Monster Birthday Cake

One of my coworkers (and friend) asked me if I could make a cake for her soon-to-be step-daughter.  I was very happy to make this cake for her.  She sent me an idea of a cake she wanted with the Monster (energy drink) logo on it.  The cake is a chocolate cake with butter cream icing.  The icing is also the filling in the cake.  My niece was a big help on this cake.  She helped my fill it and frost the first layer.  She is excited to learn and she did a great job!  The final result of this cake came out much better than what I expected.  I was very nervous about free-handing the logo because those of you that know me, know I cannot draw to save my life!  This may actually be changing because I think it came out pretty great!  What do you think?

Final Product!

He or She What Will It Be?

This family has been so good to me and my "starting up" business.  I was so happy to make this cake for a baby reveal party.  Their theme was a football theme and the cake idea they gave me so was much fun!  This is the family who absolutely loves the pineapple filling with french vanilla cake.  I was more than happy to make this for them.  My client came to me with an idea and she pretty much just let me run with it.  This takes a little bit of stress off of me because I know it doesn't have to be prefect!  She had decided on a football field cake with a blue and pink helmet meeting on the 50 yard line.  I loved this cake and I think they did too!

 It was a girl!!

Alien Cupcakes from Toy Story

Let me just start by saying I thought I was going to have so much time on my hands to blog this summer.  Boy, was I wrong!  I have been so busy doing things around the house that I have almost completely forgotten about my blog.

Last month my Godson celebrated his 2nd birthday!  He is just precious and he is also ecstatic about Toy Story!  There was no questioning what the theme of his party would be!  We decided to go with cupcakes because we were a little pressed for time.

We found the Alien Cupcakes and decided we should go with these. We just chose lemon cupcakes and butter cream icing.  While the cupcakes were cooling I made my icing.  I tried to get the color as close as I could to the sour straws and candy leathers.  Once the cupcakes were cooled, I frosted them with a Wilton 12 tip.

After they were all frosted I came up with this method to flatten out what would be the face of the alien.  I just boiled a little bit of water and placed my spatula in the water until it was hot.  I wiped off the water and gently placed the spatula on the frosting which melted and flattened the frosting.

The next step was decorating the face.  For the antennae you can cut the sour straws in four pieces.  The ears are cut from the candy leathers and the eyes are Mentos dotted with black frosting.  I also just drew the mouth on with the black frosting.

Final Product!

Alien Cupcakes on Toy Story Stand

Camouflage Cupcakes

A very special person in my life was a part of the military for a long time (close to 13 years).  I wanted to make something for him for Memorial Day.  He said, "I'm not dead," but I thought he deserved it either way for serving his time. 

I read online that this worked best with a red velvet batter but I thought the red would mess with the different colors.  I already had some lemon batter from a previous order that I used.  I just divided to batter into three different bowls.  I mixed the colors (brown, black, and green) until I was pleased with the different shades. 
Once the shades are mixed, you just start adding the batter by the spoonful until the liner is 2/3 of the way full. 

After the liners are filled

Here they are after they come out of the oven

Once the cupcakes are cooled, you can frost them.  I made my frosting a little camouflaged too.  You simply put two different colors of frosting in a piping bag and you will have multi-colored frosting!

Final Product

National Chocolate Chip Day

I found out today was National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!  I just had to whip some up!  I'm currently working on an order for this weekend so more posts soon!

Tip Tuesday I

I don't have a lot of tips to share yet because I feel I am a beginner, however, I have come across some things that make my life so much easier in my baking world.  I love how much technology has evolved even since I was little baking with my mom and sister but I just DO NOT like staring at a screen with dirty fingers trying to find my place in a recipe.  If I use my computer it gets dirty and if I use my phone it goes to sleep so often that it takes me forever to get through a few steps.  I came up with something that works out so great for me even if I am wasting a little bit of paper.

