More than just cake...

Hey everyone!

I've been busy this weekend organizing a cake pricing page (which you can see here.) It's just a free site, nothing terribly special, but I am often asked if I have a website with prices and flavours and I didn't... so I decided to fix that.

This weekend, I also decided to bake for my husband... I used to make my own pizza "pops" for him to take to work for lunch, and I hadn't done that in awhile. He's been so sweet lately, I decided to do something nice for him, so I made them. Then I decided to go one step further and share the how-to with you!

Homemade Pizza Pops

You could use pizza dough (homemade or store-bought), but I actually use a dinner roll dough recipe for my bread maker. Here is the recipe:

1 cup warm water
3 Tbsp butter or margarine
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour
3 1/2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp dry milk
1 tsp salt
2 tsp active dry yeast
OR
1 1/2 bread machine yeast

Add the ingredients to the bread pan in the order they are listed and set your machine on the dough setting, and go :)

If you don't have a bread machine, you could use a stand mixer or mix it by hand, just make sure to let it rise at least once.


Once the dough is ready, let it rest for about 5-10 minutes.

 

 

 

Cut up all the ingredients you want to use, while the dough is resting. Here, I have pizza sauce, mozzerella, turkey pepperoni, and mushrooms.

 



 

 

 

I cut the dough into rough equal parts. Six or eight parts is fine... I wouldn't do any more than that because then they won't be very big.

 



 

 

Next, I make a 'well' in the center of the dough, to make room for the fillings.

 

 



 

 

 

I start with some sauce, then the rest of the fillings, and add a touch more sauce. Be careful with the sauce... I have found that if you add too much, it overflows and it's next to impossible to pinch the dough closed because it won't stick.

 



 

 

After it's pinched closed, place it pinched side down on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

 



 

 

 

Bake at 350*F for 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

 



 

 

 

And this is what they look like! Don't be alarmed if a couple of leaks happen... it means you have either overfilled them, or didn't pinch them closed enough... in this instance, it was only a small leak and it won't affect the amount of filling.

 

Let the buns cool to room temperature and place in individual ziplock bags and freeze.

 

My husband says he doesn't put them in the freezer at work, he lets them stay at room temperature to thaw, and then microwaves them at lunch time, unwrapped, at full power for 30-45 seconds and they are perfect. I don't usually eat these so I had to ask him LOL!

 

There are so many variations to this idea. You can do ham and swiss (and I have), you could also do a taco version, with taco meat, cheddar, peppers and bring some salsa on the side to dip it into.

 

I haven't tried this but I am sure you could do eggs, ham and cheese, and dessert versions (chocolate and marshmallow? OKAY!)

 

Versatile and easy...

 

Enjoy, and stay sweet!

New Year, Fresh Start!

Things I love about January:

All the Christmas crap is down and put away (lol)
I start thinking about gardening
I get to plan my vacations for the year
SUMMER is coming! (Okay... we'll start with spring... lol)

I have some goals for cakes as well... there is one particular cake I have been dying to do since October, but the chance to do it fell through. Another opportunity has presented itself and I am so excited! It's going to be a huge hit on my Facebook page... and with good reason... it will take a lot of work and time but the result will be soooo worth it.

I also have something in the works for Valentine's Day.... I know, I know. We aren't even halfway through January yet, but if my experience in retail has taught me anything, it's to always look ahead at the next season or holiday. Stay tuned for that!

The chocolate rosette cake was such a hit on New Years' Eve that I made one in pink to bring to work. Bringing treats like this to work usually results in a sale or two and this time was no different. I work with people who have a serious sweet tooth, and that's awesome!

 

This 6 inch chocolate cake with peanut butter filling was the talk of the lunchroom! I love the fact that I don't need to dirty ice the cake first, and I love practicing the rosette technique. The trick is to make sure your buttercream isn't too dry.. make sure it's moist and flows well from the icing bag. Otherwise you will do what I did with the chocolate one, and scrape it all off, fix the buttercream, and start over. But when it works, it's so pretty and elegant, and it's really not that difficult!

 

 

YouTube is an amazing resource for me. I often browse Pinterest and have certain cakes catch my eye. Then I figure out what technique they use and search for a tutorial on YouTube. So there, you now know my secret. But it's an awesome way for me to learn, and I don't think cake decorators can ever really stop learning. There is always something new!

