I’m so far behind!

Is anyone still reading? I’ve been neglecting my sweet side. Blame my camera and its insatiable appetite for power…

This cake is from forever ago. One of my favorite people asked me to bake a cake for her hubby’s birthday. MXQ is a big fan of all things Apple (the brand, not the fruit, though I don’t know where he stands on that one) and adores the movie WALL-E. Come on, who doesn’t? That movie was fantastic.

I hafta say, I was SUPER intimidated by this assignment. I mean, I would be replicating well-known characters. If I screwed this up, everyone would notice and possibly even make fun of me. I won’t lie, I had a little panic attack until my husband told me to shut it and get with the program (okay, he was much nicer about it, but my version is sassier).

I don’t know that I’ll ever perfect buttercream or that I’ll ever give in to the pretty and cover a whole cake in fondant (yummy is so much more important to me), but I do like decorating with fondant. It’s great stress relief and the end result can be very satisfying.

Anyhoodles, PQ took a quick video of the cake before she left that you can see here: wallecake (or just enjoy the following crummy stills from my craptastic camera).

View from the top

The front..."Directive!"

The iconic Buy-n-Large logo and oh-so-critical fire extinguisher

The lightbulb EVE turned on but WALL-E couldn't and, of course, the Apple logo (while it's not horrible, trust me, I know I'm not good at hand-cutting shapes)

The mothership and one of WALL-E's many knick-knacks

The final accent, WALL-E's ratty lunchbox

I again used imitation vanilla as the glue between separate fondant pieces, but also got to play with painting in food color. It was important for WALL-E and some of his knick-knacks to be dirty, so using food coloring and water was a simple and fun solution to achieve the end result.

I also used edible markers for the first time, which made creating WALL-E’s character details much easier. I had so much fun that I decided to include the Rubik’s cube and used the markers on white fondant to create that as well.

My biggest challenge was hand-cutting a few of the pieces (B, L, lightbulb, fire extinguisher, Apple logo, cube). I can’t draw to save my life, my painting skills are at a 10th grade level at best and my husband tries to prevent my use of knives in any capacity as he fears for my appendages. Therefore, I know a few details are less than stellar, but they all came together nicely in the end.

MXQ and everyone at the party loved the cake (white cake with raspberry filling is oh-so-popular) and he was completely surprised when PQ gave it to him. I’m so glad I could contribute to making his birthday a good one!

Since WALL-E, I’ve been sticking to the cupcake end of things…and cupcakes aren’t quite as photogenic…and my camera needs batteries…and I’m failing as a blogger, so I apologize. 

Until my next kitchen adventure, SassyCakes, out! (Working on a new outro, too…Seacrest is sooo two thousand and late.)

My first tryst with fondant

And no, I don’t say “FonDONT” like Buddy does - I’m not a pretentious asshat. It’s freaking FONdant, people. I don’t care what the actual correct pronounciation is - if it tastes like that, it doesn’t need a hoity-toity accent. Yes, fondant-covered cakes are beautiful. However, fondant is nowhere NEAR as tasty as a well-made buttercream, so I’m really trying my best to perfect my buttercream technique. So far, not so good.

But the good news? If I work with fondant regularly, I won’t have to do an upper body workout anymore…coloring it takes a bit of endurance, really. It’s a great stress reliever, too. The next time I have a bad day, I’m going to go home and pound on some fondant until I feel better.

My lovely friend Schneiderdoodle threw a baby shower for her sister this past weekend and asked me to make the cake. She didn’t have a set theme, so she sent me a link to the crib set her sister wanted and I used that as inspiration. You’ll see those images near the cake in my photos.

I took Friday off work because I wanted some time to play with the fondant and allow the decorations to dry in time for application. My only training with fondant came in the form of watching every Food Network Cake Challenge possible over the years, so I was nervous to say the least. Turns out, this time the buttercream was my nemesis and the fondant was nothing to worry about. The coloring went well and everything was even and bright - just like a baby shower cake should be, especially for a little baby girl.

Baking the white cake was easy and I leveled a cake pretty well (that Wilton leveler can suck it - a serrated knife was far more effective)…but the raspberry filling that I’ve made several times acted up a tiny bit and I didn’t fill the cake as thickly as I would have liked. Once the cake was torted and filled, I guess I lost my mind a little.

