My first cake job!

I had my first wedding cake job!

It was for a friend from grad school's wedding this past weekend. Three tiers, served about 100. The bottom tier was coconut cake with raspberries, the middle was a vanilla pound cake with lemon curd and the top tier was a chocolate cake with mocha cream filling. All frosted in buttercream in a spackle/plaster fashion (what was requested). It was pretty darn good if I do say so myself! I even got some very nice compliments from the reception hall staff and was asked what shop I worked for. No one believed it was my first wedding cake (ok... 2nd)! Here are some pictures of the masterpiece. (the flowers and ribbon were the bride's choice and how cute are those little mice for a science-y couple?!?!?)

As a bonus, Craig and I actually had an adult night out for a change! My mom got to stay with the munchkin and other than some bathtime related poo, they had a blast too.

Weekend in Review

One tired kiddo... she had a BUSY weekend! All sorts of cleaning and errands to get ready for her buddies welcome party! (Plus some very crazed kicking on her gym!)

Another weekend come and gone. The baby girl is 13 weeks tomorrow. Where has the time gone???? We had the baby shower for Sam (and his Mom and Dad) today. Sam's nursery has a bee theme-- hence this cake. (Old-fashioned chocolate layer cake with buttercream frosting and yellow cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting-- all with royal icing piped flowers and bees)

Just a cute pic of the kiddo doing what she does best, being adorable (well... she's pretty good at that and filling diapers too)

And one more attempt at capturing that beautiful toothless grin!

Most Fabulous Wonderful Bestest Chocolate Dessert/Cake Thing Ever!!!!

My Intern brought in the recipe for his mom's amazing chocolate cake. I will share it here-- hope you enjoy! I've eaten the final result, but never made it for myself-- so I will let you know if I figure out any more tricks!

Chocolate Delight
8oz chocolate (Lindt comes recommended)
8oz unsaled butter
8oz sugar
6 eggs
2T flour
1t lemon juice
cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 375. You will need a Bain Marie. (water bath)

1) Separate egg yolks from whites
2) Melt the chocolatewith the butter in a double boiler until smooth. Then let it cool.
3) Combine egg yolks with sugar until white. Add flour.
4) Combine chocolate/butter with sugar/egg yolks.
5) Beat egg white (I'm guessing until stiff) then add lemon juice at the end.
6) Add delicately (fold?) egg whites into the chocolate/butter/sugar/egg yolks mixture.
7) Grease and lightly flour (cocoa?) a baking dish (I would say in the 6x12 kind of size was what it looked like)
8) Bake 50-55 minutes. Let cool and then refridgerate over night.
9) Unmold (may involve a quick dip of the baking sheet in warm water (like a jello)) and coat with cocoa powder.
10) Enjoy! (that was on the instructions!!)

La Torta Final!

(Ok, so that's the last cake)

Our last cake decorating class was this past week. I finally got the pictures today and thought I would share. This is one more example of the everpresent buttermilk cake-- though this time flavored with a little orange blossom water and then soaked with a mandarin orange syrup. This cake was filled with mandarin orange (clementinas in spanish) and frosted with a normal buttercream. We then covered it with fondant and did the fondant drape in the colors of the flag of Spain and then I made a little gumpaste flower to stick on the top. Tada! the last cake for class... so now I just need to get a few cake jobs to make some money with all I have learned!

Irish Cake

Here is the Irish cake.


On a review of the Guinness cake-- VERY GOOD. Not overly sweet. Nicely moist. Dense enough to take icing, just be careful of cut surfaces as it makes a LOT of crumbs. This cake domed a fair amount when I baked it, so it required some leveling. I am not sure if that is a me specific problem or a problem due to the recipe, so be warned.

