Never thought that my last post was going to be that one of Cake Wrecks and my Cheshire Cat. I feel kind of sad when a blogger stops writing and I don't want you to feel sad, so I am back!
Well has been more than OMG, I was thinking 2 years, but has been more than 3 years since I last shared with you. Oh pretty people, I missed you. Happened kind of a lot in the last 3 years of my life, opened a cafeteria, closed a cafeteria, got married, stopped making cakes, started making cakes... that's pretty much it, just not in that order... who cares, I am back and I hope to have a lifelong relationship with you all.
There is one change, I will stop blogging here and start blogging here http://www.kensoven.com/blog, hope you join me in this second attempt to share beautiful cakes and experiences!
Until the next post,
Ken
http://www.kensoven.com/blog
Has been a while!
Almost one month later!
O M G !!! I cannot believe I made it into Cake Wrecks!!! and no less than into the Sunday Sweets, I feel so honored to be sharing a place with those amazing sugar artists!
I feel a bit sad I wasn't aware of it until today (thanks to a new friend that let me know I was featured on that site on Feb 28th!)
Aaaaah! I'm sooo happy!!!!
If you wish to check it out >> Sunday Sweets - Alice in Wonderland
That's it for today, just felt the need to express my happiness :)
Ice Cream Flavors
Two posts about ice cream! This time is not the shape of the cake, but the flavor... mmm delicious. I made it for my mom's bday (I feel like lately I only work for my family - not complaining though).
This cake is a yellow cake with orange flavor, filled with pineapple and apricot jam, which I did, and I was proud of :) The buttercream used to frost the cake had pineapple flavor and the fondant... pineapple with orange... as I said, just like an ice cream.
My family was in love with my cake, and so was I, because I feel that with each new cake I've been improving in so many levels, and that makes me happy and proud of myself. And believe me, I'm quite a perfectionist but I see progress, so I'm happy and that won't mean I will stop trying to be better each day.
And now the reason why you visit my blog:
Thanks pretty people for reading my posts, hope to come back soon with a new project.
XOXO
A bowl of ice cream or a cupcake?
This time I'll let you decide, is my cake an ice cream bowl or a cupcake?
Let me tell you, I was aiming for a cupcake, but I feel like the bottom of my cake is too rounded and looks more like a bowl... but still I like my cake and the colors are pretty sweet!
On the base of the cake I put some cookies and wrote "melly" on them, because the name of the girl is Starmelly... how clever? hehehe.
The cake is a yellow cake with almond extract, the buttercream has coconut and lemon flavor, delicious!
So, what do you think?
Thanks for reading! XOXO
What I've been doing - A quick summary
Hi everyone,
Thanks for being so nice and patient!
I'm going to summarize what I've been doing the last months, and after this, I hope to continue posting as frequently as I did before =)
At the end of September I did a Strawberry Shortcake, had so much fun with modeling. The cake was an All American Chocolate Cake filled with "dulce de leche":
Later last year I played with polymer clay and also tried to replicate my work on fondant:
And here is what I've been doing this year, enjoy! =)
Some lovely bears:
A sofa with wood floors:
Cute cows sitting on a fence:
A hippo relaxing on a summer day:
And the latest, my pirate, which was a gift for my boyfriend (he loved it!):
Well ladies and gentlemen, this is it for now, but I'll be back soon!
XOXO
Has been a while!
Hello everyone!
Has been a while since my last post, but I will make it up to you soon, I've been working on some cool projects.
In the meantime I invite you to visit my new site > http://www.kensoven.com/
A Magical... Cat?
Well, yes, it can be considered a magical cat, but no, what I meant was a Magical Tree and a Cheshire Cat (^_^)
This week I was so stressed about the Cheshire Cat, I wanted to do it since last weekend... but come on! the cake was for this Saturday, so I had to wait until the last minute to make it and and be sure it was fresh :P
The cake was my first ever sculpted cake and I learn a thing or two about gravity... and about making cakes when I'm still awake so I can use the common sense and avoid some gravity issues I had. The cake was for a friend of a friend, and I told her a while ago I will send her some Red Velvet cupcakes so she could tell me if those were as good as the ones she had eaten, but I never really had the time to made them, soooo, I made the Cheshire Cat using Red Velvet cake <3
For more pictures click here
From outer space to a shoe box!
You may be wondering: "what the heck?"... well just let me tell you the story and everything will be perfectly clear (I promise).
This time I'll be posting about 4 cakes and very different themes.
The first one is a cupcake that I made for a Flickr Throw Down, I didn't win but I was proud of it and also got many votes (wooohoo!!). The TD was about the space, and I'm not really into the space (I kinda hate it... it's a long story), but the thing is, this was the perfect opportunity to make Marvin the Martian! (oooh yes, I love that little crazy guy!).
My second cake was a sheep cake, it was a request from a coworker for Mother's day (nop, I'm not posting this late, in this side of the world we celebrate Mother's day on August 15th). I have to confess I wasn't quite happy with the cake, but I was following the client's request. The cake was an All American Chocolate Cake filled with "dulce de leche".
