Happy Birthday

Cupcakes are just the cutest things. Fluffy clouds of icing on top of your own personal cake. No sharing...at least not usually. This was for a little girls birthday. It was a Princess Tiana themed birthday. The entire cake including topper is completely edible. As you can tell the main cake was also a marble cake like the cupcakes.

Fall Weddings

This cake consisted of alternating layers of fresh lemon cake and white velvet cake. What I liked most about this cake is everything is custom down to the scroll work. The cake is also covered with fondant giving it a beautiful finish. I added a touch of tangerine oil to the fondant to liven it up a bit.

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Fairy Cake

I was super happy to make such a unique cake for a teenagers birthday. She and her mom came to me with a simple sketch and I elaborated on it. Over the summer she was into watching the popular cake shows on tv, so her only wish for her birthday was to have a cake just as special for herself. The cake is a buttercake sandwiched between layers of swiss merengue buttercream and fresh raspberry fillings. This cake took me away to a happy place.

strawberry cheesecake in cake cake = Yummy Yum Yum

I just wanted to share my new favorite cake that I was able to perfect this summer. Thank you NY for the cheesecake. This is a strawberry cheesecake with homemade whipped cream. Fresh strawberries are put into the whipped cream and sandwiched in a sponge cake. This is a tall cake with different flavors that go perfectly together. 
Other options that I think would go well with the strawberry cheesecake is a yellow cake instead of sponge and maybe a nice moist white cake. I think the possibilities are endless. I think when the end of the summer arrives I will try a carrot cake with a plain NY cheesecake in the center. I have yet to formally add this to my menu selection but I think many people would enjoy it.  

                                                 

June 2010 DB Challenge

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

This was very cool to make because of all the different personalization's of this dessert. My 5 year old decorated his own Pavlova (Bottom Left), I was so proud of him and impressed.

One warning with this is beware of a chocolate overdose. This is a very very rich chocolaty dessert.


This chocolate explosion consisted of four different recipes.

1. Chocolate Meringue: This is the chocolate Pavlova. Very very easy to make. As you can see in the photos I was able to pipe some nice looking shapes even flowers that held up very well while drying in the oven. They were very crispy melt in your mouth however if you let it sit to long in the mousse cream combo it will soften but still stay yummy.

2. Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse: Very easy to make as well. You just need to make sure that the chocolate you use is of high quality. Because it is not too sweet the chocolate really comes through.

3. Mascarpone Cream: Delicious! This is the one component that I will make again in the future. I actually am using the leftover for ice cream that I will make later tonight :) This component relied on me making #4.

4. Creme Anglaise: So The components here are simple. Whole milk, heavy cream, vanilla, egg yolks and sugar. The one thing about it is you can't leave it while it is on the stove thickening. If it boils it will curdle. I learned this the hard way when my little one was asking me to help him with his video games. I of course got distracted and before you know it I had scrambled creme. I had to do it again luckily I wasn't as easily distracted and it came out wonderfully.

Million Doller Wedding Desperate Housewives Style

I came across Dina Manzo's (from New Jersey Desperate Housewives) million plus dollar Wedding which aired on VH1's My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding. This was the first time I saw her husband Tommy who is Co-Owner of the Brownstone. Of course this may be geared for people that watch housewives to begin with however the entire process which can be viewed here was just fascinating to me since like most people my spending is dictated by a modest income.
It was one of the most over the top weddings. I think flowers alone cost half a million!!!! The food was incredible. They had a lobster station, a bar made of ice and a cigar rolling station just to name a few. Well now you know desperate housewives is my guilty pleasure. I do not watch it religiously however I can't help myself if I catch it on TV.
To my surprise she mentioned how he cheated on her a few times but she still stayed with him....um no comment on that but you know the saying once a ..... do I need to go on.
They also had wedding photos of the other housewives which was cute to see.
I had to share because I was just in awe of every aspect of the wedding.

Enjoy :)

DragonFly Birthday

This cake was a birthday cake of obvious age due to the topper. My inspiration for the color combination and whimsical dragonflies was taken from the invitation. Although the dragonfly on the invite was very different I really liked how mine turned out.
The cake is completely covered in buttercream with a fabric ribbon accenting each tier. The additions including the 60 topper is all made of gumpaste.
This cake is one of my favorites to date due to the combination of colors and cute dragonflies... what can I say I'm a girl :)