Let me back up a bit - before I filled the cake, I made the buttercream…a double batch of the crusting buttercream that I’ve made so many times. This was one of the parts I expected to go smoothly, but alas, I was doomed. I don’t really know what my mistake was here, but the buttercream was chock full of air bubbles - and that’s a nightmare if you want a smoothly iced cake. The air bubbles also changed the consistency of the icing, making it supremely difficult to work with. My technique has really improved, but you can’t tell on this brat of a cake. The only thing I did differently was use water (like the recipe actually calls for) instead of milk, because I wasn’t coloring the icing purple for the first time in recent history.  Bah.

My second mistake? So stupid. I didn’t go around the middle and fill the gap with icing first. I should have, but I was overeager and it slipped my mind.  I think my house needs a dehumidifier as well, because the icing really never crusts as firmly as I would like, so I suspect humidity might be a problem.

Anyhoo, the final product came out really cute, but the buttercream makes me insane. I had thin spots because the icing kept wanting to pull back off the cake, the air bubbles wouldn’t smooth away, etc…ugh.

You can see the ridge where I should have filled...and the inspiration photos.

The front of the cake - I'm a horrible photographer.

The right side, if you're looking at the cake from the front.

The right side/back...again, my photography is horrid. The cake was actually pretty darn level.

The left side of the cake.

The left side/back.

A closer shot of the top. All decorations are fondant except the butterfly trail and the bodies on the two side butterflies.

Schneiderdoodle said everyone loved the cake and it tasted great, so at the end of the day, I’m happy. I just wish the damn buttercream had come out the way it was supposed to. Practice makes perfect, so it looks like my coworkers and friends will be getting lots of cake to eat! Thank you, Red, for letting me make this cake for you!!!

SassyCakes, out!

Who doesn’t love chocolate?

I know, it’s like I died or something. Sorry ’bout that…but if you read my other blog, you know I’ve been in major weight loss mode. Baking + weight loss = not so successful, so I took a hiatus. That, and I’m a little lazy when it comes to uploading photos, so here we are.

This cake was for my grandpa’s birthday…which was in April…so I’m definitely behind. And I’m not posting this one because it’s pretty or anything…just because it looks delicious and I always hope I can get someone to lick the screen. So even if you didn’t, I’m okay if you tell me you did. *wink*

A little background - my grandpa loves chocolate. A lot. So I threw together this chocoloate behemoth - chocolate Bundt cake with chocolate chips, topped with chocolate ganache and white chocolate drizzle. Behold, for it is a thing of messy splendor:

Drizzle, dump, who cares? Just make it chocolatey!

So there’s that. I didn’t eat any (like I said, I’m being good these days), but my family said it was delicious. Always good to hear. No matter what a cake looks like, my personal belief is that taste is always number one.

SassyCakes, out!

Psychics and spring

Can you tell that I really adore alliteration?

Last night, my sister hosted a psychic party and I provided the dessert. I had to think of something that would be appropriate for the theme but not cheesy. I was also limited on color options because I didn’t have time to go buy more candy melts or colored sugar crystals, so I have to say, this isn’t my proudest cupcake moment ever. I decided on a simple white cake with cream cheese frosting. I intended to add chocolate chips to the whole bunch, but forgot and only mixed them in to the second batch…which I made to take to work and they became generic spring-themed cupcakes.

Anyway, I had a vision, but didn’t have the necessary supplies to carry it out. I wanted to do different icing colors to represent the elements earth, wind, fire and water, but I wanted to accent each with sugar crystals of the same color, and I didn’t have the right colors for that (or even enough clear to get me through) and I didn’t have enough candy melts is contrasting colors, either. The candy melts would be used to make astrological signs. My choices for the candy were green, purple, red or yellow and my sugar options were red, pink, purple, green or orange. I could color the icing just about any way I wanted, but as it seemed I was stuck with green in both other categories, I didn’t want to get too crazy with color so I left the icing white. Boring, I know. Like I said, I’m not thrilled with the result. Anyway, I printed out the astrological signs and melted the candy, made the accents and would up with these:

See the really fat one? My ice cream scoop failed me on that one.

Meh. They’re okay. For a last minute project, I won’t complain TOO much, but I’m definitely not happy with them. Apparently, they tasted really good (I didn’t eat one), so we’ll call it a day.

I haven’t quite figured out the “fill 3/4 full” thing yet - new ice cream scoop, little bit of a learning curve - so I always bake more than I need because there will always be a fatality or two. And that’s what my husband is - eater of crumbling cupcake catastrophes. There weren’t TOO many casualties this time, so I had some left over to take to work and give to my sugar-crazed spouse. I decided to cheer things up a bit and have some fun with sprinkles. I mean, come on. What is more entertaining than putting sprinkles on a cupcake? Or on anything, really. Sprinkles are a slight obsession of mine, so I was completely blissed out after going to town on the remnants. Here’s the star of the show:

Love, indeed. Don't you just want to lick the side where it looks like the icing is melting off? Heaven.

