Baby Shower Bird Cage Cake

For the love of a Baby!  My youngest sister is going to have a baby.  

I was excited to throw her a baby shower.  

 She loves butterflies and we found the cutest invitation with birds and butterflies.  

I used that as my inspiration to make this fun Birdcage cake.  

I made the cake and frosted it with buttercream and added decorations from fondant.

 Here I am on the left with (some of) my sisters!  

Melissa, our baby sister is in the middle showing off her baby bump!

Tables set up for a fun party!

Here is the cake table!  I made cupcakes pink and blue to coordinate with the cake.  

We can't wait to find out what her bundle of joy is going to be!

Mother's Day Cake- Fondant Frills

 This was so much fun!  It's a 6" round Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd Butter-Cream, Tish Boyle's recipe of course!  I was so excited to try this new technique I learned on Craftsy called Fondant Frills.

This cake was so much fun to make and Maggie Austin the Chef who teaches the class is absolutely wonderful.  I just loved, loved, loved it!

Happy Mother's Day Weekend! 

Pooh Bear Cake, How to Bake a 3D Cake!

I made this 3d cake for Great Grandma Mary Lou.  Of course, she loves Pooh.   

I had so much fun baking this cake, that I had to blog.  Yes, it's true, I'm still baking but I kind of fell off the blogging bandwagon.  So, here it is a new year and a fun new cake!  I hope you enjoy it!

  I made the Basic Golden Cake from Tish Boyle's Cake Book.  My all time favorite vanilla cake.  I used a Peppermint Buttercream frosting to decorate the Pooh Bear.  I could have made a pound cake but because I make my cakes from scratch they are little denser than box mixes.  I would not recommend using a box mix for this cake.

I had quite the time trying to figure out this 3d cake pan!  This is my first 3d cake pan and I have to say I'm very happy with the results despite all the complications I ran into.

My local library has cake pans for lending.  Pretty cool, huh?  Well, I went online and reserved this pan but I had no idea what I was getting into!  They didn't have a picture or description other than Pooh Bear Cake Pan.  When I went to pick it up, to my surprise, it was a two piece pan.  No instructions, no clips, and no heating core!  I took it home so I could figure it out.  I got online at Wilton and found the instructions.  Then I went to Amazon and found the clips and a heating core.  Yay!  I didn't mind ordering them because I'm sure I'll use them again.  My 8 clips arrived the day I wanted to bake the cake.  Perfect timing!  My back up plan was to use metal bullnose clips.

Here is my freshly baked upside down Pooh Bear cake!  I cooked it for 50 minutes.  I learned that when you bake a 3d cake you will want to overfill the cake pan because you need enough batter to fill out the entire shape of the cake.  I used a cookie sheet to catch the overflow. Even though it looks like a mess, the clean up is pretty easy.  I just soaked the pans in hot soapy water and the cake came right off.

You can see the heating core at the bottom of the cake (above).  I put cake batter in it (after I greased and floured it) to hold it down in the batter and I used aluminum foil strips to keep it in place while baking.  Some people recommend removing this core after cooking but others say not to.  I decided I wanted to leave it in so it could help stabilize the cake.  Since I was actually going to the party, I knew I could retrieve it after we cut the cake.

The cake cooled for 10 minutes, then I carefully pried the two pans apart with my spatula, and lifted the back pan off.  I let it sit for 5 minutes. Next, I covered the back side of the cake with a piece of plastic wrap, replaced the cake pan on the cake, and flipped it over.

I was very happy about how clean the pan came off.  Before baking, I brushed organic shorting (palm oil)  on every crevice, and dusted it with flour.  There were a couple of spots I missed and had to go back and touch up.  It was worth the effort.

I removed the front cake pan and left it on the cooling rack all night (Wilton recommends 5 hours).  

Here is the cake cooled and bear naked.  Sorry!  I just can't help myself sometimes.  ;)  Poor Pooh!

I outlined the cake in brown and then started piping on the fur.  My sweet girl got a chance to pipe a few stars on the back side.  She did such a great job!!  She is going to be a baker like her Momma.

Pooh Bear all dressed up and ready for the party!

