Valentine's Day

Okay, I realize it is ten days past Valentine's Day but better late than never, right?? 

We celebrated the day at Pastrygirl with so many special treats!

Our regular White on White cupcakes with a special shortbread topper

Shortbread hearts and bees with a Valentine's message



Hibiscus shortbread with a passionfruit buttercream filling. So good!

This is little 5" espresso velvet cake with a mascarpone filling and espresso buttecream frosting. Cocoa powder heart and a chocolate covered espresso bean on top.



Cameos!!! Milk chocolate and white chocolate with a little gold luster dust.



White chocolate rose petal truffles.



Espresso caramels!



My shirt that I wore to work that day :)

Hope everyone had a fantastic Valentine's!

Catching Up!

Oh man, have I ever fallen behind on blogging! Yikes, am I horrible. Let's dedicate this posting to playing a little catch-up on the cakes I've done.

Now these are in no way in the correct order, but here goes...

Fun crayon shaped cakes for a crayon themed birthday party



Fun, last minute Star Wars characters on a 6" cake



I love the old-school Mario games so I was super excited to do this cake! It's two 1/4 sheet cakes put together for two brothers celebrating just weeks apart.



Fun cupcakes to go along...



This was a TINY smash cake to go with a much larger Pooh themed cake. Smash cakes are all the rage for a first birthday party. The smash cake is only for the one year old, and typically they just smash right into it!

This took me forever to cut out! But so worth it- a lovely small cake to sit atop a tower of cupcakes for a wedding.

This was my own birthday cake! An espresso cake, with caramel buttercream filling and an espresso buttercream frosting. Yumm!!

This was a fun Wonder Woman cake, what you can barely see in the picture is her tiara goes around the base of the cake.

This 1/4 sheet cake was super tall for a Super Why! themed cake

I like playing with layers of fondant to give some dimension 

Who doesn't love Hello Kitty! This was to replicate the party invitations for a Hello Kitty themed party.

Another smash cake! This one year old's party had fun circus animals. The smash cake is only 4" wide!

For a butterfly lover. Hand-painted on fondant.

Looks simple, but took a lot of time. Had to cut and trim each piece, then measure and place!

Fun life-preserver cake with anchors adorning the side

Sophie the Giraffe!

Pretty browns and golds on espresso buttercream

I'm still developing my sculpting skills so Ariel was a little squat, lol.

Fun coral, kelp, and bubbles along the side.

I LOVE making these! It's a cake shaped like a cupcake! This one was super small-only about 4" at it's widest point!

Laura made an amazing pillow for it to sit upon!



I'm really hoping to keep on top of these postings!

Stay tuned for a Valentine's post coming up!

Harry Potter Mania!

I'm a nerd. I love Harry Potter. While watching the last movie, I had chills the entire time and was on the verge of tears...it was THAT good. I did a great birthday cake the week before the release and then on the day of the release, we did some HP themed treats at Pastrygirl.

Here is the cake I made, with a Draco Malfoy theme :)

 It's a 1/4 sheet chocolate cake with peppermint mousse. The top is covered in fondant but the sides are just buttercream, shaped to look like the pages

I made the Slytherin badge out of fondant, also a "Potter Stinks" and "Prefect" badge

 

Delicious Pumpkin Juice :)



Butterbeer cupcakes- a cream soda cake with a butterscotch ganache filling, butterscotch buttercream, and a deathly hallows topper

Chocolate Frogs! Eat them quick or they may hop away!



Lightning bolt shaped shortbread



We decorated our White on White with a special Hedwig topper

And a delightful English Trifle ala Aunt Petunia

Circus Time!

So I saw the movie Water for Elephants today and it was simply amazing. It is one of my favorite books and the movie was done so well in staying true to the book. There is something I absolutely love about vintage circus. In the times when they rode the rails, city to city, and the entire town would come out to watch them set up the big top. It inspired me to look at what people have done with cakes and the circus :)

A simple, yet adorable cupcake idea,

Seals don't automatically come to mind for me when I think circus, but this was too cute to not include,

a more monochromatic big top

Tim Burton inspired?

 

Did I mention elephants are my favorite animal???

lovely banner,

These are so dang cute!!!

I need this kit!

A collage of circus party elements, I'm now must make that apron,

another circus themed party

This is actually scrapbook paper that I have for inspiration,

Whoopie Pies!

I love the look of whoopie pies and have been hearing about them more and more, lately. Today at work, we had a rather short to-do list so decided to try something new. We had never made whoopie pies before and they proved to be rather easy and very delicious!

Here is the recipe...

3.5 c. flour

1 tsp salt

1.5 c. cocoa powder

1 Tbsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 c. butter, room temperature

2 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 c. buttermilk, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla

preheat oven to 400.

sift flour, salt, cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder together, set aside.

cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about three minutes.

add eggs and vanilla.

alternate adding the dry with the buttermilk.

scoop onto lined baking sheet with a black handled scoop (1 to 1.5 inches)

bake 10 to 12 minutes.

let cool and fill with seven minute frosting.

these can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days.

Seven Minute Frosting

1.5 c sugar

2 Tbsp light corn syrup

6 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla

In mixing bowl, combine sugar, corn syrup, 1/4 cup water, and whites and set over saucepan of simmering water.

 Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture reaches 160 degrees, about 2 minutes.

Attach bowl to a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

Beat mixture on high speed until glossy and voluminous, about 5 minutes.

Beat in vanilla.

Use immediately.

You can also replace the vanilla (or part of the vanilla) with other flavors...we used peppermint :)