Helen's German Chocolate Cruise Ship Cake

This past weekend was my soon-to-be cousin-in-law (is that a thing?), Helen's, bridal shower!

She and my cousin, Matt, met on a cruise a few years ago. Their romance has been centered around their love of travel and the open sea. :) Helen's shower theme was, of course, nautical. So, my aunt asked if I would create a cruise ship cake for them!

I was delighted and excited to help in any way I could! As usual, I ended up procrastinating and staying up far too late the night before the shower adding the finishing touches, but when I was finally done, I had made a pretty adorable cruise ship/tug boat ;) German Chocolate cake.

Full Bag, Full Heart

Today was The Chase Foundation's annual Full Bag, Full Heart fundraiser. I was so honored that they asked me to make a cake as the centerpiece for the table at their event.

They designed the event logo using the Pantone Color of the Year, Tangerine Tango, and asked me to incorporate their logo into my cake design.

I wanted to keep it simple and not take away from the clean lines in the design, so I ended up with this:

When I arrived to deliver the cake today, I was delighted to find they had an entire snack table done in Tangerine Tango. My cake fit in perfectly.

I love this display, and I loved that my cake was a part of it.

Thank you so much to The Chase Foundation for thinking of me to help with your event! I am so happy that I was able to contribute!

Edit 4/17/12 2:26PM: I just found out that The Chase Foundation raised 15k at Full Bag, Full Heart to help hospitalized kids be kids. :) Congratulations Chase Foundation!

Happy 80th Birthday, Karl!

Friday, March 16th, my incredibly amazing and genius grandpa turned 80!

For as long as I can remember, he's had a 1966 Ford Mustang GT sitting in pieces in his garage. So I thought it would be cool to incorporate a Mustang into the design for his cake.   After multiple discussions and a couple google image searches with my husband to figure out the design, we decided to keep it simple and classy.

Sitting pretty, before moving the cake to the party

It got rained on a bit, and one of my aunts brought candles that ended up being the
perfect colors.

Chocolatey chocolate chocolate

My grandpa didn't want to cut up and eat the Mustang. He thought it was too pretty. 

I would also just like to add that if you met this man, you would not believe for a second that he is 80 years old. All of my grandparents - old folks just aint old like they used to be. 

Kim & Will's Wedding Cake * Professional Photos *

It feels like I've been waiting forever for this, but really its only been a few days. Emily, the incredibly talented photographer at gem photo agreed to send me some of her images of the cake I made for Kim & Will. They came out so much better than I ever dreamed. I am so happy and so thankful to have such a beautiful collection of images of one of my cakes. 

Thank you, Emily. These make me so happy. Thank you thank you.

http://gem-photo.com

Cinnamon Birthday Cake

I got a request for a mini cinnamon cake this weekend. Last time I made cinnamon cake, I paired it with a lovely Mexican chocolate filling and it was delicious, but this time I wanted to try something different with the cinnamon. So, since my hubby and I have been on a bit of a cinnamon roll kick, I decided 'what better to pair it with than brown sugar?'

It came out really well. The brown sugar buttercream was muted enough to let the cinnamon flavor in the cake really shine through, while still adding a subtle molassesy accent. 

I also used the Swiss-style buttercream to do the flower and the piping around the bottom, so it didn't have the body of the decorating icing I usually use, but I think it has a very organic vibe about it since I also chose not to overload it with color. 

View from the top

Digging in.

No Reason. I Just Love Lemon.

I made the little lemons out of white fondant and then painted them with gel color

This cake was for one of the girls on my mark. team. I love making cakes for no reason. There's something wonderful about ordering a cake just because you want to eat some!

And that's exactly what this cake was.

I supposedly learned my lesson about starting cakes after 9pm last time around, but apparently that didn't stick since I was up way too late making this little guy.

I had some leftover lemon curd and cake top though, so there was definitely enough sugar around to keep me awake. :)

White Vs. Yellow; What's the Diff?

When I first started baking, I thought white cake and yellow cake were the same thing - and even today, I'll use yellow cake in place of white cake because they're kind of interchangeable.

But it's come to my attention that a lot of people don't know the difference. So, I've decided to break it down for you:

Egg yolks.

Yellow cake gets its trademark "yellow" color from the amount of egg yolks in the batter. My yellow cake has 4 whole eggs in one small cake, which makes for a lot of yolks, though the batter turns out surprisingly light. It still has an obviously yellow tint. The yellow ingredients in cake - eggs and butter - will also make your cake more dense and moist.

A typical white cake will have almost twice as much egg white and no egg yolk at all. This makes the batter much lighter in color (thus the "white" name) and when the whites are beaten, can make the cake lighter and more airy.

Personally, I prefer the dense cake and rich flavor that egg yolks bring to the table, but if you're in the mood for something a little lighter, white is always a good option. ;)