Wilton Fondant and Gumpaste Final Cake

Last night was supposed to be my final Wilton Fondant and Gumpaste class.  However, my son got his 12 months shots earlier in the day, and was running a fever.  He was acting pretty pitiful, and I just couldn't leave him.  So, I did the cake at home!  The cake is a 6 inch, 2 layer White Velvet cake, iced in white chocolate buttercream and covered in homemade buttercream fondant.  The bow on top is gumpaste and the little dots are white chocolate buttercream.

I have finally perfected my White Velvet cake recipe.  It started as a recipe I found on cakecentral.com - the first bake sunk in the middle and made a hard crust on the outside, but the flavor was so outstanding that I had to fix it!  So, finally, here is the recipe:

White Velvet Cake:
1 box Classic White Cake mix (I like Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines)
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
2 1oz. boxes of white chocolate pudding mix
2 tbsp. oil
1/2 cup White Chocolate Mocha coffee creamer (International Delight brand)
3/4 cup water
4 egg whites
1 tsp clear vanilla (you can use pure vanilla, but it won't be a stark white cake)

Instructions:
Sift together dry ingredients.  Mix in wet ingredients until combined, continue to beat on low speed for 2 minutes.  Bake at 325 degrees until toothpick comes out clean - approximately 30 minutes.

White Chocolate Buttercream:
1 cup butter
1 cup Crisco vegetable shortening
2 lbs powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp meringue powder
1 tsp clear vanilla flavor
1/2 tsp clear almond extract
1/2 tsp clear butter flavor
2-4 tbsp whipping cream
2-4 tbsp White Chocolate Mocha coffee creamer (International Delight brand)

Instructions:
Cream together butter, shortening and all liquids until smooth and fluffy (start with the minimum of creamer and whipping cream, add more along the way to achieve the consistency you desire).  Add in sifted powdered sugar and continue beating until it all comes together.  Do not over beat, or you will incorporate too much air.

There are still a few things I would like to change about the buttercream fondant.  As it is right now, it is delicious and great once rolled out, but requires a little to much microwave action to get it pliable.  I will post the recipe once I feel it is 'perfect'. 



Close up of gumpaste bow

 

Close up of Buttercream beading

I am really happy with how this cake turned out - definitely one of my favorites.  Happy Baking!

Wilton Gum Paste and Fondant Class

This month, I have been taking the Wilton Gum Paste and Fondant Class.  We don't bake much, except for the final cake, but we make flowers and bows every week.  Everything is made from a half and half mix of fondant and gum paste, and most is made in stages to allow for proper drying. I just finished my second class in the course, and I wanted to share some of my work!


Two Calla Lilies, Carnation, and medium sized Rose

 

Close up of Rose with calyx and leaves



Gum Paste Bow

Everything from this course so far!



We are learning more flowers next week, and the following week we will produce our first complete cake decorated with fondant and gum paste - I'm super excited!

Happy Baking!

Wilton Flowers and Cake Design Final Cake

Tonight was my last class for the Wilton Flowers and Cake Design course.  We learned the basket weave and got to use our flowers on a cake.  Since my birthday was yesterday, this is my "Day Late Birthday Cake" for myself, so, naturally, it was chocolate!  Due to lack of time, I used a cake mix (gasp!) that I doctored up, and it turned out wonderfully. 



Devils Food doctored cake mix with chocolate buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream frosting



Close up of royal icing roses (made during the Greys Anatomy premiere last week!)



View from the top - I LOVE the reverse shell border!



Our class manual told us to bring 3 cups of frosting, needless to say, it wasn't enough - only half my cake got the basket weave!  My teacher was really surprised that the  manual thought 3 cups would be enough, I guess now we know! You can see where I had the rest of the cake marked for the basket weave.

 Doctored Chocolate Cake Mix Cake:
1 package of Devils Food cake mix
1 package of Dream Whip
1 tablespoon of Meringue Powder
1 small (individual serving size) container of applesauce
1 cup of water
4 eggs
Method:
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.  Beat on medium low speed for 5 minutes and pour into your prepared pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. This recipe filled my 8x3 round pan very nicely, but would be plenty for two 8x2 pans, as well. 
**After much experimentation, I have learned that greasing and flouring your pan and lining the bottom with parchment paper makes for the PERFECT cake release!

