Videos — Page 31

Cricut Cake — Cutting Fondant and Gum Paste Basics for Cake Decorating

December 13, 2011 by Jenn

I’m going to be honest with you right now and tell you that if there is an easy way, or a short cut, or a lazy way to do something, I will find it. Just ask Paul about my housekeeping “abilities”.

Sweep? Isn’t that what a vacuum is for? Dishes? Dishwasher! Bleach? I don’t want to wreck my clothes!

When we first bought the Cricut Cake, I thought, “Awesome! No more hard work!” Boy, was I ever wrong.

Paul and I have filmed a tutorial on how to use a Cricut Cake, but before you go off an watch it, I have a little bit of stuff to tell you . . . let the honesty continue!

Background Information:

The Cricut Cake™ Personal Electronic Cutter is specifically designed for decorating cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and confections in no time at all. Just choose a shape, a size, and press “cut”. Decorating like a professional has never been faster or easier. (source) The idea of the Cricut Cake is brilliant. How awesome would it be to have a machine that would cut out whatever shape you wanted, in a matter of seconds? Cake decorators everywhere would be lining up to buy them by the truckload!

The Cricut Cake is different from the Cricut that scrapbookers use with paper, as all of the parts of the machine that come in contact with food are made from food safe plastic or stainless steel. Cricut also added silicone covers to protect the machine and to make clean up easier. Also, according to the Cricut website, the machine was specially designed for cutting food materials.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: Cricut Cake, fondant, gum paste

How to Ice (Frost) a Cupcake

November 27, 2011 by Jenn

I’m back into the land of blogging, after WAY too long of a break. They (who “they” are I have no idea, but lets just go with it) say that having your own business is like having a baby. You have to feed it, love it, encourage it, encourage it, promote it . . . and while all those things are being done, my blog has been NEGLECTED!

Over the last couple of months, some of our encouragement, promotion and love for our business has found us doing Bridal Fairs, craft fairs and Winter Markets! My favourite thing about running this business is getting out and hearing from our fans. It makes the hours and hours of hard work worth it. Here are some of the comments that we get regularly:

“How to you make your cupcakes look so beautiful?”,

“They look like pieces of art!”

. . . and the number one comment I get?

“They look too beautiful to eat!” . . . and my response . . . “Then buy two! One to look at, one to eat!” Duh.

Paul and I put together a number of YouTube videos to teach our readers, customers and watchers exactly how to do it yourself! It must be the teacher in me . . . and the marketer in Paul. Watching others decorate cupcakes on YouTube is exactly how I learned to do this myself . . . a mere 8 months ago (how times flies!). Google searches and blog pictorials were helpful as well. Watching someone else do it and then trying it myself, is definitely my learning style.

The following four videos are going to show you how to do the following things:

How to get the perfect swirl on a cupcake using the 1M tip,

How to pipe hydrangeas as a cupcake topper,

The 1M Open Star Tip (Swirl) is also sold as Tip 2110 from Wilton. Find it here.

How to decorate a cupcake using the 1A round tip:

1A Round Tip. Find it here.

How to use a 2D drop flower tip to create a swirl top to your cupcake

2D Tip Drop Flower Tip. Find it here.

My tips that I use in the video are from Wilton, but you can purchase similar ones from any cake decorating supply store. Hope you find the videos helpful!

Filed Under: Cakes, Cupcakes, Tutorials, Videos

7 Tier Acrylic Cupcake Stand Review

October 25, 2011 by Jenn

Back in the spring, we purchased a couple of tiered cupcake stands to use throughout the summer for the many weddings that we had booked. We ordered them from MCLazer Pro, through their store on Ebay.

We got a square stand . . .

And a round stand . . .

Overall, we are really happy with the way the tier stands look and are holding up. But, there’s a but.

BUT, when we got the stands, we opened up the round one, found everything in tip top shape, and left the square one unopened. Our mistake as the square stand was NOT in the same shape that the round stand was.

The edges were not smooth and the cracks had to be sanded out, and buffed smooth. We contacted custom service a number of times, sent pictures and basically their attitude was “too late, too bad”.

Obviously, we should have opened the box as soon as we got it, but hindsight is always clear! The packaging for shipping could include a little bit more protection, and obviously, a little more care in the customer service department would have been nice.

For more information, watch my video on it!

