Delayed conclusion

Yeah I know I sort of flaked on posting up the final project, sue me! Well, the wedding has come and gone, as has my wedding cake. I am both happy and sad about this. Happy because that cake quickly became the bane of my existence, sad because I enjoyed the practice. So much went wrong, including running out of proper frosting and being reduced to using that jar frosting from Stater Bros, and also some disgusting tasting candy coated chocolates that we were using as toppers on some of the cupcakes. (bleh!)

There was also problems with the stand, as in a gross misunderstanding and me resorting to have one built just days before the wedding. It was by far not a perfect stand, but Mark did his best and I think we worked it out. I wasn't totally pleased with the outcome, but eh, what can I do? Everyone seemed to enjoy it so I suppose thats all that mattered. We recorded the entire three day process of putting this thing together that might eventually find its way here once it's properly edited. Plenty of HIlarity on that video, just sayin...

Alright so, without further ado, here is the finished product, enjoy...

I know these pictures are attrocious, but I only had my cellphone, so for now, they are all I've got. Check back for some better pics in the near future.

I'm happy I did this, I learned some valuable lessons about cake decorating and baking that I will certainly find useful in the future. Now that the wedding is over I'm not sure what to do with this space, perhaps just update when I have something note-worthy to show off.

Until then-

xO

The Mgmt

Easter Edition!

Y'all Bitches!

Haha, sorry, I was just watching the new William Sledd video, forgive me. Annnnyways, I just wanted to post pictures of the cute little cupcakes I made for Easter yesterday. They were carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I realize that some of my 'carrots' look kind of wierd, I wasn't sure how to make them and did my best. Vyolet said they looked like chili peppers. :(

St. Patrick's day Wedding cake

So I'm (finally) back to update the end result of the St. Patrick's day wedding cake. The wedding was beautiful and fun! The cake was amazing! I was So pleased with the way it turned out, and I think everyone else was too. It was an Irish Chocolate Mint cake and it everyone said it was really really good. The entire thing got eaten! As always, I have pictures..

The filling was a creme de menthe, the cake was devils food, and the glaze was a hardened semi-sweet chocolate. The best description for this cake is 'decadent.' For decoration I used mini shamrocks that I cascaded down oposing corners in a 'waterfall' type look. I aso dusted the remaining two corners with green cake dust to give it a 'watery' appearance. I also used gold coins to keep with the theme and the larger shamrocks I made by rolling out spearmint jelly leaves and cutting out with an extra small heart shape cutter and rolling the stems by hand. The bride AND the groom were pleased with the end result, and I'm quite proud. ..And you thought I couldn't do it...

Next up, THE wedding (cup)cake!

Stay tuned!!

Not too shabby

So both of my baking endeavors turned out pretty well today, I am pleased. As per usual, I have documented with pictures for your viewing pleasure. The first thing I made was the Irish chocolate mint cake, which actually had more of a 'brownie' consistency, but it was really friggin good. See below..

The green filling was so perfect I nearly made myself sick spooning down the leftovers. The top was melted semi-sweet chips and margarine, which hardened into a rather heavenly glaze. This cake is like eating one of those Andes mints, in...cake form. I'm taking it to work with me tommorrow so my boss can test it. If she approves I will probably make the actual wedding cake with more of a 'cake' type base instead of the brownie, unless she likes it as is.

The second was the cupcakes with Vyolet. These are actually vegan cookies and cream cupcakes and they also turned out fantastic.

Let me just put it out there that that frosting is other-worldly. Seriously, it's THAT good. The actual cupcakes are a basic chocolate with oreo chunks in them and the frosting is a buttercream with finely crushed oreos mixed in. Aren't they great?

Maybe these people that keep asking me to bake aren't so crazy after all...

xJ

What kind of Ass F*ckery is this?

As odd as this might sound to others as it does to me, I'm making another cake. I know, right? In a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-moment my boss has decided to get married on St. Patrick's day. Which is, yep, about two short weeks away. I offered to make the cake, to which she at first declined, with reason. I doubt I would trust me to make a cake worthy of a wedding either. Oh, wait...

So anyways, after realization started to sink in that maybe my offer was better than say, a box of ding-dongs or green cupcakes from the grocery store bakery she agreed. So here I am, on my day off, playing with baking things. Actually, today is quite the baking day, me and Vyolet will be making cookies & cream vegan cupcakes later on this afternoon as well. Currently I am keeping my couch warm while the first part of my 'tester' St. Patty's cake cooks. My boss said she wanted a chocolate mint cake, a chocolate mint cake I shall make. Can I just say that the green mint filling that goes in-between the cake and the frosting is highly addicting. I'm seriously having a hard time not bringing it out here to the living room with me. I shall post again later with pics of this St. Patty's tester cake and possibly the vegan cupcakes just for fun.

Stay tuned..

The next attempt..

So I had another go at a cake today, this time sans the fondant. It's far from perfect and I admittedly got a little lazy before I finished, but I think I'm improving. See for yourself...

