The Cute Little Cake that Could!

After all the Christmas mayhem, I took a much needed hiatus from baking!  This is the first cake of the year, and who better to make a cake for than my sweet little sister?!  

This is a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, covered in fondant.  The flowers are gumpaste and fondant. Both recipes can be found in an earlier post, here.

 Boy does this cake have a story! I found out my sister was coming home and was 100% sure I had everything I needed to make her a Red Velvet cake.  Welp, I only had 1/2 cup of white sugar in my whole house! This never, ever, happens to me  (I blame the new WeightWatchers Diet).  On a whim, I decided I would use light brown sugar for the rest of what I needed (it has yet to be tasted, so I'll report back).  I had a wonderful time mixing the batter in my new Kitchenaid Pro600 (thanks mom and dad!), and I got the cakes in the oven.  While they were baking, I mixed up some cream cheese buttercream, and it looked/tasted great.  The cakes came out, and when I turned them out of the pans, parts of the bottoms stuck! UGH! I blame the brown sugar. I pop them in the freezer to speed cool and come back in about 30 minutes.  The cakes are fine, but my cream cheese buttercream has gone gloppy (I don't have a better word).  I try to frost the cake, but it is just not working out with this gloppy, yet delicious, mess of frosting.  I get very discouraged and almost give up, then I decide to just cover the sucker in some fondant I had - VOILA! Now, there are some problems at the bottom because the gloppy frosting wanted to come out (guess it didn't like being hidden, ha!), but I think it turned out just fine ... I will report back when the taste test comes in!

I made these flowers out of fondant and gumpaste a couple weeks ago, and they are my favorite.  I love them. 

Sweet For Sirten is on WeightWatchers! So, stay tuned for some lightened up cake and frosting recipes - this should be fun! 

Happy Baking! 

More Christmas Cakes!

These are just a few more of the Christmas cakes I did this week:

Christmas Candle Cake - White Velvet cake frosted in White Chocolate Buttercream.  White Chocolate 'wax' and silk Poinsettias.  This is one of my favorite cakes so far! 

Christmas Angel Cake.  Chocolate Cake frosted and decorated in White Chocolate Buttercream.  Angel is gumpaste.

Close up of the gumpaste angel - this is my first gumpaste figure ever, and I must same that I am pretty proud of him! 

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and Happy Baking!

Christmas Tree Cake

This weekend, I made a Christmas tree cake for my sister and her friends - they are having an end of semester Christmas party at FSU.  We did a Christmas tree with personalized gumpaste ornaments for each girl and 'garnet and gold' non-edible decorations in honor of FSU!

White Velvet Cake filled and iced in White Chocolate Buttercream (recipes found in earlier posts).  The cakes were one 9", one 8", one 6", one bowl cake, and a cupcake all stacked and carved into a tree shape. 

Close up of "Tuna" the beta fish as an ornament.  He is all gumpaste.

Close up of the "Lady Gaga Lightning Bolt".  It is all gumpaste. 

In addition to Tuna and the Lightning Bolt, there were black boots, a 'No Meat' sign, and a box of mac-n-cheese.  I didn't get these ornaments in the pictures.  This cake was super fun to make and I hope they all enjoy it!

Happy Baking!

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 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!