I print out all of the recipes that I like online.  I will also tear out pages of a magazine if I just have to have the recipe.  I put them all in sheet protectors and bind them.  I put two recipes in each sheet protector (so I don't waste those) front to back. 

This has worked so well for me.  I can have dirty fingers and touch the recipe to find my place and all you have to do is wipe it down and it is clean again!

I hope you find this as useful as I did!

Birthday Cake

A couple of weeks ago I made a cross cake for a college friend on mine.  Her family loved it and immediately asked for another one.  This time it was going to be for a man and a woman so they wanted it to be blue and pink.  The inside was the same as the cross cake.  It is a plain vanilla cake with a pineapple filling and vanilla buttercream.

Final Product!

Easter Cross Cake

One of my college friends asked if I could make her a cake.  She recently got engaged!  Her fiance took the classes to become Catholic before they got married. He was able to complete the classes for this Easter weekend!  She asked if I could make her a cross cake.  She also chose to order some Pineapple Upside Down cupcakes because that is her fiance's favorite!  She also wanted the cake to sort of "match" the cupcakes.  We went with a regular vanilla cake with a pineapple filling.  I wasn't able to taste the cake but she let me know that it got great reviews!  I hope to be making another cake for this family soon!

Easter Cross Cake!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Butter Cream

I was asked to make some chocolate and strawberry cupcakes by a teacher I work with.  We came up with chocolate cupcakes with strawberry butter cream.  The recipe for the chocolate cupcakes is available here.  These cupcakes came out very moist!  It has sour cream in them and I think that is what did the trick!

I also added just a regular strawberry butter cream on top.  Recipe below.

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla {give or take}
2 T strawberry puree
Powdered sugar {Once you like how it looks}

Cream the butter and vanilla in a mixing bowl.  I made the strawberry puree in my Magic Bullet.   I just cut up 3 or 4 strawberries and pulsed them until they were liquified.  It came out to about 2 tablespoons.  Add the puree.  Make sure they are well combined because I have had it separate on me.  Lastly, add the powdered sugar until you like to consistency and taste.  I usually add about a cup at a time.

My mom always said to taste your food before you serve it to someone.  That may be the reason that I sometimes don't have exact measurements.  So Sorry :-P

Final product!

Belinda's Birthday

200 BLOG VIEWS!!!


Belinda is one of the sweetest ladies I know.  She teaches first grade with me.  Today is her birthday!  We try to celebrate every ones birthday with pizza and dessert.  It is a nice little treat to have something other than left-overs.  Belinda is also a lover of chocolate!  I don't know if I have ever met anyone who loves chocolate more.  Close to a year ago she tried some Jack Daniel's Cupcakes I made.  She absolutely loved them because, of course, they are chocolate (and full of booze)!  I made these cupcakes a while back with the chocolate butter cream.  After I made these, I realized there was a little too much chocolate (for some people).  I tweaked these a little bit by frosting them with a Jack Daniel's vanilla butter cream.  These give the cupcakes a more chocolate brownie and milk taste (which I love).  These are hands-down one of the best cupcakes out there!

Birthday and Big Red Cake

100 Page Views!  How exciting!!

My best friend of 26 years celebrated her birthday at the beginning of the month.  She absolutely loves Big Red.  I actually don't think I have met anyone else that loves it SO much!  A few years back she requested that I make her a Big Red cake.   I had never heard of this so I went in search of a recipe.  As it turns out, it is one of the easiest cakes you can make.  Ready for the secret??  It is made from a BOX cake!  This is one of the most delicious cakes I have ever made.  It is a hit every year and this year it did not disappoint!  I, unfortunately did no get a good picture of it this year but I have one from a previous year.

I could not get the it to turn but you get the picture!

Here is the recipe.

Big Red Cake

1 yellow or white cake mix

1 family size strawberry Jello

1 1/2 c. water

1 can Big Red soda

Bake the cake according to the package directions in a 13x9 baking dish. While the cake is baking add the remaining ingredients to a sauce pan.  Stir just until the Jello is dissolved.

 Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes and poke cake with the handle of a wooden spoon.  Pour the Big Red mixture over the cake. 

Icing

1 reg. size vanilla pudding

1 container of Cool Whip

1 1/2 c. milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl until stiff.   Pour and spread over cooled cake.  Store in the refrigerator.

My BFF and I!

A Baby Shower

I was lucky enough to be asked to make some cupcakes baby cakes and cookies for a friend's baby shower.  The theme for his shower and nursery is vintage airplanes.  I was so excited to do this for her because she just loves her some baby cakes!  I was a busy girl!  I made 5 dozen cupcakes and 4 dozen sugar cookies.  Each dozen of cupcakes were a different flavor.  The cookies were all regular sugar cookies (decoratively frosted of course).  I enjoyed making these for her because I knew she was just going to love them! 

Let's start with the sugar cookies.

I found this sugar cookie recipe.  It was perfect for what I needed!  I did tweak it just a little but by not adding the almond extract and only adding about a teaspoon of vanilla.  I also used the top of a cup to cut these cookies because my cirlce cookie cutter would not give me the space I needed for the decorations.

Sugar cookies before baking.

After I baked them I let them cool completely to be able to frost them.  Sugar cookies have always been tempermental with me.  I also looked for a good icing recipe.  It seemed like this one fit the bill!  The clouds were just regular butter cream that I had left over from the cupcakes.

I was actually very impressed with how these came out!

On to the cupcakes.  I didn't take any pictures until I was finished.  The flavors she chose were red velvet with cream cheese frosting, chocolate with chocolate frosting, vanilla with vanilla butter cream, orange with chocolate frosting and (her favorite) white chocolate with raspberry butter cream. 

Final product!

Yankees Cake- Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and strawberry filling

This weekend I was lucky enough to have two orders for two friends of mine.  The first on the list was a Yankees cake.  One of my friends wanted to order a cake for her boyfriend.  She did not have a specific flavor in mind but she knew that he loves chocolate covered strawberries.  Well I thought of just the cake:  a chocolate cake filled with strawberry and covered with chocolate butter cream.  He also loves the Yankees  so we combined the two.  I was really happy with they way everything came out. 

I started off with a basic chocolate cake.  I had never made a chocolate butter cream before so I went in search of a great one.  Of course, my first instinct was to search Pinterest!  I was in luck because I found the perfect recipe here.  Before stacking and frosting the cake I filled it with strawberry filling. 

I made a dark blue fondant out of marshmallows and covered the cake with a sugar sheet in the shape of the Yankee logo.  I finished it off with some white butter cream around the bottom and around the logo. 

Finished Product. (I'm still working on my photography skills.)

  

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes with Pineapple Cream Cheese Fosting

Please don't judge me for this next post because even Sandra Lee takes short-cuts sometimes. 

My regular normal nine-to-five crazy job is being a first grade teacher.  We were lucky enough to receive grant money for a fruit and vegetable program.  A couple of time a week we receive fruits or veggies for snack.  When children are absent we have extra and I don't like to see food go to waste so I usually incorporate it into some sort of dessert.  My colleagues (friends) also enjoy that I do this so even if I don't have extra they will send me theirs.  One day they told me that they had some extra pineapples but this time the had a request-pineapple upside down cupcakes!  I had never made these nor had I ever made a pineapple upside down cake period.  I looked online for recipes but too many called for a lot of ingredients and after a long day of teaching I did not want to stop by the store for a list of things.  I figured I could wing it.

Again, please don't judge me.



I figured "Why recreate the wheel?"  I got a boxed cake mix (I have used yellow and french vanilla).  I followed the recipe on the box except  added an extra egg and used milk instead of water. 

In the bottom of the muffin tin I put a small amount on brown sugar, a little slice of pineapple and a cherry.  Because these need to be flipped upside down, I did not use cupcake liners.  I just sprayed them very well with cooking spray.

