Of Unicorns and Rainbows

Unicorns, rainbows and pretty flowers for a very sweet 5 year old darling. The unicorn was a bit challenging as it looked a lot like a frozen chicken while I was making the body. Thank goodness it finally came together after adding the head, mane and tail. 
The roses were made out of royal icing and a small star tip following the instructions of the generous and very inspiring Sweet Sugarbelle. Check out her blog and instructions on making these roses:
http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2012/08/simple-swirl-roses/

The roses were left to dry atleast 24-48 hours before I used them on the cake.

Fencing cake - Red Velvet

Another 6" red velvet cake for my friend's teenage daughter who is a fencing aficionado.

Below is the red velvet recipe I use. It makes a nice 4" tall 6" cake or 3" tall 8" cake. The cake usually domes so you will have to saw off the top to get a nice flat layer. But those crusty crumbs are the BEST for nibbling.

Red Velvet Cake:

2 1/2 cup cake flour (I use KAF unbleached cake flour)

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1.5 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs (room temp)

1 1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk (room temp)

1-2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp (1 oz bottlle) red food coloring

1 tsp white vinegar 

Heat oven to 350. Prepare your pans with Bakers joy or home made pan grease. Line the bottoms with parchment.

Sift together the dry ingredients. Beat the wet ingredients on medium speed until blended. Add dry ingredients and stir for about 2 minutes until the batter is smooth. The batter will be relatively thin. 

Divide equally into pans and bake until a toothpick poke into the center of the cake comes out with a few cooked crumbs.

Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes then flip onto a rack, peel off parchment and flip back onto the base. Let the cakes cool completely.

Cream cheese frosting:

I use the crusting cream cheese frosting recipe from Cake central as I like my iced cake to be as smooth as possible. It subs some of the butter for shortening. For this sized cake, I use 1/2 recipe.

1 cup butter softened (2 sticks)

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening (Crisco)

1 pound cream cheese, softened (2 8oz packages)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract 

1/2 teaspoon salt

3-3 1/2 pounds sifted confectioner's sugar (about 1.5 bags)

Cream butter, shortening, cream cheese and extracts. Gradually add confectioner's sugar and salt. Beat on low speed until nice and creamy. 

This recipe is for a stiff consistency. For a thinner consistency, use 3 pounds of powdered sugar instead.

If you want a very smooth cake, let the cake sit for 15 minutes after icing. Then smooth with a Viva paper towel.

Sweet 16 Macaron cake

This was a special request - a Parisian themed sweet 16 cake. The macarons were Nutella, coffee, raspberry flavors. The box and the "tissue" are both made out of fondant with stencilled gold pattern with colors to match the birthday girl's dress. This was a fun cake to make :-)

Ice cream cake

This was my 1st icecream cake with whipped cream frosting for Arsh's "sister's" birthday
[You're welcome Mike :-) ]

Miss me?

Back by popular demand....and I promise to add pics for cakes I've done in the last few years!
This is a small/tall red velvet cake for a friend's nephew who loves penguins!
I think the penguins came out really cute looking :-)