Of Import. And Cake. And Chocolate.

Hello ladies and gents. This post may be slightly depressing and whining, so turn back now or continue and never look back! You've been warned. 

I suppose I've been whiney a lot lately. I've been very stressed about my home based bakery (among other things). I barely make any money and I have a difficult time keeping repeat customers. Since I do everything from home and there's no high demand for my business, I have to buy my ingredients for the same price as everyone else. That being said, although I may sell my goods for about the same price as an unnamed grocery store down the road, that unnamed grocery store makes twice as much for a sloppier, less tasty product that IS in high demand. For example, shitty grocery store birthday cake made with hydrogenated oil and absolutely zero natural ingredients. I have to admit, I've gone pretty crazy over store bought chocolate cake. It's just so hard to go wrong with chocolate. 

But back to my main point. Seriously? WTF. Shitty, sloppily decorated cake versus a wondrous masterpiece of homemade edible work of art? (I say in a sarcastic tone)

I'm lost with no direction. I will continue baking and decorating because it makes me happy, but I've come to the realization that if I quit, it wouldn't upset the balance of the scales one teeny weeny bit. No one would be sad that they couldn't order delicious confectionary treats from me. No one would pass by my non-existent bakery and say, "Man, I really wish they hadn't closed. They had the best (place random confectionary item name here.)" Basically, myself and everything I've been struggling to accomplish with this bakery thing is all for naught. I learned a lot. I could do things for free for my friends and family, I know everyone wants a piece of that action, but once you put a proper price tag on it people tend to shrivel away. I know that success doesn't come easy. There's always struggle and hardship. I just don't see any silver linings in my horizon. 

I just gotta find my niche. My thing that makes me stand out from everyone else.

Now that the ballad of whiney is over, I would like to represent to you all, my latest works of art! I am continuing to improve with fondant. I will still need more practice though. I'm pretty happy with these, and now that I have a better steamer for my cakes, I won't have anymore issues with corn starch showing up on my fondant. For those that don't already know, steam makes fondant shiny and gets rid of all those little bits of corn starch on fondant. Just as a hair dryer does to modeling chocolate!

I shall now present, my latest confectionary masterpieces!

This first cake was for a wonderful masseuse's birthday. He requested a massage table, someone on the table, and a person standing up like they were about to give a massage. When talking to the customer, I remembered a joke he told me about his friends picking on him for having to massage "old, fat guys." I decided to give him a heavy set hairy man to massage. Let me reveal the awesomeness of this cake (besides it being a decadent strawberry-filled lemon cake with lemon buttercream.) 1. The blanket comes off to show a fat, hairy booty. 2. The table is made of Rice Krispy treats! 

The second cake was a definite challenge for me, as I had to cut every single square by hand with a pizza cutter and a measuring fondant mat. I have a rotary cutter that is supposed to cut strips of fondant to a certain length, but of course that didn't work. That would just be wayyy too easy on me. Either way, I worked hard and tried to keep myself from being a complete perfectionist and I'm happy with how the cake turned out. Decadent chocolate icing upon decadent chocolate cake. It's freakin' decadent. (I should rename this blog *Chocolate* because I can't seem to refrain myself from discussing my fondness for chocolate cake. 

Thoughts? Suggestions? All are welcome here in this baker's refuge. 

Love,

 ~A

Christmas Cookies & Candies!!!

I am that annoying person that everyone always despises during holiday season because I LOVE CHRISTMAS! Christmas, Halloween, and Spring Break are my three favorite Holidays. I even got the Christmas China out and put in the dish cabinet in the first week of November. Every year for Christmas, I make a but load of cookies & candies to send to my friends. I started doing this about 5 years ago because I was too broke to buy actual gifts, and used the only talent I knew I had back then: baking. I always tried to package them real festive like, so when people received them they'd really look like presents!

Red Velvet White Choc Chip

So far I've got White Chocolate Fruit & Nut Clusters, Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies, Pretzel Pecan Turtles, Coconut Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Chocolate Truffles, Chocolate Espresso Crinkles, Sugar Cookies, and Chocolate Almond Biscotti with Peppermint White Chocolate. I don't have pictures of everything because I'm always busy with school, so I have to make these things in what little spare time I have! But they've all been taste tested multiple times by lots of different people, so I know they're a hit. I'm extremely picky about the things I make, so if I don't think it's good enough (and I like to think I have high standards) then it doesn't go anywhere. 

Anyways, with all that said, I'd like to introduce my Holiday lineup!

Birthday Cake Adventures Part 1

Hello all of you lovely internet folks! This post is going to be pretty long. I've been working really hard for the past two weeks on school, the college association I'm in, and my baking business stuff. So far in the past two weeks I've made a giant pumpkin shaped Spiced Pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing, a failed Angry Birds cake turn cute little girl's Strawberry Lemon cake, one too many pumpkin cupcakes, Strawberry Orange cake pops, Chocolate Halloween style cake pops, and a really awesome University of Alabama Birthday cake. WHEW.

I miss T.V. and lazy days!

Along with all of that plus homework for my classes, I've had a bunch of ups and downs. This weekend was a total shit storm. The Halloween cake pops I made took a very very VERY long time. I made them the night before they were due to ship and I didn't slow down and take my time working on them, so I burnt the chocolate bark. I had to pack everything up in a box so I could work on the cake pops at Le Boyfriend's house on my lunch break the next day. I swear those candy melts were created to stress me out! I think I had a nightmare about it! Candy melts all over the floor, flowing up my legs like dark lifeless melted chocolate SWALLOWING ME WHOLE! *DUM DUM DUM* The good thing is the cake pops ended up looking pretty cute and I got them all shipped off in time, thanks to many factors, including me skipping a very important class.

