Those are butterflies, baby!

It's hard to believe, but one of the girls who graduated with my son is having a baby.  Her mom called me up and asked me to make cupcakes.  She asked me for purple and butterflies.  When I initially asked her how many, she said about 30.  That's totally doable.

I scoured through Pinterest for some inspiration and came up with a plan.  I bought my butterfly fondant cutters and all my food coloring.  I stocked up on all my ingredients.  I called Mom again to finalize the numbers.  She quite sheepishly said more people were coming than originally thought....like 78-80!  AAGHHH!  OK, breathe, I can do this.  I said "No problem, piece of cake." On the inside, I was still trembling.

I am a true procrastinator by default.  No matter how I try, I procrastinate.  I drive myself a little batty.  I was determined with this big of an order I was not going to do that.  I cut out all of the butterflies mid week (order was due Saturday) so they would have plenty of time to dry.  I baked all the cupcakes on Friday.  Saturday morning, I frosted all of them.  WOOO, not procrastinating!  I get everything done right away on Saturday morning and I still have lots of time left.  I decide cupcakes are not enough so I make a mini 6-inch cake.  I thought that would be a nice touch and something they could take home after the shower.

I must be crazy.  Why do I do this to myself?  Ugh...here we go.  I make the cake.  While it's baking, I decide the cake will be opposite from the cupcakes.  The cupcakes are frosted with purple and have white butterflies.  That means I have to add food coloring to my leftover fondant to make it purple.  SMH.  Where are the little baking elves to help me?  OK, I colored my remaining fondant purple.  CRAP, I need fondant for the cake.  I make a small batch of fondant to cover the cake.  The cake is cooling, the fondant is resting, the purple butterflies are drying...almost done.  The Heavens were smiling on me because the cake went together beautifully.  By smiling, I think they were just taking pity on me just this once.

I take the cake and cupcakes to the venue with plenty of time to spare, a small miracle again.  I set everything up and take my picture.  Mom is happy, momma-to-be is happy, guests are happy.  I am just too relieved to have any other emotions.

Now that I have had some time to reflect on the way things turned out, I think I'm pretty happy too.

Lion cake

I have a friend, whom I have known for a very long time.  She now happens to live on the same street as me.  She has a total of 4 children.  He baby, the only boy, had a birthday recently.  Mom asked me to do the cake, which of course I said yes.  She asked me if I could do a lion.  Ummm...sure.  I'll try anything once.  She then showed me a picture of this child's favorite stuffed toy, a lion, and asked me to get as close to it as I could.  No pressure!

I asked her the usual questions about flavor, filling, etc.  I was really thankful she did not want a three-dimensional cake.

I used my tried and true, go-to chocolate cake recipe:

2 C flour
2 C sugar
6 Tbsp cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 C warm water
2/3 C oil
2 Tbsp vinegar
2 tsp vanilla (or 1/2 tsp mint) extract

As she was expecting a fairly big crowd, I actually made two cakes, one recipe in a 16 in. round pan.  I used standard buttercream between the layers and to crumb coat the cake.  I then cheated, went to Wal-Mart and got one of their flesh tone pre-made fondant kits.  I only put the fondant on the top of the cake because I needed to make a lion's mane around the outside anyway.  

The only thing I was really disappointed about was that mane.  I tried my "hair/grass" tip.  No go.  I have hot hand syndrome (don't laugh, it's a thing) so after the first few bits, the buttercream was coming out in a big blob.  PLUS...did I mention it was a 16 inch round cake?  That's a LOT of piping with the hair tip.  Soooo...take 2 was a star tip.  I got the entire mane piped on, allowed it to chill again in the fridge.  Then, I took the tines of a fork to make it look like the stuffed animal with a mane that had seen better days.  

Anyway, here is the end result.  Mom loved it, the little boy loved it.  I was less than 100% pleased, but I'm not the one who mattered...

Happy Birthday Mario!

I can't believe, I won't believe it!  My grandson is 3 years old already!

When my daughter called to tell me the party details, I asked her what she wanted for a cake.  She asked my grandson, who screamed MARIO!!!!!!

