Hmmmm. Robin's Egg Blue?

Well, I have to attempt Robin's Egg Blue. Luckily, just a small amount to drape on the wedding cake. I will be hand painting the flowers.

The flowers are going to be amazing. I've never made gumpaste flowers. But, I went to Michaels and bought a kit that teaches me step by step how to make gumpaste (or fondant) roses. I attempted one last night, and even though I made the wrong size rose base, the petals looked pretty darn good. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to take the fondant gum paste class this summer because of finances. :( Soon though.

Tonight, I made two sizes of the Rose Base and am letting them dry. I tried to stick to the same size, but I have some that are very small and some that are quite large, but they are all very close in size.

I am making two different sizes of roses. The smaller ones will be buds or medium roses. The larger ones will be full size roses.

I may also attempt to make 3 small lilies as accent flowers. We shall see how the time consuming roses go. I wish to make one dozen with at least 2 extras per size... Then, comes the painting.

Another Wedding Cake

I promised I would never do another wedding cake, but this one is very simple. It is a two tier, white and robin's egg blue cake. White fondant and blue flowers. Roses or lilies. I'm very excited. It's a small cake, but I think it will be beautiful. And, the trials and errors of the first wedding cake have made this one much more doable.

Piggie Bank Cake

A friend from church put together a fundraiser for a young man that was hurt really badly in a car accident recently. She asked me if I would be willing to donate a cake that was pig themed.

So, I Googled Pig Cakes. I found the cutest cake that was a piggy bank with chocolate coins scattered all about.
I decided to attempt the adorable cake.

He turned out so adorable that I wanted to keep him. I went ahead and gave him to my friend, and they raised $120 on him at the Dessert Auction. I was very thrilled and completely floored.

This adorable little guy is covered in pink fondant. The best part is, the sun faded the pink during delivery. I didn't even think about that, but he faded completely perfectly. His ears were bright pink inside, and light pink on the outside. He turned out so adorable.

The photos are a little deceiving. He is made out of 4 cakes. Three flavors: chocolate, yellow, and strawberry. He was about 2 feet long and 10 inches high. He was a blast to make.

Unfortunately, the fondant was a little firmer than normal. So, I had to piece him together in places, especially around his ears, and it was really difficult to smooth the fondant. So, I used the fake money from the dollar store to cover the creases and goofs. He's still a little rough around the edges, but his overall cuteness cancels all that out.

Popping Challenges

Making cake pops is easy. I love coming up with new flavors. For example, I am going to make an Almond Toffee one that I hope is similar to the luscious Almond Roca that everyone adores.

The biggest problem comes in the creativity of toppings. To differentiate between flavors, I put a different type of topping on each flavor. For example, the Almond Toffee will be covered in chocolate with almonds sprinkled over the chocolate while it is still wet.

However, I am having a difficult time coming up with a topping for Red Velvet that will make it different than most any of the cake pop flavors that I dip in white. I believe I will use the red candy sprinkles that I usually use for Valentine's Day or Christmas.

Sometimes, I just need to ramble a little to come up with the best idea.

Back to the popping

I started baking cakes again last night. I took about 3 weeks off because I had a very large supply. Well, that supply has dwindled down to a few flavors. All chocolate.

Last night, I began with Red Velvet and Strawberry. This morning I made Butter Pecan and Carrot. When I get home tonight, I will make Caramel Macchiato, and Almond Roca. Then, I will shape them and have them all ready for selling.

I think I'm going to go on the cheap side and wrap them with saran wrap this time instead of the little baggies. I can make them a little bigger and they'll still be cute. Sometimes, in order to make them fit into the small baggies, I have to make them small. They aren't as tempting when they are only marble sized. I like the ones that are about 3 bites. They seem to be more worth the $1 that way.

I'm having a garage sale this weekend, and I've decided to attempt selling my pops at the sale. I have a few other things I need to try and sell, so I may as well give them a go as well. I need to earn at least $300, so away we go.

Time to start again.

Regardless of the heat, I must begin baking again. First, I have some brownies to make for my sweetheart. He moved away for a year to finish college, and I had to stay behind to continue my college career. So, I want to send him some brownies.

I've also run pretty low on cake pops. I'm out of two flavors, and I'm nearly out of others. Time to begin making more. Also, I've noticed the longer the cake pops stay in the freezer, the softer the chocolate is when they thaw.

Dang, they still taste great!

Summer Heat

It's really tough to bake in the summer. It's hot outside, but it stays pretty cool in my house. 

The bad thing about baking is keeping the oven on for an hour while baking. My little convection toaster oven only stays on while it's actually baking, which is nice, but if I bake more than one cake, my kitchen turns into a sauna. 

Sadly, I am running low on cake pops and am out of some flavors. I must begin again.