I think the color of the frosting is definately better this time, and I kind of like the little flowers. I'm still trying to decide what I'll do for the "actual" cake/cupcakes as far as design goes, but what a better way to find out! I still have hope for making use of that fondant though, perhaps using it as decoration in the form of flowers or something.

Stay tuned....

Operation cake-Round 2

So today I decided to get back on that metaphorical horse and once again attempt to tackle..."The Cake." I took my time with the cake. Sweet talked the cake. Mixed the cake slowly, yet with purpose. Massaged the cake. Complimented the cake. I had serious cake 'game,' if I do say so myself. I documented my time spent with my new BFF the cake, which you can share with me below....

So here she is, all mixed and ready to go. Isn't she pretty?

Here she is going into the oven. I told her this super exclusive 'sauna treatment' was good for her pores..

No, your not drunk, she is in two pieces. Double the pleasure, baby.

Here she is with her filling(Not the ACTUAL filling we will use, just some stuff I had lying about) and ready to be put back together.

This is after I put the fondant on. I know its far from perfect but I was pretty pleased with myself for never having used this stuff before.


Another angle. I thought it might look cool to be able to see the shape of the top, I dunno, all I can see are those wrinkles in the fondant. Hmm.
So this is the cake after David took his piece. LOL. I think he liked it, he was making 'mm' noises, thats always a good sign.

I didn't do any decorating on this cake, I was just happy it didn't shit in my oven. After this session we kind of collectively decided as a group that eating fondant is kind of weird and we should just ice the cake. It's like eating playdoh, consistency-wise. So my next cake I shall ice and decorate, stay tuned for that. I have to say though, that I very much like the idea of slicing the top of the cakes off though to make them flat, I always wondered how they got them to look like that....

My first attempt..

Alright, so I actually started my very first of what I'm sure will be many 'practice sessions.' Up until today I thought I was familiar with the ins and outs of cake baking, yeah, I was wrong. DEAD wrong. So I started out this morning after several cups of coffee, rearing to go and eager to try out all my goodies.

This is me, trying to make an interesting blog..BUT WAIT. Seriously wait for it, it gets better...

So I make two batches of cupcakes, one white, one yellow. Seeeeee.....Now, we just bought simple box batter for me to practice with, when it's the real deal, I'll make it from scratch. I don't know if it was the batter we chose, (hey shut up, it was only 99cents!) infact, yeah, we're going to go ahead and blame it on the faulty 'batter' cause I am super confident in my cake baking skills. Anyways, something went horribly astray with the cake. See diagrams below..

This is my cake going into the oven, lookin good, yeah? So I set the timer and seek entertainment elsewhere in the house. A short while later, but definately not long enough for the cake to be done I start to smell something and I head back into the kitchen to investigate. whats happening in my oven is beyond me, honestly. The cake was like oozing and burning, simultaniously. Sick, I know this. It was at that point that I decide to pull the plug on operation 'cake' and take it out of the oven. Later I will be cursing this cake to no end while I am cleaning out 'cake turds' that were left all over my oven. NOT happy.

This is the cake upon exit of my oven. Please note the cake turds off to the side there.
This is the cake after sitting for some time, and also after the kids picked away all the cooked parts around the edge. Better shot of that cake turd for ya. ;)

So I give up on the cake and move on, I have cupcakes to decorate! After much reading and staring and scrutinizing of pastry bags and tips I dive in, using and abusing every tip just to get the hang of what it is exactly, that each one does. After much focused concentration and a bellyache from eating too much frosting, I produced some OK looking cupcakes. Definately not something I'd openly call my own, but not horrible for a first attempt. Hey, I've never used a pastry bag and tip, shut up!

Pics of the awesomeness for your viewing pleasure::

And last, but certainly not least, my personal favorite of the bunch:
Come on, you know you like it.

Seriously, I have a frosting belly ache..

And so it begins...

So.

My sister is getting married this year. Springtime. May. 9th. (I think) She's trying to have the most amazing wedding possible, but on a budget, nothing wrong with that. She asked me if I thought I could handle making the wedding cake, and while this idea is highly intimidating, I have to admit I was kind of digging the idea. I, like every specimen of the female persuasion (whether you admit it or not!), have always dreamed of making beautiful edibles covered in perfect fondant and decorations. After some research I discovered something that I hoped would work for all of us.

HAHAHA!

I kid, I kid.

But seriously, I did find this picture, and many others like it:

Gorgeous, right? (And for the sake of NOT getting in trouble, this is NOT! my image, I merely 'borrowed' it.)

So after much discussion and planning it was decided, I would make a wedding cupcake cake. Immediately my creative juices started flowing and I was brimming with ideas. I thought it would be fun to create a blog to document my experiences as I go along, the trials. The tribulation. The massive screw ups. (Cause you know there will be many!) Anyways, we've gone out shopping this past sunday and I have much in the way of baking 'booty' in my posession.

....Now the real fun begins.....