Portfolio: Theatre Sweet Sixteen Cake

In one of my previous lives I was an actress.  I still do some acting now and again, but for the most part, my BA in Theatre Arts hangs on my wall gathering dust.  I occasionally dream of being an Oscar winner someday, but honestly, there's too much else I'd rather be doing.  Still, it was really fun this weekend to pull out all the stops for this sweet Sweet Sixteen birthday cake for my friend's stepdaughter.  Emma's very active in her school drama club and loves theatre and her stepmom asked me to make a cake that would reflect Emma's love and interests.  It was even more fun because Courtney told me to just run with it.  You got it mama!

I racked my brains and the interwebs for some inspiration before coming up with this idea of a two tier affair.  At sixteen, you think the world is your oyster and in Emma's case, it's her stage to quote an expert in the field.  The top tier was designed to look like a stage ready to be performed on and I decorated the side of the bottom tier with all sorts of theatre references.

I have to say, this is my best buttercream work so far!  And I really liked the design...it kinda reminded me of the circus, which I think is perfect for a theatre theme.  Sometimes performing can be a circus!

The front view

A side view

The stage...you can kinda see the outlines of the "boards" I drew on the bottom of the cardboard round.  Every stage has to have boards upon which to tread!

Another side view...the playbill was my favorite fondant piece!

The inside of the cake was simple vanilla and because Court and her family aren't huge fondant fans, I tried to keep the entire thing in buttercream.  I was really torn though, because this was served over Memorial Day weekend and when we do hot holiday opening summer weekends, we go big or go home with heatstroke around here!  I kept that cake as cold as could be before it was picked up to make sure it didn't melt before the birthday girl could get a glimpse of it.

Happy birthday, Emma!  May the world truly be a stage for you to dance upon!

Happy caking,
Kelly

Portfolio: Bridal Bustier Cake

When I first started getting serious about decorating cakes, one of the first ones I ever did was a bustier cake for a wedding shower in honor of my friend Courtney.  It was a simple little number, but everyone was really impressed and that cake encouraged me to keep going and keep learning.  This weekend, I got to revisit that cake!  Courtney asked me to replicate it for a friend of hers, but in all white.

When I did an internet search for others like it, I happened to notice they were all in fondant.  Courtney's not a fan of the fondant and I was determined to go all buttercream on this one.  I now know why all of the cakes I found were in fondant!  Even though this was a white cake, parts of the cake kept showing through and it didn't matter how much frosting I threw at this bad boy, I could never seem to get the right amount all over to cover it properly.  I lucked out in that the details helped to cover balder spots, but it was a nightmare.  Considering the success of the train cakes, I was totally bummed and had to take several breaks to finish this.  Just more proof that good bakers have their bad days too!

Ultimately, I am thrilled with the results and Courtney was too, which is all that matters.  It was a good learning experience in several ways: first, I got more buttercream only experience.  I'm getting better, but I can see where improvement is needed.  Second, I have recognized the limits of certain designs.  After this cake, my advice to other bakers would be to charge more for buttercream only cakes that involve lots of curves and nooks and crannies.  Lastly, I've recognized my limits–no more than one baking project per week!  I'm pooped!

If you're interested in doing a cake like this too, I wanted to share with you how I got the shape. I did not carve this one, actually.  My original design used two heart shaped pans.  You lop off the points at the bottom and then line the sawn off ends together to form breasts at the top and rounded off legs at the bottom.  You can use the remainder of the cake to build up the breasts.  Somehow I've lost my second heart shaped pan (grrr), so I used a 9" circle pan instead and carved out a piece of the bottom of the heart to make the round fit into it.  The leftover pieces went to the boobs :o)  Of course, you could carve it from a sheet cake, but I always seem to cut too much from one side or the other and then there's the crumb factor.  The less unfinished edges you have, the happier the baker!

Happy caking,
Kelly

Portfolio: Choo Choo Cakes

My high school gal pal Michelle is a very talented photographer and her twin boys turned three this week!  I've been wanting to do some family photos and she needed some cute birthday cakes, so we made an even trade.

Her boys Ian and Aaron are two of the most adorable, sweetest little boys ever, but their one drawback (as far as I can tell!) is that they fight over anything that they don't have.  For example, if one of them has a red car and the other shows up with a blue car, they fight over the blue car, even if it's the same darn car, just different colors.  I totally get why so many twins are dressed the same, or have the same toy!  So their mom was adamant on having IDENTICAL cakes.  Believe me, nothing is worse than seeing a three year old throw a tantrum (I know from LOTS of experience, lol), so I was happy to oblige.


