Jenn — Page 35

Heart Shaped Valentine Chocolate Fudge Recipe

January 29, 2014 by Jenn

If you are a fudge connoisseur, I’ll be the first to tell you that this is NOT a recipe for you. If you are a fudge dabbler and want an easy, cute treat for Valentine’s, then this recipe IS for you! How do I know it’s not for fancy fudge eaters? I had a tester.

Serving up this recipe in my practice round was the first time that I have ever doubted how someone was going to react to something that I had made. I know I make good cupcakes and cakes- look at the size of me, I clearly enjoy them! But, when it comes to something like fudge, I don’t really like it. I love chocolate, but not fudge. It’s a glitch in my system. One of my coworkers LOVES fudge and so she was my tester for this recipe. While she enjoyed it, she admitted that it wasn’t like a true fudge where you need a candy thermometer and hard ball/soft ball stages. I’m going to search for a real fudge recipe and see how I do with that one day! But in the meantime, with all of my extra Valentine’s candy hanging around the house, this easy-cheater fudge is perfect!

You can substitute any colour of melting chocolate for this recipe but I love the pink! The more artificial the better, right? That’s what all the people on YouTube tell me when I make rainbow coloured cakes . . . ha. Ya, right. “Do you know how many chemicals are in those colors?” No, and I don’t care. It looks pretty!! Life is short. Live it colourful.

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How to Make a Heart Shaped Cake / Valentine’s Day Cake

January 25, 2014 by Jenn

For this cake you don’t need to have a special pan. Though that would have been funny . . . “Here’s how you make a heart shaped cake. Take you heart shaped cake pan….” Annnnnnnnnd….CUT! Video done.

I have a sad sense of humour.

But seriously, this is a really easy way to make a heart shaped cake without the special pan. Collecting all of the awesome shaped pans is a storage nightmare. I recently just sold over 20 shaped character pans because seriously, when am I going to use those and they take up SO much room! I saved a couple of my favourites though to make a couple videos with.

The strawberries on top of this cake add a beautiful pop of red to the cake, and I love the white/red contrasting colours. You could use any fruit though and I think it would still look beautiful. It would also make for a great wedding cake and you could theme the fruit with the colours of the wedding party! The possibilities are endless.

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Filed Under: Cakes, Holiday Baking, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: cake, heart cake, heart shaped cake, heart wedding, heart wedding cake, how to make, how to make heart shaped cake, valentine, valentine dessert, valentine heart cake, valentine's, valentine's day cake, valentines cake, wedding cake

How to Make a Box of Chocolate Cupcakes for Valentine’s Day

January 21, 2014 by Jenn

What would you say is the most stereotypical Valentine’s day present to give? Flowers? Candy? Jewellery? CHOCOLATES? According to my research on amazon, people even give perfume! What a thoughtful gift . . . I love you but you could smell better.

Well, I thought that playing on the idea of giving chocolates as the most popular Valentine’s Day gift to give (not determined by any research!), I would make a box of chocolate CUPCAKES instead. The cupcakes look like a box of regular holiday treats, but upon closer inspection, you realize they’re so much better and they’re in cupcake form! By the way, if your “sweetheart” gives you candy, leave him. You can get that stuff at the dollarstore. I would know . . . it’s where I bought some of the ingredients for the Box of Chocolate Cupcakes I made. Note to self: don’t shop at the dollarstore and then tell people. Oops.

Do you think Valentine’s Day is overrated? Commercialized to the point of nausea? It seems as though the second that the Christmas decorations are put away, the stores are filling the shelves with pink and red Valentine paraphernalia. I guess they all have to make their quota’s, or whatever it is stores do. As do people on YouTube, which is why we have a Valentine’s day video going live in January. Oops again.

What is happening here? I think they had me at “Cupid Corn”. How I could I resist THAT!?!?

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Filed Under: Cakes, Cupcakes, Holiday Baking Tagged With: box of chocolates, box of cupcakes, chocolate, chocolate cupcakes, valentine, valentine chocolate, valentine cupcake, valentine's cupcakes, valentine's day

Rainbow Ice Cream Cake Recipe: How to Make a Rainbow Ice Cream Cake

January 18, 2014 by Jenn

I’ve wanted to make an ice cream cake for a while now, as I dream about the cookie crumb filling that Dairy Queen layers in their ice cream cakes! I’m drooling, just thinking about it. I found the perfect imitation of it, and it is so simple- just Oreos and fudge/ganache. It provides a crunchy base for this bright vanilla ice cream cake.

I’m not a huge fan of vanilla ice cream, but I swear I can taste rainbows when I bite into this one. It’s like a magical explosion in your mouth. With that explosion from the colour, and they the overwhelming delight with the cookie crust, this cake not only looks amazing, it tastes fabulous! If you’re not a fan of vanilla like me, you could replace the vanilla ice cream with pretty much any light flavoured ice cream that would work to dye.

The only difficulty when assembling this cake is getting your ice cream to be the perfect consistency in order for it not to be a melted mess, but soft enough to be able to mix the colouring into it. I brought the ice cream out about half an hour before I wanted to make the first layer, and just left it out while I did each layer. It was kind of a sloppy mess at the end, but it worked!

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Filed Under: Cakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: cake, chocolate fudge, dairy queen cake, dairy queen chocolate, dairy queen chocolate fudge, dairy queen ice cream cake, how to make a ice cream cake, Ice Cream Cake Recipe, make ice cream cake, rainbow, Rainbow cake, rainbow ice cream, rainbow ice cream cake

How to Make Fondant: Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

January 14, 2014 by Jenn

Fondant? That’s the stuff you peel off a wedding cake, right? It’s that white, hard stuff that covers up the cake that doesn’t taste very good?

