Cakes, cakes, and cakes

Last spring when I got engaged, I thought it would be really fun to make my own wedding cake. All summer, it seemed like a good idea, and I was even excited. However, now that my wedding is less than a month away all I am is nervous. So Ben David, Pigeon, and I have been making countless practice cakes, coming up with different designs, etc. My first design turned out to be a flop. It resembled a teenager's 13th birthday cake. So I tried a few more and ended up deciding on doing just several small ones with different colors and white piping to tie them all together.

As you can tell, the filling looks delicious. There was a yellow tier on top of the coconut, but it just looks really ridiculous. 

For my next trial, i frosted a cake in stiff yellow buttercream and let it set. Then I used a slanted brush and several colors of buttercream and painted flowers onto it. I loved the way it looks, and I may do one cake like this. 

this blue one is what most of the cakes will end up resembling. I may make some cute, handmade toppers for them. 

On another note, I've been busy working away at the bakery lately. Here are some photos of things i"m whipping up right now: 

Fresh Apple-cranberry walnut scones

Gluten free brownies

My brownies turned out great; they're very soft and moist, but not grainy like alot of gluten free products. The brownies are cut in half and people are paying $2 for them!!! I also made a few cupcakes here and there for people asking for them. 

Cakes and Biscottis

I've been doing a good amount of baking in the past few weeks. My mother's birthday came along, so I made her a raspberry cake with lemon frosting. The recipe made alot of batter, so I made some cupcakes after I made the layers.

She really liked the look of the gluten free cake I made, so I recreated it with the lemon buttercream icing and fresh flowers. 

I also put fresh flowers on the cupcakes, and I love the way they turned out!

This week I started back at the bakery for the school year. In the spirit and mood of baking,  I came home after work and decided to make some biscottis. I made almond-cranberry biscottis and had alot of fun doing it! I haven't made them since school, and I forgot how easy they can be! My boss's birthday is today, so I wrapped some up to bring to her as a little treat.

School is going well so far, my classes have all started well and I'm settling back in the flow of things. I made Ben David some muffin mix to take back to work with him, so next time I'll post some pictures of that.

Mendhi Cookies and Pin Up Paddling

I've been out in Durango, CO for a few days visiting one of my dearest friends. We used to work at a kayaking/rafting company in NC and have been good friends ever since.

I've seen these Mendhi hand cookies for a while now and have been wanting to try them on my own. I got a new cookbook while I was in Chicago, so we made a batch of gingerbread cookies out of it. She didn't have a mixer, which meant I got to cream the sugar and butter by hand and add all the other ingredients slowly and methodically.

Once we got the dough made (which tasted great and was lovely and fluffy!), we rolled it out by hand, with a little flour sprinkled on her fabulous wood countertops.

We had traced our hands on paper and cut out a hand template, so then we used that to cut the cookies.

After they were finished baking and had cooled, we used little icing tubes to make designs and really had fun with it.

This trip has been full of amazing small-town treats: riding bikes to yoga in the morning and then to breakfast, hiking up the hill to hear a lecture, dinner parties at high school friends' houses. I've never been to Durango, so I wanted to experience the wild wild west. We got to go paddling on a very low run of the Rock Wood section of the Animas River. It involved a 2 mile hike (passing a rattlesnake!) and a brutal hike out, but the beautiful deep gorge, the high walls of rocks, the amazing boofs, and the clear, quality class III whitewater made for a beautiful run. We even got in a little paddling pin up practice .

I'm leaving tomorrow, and I'll be sad to leave the wild wild west. Its been a great trip.

This summer has been busy! I started by moving into staff housing in the gorge, where I was magically allowed to have Pigeon this year. I've been loving him, we go hiking, running, camping, all kinds of things!

I made a gluten free red velvet cake for my co worker's anniversary a couple weeks ago. It turned out very tasty, and I put a fresh dahlia I grew on it.

They were extremely excited about it, and raved about it for days.

A week later, my mom had some fresh lavender she had grown and dried, so I got some and made lavender cupcakes. I made honey cream cheese icing on them and used a large star tip to make them look like hydrangeas.

In a few weeks I'll be going to CO to visit a dear old friend, and then I'll go back to school!

Tiffany Lamp!

I'm home alone again this weekend, which have turned into my personal baking retreats. This weekend I wanted to replicate a Tiffany lamp cake I've seen done my Maggie Austin cakes in DC. I baked a 4 layer red velvet cake, then stacked the layers with buttercream. I carved them into a lampshade shape, then dirty iced and covered it in fondant. I mixed luster dust with vodka and used that to paint the stained glass pieces. I used some old black buttercream I had mixed up in the fridge to out line the pieces, then put a white knob on top and put a dot border around the bottom. The border and knob would have looked better in black I think, next time!

Tiffany Lamp Cake!

Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! 

Cupcake Explosion!

Last night my friend Shannon wanted to come over and make cupcakes with me, so we got a huge batch of yellow cupcakes made and a triple batch of buttercream. The cupcakes we dyed different colors, some we left white, some pink, and some were teal. The teal were the prettiest, and we put light pink icing on them! Here are some pictures from our extravaganza:

I really had a fun time, it was awesome to make a huge mess and tons of cupcakes, then have someone to help clean up! I think she really enjoyed it also, hopefully we'll do it again soon. 

On another note, I went to the dr today and found out my rotator cuff is sprained, so I won't be paddling for a week or two. Its really not that upsetting since it hasn't rained in a while and its freezing all of a sudden. 

Scandalous Cupcakes

My latest project for cupcakes is somewhat of a scandalous one... at work we got an order for cupcakes with lingerie on them for a literary society honoring some poet who was a known womanizer. In order to prepare, I practiced at home one night with the help of a friend. We made fondant out of marshmallow fluff and powdered sugar, and then designed a template for corsets. Our cupcakes were red velvet, so we used a cream cheese frosting for the tops. We iced them in white, then used a flesh colored icing with a round tip to put little boobs on them. The fondant we colored pink and purple, and cut into the shape of the corsets. We used black royal icing to pipe the details on them; I think they turned out great! Here are ours at home:

A few days later I went in to work to help my boss make the forty needed for the party. Here are the ones we came up with at work: 

The homemade fondant was pretty cheap and easy to make, but it doesn't store well and was really messy. Overall, I had a ton of fun making these! 

Another exciting Friday night!

This weekend I'm home alone, since Ben David has to go to drill in Knoxville. I have an exciting weekend planned, kayaking, hanging out with good friends, and decorating a special order cake at work! In order to prepare for the special order cake, I whipped up some buttercream at home and pulled out some cupcakes from the freezer.
First I got sidetracked and started messing around with a few valentine's ideas:

I think I like the big one best, it looks like a peony! 

Then I got down to business and practiced the flowers I'll be doing tomorrow, as well as drank some good wine!

I'm excited to get up early and go help decorate this cake, and then I will be paddling Sect IV on the Chattooga!

Sunny days

I love this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN6n-lJyv-A
and sunny days, with long walks with Pigeon, and hot tea, and new schoolbooks.

Is anything I'm doing brand new?

Happy New's Years!