Beach Cupcakes

These are my classic beach cupcake.  These cupcakes feature the simplest version of edible beach sand.  The beach sand is slightly colored Turbinado and raw brown sugar.  To cover the cakes in the beach sand the cupcake must be frosted.  Once the frosting is on the cupcake then roll it in the sugar so that it coats the frosted cupcake top evenly.  Be sure to roll the cupcake in the sugar directly after the frosting is applied or the sugar may not stick.

The decorations are applied after the cupcakes have had their turn to roll around in the sand.  For the cupcakes in the picture I took blue colored butter-cream frosting and piped it on to look like beach waves.  I then put orange and yellow frosting in a piping bag with a 5-star tip and piped out the sea-stars.

 

Photographs are © Copyright to me (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on blogs, websites, or in other media without advance written permission from me.

Sandy Beach Towel Cupcakes

Here are my sandy beach towel cupcakes with red-orange sea-stars piped on.  I used a standard small 5-pointed star piping tip to create the sea-stars.  The towels are made from miniature multicolored sour strips, which taste really great.  These cupcakes went really fast.



Photographs are © Copyright to me (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on blogs, websites, or in other media without advance written permission from me.

Passport Cake

I was asked to make this cake for a local school board member who had finally gotten her passport, after many months. She asked me to somehow depict all of the destinations that she'd like to visit, and feature her new passport. I decided to use a postcard and post-stamp theme. Each postcard was designed and painted by me (with food color), and each of its 6 stamps were as well.

In total it took me about 5.5 hours to complete this cake (plus delivery time).

Prep: First I bake two cakes in jelly roll pans. I then let them cool completely on the counter before leveling, and sharing the excess. I then chose what layer I want on the bottom and spoon on the yummy apricot filling. I use a cake spatula to smooth the filling and make sure it is level. After placing the other cake on top I check to make sure everything is level and then spread on the apricot glaze.
Fondant Fun: This is where the fun comes in. I rolled out some white fondant and then spread it evenly over the layered cakes. I then rolled out more fondant and cut the shapes that I would need for the decorations. I let the decorations harden for about 20 min. before painting them.
Paint: I spent the majority of my time painting the decorations, or postcards, for this cake. I painted eat postcard and their matching stamps. I had a list given to me by my client of exactly what they wanted, I tried to follow it as closely as possible. I then rolled out the black fondant and created the little passport. I painted the passport last with gold dust. I tried to give the passport a leather-y look by flexing the fondant after it had mostly dried (*it's most obvious in the last photo*).
Assembly: (This step happened to be the quickest, in terms of time taken). After the decorations were done I simply plastered on some frosting and laid them out on the cake exactly where I wanted them. I took several pictures, and then delivered the cake (everyone loved it).

(*In the above photo, notice that the paint is still not quite dry yet -- when it was completely dry it lost the shine, and the passports wrinkles closed more to look like leather*)


Photographs are © Copyright to me (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on blogs, websites, or in other media without advance written permission from me.

Rainbow Cake

This is the inside of my Rainbow cake. It took several hours to make this cake. All the layers of the cake must be completely col before frosting between the layers and stacking. You must also level each layer, or the cake will fall over. (*it is a fairly tall cake*)

I just made a two white cakes, and separated the batter into 6 equal parts. I dyed them all separate colors and baked them all in separate round pans. Make sure not to over cook these, you need to watch them as they are quite thin and require less baking time. To achieve the best blue color use Neon blue food coloring. Then I layered them in rainbow order (purple on the bottom) and frosted! The frosting is blue with white puffy clouds.

 

Photographs are © Copyright to me (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on blogs, websites, or in other media without advance written permission from me.

Carrot Cake

This cake was made for a carrot lover. The cake is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I let the frosting dry enough so that I could create some texture on the surface, by pressing a paper towel along the surface of the cake. I then made some royal icing and divided/colored it appropriately. I pipped out my carrots with the royal icing and let them harden over night. I used icing to decorate the cake with a couple of different borders.

Carrot Cake

2 cups sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups grated carrots
1 1/3 vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup drained crushed pineapple
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preparation:

Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add carrots, oil, and eggs. Beat until well mixed. Stir in remaining ingredients. Put batter in two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 1 hour.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
Makes about 2 cups
8 oz. fat free cream cheese
8 tbsp or 1 stick butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature
1 c confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions: Start with beating the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Then beat all of these ingredients together until well mixed and as fluffy as you can make it.


Photographs are © Copyright to me (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on blogs, websites, or in other media without advance written permission from me.

Dual Colored Flower Cupcakes

Flower Topped Mini Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes with two layers of colored cake on the inside.  I started with my basic white cake recipe (which is shown below) and added food coloring to the layers to get my desired colors. 

