A Baby Shower & a Birthday

This weekend I finally got to bake!

Ordered: Two dozen Red Velvet cupcakes (Vanilla Buttercream, chocolate ganache) for a baby shower with a whale theme.

Family: Cousin's 5th birthday.

The Red Velvet Cupcake has been quite a hit lately, I might as well make it a signature piece! It's a delicious combination :D

And for the pictures:

Baby Shower Cupcakes!

It's been almost a year since I did anything cake! Inconceivable!  Gram called me up a few weeks ago and asked me to do some cupcakes for a Boy's Baby Shower.  Of course I said yes, how could I not?

I decided on doing Red Velvet cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream, and then dipped in Ghiradelli Chocolate Ganache.  I decorated them with pastel blue buttercream baby booties (woah, alliteration!) and added some white buttercream frill and bows.  I then added some words, so that across the four rows, the cupcakes read "It's a Baby Boy".

Here, the leftover batch of my grossly overestimated amount of buttercream.  It's in the freezer, hopefully I can find a reason to use it within a month.

The cupcakes sitting on their cake board, sitting on top of the cake box.  I covered the cardboard base and box with baby wrapping paper that I found at Walmart, which ended up matching about half of the baby shower gifts.  Apparently this is a popular wrapping paper!

I like covering the box with a themed paper, it adds more sense of occasion to the cupcakes.  Some cupcakes hardly resemble an occasion, but if you have wedding paper over a box of white cupcakes, the hint gets across.

Cupcakes = Happiness. Especially delicious ones :)

For My Lovely Hairstylist...

14" White Cake with Strawberry Buttercream and Lemon Curd Filling (spaced strawberry, lemon curd, strawberry), and frosted with Vanilla Buttercream.  All these pictures are from my cell phone, and show progress.  I had a small technical failure and lost the nice pictures... 

This was for my wonderful hairstylist's sister!  Again, I apologize for the pic resolution. Enjoy!

Also, some of the pictures near the end are blurry because my kitchen aid exploded with half-way-done buttercream, basically a outrageously hot soupy marshmallow fluff.  It coated my phone generously, and thus, despite cleaning it, the camera was a little hurt. 

Fourth & Final of Graduation Cakes!

Summer has taken its toll on me, allowing me to have been BLISSFULLY unaware that I let an entire month fly by before posting pictures of the last two graduation cakes! I feel awful, but hey, its getting done. All in due time. 

These cakes represent what is my most productive weekend, cake-wise. The Strawberry three tier was made in a day and a half, started Friday morning at 8am and ended Saturday afternoon at around 2pm.  Getting home from that party, (I was invited to stay but did not, because of my embarrassment which will be explained) I started the next cake at around 5pm, and got everything made for it by midnight, then put it all together the next day (Sunday).  Busy weekend. 

Emma Cake: Congratulations Emma! (June 19th)

Emma's Cake is a three tier Gold cake, frosted and filled with fresh Strawberry Meringue Buttercream.  The tiers measure 6, 9, and 12 inches.  The embarrasement was because of the WEATHER! During transit, the heat started melting everything, and the cake started sliding around on the base. I hit a few bumps (many, actually) and it was just awful. Such a pretty cake and it was destroyed because of the hot sun. 

I heard later that the buttercream started sliding off the cake (the house was not air conditioned).  I was so crushed! But its over, and I have pictures of it in its glory. 

Amanda's Cake: Congrats Amanda! (June 20th)

This cake was a challenge from the beginning because I had never (ever) made marbled cake before.  The concept sounds simple, and in fact it is, but I was terrified from the start. As you can see from the pictures below, everything turned out completely great. 

(By the way, this was a 14-inch round cake, exactly 5 inches tall, Vanilla and Spiced Chocolate Marbled Cake with Chocolate Meringue Buttercream...and strawberries to garnish. I had a bunch left over.) 

The second challenge was the Chocolate Buttercream. It just would not set.  The house I live in is supposed to have Central Air, but apparently it doesn't half the time, only AC.  This was the explanation given to me when I exclaimed a week earlier, THANK GOODNESS I BAKE WITH CENTRAL AIR! So I believe that although the house was cool, (not extremely), it was the humidity that did the chocolate buttercream in and thus the quasi-disaster was born. 

Having the buttercream in such a state, I grabbed some leftover strawberries and went a little organic on the design, as the Emma Cake was also very organic. 

A note on cake style: Mostly I prefer cakes that have contrast to them, not made with colored fondant but details with buttercream, and subtle sparkle. With these two cakes, I experimented with the natural form, incorporating real strawberries and not sifting out the pulp, and chocolate buttercream that swirled and created an airy look. 

You can see them now: 

Graduation Cakes! Weeks 1, 2, and 3!

I have graduated and now am free! - From high school at least.  Of course, I could not leave without leaving a small cake impression.  Total orders: 5.

Week 1: Congratulations Lizzie! Class of 2010 (May 29th)

Liz ordered a 50 piece cupcake cake, red velvet with bright pink frosting and light green complimentary icing. Unfortunately, the cake slid off the board during transport and had to be reassembled with care when I got there. (And this is why the photo shoots are done BEFORE the cake leaves the safe counter top.)

Week 2: Congratulations Katie! Class of 2010 (June 5th)

This cake was a SURPRISE cake for a friend of mine.  Her sister and I secretly coordinated through email. She ordered a 14" Gold cake with traditional vanilla buttercream. A color scheme of green and white.  It was beautiful! Stood a royal 5" tall!

Week 3: Congratulations Anya! "Ten miles behind me, and ten thousand more to go." (June 13th)

I had the most fun with Anya's cake.  She ordered my Tiffany Chocolate cake with Mocha Buttercream and a dripped Ghiradelli chocolate ganache. I dropped it off earlier this morning, and I'm sure that by now it has attacked by a large knife and an army of white plastic forks.

This is the followup cake for the post before, where I made essentially the same cake - just smaller.  The ganache did not set as well on Anya's cake as it did on that practice cake.  Still good though!

And if I may say, writing with buttercream on freshly poured chocolate is a CHALLENGE!

This cake also stood 5" tall.

Two more cakes follow for Weeks 4 & 5. A three tier gold cake with strawberry buttercream, and a 14" marble cake with chocolate buttercream.

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.