Since Michelle was going to get the boys Thomas the Train toysets for their birthday anyway, she asked me to do cakes that a toy train could be set on top of.  Here's what I came up with:

I am very proud of these, because there is not one bit of fondant on them and my buttercream work came out pretty well!  I'm no Twinkie yet, but maybe someday!  It's always good to challenge yourself and try to master a skill set.

I asked Michelle to send me pictures of the cakes when they have trains on them and I'll try and post those here when they come in.  In the meantime, a very happy birthday to Ian and Aaron!

Happy caking,
Kelly

Music Note Cookies

I got an order from my friend Kristen for a super cute music themed birthday.  The birthday boy was turning one and his family decided to celebrate it with music!  I love this theme, it's so cute.  Kristen had me make quarter note shaped cookies in orange and blue icing for the favors and they came out beautifully.  They also tasted quite yummy, as my husband and daughter, er I mean, quality assurance testers informed me.

Being a music minor (ok six hours short anyway, but I know my stuff!), I couldn't resist doing this little number.  Tee hee!

Happy birthday to the special little boy...your birthday is certainly something to sing about!

Cheers,
Kelly

Portfolio: Raggedy Ann Birthday Cake and Cupcakes

Last year my friend Caroline asked me to make her a Hungry Little Caterpillar cupcake cake for her daughter's first birthday.  This year, she decided to do a Raggedy Ann theme!  I remember Raggedy Ann being a big deal when I was a kid, and it's really nice to see her come back.  Good wholesome fun!

 
I did my usual Google image search for inspiration and saw a really cute idea that someone had done where they did the head and shoulders for Raggedy Ann and used red licorice for her hair.  I'm really into using candy and other tasty treats for accents and decor on cakes, so it seemed like a perfect fit.  And here is the final result:

Please ignore my reflection in the cakeboard...I didn't even realize it was there until much later!

For the head, I baked two six inch layers and for the shoulders I used one 10 inch layer, cut in half and stacked on top.  I ended up doing a dozen cupcakes as well, just in case more people showed up at the party.  I frosted everything in buttercream but used fondant for the white pinafore, the eyes, and the nose.  The cake itself is marbled chocolate and vanilla, since per Caroline, "Madeline could eat Starbucks' marbled pound cake every day of her life and never get tired of it!"

The Divine Miss M (as I like to call her) LOVED her cake and enjoyed playing with all of her friends' on the playscape.  I was thrilled with the cake and so happy to provide an important part of a special day for a very special little girl.

Happy Birthday, Madeline...may you have many more, my dear!


Happy Baking,
Kelly

Portfolio: Red Velvet Whoopies and "2" Sugar Cookies

My daughter and I had the joy of attending the birthday party for the daughter of a dear friend of mine this past weekend.  Abby Lu turned two and her mom planned a cookie themed party for the little munchkin.  Anna is a corporate event planner and she always has the most wonderful and fun ideas for birthday parties!  She blogs about that and her crafty activities frequently, and I just love, love, love reading about all the fun stuff she does.

Anna had a milk moustache photo station for everyone to take their pictures.  Here's me and Billa!

She planned on having quite a few cookies for the party and asked me to bake up some red velvet whoopie pies and some sugar cookies in the shape of the number 2 for Abby's party.  Abby apparently adores red velvet and I was excited to try a new recipe for them at the party.  I have a recipe that is pretty good, but after baking some chocolate whoopies for my mom's birthday, I wanted to tweak the chocolate recipe and see if I couldn't duplicate the texture with red velvet.  They came out fantastic!

The cookie buffet...so many tasty treats!

For the number 2's, I did half of them with solid cookie monster blue and the other half with blue sprinkles.  Doing these brought back memories of my daughter's second birthday last year, in which I did a Sesame Street theme and gave away sugar cookie S's, 2's, and Elmo's as favors. 

My daughter and I enjoyed visiting with lots of our friends that we had not seen in some time.  The party was so much fun because we got to eat my favorite thing: cookies!  They also happen to be one of Abby's favorite things too!

Abby Lu and Billa swinging on the swings

Happy 2nd birthday Abby Lu!  May you have many more!

Happy baking,
Kelly

Portfolio: Pretty Girlie Cupcakes

I've been sick with a horrible sinus infection/cold the past few weeks, so my baking has suffered.   My best friend recently celebrated her birthday and was supposed to have a barbecue birthday party, but wouldn't you know it, everyone in her house got sick too.  And it was raining.  Bummer!