Before I first started decorating cakes, I really had no idea about what fondant was. I had heard Cake Boss talk about it, except he called it “fon-dawnt” (which has always annoyed me immensely!), and I knew that if I was going to be a wedding cake decorator, I would have to grow to love it, and I would have to find a brand that didn’t have a chalky, chemically taste to it.

I first worked only with Wilton fondant, but found that to be gross, to tear easily and to be better for sculpting figures. I then moved onto Satin Ice and found it to be tasty (as tasty as pliable sugar can be) and to cover cakes super easily. So, I never tried another brand. I know that many other brands exist, but I never felt the need to try them as I was satisfied with Satin Ice. That, and we went through fondant by the 10kg container and I didn’t have time to continue experimenting.

I had heard that you could make your own fondant, but under time restraints, I never took the time to look into it. Now, that we are not doing our cake business, and I have time, I did some research and learned how to make fondant from scratch! This version is made from marshmallows so it smells (and tastes) delicious! It also happens to be one of our most requested videos of all time! Every time we do a video involving fondant, we get asked for our own recipe. So finally . . . here it comes people . . . Enjoy!

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Filed Under: Cakes, No Bake Desserts, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: fondant, homemade, homemade fondant, homemade marshmallow fondant, how to make fondant, make fondant, marshmallow, marshmallow fondant

Ferrero Rocher & Nutella Cupcakes

January 10, 2014 by Jenn

I’m going to have to start out by saying that I have never really been a Nutella fan. Until we made these cupcakes, I really never understood what the fuss was about. I’d rather eat a peanut than a hazelnut. I’d rather have peanut butter and jam, than chocolate and hazelnuts. It was never in our house growing up as a kid, so I don’t think I ever really knew about it. But, when an Italian family becomes your family, you learn quickly about all things Italian. One of those things is hazelnut flavoured everything! I think I first tried a Ferraro Rocher at Paul’s mom’s house, and meh, didn’t really care for it. Apparently it had to be baked inside of a cupcake for me to really like it!

As far as Nutella went, I could never understand why bloggers were posting about it, drooling over it and giving it love I didn’t think it deserved. UNTIL I made this buttercream. This Nutella buttercream may be the absolute best thing I have ever tasted. No lie. It is rich, creamy and oozes smooth buttercream flavour. The hazelnut-chocolate taste is perfectly complimented by the sweetness of the sugar and saltiness of the butter. O.M.G. That’s how good it is. Good enough to talk in capitals.

The buttercream is one of those tastes that just the smallest amount will send you face first into the bowl. If you have strong willpower, I guarantee that it will be tested with this cupcake.

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Filed Under: Cupcakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: chocolate cupcakes, ferraro rocher, ferraro rocher cupcakes, hazelnuts, Nutella, nutella buttercream, Nutella cupcake recipe, Nutella cupcakes, nutella frosting, nutella icing

Funfetti Cake Recipe (Birthday Cake with Rainbow Sprinkles)

January 6, 2014 by Jenn

This is one of my favourite cake recipes that I have made. I’m a huge sucker for almond extract! I don’t know what it is about that flavouring, but no matter what it’s in, I LOVE it! My Angel Food Cake has it, my Sugar Cookies have it and they are delicious! Whenever it is included in a recipe, I inevitably get asked as to whether it has to be included . . . trust me, it’s worth buying and trying out.

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Filed Under: Cakes Tagged With: birthday, birthday cake, birthday sprinkles cake, cake, confetti, confetti cake, funfetti birthday cake, funfetti cake, Funfetti Cake Recipe, happy birthday cake, Rainbow Sprinkles, sprinkles birthday cake, sprinkles cake

Birthday Cake Pops

January 1, 2014 by Jenn

I’ve been at this blogging thing for a few years now, I’m by no means an expert, but with January 2014 fast approaching I feel the need to write about the year that has gone by and the year ahead and include all of my “knowledge” for future generations of bakers.

Hahaha! Did you believe that for a minute?

But in all seriousness, I have a YouTube channel, and I occasionally write some things down on a blog. Someone wrote to me the other day, and asked me if I was “famous, or just YouTube famous”. Um, what? Was that an insult, or a compliment? And why is that a question? I’m just a woman working her way through a non-traditional job, with a very dedicated supporter, producer and partner (he’s a one man do-it-all-team!), and I’m having a blast at reaching people all around the world. I’ve learned so much from viewers’ comments and questions and I would have never have had the opportunity to talk to so many people if it weren’t for the videos we post. We live in a very small town, which holds our families (some of them) and the size of it can be quite stifling at times. With YouTube, we have been able to reach outside of our city and connect with others in many other countries. Some of the friends that I’ve made over the last few years are only “internet” friends, but they are some of the people who I now care for dearly and speak to more often than I do my “in real life” friends. 2013 was an amazing year for us, and we can’t wait for what 2014 brings!

January 1, brings about another important day . . . my birthday! Which brings me to the birthday cake pops I made to celebrate!

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Filed Under: Cake Pops Tagged With: birthday cake, birthday cake cake pops, Birthday Cake Pops, birthday cake pops recipe, cake pops

Heart Shaped Valentine Chocolate Fudge Recipe

How to Make a Heart Shaped Cake / Valentine’s Day Cake

How to Make a Box of Chocolate Cupcakes for Valentine’s Day

Rainbow Ice Cream Cake Recipe: How to Make a Rainbow Ice Cream Cake

How to Make Fondant: Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

Ferrero Rocher & Nutella Cupcakes

Funfetti Cake Recipe (Birthday Cake with Rainbow Sprinkles)

Birthday Cake Pops

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