 

And then there is Thomas. My oldest son was fixated on Thomas the Train when he was young.. and boy, do I ever regret not learning how to do my own cakes way back then. He would have freaked out over this cake!

 

 

This cake was done with a Wilton 3D train cake pan, rented from Bulk Barn. If you didn't already know, you can rent cake pans from there for $2/day, with a $20 deposit. It is so convenient to do this because I already have more than enough cake pans, the last thing I need is more!

I baked the chocolate cake mix in the pan, let it cool and froze the two halves. When I was ready to decorate the cake, I just pulled up a picture of a Thomas cake, mixed my icing colours and went to work. I used fondant for the face, windows and number one. I put Thomas near the back of the cake board to make room for the greeting, since there really was no room ON Thomas to do so. So I pulled out my favourite tool... Tappits!

The cake was a huge hit, and one special little boy was very happy. I loved seeing the picture of him blowing out a candle on top of the cake, it truly warmed my heart!

Well.. more cake adventures to look forward to! Stay tuned to my Facebook page and feel free to share my pictures with your friends :)

Stay sweet!

 



Happy New Year - 2014!

Hello hello! I hope everyone made it through today without too much suffering from the parties last night! Happy New Year from my family to yours!

I closed out 2013 with a bang of my own... we were invited to a few parties, but were only able to attend two of the closest ones... both were a lot of fun, considering we are definitely homebodies. We typically don't go out on New Year's Eve, but made an exception this year.

So my last post included a Dora cake and a Mario cake... and while I don't have the cakes to show for it, December was such a busy month for us as a family, as it usually is for a lot of families! But I squeezed a few cakes in:

 

 

This tree stump cake looked way better with the fondant lettering on it, but I didn't get a picture of it. There were also antlers to go on top but they were lost in transit, unfortunately. This was made of four layers of triple chocolate brownies and chocolate buttercream. It smelled divine!

 

 



This vanilla coffin-shaped cake done in buttercream was for a special little girl in my life. The Monster High doll Operetta topped this cake right before the presentation. I heard a rumour the cake did NOT last very long :)

 

 

This beautiful vanilla cake with raspberry filling was made to surprise some special friends of ours. I had a lot of fun making this cake and more fun delivering it. I love how festive it looked!

 

 

 

 

These cupcake were for the same friends to help ring in the new year. More vanilla-raspberry!

 

 

 

 

And last but certainly not least, this beautiful rosette chocolate-pb cake was made to help ring in the new year at the second party we attended. No one wanted to cut into it! Once it was cut, it didn't last very long either... yay!





This about sums up my month of December 2013... onto new and exciting things for the coming year! I hope you will continue to follow my posts and give feedback...

Stay healthy and sweet!

Happy December!

Well... it's here. December. I have a love-hate relationship with the month of December. I love that my anniversary (today) is in December, I love having time off at Christmas to spend with my family. I love the magic of the holiday. I love baking cookies and I love preparing the big Christmas feast. It always leads to better things: turkey sandwiches with loads of mustard!

Which reminds me... have you seen this awesome video?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRy0ONLBFfc Jimmy Fallon's "We're up all night to get turkey." Too funny!

I both like and hate decorating the house. I love the festive feeling but hate the clutter, and I love having my house back to normal as soon as possible after Christmas. *sigh* I am an oxymoron of the holidays lol!

At any rate... it's here, and there is no postponing it, I suppose, so I better just make the best of it :)

My oldest son, in sea cadets, has been keeping us very busy! We went to our first Santa Claus parade last month, and it was chilly but fun. And tiring. All I did was sit on my keester and I was out for the count by 8 p.m.! Crazy fresh air, I guess. Every weekend he had some kind of event last month! I am glad this month is less busy for him :)

So let's talk cake! I did this one for a friend of a friend, and I loved the way it turned out. It was a 10-inch white cake and was originally supposed to be a Toopy and Binoo cake. The client couldn't find any kind of toys for the theme and ended up going with Dora. I am so glad that the colour scheme worked well either way :)

 

 



I'm also glad the client sent me the picture with the toys on top! I took pictures of it before it was picked up, and even though it looked great, the top seemed so bare. I had some leftover royal icing from another cake and used it to attach all the little pieces to the cake. I think royal icing is my new best friend, I have learned a valuable lesson when things don't stay attached! It would have made the Alice in Wonderland cupcakes a whole lot less stressful....

