Cakes by Kelsie

Success

2009-10-03T21:01:00.000-04:00

The other day in my Introduction to University Experience class, we had to draw a picture of what we think success looks like. I'm not much of an artist, drawing wise, but my vision of success includes a money-making bakery and me looking all adorable in an apron. :D

College is certainly keeping my busy, so I haven't had any time to bake (except when I went home last weekend- yay!- and baking a brownie cake for Mom's birthday that James (the noncake eater) absolutely loved). This is unfortunate because the Iron Cupcake: Earth challenge is music (I love music) and this Friday is Pro-Life Cupcake Day, which is an adorable way to raise awareness.

I'm still keeping my eye open for baking opportunities, but Thanksgiving is only a few weeks (ok, seven week) away, and at the very least, I can bake up a storm then. I feel so bad that my blog has laid dormant for so long, but just know that I'm constantly thinking about it and writing down different baking ideas. And of course, picturing my future success. :-)

Adam’s Birthday

2009-09-16T02:12:00.017-04:00

Well, guys, I'm sure my blog is totally boring you to death now that I'm not baking anymore (insert dramatic sigh here), and frankly, I feel like an immensely more boring person. Baking is a part of me, and I feel like that part is missing.

And speaking of missing, know what else I miss? Adam. Yessiree, my baby brother. Except he's not a baby anymore- he's 6, and his birthday was last Friday. I didn't get to make him a cake, unfortunately, although Katie baked him some cupcakes (and called me that morning- woke me up!- to ask for some advice. I guess it wasn't really morning, though, it was around 1:00pm…). I did call him, though, and sing to him, and sent him a card. But it's not the same, ya know?

In honor of Adam's birthday, this post is dedicated to a cake I'm sure you've never seen before (unless you've check out my Flickr account recently): Spongebob Squarepants!

The prequel to the Patrick Star cake, and inspired by one of Adam's favorite cartoons, this cake is definitely a favorite of mine- and Adam's. The limbs are sugar cookies, and that lovely sponge shape comes from a 9 x 13" baking pan. What I remember having trouble with on this cake is the eyes- I used blue piping gel, and it had melted or something, because it was really runny. The picture is a little grainy, but if you look closely, the pupils are a little wacky. Not that Adam cared.

I actually made a Spongebob cake for Adam's second birthday too, but unfortunately there's no evidence of that cake. We were on vacation at the beach, and I had very limited supplies: a disposable cake pan, a box mix, a can of icing, some piping colors, aaaaaand… that's it. I didn't even have chocolate icing for his pants, so Mom & I (she's so smart) crunched up some chocolate cereal to use for his pants. Talk about limited resources, eh?

Not only do I love baking for Adam, but I love baking with Adam, too. Exhibit A: The gingerbread cupcakes:

I made these for James' first grade class' Christmas party. Let's see, he's in 5^th grade now, so that was 4 years ago, just when I started really getting into this whole baking thing. The little gingerbread men are actually chocolate. (If you didn't know, chocolate candy was actually my gateway into the cake decorating world. I'll have to tell you the story sometime!) And the buttercream is covered in cake sparkles (it's supposed to look like sparkly snow). I think the cupcakes went over well with the class… Ok, ok, they're first grades presented with a dessert, of course it went over well!

Oh, wait, I'm supposed to be talking about Adam, not James. He'll have to wait until October for his time in the limelight. So, Adam:

Ain't he sweet? I love this picture! First of all, I can't believe we still have those aprons. They're all torn up and worn from years of use now, but I'm pretty sure they're still sitting in the same drawer just waiting to be put on and covered with flour. I do wish I had a new apron, though. However, Adam's apron, which Grandma made (I got my artsy/craft gene from her. She's amazing with a sewing machine.) out of a tea towel and some string, no longer fits him. I remember every time I pulled out my handy dandy Kitchen Aid, he would run over to the drawer and hand it over for me to put it on him. And he always wanted to help, once he got over his fear of the loud noise the mixer made, that is. Oh, and that orange/pink thing hanging on his neck is a toy monkey. Actually, I think it's James' toy monkey.

