Cakes — Page 28

Cricut Cake Cakes

July 5, 2011 by Jenn

What the eff is a Cricut?

I had NO idea when I first heard about it, but it has turned out to be one of the great things that make caking a little bit easier. Sort of. This machine can be very temperamental.

When I first heard about it, I thought it was a CRI-(rhymes with TRI)-cut. But now I have learned that it is “crick-uht“.

Like the noisy insect in the bushes when you’re camping.

You would have thought that the cricket shaped logo would have given me a heads up! Duh. Not surprising that that one got away on me if you know me.

This is a Cricut Cake. It is a pain in the a$$ but it does some pretty cool things when it wants to. A refined adjective to call this frustratingly beautiful red machine (I love red electronics) would be FINICKY.

You need to have a perfect combination of gum paste and fondant, but it can make you cool crowns, and Happy Birthday signs!

You have to have the mixture at the correct temperature . . . too warm and it won’t cut, the blade with just rip the fondant. The Cricut Cake cut this image out of the girl guides, which was perfect for a Brownies wrap up!

You have to have the blade at the correct depth (I’ve heard this is a complaint also from the Cricut Expressions for scrapbooking, but I don’t claim to know anything about paper) . . . too high and it won’t cut anything, too deep and it cuts into your cutting mat. The depth was perfect for these butterflies and yet another Happy Birthday sign!

These cake pops were topped with flowers and butterflies cut from the Cricut Cake.

For a horse lover . . . horse shoes, and a different Happy Birthday sign.

Edible Image Cakes

July 4, 2011 by Jenn

I’m about to admit that I was wrong.

This doesn’t occur very often, but when I’m wrong, and I know I’m wrong, I will admit it. HAHAHAHAHA. So not true. I will try to back my way out of it, blame whomever else I can (innocent bystanders, children walking by, Ruby . . . you get the picture).

But, now, at the ripe OLD age of 32, I am about to admit publicly, into the blogosphere, that I was wrong about edible images. I was convinced that they were a stupid idea, as I had only seen what one of the images looks like when it comes out of the DQ cooler, and I can still remember the disgusting taste that the huge, thick, chunk of pixilated-poor-image quality tasted like.

After getting to be a part of taste testing for the Sex and the City cake, and the Cranbrook Farmers Market cake, I can honestly tell you that the edible sheets that we buy taste like . . . nothing! You don’t even notice that it’s there. The sheets become one with fondant . . . or buttercream.

After working with Edible Images for a couple of months now, they are an absolute hit with me! I love having them as something to offer to our customers and we can do pretty much anything. As long as the image is big enough mind you . . . no Facebook downloaded pictures allowed . . . why are try always so small when you try to download them anyway?

Isn’t the art work on this logo amazing! We were so incredibly pleased that the image came out and gave the logo the justice that it deserved. Stunning work from this designer. Check out that beautiful “cat”.

These NDP cakes were made for my Dad . . . a strong socialist if you can’t guess!

This one we had fun with . . . Paul cropped an old picture of my dad, who originally had his arm around my mom, and slid Jack Layton in there in her place!

We surprised him with it at an NDP meeting he was having with the local executives. I think he was happy 🙂

So there you have it. I was wrong. I WAS WRONG! You can mark down that today was the day that I admitted to it. Finally. Now do I have to admit that I’m not perfect too?

Filed Under: Cakes Tagged With: edible image, edible image cake, ndp cake, sex and the city cake

Frozen Buttercream Transfer

June 16, 2011 by Jenn

Here is the next instalment of our You Tube channel, and it’s a Caking Tutorial How To Video on frozen buttercream transfers.

A frozen buttercream transfer (FBCT . . . is how some people refer to it) is a way to do specific pictures or images, logos by hand with your piping bag.

This is a technique that I love to use because it is actually pretty easy! You don’t have to be a skilled artist to trace with your piping bag . . . you just need to be able to follow the lines! It’s kind of like a paint by number for a caked. How great is that?

To make your buttercream for the FBCT, use your favourite recipe for buttercream, or try mine here. You will need a baking sheet, icing in piping bags fitted with the necessary tips, a template for your image, and a piece of wax paper large enough to cover your template. When you’ve got that, you’re ready to watch the video, follow the steps and voila, you will have a perfect hand piped image. I guarantee* (* I don’t really), you might not be able to follow the lines . . . or colour within them 😉

Let me know what you think!

Do you have any go-to techniques that you always use when you’re caking or cookie decorating?

Filed Under: Cakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: buttercream, frozen buttercream transfer, Icing

Fondant Cakes: Princess, Pyramid, Ballet, Lighthouse, “Sex and the City!”

May 27, 2011 by Jenn

Princess Birthday Cake

Pyramid Cake

Ballet Cake, with a Fondant Hippo.

Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse Replica

Sex and the City 30th Birthday Cake

Filed Under: Cakes Tagged With: Ballet Cake, Peggy's Cove Lighthouse cake, Princess Birthday Cake, Pyramid Cake, sex and the city cake, with a Fondant Hippo.

Simple, Beautiful Cakes

May 26, 2011 by Jenn

Filed Under: Cakes

How to Make Cake Pops

May 25, 2011 by Jenn

Obviously you have heard of Cake Pops. If you haven’t, welcome back to the world. How was it under that rock?

In case you are covered in detritus from your long winter spent buried in the woods, a cake pop is basically this: cake, rolled in a ball, stuck on a stick and dipped in chocolate.