Sigh. No matter how many new techniques I learn, I don’t think anything will ever come close to providing the joy I find in shaking sprinkles on top of a casually iced cuppie. Seriously, I wish I could go home right now and make a million cupcakes just so I can cover them in sprinkles.

But I can’t right now. My next project is a delicious five-flavor pound cake for my hubster’s new boss. Nothing says thank you like a freshly baked cake! Sassycakes, out!

Drinking and decorating

These DO NOT go together well. At all. But it’s lots of fun.

My friend and co-worker/carpool buddy Laura wanted me to make a super chocolatey cake for her sister, featuring the girly skull like I made for my sister’s birthday. Requirements: It had to be a chocolate cake, it had to have chocolate cookie crunch filling, the cake had to be purple and it had to have the skull. Easy peasy.

So then I decided that, since my hubster wasn’t going to be home anyway, it might be fun to have a little decorating soiree with Laura. She showed up with margaritas and we definitely had fun. You can tell by how bad my skills got as the night progressed…

I started with the skull because it had to freeze for a while. I have to say, this one came out even better than the first. I haven’t tried any other frozen buttercream transfers, but this time I used a slightly different buttercream recipe and I think that one’s a winner. Woot! Now I just need to design some other stuff and branch out.

Once the skull was in the freezer, I started on the cake. I baked three layers the night before using a recipe I found online for a rich dark chocolate cake. I didn’t get to taste it, but Laura said it was great. And it was incredibly moist…so moist that I was afraid the icing wouldn’t hold! Anyway, I was going to use all three layers, but Laura’s cake holder wasn’t tall enough and she wanted to have a layer for herself, so we decided to make a two-layer cake and she’d ice the last layer for herself.

I’ve never met a girl with a bigger sweet tooth in my life. Or worse icing skills. Granted, we were several margaritas in by this point, but check out this hot mess:

I started with the sides, but she pushed me off and started slapping icing everywhere.

Oh, Lord. The crumbs! The mess! *Sigh*

And here's the final product. That's the rest of the cookie filling, with an extra glob of icing for good measure. See what I mean about the sweet tooth?

Oh, my. It was highly entertaining, but somewhat painful, to watch. But who really cares? She had fun and loved eating the cake, and that’s all that even matters. I think I burned a few calories laughing, too.

But I can’t make fun too much. Between the margaritas, the humidity in my house and the warm kitchen lights, even the Viva method couldn’t save the real cake. I even refrigerated the cake for a while, but the icing stayed too soft. It crusted, but was overly sensitive to pressure. Laura told me to stop worrying about it because her sister would look at it for 3 seconds and then dive in…plus, my inner perfectionist was rather inebriated at this point.

So, ignore the uneven sides and imperfections. Drinking or not, I still love how cute this cake is. The color is so striking (remember, if you’re trying to color buttercream with violet and you don’t want it overly blue, you have to use milk instead of water as the liquid in your icing - so it has to be refrigerated to stay good for a few days). The skull came out pretty darn well, and even though my piping was clearly done under the influence, I still really like it. Oh, her sister plays for the Stunt Devils roller derby team, so that’s what the side decor is all about.

Usually, the dimension of the transfer would bother me, but it made this cake cooler for some reason. I didn't bother edging it or anything.

You can see how humid my house was, although my buttercream always comes out with a sheen. I don't know why.

The transfer isn't perfect yet, but it's getting better. I'm in love with the skull, but I'll move on eventually.

So there you have it, kids. Don’t drink and decorate. Or do, if you’re prepared for the results. SassyCakes, out!

Vampire cookies, anyone?

I originally got this idea from a link my friend sent me. We had a Twilight DVD party and wanted some themed goodies to enjoy, so vampire cookies seemed like the perfect treat. I had some issues with the original recipe (i.e., it dough wasn’t rollable, thus not cuttable, thus not usable for this endeavor), so I ended up modifying a basic cookie-cutter sugar cookie recipe from one of my favorite baking books.

The original recipe called for round cookie cutters and two puncture holes on each cookie, but any good Twilight fan knows that these vamps don’t have fangs. A good fan also knows that, unlike in the movie, Bella actually gets bitten on her hand (not her wrist). My bucket of 101 cookie cutters just so happened to have a hand-shaped cutter, so I thought I was on to something good.