Everyone deserves something special for their birthday, so when I was finally feeling well a few days later, I made her some cute girlie cupcakes.  Kellie likes traditional cake flavors and chocolate always make a girl feel better, so I did chocolate cupcakes with turquoise buttercream frosting and then sprinkled them with bright pink sugar to reflect her girlie nature.  I must say, those cupcakes were not only lovely, but they were yummy to :o)

Happy birthday Kellie!  At some point, we'll have a make up party for you or something.  Hugs!

Happy baking,
Kelly

Portfolio: Lego Cupcakes

My best friend's son Cameron celebrated his 4th birthday this weekend and he is a super Legohead.  They've opened up a Lego store here in Austin now, and since Cameron was having a very small party, we decided to do cupcakes with a Lego theme.  Cameron is usually a chocolate fiend, but when presented with several flavor options, he chose strawberry cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  Yum!

After baking a dozen strawberry cupcakes,  I frosted the tops with brightly colored buttercream, keeping the level pretty even.  That was the easy part.  I then piped tiny dots on each surface to simulate a Lego brick base.  If you've ever played with Legos, you know what I'm talking about:

After the tops were done, I then took a flat tip to create some Lego pieces that spelled out the letters of Cameron's name.  Our original idea was to place candy shaped like Lego bricks on top, but we couldn't find on such short notice and using real Legos meant cleaning them afterwards, which was not a fun prospect.

Cameron was thrilled with the results and we had a great time playing with Legos at the party. Happy birthday, buddy! We love you!

Everyone was wearing their Legos by the end of the party!  Meet Cap'n Bluebeard :o)

Happy Caking,
Kelly

Portfolio: Owl Birthday Cake

It's owl-ficcial: owls are hot, hot, hot!  Ok, apologies for the pun. I couldn't resist!

Recently I was contacted by a gal to do a birthday cake for her son's first birthday.  She loved the design I had come up with for the YMCA cake I did for my friend Julia a few months back.  I gotta say, I love it too!  It's simple and yet it makes a great statement.  We decided on a larger marble cake for the guests and a vegan peach cake for the birthday boy, Mateo.  Here is the final result:

The larger cake is marbled chiffon cake on the inside.  I dyed the vanilla portion a baby blue to match the party decor and it looked beautiful with the chocolate.

I used special food writing markers to write the wording and make the feathers on the owl's chest.  I can't believe I didn't invest in these things sooner...they were worth every penny!

The smash cake came out way cuter than I expected.  I had to bake it twice however as something happened with my recipe the first time (I was trying to cut my normal recipe in half and I think I added too much flour).  Second time's the charm, right?  The birthday boy's mom had asked for a healthier version of cake for her son, and I love the vegan recipe I use because the amount of sugar can be cut down considerably since it uses a fruit puree.   Peaches was the flavor of the day since it's Mateo's favorite.  The small domed cake pan I used created the most adorable little owl; it reminds of me of pygmy owls!

Isn't this little guy so sweet?  I love the domed pan I used for this...it's so versatile!

All in all, I am very pleased with the results and so was Mateo and his mom!  Happy 1st birthday Mateo; may you have many more, cutie!

Happy Caking,
Kelly

Portfolio: Hugs and Stitches Birthday Cake

I had the pleasure this past weekend to make a birthday cake for a little girl's first birthday.  Her mom Juleah had chosen a theme based on a line of partyware called "Hugs & Stitches".  It's really very cute, with little flowers, butterflies, and lots of pastel colors and various patterns.

Juleah asked for a sheet cake which I made from vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.  On top, I mimicked the partyware design and created a parti-colored backdrop with mint green, butter yellow, and lilac.  Using fondant as accents, I added in a large '1', a butterfly, and a flower.  I rolled out pink fondant and cut it freehand in a wavy pattern to wrap around the sides.  The proverbial icing on the cake was the stitching I added in blue, which tied everything together!

I wish the picture had come out better...I totally forgot to take a picture at home and my daughter and husband were waiting in the car, so I had to hustle!

Here is the smash cake, which I coated in butter yellow and then piped on an M (the birthday gal's name is Madelyn) and added fondant flower cutouts.  I love this smash cake.  It's so girly and feminine without being in your face pink!

Happy first birthday, Madelyn!  May you have many more!

