Monster High Cake

A Monster High cake I did this weekend for my mom's cousin's great-granddaughter.

1st Place Gingerbread House

 The beginning of my gingerbread house.  I used black fondant and then wet it and sprinkled it with black salt.  I used to do lotions and scrubs and had the salt sitting on a shelf and decided that it would be perfect for the "asphalt" on the shingles.

 Gingerbread tree complete with two cardinals.

 Penguins my daughter Kelsey made out of fondant for my gingerbread house.

Finished picture of my gingerbread house.  I found out today that I won 1st place in the competition!

Sesame Street Cupcakes

Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Big Bird cupcakes I made for a Sesame Street birthday party. 

Bridal Shower Cake

This is a bridal shower cake I did.  The frosting was black, which was kind of tough to make, but I pulled it out.  I started off with chocolate frosting and added black coloring to it.  I made my own pearls for the dress straps and put a pearl sheen on the whole dress.

Boss's Grave Cake

This cake is for my boss, greatest boss of all.  Can you tell I'm sucking up?  Just kidding.  This is a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream that I dyed black.  I had to practice black for a bridal shower cake for this weekend.  Today is Halloween so I thought this would be the perfect cake for my boss.  The "blood" is corn syrup mixed with red food coloring.  I have a tombstone cookie cutter so I thought that would be perfect for the top.  I was a little hesitant about the color at first but after the frosting had set a while it got blacker.  My hands were purple though for a while from the coloring but it all washed off eventually.

King of the Jungle

This is a baby shower cake I made this weekend.  I made the palm tree out of modeling chocolate and the leaves were gumpaste/fondant. 

Christening Dress

 

This is a Christening Gown cake I made.  It's chocolate cake with buttercream icing.

 

And this is what it looked like when it was finished.  I decided to make the gown look like real material that was flowing.  I also made the name sign.  For the rounded sleeves I used a mini ball cake pan.  I shaped the dress from a 1/2 sheet cake and used a template I drew. 

 

Baby Booties

 

My first attempt at making baby booties from fondant.  Not perfect but not bad for a first time.  I found some new templates that I'm going to use so I'll post pictures as I figure it out.

Monster Cake

 

Finished Monsters cake.  I didn't put the monsters on top of the cake because I was afraid it wouldn't transport well so I boxed them all up for the next day when the party was.  The monsters turned out just like the picture!  I'm so proud of them!

Little Monsters 1st Birthday Cake

 

 

1st step in making a Little Monsters cake - make all of the stars for the cake and cupcakes.

 

 

Then add the wires for the star burst.

 

 

 

Then mold the mosters out of rice krispy treats and cover them with icing and fondant.  Molded the eyes for the orange monster separately and let them dry so they wouldn't fall over.  My daughter Kelsey helped by molding the rice krispy treats and she made the orange moster.  She also fixed the blue monster's mouth - her OCD didn't like my mouth.  LOL  I was up at 5 am this morning, couldn't sleep so I decided to finish the green monster by putting the blue waves around him. 

 

 

Added some flat monsters and stars to the sides of the cake.  







Chocolate Cupcake

Made some awesome chocolate cupcakes from scratch today.  My first batch and they will not be my last batch.  This is my chocolate recipe from now on.  The chocolate frosting has 10 oz. of dark chocolate chips in it and it is sinful!  I added a raspberry to make it cute.  As a side note, the next day the frosting had a chance to set up and it turned into a wonderful fudgey frosting.  The whole thing just melted in your mouth!

Chocolate Espresso Cake

This chocolate espresso cake turned out so well!  I really love the flavor!  You can see how moist and chocolatey the cake is.

Chocolate Espresso Cake Recipe:

Cake:

1 3/4 c all purpose flour
2 c sugar
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
2t baking soda
1t baking powder
1t salt
1/2 c oil
2 large eggs
1c buttermilk
2t vanilla
1c freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 2 8-inch round cake pans with oil (I use Wilton's Cake Release spray)

In a medium bowl blend the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla with a mixer on low.  Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt together and slowly add to the wet ingredients, just until incorporated.  Slowly beat in the hot coffee until fully incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans.  Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let the cakes cool for 30 minutes and remove from the pans.

Frosting:

7 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
2t vanilla
2c powdered sugar
1T instant espresso powder*

Heat the chocolate in a glass bowl in 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval, until almost melted.  Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Beat the butter at medium speed until pale and fluffy.  Add the vanilla and beat for 1 minute, scraping down the side of the bowl.  At low speed, slowly beat in the powdered sugar, about 1 minute.  Dissolve the instant coffee in 2t hot water.  Slowly beat in the coffee and the cooled chocolate into the butter mixture until just combined.

*I couldn't find instant espresso powder so I used instant coffee and it turned out very well.

Skull Cake

Day of the Dead Cake made for my daughter's best friend, Shelby.  My daughter drew the skull and painted it on a piece of fondant.  The cake is chocolate and has whipped cream in the center and on top.  It was really yummy!

Wedding Cake and Cupcakes

Chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling

Stargazer lily cake and cupcakes made for my son's wedding.  The stargazer's are real flowers.  I was going to use sugar flowers but found out that the real ones were in bloom and they smelled so good that I couldn't resist using them!  They really made the cake!  The cupcakes were chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet.  I couldn't have done any of this without my sister, Sheryl.  She really came through and helped frost both the cake and the cupcakes.  We used sugar pearls on the cupcakes to add elegance.