To create a dual colored frosting you take a regular sized piping bag and fill the left half with one color frosting and the right half with the other color frosting -- this is a bit tricky and takes some practice; don’t give up if you don’t succeed the first time.

The roses were made with a jagged toothed-tip piping tip.  Take the full frosting bag and gently swirl in a circular motion to create a small rose head. 

Recipe:

White Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons white vinegar

5 egg whites

2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups sifted cake flour

2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

12 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine

1 cup boiling water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F

1. Grease three round cake pans. You will have to have purchased the checkerboard plastic cake device. It's basically just a plastic divider for your cake. Yes, you can do it all by hand -- but it's much more difficult, and you're checkerboard won't be perfect.

2. In a small bowl combine the milk and vinegar (this will turn your milk into buttermilk). Allow to sit for 5 minutes, and then add the baking soda.

3. In a medium bowl lightly combine the egg whites, a quarter cup milk, and the vanilla (and almond extract if you are using it).

4. In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix them together on low to blend.

5. Add the butter/margarine and remaining 3/4 cup milk. Mix on low speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes to aerate.

6. Scrape down the sides and add a small amount of the egg mixture, beating for 20 seconds to incorporate. Continue in the same method twice more until all the egg mixture has been incorporated.

7. Add the boiling water. Scrape down the sides of the bowl AND scrape the bottom of the bowl to loosen anything stuck to it. Beat on low to incorporate then increase to high for 30 seconds.

Bake for 35-45 minutes (depending on cake size and pan used).


Photographs are © Copyright to me (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on blogs, websites, or in other media without advance written permission from me.

Apple Honey Cake

Apple Honey Cake

Ingredients:
1 c. honey
1 tbsp almond extract
1/4 c. milk
1/4 c. vanilla yogurt
2 1/2 c. flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (I doubled this)
1/4 tsp salt
2 c. peeled, diced apple (make this 2 ½ c. if you’re not going to use raisins)
1/2 c. raisins
4 egg whites, whipped till nearly stiff

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a cake pan of your choice. You can also make this in a loaf pan. You’ll need two regular sized loaf pans, greased and floured. *You must flour pan, or the bottom of the cake will stick slightly*

2. With an electric, stir together first four ingredients. *can also mix by hand, but a mixer will add more air, and your cake will come out much lighter*

3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir into wet ingredients, stirring until flour is thoroughly incorporated. Add chopped apple and raisins, stirring just until moistened.

4. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (Tent with foil halfway through baking if necessary to prevent over-browning.) Keep an eye on your cake, you don’t want it to burn.

5. After removing the cake form the oven drizzle about ¼ c. of honey over the top and use a spoon to spread evenly everywhere. Serve warm (or cold) with honey.




Photographs are © Copyright to me (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on blogs, websites, or in other media without advance written permission from me.

Layered Spiced Applesauce Bread

This bread is the perfect type of bread to make during the autumn.  While the bread bakes the aroma of cinnamon and sweet apples will fill the air and everyone in the house will want to eat the bread as soon as it is out of the oven!  This bread is a show stopper when topped with a drizzle of apple spice caramel sauce (recipe at the end of this post).

 Recipe:

Layered Spiced Applesauce Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon all spice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup granulated sugar

1.5-2 c chopped (or sliced) apples

½ c water plus pinch cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8 by 4 loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, all spice, and cloves. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the eggs and beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Add in oil, applesauce, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Next, add the sugar and mix until well combined.

4. Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until flour is barely combined.

5. Pour ½ of the batter into prepared loaf pan.

6. Heat chopped or sliced apples in a medium saucepan with a bit of water and cinnamon.  Cook until apples are almost all the way soft.

7.  Spread partially cooked apples over the batter in the loaf pan.  Pour the remaining batter on top.

8. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until loaf is golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

9. Cool bread in pan for 10 minutes. Loosen sides and remove from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

The caramel sauce I like to sue for drizzling over cakes, cookies, and for dipping is as follows.

Spiced Caramel Dipping Sauce

Ingredients
2 c granulated sugar

½ c (1 stick) good quality salted butter, cut into chunks

¾ c half and half or heavy cream (can use fat free half and half)

2 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground ginger

(Can substitute the last spice with pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice, or allspice)

Directions

1. Place 2 cups granulated sugar into medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until it starts to melt and form clumps.  Make sure to use a whisk and stir constantly. 

2. After the sugar has reached about 345 °F (using a candy thermometer will give you the exact temperature), or when it appears dark and caramelized in color remove from heat and slowly add butter.

3. Stir the butter and sugar until smooth.  Add half and half (or cream) and spices, stir until smooth.

4.  Allow caramel sauce to cool to room temperature and it will thicken naturally.

Photographs are © Copyright to me (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on blogs, websites, or in other media without advance written permission from me.