Happy baking,
Kelly

Portfolio: A&M Cupcakes

If you're from Texas, you typically bleed one of three colors: red, burnt orange or maroon.  For those of you not from the Lone Star State, those colors represent the triumvirate of universities in this state that have the largest numbers of alumni and fans - Texas Tech (red), UT (burnt orange), and Texas A&M.  Fans of all three schools just love to razz each other about which school is greater and the rivalries are thick.  It is not uncommon for a house to be divided and our family is certainly that way!

My daughter's godsister Ronnie is heading off to Texas A&M to start her undergrad and I love her so much that I allowed the color maroon to enter this decidely burnt orange household.  I made her a batch of cupcakes to take with her as she moves into her dorm room on campus.

Portfolio: Pink Zebra Birthday Cake

Hello everyone!

Today I had the pleasure of delivering an adorable pink and zebra patterned cake for a lucky little girl!  Addison turned one and her mom picked a cute theme of pink with zebra accents since her folks are "wild about her!"  I wish I had taken a picture of Addison's mom; she's 22 weeks pregnant and looked cute as a bug in her black sundress with hot pink mardi gras beads! 

Here's a side view of the cake...I really like using those mirrored scalloped boards!  Not only are they clean looking, but if you have fun pattern or texture, the mirror effect emphasizes it.

A full shot of the cake. I crafted ribbon roses in white, pink, and black along with lots of fondant "beads."  I like to think that this was what a stylin' little girl's jewelry box would be like.

The cake was vanilla with strawberry filling and buttercream icing.  I made a small smash cake to go along with it, but I totally forgot to take a picture of it.  It was solid pink with black polka dots on the side, a black pearl border, and an 'A' on top piped to look like it was made from zebra print.

My painting on fondant has gotten much better...I was very pleased with the script I created for this "wild" cake.

I had a lot of fun making this little beauty and I was very thrilled with how it came out.  Happy first birthday, Addison...may you have many more!

Happy Caking,
Kelly

Portfolio: 90th Birthday Celebration Cake

Back in 2004, my grandmother was diagnosed with congenital heart failure.  The doctors told her that she would have about 2 years at most, if she was lucky.  Well, I am happy to report that six years later, my grandmother is sending those doctors the bird to their diagnosis.  To that end, my entire family flocked to her home this past week to celebrate having lived a very illustrious nine decades with food, fun, and cake.

Photo by Anthony Marino of Austin Area Photo

Each tier is actually three layers of cake: a layer of raspberry flanked by layers of lemon cake, all put together with lemon buttercream icing and homemade raspberry glaze.  Given the incredible heat wave we experienced, it was light and refreshing.  My grandmother had requested lemon and it was my cousin Katy's idea to add the raspberry.  Good call, Katy!

As far as the color scheme, I chose purple and periwinkle, because those are the two colors that come to mind when I think of my grandmother.  She's feminine, but at the same time, she's not a true girly girl.  I had thought I would make pansies, but with all the goings on that week, I didn't have time to sit and really concentrate on it, so I created a dogwood looking flower instead.  My aunt Becky had bought green and white plates for the party, so I incorporated the green as part of the scheme as well and it was a great compliment to the two shades of purple I'd created.

Photo by Anthony Marino of Austin Area Photo

I also decided to be a little bit different with the tiers...I see a lot of cakes where the patterns are busier on the bottom and the colors fade up as opposed to down.  I think that by changing things up a bit, it really created a stunning cake.  My only regret is the effect that heat had on this cake.  The cake layers were fairly even and I tried to go easy with the frosting, knowing it was so hot outside, but I still ended up with a terrible bulge on the backside and a lot of bubbling underneath as the gasses from the frosting released and rose underneath the fondant.  I had placed the cake in the fridge prior to placing the fondant on top, but it made the fondant sticky after awhile due to the condensation.  And of course, this made it difficult to place flowers or royal icing on the cake!

In the end however, my worries were all for naught.  My family was more than impressed with my skill and the flavor, as evidenced by the lack of leftovers.  That cake fed about 50 people and the only ones who missed out were my brothers and my cousin David, all of whom don't really eat sweets anyway.  (They did try bites and told me that it was fabulous)  I'll post recipes later as I really wanted to show you my handiwork.

