Tutorials — Page 5

Heart Shaped Kit Kat Cake for Valentine’s Day

February 4, 2015 by Jenn

Whether you are a lover or hater of Valentine’s day, you’re bound to love this cake because it’s full of candy, and lined with WHITE Kit Kats!

For whatever reason, I wasn’t able to find the white KitKats in Canada. For those of you that might find yourself with the same problem, I got the white KitKats on a recent trip to the US. Being so close to the border, I find that it’s super easy to order things that we don’t have in Canada, and have them shipping to a shipping outlet five minutes from the Canadian border. It’s awesome. And deadly at the same time. It’s quite an addiciting habbit. With Target pulling out of Canada, shopping is incredibly sparse in my city, so if it means I have to drive an hour or so to pick up packages from the USA, I’m willing to do so. All for the sake of the videos. All for you. ALL FOR YOU PEOPLE!!! Hahaha . . . that is true, but I might have an obsession with online shopping. Maybe. Why do they have to make it so easy!?!?!?

For the candy topping, you could use whichever your favourite candies are, themed with Valentine colours. Of course, you could make this for another occasion, and it would look just as awesome- I’m thinking Halloween, Easter, Christmas, or even a rainbow theme!

For the heart shaped cake, I used my favourite cake recipe, divided it in half like I would for any 8″ or 9″ pan, and baked them for about 45 minutes at 350. I think I had too much batter in the pan which is why I had to bake them for so long. The heart cake pan comes in a variety of sizes, so when you’re working with your batter, I just advise you to start watching it at 30 minutes.

When I’m choosing ribbon to use with cakes, for something like this, I went with a larger sized one. I also stay away from the ones that are “Wired”, since they tend to crinkle, and don’t lay flat on the cakes. They might be better for making bows, but aint’ nobody got time for that!

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Giant Ferrero Rocher Cake

January 30, 2015 by Jenn

Imagine this . . . hazelnut core, nutella hazelnut wafers, chocolate hazelnut coating. You with me?

Sound familiar? Like a Ferrero Rocher you say? Well, it is, but in GIANT form!

I’ve been wanting to make a homemade ferrero rocher every since I made homemade nutella. But, rather than making regular sized ones, I opted to go big. “Go big or go home” is what my brother used to say. He was referring to hockey and not chocolate, but that’s not important. When I’m referring to chocolate, I’m always referring to going BIG.

Hazelnuts are the main flavouring component to a ferrero. I find it next to impossible to find hazelnuts already roasted. To roast the hazelnuts, simply line a baking tray with parchment paper, and toast for 15-20 mins at 325F. Once the hazelnuts are fragrant and toasted, allow them to cool, and peel the skins from the nuts. They’re now ready to use!

To make the giant ferrero rocher, the general idea is to encase a hazelnut/hazelnut butter mixture, nutella wafers and coat the entire thing in chocolate and crushed hazelnuts.

If you prefer to stick with the smaller, traditional size, you can definitely do that with this recipe too. Instead of using the hazelnut butter and hazelnuts to make the core, simply use a single hazelnut. Wrap the hazelnut in the nutella mixture, roll into a ball, roll in nuts and finally melted chocolate.

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Filed Under: Cakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: cake, candy, candy cake, chocolate, chocolate cake, ferrero, ferrero rocher, ferrero rocher cake, giant ferrero rocher, hazelnut wafers, hazelnuts, how-to, Nutella, nutella cake, nuts, roasted hazelnuts, roasting hazelnuts, rocher

OPI Nail Polish Bottle Cake:3-D Nail Polish Cake

January 10, 2015 by Jenn

We’re back!! We took a short break to recover from the excitement of 2014, and will be slowly getting back into the swing of things this month. To start off with our first video upload of 2015, I have a super fun 3D nail polish bottle cake to show you. I’ve recieved many requests for this type of a cake, so I’m happy to finally be able to bring it to life.

If you’ve been watching my YouTube channel for a while, you know that I always have my nails done. Some days are better than others, but they’re polished 99% of the time. Don’t check my old videos out though . . . I prove myself wrong in those. Teaming up with a fellow YouTuber for nail polish bottle cake was a must for me! One of the channels that I have been watching for quite sometime for nail art ideas, is IHaveACupcake! What a perfect name for a collaboration! Elizabeth has a fabulous channel full of beautiful nail art ideas. She explains everything so simply, that it makes me think I could actually do my nails myself! Make sure you check out her channel, subscribe to it, and you can also check her blog out here.

In Elizabeth’s video, she shows you how to make cupcake nail art and in mine, we show you how to make a carved nail polish bottle. You can follow the technique that I show you in the video to match your favourite nail polish brand. I just happen to have a lot of OPI bottles around, so I chose to go with that type of bottle. Customizing the nail polish bottle colour is totally up to you, and I went with purple as it’s my favourite colour.