This doctored cake mix saved me SO much time - I baked, cooled (in the freezer), made frosting, and lightly iced this cake in just 2 hours. Next Monday, I start the Fondant and Gumpaste course - I am so excited!

Happy Baking!

Wilton Flowers and Cake Design Class #1

Tonight was my first class in Flowers and Cake Design!  We learned all about gumpaste, fondant, and how to mix them together to form flowers.  The 'button flower' is a complete pain to mold, but very cute when finished.  It would be perfect for a picnic basket cake.  The pansy is a much more laid back flower to make, even though it looks more complex.  Here are some examples (I was not as careful as I should have been in transporting these home, so I apologize for the 'mushed' look):

button flowers and pansies

purple button flower

pansy

In the spirit of good news, I have my first real cake order for this weekend. WOO!  I will be making a Barbie cake.  Wish me luck and watch for a post with the finished cake on Saturday!

Happy Baking!

Wilton Class #4 - Final Cake!

Tonight was my last class of the Wilton Decorating Basics Course, and I learned how to write on cakes and the Ribbon Rose (my favorite!).  The writing was a lot easier than I expected, but the roses took some practice and getting used to.  At the request of my husband, I did a very brightly colored cake with lots of orange:

Two layer marble cake with buttercream icing, decorated with a 'bouquet' of
 ribbon roses and a shell border.

For the cake, I wanted something different, so I did Martha Stewart's Marble Cake.  It has a hint of coffee in the chocolate that I love!  Marble cake feels fancy to me (it is what I had at my wedding), but it was surprisingly easy to make. 

Martha Stewart's Marble Cake:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), plus more for dusting
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk, room temperature
1/3 cup heavy cream, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup best-quality unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder, for mocha layers
* This recipe makes 3 1/2 cups of batter.  I doubled it and had enough for two 8 inch round pans + 12 cupcakes.

Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Combine milk and cream in a small bowl; set aside. Cream butter and sugar on medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time; mix well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk mixture and beginning and ending with flour. Combine cocoa and the boiling water in a medium bowl; add espresso powder. Stir 1 cup cake batter into chocolate mixture. Fill prepared pans with spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter to form a checkerboard pattern. Run the tip of a paring knife or a wooden skewer through batter in a figure-eight motion to make swirls. Bake at 350 degrees until tops are golden - about 30 minutes. Let cakes cool completely in pans on wire racks.

The inside of the marble cake.

 The next Wilton course starts in September, and I will be making some much more complicated flowers - I absolutely can not wait!  Next up this week - 2 birthday cakes and my first 'Daring Bakers' challenge.
 
Happy Baking!

Florida State University Cupcakes!

This weekend marks a very bittersweet occasion for my family - my youngest sister is leaving for college ... talk about feeling old! She is going to FSU, which, thankfully, is only 2 hours from me; not too far for lots of visits =)  I'm super duper proud of her though, and I know she will do just great!  Anyway, I am going to Alabama this weekend to visit family, so I wanted to send her to school with something from me, since I won't be able to help her move in.  Meeting new roomies can be stressful, so what better way to break the ice than delicious cupcakes with a little school spirit, and they just had to be chocolate because chocolate makes everything more fun!

To create these cupcakes, I used gold foil cupcake papers and an adaption of the classic Martha Stewart One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.  I topped the cupcakes with maroon-colored buttercream icing, sparkly gold sprinkles, and a cute little FSU logo.  I think I achieved the 'garnet and gold' look I was going for.

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcake Recipe (adapted from Martha Stewart):
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 + 1/8 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 + 1/8 tsp. baking powder
1/2 + 1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. instant espresso powder
1 tsp. meringue powder
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
1/2 + 1/8 cup milk
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp. unsweetened applesauce
1/2 + 1/8 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 + 1/8 cup warm water

The best part about this recipe is that it is 'one-bowl'!  Simply sift together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, coffee, and meringue powder.  Add the eggs, milk, applesauce, vanilla, and warm water to the bowl, and beat on low with an electric mixer until the ingredients are just blended (about 2 minutes).  The batter will be very runny and you should see little fizzy bubbles on top.  Fill your prepared baking cups about 2/3 full and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes.  TIP: When baking in foil cupcake papers, make sure you spray everything very well with nonstick spray or the liners will stick and the cupcake tops will be ruined!