The third one, uuuh the third one is a wonderful one I have to admit it (and I do this rarely), I made it as a gift for my mother-in-law. It was a super rich chocolate mud cake and the cake was shaped as a pot, the dirt is the same chocolate cake (yummmm, yummmm!!). The pot was filled with my first fondant roses ever, and I really enjoyed learning how to make them (yup, because I learnt otherwise I would've hated the process hahaha).
And the best one, is the last one!!! Yayyyyy! My mom's cake, she is a shoe lover, and I knew she would adore my cake. The cake was half chocolate mud cake and the other half white chocolate mud cake, it was filled with chocolate ganache & rum. I made the shoe a week in advanced to give it time to dry.
And now the part that I like the most:
For more pictures click here
Cheesecake! Yummilicious
I finally managed to make my favorite dessert, I was a bit hesitant after listening how complicated it could be to avoid cracks on the surface... and I DID IT! and without cracks!
The cheesecake is very rich, which is great when you eat a piece but really bad if you wish to eat the whole thing (I wanted, but I didn't hehehe). I found the cherry topping was expensive at the supermarket so I decided to make my own cherry topping using maraschino cherries and its syrup.
I'm happy with this cheesecake and I plan to make it again in the near future, since this was a winner and everyone wanted a piece.
How can you say no to this?... Exactly, you can't!
Season TD cupcakes
Last week I participated in a cupcake throwdown, the theme was about the seasons, and the idea: to represent each one of them on a cupcake.
I didn't win, but it was fair enough, my competitor made some gorgeous cupcakes of some cute babies.
I have to admit this was a difficult challenge, not because of the ideas I had for the cupcakes, but due to the weather, it was a really awful week to work on fondant, my whole house was super humid, I started with the autumn one and I was so proud of it... then it started to melt, for the rest I decided not to dedicate so much time, since it will melt any way.
Anyway here are the pics:
Winter
Summer
Spring
Autumn
My Pony Stable and the Poppy Seeds
Yesterday was a great day, why? well because finally the tempeture went below the 22 degrees and that meant only one thing to me "today is the day to use fondant" - wooohoooo!!!
Recently I bought the book "50 Easy Party Cakes" from Debbie Brown (a veeery talented woman), I decided as a learning experience to make all the cakes I liked from the book, and I started with the Pony Stable.
Making the cake was fun and never frustrating (which is sometimes hard in this business haha), I gave a try to the madeira cake and I didn't like the taste of the cake itself, but the consistency was pretty good to build the stable. In the future will try other recipes for the cake, but this time to give it a twist I used buttercream with peach flavor.
The colors used on the book were pale but I used some vibrant ones :) I also substituted the flower tiles with heart tiles and I'm happy with the result!
After finishing the cake I was still on good mood, so I decided to give a try to the Lemon Poppy Seed cake of Rose Levy from the Cake Bible and made a Lemon Curd using the recipe from this site: http://www.sugaredellipses.com/?p=895
Was a happy weekend :)
Iron Cupcake vote NOW!!
Hi everyone!!
You can start voting for your 3 favorite cupcakes here > http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/
The vote will be open through Monday, July 6 at 12 noon.
Summer Blackberries
Yay! My first entry for Iron Cupcake Earth.
The theme for this month was Summer Berries, I chose blackberries and to make my cupcake 100% summer I used lemon, orange and coconut too.
I still kinda clueless of when I'm suppose to publish the recipe and all, but since I just finished my cupcakes I rather publish the recipe right now than forget it later :P
Oh but before I post the recipe I want you to see the pictures (so you start feeling the urge to bake some haha):
Oh! and let me tell you I'm competing to win the following prizes:
- A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
- A groovy linocut piece from BLOCKHEAD PRESS http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6108705
- a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
- PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!
Remember to vote starting June 28 to July 6!! :)
And now the recipe :)
Blackberry and Orange Filling
Ingredients
(Note: this recipe is to fill 24 cupcakes)
1 pound of blackberries
2 tb of orange zest
2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of water
Place the blackberries (slightly mashed) with the water, orange juice and zest in a heavy saucepan, let it boil for 1 minute. Then add the sugar and cook on medium heat until it starts to thicken (aprox 20 min). Remove from heat, let cool and refrigerate if you are not using it right away.
Classic Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients
Source: http://www.creativeconfectioneryblog.com/2009/01/classic-vanilla-cupcake.html
Makes 24 cupcakes
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla, or add another flavor
1 cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place papers in 2 (12 cup) cupcake pans.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
In your mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until thickened and lightened to a cream color, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. On low speed, mix in the oil and vanilla until blended. Mix in the sour cream. Mix in the flour mixture until it's incorporated and the batter is smooth.
Pour into prepared cups, put one teaspoon of the filling on top of each cupcake and bake 23 minute. Remove from oven and let sit in pan for 10 minutes.