I did some digging and found a few ideas for cakes.  My daughter had told me there would be several of the neighborhood kids at the party, so I thought cupcakes for little hands might be better.  I decided to do a combination of cupcakes and a smaller cake.

I used my go-to chocolate cake recipe for 1 layer of the cake and half the cupcakes:

2 C flour
2 C sugar
6 Tbsp cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 C warm water
2/3 C oil
2 Tbsp vinegar
2 tsp vanilla (or 1/2 tsp mint) extract

I then went to work trying to find a white cake to match the moisture of the chocolate.  I have tried and tried with little result.  However, this particular cake came close:

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups sifted all purpose flour
• 1½ cups sifted cake flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1½ cups sugar
• ⅔ cup vegetable oil
• ⅓ cup vegetable shortening at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons good quality vanilla extract (if you want pure white use clear vanilla extract)
• 3 large eggs
• 1½ cups buttermilk

Instructions

1. Sift together both flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar. Set aside.
2. Grease and flour 2 nine inch round cake pans and line the bottom with 2 circles of parchment paper.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the vegetable oil, shortening and vanilla. Beat well at high speed with whisk attachment until light and fluffy
4. Beat the eggs in one at a time.
5. Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk.
6. I always add dry ingredients in three divisions and liquid ingredients in 2 divisions. It is very important to begin and end the additions with the dry ingredients. Do not over mix the batter. As soon as it has no lumps in the batter, pour into the two prepared 9 inch cake pans.
7. Bake at 325 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Now I went to work...I made a standard 8-inch, 2-layer cake and a total of 20 cupcakes.  I decorated the cupcakes like the little mushroom people in the video games.  I then made the actual cake to look like a scene from the video game.  Here's the problem!  My grandson's birthday was in late March, and we were still in the middle of very cold weather for the date.  However, my husband insisted that the cake would be destroyed during the trip unless I held it (umm...think I know how to transport cakes, but whatever).  I wanted to leave for the party without incident, so I gave in.  Big mistake!  It was a rare sunny day that day, and the sun beating in the car started to melt the cake!  My green hills were becoming green puddles.  Luckily, I cheated and used a Mario toy for the top of the cake.  I shudder to think of what poor Mario would have looked like after the trip.

When we got to my daughter's house, I put the cake in the fridge for a few minutes and then did my best to reconstruct my scene.  Everyone loved it, but I was still stewing about my poor judgment listening to my husband.  LOL.  I won't make that mistake again!  

At the end of the day, the most important part was the fact that my grandson jumped up and down yelling Mario cake, Mario cake, thank you Mimi! the whole afternoon.  Some day maybe I can learn to look past the imperfections...

Bridal Shower Cupcakes

When my daughter was in high school, she had this little group of girls she would hang around with.  There were 2 of them that were especially close to her.  Now that they are in their mid 20's, they are still very close.  The third amigo is getting married at the end of summer, and the other two were throwing her a bridal shower.  The colors for the wedding are yellow and blue.  Her wedding dress is almost all lace, so I wanted to reflect that in the cupcake theme.

I made both chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, put pale yellow buttercream frosting on them all and then decorated them with a blue flower and some pearl dragees.  The girls had given me an idea for a bridal dress on the top of the cupcake tower, so I made a cake using a Pyrex bowl.  I then covered that with white fondant and pressed my lace mold over the bottom of the dress to mimic the lace in the actual gown.

I heard rave reviews from the bride-to-be, as well as the two girls throwing the party.  I don't think I have ever been more nervous or more proud of something I've created.

Here is the final product...

Minion cake

My grandson recently turned 2 years old, and the term "all boy" could not be more true with him.  My daughter is having a bit of a hard time with this concept because her first child, a girl, is the true definition of princess...not to mention that my daughter was a princess herself when she was little.

My grandson loves trucks, trains and playing in the mud.  What he loves most of all though...are minions.  If you are not familiar with minions, look them up on Google or YouTube.  They are the little yellow guys in the Despicable Me movies.  

The week before I was to have this cake completed, I decided I was not going to procrastinate like usual.  I made a list of things I needed for each layer.  I made a task list for each day during the week.  I was so excited.  I was not going to have to be up until all hours of the night!  About that....nothing got done until the night before the cake was due.  Nothing....well except 1 batch of fondant.  I was up until 3:30 a.m. the night before and then back up at 7:00 a.m.  I had to cut details that I wanted to add.  