Sounds easy, right?

Well, lets get started.

I apologize, right off the bat, for the poor quality of the pictures! I’m not sure what happened. I’ll blame the camera. Or the tripod. But, not me of course. The step by step pics are fine . . . because they were taken by Paul, but the ones in the light hood are almost not worth showing you! **embarrassed**

One more thing . . . did you know there is a Food on a Stick Day? Random. It was a couple of weeks ago, and I meant to post this article for that, but you know, time got away from me. That, and, I didn’t see “Food on a Stick Day” on my Runner’s World Calendar.

NOW, let’s get started. I’m finished rambling. For now.

HOW TO MAKE CAKE POPS

First you need to bake a cake. Any cake will do. Once you have let it cool, add about 1/2 cup of icing to it and mix, mix, mix! Get your hands in there, and get dirty!

Using a cookie scoop, roll equal amounts of dough into round balls.

Melt your chocolate in a microwavable bowl . . . for one cake, you will need at least 2 cups of chocolate chips (or melting wafers). Using lolipop sticks, dip the top into the melted chocolate, and then immediately into the cake pop.

Repeat until all of your balls become pops!

At this points, I find it best to put all of the pops into the freezer to solidify. This helps keep the cake together when you start to dip and roll them in the melted chocolate.

When they have been in the freezer for about 20 minutes, you need to work quickly, and start rolling!

Make sure that you cover all of the cake pop!

There’s no such thing as too much chocolate, right?

I find it best to allow my cake pops to solidify by sticking them into a piece of heavy duty styrofoam. This way, any drips that might happen follow gravity, and don’t end up making your perfectly round ball into something else!

Perfection!

Decorate however you see fit, and enjoy 🙂

I decorated these ones for a local flower store that deserved a special treat! The flowers are made out of marbled gum paste and fondant.

We were also trying out the Cricut Cake for on these! The butterfly’s and the flower in the middle of the picture (above) and to the right of the pic are with the Cricut Cake.

Maybe next year I’ll be able to celebrate Food on a Stick Day! I better go write that down.

Filed Under: Cakes, Other Baked Goodies Tagged With: cake, cake pops, chocolate cake, how to decorate cake pops, tutorial

S.O.S.- First Aid Cake

May 10, 2011 by Jenn

Need help? Maybe you need a first aid kit? One comes in handy in your car. In your backpack. In your house. Pretty much anywhere!

If you’re like me and often loose your battle with the grater . . .

WARNING!!!

DO NOT

SCROLL

DOWN

IF YOU

DON’T

LIKE SEEING

BLOOD.

Just kidding.

I actually did have a picture to put up here, but I can’t find it. I can hear the little voice in my head, “Get organized!” . . . that voice strangely sounds like Paul.

I have a horrible reputation for grating my fingers and knuckles on the cheese grater, and OMG does it hurt! The cuts aka bone jarring flesh removal, take forever to heal. Avoid doing this to yourself!

Perhaps I should start wearing gloves while grating.

A little cake info for you . . . the bandaids looked so real, they were kind of gross! Paul even detailed the backs of them with a piece of white fondant to look like the gauze. So good, yet so wrong.

The great big tensor bandage is made out of rice krispies, and is wrapped in creepy coloured fondant.

One of the men who ordered this cake said he ate all of the bandage and the bandaids! I don’t know why, but I so couldn’t have done that. I made the cake, I watched Paul make the bandage and bandaids, but still it seems kind of gross to me.

I’m weird. And always in need of a First Aid kit.

Filed Under: Cakes Tagged With: first aid cake, working with fondant

Ladies? Where are your orders? A tank cake and an Xbox Remote Cake.

May 3, 2011 by Jenn

Please, please, please, help me out and place an order for a GIRLY cake! My estrogen is begging you!

German Tiger Tank. Uggh. Do I need to say more? I made this cake EXTRA difficult for us, as we were working with a new brand of fondant. I figured, that fondant, is fondant, is fondant, but that was a ROOKIE mistake! This specific brand of fondant is really soft, and was quite difficult to work with. Paul has spent hours researching how to make fondant harder, and we think we have found the secret! I will post a fondant comparison and fondant hardener review soon!

XBox Remote Cake

This cake was done specially for a local birthday boy! His order was very specific, and knew exactly what colours, shape and type of cake he wanted! He even had to poll his friends, to find out which flavour his friends would enjoy most during the celebration! How cute, eh? He (and his friends) ended up choosing Cookie Dough (GREAT choice boys!), and from there, the specifics were up to us!

I started by baking two 8″ round cakes to form the general shape for the remote. Then Paul, and the carving knife, took over (while I went to Tier Cake Class) and he shaped the cake into what you see. He then diligently started working on the pieces of the controller, while I started working on the fondant cover.

We have been having fondant issues of late, and this time, the red fondant was quite dry! I worked with this problem by putting it in the microwave for 10 seconds (seriously!) and added vegetable shortening for more moisture. Working with the red in this way was much better, but while making the stripes to lay over the black, they dried much quicker, and you can see some of the breakage along the sides (if you look carefully . . . so don’t).

To make the tiger stripe overlay, roll out your base colour, cut out your stripes and your accent colour, and lay stripes over top of your base. Use your rolling pin to blend the two colours, and viola! You get one solid sheet of striped fondant!

Filed Under: Cakes Tagged With: fondant, man cakes, tank cake, working with fondant, XBox Remote Cake