Chocolate Ganache and Cake!

This is a practice run-through of a graduation cake coming up shortly.  Tiffany Chocolate cake with Mocha Buttercream frosting/filling and spiked Chocolate Ganache to *literally* top it all off!

and Yes, I know birthday is spelled wrong... Can't fix mistakes made on a wet chocolate canvas.

A Sweet 16 & Sweet 1st with Fondant

It's been a LONG week - that much is for sure. More actually, much more. This week I FINALLY created a delicious strawberry buttercream, covered my first fondant cake (real fondant, i'm talking here) and achieved double-grounding myself, but no big deal. I brought enough cake home and three extra large slices of superhero sub that will hopefully appeal the management, I shall also have to clean *spotless* both my bedroom and the kitchen. That might do it. I also turned eighteen, which unfortunately I still cannot begin experimenting with liquor and cooking...


Order of events: Creating strawberry buttercream, compiling a cake, transporting, and eating. 


Strawberry buttercream is no different from any other Swiss Meringue Buttercream - its basically just fresh strawberries, washed clean and hulled, added into vanilla buttercream whisking in the mixer. There is no need to make a sweetened puree, no need to boil strawberries over the stove... 

And filling the cake:

Alas, delicious. AND LOOK AT THOSE LAYERS! So Even! 


I Love my job. 

Cheesecake and Pyrex

Took the AP English test yesterday - fell asleep at 5pm and slept through to 8pm. (missed church) Woke up with an insane ahhh! because i FORGOT ABOUT THE CHEESECAKE TOPPING!


So, I get up out of bed and throw my treasured L.L.Bean Wicked Good Slippers (the Mocs) (with the rubber soles) and head downstairs. I realize that it is too late to go to the store, and find a gallon of strawberries that I had frozen a year earlier in the freezer.  I pop them in a pyrex bowl to thaw them, and then put the pyrex bowl over a saucepan of boiling water.


Everything is fine for about 20 minutes. The strawberries and granulated sugar (and a pinch of salt) are sitting there maturating and all of a sudden POW!!!!!!!!


Naturally, the grandparents are sitting in the other room watching a documentary on the bombing of the UN building in Baghdad in 2003 (date?). Pops hears the pop of the pyrex splitting into tons of pieces and jumps up because he thinks it was a bomb.


(it was very loud)


So he comes rushing in (and he tells me later) expecting the POLICE! He couldn't figure out why they would be outside his house making such a noise.


Haha.


End of story: I spent another hour in the kitchen cleaning up shards of glass. Pops and I got talking about how this should never ever ever happen with pyrex. He hopped online and, lo and behold, Pyrex glass is no longer made out of the.. what was it... borosilicate glass. The article is here.


Yes, it exploded. Here is the carnage:

And here, the last slices of the naked new york cheesecake:

Personal Finance Cupcake Cakes PLUS New board presentation :D (and cheesecake)

Many undertakings between yesterday and today: a cheesecake for the party friday after the AP english exam, two cupcake cakes of 33 and 38 cupcakes as ordered by the personal finance teacher - thought he might never indulge - the attempt of making strawberry buttercream (for a filling in my next cake) and OH! yes, my pairing with gumpaste yesterday afternoon from 11am to midnight and then some.

Cheesecake: (the final picture will be coming) A bottle of nail polish is provided to show how incredibly massive this thing is. Just unmolded it (took it out of the springform pan) and it is GLORIOUS! the crust is a bit hard though, and i'm not a cheesecake aficionado to understand what it means. Came out of the pan perfectly. Recipe used: New York Cheesecake with Shortbread crust.

BOARD DECOR! -  Just had a bridal shower in the family and nan bought a roll of adhesive wrapping  paper (on accident - she wanted regular) she gave the roll to me and I used it to cover the cake board! Worked like a charm because of its gentle adhesive quality (although it still needed some tape to stay put).

And the cupcake cakes for personal finance: (on said cake board paper) -

Along with some other cake shots:

The paper definitely adds an extra ounce of special.

And the gumpaste attempt - The next cake will involve lilies, which were going to be made out of gumpaste. I have NEVER used gumpaste before (eh, not true: Check the shoes and pearls on the Africa Cake) HOWEVER this was soo difficult. soo. nothing can compare. So, after spending a good 13 hours in one chair (granted i was baking the cupcakes and cheesecake at the same time) I produced this lovely beauty of a flower, which sadly resembles more of a poinsetta than a stargazer lily. I will bring this to the person and ask if she would like silk flowers instead. :(      And YES - I am aware - the stamens are missing. They were fresh out at michaels. I don't know how i'm going to get a hold of some... Also, I need a finer paint brush for the brown spots.

And now - TO CLEAN! and make the strawberry buttercream. I hope I don't have any homework due tomrorrow...

Alice in Wonderland

Cake made for a Alice in Wonderland movie showing... The new Mad Hatter Hat, stitched up with fondant and icing... Chocolate Cake. Tons of color and glitter. Very Exciting!

Small fun with White Chocolate and Delicious Cake!

This weekend turned out quite exciting with two cake orders for this saturday.  Luckily for me, both cakes were specified as the same frosting, filling, and cake - which saved me a lot of time.

The Cake - Made for a Mother, Kate, for her birthday. 10-inch two layer white cake, filled and frosted with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and garnished with Ghirardelli White Chocolate shavings. (Melt on your tongue amazing) Made Saturday, December 12, for consumption on December 13. ($65)

The Cupcakes - Made for an anniversary.  24 White Cake cupcakes, frosted with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream and garnished with Ghirardelli White Chocolate shavings.  Made Saturday, December 12, for consumption tonight! ($30)

Altobelli Mini-Food Drive Cake

This 42-cupcake cupcake cake was delivered this morning to Mr. Altobelli.  It was the reward to the class that raised the most non-perishable items for the NHS Food Drive.

I am also doing a cake for the winning homeroom for the NHS Food drive.  That is December 23, 2009.

Africa Cake!

A friend of mine is going to Moshi, Tanzania - Africa for 8 months and was thrown a huge party. I was enlisted to do the cake!

These are the beginnings of the gumpaste accents to the cake. The little balls are "pearls." They were made a week before the cake was assembled, and then set out to harden for the rest of the week...

Then the frosting and filling had to be made. After a large frosting catastrophe, I found an idea from the SmittenKitchen blog...and i used that idea! Thankfully, oh so thankfully, the recipe worked. I am so grateful to that woman.

ahh! I planned on including all photos of the cake process, but alas, blogger is disagreeing with this prospect. Here is the finished cake!

To Write or Not to Write...

Spring Cleaning!