Filed Under: Videos Tagged With: 7 Tier Acrylic Cupcake Stand Review, cupcake stand

How to Make a Halloween Fondant Knife

October 14, 2011 by Jenn

I am not one to run around wielding knives. I don’t particularly have an attachment to knives. I like them to slice bread, but that’s where my devotion to knives basically stops. Why am I tell you this? Because a viewer of our YouTube videos requested that I show them how to make a fondant knife . . . I’m assuming for Halloween . . . because if it’s not . . . then that’s just weird.

It’s pretty simple actually, so grab your fondant, follow along, and run around wielding knives.

Filed Under: Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: fondant, fondant knife

How to Make a Fondant Pumpkin

October 10, 2011 by Jenn

My newest cupcake that I have been baking is perfectly fitting for the cool evenings and mornings that fall has brought to us . . . pumpkin! I had high hopes of growing my own, but after planting, fertilizing and watering my beloved pumpkin seeds, the season proved to be too short. I have been left buying my pumpkins from the store. Fail.

Oh well, there is always next year! Except our brand new house (yes, we bought a house!) doesn’t have room for much of a garden. BUT, I would love to get a little strip of dirt where I could grow some carrots, beets and peas. I’m good at growing those 🙂 obviously it would have to have a GIANT deer fence.

Since my growing pumpkin test this year was such a failure (they did bloom . . . just not until September!), I have had to create my own pumpkins out of fondant!

They are super quick, easy and most importantly CUTE! Check out the video tutorial on how to do these on our YouTube channel. Hope you like it!

Filed Under: Cupcakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: cupcakes, fondant pumpkin, fondant tutorial, pumpkin

Wilton Cake Pan Unboxing Video

September 21, 2011 by Jenn

Here is our video for the Wilton Cake Pan unboxing!

Since the filming of this video, I have definitely enjoyed working with the pans, especially the large cookie sheet (apparently I have only been using medium size my whole life! Lord was I ever missing out).

I also enjoy the 8″ round cake pans, as I’m able to offer a slightly smaller cake for customers.

The rectangle pan (9″x13″) has come in super handy for bars . . . especially my fave . . . peanut butter marshmallow! It’s nice to have an extra pan of this size, as I save my Stoneware one for savoury dishes only now.

Have a look and let me know what you think if you have some of these pans!

Filed Under: Videos Tagged With: unboxing, wilton, wilton pans set

Edible Images For Cakes Review

August 25, 2011 by Jenn

This video is for anyone who is interested in purchasing an edible ink printer! In it, I review the icing sheets, the printer and the ink that we use on a regular basis to create some amazing cakes. Watch and enjoy 🙂

Here are some of the recent edible images that we have done with the printer.

Working with an edible printer is a little bit more difficult than working with a regular ink printer. The type of liquid that runs through the print head, makes the print head prone to clogging. My advice to you is to make sure that you run the ink through the printer at least once a week, and this will help with clogging.

If you are so unlucky and have the print head clog on you, there are a couple of things that you can do to get that (*#(@ head cleaned out. One is to take all of the ink catridges out (carefully) of the print head and let the print head soak on a wet piece of paper towel. If this doesn’t work, then what we do is use a steamer (like one that you use for steam cleaning) to blow out the clogged heads. If you don’t have a steamer, you can try it the old fashioned way, and use the steam from a kettle. This tends to loosen up the liquid that is clogged, just enough for you to get it out.

One more detail that you need to be aware of when working with edible images and edible sheets . . . which we didn’t know until summer hit . . . is that they are VERY prone to bubbling/wrinkling in humidity! If your fridge is high in humidity, your cake will not come back out as smooth as it was when you put it in. I discovered, after many failed attempts, that using parchment paper, and the warmth of your hand helps smooth out an image that has wrinkled. I lay the parchment paper down on the image, and rub with the flat palm of my hand until it is smooth.

Overall, despite the clogging, the edible ink printer that we have is a great tool. Like many tools, it takes maintenance, and work to keep it running as it should. The paper and ink has been relatively easy to find, and we purchased ours from Icing Images. We have had a positive experience with this company . . . someone even emailed me back when I had a question!

Filed Under: Cakes, Videos Tagged With: edible image cake, edible images, edible ink, edible printing, iphone cake, Justin Bieber cake, product review, RCMP Cake

Cranbrook Farmers Market Video

July 1, 2011 by Jenn

We had a fabulous time at the Cranbrook Farmers Market and JJ’s Custom Cakery will be there throughout the Saturday’s until September 2011. We are very proud to be a part of such a community spirit invoking event! Come out and say hi!

Filed Under: Videos