However, due to the raspberry filling (to look like blood - a basic homemade jelly is really easy to make and so yummy), the hands looked way too swollen…as did my sad attempt at making an Edward and Bella. They both looked pregnant, and let’s face it - not even Bella is pregnant in Twilight. I was disappointed. After these batches came out, I decided to stick with circles like the original idea (but with the half-moon shaped bite mark)…and also incorporated some hearts. Hey, it’s a love story, peeps!

I didn’t get any great pictures of the cookies, buy my friend Schneiderdoodle did, so I apologize you don’t get to see more detail, but we’re lucky to have any picture at all.

See the sad little vamps on the side? Crushing defeat.

As you can tell, the dough started to dry out towards the end so the hearts are cracked a bit. That’s why I stuck to the traditional vamp bites on those. Okay, fine, that and I was getting lazy and running out of time. The first batch of dough that didn’t turn out chilled for an hour before I discovered it wasn’t going to work. You can also see that I left some of the hands in the oven a wee bit too long, but they were still delicious. They took forever (each cookie needed two cutouts, and I’m terrible at rolling dough, plus adding the filling, sealing the cookies, poking the holes and then adding more jam to the bite marks post-baking to make them look fresh…) but they were definitely worth it!

And, for the record, I baked up the failed dough last night. For regular sugar cookies, they tasted pretty good. Too bad the consistency wasn’t right for rolling. I think it’s because I used the Kitchen Aid. I mixed the flour into the second batch by hand and that worked perfectly. Another lesson learned!

I’m not sure what’s up next, but probably some spring cupcakes. For now, though, it’s SassyCakes, out!

My sister’s surprise party

This weekend was my big sister’s surprise 30th birthday shindig and I did all the baking for it. She loves cookie cake, so I made her one just how she likes it - soft cookie, fewer chocolate chips than usual (I know, she’s a freak, right?). The only problem was that she doesn’t like a lot of icing, so I was only planning on using a frozen buttercream transfer that I designed (okay, modified from an existing piece of artwork) and not icing a design on the edge. Unfortunately, I think my pan was smaller than what the recipe required and it baked over the sides of my disposable pizza pan. I had to trim off the excess, which left a ragged edge that had to be covered. (I started with a specific pattern, but once I saw the Xs weren’t working out, I changed the plan…I’m not thrilled with the edging, but it was okay.)

This was my first attempt at a frozen buttercream transfer. For my first try, I think it came out pretty well. The icing held air pockets, which is normally bad, but I think it added to the sassy skull I was making. It made it more pirate-like, and when you’re dealing with a skull and crossbones, that’s a good thing. My sister thinks girly skulls are cute (so do I), so I was really excited to do this for her. I also had some issues with the icing not smoothing completely, but that will come with practice. Here is the cake:

I know the edge is bad, but isn't she cute?

I also made strawberry daiquiri cupcakes, complete with liquor and all. The cupcakes had diced rum-soaked strawberries and strawberry puree in them, and the buttercream icing had rum and puree. I found the recipe online, made some very minor adjustments to the cake batter and added some food coloring to the icing. I iced and decorated them to look like little cups of frozen daiquiris. They turned out really well. In fact, the cupcakes themselves are hands-down the most perfect cuppies I’ve ever baked. Unfortunately, party-goers thought they were too pretty to eat and I came home with most of them. Come on, people! I don’t spend 8 hours baking and decorating something for you to not eat it! You’re stealing my joy. Punks.

I even used my cupcake tower to display them. I was so proud.

Close up - sorry about the glare.

It took forever to find the right candy to make the lime wedges.

All together - it was a success!

Now that my Wilton class was canceled, I don’t know what’s next. I’ll probably make another layered cake to practice smoothing buttercream and piping decorations. I also want to start playing with gum paste and fondant figures. I can promise that my next post will feature this blog’s first-ever GOOD picture. My friend Pamela is a talented photographer and decided to take some shots of my pink babies while she was over shooting jewelry for my sister’s website. I can’t wait to show off her talents and see my edible art represented in a good picture.

For now, though, it’s SassyCakes, out!

So.much.chocolate

Be careful what you wish for, people! If I ask what kind of cupcakes you want, and your response is, “Anything chocolate!” - it’s on like Donkey Kong. I wanted to experiment a little bit, so I made a rich chocolate cupcake and some yummy chocolate frosting, and then got a little crazy.

You know the chocolate crunch layer in an ice cream cake? Yeah, the best part of an ice cream cake? I’ve been wanting to use it as a filling in a regular cake, but thought it might work on cupcakes as well. Literally, on cupcakes. So I whipped up a batch of chocolate crunch (which resulted in a bowl of nothing but Oreo cream filling that my husband snacked on) and started decorating.

