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
From outer space to a shoe box!
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!! :)