This next cake is one I just finished for a friend's son. She had soooo many ideas and pictures to show me, it was tough for her decide on just one lol! But she settled on the following design.

 

 

 

This ten inch white cake with almond buttercream was a delight to make. And since I was home on a personal day from work and everyone else in my family was at work/school, it was just me and the radio. It came together beautifully. I love the way his ears turned out (they are slightly indented to give a 3D effect) and I love his eyes! The hat turned out great too... Okay so I love the whole darn thing lol!

 

 

This is what the front of the cake looked like:

 



This is the first time I've used that technique for the border. I hadn't quite decided on what to do with the border, but I used this tool for Mario's mustache:

 

 

So I already had it out. I had quite a bit of red leftover from Mario's hat and decided to use it for the border... I'm so glad I did it this way! I did it in two pieces and found that by rolling the fondant up after it was cut, and unrolling it against the cake itself, it was able to keep it from stretching, and able to keep it straight.

 

 

Next weekend will have me creating two cakes, so check back then to see what's new!

 

 

Thanks for reading and stay sweet!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you have your stretchy pants handy this weekend, I know my husband does lol!

So, I wanted to share the recipe for the cherry pie I just made, since the recipe was shared so freely with me!

For the record, I hate my pie plate, but before this recipe, I never considered buying a better one ;)

The Pastry (makes top and bottom)

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 baking powder
1/3 cup COLD water

I've made pie pastry before so I didn't ask for specific instructions on getting it ready for the pie plate. I just mixed it all together, divided it in half, and refrigerated one half. I rolled out the first half between two sheets of parchment paper until I was satisfied with the size and thickness. Then I pressed it into the pan.

I filled it (recipe below), and then rolled out the second half. I cut it into one-inch strips with a pizza cutter, and followed the directions here. It looks complicated but I promise you it isn't. If I can do it, anyone can do it!

I trimmed and pinched the edges as best I could with my crappy pie plate... lol! Then I baked it in a preheated oven at 450°F for ten minutes. Then I reduced the temperature to 350°F and continued to bake it for 30 minutes. YUM!

Pie Filling

2 cans cherry pie filling (any brand)
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (I only sprinkled some in, I didn't measure)
1/2 - 3/4 cup flour

Top and bake as directed above. Cool and serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving and, as always, stay sweet!


 

So it's fall.. if you like that sort of thing...

And me? I'm not a big fan, to be honest. I like certain aspects, like baking in my non-air-conditioned home, it's much more comfortable. I love the smell of pumpkin and cinnamon, and the country fairs, even though I didn't manage to get to one this year. Love apples. Love jeans and hoodies, and, really, that is about it.

What I don't like about it is now wearing socks is a requirement, that all my flowers and leaves on the tree are kaput (the colours can be pretty vibrant though), I don't like the shorter days, getting up in the dark, or the overcast skies and crappy weather, not to mention it's getting colder, and we all prepare to hibernate for six months. Sorry but I am an outdoorsy person who does NOT like the cold lol. I also dislike that Thanksgiving is really the last long weekend we will see until Family Day in February. When there is snow on the ground. Ugh.

Yes, I am the person who hears someone sigh with happiness that it's fall and I look at them like they have three heads. But, you can't keep it from coming and I'm not able to move to warmer climates.

But, the major plus side is the BAKING! I get excited when my store sets up the holiday baking display. How lame am I? Flour, chocolate chips, pie filling... my goodness, I could go to town! :D Baking while sipping my pumpkin spice latte, it's not a terrible way to head into the crappy weather, I guess!

So in case you've missed it, I've been a bit busy the past couple of weeks! My husband and I celebrated our birthdays, and I got my DQ extreme chocolate ice cream cake, YAY! Here are the highlights:

 

 

You have probably seen these beauties on Pinterest (ah, the other love of my life...), but these are Alice in Wonderland cupcakes. With about 5000 details! LOL Putting the elements together was time-consuming but well-worth it, I think. I took my time, did it over a couple of evenings, and I think in the end, they turned out amazing. The most difficult ones to do were the stacked teacups with the teapot on top. I cannot tell you how many times these things fell apart on me.... but I have learned a lesson... I need to have some royal icing on hand next time, so I can cement these kinds of pieces together. For those difficult ones, I needed to insert a toothpick through the stack of cups/teapot, and then a secondary one through the bottom with enough of the toothpick sticking out to insert into the cupcake itself. Once that was done, I was able to worry less about them falling apart. They survived and made it to their destination and were a hit!