I filled and frosted it with an Irish Cream/Cream Cheese Butter Cream. No more of that nasty crisco icing we had to use before. Other than getting mildly buzzed by evaporating alcohol fumes while whipping the icing, it really doesn't have too much of an alcohol taste to it. (Much.... can I serve this to my intern? He's only 19... of course, when I mentioned what kind of cake it was his response was "Cool, an Irish Car Bomb in a cake" so I have a feeling I am not the one doing the corrupting here!)

There are some lumps and bumps in the fondant on this one-- we were using the base cake to demo different techniques and then just did this as the way to leave it finally-- so it had stuff "glued" on and then pulled off which left it less than perfect under there. This one is pretty simple as class this week was to cover a cake in fondant-- we didn't learn any flowers or anything else, so its a basic cake.

Guinness Cake

Tonight is Cake class 2---

the Guinness Cake recipe

THIS RECIPE MAKES A TON!!!!! (seriously, 1lb butter, 4 cups EACH flour and sugar)

So due to PA's archaic liquor laws-- we were not able to buy beer on Sunday, and you have to buy a case (or pay almost as much to get just a 6-pack)-- we are now the proud owners of a case of Guinness, Craig sees this as no hardship... and the bottles are funny-- they have widgits to get them to foam correctly.

Stay tuned this evening or tomorrow for pics of the finished "Irish" cake.

Weekend in Review and plans for the week

This weekend was largely spent catching up on laundry--- the oh so exciting life of newlyweds. Woohoo. We did go see Pirates 3 :return of random sword wielding squid yesterday. Craig enjoyed it, I found it loud... and very random. But, if you like random fish creatures fighting against colonial British forces and pirates, this may be the movie for you! (ok, and Keith Richards makes a brief and to me comical cameo) Swashbuckling fun-- but at least it was a couple hours in air conditioning!!!
More exciting was that we then went to dinner at Passage to India in Harrisburg. Delicious as always-- and even better when we had a buy one dinner get one free coupon! (for once hubby's need to save every piece of junk mail we get worked out for the better!!) I had some sort of lamb -- lamb Rogun Josh or something like that. It was quite tasty-- not too spicy-- just nicely flavored. And as a bonus, there were enough for leftovers-- I just have to make up some rice-- that's the kind of dinner I can handle any night-- even when it is 90 in my kitchen.

Today we got some laundry done, I got my veggies transplanted outside (heres hoping they survive), polyurethaned the outdoor sink and the new front door step, and got the guest room cleaned out for this coming weekend's guest. Not too bad a day-- the good thing about laundry folding is that it is the ideal fit for chick flicks! Today-- Circle of Friends, Dance with Me --Vanessa Williams AND Chayanne! ;-)-- and When Harry Met Sally-- one of my all time favorites ever. So it was a nice afternoon. Craig is locked down in the dungeon working on his homework for his online course. I guess that's what I get for encouraging him to go back to school and get his Master's finished up. Two of us in grad school... what was I thinking?!?!?!

This week looks to be a full one. Monday has my semi-monthly or whenever we remember to schedule it rotating dinner with two of my friends from grad school, Tuesday brings cake class -- stay tuned. The first cake we're doing this time is "Ireland"-- Should be pretty good. (and yes, I will share recipes) Wednesday is wings night here again. Thursday Craig and I have dinner at our friends who are getting married this weekend to meet their parents who we'll be helping get around while they are here, then Friday rehearsal/dinner with the to-be-wed Mike and Leah, and finally Saturday is their wedding. Should all be fun, but some Sunday I will definitely be looking forward to a NAP!

Stay tuned- I should get some decent pics to share this week. If nothing else, I have a pic of Craig in a pirate hat that is BEGGING to be shared!

