Cakes — Page 15

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

Surprise Inside Christmas Cake: Vertical Striped Cake

December 13, 2014 by Jenn

Merry Christmas! We’re only a couple of weeks away from the big day, and I’m sure you’ll need some sort of dessert to help celebrate. This vertical cake roll will impress the jolly man in the red suit, and all your other guests!

This cake roll is something a little different than the regular type of roll you might be used to. Instead of traditionally rolling up the cake by the width, this cake is rolled up length ways in small strips to create a large roll. It gets a little messy when you roll this cake up but it’s kinda fun to get dirty sometimes, right? It’s fun to roll it up!

As far as fillings for inside the cake roll go, it’s best to work with a light filling, such as whipping cream, but you could also use a fruit filling, and if you prefer, you could try buttercream, but I’m not sure how that would affect the ability of the cake to roll. I had decided that since there was so much buttercream around the outside of the cake, and using something different for the inside was probably best. It is also really easy to roll up whipping cream as opposed to other fillings.

Decorating the outside of the cake can be done however you want, and I’m sure my viewers and readers have great ideas! I liked the way the ribbons up the side of the cake we soft looking and very festive. Anything themed for the season would be great for this holiday type of cake!

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Filed Under: Cakes, Christmas, Holiday Baking Tagged With: cake roll, christas dessert, Christmas Cake, christmas cake roll, green cake, holiday cake, red and green cake, red cake, striped cake, surprise inside, surprise inside cake, vertical cake roll, vertical striped cake

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

Penguins Of Madagascar Cake

November 19, 2014 by Jenn

My obsession with penguins started way back, long ago. Think 2005, Morgan Freeman, Antarctica, and you have the seed that planted and grew. March of the Penguins was the first time I had ever paid much attention to these birds-that-can’t-fly, but ever since, I have spent a month or so teaching and exploring about them in my kindergarten class. They are so fascinating!

When deciding which videos to make, I always try to make ones that have a level of interest to me as well as to the viewer. When I was looking at the up coming movie releases, and saw Penguins of Madagascar, I knew I had to do a cake for their solo movie debut!

They are the cutest penguins around, but surprisingly difficult to find in mini figurine form. I’ve linked to the ones I purchased on Amazon below in the list of ingredients, though I’m sure you could find them elsewhere if you look hard enough. Now, these penguins are obviously fictional, but you could easily replace them with a more realistic looking figurine if you wanted to just do a cake that focused on penguins, or even an iceberg.

The blue rock candy represents the ocean below the iceberg, while the penguins sit safely up on the glistening white iceberg. If you don’t have the blue rock candy available, or you want to make one giant iceberg, do away with the blue area, and cover the entire lower level in white/clear candies as well. I think that would look beautiful too.

The key to this cake is getting the glistening icy look by using the rock candies. You can make your own, or you can buy them in bulk like I did. They give the cake the shininess that most people associate with icebergs. Rock candy is also sold off the stick in chunks, so that is another option as well. And if all else fails, crush some suckers up!!

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Filed Under: Cakes Tagged With: blue cake, cake, candy cake, Frozen, Frozen cake, iceberg, iceberg cake, layered cake, ocean cake, penguin, penguin cake, penguins of madagascar, rock candy cake, white cake, winter 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

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

Giant Cookie Cake with Leftover Halloween Candy

November 5, 2014 by Jenn

If you have a bunch of leftover candy from Halloween, this is the recipe for you! If you ate it all your Halloween candy, good news- it’s all on clearance at the local stores, so go and grab some more before it’s all gone! If you do not live where you participate in Halloween festivities, you can use any candy you want to! I’m solving all of the world’s problems this morning- finding solutions to a lack of candy. You’re welcome.

Some people (not naming names- ME) went out of town after purchasing Costco candy for all the trick-or-treators in the neighbourhood and have a ginormous bag of candy (that I don’t like) leftover- NEVER opened! Oops. If you’re like me, there is serious strategy to buying Halloween candy. I buy what you don’t like, and then you won’t eat it. Usually, that is a fail safe way ensure there is no snacking, BUT since I recieved so many requests for a new recipe on how to use up leftover candy, I had to go out and buy some. Had to. HAD to! Then I HAD to go out and buy more when we snacked our way through the chocolate candies. HAD TO PEOPLE!! YOU MADE ME!! I thank you for that. My pants don’t, but I do.

Making a giant cookie cake definitely saves time, rather than dishing out individual amount of dough to make smaller cookies. You can do this with this recipe, but the fun is in serving a slice to your family or friends. Triangular pieces are a change from the standard round cookie, as are chunks of candy! If you choose to roll these cookies into rounds, bake them for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown at 350F.

Whether you choose to make this the traditional way, or in it’s giant cookie form as seen in our tutorial, it’s a delicious, and fast way to use up any candy/chocolate you might have hanging around!

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Filed Under: Cakes, Cookies, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: cake, candy cake, cookie, cookie cake, giant candy cookie cake, giant cookie, Giant Cookie Cake, Halloween, halloween candy, leftover candy, leftover halloween candy

Cherpumple: Triple Layer Pie in a Cake

November 1, 2014 by Jenn

What to call a pie in a cake?? A “pake”? A “cie”? Or what about “Cherappkin”? Appcherrkin? Pumpcherple? CHERPUMPLE!

I think I’m going to stick with “Pie in a cake”. It much easier to figure out what in the world I’m talking about!

This cake is admittedly time consuming since you have to bake three pies ahead of time, as well as prepare two types of cake batter. It’s definitely an investment in your life, but it is bound to impress anyone that looks at it. And most likely they’ll have to look at it twice to figure out what in the world they are looking at!

To make the investment of time shorter, using premade pies from a grocery store bakery work excellently, as does using box mixes for the cake batter. In the recipe below I have provided the link to all of our homemade versions of the pies, and cakes, if you are so inclinded for this big project.

Since the cake was such a big project, I went with an easy, light covering. Instead of using a heavy buttercream, I thought whipping cream would be best paired with the cakes/pies. After all, there is a lot going on in this cake, so the last thing it needed was another element to confuse the taste buds.

You can choose to go with any flavour of cake batter, as well as any type of pie when you’re making your own version of this. The hardest part of that will be trying to name it!

When you’re baking your pies, make sure that they are at least an inch (2 centimeters) smaller than your cake pan. This will ensure that there is just enough room for the cake batter to completely envelop the pie. You want to make sure that you spread the cake batter on the bottom, sides and top so that the batter prevents any of the pie from escaping while baking- especially in the fruit pies! Roughly, I wanted an inch (2cm) of cake batter underneath and on top of the pie to help prevent that from happening.

This “PAKE”, “CIE”, whatever you want to call it is super fun to make. I hope you have a blast !

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Filed Under: Cakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: apple, Apple pie, cake, cake pie, cherpumple, cherry, cherry pie, chocolate, chocolate cake, pake, pie, pie cake, pie in a cake, pumpkin, pumpkin pie, turducken, vanilla, Vanilla Cake

Christmas Cake with Snowman Macarons: Collab with Sugarcoder

Surprise Inside Christmas Cake: Vertical Striped Cake

The Hunger Games Cake: Katniss Wedding Dress Cake

Penguins Of Madagascar Cake

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

Surprise Inside Mustache Cake for Movember

Cherpumple: Triple Layer Pie in a Cake

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