Cake Pops!

This is my newest cake project. I bought myself the Cake Pops book by Bakerella for Christmas and I have really enjoyed this project. Here are the basic steps to making cake pops:

1. Bake a cake (Got it)
2. After cooled completely, crumble into small crumbs.
3. Mix 3/4 tin of normal, store bought icing into the cake crumbs.
4. Roll into balls and either freeze for 20 min or refrigerate a few hours. I like the freezer because I'm impatient.
5. Melt candy melts of any color in microwave.
6. Dip your lollipop stick 1/2 inch in candy then no more than 1/2 through your ball
7. Dip your cake ball into the candy melt.
8. Decorate!

Decorations can include small candies, sprinkles, drawing with edible markers, all kinds of things! Here are some pictures of ones that I made with a few girlfriends. The owls are my favorites!

Leftovers

Have tons of leftover frosting? I know the feeling. Seems like I always have leftover frosting or fondant somewhere. Mostly on my hips, but that's another story. This story is about a butter ball turkey and how he came to be in our Thanksgiving feast. In the few weeks before Thanksgiving, I had done a few cakes and my mom requested a do another cake for Thanksgiving. Isn't Thanksgiving all about pie??? Apparently not this year. Well, I didn't particularly have my heart in the project this time. So I made a small 6 inch cake and frosted it with leftover purple icing from my grandma's 75th birthday party. Then I had some leftover fondant from something or other, I can't even remember. I decided to make a little turkey out of fondant and place him on top of the cake. He actually turned out really adorable! I still had a little fondant and I can't seem to make any cakes without a border, so I cut maple leaves out with my cookie cutter and lined them up around the edge. The cake turned out so cute and everyone enjoyed it.

First Wedding

When my coworker Emma asked me to do her wedding cake, I was terrified! It's a lot of pressure to make sure it was exactly what she dreamed the cake would be. For weeks we discussed patterns, shapes, and logistics. After doing the purple cake for my grandma, I had a good idea of how much I would need for supplies and I knew a little more about big tiered cakes, so I felt a little more confident. However, there were still some things that I needed to learn. First lesson, do not over bake. I was really sick this whole week, so I stretched out the work of baking, icing, and making fondant over the entire week. I planned to stack the cakes one at a time so I didn't get overwhelmed. I started with the bottom layer because it was 16" wide and I knew I would need my husband's help. Well, it spiderweb cracked all over. I went online to find out why this happened. Cracking occurs when there is not enough moisture in the cake, so the cake looses elasticity. I found out a few tips which I will share at the end of this post. I was so upset about the cracked cake which I knew I was going to have to re-bake, that I cracked the middle layer as I was putting it in the freezer! So now I had to bake 2 cakes the day before the wedding. I called on my good friend Christina to help me the day of the wedding and she was a LIFESAVER! I got all 3 layers put together and iced with butter cream Saturday morning, then she came over to help me with the fondant. We had just enough to cover all 3 cakes and it took a lot of back breaking work to get that stuff smooth and flat. 3 hours to be exact. We were both sweating by the time we got those cakes covered. Thankfully, that was the hardest part and there weren't any more problems with cracking, so I was relieved. We debated back in forth about how to transport the cake. My husband thought I should transport all 3 cakes separately. Christina agreed. I wanted to stack them all and have a guy help me carry it in. In the end, I decided to stack the bottom 2, then add the top layer once I got to the reception. I did the decorations in butter cream, which was really nice because if I messed up at all, I could just wipe it off and try again! Once we got the reception, I tried to stack the top layer and realized I had forgotten to punch a hole in the cardboard under the cake, so it didn't want to slide on to my stabilizing post. It crumpled up inside the top layer, causing some rippling and bulging of the top layer. I said, screw this! I pulled the stabilizing post out and set the top layer on without it. It settled back down and I was able to hide the pooches in the fondant pretty well. Of course since I was a bit freaked out, my hands were shaking like crazy when I put the last decorations on, so I decided if I ever do another large cake, all the layers are going to be stacked and decorated at home! I can fix any mishaps, but from now on...I'm doing the stressful stuff at home. I don't like people standing over me and watching. Anyway, I'm happy with how it turned out in the end and the bride loved it, so it was worth all of the blood, sweat and tears!!

Tips:
-When you pull the cake out of the oven, press the top down. This helps to condense the cake before it cools and helps prevent cracking. It also makes the cake flat so you don't have to cut the top off, which is VERY helpful when doing large cakes.
-Do not over bake. You don't want to open the oven door before it's done because this can cause the cake to fall in the middle, but you also don't want to cook it too long because this causes cracking. What I do is when it's getting close to being done, I turn on the light and give the oven a little shake. If the the cake wiggles at all, it is not done. Once it stops wiggling, it is safe to open the oven and do the toothpick test. When the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done.
-Freeze the top cake of each layer. It's easier to stack them frozen, wait for it to thaw before icing.
-Make sure you have 2-3 people to help with the fondant, it gets very exhausting and it's nice to have some extra hands!

Service

I donated a cake for our Service Auction this year. She wanted something with trains for her son's 5th birthday. I was torn between doing the cake all in fondant or butter cream. Kids don't care about looks, only taste, so I decided to do a combination of both. I iced this cake in butter cream and did the train in fondant. I wish the lines had been a smoother cut, but I didn't have the right tool. I found out from a friend later that I could have used a pizza cutter. The clouds and wording is in butter cream.

Grandma's 75th Birthday

I had planned on making just a small cake for my Grandma's 75th birthday, but then my coworker asked me to make her wedding cake and so I used Grandma's cake to practice on. I tried making my fondant a big firmer and that helped a TON with making it smooth. I also need to make more fondant when i cover the cakes because i had to patch a few spots on this cake. No one really noticed or cared, but I do! Plus they will notice on a wedding cake. It was a great opportunity to practice with fondant.

Baby Shower

I made this cake for a good friend of mine's baby shower a few months ago. I love all of the colors and shapes. I'm so glad I was smart enough to make extra decorations for everything, because MANY were broken! If not by my own clumsiness, then by my 2 year old. I learned AFTER this cake that I should lined my drying bowls with tin foil...go figure!

Rainbow Cake

I made a cake for a family party and I didn't really want to go all out, but I decided I wanted to try this new technique that I had seen online somewhere. You split your cake batter into a few bowls and dye it different colors. Then you spoon the batter into your cake pan stacking each color on top of the previous one, creating this rainbow effect that I really love! I had done this once before with my easter cake, but I didn't stack the colors, I just dropped them in by the spoonful randomly and I liked that look as well. I iced the outside just very simply. I had a bunch of leftover colors, so I did my favorite dots.