The cakes baked up perfctly - firm enough to hold the icing, yet they had a light and fluffy texture

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (from Wilton, medium consistency):
1 cup Crisco vegetable shortening
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla flavoring
1/2 tsp. butter flavoring
1 tsp. vanilla latte coffee creamer
9 tsp. milk or water
1 tbsp. meringue powder
1 lb. powdered sugar

This buttercream recipe uses Crisco because this summer heat tends to melt butter.  The Crisco holds up  much better, and the butter flavoring gives the yummy taste we are all looking for! To make the frosting,  cream together the shortening, flavorings, coffee creamer, and milk with an electric mixer.  Add the meringue powder and powdered sugar and beat until creamy.  I used one small container of  Wilton Christmas Red and 1/2 container of Wilton Burgundy icing colors to create the garnet color. To make the swirl, fill a disposable bag with icing and fit it with the 1M star tip.  Start at the edge of the cupcake and work around in a circle, applying firm pressure.  For these cupcakes, I left a little room around the edge so I could press in the sprinkles.

For the toppers, I cut out little FSU logos and taped them to toothpicks - super easy!

I just can't wait for my sister to taste and share these cakes - GO SEMINOLES! And, of course, Happy Baking!

Wilton Class #3 - Flowers!

Last night was my third Wilton decorating class, and we learned a few different kinds of flowers as well as how to properly ice a cupcake.  I used my basic vanilla butter cake recipe; while preparing the batter, a certain little boy distracted me and I put a tablespoon of baking power in the batter instead of teaspoon, SO these cupcakes were extra fluffy =) It's good to know that a little extra baking power doesn't effect the taste! My favorite flowers are the drop flowers, but the shaggy mums are really fun to make.  I think the most useful thing I learned is the proper 'swirl' for the top of the cupcake - so pretty! Here are a few pictures!

Pom Pom Flower and Shaggy Mum

The petal flower my teacher showed me

Drop Flowers

Shaggy Mum and Pom Pom Flower

All the cupcakes sittin' pretty on the cake stand.  They made it home in one piece!

Next week we make our final cake with writing!  We also learn the Ribbon Rose, which is my favorite (in pictures, anyway).  Next up in the baking order is a special surprise for a very special someone - watch for the blog tomorrow or Thursday.  Happy Baking!

Wilton Decorating Basics Class #1 ... and a Mad Men Inspired Tiramisu

Tonight was my very first Wilton decorating class!  I learned so much about torting and icing a cake - ya know, those things you thought you knew, but, really, you didn't?  These classes are definitely going to be a great learning experience.  We learned how to fill icing bags the easy way and how to pipe stars.  I will post pictures of our projects as I do them in class.  Tonight we mostly watched and learned, and, after all the watching, I decided I must have a Wilton Trim N Turn Plus Cake Turntable and 10" Cake Leveler - how have I ever done anything without these tools!

The instruction sheet for this week's class called for 6 sugar cookies to decorate in class.  So, after much internal debate about whether or not to buy said cookies at Publix, I decided to make them.  I have always had a hard time making "cookie cutter cookies"; my cookies always look a bit more "rustic" ;-)  So, today, I searched the web high and low and finally found an amazing recipe that I altered just a bit by adding more sugar and vanilla.  You can find the recipe here.  Instead of rolling out these cookies, I formed them into perfectly round balls, rolled the balls in sugar, and then smashed them with my palms onto prepared wax paper - this is A LOT easier than a rolling pin (and a lot cleaner), and your cookies turn out thick, fluffy, and sparkly! I'll take delicious over perfectly flat any ole' day! Here are some pictures I took after piping stars onto my cookies in class (we ran out of time and only had 15 minutes, so we did not get to color the icing):

