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!