pop goes the cake...

For Christmas I received the ever so famous "Cake Pops" book by Bakerella.  I have been dying to give them a try but just couldn't find the time.  So at my husband's request for Valentine's Day I forced myself to find the time to give these amazing little cake treats a try. 

I initially thought I would be making a cake pop version of a Sweetheart; however, since this was my first attempt I decided to go with simple and sweet.  I followed the simple cake ball recipe from the book (also found here http://www.bakerella.com/red-velvet-cake-balls/).  As for decoration, I dug through my cabinet of sprinkles (yes an entire cabinet dedicated to sprinkles) and found some adorable ones appropriate for this special occasion:  pink, white, and red nonpareils, purple and white jimmies with red lips, and pink and red X's and O's (personally my favorite).  I wish I could tell you where I found all of these, but honestly it could have been anywhere.  I shop at an assortment of craft stores and randomly buy sprinkles as I find ones I can't live without. 

I only made 12 and quickly found out that was not near enough.  This was like an afternoon snack for my husband. 

After success with the first batch, I decided to make more a couple weeks later for my Mom's birthday.  She isn't a huge "sweets" eater but I knew the rest of the family would enjoy them (particular my father).  For this batch I decided to get a little more creative.  She has a crazy obsession for pigs so I decided to give that a shot.  After about twelve I decided to switch back to only sprinkles!  The pig were a little more work than I was interested in.  Especially considering I had 48 cake pops to decorate. 

They were relatively simple.  The ears were large heart sprinkles interested upside down before the candy had a chance to melt.  The nose consisted of a pink m&m attached with extra candy melts after the main coating hardened.  The eyes, nose, and mouth were done with an edible food writer.  This was my first try at one and I wasn't exactly impressed.  Basically they didn't work.  At least not immediately.  I tried again the following day when the candy melts had 12 hours to completely dry and it worked perfectly. 

The best part about these little guys, is that my mother loved them for appearance and taste!  She couldn't stop eating them.  Her exact words, "don't ever bring those things to my house again."  I guess you can say they were a success. 

Birthday cake anyone....

Even though Wilton graduation was a thing of the past, I decided I had one more task to achieve before I could even begin to think of making cakes for anyone outside of the immediate family (you know the people who have to lie to you).  It was to tackle the unthinkable....the gosh for saken large cupcake pan again!  This time the victim was my 9 year old cousin.  She desperately wanted a horse cake; but, let's face it, that WAS NOT going to happen.  So after a little manipulation of the two pieces (of the cupcake that is) and about 3 hours of piping, we had A BIG RED BARN.  I was ecstatic!

Okay, okay I know it looks like it is on fire but use your imagination.  That is hay.  Now with this stupid cupcake pan mastered, I could move on to bigger and better things. 

As for the next cake, well let's just say I went way over my head.  It was a total nightmare.  My first mistake, thinking I needed to make marshmallow fondant instead of using store-bought.  WON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN.  It definitely tasted better; but, totally not worth all the trouble.  And the mess was ridiculous.  Powdered sugar covered my kitchen counters, my floors, me and my weenie dog.  Poor little guy came to investigate all the noise and got covered as it flew off the counter.  Once I got a handle on the fondant situation, the cake finally came together.  And despite all the trials and tribulations it turned out pretty decent.  It definitely was a good learning experience.



After not sleeping for 48 hours, I realized I was way too ambitious.  So for the next cake (another birthday cake) I kept my design much more reasonable.  First off, I got rid of all the fondant except for decorations.  Buttercream would just have to do.  This cake would have been a breeze, had I figured out how to manage my time better.  By this point I was definitely learning that anything you could do in advance, was better off done in advance.   The fewer amount of items I left for myself to do the day of, meant the more sleep I got.  For example, coloring the fondant.  Even though I was coloring small amounts, it was extremely time consuming.    Anyways, back to the cake, dinosaurs were the star of the show.  ROOOAAAAARRRR!!