The Grand Dame herself, my grandmother Mavis... Happy 90th Maw Maw! (Photo by Anthony Marino of Austin Area Photo)

Happy baking!
Kelly

Recipe: "Kahlua" Cheesecake

I've probably mentioned this before, but I'm rather quite famous in my circle of friends and family for my cheesecakes.  Every year at Thanksgiving I am asked to provide my pumpkin cheesecake, which is a breath of fresh air to the traditional and sometimes boring pumpkin pie (although I LOVE me some pumpkin pie for breakfast).  And every year, my husband requests a cheesecake for his birthday.  Truth be told, it's actually been two years since I made him one.  I was horribly ill on his birthday last year and couldn't bake anything at all, and the year before that he wanted a pirate birthday party, so I made my pirate cake.  So it was about time I made him another one.  I think it was over avocado margaritas with my cousin that the words "kahlua cheesecake" were uttered and Michael's eyes widened as he leaned over to me and whispered, "That's what I want for my birthday this year!"  Okey dokey, honey.  You want it?  You got it!

Portfolio: Stars & Lace Graduation Cake

My daughter's godsister graduated from high school this week and I made her a cake to celebrate!  Ronnie is one talented kid...she's a cheerleader, a golfer, a straight A student, and a member of the JROTC.  She's going to go to UT to major in biochemistry on a full ride scholarship from ROTC.  Believe you me, her Marine mom and dad are extremely proud and so are we! Way to go Ronnie!

Red, white and blue...this cake design could work for the 4th of July as well!

Portfolio: Noah's Ark Baby Shower Cake

When it rains, it pours...literally and figuratively!  We had lots of rain this weekend and I had a lot of cakes on my plate too!  After completing a birthday cake, a first communion cake, I had a request for a baby shower cake as well.  The grandmother to be is a friend of a friend and she contacted me to do a Noah's ark cake for her daughter's baby shower.  Wilma sent me pictures of the partyware along with a picture of an adorable cookie jar her friend has that was also an inspiration for the shower.

Noah's List:  Elephants, Hippos, Lions and Giraffes.  And just for good measure, one white dove on top!

Portfolio: Celtic First Communion Cake

This weekend we celebrated my godsister's First Communion.  Mathilda's mom has me do lots of cakes for her and I really wanted to do something special for her first communion.  If you're not familiar with what First Communion is, in a nutshell it is a right of passage for young Catholics in which they are now able to receive the Eucharist at Mass (the Eucharist is the little bread wafer).  Mathilda is one of a kind and I knew that she wouldn't be happy with a hum drum cake to celebrate this milestone in her life.  I used our church's Celtic influence to inspire this simple cake.

The cake is a vanilla cake with a bit of cinnamon and ginger added to it to give it some oomph.  The frosting is an American buttercream that is flavored with lemon extract and zest.

Recipe: Chocolate Orange Cake and Orange Cream Buttercream

Growing up, Terry's Chocolate Oranges were one of my favorite things to get in my Christmas stocking.  I loved the pairing of orange and chocolate and the way the flavors melded on my tongue.  Those chocolate oranges are the inspiration for today's cake recipe.    I first did this recipe for my husband's birthday cake last year and it was a huge hit! This time around, we were celebrating the birthday of one of his coworkers, Becky.  Originally this recipe was just the cake and the chocolate ganache, but I decided to add an orange cream buttercream to the mix this time and lemme tell ya, this will rock your socks, friends!

Portfolio: Large Owl Cake

Halt!  Whoooo goes there?  Why this lovely little fella, of course:

My friend Julia works for the Y in Buda as a lifeguard and they recently held a fundraiser.  Julia told the gang at the Y that if they met their goal, she'd get them a cake to celebrate.  Well, they met their goal and then some, so to celebrate she asked me to make an owl cake.  Again.  Last year, I made this cake for one of her friends' birthdays.  Because this one was going to feed a lot more people, I decided to change the design a bit.  And it sure didn't hurt that I managed to snag this baking tin on sale for $.50 after Easter.  Yes, you read that right.  FIFTY CENTS, Y'ALL!  I don't know who was looking out for me, but the Sale Gods sure were nice to me!  And I have to thank whoever it was that lost all of the packaging the pan came with...because otherwise, the exhausted Target staff may not have been willing to let me have it for $.50.

Moving on...

Portfolio: Easter Cookie Pops

Spring came early to Central Texas and with it, so has Easter!

To celebrate the return of spring and Easter, I made some bunny cookie pops for my daughter's class.  I had joked with her daycare provider about making chocolate bunnies, well, I did just that! Sort of, anyway.

I had planned on doing them with chocolate royal icing, but my plans got ruined when I forgot to set the timer on the first batch of cookies.