As most of you know, AMC's Mad Men shows on Sunday nights.  In honor of this glorious show, my husband and I always make a special dinner and have a nice wine or cocktail while watching.  Yesterday, we decided to go Italian (surprise!) and make a copycat of Macaroni Grill's Penne Rustica (recipe here), and what goes better with Penne Rustica than, you guessed it, tiramisu!  Since the new rule in my home is "no more store bought desserts", of course, I had to attempt to make the said tiramisu.  In my normal fashion, I scoured the Internet and found a basic recipe here.  I sent my sweet husband after the ingredients, and, wouldn't ya know it, Publix did not have any marscapone cheese .... NONE!  So, I subbed in 8oz. of cream cheese, 1/4 cup sour cream, and 2 tbsp whipping cream, and it worked beautifully.  I must admit that it was quite nice to not have to bake anything - I just chilled it in the fridge until it set up!  It is not the prettiest tiramisu I've ever seen, but it sure did taste great =)  Here are some pictures:

Next up ... Wilton class #2 and a picture transfer cake!

I just love getting things in the mail!

My Wilton Decorating Basics Student Kit came in the mail along with my Wilton Decorating Basics Lesson Plan! Amazon told me it wouldn't be here until the 4th, so I was very worried about it being here on time, and I was very pleasantly surprised when it got here early! Looking through the booklet and inspecting all the various gadgets is a lot of fun, and I just can not wait for my first class tomorrow.  I have to make plain butter or sugar cookies tonight for the class - I will post pictures once they are decorated. 

I have decided that I am never, ever making brownies from a box again.  Tuesday night, while hanging out with my best friend and my husband, we had a mega chocolate craving.  I didn't have a box of brownies, so I decided to experiment and make them from scratch.  Oh my goodness, they were unlike any box brownies I have ever had ... so rich and decadent!  The recipe was pretty easy, too; you can find it here.  I only modified it by adding about 1oz. more chocolate (of course) and a 1/8 tsp. more vanilla and coffee.  There are no pictures of these brownies, well, because the cookie-cutter idea failed =(  I think next time I will bake them up cupcake-style and ice them that way. 

So, I'm going to need to start baking things for other people to take away from my house.  All this baking is leaving a lot of delicious things sitting on my counters for me to eat!  I think I have probably gained 5 lbs - all in the name of good baking!

Here is a funny picture of Paulie eating his daddy's delicious spaghetti.  Sometimes, savory meals are just as yummy as baked treats! Enjoy!

Strawberry Deliciousness!

For the first time since starting this blog (or avidly baking), I am proud of the way something I made looks! At the request of my bestest friend, I made fresh strawberry cupcakes.  I used this recipe and added 1/4 cup more strawberry puree to the batter.  They turned out wonderfully!  I loved the bits of strawberry in the frosting and how moist and light the cakes turned out.  I played with some Wilton rolled fondant and cut cute little flowers for the tops =) This baking adventure is definitely my favorite so far.  Here are the results:

Practice, Practice, Practice

Lesson learned #1: decorating baked goods is difficult and should not be attempted in haste or before completing decorating classes.  I was so excited to get started that I jumped the gun and tried to make things pretty before I was prepared or ready.  The attempts were lots of fun and tasted delicious, and I like to think that that is the most important thing, right?

I made a red velvet cake for my Mom's birthday.  I used this recipe by Wilton and a basic cream cheese icing.  I researched a lot on trimming and icing the cake correctly, and that part went beautifully (I was actually very proud!).  However, the decorating part was not so perfect, and not what I wanted it to be at all.  Practicing with this cake made me very very excited for my class to start next week! Here are the results:

Happy Birthday To My Joshua

Yesterday, I made a carrot cake for my husband's 25th birthday. Carrot cake is his favorite, so I wanted to try something new (I have made many carrot cakes in my life, and have never really been impressed with one). I decided to use Wilton's carrot cake with white chocolate cream cheese icing recipe, only I subbed in one cup of wheat flour for one of the plain and one cup brown sugar for one of the plain - it was scrumptious and will definitely replace my old recipe!



I love that the carrot is actually visible in the cake! It was super moist and had just the right amount of spice. The icing was a little rich for my taste, I will probably lighten it up next time as well as use a firmer icing so that the cake looks more professional. All in all, it was a big hit, and definitely the best carrot cake I have ever made!

Next up ... Red Velvet Cake and Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes!