Carnival Cake

I'm only calling it carnival cake because for my little girl's 3rd birthday I want to make the inside of her carnival themed cake (a carousel) look bright and festive. So I thought I would try out my theory early because I was curious! It worked.

So I started by using a normal cake mix...yellow. Next time I might try white just to see if the colors are brighter. I seperated the batter into seperate mixing bowls and added the gel coloring.

Then I striped the colors into the pan...it was thick enough it didn't run very much. I wasn't looking for perfect stripes anyway...just a bunch of unmixed color!

this is right out of the oven..looks a bit dull, but that's just the outside....

Pretty bright colors inside...I haven't cut into the teil part yet, but I'm sure it's just as pretty!

The best cupcakes! Yummmmm

These are sooo good...and sooo easy!

I just used a regular cake mix for the cupcakes..easy!

However, I made homemade icing...very tasty and piped it on with a large star tip, put a spoonful of chocolate fudge (smuckers) and sprinkled fishers chopped nuts on top...voila!! Easy and so so so good.

Icing recipe:

1 cup sugar

3T flour

1/2 cup crisco

1 stick butter (room temp)

1/2 cup milk

1t vanilla (or any other flavoring you choose)

beat together for a long time, until sugar is dissolved and not crunchy!

Easter cake lollipops

I made this recipe from Bakerella's cake lollipop recipe. It's really easy, decorating is definitely the hardest part!

The main part is easy! You just bake a cake…red velvet works the best, then process it to make crumbles! Add a can of cream cheese frosting and mix (using hands is easier) Then you just make balls, or whatever shape and freeze for about an hour. Then add a stick and dip in chocolate…decorate!!

I used corn syrup as glue...it takes awhile to dry but it's easy if you just paint it on with a small paint brush and then add sprinkles.

I covered these in sprinkles before the white chocolate dried. This works really well and dries super fast! Not to mention they are really really beautiful and sparkly in person.






And here they all are!! It takes awhile to decorate...at least it did for me because this was my first time...hopefully I will get quicker in the future because they are so cool.

Gobs!!

My Grandmother used to make these when I was little. I was craving chocolate one night and found these in the cookbook she gave me! they are too good!

This is the recipe:
1c. cocoa
4c. flour
2c. sugar
1c. shortening
2tsp. vanilla
2 egg yolks
1c. buttermilk
1c. hot water
1tsp. salt
2tsp. soda

Mix all wet ingredients..then add all dry ingredients. drop by teaspoon on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 400 degrees for 8 minutes.
They do spread...I wish I would have made them smaller.

filling
2 egg whites, beaten stiff
4c. powdered sugar
2tsp. vanilla
1c. shortening
4T. flour
4T. milk

chocolate, raspberries and whipped cream...yumm

I had actually planned to cover the cake with a hard modeling chocolate, but my recipe didn't work. The cake is lumpy because I didn't prep it well enough to be covered like this....but I still think it turned out okay!!




I made a white butter cake with raspberries and fresh whipped cream filling for my Mom's birthday. I would definitely not make the cake again...it was very heavy and kind of bland. It held up well though for the tiered cake...very sturdy.
I made fresh whipped cream and added raspberries between the layers...very good. I used a simple buttercream recipe with some raspberries for the outside of the cake...and then covered it with modeling chocolate....only because my chocolate fondant failed.




It was actually a miracle that it got covered at all. Both the fondant and the modeling chocolate were sticky and would stretch horribly when moved to the cake. Thankfully my husband and a whole lot of powdered sugar were patient enough to help out!! I'm currently looking for a new recipe. You can see from the pictures the amount of powdered sugar it took...what a mess.






I actually had to mix up some heavy cream and cocoa powder and brush it on the cakes just to get the color back. I really didn't want a glossy finish, but I had work with what I had. The cake had tons of flaws in it...but I still think it turned out okay.

The raspberries helped to hide alot of the flaws! And the best part is the modeling chocolate tasted like melted chocolate...it was really good, very sweet, but still good.

Chocolate covered strawberries

I just had to make chocolate covered strawberries for Valentine's Day...I guess I was in the mood for them. I used ghirardelli milk chocolate and white chocolate. The pink and red swirls are just white chocolate wafers that you can buy in any specialty store.
I added 1/2 tsp of crisco to the chocolate before melting...it just seemed to make it creamier and easier to dip the berries.

Topsy Turvy Cake

This is a picture of the bottom layer of the topsy turvy cake. It has the center cut out of it already to fit the top layer inside of it. It is also already covered in a thick layer of ganache. Just waiting in the until chilled so I can add the fondant! I used 8, 9 and 10 inch round pans for the bottom layer. I wish I would have made it a little more dramatic, but this is my first attempt and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

This is the top layer, I used a 6, 7 and 8 inch round pan. That made it alot easier to shape the cake the way I wanted...also cut down on all the trimming. I still needed to trim the cake, but not as much.













And this is the end result...a little rough around the edges, but perfect for my little girls 2nd birthday. She loves Nemo and that was the theme.