Back to the present, I'm working on my job application at the cafeteria right now. I'm really hoping and praying that I can get this job… even part-time, once a week would be better than nothing. I haven't made anything since those cakeballs right before I left home. I'm having withdrawals like mad. If worst comes to worst, I'll beg one of my friends to take me home one weekend and steal their kitchen for a few hours. J

Kelsie's Cakes from "Back in the Day"

2009-08-30T04:03:00.000-04:00

As promised in my last posting, I'm going to keep up with this blog while I'm still in college, baking or no baking. So far, no baking. Which is really a shame, because I've had such a craving for those chocolate chip cookies I love. Katie told me she'll send some in a care package for me, but either they're going to get stale and/or smushed in the box, or my family will decide they should eat them all without me. Personally, I'm betting on the second option.

I did, however, scan about 20 pictures onto my computer and upload them to Flickr. I don't have the dates for any of them, but I'm sure I could figure it out if I had a calendar and a lot of time to kill. Even though I don't remember the dates very well, I can promise you I remember the cakes.

It's funny to think that I've had cake on my brain since I was really, really little. As in, three-years-old. Granted, back then my ingredients were things like mud and flower petals, but it's the thought that counts, right?

There's no mud in this cake, though, just lots of sugar and cute little Teddy Grahams. I found the instructions for this one on a magazine cover and mom and I put it together for my birthday. When I say "my birthday," of course I mean Maggie's birthday as well, because when we were younger, we always had combined parties. At the time, I resented it, but looking back, it really wasn't that big of a deal. Sorry for giving you such a hard time about it, Mom.

As you can tell, this was before I ever picked up my first Wilton instruction booklet or visited Cakecentral.com. If I had to guess at a time frame, I'd say elementary school, maybe 1999. But the cake still provided a lot of fun: going shopping for the ingredients, baking and icing the cake, putting the little Teddy Grahams in their Life Saver floatie devices, making a slide out of bubblegum, the giant lollipop who's purpose I can no longer remember... Oh, and eating all of the leftover candy later. That was fun, too.

We still have that tablecloth, by the way.

This next and final cake I'm showcasing for today is the Barbie cake. I'm pretty sure every little girl wanted a Barbie doll wearing a dress made of cake and icing, but how many little girls can say that they helped make that cake themselves?

Sure, it's not as pretty or "dress-like" as the Barbie cake my aunt Elsie made for her daughter, April, but it has chocolate AND rainbow sprinkles, so I'm happy. I don't know if we had three different sized cake pans, or if Mom just cut the tiers to the appropriate size, but it was probably the latter.

That Barbie in the middle of the cake is my pink Power Rangers Barbie. She was my favorite. She had this cute little party dress (which she's wearing) and her kick-butt Power Ranger's suit. I lost one of her gloves, though, which was a sad, sad day in my household.

So there you have it: two of my childhood memories, preserved in photographs of birthday cakes. But don't worry, there will be lots of cakes and memories in the future!

Old School

2009-08-24T09:17:00.000-04:00

I am now officially a college student. I'm all moved into my dorm and my classes start tomorrow. I believe I've mentioned this before, but I don't have a kitchen, and I left all of my baking supplies at home (except Confetti Cakes for Kids. That's on my bookshelf right now). So no baking for a while. =/

But I figured out a way to keep blogging about cake, at least until I get a job baking/decorating somewhere (the cafeteria, preferably).

Along with all of my many new dorm/school supplies, my parents bought me a new printer which conveniently has a scanner feature. So, that means I'll be able to conveniently scan all of the pictures that I took before I turned 16 and got a digital camera, and put them on the computer.

I've got pictures from 2000, so when I say "old school," I mean old school.

Hopefully, my antics as a very beginner cake decorator will keep you entertained while I'm on my baking hiatus. At the very least, I'll be able to reminisce about all the crazy mishaps I had before I learned how to make buttercream and pipe a straight line. =)

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-08-16T21:53:00.000-04:00

I turned 18 a week ago! :D

For some reason, though, I always have trouble figuring out how to decorate my own cake. When it comes to an idea for someone else, I'm usually quick to find inspiration, but for some reason, I'm more picky about my own cake. Last year, I came up with an adorable idea, but this year I was struggling.

Eventually, though, the purple/silver theme took hold, and I decided to run with it. Since doing the margarita cake, I really like the idea of ribbon roses, so I made a bunch of those, in purple and gray, and painted them with the trusty pearl dust/extract mixture to make them shiny.

The squiggles and swirls are also shiny because of the aforementioned pearl dust. The candles, however, are not shiny, as they are old and left over. After the fact, my mom told me she could've bought new candles for me. Oh, well.

Also, did you see the bulge around the side of the cake? I still can't get rid of that and it's infuriating. I think that (I hope, really) that if I ever cover a cake totally in fondant, that should take care of the bulging problem, but I'm not entirely sure. And I was going to attempt to cover this cake, but I didn't have enough store bought fondant (which I used for the flowers, etc.) and the homemade fondant was all crumbly, which happens to me every time I make it (or at least, the only 3 times that I've made it so far). So, I figure I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

And I'd like to give a shout out to Chris and Sarah who arrived before I finished decorating and helped make the squiggles and swirls with me. That was fun! :D

I leave for college at the end of this week, and unfortunately, I don't know how much baking I'll be doing since there's no kitchen in my dorm room. However, I'm going to try to get a job working in the cafeteria, and I'll be sure to keep you informed of how that's going. I'm really not sure how much baking and blogging I'll be doing between classes and work and all that other college stuff, but I'm not going to stop baking if I can help it. It's still my biggest dream to open my own bakery in the future, and college will hopefully be a step in that direction. If you don't hear from me in a while, though, don't worry, I promise I will return!

A Birthday Cake Fit for Ringo Starr's #1 Fan :P

2009-08-02T22:26:00.001-04:00

I'm not really sure who Ringo Starr's #1 Fan is, but I'm pretty sure it's my little sister. Well, she's not so little anymore; she just turned 14 yesterday. But she's definitely a huge Beatles fan and at about 11 o'clock at night, a huge boulder of an inspiration hit me and I realized her "Beatlemania" would be the perfect theme for this cake.

The "Happy Birthday Maggie" and cartoon Ringo drawing is one big FBCT , which I was really unhappy with because of the detail. I should've used a #1 tip, instead of a #2, but I think the hungry monster that eats all our socks also stole my tip. :-(

Of course, I could also blame my unhappiness of the cake on the fact that it was 2:00am when I piped the lyrics to "Birthday" on the side of the cake, and that's why it looks so messy, not because I have horribly illegible handwriting when I write sideways. Of course! And I'm not really unhappy. I'm just such a perfectionist when it comes to cakes. Mostly just my cakes, but I've been known to be pretty judgmental about some of those Cake Wrecks too heh heh...

"Yes, we're gonna have a party"

"I'm glad it's your birthday"

"I would like you to dance"

"Happy Birthday to you"

"We're gonna have a good time"

"They say it's your birthday"

(Sorry about the really poor quality of some of the pictures I took with the little digital camera. I wish I had the funds to invest in one of those fancy, expensive ones, but I just have to make do with what I have. =] Thanks for sticking it out with me!)

But Maggie loved the the cake, and that's what's really important. I tried out a new chocolate cake recipe, and I think I used too much dark cocoa powder and not enough sugar. But the buttercream was extra sweet, so that compensated it for me. Plus, everyone else said the cake was delicious. So I should probably just quit nitpicking and enjoy the chocolaty goodness, right?

Baby Shower Cake

2009-08-01T22:59:00.000-04:00

I have never made a baby shower cake before, but I'm happy to say that now I have.

This cute little cake was made for a friend of mine, her mom's baby shower is today.

The cake is lemon with lemon buttercream (it smelled amazing, and the cake scraps were yummy). I got the cake recipe from Elisa Strauss' book, Confetti Cakes for Kids .

The blocks are made of rice krispie treats, covered in a double layer of fondant and decorated with more fondant. Of course, after I spent a good 2 or 3 hours on them, I found out that there does indeed exist an easier method . Oh well, maybe for next time.

The flowers, borders, and letters are all buttercream. Because I fail at making flowers sideways, I piped them onto wax paper, froze them (they need to be in there a good twenty minutes to solidify), then stuck them on the cake with a dab more buttercream. Add some little leaves, and viola!

I'm off to make my sister's birthday cake now. All the cool kids have birthdays in August. :-)

More Cupcake Cuteness

2009-07-31T01:46:00.000-04:00

I had a few leftover cupcakes from Harry Potter in the freezer, still undecorated and in need of some love.

There's not much to say here, I just cut out some little flowers out of fondant and sprinkled them on the cupcakes. But the pictures speak a thousand words. Aren't they cute?!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Cupcakes

2009-07-16T13:18:00.000-04:00

The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie release was just two nights ago, and my friends and I celebrated by trekking out to the theater at 11:00pm, wearing scarves in house colors and various other costume pieces, and by consuming this cupcakes that I made in honor of the great Harry Potter.

The cupcakes were actually baked a week before and frozen, but I did all of the decorating on Tuesday, which was quite a task as a) I got home at 2 in the morning the night before, b) I had to run up to Publix, a simple excursion which ended up taking an hour, c) I fell asleep somewhere in the process, and d) I had to make red AND black fondant. *shudder*

I was a little nervous putting fondant on the cupcakes; I've never done that before, but it really wasn't that hard. I brushed simple sugar on the cupcakes before I commenced decorating, but that was because I may have overbaked them slightly. I also filled the cupcakes with buttercream, because I felt they needed more icing than just the fondant. Finally, I iced a really thin layer of buttercream, and laid the fondant on top, which I cut out using a 3" cake circle and stretched out just a little bit. (Picture here)

The characters all all modelled after the Potter Puppet Pals , if you haven't already caught the resemblance. To be honest, I watched "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" quite a few times to make sure I had the details right. And also because it's a really funny video:

The Dark Marks are made with sparkly icing gel, and the green cupcakes with the sprinkles are for the "Half Blood Prince:" the sprinkles are crowns. :-)

The only cupcakes I wasn't really happy with was Hermione, because I couldn't get her hair right, but she was just as tasty as everyone else.

Oh, and the one cupcake that I didn't get a picture of was Slytherin's Locket, which if you've read the book or seen the movie, you know is integral to the plot. I made it out of chocolate, covered it in silver pearl dust and added a big, sparkly "S."

I am so super happy that I got to make these cupcakes. It was so much fun to watch the characters come alive, so to speak, in pastry form, but even more fun to share them with all my friends. Cupcakes just seem to make people happy. :D

Harry Potter Fest

2009-07-06T01:27:00.000-04:00

Right now, I'm super stoked about the upcoming Harry Potter movie .

My friends and I are all planning to do see the midnight showing next Tuesday night. Only nine days away!

You're probably wondering why I am sharing my extreme excitement on my blog.

Don't worry. I have a reason.

I'm planning on making Harry Potter themed cupcakes (and possibly sugar cookies) for the big event. (And when I say decorated cupcakes, I don't just mean putting a plastic ring with Harry's face on it like the grocery stores sometimes do. Not that I'm hating on grocery store cupcakes. Just that I'm a little crazier. :-) ) I'm going to go all out with glitter and fondant and crazy colors and flavors. It will be cupcaketastic and definitely epic.

So stay tuned for more of my Harry Potter/cupcake/baking adventures! You'll also probably hear about my Threadcakes entry and a couple other contests I want to enter, but Harry Potter comes first. I know, I probably sound like a crazy fangirl right now.

In the meantime, if you'd like to share any ideas you'd like to see manifested in my HP cupcakes, feel free to drop me a comment!

(poster image from cineposters.com )

Red, White, & Blue Cupcakes

2009-07-04T08:46:00.006-04:00

I made these yummy little cupcakes for the 4th of July holiday. Strawberry cupcakes, and blue or white buttercream and some patriotic sprinkles.

Seems pretty simple, right?

Not quite. But then again, is anything ever simple for me?

I had a grand plan in mind, but unfortunately I had to sacrifice some of that dream in lieu of some missing ingredients. Thankfully, cake decorators must be able to think on their feet, so I made some last minute changes to the final cupcake design.

What I wanted to do was make strawberry cupcakes (that part went as planned, except the cupcakes didn't turn out very red, so food coloring may be in order next time) with a deep blue buttercream (well, actually, I wanted to make Italian Meringue Buttercream , but I'll save that for a different day) and white star or nonpareil sprinkles.

Unfortunately, Target, Costco, and Publix do not have white sprinkles of any sort. Publix does, however, have some pearly, princessy sprinkles that my dad bought, but I ended up with the red/white/blue mix of jimmies.

And I ended up making the icing half-and-half with the colors. Sure, I could've made some red, but with that last few cakes I've made... well, to be honest, I cringed at the thought of mixing up more red. I would like to head over to the Cake Art Party Store and try Americolor's Super Red gel , though, because I hear red icing is easier to make with that.

And I really like the cupcake liners that I found, unexpectedly, in the dollar section of Super Target. 72 cupcake liners for $2. Not a bad deal.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe July 4th here in the U.S. and abroad!

(**Thanks to my sister Katie for taking the pictures**)

Happy Birthday, Kaylee and Sue Ann!

2009-07-03T15:43:00.001-04:00

I was commissioned this weekend to make two birthday cakes.

The first is a sheet cake, half yellow & half chocolate, for Kaylee's 10th birthday (if you can't tell, she loves to play soccer). Kaylee's mom has been a long time reader of my blog so I was pretty stoked that she asked me to make this cake. :D I had fun making it, even if I never made a 2-flavor cake before, and I thought it turned out pretty awesome. The soccer ball is a FBCT that I probably should've kept in the freezer longer, but it turned out fine in the end.

I also realize that this isn't the best picture, but I thought I would have time to shave my legs AND take photos before it was time for the cake to be picked up. Well, time management was never my strong point.

And this second cake is a red velvet cake for my mom's friend Sue Ann. I decorated it right after I finished Kaylee's cake, so Sunday was quite the cake decorating day for me. I know this cake is a little more simple than the last few cakes I made (where are the flames?!), but I still like it.

One question that I think we should all think very deeply about is whether or not to use buttercream during the middle of June in the southern United States. I know that's a thought that will keep me up at night. :-) As in, buttercream with real butter in it. I know you can't tell, but my 50/50 buttercream (butter/crisco) definitely melted, so I made up another batch of icing with only Crisco and combined the two recipes, so I ended up with a 1/3 butter & 1/3 Crisco formula which still looked a little droopy. I ended up with a lot of icing, too, so it's a good thing I made two cakes. I really like the buttery icing, but I have a feeling I won't be using it much over the next few months.

(On second thought, I did use the Costco unsalted sweet cream butter, and I don't let its texture as much as the Kroger or Publix brand, so I may have to try again with one of those brands.)

I'm not sure how much baking I'll be doing this week, but Independence Day is this weekend, and I believe that calls for a cake (and yes, definitely sparklers ), and my friend Brian mentioned that he needed a cake, so we'll see if I'm making that any time soon.

The Grill Cake

2009-07-01T16:57:00.000-04:00

Every year I try to make something cool and fun for Father's Day, which in the past has included a couple of golf cakes and even a cake where I piled on as much chocolate as I possibly could.

This year inspiration hit me and I decided to make a cake that looks like a grill, because my dad loves to cook out.

I thought my idea was original, but after a quick Google search , I realized that I'm certainly not the first to come up with this idea, although I still like to think that the execution is still all my own.

The vegetables and meats are all made from a gumpaste/fondant mixture which I colored and then "painted" for the grill lines.

(And by paint I mean a little bit of brown and black icing paste and a drop or two of extract.)

I'm so proud of myself for this cake, because I didn't procrastinate the night before and stay up all night working on this cake. I did stay up all night, but that was a few days later when I saw Transformers. :-)

The fondant creations were all made a few days before, the cake was baked and decorated on Saturday, and I put everything together on Sunday.

The "coals" are just big icing blobs of various colored gray icing with some powdered sugar dusted on top. The flames and the grills bars are just basic buttercream. So it really wasn't a complicated cake, but it turned out really well.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

The Winners

2009-06-19T17:45:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Jennie, Kelly, Rafael, Frostedbetty, & Connie!

They'll each receive a copy of Confetti Cakes for Kids by Elisa Strauss. Thanks to everyone who participated!

The Graduation Cake

2009-06-12T14:35:00.000-04:00

So, I finally made my graduation cake. It is, thus far, the biggest cake that I have ever made, and I really liked it. Well, I wasn't entirely happy with it, though. I definitely procrastinated and I feel that shows with the piping work and in all the little details. Everyone said they loved it, but I was much more critical.

I suppose that if I had actually made the little gumpaste pieces 2 to 3 days in advance, as per directed, instead of 12 hours before (or less), then this cake would've been a lot better.

For example, I wouldn't have rushed around putting the bottom boarder on (I am ashamed of how sloppy it is) and the calculator would actually have calculator buttons on it, like a "+" or "=" or even "0" and the gavel would've looked like a real gavel (and I even had one to model from!). And I probably would've made a few more little pieces to better display the 13 years I spent in public school, instead of just 4 (calculator, gavel, book, medal).

But I am a procrastinator and I think it shows in my work. So before my parents go rushing off to send my portfolio to Duff Goldman or Colette Peters (I'm seriously nowhere near that good; my parents are crazy), I'm going to need to learn better time management. And not wait until the last minute to plan the cake; this fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants cake design thing is just too stressful and seriously cuts into my sleeping time.

The cake was overall a success, though, even if the first red velvet cake I made fell apart (cake balls!) and I basically covered the entire kitchen in red dye. (My hands are still pink, to be honest.)

The recipes I used:

Colette Peter's White Cake (I did not taste this cake, but I'm told it was tasty) and
Grandmother Paula's (Deen) Southern Red Velvet Cake (which was super dense; I wonder if self-rising flour would be better than cake flour? But I'm scared to change the recipe...) This was an amazingly delicious recipe, and everyone (myself included) thought it was awesome.
My buttercream recipe-- the BIG batch. I filled up a 2-quart tupperwear pitcher of icing! :-) I still have some left over which is currently sitting in the freezer awaiting further use, of course.

I also made cupcakes with my previous school colors. :-)

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Confetti Cake for Kids

2009-06-04T23:40:00.000-04:00

With all the chaos that has been going on in my life, from getting a new oven to wrapping up 13 years of public school and finally graduating, I completely forgot that I wrote a review for Elisa Strauss' book Confetti Cakes for Kids.

So, for your reading pleasure, I now present to you my take on a book that is filled with some of the most amazing cakes/cookies/cupcakes by the inspiring Elisa Strauss (who also has a blog, by the way. You should check it out for more cakey goodness).

First of all, let's start with the pictures. Maybe because I'm a kid at heart (being only 17, after all) or maybe because the book is written about kid's cakes, but this book is filled with some very colorful pictures, which is always a plus for me. I can get a little bored reading pictureless cookbooks, but I didn't have to worry about that in CCK. And speaking of kids, my little brother enjoyed looking through the book with me, so it certainly appeals to everyone young and old. Hopefully he doesn't expect me to make anything quite so fancy and flawless yet!

You think Confetti Cakes for Kids has an adorable cover? You can't judge a book by its cover, but in this case, that's OK, because there are lots of charming pictures between the covers. Like the Quinceañera cake (I wish I had a Quinceañera) and the ice cream cupcakes and the beach pail cupcakes and the iPod cake and the... Alright, alright, you get the point. But talk about looking too good to eat (that's actually cake?!)... and these are just the photos!

So once I finally finished gushing over the gorgeous, flawless pictures, I got down to the meat and potatos of the book and started reading.

I am an avid reader and I was not disappointed. If you've never decorated a cake before, then this book is definitely helpful: there's all kinds of tips for beginners, as well some tools that you might find useful (like a KitchenAide mixer, maybe?). And if, like me, you've been doing this for a while, don't worry, you'll find something helpful, too. Like how to cover a round cake in fondant, something that seems daunting but the instructions are clear and (of course!) the pictures help, too.

Needless to say, there are plenty of recipes, like Confetti Cake's most requested cake flavor: chocolate. (Mmmm. I would request it too.) And I seriously want to try peanut butter buttercream. If you, like I, get hungry after reading a recipe book, then your tummy definitely will be rumbling after you read through these recipes.

I could go on and on about the merits of this particular book. If you've checked out the Confetti Cakes blog (or maybe you're lucky enough to check out the actual bakery in NY) then you know what I'm talking about. However, I don't want to bore you with my review when you can just read the book yourself: it will be much more satisfying, I'm sure.

So there you have it. My humble little homage to Confetti Cakes for Kids. Maybe my review has inspired you to go out and buy the book yourself, or at least look for it at the library, and you won't be disappointed. But maybe you'd like a free copy...? Good news! I can give away 5 copies of CCK to a few lucky Cakes by Kelsie readers who live in the US (no PO Boxes; sorry for any inconvience). How, you may ask? Just leave a quick comment sharing your favorite childhood cake and next Saturday I'll randomly choose 5 readers to receive a copy. If you win, I'll get in touch with you, so make sure you leave your e-mail address too.

