Hot Tubbing Piggies

Who would have thought that lounging in a vat full of chocolate could be so fun.  These precious little piggies are just having the time of their lives swimming in the chocolate hot tub. 

 

My daughter posted this on my timeline of Facebook because she thought it was a cute picture of a delicious cake.  Sunshine Christian School is having a Hoedown Fundraiser April 21, Sunday from 6-8 at the Alamosa Airport. The organizer sent me a  text and asked if I would make a cake for the silent auction.  This cake is the perfect cake for a Hoedown Auction. 

 

It is a two layer chocolate cake with strawberry filling.  The cake is covered with a thin layer of butter cream frosting to act as a "glue" for the Kit Kat bars used as the barrel slats.  I tied a gingham ribbon around the barrel and piped grass around the bottom where I planted white Daisies. The chocolate "pool" is melted semi-sweet chocolate chips with cream to make a ganache.

 The piggies are made from gum paste and fondant mixed together. I love the little pork butts of the piggies dunking down in the pool.  What a crack up.  Who ever originally made this cake came up with a cute design - alas- it was not me. 

It actually was a pretty fast cake to make.  Sincere there is no fondant and just a small amount of butter cream it put together fast.  I wonder what the starting bid should be?

Minnie Mouse for Audrina

 My friend, Winona, called me again this year to make a cake for her daughter, Audrina.  Last year I did the Hello Kitty cake for her third birthday. This year she wanted a Minnie Mouse cake and gave me a picture of one she found on line.  When I Googled "Images" for Minnie Mouse cakes there were many that looked similar to this.

This is a two box cake mix.  Audrina likes Pillsbury Strawberry Cake Mix so I made two tiers with a strawberry flavored butter cream in the middle.  I mixed Smucker's Jam into my butter cream frosting and it tasted really good.

Sometimes it's hard to make box mixes work with fondant covering because they are more crumbly and not as moist.  In the last post I put a link telling how you can get moist cake every time.  This time I didn't press down on the cake.  I just turned it out on cooling racks and loosely covered with plastic wrap.  It kept the cake moist from the condensation and not so dense.



The ears are made of black chocolate candy melts.  I used a round ring mold on parchment square to shape them and cooled in the fridge until I needed them.  They are attached with butter cream.

I hand painted the zebra stripes on with Wilton black coloring paste watered down with Vodka.  It handled very well. I also painted the bottom trim fondant with the same solution.

The bow is made from the Marshmallow Fondant recipe.  I used confetti sprinkles for the pink polka dots.  I just picked out all the pink ones.  Attached them with a touch of water. I used tightly wadded up plastic wrap in the bow to hold it's shape until it dried somewhat.


Needless to say my friends were very happy with their cake and I had a ball making it.  I think I have found a new passion!


Happy Birthday Audrina.  You are beautiful!!

Castle Cake for Abby and Cate

This is Abby (5) and Cate's (3) birthday cake. Their birthdays are both in the first week of March so we did their party together.  They told me they wanted a Princess Cake and I was going to do the Princess Doll cakes but I decided since I hadn't done a castle cake before I would try it.  I had a blast doing it and lots of fun doing the detail work.  I wanted to do a moat and bridge but I simply ran out of time. 



This is a chocolate cake from Ron Ben Israel's recipe  Chocolate Layer Cake. It can put you into a chocolate coma, which isn't a bad thing for some.  I used the same butter cream recipe and fondant recipes that I have used in other cakes, but I am about to bust out and find different recipes.

I used a plywood board for the cake board.  Very helpful for heavy cakes.  I covered it with foil.
 

Cate carefully checked out each thing on the Castle.  I put the plastic Princesses on the cake so they could have a toy when they were done eating the cake.  Abby checked out the cake too.  The girls dressed up as princesses and their guests wore whatever costume they wanted.

 

The front door garnishments were made from a Wilton silicone mold and then painted with bronze luster dust and vodka.  The vodka evaporates and leaves the dust adhered to the fondant. 

 

The walkway was Wilton Pink Sugar Sprinkles.  I made the flowers out of gum paste and used some Wilton flower sprinkles to fill in the extra spaces.

 I bought the crowns and princess hearts from Walmart.  They are Wilton decorations.  I made the baby roses out of fondant.  I used royal icing for the leaves on the tree and around the roses. I also used royal icing to glue on details.

 

My favorite thing to make was the "bird bath".  It was also the hardest.  But I think it turned out super cute.  I also like the stairs leading up to one of the side doors on the turret and the little vase of roses at the edge of the balcony at the top of the stairs.

The girls were so excited for the birthday party.  Their grandparents from Main flew out just for the occasion as did their Aunt and Uncle from Montana.  You can tell they just love to be Princesses.

Davy's Fourth Birthday Cake - Buzz Lightyear and Friends

 This cake was fun to do.  At first I didn't know what to do but I figured out how to make the aliens after doing some research on line.  The Buzz Lightyear is a toy that Davy gets to play with when all the partying is over.

