Chocolate, Marshmallow, and Graham Crakers...Sweet!

I've seen a few different ideas for s'mores cupcakes. This was on that I had to try! It's a combo of graham cracker and chocolate cake batter...the graham cracker batter on the bottom, topped with half of a large marshmallow, sprinkled with a graham cracker crumble, then topped off with chocolate cake batter, and a final layer of graham cracker crumble. Mouth watering yet??? I am going to have to work on these though. What I do like is that most of the marshmallow melts away. The good with that is that it melts into the cake batter leaving it with an even sweeter slightly gooey texture. The bad is that it can leave a hole in the middle of the cupcake. I think the key there is to make sure there is enough chocolate batter on top. It's difficult to find that balance the first time because you don't want to overload the cupcake! Haha, I saw the potential for a big mess on the bottom of my oven. I did top these off with a chocolate frosting, piece of a Hershey bar, and a mini marshmallow. These might be one of my new favorite cupcakes!

Triple Decker Strawberry Cake

I had a request from someone my husband works with. He is allergic to chocolate, which really reduces dessert possibilities. I've made this strawberry cake many times and new it would be perfect! It does have real strawberries in it, which I think is what makes it so much better. Not only does the cake have real strawberries in it, but so does the frosting!

A Pie Experiment

Okay...so I tackled some baking last week that I had been wanting to try. I was in the mood to make a pie, but what kind of pie. I ran across this idea and had to give it a go. A cookie pie! It looked amazing. We're basically talking whipping up a cookie recipe, this one chocolate chip and putting the "dough" into a pie crust. I wasn't quite sure how it would turn out. I halfway expected the dough to be of a pouring consistency, but it was truly like a cookie dough. The finished product was amazing and one that I would serve warm each time. It was like have a gooey warm cookie on top of pie crust! The chocolate chips made their way to the bottom so you ended up with 2 layers...warm chocolate on bottom and warm gooey cookie on top.

Meep, Meep!

This cake was for my brother. We grew up with the Muppets, from the Muppet Show to all of the Muppet Movies. I had been wanting to make this cake for quite some time. Beaker was a lot of fun to put together. I made him after I made the University of Alabama cake. I finished around 1AM, but it was so worth it. I used 4 cake layers...I alternated vanilla and chocolate and used a milk chocolate buttercream. It was good...sweet with a lighter hint of chocolate.

A Roll Tide Birthday!

Goodness...I worked like crazy yesterday evening and night working on 2 birthday cakes. The week did not go as planned...including 2 grocery trips with forgotten eggs! So, I was running behind on getting my family birthday cakes made. I still can't believe that I got 2 of them done in about 6 hours. This first one was for my parents, they actually have the same birthday! This one was chocolate with peanut butter buttercream. I actually hand cut each and every one of the houndstooth pattern goobers on the cake. It wasn't too hard, just took a ton of time! I was really happy with the outcome.

Triple Decker Cookies and Cream

Ooops, forgot to add a cake. I don't just make custom cakes. I came up with this idea at the beginning of December. I've affectionately called it my Triple Decker Cookies and Cream cake. It has 3 cake layers...the outer layers are chocolate with the middle layer vanilla cake. It's all filled and covered with oreo buttercream. I wanted to make it look nice, so I then made a shiny chocolate glaze to cover the top and drip down the sides. That was not enough for me, so I decided to drizzle it with white chocolate. Oreos top it off and surround the bottom. Okay, now I'm hungry.

Birthday Cakes in the Works

I'm in planning mode. I've got all of my cakes posted, but now it's time to do more thinking on a couple of cakes I'm going to make for Saturday. My time is limited, but I know what I want to do.

My parents have the same birthday, January 8th. Funny huh? Growing up people would always say, "don't you mean their anniversary"? Um, no, that is on November 8th. They really like those 8s!

My brother's birthday is on the 14th of January. We always have a family birthday lunch and that is going to happen this Saturday.

I'm not planning on making big cakes, but they will take time none the less. One crimp in my plans is the weather. Thank you snow. Looks like my Friday evening is going to be pretty busy.

You'll have to stay tuned to see what they cakes are...I'd hate for those receiving the cakes to not be surprised!

Wish me luck on getting both of them done...making them smaller will be a big help!

Uga!

This was my first grooms cake! It was a surprise to the groom from the bride. It's of course chocolate cake! It was then filled with chocolate buttercream along with a raspberry filling. The whole cake was coated in chocolate marshmallow fondant. The bulldog was challenging to make, but certainly fun to try! Even the Georgia logo was made out of fondant!