This Weekend~

On Friday, Craig and I went to Ellie's going away party. After a very rocky beginning 3 years earlier and an enlightening trip to Spain and France with 15 underclassmen, Ellie and I became friends and even roomates senior year and then a fabulous bridesmaid just a few months ago! I was very lucky that when I moved to Hershey, Ellie was working and living near by in Harrisburg- it gave a friend here from day one-- and one who knows great restaurants! Ellie has now recieved an absolutely amazing job offer-- but she has to move to Orlando--- so its time for her to move. Her going away party was at Appalachian Brew Company-- so Craig got some tasty beer (I had ale... ginger ale) and we snacked for a while and played some pool. Ellie had loads of guests, so we didn't get too much of a chance to talk-- so we're going out later this week for dinner so I can get all the news on her new job and home and all that! I am sad Ellie's leaving-- but she'll be back to visit (her parents live in Harrisburg) and she's said I can come visit her and Mickey anytime!

Saturday Craig and I drove up to Hazleton to visit Pappy. We went to the Park Diner(in Shenandoah?) for lunch-- the Park is somewhere if you drove by you would never never never ever go in. Its tiny and mismatched and kinda seedy looking -- its an old-time diner-- not in the cheesy recreate a diner that looks old-- it actually IS old. The food though is AMAZING. IT is run by a very nice couple and it has been in her family for years. They make the most wonderful rice pudding I have ever had-- and all the other food is pretty darn good too! When we go up to visit Pappy we usually eat there.

Sunday Craig did some more work on edging the gardens with brick and I washed out the comforter and hung it to dry (those things get VERY heavy when wet!) Other than that, I worked on the latest cake (the coconut cake recipe filled with vanilla pastry cream and fresh strawberries, topped with whipped cream for Kristin's (in my lab) birthday. I unfortunately do not have a picture of this cake-- we ate it too quickly! But I was told by my lab that this was their favorite of my cakes so far!

Latest Cake

Here are a couple quick photos of the latest cake for class. This cake was the final cake for the "Fondant and tiered cakes" course (Course 3). We passed... even with our slightly unorthodox cake. No movies this time. just some quick snapshots and a recipe.

This cake is actually a brownie then frosted in peppermint REAL buttercream and then done up to look like a plate and cake in fondant.

I did up the bottom round brownie to look like a fancy plate using silver tinted royal icing and brush embroidery and stringwork-- which sadly does not come across in the pictures. Made the fork from silvery-gray fondant and then stacked some triangular pieces of brownie together to make the slice of 'cake' which Craig then covered in chocolate-y brown fondant and minty green for the top and back. I added on the rope borders and made a quick fondant rose, and there you have it... our final cake!

This is our last cake for about a month as there is no class during May. Our next course (Fondant and Gumpaste) begins again in June-- I for one am looking forward to the next class... but also glad for a few weeks with no baking that HAS to be done-- plus it should help with that whole diet plan thing! Cakes are awfully tempting, plus you have to taste things along the way to make sure they are "ok for company".

The Cake!

Here is the cake I made this weekend for the Bridal Shower. I am still working on the whole film-making thing, but this one is not as shaky as the last one. I used the same yellow cake recipe I referred to before and then made a stabilized whipped cream to fill and frost. I also sliced til I had about 2.5 cups of strawberries and put some sugar on them til they were softened a little and leaked juice. I split the layers, filled them with the whipped cream then topped with a good handful of strawberries and then stuck the next layer on and did the same again. I had made the roses and leaves from fondant the night before and let them dry, then arranged them on the cake just before I put it out. I would be cautious about using fondant on whipped cream for any cake that has to sit-- as the moisture of the whipped cream can liquefy the fondant into a sticky oozy mess.

Saturday was a tired day

Well... Friday night I had 2 huge glasses of Moe's super delicious sweet tea... and this was my first caffeine in over 4 months... I was WIRED. I was up past 5:30 this morning and showing no signs of drooping.. not good. I was up by 9 and getting ready for the day-- I made it through the shower, got all the stuff done I needed to, hosted the BBQ and now I am ready to crash. I have pics of the cake and all that, but its going to have to wait for posting til after I sleep. (maybe through til tommorrow evening at this point. I am BEAT! (of course, if the weather as pretty as promised, the sun will be in my window bright and early and I will be awake... but some nice daylight is totally worth it!

night all.