I had some family drama between me and my dad the same day. I'm a thickheaded Taurus and he's a stubborn Mexican so between the two of us it's like watching a bull fight, except he's the only one wearing the red cape. (It's not my color)

Also, my dog got bit by a rattlesnake and I couldn't afford to take her to the vet until two days 2 days after she was attacked. I thought she'd been bitten by a dog because of how far away the puncture wounds were (about 2-3 inches apart) I finally talked my dad into helping me pay for her to go to the vet, so we rushed her over there. They thought she'd be alright from how she was acting, but she died the next day. The vet said the venom from the snake bite kept her blood from clotting, so she lost too much of it. I buried her this morning. :(  Now we know we have at least one giant rattlesnake on our property. While my poor baby was at the vet, I made the coolest cake I've ever made. I'm really glad I enjoy baking so much. If I had to sit in the house just thinking of my poor dog, I would have been lost in a pile of snot and tissues and stuffed animals.

Don't judge me.

So here goes my actual baking progress. About time, right?

I tried to make an Angry Birds Birthday cake and FAILED COMPLETELY! It was my first time using homemade marshmallow fondant and I think my recipe was a lil bit funky because it was more like super thick icing instead of stretchy workable fondant. I'm going to try making more and see if maybe I added too much water or something, but for the Alabama Birthday Cake I used store bought fondant. I didn't want any unpredictable mishaps going on while trying to make that one. 

The Angry Birds cake was for my boyfriend's niece who has a thing for the game and all things Angry Birds, and likes lemon cake and strawberry cake. I thought, "Yeah, I'll be a good girlfriend and do this for his family. No big deal. I need the practice anyway. This'll be great!" PSHHH. yeah right. On the same weekend I had another birthday cake order to make prior to the Angry Birds one, so ALLL DAY Saturday I was on my feet, baking, rolling fondant, washing dishes. Never in my life will I ever, EVER, do that again. Two cakes in one day = catastrophe.  The homemade marshmallow fondant tore and cracked all over the place. I got almost everything on there and then when I rolled out the black fondant and tried cutting it for the shapes I needed, it crumbled. I threw it in the trash and ran into my room to pout, cry, throw a temper tantrum, and all around destroy my confidence in baking. I kept thinking about the little girl and her birthday cake, and how important it would be to her, and Oh! I can't let her down! When the black fondant crumbled so did my patience, my hopes for that little girl and her cake, and my confidence in what I could do. 

I wanted it to look similar to this:

I don't know who to credit for this image. I googled Angry Birds cake and it popped up, but it's NOT mine.

It came out looking like this......

The next morning I woke up, took off all that crazy stupid fondant and decided to make a simple girly birthday cake. I like it much better this way. Yummy lemon cake with homemade strawberry jam filling and homemade strawberry buttercream. 

The rest of the cakes and images will have to wait for Birthday Cake Adventures Part 2! I hope some of my readers were able to draw hope, inspiration, or comic relief from this blog post. Shit happens to all of us, but the show must go on. If we didn't fight through the hard times given to us, we'd never amount to anything. As always, please feel free to message me or comment below for questions, concerns, or feedback. 

Skills to pay bills!

Yesterday I slaved in my kitchen for 12 hours straight baking cupcakes and cookies for a twirling competition at my local middle school. I got three and a half hours of sleep and sore feet, but it was all worth it to see and hear the feedback for my cupcakes! If it weren't for my friend helping me out, I would have pulled an all-nighter! 

Within the first couple of hours we sold almost all of my boxes of 6 and a lot of single cupcakes, along with some cookies. An hour before the competition was over, all the boxes were gone and I was almost sold out. So many people came back for more cupcakes and wanted boxes to take them home!

For the twirling competition, I wanted to bake three different types of cupcakes that had flavors that would appeal to girls and moms. I also wanted them to look feminine and girly. Something vanilla, something chocolate, and something a little bit different. Here we have Vanilla cupcakes with Strawberry filling and a Strawberry Buttercream icing, Chocolate cupcakes with a peanut butter filling and Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge icing, and Red Velvet cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing.
The Strawberry Vanilla was the absolute best in my opinion, and a lot of people agreed! So I've decided to share a recipe with you, along with my pictures. Enjoy, and comment with questions or feedback!

Make Ahead!!

Strawberry Filling:

• 1lb Strawberries in syrup. You can make your own simply by cutting strawberries in half and pouring one half to a whole cup of sugar on them. Let them sit out, covered, for a few hours until all sugar is dissolved. VOILA! Strawberries in syrup.
• 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons of corn starch

Put strawberries with 1cup of syrup in a blender, chop or puree, your preference (chunks make filling cupcakes difficult.) Pour blended strawberries into a pan, add other ingredients and cook until mixture starts to boil. Take off the burner and let cool completely, the mixture thickens as it cools. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Can be used in cupcakes, icing, for toast, biscuits, whatever! Mmmmmm


Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese icing & Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter filling and Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge icing



Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese icing



Strawberry filled Vanilla cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream icing



Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter filling and Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge icing



Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese icing



Strawberry filled Vanilla cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream icing



My Display at the table and my super bored friend