 

 

 

 

Every year, since I took up cake decorating, I have tried to wow my husband with his birthday cake. Last year, it was the Muppets' Animal. The year before that, it was a guitar cake. One day while he was at work, I figured out what would do it... since he loves his cowboy hat, I thought, why not a cowboy hat cake? It wasn't easy to check out ideas, much less work on it because he didn't have to work that weekend. I also wanted to be sure the cake itself was absolutely delicious... so I improvised with a new idea... chocolate cherry cheesecake. He was definitely in heaven, after his happy reaction to the cake!

 

 





Last but not least, I was asked to do this guy, the green Ninjago. I did a red one awhile ago, in a different way for the same customer. This one was chocolate raspberry truffle, one of my most requested flavours. It was so easy to do this one, because the fondant went on it pieces and didn't have to be perfect, it just needed to be layered. I was really happy with how he turned out, but alas, he wasn't a popular like on Denise's Custom Cakes. That's okay though, to each their own. I was impressed!

And that about sums up fall for me, so far. I have orders coming in for December already, so if you've been considering ordering a cake from me, please be sure to plan ahead!

Stay sweet!

C is for Cookie!

The nights have already become cooler, which is great for sleeping but not much else. I'm in total denial. My last stretch of vacation begins tomorrow afternoon and I am off from work for 17 days... meaning, for the rest of the (kids') summer! So no cool nights are allowed until Labour Day weekend! And maybe not even then!

My family and I count down to this time of year immediately after Labour Day... so for 349 days lol! This is our big, official vacation as a family. We take a week off in July, and usually just do day trips, head to the beach, the drive-in, things like that, staying close to home. But this year, we were graciously invited to spend a week at our friend's trailer near Port Dover. We had so much fun! We swam, fished, hiked, took in some history and ate like kings. We had the BEST food ever: chili, BBQ chicken, steaks, burgers, corn on the cob, meatloaf.. and to make up for that, I've been eating salad every. single. day. since then. I'm done with salad, for the record!

So our August vacation is spent camping in the lovely Algonquin Provincial Park. I may have mentioned it before, but this is a family tradition that we've been carrying on. My grandparents stayed there, my parents stayed there and now we stay there, with the high hopes that our boys will take their families there one day. So we camp there for almost the whole week, come back the Thursday evening and then spend the next day at the Canadian National Exhibition, which the kids also love! It's a bit of a whirlwind week for us, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

So let's talk cake..

 

 

I am really my own worst critic, and I KNOW this, but this bloody Caesar cake would be better with fondant. I also know not every cake I do is going to turn out in reality how I have it pictured in my mind, but I learned something with this one, and that is what is important here. :) And it makes me feel better to assure you that the picture does not do this cake justice, it truly looked better in person.

 

 

Next:

 

 

 

 

These cute cupcakes celebrated a friend's daughter's birthday. Last year I made the Mermaid Barbie cake... this year, she wanted red velvet cupcakes and marble cupcakes with all kinds of different toppers. So I decided on a summery theme, with the exception of a few animals and flowers. My favourites include the hot dog and hamburger, the bikini, flip flops and popsicles (made from Mike n Ike candies). They were a hit!

 

 

 

 

 

The client for this cake showed me a picture and decided to go with part fondant, part buttercream. So the trick to this cake was to make the buttercream as smooth as possible. I iced it, froze it, and smoothed it with a hot spatula. I was pretty satisfied! My awesome husband cut the horse out of fondant, and then cut and attached the checkerboard design to the side of the cake, using Wilton Sugar Sheets. Not sure if I'll use them again, but they helped!

 

 

 

 

 

This Michaelangelo cake was for another repeat customer... last year I did a Wallace & Gromit cake for her grandson :) This was done by a frozen buttercream transfer... and I'm still not officially sold on the technique, it turned out way better than the first time I tried it!

 

And the last cake before my vacation starts is Cookie Monster! It was done in a similar way to the Elmo cake a couple of months ago, but the "fur" was purposely piped askew :) I really, really like how it turned out.

 

 

 

I have another order for Cookie Monster later this month, but if the client reads this, rest assured, it will not be identical to this cake! :)

 

Enjoy the next couple of weeks, ladies and gents, and as always, stay sweet!