn something. Trust me I know, I have done this a lot. Its hard to remember a cake when your learning that your best friends cousin cheated on her bf with your exs girlfriend and they had a fight in front of Wal-Mart and someone posted pics you just have to track them down.(see with all of that drama im sure you have already forgot what i was talking about, so who can blame me when i burn something!)

Clay (my love, pain in the butt and victim of most of my experiments) loves sugar cookies almost as much as he loves me(maybe, not 100 on that). I searched for months for the perfect recipe and finally found it. I go to the grocery store with recipe in hand to buy the ingredients, get home and get started on the cookies. When I am done, thankfully only burning one batch, they are beautiful buttery yellow sugar cookies, with sugar crystals lightly brushed on top.

I could hardly contain my glee as he bites into the first cookie(i just knew it was going to be the best cookie he had ever eaten). But, much to my surprise, the look on his face was less than that of having the best cookie he has ever tasted. So I tried a cookie, it had a odd flavor, not bad nor good, and kind of numbed your mouth. I could not figure out what had gone wrong, so I poured over the recipe too find out what had gone wrong. Finally I realized that I had forgotten to add the brown sugar in addition to white sugar and had added too much baking soda. He appreciated the sentiment at least. These cookies are phenomenal when done right.

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest, plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup unsalted butter, (2 sticks), softened
2 large eggs
Sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl; set aside.
2. Put sugars and lemon zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed 30 seconds. Add butter; mix until pale and fluffy, about 1 minute. Mix in eggs, 1 at a time, and then the lemon juice. Reduce speed; gradually add flour mixture, and mix until just combined.
3. Scoop dough using a 2-inch ice cream scoop; space cookies 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Flatten cookies slightly with a spatula. Sprinkle tops with sanding sugar, then lightly brush with a wet pastry brush; sprinkle with more sanding sugar.
4. Bake cookies until golden, about 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks using a spatula; let cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

So readers you are my new victims to experiment on, no taste testing(aren't y'all lucky) just leave some feedback so I can improve at this blogging thing.