Showing posts with label Vanilla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vanilla. Show all posts

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Independence Day! (Website Down)

Happy 4th of July everyone!

My website is acting a little funky about showing pictures so I'm going to post my pics on here for now. I know I need to update my blog, I'm such a slacker! Anyways, in the spirit of our Independence Day (and let's be honest, I could use the practice) I made some Blueberry Lemon Zest cupcakes! They are a seasonal favorite, filled with fresh whole blueberries, lemon juice, and lemon lest to make them extremely flavorful. I used gel coloring inside the decorating bag to make the icing look like it does.

I'm also posting pictures of the cupcakes from my giveaway a month or so ago. I think they look too cute to not get any attention! The flower and heart decorations are made with modeling chocolate.

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful 4th of July!

Much Love,
~A









Saturday, March 2, 2013

Practice makes perfect!

I made a practice wedding cake with an ocean theme to it. The flavor is orange cream cake, with strawberry blood orange filling, vanilla buttercream, and white chocolate seashells. I made the filling at home with fruit from a local produce stand. Yummm!!

It's beautimous and tasty!




It took me about three days to make it and decorate it (I was also busy being lazy), but the cake was definitely worth my time. It was so delicious! I was originally just going to leave the cake without the bubbles and white chocolate seashells but it looked soooo boring, so I woke up with bubbles on my brain and transferred them to the cake. Yayyyy brain bubbles!

This was the first time I'd ever stacked a cake. I got a lot of great tips from looking online at YouTube videos and other blogs, especially this site. Definitely use some gardening shears (the things that cut small branches in half) for the wooden dowels. My scissors were pathetic; they were so bad it's not even worth explaining. I had to use my butchers knife to cut the dowels, which severely dulled the blade. Not cool..

Once I got the dowels in it was pretty easy to assemble. Make sure the icing is dry though, otherwise it'll stick to the cake you're trying to line up and you'll mess up the icing by moving it around. If the icing is dry, the cake you're stacking on top should just slide a little until you get it in place. Another tip I have: Don't decorate the bottom until you've stacked everything. You'll want to go ahead and decorate some of the hard stuff because it's easier to do on a rotating cake stand than on a tall, stand-still cake. Once you've assembled you can decorate the bottom. If you try to add decoration to the bottom before stacking it WILL come off on some parts.

Now let me tell you something you may or may not know. If you're a baker, you have probably figured this out. If not, pay attention:

Food coloring can altar the color of things that come out of your body.

Let me just give you an example. Say, you made a batch of Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip cookies and you used pretty much THE WHOLE ENTIRE BOTTLE of food coloring to color the cookies because you wanted a really bright vibrant red. At some point, you're going to come out of the bathroom and think, OMG I'M GOING TO DIE. My poop is red! I have cancer, I have hemorrhoids, I have AIDS! When in reality, you have red poop because there was so much food coloring in the cookies you had (because you ate a lot of cookies).

Not saying that ever happened to me... just giving an example.

As it turns out, teal altars the colors of things as well. It actually makes poop green. Now if only I could find something to make it white, we could have some Christmas poop.

JUST KIDDING! I'm not that vulgar. tteeehheee.



Ahem, *awkward pause before topic change* I'll be practicing with more wedding cake ideas as the weeks progress. I have so many ideas that it's difficult to just stop thinking and pick one. If any of you would like to give me some ideas, feel free to comment or send me a message. If I pick your idea for the cake, I'll make the cake with your ideas and post your name with the finished product photos!

Also, I'm trying to find ways to add a recipe widget or something to the blog so it's easier to share my goodies with you all. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

~Amber








Monday, March 5, 2012

Velvet Love Cupcakes

Love is a celebration, and today I got the opportunity to help celebrate a couple's first anniversary! The couple requested Red Velvet cupcakes to celebrate, and in conversation asked if it came with any filling. I told them I could make the red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese filling and vanilla buttercream icing; they liked that idea! So today, I whipped up a lovely batch of Red Velvet cupcakes with Cream Cheese filling and Vanilla Buttercream icing, which I'm calling Velvet Love cupcakes in honor of them. I used a star tip for the icing, and added red lips sprinkles on top.


Velvet Love
Velvet Love


Velvet Love

Sunday, February 26, 2012

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