Fondant

I've been making my own, which is actually fairly easy to do. It's a combo of marshmallows, a bit of water, a bit of vanilla extract, and powdered sugar. I know that most people seem to love the smooth look of fondant, but aren't too fond of the way it taste. I really like the way this one taste. I have used some of the Wilton ready made fondant to make figures. I've used gumpaste for that as well. I figure the figures won't be eaten, even though they could be! That fondant does not taste the best, but it hardens really well. The marshmallow fondant tends to be softer. I do make sure to put plenty of buttercream inside the cake for those that aren't big on eating fondant. Feel free to peel it off, won't offend me! (I've even done that before, haha!) I've put a large amount of buttercream on the outside of cakes as well, but as I go along from cake to cake I find that a thinner layer of buttercream on the outside of the cake works better when using fondant. It's easier to get a nice smoother finish.

Another Shower Cake

This cake was for a couple that was being thrown a wedding shower/housewarming party. the cake was vanilla with oreo buttercream. I'll tell ya, I cannot get enough of that oreo buttercream. I can eat it with a spoon! The 2 people were challenging to make. I'm still trying to perfect that art. I'm self taught on all of this, so I just kind of figure it out as I go. The couple loved it, which is what makes me the most happy!

Turkey Time!!!

This very well might be one of my favorites! I wanted to make a fun cake to take for my family at Thanksgiving. So, I made this guy. He was a marbled cake of chocolate and butter cake with an oreo buttercream. I mixed together a batch of chocolate marshmallow fondant to cover the guy. The hat was my hubby's idea, can't believe I didn't think of that! Haha.

Another Baby Shower Cake

I found this idea after a couple of weeks after I had made the other baby shower cake for my friend. The couple did not find out the gender of the baby, so the shower was going to be neutral. I'm not a huge fan of yellow and thought it would be fun to incorporate both the pink and blue. The cake as a whole was just one layer...but composed of 3 layers of cake. It was a fabu vanilla with buttercream. I had a bit of fun with the buttercream. Since I had 3 layers of cake I separated the layers with both pink and blue buttercream. I thought it would be really fun when cut into.

Baby Shower Cake

Two layer cake time! This one was for one of my very best friends and was used as a center piece at her baby shower. Her nursery is full of green and brown, so of course we had a color matching shower! The cake was chocolate with vanilla buttercream tinted pink! I had to add a bit of the fun baby girl color! I used marshmallow fondant to cover the cake, but the top layer was covered in chocolate marshmallow fondant. Yummy!

Halloween Peanuts Style

I wanted to do something fun for our Halloween party. "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" is one of my favorite Halloween specials. So, I decided to make a cake to that theme. I ran out of time and didn't get to do all that I wanted to do to the cake, but was still pretty happy with the way it turned out. I think I made this cake a vanilla cake with an oreo buttercream. All of the figures were hand made out of marshmallow fondant...my first attempt at figures!

Party Time!!!

I had not made a custom cake in a while and this one got me back on track! As a gift to my mother-in-law I made a special birthday cake. We had a big party for her, so I figured we needed a fun cake. My sister-in-law said she wanted all 60 candles on the cake, yep...all 60 candles! That put a limit on what type of design I could have, but I managed to get them all on the cake! The cake was chocolate with a nutter butter buttercream, all covered of course in marshmallow fondant. The 60 was made with tinted white chocolated, poured free-handed. I was nervous about getting this one all the way down to Florida, but it made it in one piece!

Lab Coat Cake

This one I did for my brother. He is working on getting his Ph.D and it always getting work done in the lab. I have to say, it's much more work than I could do and I am so impressed and proud of him. I believe this was for his birthday one year. The cake was chocolate with vanilla buttercream and covered in marshmallow fondant.

Wedding Dress Cake

I was really excited about the idea of this cake. My fabulous friend Kelly was getting married and I wanted to make a special cake for her shower. The cake was white chocolate with a white chocolate buttercream, covered in marshmallow fondant. The dress on the cake was in the same design as her dress. I was really happy with the end result. I believe this is the 2nd custom cake that I had made.

FSU Helmet Cake

This is the first custom cake that I made. It was for my husband for his birthday. He is a huge Florida State fan and it seemed fun to make. It wasn't perfect, but pretty good for a first try. I made it the day of and I wish I had made certain parts of the helmet early...especially the face guard. The pieces had not hardened, so I had to prop them up with toothpicks, haha. Oh well...it was a learning experience.

So Much Baking, So Little Time!

Yay! I have finally started a blog! I've been meaning to do this for quite some time. I've been posting pictures of my cakes on facebook, but wanted a place to also be able to talk about them as well. My goal is to make cakes and cupcakes as a side business, with the hope of someday doing it full time! I have to thank my friend Rachel for creating my awesome logo! She is an artist and has many wonderful talents. You can check out her blog and work here: http://www.rachelodblog.blogspot.com/

I'll be posting pictures of my cakes this week.