LL's Sweet Stuff

I made a chocolate mint cake for our family Easter get-together.  Unfortunately, due to some forgetfulness on my part, I left the cake at home.  Oops!  So, I brought it to work for my coworkers to enjoy.  Lots of lovely compliments on this cake!  One coworker mentioned that if she were getting married closer to town, she would have me do her wedding cake!  One mentioned that my family really missed out on this cake!  And the best was the last 2 pieces I brought to my husband – “Wow!  That’s the best cake you’ve ever made!  I think it’s the best one I’ve ever eaten!”  The second piece did not last for lunch today…

I made a cake for a cousin’s night. This one is a chocolate cake with a white chocolate filling and Bailey’s Irish cream buttercream. Yum! It turned out so well that both sets of cousins were eager to take a piece of it home for later. I had another cake in the fridge from the same batch, so my hubby had some of the extra too . Glad I’m finding some fantastic recipes to try out for the wedding cake! I did make a little screw up though… I need to remember to wait until my cake is completely cool betire frill and frost it… The top half slid off the bottom on the way to our cousins place. Oh well. At least it tasted wonderful!

After I brought the daisy cake to work, one of my coworkers asked if I would make her one of my practice cakes for her friend’s birthday, and she would pay me for it.  Of course I said yes!  She wanted it for a Thursday, which makes things tough for me since I’m so busy in the evening on Wednesday.  I made the cake and black icing colour on Tuesday (if it sits in the refrigerator for 24 hours, the black actually looks black!), and iced, filled and decorated Wednesday night.  I felt rushed.  It turned out ok, but by the time I was done, I was exhausted, and had to get up early for work the next day.  Ouch!  She told me she was happy with it since it was exactly what she asked for.  I’ll get better at these character cakes as I practice!  Working with fondant covers so many mistakes!  Buttercream is not as forgiving…

This one is a yellow butter cake (new recipe), filled with raspberry, iced in vanilla buttercream with the black being dark chocolate buttercream (yum!).

Whoo!  I did it!  Each time I’ve tried to tape fondant flowers together with florist tape I’ve ended up with a bunch of broken flowers and a frustrated me.  I used gumpaste this time and patiently waited for my flowers to dry overnight so they would be good and hard today.  As I taped individual wires, nothing broke; as I taped groups of wires together, nothing broke and as I taped groups of wires together, I had a little bit of wobbly flowers, but nothing broke!  Yay!  I think I’ll be able to do big bunches of gumpaste flowers and ivy leaves as times goes on and I practice more  I used so much tape today… I don’t think the roll I have will last very long!

Over the holidays, I made my family a lovely yule log!  This one turned out fantastic!  Mum and I did some fighting with the buttercream (since it’s my Tante’s recipe) and eventually got it the right consistency (but it tasted great at every consistency!).  My brother even enjoyed the whole yule log (and it wasn’t a chocolate cake…).  My cousins asked why on earth I would put mushrooms on a cake??  I asked them to try one.  Once they at the mushrooms, they weren’t confused any more!  These are meringue mushrooms dusted with cocoa powder on a white sponge cake filled with chocolate mousse and iced with chocolate buttercream.  Delicious!

After spending Christmas with my family, and talking a lot about what my brother and his fiancee want for their wedding cake, I tried flowers again with my tools.  I had so much fun this afternoon working on them!  I wanted to use the leftover fondant I had from the last time I made them, but it had dried out in the fridge.  I used ready-made gumpaste this time instead of fussing around making my own fondant.  I’m so glad I did!  I would have spent the time making fondant instead of making flowers.

I tried gerbera daisies, calla lilies, roses and daisies.  Take a look!

I’m glad I finally had some time to take to play with sugar!  I’m hoping to have some time next week to make a cake and put these on it!  (Oh, and make leaves to go with them to add a little extra colour!)

Another try at a red velvet cake for a housewarming party.  ”Home Sweet Home” would have been better than “Happy Home.”  But I was a little rushed with trying to get out the door – never rush a cake.  It’s way more fun to take the time to get right.  And I still have blue buttercream left over!

I spent all day today making my first tiered cake I think the next time I try, I’ll be making the cake and filling it the night before, and doing the decorating the next day. I’m definitely tired!

I tried hydrangeas since they are one of my favourite flowers in the colours that my brother has chosen as his wedding colours. They were fun to do with the cutters I have. When it came time to wrap the flowers together, they started breaking on me Not impressed. So, I took them all off the wires and piled them on the cake. I wanted a big ball of hydrangeas on the cake, not a flat bit of flowers, but oh well. Still looks kinda cute.

The cake is a little crooked, but I don’t think it’s too bad for a first try. I cut the dowels too long and I didn’t get them into the centre of the big cake Something to look for on my next try.

It’s a chocolate cake with a grand-marnier – orange filling and almond buttercream. Should be a good cake.