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Filed Under: Cakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: 3-d, 3-d cake, beauty cake, bottle cake, cake, cake carving, carved cake, cupcake nail art, cupcake nails, girl birthday, girl birthday cake, girl birthday party cake, girl cake, girls, ihaveacupcake, makeup, makeup cake, nail art, nail cake, nail polish, nail polish art, nail polish bottle cake, nail polish cake, nail polish spill cake

Christmas Cake with Snowman Macarons: Collab with Sugarcoder

December 20, 2014 by Jenn

Merry Christmas everyone! This is our last Christmas tutorial video for 2014, so I hope that you enjoy it.

For a special Christmas video this year, I joined up with my friend Miki who has the YouTube channel Sugarcoder. I was fortunate enough to have met Miki early this year, way back in February. She lives in San Francisco and flew to LA to meet Paul and I when we were filming at YouTube Space LA. She is one of the happiest and sweetest people I have met. She is always sending me presents . . . that’s not why I like her, but it speaks to her thoughtfulness.

Miki previously had a different YouTube channel (Miki’s Pantry) and recently started this new one as it was more true to the brand that she wanted to convey. I think that it was very brave of her to leave behind 60K subs to start all over again!

Making this cake is basically just assembling many prepared pieces. The links to everything you need to have prepared are in the recipe below, so make sure to check that out. I found that the candy canes were mostly broken inside their wrappers, so I opted to leave the wrappers on the candy canes in order to not have to deal with that issue. Just ensure that they are clean before placing them on to the cake.

Making macarons has always been a challenge for me, so when you head over to Miki’s channel, Sugarcoder, and try out her recipe, don’t get discouraged if you don’t succeed the first time. The first time I made french macarons, I failed four times until I got it right. Miki’s recipe is simple to follow, and she learned it first hand from a chef in San Francisco. Give it your best effort, and remember to keep practicing if you’re not successful the first time. Have fun!

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Filed Under: Cakes, Christmas, Holiday Baking, Videos Tagged With: cake, candy cane cake, Christmas Cake, Christmas dessert, holiday cake, holiday dessert, Macarons, snow, snow cake, snowman cake, snowman macarons

The Hunger Games Cake: Katniss Wedding Dress Cake

November 29, 2014 by Jenn

I adore the Hunger Games books. Adore them. I also love the movies, but as with most book to movie conversions, the book is better than the movie!

With Mockingjay out in theatres, I knew I had to make another Hunger Games video. I have previously made Mockingjay cupcakes, and Catching Fire cake pops, so I wanted to do something more epic! I knew it had to be in cake form, as I had already made cupcakes and cake pops, and one of my favourite parts of the Catching Fire movie was the scene in which Katniss is wearing her wedding dress and transforms into the Mockingjay. That scene is where the inspiration for this cake comes from.

From the bottom up- the bottom is the black feathers of the mocking jay, which leads up to the flames and finishes off with the remaining top of the wedding dress.

This is a challenging cake to make if you don’t have much cake decorating experience, BUT with the video tutorial I know that all levels can make it successfully. Planning ahead is important with a cake of this size, and with one of this many elements. The feathers need to have time to dry, so they can be prepped days, if not weeks ahead of time. The candies can be melted a couple of days ahead of time as well, though I don’t recommend more than a week ahead as the candy gets a bit sticky. You can also make the royal icing lace portion days, to weeks ahead as well, as it requires time to dry and doesn’t go bad. Bake and freeze the cakes the night before you want to use them, and prep the icings the morning you want to decorate. If everything is ready to assemble, the actually decorating and assembly of the cake is very straightforward. You can use any decorating technique to ice the cake, and you can also just simply slap it on with a spatula.

I’m looking forward to watching the new Mockingjay movie, now that the initial crowds have left the theaters! I hope you enjoy this Hunger Games cake.

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Filed Under: Cakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: hunger games, hunger games cake, hunger games trilogy, katniss barbie doll, katniss barbie doll cake, katniss cake, Katniss Everdeen, katniss everdeen cake, katniss wedding dress, katniss wedding dress cake, mockingjay, mockingjay book, mockingjay cake

How to Make a T-Shirt Shaped Rainbow Tie-Dye Cake

November 15, 2014 by Jenn

I used to run a home based bakery business (until my love of YouTube took over!) and during that time, my t-shirt shaped cake pan was one of my most used pans out of all of my shaped cake pans. I had so many of them that they were the first thing that I sold when I closed the business. I was SO happy to get rid of them.

I have a love/hate relationship with shaped cake pans- they are great as you don’t need to carve or structure the cake, but, they take up so much room! When I decided which ones to keep and which to sell, I kept the ones that I used for multiple projects, knowing that I would be able to use them in future videos, in multiple ways. This t-shirt pan can also be used for other cakes, which I’m sure I’ll be showing you at a later date.

Unfortunately as with all good things, they come to an end. Wilton has “discontinued” this cake pan, but I was able to find another similar cake pan on Amazon, and it you can get it here. It is basically the exact same cake pan, just with sharper, deeper sides. If you’re not up for purchasing a cake pan, you can always freehand carve a t-shirt out of a rectangle cake. That would save you a little bit of money, and a t-shirt is a pretty simple shape to make. Besides, we’ve all seen one so we should have a pretty good picture in our heads as to what one looks like!

