Cakes & Cooking » cakes

A cupcake tower

cait — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:16:23 +0000

I made a cupcake tower recently for a wedding reception after church. Cupcakes seem to be all the rage lately!

A Wedding Cake

cait — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:26:14 +0000

I made a wedding cake for some people in church recently. It’s not very elaborate, but the bride and groom didn’t have a lot of specific preferences, so basic was the way to go. There’s a matching sheet cake also, making the total serving size 200 ppl.

Lemon Cake

cait — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:15:00 +0000

Nothing says summer like a fresh lemon cake! Super easy and super lemony, make a regular white cake from recipe or mix, but replace all the water with freshly squeezed lemon juice, and then fold into the batter the zest of 3 lemons. For lemon buttercream icing, beat as normal and replace the milk with lemon juice, and a drop of yellow food coloring if it’s not quite yellow enough from the butter. Garnish with candied lemon slices. Voila! This is can be to the table in an hour or less if you use thin 6 inch cakes (3 layers) that cool quickly.

A Chocolate Cake

cait — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:25:00 +0000

With fondant roses. Simple but pretty.

Stacked Cake

cait — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:11:05 +0000

This buttercream on white cake feeds approx 150. Roses are fondant.

Hobby Night Cakes

cait — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 01:59:00 +0000

Every year our church has a hobby night – where people can set up tables and showcase their hobbies. So I thought this year to have a table for cake! Since it is a hobby and all. I had a few different kinds of cakes brought in and gave them away to people who asked, and some mini cakes for children to try their hand at decorating. The 3 tiered stack was a little heavy, but still looked ok.

Baby Cake

cait — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 02:26:00 +0000

A congratulatory cake I made for a friend and their baby (June). The cake is almond with buttercream, and the baby, blanket, and blocks are fondant.

Fondant is tricky in the summer because it tends to get sticky the second day – no matter where it’s kept. Refridgerated fondant will just become cold and sticky, fondant left out will be hot, sticky, and melty. The best thing to do is keep it cool after fashioning whatever it is, and then dust with a gentle brush of powdered sugar the next day if it is looking shiny or sticky. Fondant is an awful lot of work for something that is so ornamental and almost no one eats!

4th of July Cupcakes

cait — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 03:02:00 +0000

These cupcakes were for a picnic on the (rainy) 4th of July this year. But even if we had to sit inside, the cupcakes were delicious! All the fruit is local and fresh, from a farmers market.

Strawberries are juicy and they will leak if you slice them and put them directly on the cake – but if you slice them, fan them out, and then pat and press thoroughly with a paper towel – they will drip signifigantly less.

When baking cupcakes I am a big proponent of omitting traditional cupcake wrappers – they do not allow the cake to form a pleasing outside crust. Cupcake wrappers may be great for containing the cake and making easy transport, but they yield a mushy, gummy edge when unwrapped, which even for the best cake recipe does not do any favors. I find it much more pleasing to grease the cupcake tins thoroughly and put the batter in directly. Give it a try and I think you’ll find the taste and texture well worth the extra washing and greasing of pans.

BumbleBee Birthday Cake

cait — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 02:46:00 +0000

A birthday cake I made for a coworker, in keeping with this summers bee theme.

Kayak Cake

cait — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 23:53:00 +0000

I made this cake for a neighbor as thanks for the use of their kayak over memorial day weekend. It’s a chocolate cake with fudge buttercream icing, and kayaks molded out of marshmallow fondant. They enjoyed it! And that’s what cake is all about.