And did I mention that I made white chocolate designs for the top? Like I said, so.much.chocolate.

The end result? Chocolate heaven:

A chocoholic's dream come true

View from the top

Double dog dare you not to eat it!

For the birthday girl

 Next on my list is a cookie cake with a frozen buttercream transfer and a double batch of strawberry daiquiri cuppies for my sister’s surprise party this Saturday. I have recipes modified and ready to go, so I hope everything is a success!

SassyCakes, out!

Cookies ‘n cream cuppies

Note to self: go buy another Wilton cupcake pan. That other one sucks and totally ruined 9 potentially perfect cuppies.

I’m learning that I need to trust my instincts more often. I thought it was extremely odd that the recipe asked me to cream the butter with milk. Creaming, by general definition, is beating together butter (or shortening) with sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Now, I’ve never gone to pastry school or anything, but it struck me as very odd that I would be asked to cream butter with milk, and then, several steps later, STIR in the sugar. But the recipe said to…so I tried…and then got irritated, threw out the lumpy butter/milk mixture and started over. I creamed the butter and sugar together, added the vanilla and then decided whoever wrote this recipe was on crack.

Flour is the protein of a recipe, and if you overbeat the protein, your end product will be dense and disappointing. I have learned, from the one baking class I took, that you should always add your flour last and only mix until fully integrated. So why on earth did the recipe ask me to add the flour, beat for 2 minutes, then add egg whites (which you usually beat separately and then fold in) and beat for two more minutes????

I said screw it. I added the whites next, beat them with the sugar and butter for two minutes, and then added my flour mixture. Since this is the first time I’ve ever make cookies ‘n cream cupcakes, I don’t have anything to compare the end result to, but I’d say my way came out pretty tasty. I wasn’t a huge fan of the icing recipe I used, but all in all, I’m satisfied with the result. Oh, and another note to self: next time you pipe the icing on the cuppies, double the icing recipe. I only got to ice three cuppies my way before having to just slather a little on the top to get them all iced with what I had.

Here’s the end result:

Oreos + cupcake + icing = happy birthday!

I hope the birthday girl enjoys her treat! Isn’t that cupcake box adorable? I just love it - I hope she loves it, too. Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Oh, and I know my photography skills suck. Leave me alone. It’s hard enough learning to ignore recipes!

SassyCakes, out!

The trouble with German chocolate cake

I’m thinking it was more the recipe than anything, but seriously, this cake was traumatizing. It’s a German chocolate cake, right? So why didn’t I need to use…German chocolate????? Not an ounce. After researching the origins of the cake on Wikipedia, I’m even more baffled - the name of the cake CAME FROM the name of the Baker’s brand chocolate (which used to be German’s chocolate but has since dropped the possessive).

Anyway, that alone should have been sign enough for me to find a new recipe. Then, I notice that the “frosting” is definitely not a frosting - it’s a ganache plus corn syrup. Sure, the corn syrup was supposed to be a thickening agent, but a whole lot of thickening needs to happen to take ganache to icing, much less frosting. But, the recipe image showed successful piping, so I figured it had to be right. Should have gone with my gut. It was NOT right. Yummy, yes. Attractive, not so much.

Add to that the fact that I’ve never made a custard, and never toasted coconut or pecans before, and you’ve got one unsure baker on your hands. In the end, however, the cake was super tasty and my mom was thrilled with it. She even took it to work today and her coworkers loved it, too.

No making fun of me! Here are the pictures:

See where I dropped some chocolate?

The chocolate was so thin, I couldn't use my edger

The custard filling turned out pretty well

The rum syrup on each layer, under the filling, made it so moist

Ultimately, I’m really happy I experimented with such a complex recipe (cake, filling, syrup and *ahem* “frosting”). New techniques are always good to learn, and now I know what to look for in the next German chocolate cake recipe I find - and how to change it to make it even better. I need an icing, not a ganache. Maybe I could just chill the ganache and it would become thick enough for this. Or add more corn syrup? Definitely going to use German chocolate next time, and add more chocolate chunks to decorate the top - maybe even maraschino cherries. Yep, I’ve got a game plan. But next on the list isn’t GCC Take 2…it’s cookies ‘n cream cupcakes!

I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself when I bake something that’s not for me or my friends! Must.eat.cake.

SassyCakes, out! (BTW - this is me making fun of Ryan Seacrest. I hate that guy.)