I have wanted to make a cake into a tie-dye design for a while now, and when thinking up a reason, and a cake design, a t-shirt seemed like the natural way to go. When I think of tie-dye, I think t-shirts, peace, love and the 60’s! You can do this design on any cake- round, rectangle etc. To recreate it, start the piping gel spirals at the center of the cake, and work your way out, alternating colours as you want to.

Keeping your brush clean is the most onerous activity throughout the whole process. I would imagine having 100 brushes would make it a lot easier, but who has that many brushes? Washing the brush is important, as it helps to prevent the spreading of the colours where you don’t want them to be. You don’t HAVE to wash it, but your cake may end up being a lovely shade of brown if you don’t.

I hope you enjoy this project! Peace.

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Filed Under: Cakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: cake, hippie, hippie cake, how to make, peace, peace cake, rainbow, Rainbow cake, rainbow tie dye, rainbow tie dye cake, shirt cake, smiley face, smiley face cake, smiley face fondant, t-shirt, t-shirt cake, tee shirt, tee shirt cake, tie dye, tie dye cake

Turkey Shaped Buckeye Peanut Butter Balls

November 12, 2014 by Jenn

Chocolate and peanut butter is one of my most favourite combinations! Whose isn’t it? All those people who yell at me in capital letters that they are allergic to peanut butter. I feel for you, I really do as I couldn’t imagine being without my addiction, but finding a substitution is probably something easier for you to do, than me. There is also this amazing thing called Google.

This recipe is a special one to me, as my girlfriend Melissa made it for us during a Christmas Cookie Exchange one year. Unfortunately, a number of years ago, she passed away. I felt so lucky being able to continue on using her Dad’s recipe for this creation. I know she would have loved it, and I appreciate my time that I got to spend with her, albeit too short.

You can make these traditionally by rolling the peanut butter mixture into balls, and dipping them into melted chocolate. But if you’re looking for an adorable Thanksgiving treat, you have to try these. They’re super simple, and the only thing that takes time is the setting of the chocolate. I address this in the video, but I chose to use melting wafers/almond bark as they set faster than regular chocolate.

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Filed Under: Cake Pops, Cookies, Holiday Baking, No Bake Desserts, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: american thanksgiving, buckeye balls, chocolate, chocolate turkeys, peanut butter, peanut butter balls, peanut butter chocolate, peanut butter chocolate balls, peanut butter turkey, thanksgiving, thanksgiving cake pop, thanksgiving dessert, turkey

Surprise Inside Mustache Cake for Movember

November 8, 2014 by Jenn

The time for mustaches to come out of closets and unite is upon us. That well groomed neighbour down the hall now has a caterpillar growing on his upper lip. That nice stay at home, father of 3 around the block now has a speckling of hairs above his mouth. And that lawyer who works in the offices downtown? He too has a sprouting of hairs on his lip. Why are all of these previously clean cut men growing awkward, splotchy mustaches for the month of November? It’s all in the name of charity.

Each November men from all over North America (and probably further) grow mustaches that their wives and girlfriends object to fiercely, to raise money and awareness for men’s health issues. The slogan from the Canadian Movember movement is “changing the face of men’s health.” To find out more information head over to Movember.

Since this is an event that haunts your eyes (I’m talking about my Dad’s attempt at a mustache) I decided that I had to make another video in support- MY way. I’m not about to grow a mustache- nor would I try to.

Making a surprise inside cake takes a bit longer than a regular cake, and involves a lot of preparation. It is not technically difficult, but it looks like it is! That’s my favourite part of these types of cakes. They SHOCK the people that are eating them! For this cake, you will need to buy mustache cookie cutters, prepare two different coloured cakes, and prepare an additional cake batter for the re-baking portion. With all of the prep work done ahead of time- which you can do the day before with the baked cakes- the day of assembly can go quite quickly. Re-baking the cake takes around an hour. The mustaches inside do not dry out as they are wrapped in raw batter and it keeps the cake moist throughout the time in the oven.

Whether you are sprouting some hairs on your upper lip, donating to the Movember cause, or just joining in the fun with this cake, I hope you like the baking and decorating process!

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Filed Under: Cakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: Moustache, moustache cake, Movember, movember cake, Mustache, mustache cake, surprise inside, surprise inside cake, surprise inside moustache cake, surprise inside mustache cake

Heart Shaped Kit Kat Cake for Valentine’s Day

Giant Ferrero Rocher Cake

OPI Nail Polish Bottle Cake:3-D Nail Polish Cake

Christmas Cake with Snowman Macarons: Collab with Sugarcoder

The Hunger Games Cake: Katniss Wedding Dress Cake

How to Make a T-Shirt Shaped Rainbow Tie-Dye Cake

Turkey Shaped Buckeye Peanut Butter Balls

Surprise Inside Mustache Cake for Movember

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