Frosting
Ingredients
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter
3 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp coconut extract
1 tbs orange zest
3 tbs dry shredded coconut
Sift the confectioners' sugar into a medium bowl. Whisk in the condensed milk, butter, and lemon juice to make a smooth icing. Add the coconut extract. In a small container mix the orange zest and the coconut. Cover the cupcakes with the frosting and sprinkle it with the orange and coconut.
Enjoy!! :)
Beers with some mushrooms
Hi everyone... yes I know, has been a while since my last post, I was somewhat trapped with my day job issues and trying to figure out some stuff. But hey! I forgot baking is my outlet; I started baking and as soon as I started I wanted to finish, yeah, you may be wondering why... well because the rainy season in my country is hideous, it was so sad to see my fondant getting all shiny and wet due to the humidity.
Even with the horrid weather I managed to make a couple of cakes, I won't say I'm proud of them because I wanted them to be dry and shineless, but I know it could've been worse, so I'm happy that the fondant didn't melt as much as it could.
The first cake is a table with some cute beer candles that my boyfriend bought for his best friend's cake. I have to say I love the look of the floor :)
and the spilled beers...
The second is a cake I made for a friend that LOVES Alice in Wonderland, I wanted to add a cartoonish feel to it so I made it inspired on Mario Bros xD, this one is a super rich chocolate mud cake.
and a couple of close ups:
Bows, Stripes, Pinguins... lips?
What all those words have in common? They are part of the cakes I did this week... yes you are right, I was a bit busy hahaha (taking into consideration I have a day job :P)
Well let's start, the first one is a Raisin Butter Cake with a green and yellow bow, I totally loved how those colors looked together. My mom was in love with the first bow I made, so she wanted a similar cake, but with more "grown-up colors". I covered the cake with White Chocolate Ganache, before proceeding to cover it with fondant.
The second cake is a super rich Chocolate Mud cake, mmmm so yummy, I got to taste this one because I made it for a get together that I had with my high school best friends (oh time goes by sooo fast!), the flower was made with plastic chocolate (also known as chocolate paste). The stripes: rolled fondant over marshmallow fondant.
The third cake is the one I'm proud of, I was told that I needed a pan to make the igloo and I didn't have one at the time, so I made a chocolate mud cake in a regular pan and then carve it to make my igloo, and I totally loved it :)
The base of the cake is a White Velvet Butter cake, first time I did one of those, and I was really pleased with the texture and the flavor, so was my client! My "snow" are semi-melted marshmallows. It was a two layer cake filled with caramel.
The last one was a failed attempt to decorate a cake, here's the story, I made the cake, covered it on fondant and put some plastic over it until ready to decorate it... I didn't realize the poor cake was under the afternoon sunlight's... yeah go figure, when I tried to remove the plastic it was all sticky and my fondant was a mess.
I wasn't really on the mood to change the fondant, so I left the cake and started fooling around with some colored fondant, I made some lips and my sister told to create a green tongue to make the mouth look creepy... and I did it haha. Later I decided that the two creepy things belonged together, so I put the mouth over the poor ugly cake hahahaha.
Ragamuffin and Classic Vanilla Cupcakes
Again working with Classic Vanilla cupcakes, so yummy I can't stop using them :)
This time I did Mr Ragamuffin, he is from Lenore - The Cute Little Dead Girl, he is a cutie when he is not trying to bite someones neck, since he used to be a vampire, but now he is only a toy.
Ragamuffin is trying to stay on top of three cupcakes.
This was made for my friend Scotty, who was hoping for a Tucan but I decided to make something more attractive and way more eatable, since the Tucans are black and for some reason the black fondant doesn't taste very well (at least mine).
Cheshire Cat (Alice in Wonderland)
Today I made some Classic Vanilla Cupcakes, yummmmyyyy, they are delicious!! I covered some of them with marshmallow fondant and then tried to create like a cupcake puzzle with Cheshire Cat.
This was just my first attempt of Cheshire, I promise there will be more, and the result will be better... hopefully next time he will let us see his whole body xD
Chocolate Mud Cupcakes with Sour Cream Ganache
As I said days ago, I still had a lot of mud cake batter, I decided to make use of it. Made more cupcakes, covered them with sour cream ganache (which tastes like heaven) and then made some fondant decoration.
Enjoy the pics :)
Of Easter and Bunnies
I wanted to make an Easter bunny but in the process I remembered a character that makes me laugh so hard... that I couldn't continue with the idea of an Easter bunny and I did a Raving Rabbit!
How cool? hahaha, I know... my version is fatter but since it is the first time I do one, I won't complain, but I promise that in the future they will be more like the original one!
Chocolate Mud Cake with Peanut Butter
Found a recipe of Chocolate Mud Cake, and I had never done one before, so I decided to give it a try, but instead of making a whole cake I chose to do several cupcakes.
I read the recipe, it served 8, so I doubled the recipe to make like 18 cupcakes... I ended having more than 30 and I still have batter in the freezer (will do a cake when I have time).
The frosting is of peanut butter, but to be sincere, the cupcake is way better without it, ended up been just too sweet (yes I never say this, but this time it was!... imagine!), in the other hand, the chocolate mud was divine, the flavor, the texture, the color... simply perfect.
