April Fools Cupcakes

My children and I have established a tradition of making "food" that looks like something else for April Fool's Day. :)  This year's challenge:  Cupcakes that look like pies.  Ethan chose the idea and was very excited to present them by telling his teacher, "Look, I made you a blueberry pie.... April Fools!".  It is always lots of fun for all of us... and I'm sure the teacher too.  Here is this year's cupcake:  

Going a Little More General :)

Okay, so any good plan needs to start with a vision.  As much as I continue to love cake baking and decorating, I realized that my vision includes much more than just pretty cakes.  I am first and foremost a Mother.  Not only am I a Mother, but I am Mom to twin Autistic boys and a blossoming Teenage daughter :).   I am also a 1 year Breast Cancer survivor.  When I think of the quote, "Refuse to settle for anything less than butterflies", I realize that my "butterflies" represent HEALTH.  What I want is a long, healthy life for me and my family.  So, this blog will be used to discuss my quest for health.  Healthy cooking, healthy exercise, healthy products that I encounter.  I am on a quest to live Cancer Free and to give my children the best opportunities for a "normal" life.... WITH beautiful cakes!  :)  Enjoy the journey with me!

Cake Decorating!!

I've signed up for my first cake decorating class!  It's a fondant basics class on Friday night and I'm SUPER excited!  I'm a little overwhelmed at all that I have to do to prepare for it, though.  I need to bring 2 cakes, 5lbs of fondant, buttercream frosting, filling... So, now the big decision:  Do I make all of that, or purchase?  Any thoughts?  :)  I'll keep you updated! 

Working on my baking :)

I just finished reading the book "Cake Boss".  I have never actually seen the show, but was fascinated by His story.  Buddy Jr. started working in his father's bakery when he was just about 6 years old and ended up having to take over the bakery due to his father's death at the age of 17.  He is now a pretty famous cake decorator, but prides himself in being able to make cakes that taste as good as they look.  It just inspired me to really continue to work on my baking skills.  Since I am not a very experienced baker, I started with Carlo's Bakery's famous recipe for Vanilla cookies.  It is tough to bake a "famous" recipe when you don't really have a comparison.  I would love to taste the original and then be abe to compare it to mine.  These cookies were made with no butter at all, only vegetable shortening and they are cooked just until they are slightly browned on the bottom, but creamy white on the top.  The final result is a mix between a biscuit and a light vanilla cookie.  My daughter gave them a thumbs up and so did Ethan!  :)  I'm not a cookie expert... they taste great to me with some coffee!  As you can see, my presentation leaves a lot to be desired.... got to work on that!

Rock Climbing Birthday

Cade and Ethan had a Rock Climbing birthday party today.  My challenge was to create a cake that matched the theme... not a small task for a "beginner".  This time, I made the cake and both toppings from scratch.  I used a recipe for the cake in my Baking book for German Chocolate cake.  Although it tasted fabulous, it was VERY crumbly and fell apart easily. I'm not sure if I did something wrong or if that's just the way the recipe goes.  I also made a Professional Grade Buttercream Frosting.  The frosting was probably the best buttercream I've had.  The secret was to boil the symple sugar to a "softball stage" and then mix it in with the beaten egg yolks without touching the sides of the blender.  It was creamy and light.  I added vanilla for flavoring.  Next time, I would make a double batch because it wasn't quite enough for the cake.  I made a half sheet round cake and broke it in thirds to stack it for the rock climbing cake.  I made fondant from scratch using another recipe from my baking book and this time it was PERFECT.  I gently kneaded black food coloring into it until it made the perfect granite marble color.  All of the rocks and decorations were also made out of fondant.  I didn't really leave myself enough time, so I cut corners by using black icing for writing and hastily assembling the people.  Next time, more frosting and MORE TIME!  :)  The kids loved it and I had a guest say, "This cake tastes AMAZING and I know cakes!"  Must not have been so bad!

Experimenting

So, I've decided to really focus in on my baking skills in addition to the decorations.  On Tuesday, I started with the first recipe from my Baking cookbook.  I made a type of French Spongecake called a Genoise.  Just like the recipe said, it came out a little dry.  The Mouseline Creme was FABULOUS and really helped to offset the dryness.  I decided to slice strawberries and place them in the frosting in the middle and on the top.  Overall, I give this recipe a 3.  I don't know that I will make it again, although I do suppose it would be wonderful with a really moist syrup or possibly a buttercream frosting.  I will for sure make the frosting again... it was light and delicious!  yum yum!

Got to Start Somewhere

As embarassing as this was, I am posting my cake pictures so that I can look back and see the progress.  WHEW, what a lot of work!

My first cake was for my twin boys 8th Birthday.  They love Spongebob so I decided to make that the theme.  I attempted to create fondant from scratch for the first time.  I have used fondant once before, but it was premade and tasted horrible.  This recipe was rather good, but I think I used too much baker's sugar.  It was a little dry and fell apart.   Next time I will not use quite so much sugar.   I found the recipe on The Cook Duke's website http://thecookduke.com/fondant-recipe/.  Give it a try!

I created 2 different cakes, both using a cake mix.  The first layer of the cake was chocolate with vanilla whipped frosting.  Because I was trying to focus on the decorations, I used canned frosting.  Next time.... from scratch!  

The cake came out of the oven rounded on top.  I used a cake leveler to flatten it, but the cake was rather crumbly.  After doing some research, I found that homemade cakes are less likely to crumble.  AH HA!  After finally frosting the cake as smoothly as I could, I got ready to apply the fondant.  I had colored it a pretty blue color by placing gel color in the middle and kneading it in.  I then rolled it to about 1/8" and folded it into fourths.  Next time, I will make sure it is big enough before doing this!  This part was a disaster.  After placing it on the cake, I realized it wasn't big enough to cover it!  Because it was already attached to the frosting, I couldn't lift it.  What followed was a mess of 'patching' fondant.  


I had purchased pre-made gum paste and colored it the same as the fondant.  Over all, I had a great time doing it and spent way too much fun.  I have a LONG way to go before I'm pro.  Yikes.