The fondant turned out much better on this cake.  I still used the Marshmallow Recipe, but I am planning on checking into buying fondant on line. 

I used the Funfetti cake mix.  Davy likes sprinkles, a lot!  So I always do this because it is his favorite.

For doing a theme cake I think it turned out pretty good.  There is always room for improvement and I can see things in this cake I would do differently but all in all I really like it.

Elegant Birthday Dress Cake

 

This is my daughter's 31st birthday cake.  I have been excited about doing a "dress" cake for some time and scoured the Internet to find ideas.  I finally put this together.  I drew it out first and then dove in.  It was more difficult than I thought.  

 I worked for several weeks on the gum paste roses.  I wanted them to look more real than the ones I did in the past.  I used petal dust with vodka and brushed on the colors to give them a vintage look.  I am happier with these and realized the more I practiced the better I got. Duh!!

I made 80 roses and buds and used almost all of them on the cake.  I wanted to be sure I had enough in case some broke.

This cake took four recipes or box mixes.  I used box because they work the best at high altitude.  I found a site on line that showed how to keep cakes moist without adding simple syrup and without cutting the "domes" off to even out the cake.  It worked!  So here is the link. Keeping cakes moist without using simple syrup.

I looked at dress for different designs for the bodice.  I came across one that had this swag look and loved it.  I also wanted to be sure to have the dress back look like a dress back with stitching and buttons.  I used a Wilton roller tool for the stitching. I used pearl for the buttons and necklace.  I made the 31 out of gum paste and integrated it into the necklace.

I have to say that I am terribly unhappy with how my fondant turned out this time.  I usually use the marshmallow recipe and make my own fondant. It was full of tiny air bubbles that I just couldn't get out no matter how hard I tried.  I don't know if that is because of the "Jet Puffed" marshmallows or not.  Gut says it is. 

I am toying with the idea of ordering some fondant on line.  I want to see if it handles better.  Will let you know what kind I find and how I like it.

Don's Delicious Apple Pie Turnovers

Melt two tablespoons butter in a large skillet and add two of your favorite apples, peeled, sliced (1/4 " thick), and cored with 1 cup craisins or dried cherries. (You can go half and half also).

Let cook until tender.  Add 1 cup loosely packed brown sugar, 1/8 tsp cloves, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg.
Stir until apples are well coated.  You can add a bit more butter if needed.

 Cut the apple circles into wedges.  You can do this before hand but they are softer after cooking but you can do it either way.  When you leave the apples round they seem to cook more evenly.

Roll out one sheet of Pastry Puff Dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into four squares.

Place a spoonful of apple mixture in the center of each square.  Beat one egg well and brush egg wash on two edges of the "V" in the square.  Fold the dough over and gently press evenly around the edges. Place the turnovers on a baking sheet covered with either baking paper or pastry baking sheet.  If you used these you don't need to grease the sheet. 

With a fork dipped in flour to keep it from sticking mash down the edges lightly to seal off the dough.   Take a knife and poke a small "vent" hole in the top of each turnover.  With the remaining egg wash brush liberally all the turnovers.  This helps them to become golden brown.  Then sprinkle a small amount of raw or decorating sugar crystals on top of each turnover.

Bake at 400 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool a bit before serving as the filling is really hot if you try to eat it too soon.

Enjoy!!!

Dinosaur Volcano Cake

This was my Grandson, Sebby's, sixth birthday cake.  I promised him a working volcano.  What I did was put a small can I saved from using green chili's into the middle of a cone cake made from rice crispy treats.  I used a doll dress cake pan for the mold. To make the volcano "erupt" I pour water over a small piece of dry ice that I dropped in the can.  It worked well - smoked all over the cone. Then I put his candles around the top of the crater for him to blow out.

 I used four chocolate cake mixes for the base of the cake.  I covered it with fondant and used butter cream frosting to decorate all the lava, rocks, and grass. I used gum paste to make the leaves of the palm trees.  The trunks are cookie straws. I made a pool of "tar" from melted dark chocolate for the tar pit.

For the plants I molded them from gum paste and veined with a leaf vainer.  Then I glued each leaf together with royal icing to make the plants.  I used a leaf tip to make the "ivy" growing down the side of the cake and up trees.  For the "rocks" I used nut cluster candies.

 To make the dirt look sandy I used gold sprinkles on top of brown butter cream frosting. I also used red and white sprinkles along the red lava.

I was going to sculpt the dinosaurs but then found pretty good plastic ones at Walmart for $1 each so I bought enough for each of the kids to take one home as a party favor.

 This cake was a huge success with the kids.  They really liked the "erupting".  I wanted to use sparklers but didn't have any and couldn't find any in the stores at this time of year. Will have to remember to stock up next July.