It has been a busy baking time of year! Lots of cakes recently; birthdays, Halloween, baby showers...you name it-and a cake suits each occasion perfectly!
My 1st chocolate ganache cake. My mom loves chocolate-so a chocolate cake, with a mint filling, and covered in chocolate ganache! I tried some decorations on top of it...but was having bag problems. My bag broke while piping....luckily I caught a handful of icing before it ruined the cake completely.
I LOVE Halloween! I made a whole bunch of these cupcakes for doctor offices, neighbors, and some of Dan's home teaching families. They were so fun to make. New recipe too-a light pumpkin flavored cupcake with buttercream. I added a little bit of pumpkin to the frosting too to add more pumpkin flavor...but it turned out not as pumpkin flavored as I had hoped. Everyone seemed to enjoy them though.
My sister-in-law Mandie had her birthday, and since I make cakes....that's usually the gift I give them for the event. I tried something new with her cake too. New frosting and a new cake recipe. Mandie loves Snickerdoodle cookies-so I tried a Snickerdoodle cake with a cinnamon buttercream. The actual cake DID taste like a Snickerdoodle cookie. The buttercream was quite sweet-and a little difficult to work with. I don't know if I will use that recipe again or not. I added some sugar pearls on the sides of the cake, and a small decoration on top of the cake too. I wish the icing was smoother, and my edges were cleaner....but like I said-the icing was difficult to work with.
This cake I made for my brother's rehearsal dinner. We had dinner at a restaurant and I was in charge of dessert! Beau's fiance, (now wife) love zebra print. The table cloths at the restaurant were black, and my mom did a zebra-print runner lined with candles. It turned out beautiful. The colors of the wedding were black, white, and purple...so the cake matched those as well! Top tier was white cake w/ cream cheese buttercream, and bottom tier was chocolate w/cream cheese buttercream. Beau likes chocolate, and Tabitha likes white-so I incorporated both. Bow on top is made with a mix of fondant and gumpaste.
A baby shower cake! The mommy to be chose chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream. Yummy! I covered the cake in a marshmallow fondant and added decorations made from fondant/gumpaste. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do decoration-wise, even though the actual party didn't need that much cake. Oh well, it was my gift and I wanted it to look good-so they just had to take leftovers home with them!
Baby toy made from fondant/gumpaste
Baby rattle
Top of cake
Final product
This cake is an ice cream cake that I made for a boy in my ward. He wanted Breyer's peanut butter cup ice cream-with cake, and covered in a peanut butter buttercream. Made cake, layered it with discs of ice cream, smoothed, and covered in icing. You have to do it in steps because the ice cream starts melting. I made a border at both the top and bottom of the cake with chocolate chunks. Used brown buttercream to add message and decorations.
(yes....I do realize that I left out the "D" in birthday)
Papa & Parker the pumpkin
Cutest pumpkin ever!
Pretty Pirate
Lala the witch
Cute!
Here comes the bride!
Arrrrggghhhhhh!
Me & Dan dressed up for church party
We did a little family party on Halloween at my parents house. We had dinner and then played a few games...then passed out candy. The game was fun and hard to do-eating a powdered sugar doughnut as fast as you can with it suspended in the air, dangling from a string! It sure made for some "good" pictures of everybody!
My Dad in drag-not a pretty sight!!
Beau and Tabitha as Care Bears
Mom in costume-retro!
Mandie catching the doughnut in her mouth
Kids playing game
Me and mom catching doughnuts in our mouths
