Rustica, Magnolia Wedding Cake

My first real wedding cake was a total success!! The last three days have been absolutely crazy but it was worth it to have the opportunity to make a cake for someone's big day. The bride send me some images from Pinterest and told me she wanted a rustic feel to the cake with sugar flower magnolias and horizontal texture icing. I think I delivered! It's Blueberry Lemon Zest cake with lemon buttercream icing and blueberry filling. The bride ordered the flowers from Etsy.

Just a suggestion to any of you that do wedding cakes with flowers, always ensure there are extra flowers. If a petal breaks or flower gets broken somehow, you do not want to be responsible for the cake looking incomplete! Fortunately the flowers made their way into that cake without a hitch because I didn't have any extra.

Another tip I'd like to share with you: DO NOT buy a baking core (cone). I bought one and tried it and it was terrible. Basically, you pour cake batter around the cone and in the cone with the cone in the pan, then bake it. It did help the cake bake evenly but the cake in the cone didn't fit right in the larger part of the cake after baking, and the cake inside the cone burned. Total waste of $5. Instead, save yourself some moolah and use an upside down flower nail in your large or deep baking pan for even baking. Be sure to spray both the pan and the nail (top to bottom). Also, Wilton has a wonderful baking temps and times guide! Click here to see the guide, it's nearly exact on baking times. Halfway through baking, rotate the cake so it bakes evenly.

For large tiered cake delivery, this tutorial was a godsend! It shows you how to easily assemble your own large delivery box out of carboard moving boxes. If it weren't for the help of my friends, I would have never been able to get everything done. You guys are the best!

Ok, picture time!!

Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake

I finally found a recipe that I didn't feel too inclined to improve! It's sweet, creamy, fruity, and absolutely delicious!

I strive to make cheesecake's that compare to The Cheesecake Factory or better. I've been baking cheesecakes now since February (when I made Randy a Lemon Cheesecake for Valentine's) working to perfect my technique.

I think I finally did it!! Just make sure you have enough butter melted in with the graham cracker crumbs for the crust.

Fresh or frozen blueberries can be used, but fresh is best in my opinion.

The best part of this recipe (besides eating it) is swirling the blueberry sauce in the cheesecake before baking! I felt like I was creating a work of art, and I've been inspired to try it with paint.

To swirl, drop spoonfulls of blueberry filling onto cheesecake. Take a butter knife and, pointing straight down, swirl the blueberry filling around in the cheesecake, until you're satisfied with the design.

The recipe for this delicious cheesecake can be found here, or on the recipes tab!

Creativity, my friend.

I made some Strawberry Buttercream cupcakes for a momma and her little girl's birthday party! I had such a hard time with the candy lettering, after hours of practice and two wasted bags of candy coating, I finally went to the store and got a fondant letter mold. It worked perfectly!



Strawberry Jam

The cupcakes were delicious (of course I had to test one out, how else would I know?) and while making them I decided to save some of the extra batter for a new flavor experiment. I'm really glad I did!!! My new cupcake flavor is.... *drum role please!* Blueberry Lemon! It's the same delicious vanilla cake from the Strawberry Buttercream cupcakes, but in the batter I mixed in whole fresh blueberries, lemon zest, and fresh lemon extract. The icing is blueberry lemon cream cheese. I took one bite and got hooked; as did my boyfriend!

I ALSO made a lemon buttermilk bundt cake for my beloved. He tells me lemon bundt cakes are his favorite, and I felt like he needed a happy surprise so I made a buttermilk bundt cake, you can find the original recipe here. I added lemon juice, lemon zest, and lemon extract. The lemon extract barelely did anything for me. Next time, I'll get about 4-6 lemons and juice them to put in that bundt cake. It wasn't tart enough. However, the icing I made was tart and sweet! It was a simple powdered sugar glaze, with lemon juice and zest in it for the flavor. All in all, pretty good.