Archive for March, 2009
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!