By request...more cakes

Perhaps one of these could spark an idea for your next cake or celebration. Each cake baking and decorating experience is its own adventure and definitely far from perfect. With every one I have learned something new from. When starting your own cake baking and decorating experience, try to be patient and remember to just have fun - it's just going to get cut into and eaten in the end anyway.

The Race Car Cake is a shaped pan decorated almost entirely with a star tip. You can't see too well in this picture but the tires looked flat. It might have been better just to use Oreo's for the tires. The cupcakes are iced and topped with an Oreo dotted with buttercream to look like tires.

I loved to create the Treasure Chest. I used two loaf pans for the cake shape and decorated one upside down creating the lid of the chest. The base frosting was chocolate buttercream and I ran a fork over it to try to create the wood grain look. The red strips are cut from rolled fondant and the sand is crushed graham crackers. I filled the chest with whatever I could find that looked like treasure and made sure not to place anything too far toward the back of the chest so that the lid could sit in a slightly open position.

The Robot was fun to create from a round cake pan, a square pan, and four glass oven safe prep bowls. I decorated him with Nerds candy, black licorice, and a single Dots candy. I did wish I had a slightly larger cake board at the time for him, as I would have extended his elbows out slightly away from his body. I think he's pretty cute though - don't you?

Kung Fu Panda. It was a delicious cake! Again from my Martha Stewart's Wedding Cakesbook. Yellow cake, with lemon curd filling and a Vanilla Bean Buttercream. It served the large number of party guests well. The design could have done without the pillars, but it was not my cake and was insisted upon.

This one was a basic yellow cake and chocolate frosting. I drizzled some white ganache across the top of the cake before decorating it in a basket weave pattern with a rope border. But I'd have to say that my favorite part was the pile of homemade chocolate dipped truffles on top of the cake. Yummy!

The Raspberry Laced Vanilla Cake was a recipe I had found on the back of the Pillsbury SOFTASILK® Cake Flour box. The batter seamed heavier than I was use to, so I worried about the texture of the cake. But in the end it really had a lovely flavor and texture. And the design was a simple lattice pattern with fresh raspberries and mint leaves.

This oval basket weave cake with the birds was a Wilton Class - Course 2 - final cake. During this course I learned so many new and dramatic techniques to enhance the look of a cake. I learned how to use color flow and royal icing. The birds were made from color flow. And all of the many different flowers I learned to make with royal icing.

The flowers on this cake were also done with royal icing. These little drop flowers are a quick and easy way to decorate a cake.

And these roses and flowers I made for a wedding cake from fondant mixed with a little gum paste. I love how the roses turned out. The gum paste allowed me to roll the petals out thinner for a more realistic look, while the fondant allowed me a little more time to work with the flower before setting up.

Would you believe it?

I won! I won! I won the Shopping Cart Cover and Infant Cover in Carnival Bloom from Chic-Covers. Yay!!

Thank you Tip Junkie for hosting such a fun giveaway. And thank you Chic-Covers for the awesome prize.

Chic-Covers hand crafts all of her products tailored to fit and has so many fabulous fabrics to choose from. She will be adding Kitchen Aprons to her product line soon - just in time for Christmas. And as an added bonus, you can currently get 20% off your order.

Told you these Mom-preneurs have some cute stuff!

12 Days of Junkie

Who doesn't like to be a winner? Which is why I'm doing this post. I've been following the Tip Junkie blog for a while and she always has great tips and ideas for everything from bloggers and Mom-preneurs across the internet.

Today marks Day 1 of her 12 Days of Junkie, to help promote & feature some of the amazing women who have joined the Mom-preneur Shop-a-thon. There will be two winners everyday for the next 12 days. Yea!! I hope I win something, because these Mom-preneurs really have some cute stuff.

Click on over and see what it's all about, and enter yourself in the giveaway too if you want, but just so you know I'm feeling lucky. Hahaha...I can only hope.

Delicious Mashed Red Potatoes

The word delicious would obviously be my opinion of the potatoes I made yesterday. So in an attempt to try to remember how I made them and make sure I can find my jottings again, I've decided to post it here. In turn, sharing it with you too.

Using a bag of red potatoes, I quartered each one and then removed any bad or blemished parts. I would say it was between 4 - 5 lbs in all. I boiled them in a large pot with 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and enough water to cover the potatoes. Boil covered, at a low temperature (otherwise your pot will boil over - I'm really good at this), until the potatoes are tender, about 20 - 25 minutes. As it simmers the potatoes become infused with garlic.

Drain the potatoes and remove the garlic. I placed the potatoes in my standing electric mixer with 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick). The warmth of the potatoes melts the butter nicely and the mixer does a good job of mashing the potatoes while they are still warm. I then added 1/2 cup of milk, and 1/4 cup of sour cream, and 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper and blended it all together.

It was that easy and really delicious. This recipe makes plenty; enough even for leftovers. And of course you could adjust the amount of butter, milk and/or sour cream to change the creaminess or consistency to your liking.

Cake and Cupcakes

It was a birthday for two little princesses and their dad. The only request I had was for red velvet cake and the rest was up to me. I turned to my Martha Stewart's Wedding Cakes book for a recipe and found one. I also decided to use the cream cheese frosting associated with the cake in the book. The cake idea came from Wilton.

I doubled the cake recipe and ended up with so much batter that it made plenty of cupcakes too. The cake and frosting combination tasted really good. Yummy. I'd make it again. I'm yet to be disappointed with the recipes from Martha's book. I must be honest and say that the recipes aren't the easiest - they are more time consuming than the basic cake recipe. And as much as I enjoy baking and decorating, it makes me really appreciate the work that goes into a professional bakery.

The consistency of the frosting was perfect for the cupcakes, but not so much for the princess castle. It was just a little too soft, and I struggled a little with the construction. I'm not really sure how I could avoid this in the future. Although in the end, all turned out well. Maybe more than well. You can only imagine the smile and excitement of a little girl at her very own princess castle cake.

The cupcakes were were really easy and lots of fun. The dots design was done with rolled fondant which I colored and cut into 3 different sizes. I thought it was a fun alternative to the traditional birthday cake.

Creating and Painting

Here's what I did Saturday. We had so much fun creating and painting. Everyone added their own personal style by using different colors or stencils.

I know that this activity was such short notice, but I had to just had to jump at the opportunity. If you would like to join us next time, be sure to mark your calendars for December 13th.

And anyone who would like to share what they did, please post a link in the comments. I would love to see them.