Saturday, April 6, 2013

It’s been a while…

I’ve been so busy these past 6 months that I haven’t really had time to update this thing. I also had the misfortune of having my laptop crash and so I lost all of my photos of my birthday cake and my Christmas cookies and treats that I made last year.

Luckily, I still have a few photos of my Christmas Eve cake that I had saved in my email account that I can share with you.



The winter house cake was a traditional cherry pound cake with vanilla buttercream icing. I baked the cake in Wilton’s stand-up, 3D house cake pan. I made the wreath from royal icing and decorated it with sprinkles before letting it dry and attaching it to the cake. The green garlands around the door and windows were made from buttercream piped directly onto the cake and decorated with various sprinkles to look like ornaments. The snowman and the hedges were made from Rice Krispies treats molded by hand and covered in royal icing. The snowman and the icing snow on the cake board were covered in coconut to make them look fluffy. The evergreen trees were ice cream sugar cones covered in green royal icing that was piped using a star tip. I used chocolate pebbles to create the step in front of the door and for the border around the snow-covered flower beds. Originally, I wanted to dust icing sugar over the trees and the hedges to look like freshly fallen snow, but I decided against it because dusting powdered sugar never works out quite right for me. So, I left it as is. FYI, that's my Christmas tree in the background of the photo.

And here is my father’s birthday cake that I made a couple of weekends ago.




The pig pen cake is a two-layer, 8-inch brownie cake with chocolate ganache between the layers, decorated with chocolate ganache, chocolate cookie crumb "dirt," green vanilla buttercream "grass," and a pretzel fence to look like a pig pen. I made a gate for the pig pen by gluing pieces of pretzel together with royal icing and then letting it dry on a piece of wax paper. I made the pigs, vegetables, bees, ladybugs, and flowers from homemade marshmallow fondant. In case you're wondering, I made potatoes, carrots, apples, corn, cabbages, and pumpkins. Notice the pig at the top of the pen who dove right into the mud to get at his grub. All you can see are his leg, bum, and ears sticking out.

I also made some Easter brownies.



These are chocolate walnut brownies covered in a layer of chocolate ganache and decorated with homemade marshmallow fondant flowers and leaves, assorted sprinkles, and Hershey’s Eggies.

It's likely that I won't have much time to update for the next little while. For some (stupid?) reason, I applied and was accepted to another master's program. So, my cakes and cookies will be few and far between, but I'll be twice as master-y as I was before.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Heather
    I've missed you!! Hope the pigpen wasn't inspired by family connections - I could say I live in one most days. The cakes and bars are beautiful. I like that you use yummy recipes for the cakes; pretty, yes, but good eatin' too!
    Congratulations on more school. Now when I check for Blog updates I'll know where you are; getting more educated. You should start an anti "for dummies" series now that you have mastered cakes and frosting: "cake decorating for smarties". For goodness sakes, don't let school suck the creativity out of you.

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  2. Hi there. Welcome Back!

    Willy always gets the bestest cakes! Your brownies look so scrumptious...tried to pull one out of my computer screen but, no luck!! lol I made Joely and Brynne a "Peeps" cake for Easter. Lots of color, lots of calories, lots of delicious! Love your pigs! Reminds me of the huge felt pig ornament I made for my Christmas tree when the kids were little, and still have. It always held a prominent place on our tree(our real trees in Labrador were not always that full, so inevitably there was a huge bare spot to cover, and the giant pig fit the bill!)

    See you in a few days...we are coming in for the Leonard Cohen concert on Apr. 20th.

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