All in all, I think my little minion cake looks pretty good.  I wanted purple cotton candy for the purple guy's hair but could not find it.  The purple guy's arms were supposed to be the other direction and holding the candle and sign, but the fell.  I forgot to take the yellow guy's hair with me to the party.  My silver dust filled in all of the stone texture I put into the bottom layer so it just looked poorly covered; but hey, my grandson was happy...and that's just fine with me.

Ruffle cake

So...this is my first attempt at a ruffle cake.

I guess it could be worse.  It is, however, like a Monet painting.  From far away, really pretty.  When you get closer, you can see aallllllllll of the imperfections.  

I have been baking away this week.  My son's high school is hosting an indoor guard/percussion competition, and we are having a bake sale.  So on top of that, because I am a little crazy, dumb, overzealous, I decided I would make this cake for the judges room.  

It seems that karma/reality has a way of knocking you down a few pegs occasionally.  I was feeling so prepared for this cake to just zip together perfectly.  I was organized, I was prepared, I had allowed myself ample time and then BAM!  Karma, Murphy's Law, whatever you want to call it.  My chocolate cake is super moist and it did not like being stacked and crumb coated for some reason.  It kept trying to behave like an earthquake cake.

I went with my go-to chocolate and vanilla cake recipes.  I used a basic buttercream to crumb coat.  Earlier in the week, I made the marshmallow fondant and then the flowers.  Finally finished fighting with the cake at about 2:30 a.m. and here is the final product.

Happy Valentine's Day...You Make My Heart Sing!

So...today is Valentine's Day.  My husband used to work in the floral industry many years ago.  Valentine's Days were spent in the office.  Because of that, we have never really celebrated it.  However, he gave up that profession and has now moved on to bigger and better things, but we still don't celebrate Valentine's Day....until this year.  I woke up this morning to find a card, a necklace and earrings.  ?????  Don't get me wrong, I love them, but it was totally unexpected and left me totally hanging in the wind.  I did not get him anything.

Well...I got to work doing what I do best, and I came up with this cake.  Music is an integral part of our lives.  It's the reason we met, so I wanted to tie that in somewhere.

Presenting.....Happy Valentine's Day - You Make My Heart Sing!

Inside is a chocolate layer and a yellow layer with peanut butter frosting in between the layers.  These are covered with a basic buttercream.  The flowers are made out of marshmallow fondant I made and tinted myself.  The music notes and staff are black candy melts.  The red hearts are chocolate chips melted and tinted with red gel food coloring.  

It took me most of the evening, but it's done, and I'm pretty excited about how it turned out.  

My little monkey.....cake

Even before my grandson was born, his world was covered in monkeys.  Monkeys on the onesies, monkeys on the bibs, stuffed monkeys and monkeys on the crib sheets.  It only seemed fitting that when his first birthday rolled around that his smash cake would have a monkey.  The only problem with that logic is that Mimi (that's me...to the little ones) didn't know how to make a monkey from fondant.

My answer to my 18-year-old son when he asks me about something is "Google it."  Now faced with my own dilemma, I decided to take me own advice.  I sat down and googled "how to make a fondant monkey."  To my surprise, up popped some YouTube videos!  That's all fine and good, I thought to myself, but can I really get mine to look like the one in the video?  Well, here's the finished product.  Aside from the face looking a little like a cow-monkey combination, I thought it looked close.

The day came for my grandson's birthday.  My daughter and son-in-law took their places in front of him and waited for him to dig into the cake.  NOPE!  This boy proceeded to pick the blue and green circles very carefully and delicately off the cake and eat them.  I have never found fondant to be especially appetizing, but hey, to each his own right?  He giggled and giggled about the monkey and tried to eat him too.  My daughter had enough of this, so she put his hand in the cake and tried to show him how to smash it.  He still was having no part of this, so it was decided to just break off a piece of the cake and let him taste that.

Am I the only one who thinks it's hysterical when 2 adults are outsmarted by a 1-year-old?