I absolutely loved this cake; but, that was probably due to the fact that this was my best work so far.  This was actually my first attempt at a 2-tiered (stacked) cake.  And it worked!!!  My structural engineering degree deserves all the credit. 

As if the gigantic cake wasn't enough I decided the birthday boy needed his own personal volcano.   

I quckly learned birthday cakes were my speciality (I definitely wasn't good enough to attempt a wedding cake).    And it seemed I was doing quite a few of them.  So instead of boring you with all the details (because I'm sure you have figured out by now they each had their own set of problems), I've decided to just include pictures.   





Wilton Decorating Classes

For those of you who have seen my "current" work try not to freak out.  Remember these cakes are from TWO YEARS AGO. 

So Wilton Cake Decorating Course I, here I come.  I walk in (head towards the ground) thinking these people are going to laugh at me and my kindergarten skills.  However, it only took about 5 minutes before my fellow classmates made me feel like a pro.  The instructor was asking questions like, "Have you ever baked a cake? or Have you ever iced a cake?"  And I almost fell out of my chair when these ADULTS answered, "no."  I immediately began thinking this was going to be a total waste of my time. 

Nevertheless, we began reading our course manual and discussing what we needed for the next class.  I think I fainted when the instructor mentioned we had to bring an un-iced cake along with our very own HOMEMADE ICING.  When it came time to make the icing let's just say  I was thankful for my Kitchen Aid Mixer (the Christmas gift I really didn't want but ended up loving more than anything else).  Anyways, the results a.k.a Cake #1.  Quite hideous I know.  But the flowers or stars or whatever you want to call them are pretty!



As you can see from this picture, I had A WHOLE LOT to learn.  Up until this point I hadn't even realized how important it was to level the cake before stacking and icing.  And let's be honest, my stacking and icing needed some work as well.  At least my piping skills were decent!!

For the second cake I decided to take my focus away from the decorations and gear it towards having a LEVEL AND SMOOTH cake.  I would say I succeeded.  Definitely an improvement from the first cake.  Just ignore the scary clown.  This class was focusing on different consistencies of buttercream and I was forced. 

As for the last cake....my self-belief and coolness finally returned.  The cake was level and the icing was smooth.  But I'll go ahead and say outloud what all of you are thinking....the buttercream roses were AWESOME!!!!  The lesson learned with this cake.....NEVER ATTEMPT BLACK BUTTERCREAM.

The next three courses were kind of a blur.  I was learning so many things that I forgot to take pictures of most of my hideous, I mean lovely creations.  I've included the pictures from my first attempt at colorflow along with my very first two cakes covered with fondant. 

I have to admit the decorating classes definitely taught me a lot.  Without them lord only knows how many more embarassing birthday cakes my poor husband would have had to share with friends and family.  

   

The most important lesson I learned from those courses....being a perfectionist and cake decorator do not belong in the same sentence.  Something always goes wrong.  You just have to get creative and cover it up! 

where to start....

Creating sweet treats is something I have enjoyed since I was a little girl.  I remember many birthdays and holidays sitting in the kitchen with my mother begging to help.  And of course sneaking a taste when she wasn't looking.  However, as I grew older and left for college, my interests changed but mostly my free time disappeared.  Upon graduation and meeting my husband, (the only man I know who has a sweet tooth bigger than my father's) I rediscovered my love for creating anything sweet.  But it was ONE DAY in Spring 2009, March 30th to be exact, that I decided it was time to get professional help.  I had purchased the Wilton large cupcake pan to make a birthday cake for my husband.  When it came time to decorate it, I was completely overwhelmed and once finished I felt as if kingergarten art projects turn out better.

It was the very next day when I marched myself into Michael's craft store and signed up for Course 1 of the Wilton decorating classes.  I immediately feel in love with all my new skills.  With each new course (and new techniques learned), I became even more obsessed and the monster was born......... 

So after much persuasion, I have finally decided to start a blog documenting all of my many sweet treats.  Over the course of the next few weeks I plan on getting everyone up to speed on all of my previous baking adventures.