Chocolate cakes

Just decorated two chocolate cakes. They're both for the office tomorrow. I hope they like it.  Both cakes are chocolate covered in chocolate buttercream with chocolate ganache for filling. I was thinking that I'd use the ganache to crum coat the cakes, but it was too thin. So filling it is.

Flowers were made with regular buttercream.

     

Oakland Raiders themed cake made with the strawberry cake I baked yesterday.  The top layer is strawberry and the bottom is basic yellow, as per client's request.

Due to the short notice I didn't really have too much time to be too creative with it. (and let's face it, with black, silver and white as the colors there's nothing much I could do.)  But, I thought, let's make the logo out of fondant.

 

I thought about a buttercream transfer, but I was leery and I have never done one of those to be honest. And I had a hard time dyeing buttercream black, even with adding cocoa powder to the buttercream. Turns out I did things right, I just needed to let it rest overnight.

The client asked not to cover the entire cake in black, and requested, if at all possible, not to use fondant. So, I had to do buttercream. Which I am not still 100% confident working with. I tried as much as I could to smooth it out.  Had I have more time to work with, I think it would have been better looking.

If there's one thing I am proud of is of the way the logo came out. I had the hardest time tracing the images over the fondant and then cutting them with my Xacto knife... It's a miracle I didn't cut off a fingertip.

I am now waiting for the client to pick it up and hoping she'll like it. The cake is for her husband's 40th birthday.

More pictures here in my photobucket album.

Strawberry cake

I just baked a strawberry cake, using this recipe.  I have to say it was very easy to follow and most important: no jello, no cake mix in the picture.  Nothing against cake mix, but one thing I proud myself is in the fact that all of my cakes are from scratch.

So, first thing is to puree the strawberries.  Took a while, but I got it done.

Then mix the ingredients. I was curious as the way the batter is mixed. First you whip the egg whites and the liquids, then sift the dry ingredients, put them in the mixer, start the mixer and add the butter to the dry ingredients. Almost like making biscuits.  THEN you add the liquids, and see the magic happen.

Then, pour batter on two 8 inch pans.  As you can notice I lined the pans with aluminium foil and damp towel paper. This prevent the "dome" to form during baking.  It worked beautifully.

The cakes as they are cooling.  I will use this cake for an order I have pending. I am planing on using the leftover puree for a filling.

Happy cakeing!

Coach purse cake

Cake I delivered today. Took two days of work. After this cake I don't know if I ever do another purse cake, but I do know I won't be doing a Coach purse anytime soon. Too many darned C's...

The cakes are both zebra cakes. The bottom tier is vanilla and chocolate, and the "purse" I dyed one half of the batter pink with food coloring.
  

pink zebra cake:


purse:
   



bottom tier:


I had a HARD time with the C's. Thought about cutting out C's with my small cookie cutter. Didn't quite worked out. Then I was thinking about hand painting them but I am not a painter, and my hand is not that steady. Then I created a stencil with some old transparencies I have here that I am no longer using (who needs them when you can use PPP). Went to the store, got me a can of edible Wilton pink spray. Tried to stencil the C's in and... disaster.
Ended up painting the whole purse a bright pink to cover that mistake. Turned out for the best.
  

So, I went back to the original plan: cut outs. Only this time I rolled the fondant really thin and instead of C's, I cut O's, to which I cut out a small piece in the center. Much better. (but those were way too many C's, ouch)
 

Final cake before stacking:


Final cake all stacked and ready for delivery:


So, I got the cake into the car, and after a nerve wracking drive (thankfully it was a short one), I delivered the cake. The client squealed when she saw it: "That's so pretty! My boss will love it!"  And I got to say it got me all fuzzy feeling inside.

As an added bonus today in the mail my business cards arrived:


So along with my label (as per TX cottage food law), I slip one of my brand new cards in to the box.

BTW, The business cards I got them from Vistaprint.  They have this offer of 250 cards for $10. (plus S&H).

another zebra cake

Just baked another zebra cake. This is one layer. The other one is still cooling, and as soon as I am done typing here I'll go and wrapped it in plastic.  Then I'll level them tomorrow and more than likely add a simple syrup to make it moist.

Looks kinda cool, huh?

Tomorrow I'll bake another smaller (6 inches) in pink zebra. That should be interesting.

New recipes and buttercream frosting

I tried out two recipes today: zebra (or swirl) cake and a white cake recipe.  Both were a bit dry, IMO, so as I was leveling them, I decided to make a quick syrup and poured over both of them.  I then made a batch of buttercream and decided to practice my application.

I have to say I am getting better at it.

This the zebra cake, already frosted with buttercream.  I took my time and didn't try to rush it. I even used the Viva paper towel.

And this is the white cake frosted and with some pipped roses I made with some left over frosting I had. I have to say though, red frosting = red fingernails.

                           


Well, until later! Happy caking!

Price list

Worked on my price list. I think they're pretty fair and will cover my expenses. They are NOT Walmart or HEB prices.

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creamcheese cake

Cake I baked and decorated last night for my sister-in-law, whose birthday is next week. Flavor is creamcheese, covered in fondant.

Not what I had in mind originally, but it'll do.