Random Nonsense and (no)news

OK, so 1 day with no post and I get complaints... so here is a post.













haha... I bet you thought that was all you were getting-- I will ramble some more though!

I am working on planning a bridal shower for a friend this weekend-- she requested not a really dressy shower... in fact she requested it be a "jeans" kinda time-- woooohoooo! So I have to bake the cake (no big surprise there) and I am taking votes on what kind to make--

White Cream of Coconut Cake with Citrus curd filling
Chocolate Cake with Mocha Silk filling
Extra Moist Yellow Buttermilk Cake with Whipped Cream and Fresh Strawberry Filling

Some other mix of the cake flavors and fillings?
(Or maybe this one?)
Any votes? Any other suggestions? I am most likely to cover the thing in some sort of fondant for class practice-- but the inside is the important part anyway!

Tonight my friends Kim and Katie are coming over for dinner-- we try to get together at least once a month to do this-- we split the meal meat, sides, and dessert-- and this is my turn to make meat. If its not raining and above freezing I am making barbecue chicken on the grill.... if it is cold and raining I'll be making foil packet baked barbecue chicken. No news on dessert yet-- but Kim usually brings 2 so it should be good!

Another look at the latest cake

A different view. a pretty package. Still VERY yellow...

oh, and on that recipe... allrecipes.com allows you to scale them... I halved it and made 2 full 8-inch rounds.

Cake Course #3 Cake #1

The latest cake. all fondant and yes it is very very yellow. Also you can see here my first fondant rose. I still need some work, but I am pretty happy with it overall. We were pretty good this week and did follow the directions for the most part... well... everyone else made a white cake but still... and I did all the little flowers to the side, but something had to be done to tone down that yellow. (next time it needs to be a prettier pastel color to go with the others!)

too bad fondant isn't too tasty-- but this cake is a yellow buttermilk cake with a strawberry butter cream filling... so the inside should be good at least! I REALLY recommend this cake recipe, its super simple, very flavorful and moist too--- Craig even did the baking this time-- and it still turned out great!

Cake class

So after the insanity of baking my own wedding cake (which turned out gorgeous if I do say so myself (see the picture there!)) Craig is now pushing me to open a cake business of my own and make wedding cakes for others (and in his eyes, for profit). I am not allowed to have outside employment due to my grad student contract (they want us poor and grateful for the scraps we are given)-- so I cannot go into this full time, but I am enjoying it. I started the wilton method cake decorating classes at the local Micheal's-- and craig decided to take them along with me -- he gets to eat the practice cakes.

I am pretty sure the teacher thinks we are nuts-- everyone else in the class does the same boring yet pretty cake and our are a little out there-- radioactive symbols (a big hit when we brought them to the nerd factory we work in), snakes, funny colors, ants-- you name it... everyone else does the same flowers in the same colors-- not so exciting. Don't get me wrong we are doing the flowers too, we're just putting them in more interesting settings-- so its been fun. Our flowers are the best in the class so we get a little antsy to try something a bit more challenging and interesting and we do.

Tonight is our final cake for level 2-- every one else will be doing white basket weaves with pastel flowers and small sugar blue birds... we're making frogs, cattails,lilypads and dragonflies-- with oodles of flowers to grow around the pond -- so the teacher will be satisfied-- our required basket weave will be in chocolate buttercream as the ground. I will have to take a picture and send it along so I can share it. We've got all the flowers made, so all we have to do in class is basket weave the cake and then place the royal icing decorations... I have high hopes for it.

Plus I tried a new chocolate cake recipe and I am pleased with it, I sliced the layers for torting this morning before work, so all I have to do tonight before class is fill and crumb coat the cake and make enough buttercream for frosting it.

I'll send a post later with the picture to share!