This weekend I made a birthday cake for a friend. She is a big fan of the show Supernatural, so her hubby and I decided a Supernatural cake was in order. I looked online for a few design ideas and I found one I couldn't pass up. I found it Here at Cake Central. This is how it came out:
If you followed the link you will notice that it is pretty much the same cake. My frosting was different, so it was piped on. I was a bit disappointed that the black frosting bled a bit (likely because of heat and humidity) so it all had a purple halo around it, but the birthday girl said she liked it so it worked.
I wanted to try something new and was hoping after seeing some pretty blue cakes on Pinterest I could find a way to do a blueberry cake. Turns out she loves blueberry so it was on. I wasn't impressed with any recipe I found so I decided to make it up.
Again, I used cake mix. I used a box of white cake mix (this one was generic). Instead of water I used blueberry liquid. I bought a can of blueberries (I would have gone with fresh but I had to shop ahead by two weeks). I liquefied about 2/3 of it in the blender and amazingly enough it gave me the exact amount of liquid.
After mixing it I was hoping for a bright blue or purple color but it was a little gray-ish.
After baking it up in 2 square pans I put the last blueberries from the can in between the layers (after squishing each one) with a little frosting.
The most time consuming part of this was cutting out the image. I took the image and expanded it, which is a miracle considering my limited computer skills, and printed it off. Then I used an exacto knife to cut out all of the black parts just like a pumpkin stencil. I laid the stencil on the cake, which I had already frosted with the white base, and I traced around it all with a toothpick. From there it was simply filling in with the black frosting and adding a few accents like a border.
The catch phrase from the previous scenes in the show is "The Road So Far" so I decided it would be a great thing to include on the side.
It ended up tasting great. I kept telling my husband it tasted like a 'Mother f-ing muffin'.
Please feel free to post any questions or comments, especially if I forgot to include a step or any other vital info!
Last week I made a bunch of mini cupcakes for church (the post for these will come up later). You will see church come up a lot here if you hadn't already guessed. We like our cake. Anyway, I was trying out some new stuff and made a ton of mini cupcakes. One of the teens at church was upset that she missed out and we went back and forth a bit on Facebook before I informed her that I would make her her own cupcake, I figured it was a chance to try something else new.
I needed someone to hang out with my little guy for like 20 minutes tonight so I told her if she came over I would make said cupcake. So here's what I came up with:
Oreo cupcakes! Yes, I know I am not the first person to 'come up' with this idea, but it was a revelation to me. Though to be honest, these are really made with store brand cookies that taste just like the real thing.
Now, I won't always post procedures or recipes mostly because I don't have any or I'm likely using someone else's idea or a box mix and I'm not comfortable posting someone else's work so as not to take someone's credit. I also have a lot of posts coming down the line about previous cakes and don't have frame by frame shots of them. But since this was tonight I remembered to take a few shots that no one will find interesting.
I used a recipe for 2 chocolate cupcakes I found at the Manhattan Craft Room. I doubled her recipe so that hubby and I could eat some too.
In the original recipe she tops the batter with chocolate chips. I chose to put some crumbled cookie pieces at the bottom of the cupcakes instead.
And 20 minutes later...
Then came the frosting. I used the frosting recipe from the same site, but instead of cocoa powder I added cookies I had crushed in the food processor. It was a bit thick but I thinned it out with some corn syrup after refrigerating and before piping it on. Then it looked like:
And I added a cookie and it was all like:
These were friggin' tasty, I must say!
The first time I 'went public' with cakes I make was for a celebration at my church. We had merged two churches and after a year of worship together we were having a party to celebrate our new name and that our merge was finally complete. I know, you're not here for church politics so here's the cake.
I got the idea for this from an old Girl Scout Tee-shirt I used to have. It had three girls, different nationalities all in a boat that resembled the Earth and said "We're all in the same boat". I thought this would be a perfect phrase for our celebration. I did the cake because I had made the decision to start decorating cakes for money and needed a jumping off point (let's call it practice). I also wanted to use fondant and thought I shouldn't charge the first time I did this since I didn't know what the outcome would be. So I suggested they have cake and I volunteered to make it for free. I used a boxed fondant (from Wilton) for the white base and decorated the rest with regular frosting.
A few lessons I learned here:
1. If you use fondant for cake, don't make a cake that calls for a VERY large sheet of it. It came out okay, but it was really hard to knead a piece that big which made it even more difficult to roll out. If the cake needs to feed lots of people make layers of cake instead of a large sheet.
2. This is a side by side cake. It is two sheet cakes side by side. Though each side was the same brand they ended up baking to different sizes. This was also before I had my Bake Even Strips so they were rounded on top even after trimming them.
3. I need to learn better icing penmanship!
I recreated a smaller version of the cake for the one year anniversary.
This one was not done with fondant, it was half the size and just a little different, but it received about the same amount of praise.
I'm new to the world of blogging so I thought I'd make my first entry an introduction to myself. My name is Jenny and I am a Stay-at-home-Mom. I have a 3 1/2 year old son, Shaun and my husband is Bobby. I enjoy being at home for the most part, though I do get a little stressed from time to time. Oh, hell, let's be honest, I get really stressed all the time! I have found that being able to make a little money on the side as well as keeping myself busy and creative are good outlets for stress.
I enjoy watching TV, reading, writing and cooking. I spend a great deal of time in the kitchen both creating recipes and following others. I attend church weekly and enjoy a monthly game night with a small group of friends. We currently live in Lima, Ohio (Yes, as in the town from Glee) which is a far cry from our hometown of Chicago.
You'll get to know more about me through my postings, I'm sure. But I know you came for the cake. I have been watching my mom make cake since I was a kid and I was always amazed by her ability (still am, if I'm being quite honest). She would always make the cake for our birthdays and big Scouting occasions but would also make cakes for various folks that needed them and would get paid to do so. When we moved here I had made a cake for Bobby's birthday and then realized I may actually be able to learn to make some pretty acceptable cakes. Turns out I was right. I started off doing a few cakes here and there for church and a few friends and informed a few people I was going to start charging for cakes and eventually my 'business' began to grow. I put business in quotes because I do not officially have a business just yet. I'm still considered small potatoes.
So here are a few things that everyone should know, especially if you are interested in purchasing a cake:
1. I charge less than most bakeries. One reason I started doing this is that I couldn't believe how expensive it is to get a cake for a special occasion. The last thing any of us need is to spend $75 on a little quarter sheet cake for a child's birthday.
2. I use boxed cake mix.
I'll let the scandalous gasps die down...
Any time now...
Okay, yes, I use boxed mix to make my cake. Every time I shamefully admit this to someone I am told that anyone can make a cake mix, but it comes out differently for each person. Mine is always great. Now, that's not to say I would never make a cake from scratch. I've done it. It's just easier this way. If a client were to order a cake from scratch then that's what they would get. I will also add to a mix to change up the flavor which has turned out very well in the past.
3. I will make almost any cake that is ordered. I put a lot of love into my work. Any cake I make is me learning by doing. Every now and then I will turn down an order, but only if it is something I don't know I can handle. This has only happened twice, but both of those times I said no, then found a good excuse to make a practice version of what they wanted so I could do it the next time I needed too.
Most of my entries here will be about cake - both posting pictures of my creations and a few stories about the process of making them. For a while I will mostly post about past projects until something new comes up. I may even throw in some posts about pies, breads or other creations I am particularly proud of. If there are any new recipes I try I will post them here as well.
Feel free to comment or to contact me. To see more pictures of cakes please find me on Facebook! Happy Hump Day, all!!!