Once these come out of the oven, I would recommend circling each cupcake with a paring knife to ensure it comes out smoothly. 

Once they are out of the muffin tins.

I figured these would not be a cupcake without some frosting but I didn't want them to be too sweet since the brown sugar was notate top of the cupcake.  I just made a regular cream cheese frosting but I added some crushed pineapple to the frosting.  If you choose this route, make sure AS MUCH JUICE AS POSSIBLE IS DRAINED!  You don't want a watery frosting.

I didn't a picture of the finish product because I forgot {oops}.  My goal is to become a better food photographer.

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

I have never been a big fan of white chocolate...until I made and tried these cupcakes!  They are unbelievable!  This is a very requested cupcake because the combination of cake and frosting is just perfection!  The very first time I made these I made a raspberry frosting.  I soon found out that not everyone loves raspberries.  So strawberry it was.  The recipe I used was found at Tracey's Culinary Adventures.  She added the raspberry puree to the inside of the cupcake.  This is an option.  I chose not to put it in mine just because I didn't want the flavor to be too overwhelming.  I forgot to take pictures this time around (I promise I'll get better)!  This is from the previous time with the raspberries.

White Chocolate with Raspberry Butter cream

I added just a small amount of melted chocolate chips to a Ziploc bag.  I cut a little bit from the tip and drizzled it over the cupcake. I topped it of with a raspberry.

*****If you would rather make the strawberry butter cream, just replace the raspberry jam or preserve with strawberry jam or preserve.*****

Animal Print Baby Shower

My wonderful friend, Martha Lopez, has been bringing in customers for me and I just love it!  The first one I had the pleasure of making was a precious cake for a baby shower.  They found a picture online that they liked and we made some tweaks.  This was just a vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream under the fondant.  I made a 10 inch round cake for the bottom tier and 2-8 inch cakes for the top tier.  All three cakes were frosted and covered with a pale pink fondant made from marshmallows.  You can find that recipe here.  This recipe is really sticky at first so BEWARE!



Please excuse the terrible photos from my iphone.

The 10 inch cake before adding the marshmallow fondant.

 The ten inch cake covered.

I didn't take any photos from here to the finished product but I spent a lot of time cutting flowers, leaves, letters, an stripes for the final steps.



Finished product!

Minnie Mouse: Red Velvet with Cream Cheese

Just this week a great friend asked me to make some cupcakes for a friend's birthday.  She could not remember the exact flavor of frosting but she knew who I had made them for.  Needless to say, I couldn't remember either.  So I thought a blog would be a perfect way for me to remember every one's order.  Such a great reference tool!

A few months back a friend from college contacted to me for a cake.  She needed a cake for her niece's birthday.  I was very excited because it was the first big order I had received!  It was quite a few months away so I had time to prepare.  A few month later she informed me that she also wanted to add 5 dozen cupcakes!  This was music to my ears!  I immediately started looking online for some ideas!  Oh I think I forgot to mention it was a Minnie Mouse themed party!!  I found some ideas and had her choose which ones she liked.  I am so glad she chose the ones she did because I had such an awesome time making these cute cupcakes baby cakes! 

5 dozen baby cakes frosted and ready to decorate!

Minnie Mouse decorated baby cakes!

What is a birthday party without a cake for the birthday girl/boy to dig into?  Well have no fear!

At first, I had thought about a regular round cake with a Minnie Mouse face but this one turned out much better!  Dontcha think?!

Minnie Mouse cake!

Test...testing

First of all, let me start by introducing myself.  My name is Jasmine and I would really like to eventually start my own bake shop.  I am currently a first grade teacher.  I am starting this blog in hopes of getting my name out there.  Right now I bake out of my home on the weekends.  Because I am a teacher, I have a lot of time on my hands in the summer so I would really like to stay busy with my baking.