White Three Tiered Cake With Fresh Fruit and Flowers

I made this cake for my brother and his girlfriend and 

the grand opening party at Be Yoga in downtown Austin.  

This is a White Cake, with a Swiss Meringue Frosting, both recipes are from the 

Cake Book by Tish Boyle, so yummy!!!  The cake was then topped with fresh fruit and flowers.

The bottom tier is a 4 layer 12" cake, the middle tier is 9" three layer cake, and the top tier is a 6" three layer.

Here is the link to one of my inspiration cakes :white cake with fruit.  I just love pinterest!  I am collecting great cake ideas all in one place.  If you want to see all my cakes or my cake ideas follow me on pinterest!

This cake was huge!  It took about 50 egg whites to make this baby!  Wow!  

Not to mention 5 lbs of yummy butter.  ;)  I had a blast making this cake.  It took me about 13 hours to bake all the layers, make the frosting, prepare and frost the cake.  Once I had that done, I took it to the location and assembled it there.  I added some piping, fruit and flowers after I placed the tiers on top of one another.  

 They had a ton of people come by, so I hope it was enjoyed by all!  

Now I've got to make some pudding, lemon curd, or something!! with all these egg yolks.  

I love you bro!!  Have a blessed week everyone!

Wedding Cake inspired by a Wedding Dress

This is a White Cake by Tish Boyle filled with a raspberry filling, and covered with a Swiss Meringue Frosting also by Tish Boyle.  All of that is then topped with my homemade fondant.

Each tier had 3 layers of cake.  The tiers were 12" and 8".  

The bride knew exactly what she wanted so that made it easy!  I used satin lavender ribbon around the cake then I matched them to go around the cake board.  I even lightly brushed the cake with some luster dust.  

Here is the grooms cake, he is a big fan of golf!  As you can see.  :)  It is Italian Cream Cake, also 3 layers thick, filled with Cream Cheese Frosting, and topped with a Buttercream.  I used the Buttercream on top because I was concerned the Cream Cheese Frosting would melt in the very hot temperatures we have been having here in Texas.  Now that would not have been a good thing!   I added the same lavender satin ribbon around the grooms cake board as well.  

Everyone was very happy with the cakes!

Blessings, Rachel

Raspberry Tarts & Pie~ Recipes!

What says summer better than berries?  My nieces came over to visit with us and one of them says she loves "Pop Tarts".  I decided to make a raspberry pie, and I had a little leftover crust.  So, with the FarmChicks  as my inspiration I whipped up these little beauties!  

First, I made some pie crust (click here for recipe), and made the pie (below).  Then I mixed some frozen raspberries 1 or 2 cups, with sugar 1/2 cup, and 2 tablespoons flour.  I made the "Tart" filling a little thicker than the pie filling.  I rolled the crust out, and cut it into round circles.  I placed about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of fruit in each circle, depending on the size of your circle, brushed the edges with milk and folded the circle over.  I pressed a fork around the edges to seal.  They cooked about 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

My niece wanted them to have a little icing drizzle, I thought that was a fine idea.  I mixed a little fresh squeezed lemon juice with some organic powered sugar.  Oh yes, it was yummy and much better than a "pop tart"!  A perfect summer breakfast!  :) 

I think if I tried it again I would add a tablespoon of sugar to the pie crust recipe.  It was not quite as sweet as my raspberry pie, because it was more crust than filling.  Alternatively, you could put a bit more the sugary icing over the top of the "Tarts".

Raspberry Pie

Here is the raspberry pie I made.  Same crust, the filling was 4 cups of frozen raspberries, 1 1/4 cup organic sugar, squeezed juice of 1 fresh lemon over berries, and 2 heaping tablespoons flour.  Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour.

Cool for at least 15 min.  Take a slice, and add one scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

You are in heaven!

Happy Baking!

Happy Birthday Princess!

Princess Party Cupcakes. I made Vanilla cupcakes from Tish Bolyle's The Cake Book (see my Favorite Books), with Billy's Vanille Buttercream.  I made the individual crowns with fondant and decorated them with sprinkle "jewels" in various designs.  

After I had the cupcakes safely tucked into their container, I sprinkled pixie dust on them.  

See how they sparkle?  I just love that stuff!

Happy Birthday little Princess!