P.S. I'll have pictures up of my graduation cake soon, if everything goes smoothly. Thanks for your patience!

Finally! Some Oven Love :)

2009-05-26T20:46:00.000-04:00

If you had not heard the news via twitter, then you are in for a treat: the oven is in!

Yes, that's right, Dad finally flipped the last switch and turned on that shiny, stainless steel appliance of joy and baking. :-D

So last night I made a trip out to Wal-Mart in order to prepare for the baking fest that lies ahead of me.

I made a box of brownies yesterday (I know, I know, I'm trying to stay away from box mixes, but I wanted to try out that oven ASAP) and they were yummy. See?

Only one brownie left. :-(

Today, when I got home from school early (just one of the many perks of being a senior), I bake strawberry cupcakes... alas, also from a box mix. But that's because I've never made strawberry cupcakes before, and wanted to jump right into the baking. Soooo, I do feel like I cheated a little, since I'm trying to go "homemade" all the time. But the next time (sugar cookies, I hope), I'll do it the homemade way.

I also found some whipped icing at Wal-Mart (in the Craft/Martha Stewart/wedding section) which I used to ice these yummy little cuppies.

The only problem that I have is that the oven does not beep very loudly when it preheats (not a big problem) or finishes cooking (a much larger problem). Also, I think it only beeps once, instead of obnoxiously repeated, like Old Oven. So I may have cooked these guys a little long.

However, they are so yummy, as all of my family can attest to. I may have piled the icing on a little too high, though, because we had some icing noses going on. ;-)

More updates can probably be found on my Facebook page and/or Twitter, because I can update more easily to my phone, but rest assured that I will be blogging faithfully this summer about all of my baking endeavors before college.

And I'm making my graduation cake next week. It's gonna be awesome!

(And in other cake news, have you heard of Cake Boss?)

The Weekend Without An Oven

2009-05-18T22:51:00.000-04:00

We finally got our oven delieverd on Wednesday.

Then it sat in its big box until Saturday.

On Saturday, Dad basically turned our kitchen upside down.

Now we have an old oven sitting out on our deck, and our new oven sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. And did I mention the big gaping hole where it is supposed to be?

Needless to say, I haven't baked anything for days. And I can foresee a bakeless future for the time being, because apparently the old oven was smaller than the new one.

So please bear with me until I actually have an oven, so I can bake again. :)

A Quick Update

2009-05-10T22:27:00.000-04:00

I realize that it's been a month since I last blogged (ah! that's waaay too long!), but I've been super busy and I hate my oven.

I know, I know, they're just excuses. And I am totally ashamed of myself for waiting this long between blog posts.

I have been baking, though... I just made some peanut butter cookies and some chocolate cupcakes last week. They were delicious, but I forgot that I didn't take any pictures until after all the treats were eaten! (Although there is a pic on my facebook that I took from my phone, if that counts for anything.)

Mainly I just wanted to say that:
we're finally getting a new oven!!!!

If you've been following this blog long enough, you know how much my oven and I absolutely abhor each other. One of us was going to have to go, and my parents are kicking the oven out, not me! :)

Since I'm leaving for college in three months (going down to Florida to attend Saint Leo University), I won't have too much time to enjoy the shiny, new, stainless steel oven, but I plan to make the most of these three months.

The oven is coming on Wednesday, and I will be happy to blog all about it (seriously guys, I think I'm almost more excited about getting this oven than I am about graduating in three weeks... almost)-- right after I bake lots of yummy treats!

My Favorite Cookies Ever

2009-04-12T00:30:00.000-04:00

I know that I say this every time (remember these? and these? and these?), but these cookies are my favorites. They're so happy and springy and festive and colorful and...

Well, you get the point.

Since they are so darn cute, I'll let the pictures speak for me. Sorry you can't taste them, but they're as good as they look! :)

Have a blessed and happy Easter, everyone!

Shopping + Baking = Love

2009-04-10T02:23:00.000-04:00

I had the fantastic opportunity today to go shopping, not once, not even twice, but three times.

I confess: I am a shopaholic.

And, surprisingly enough, all three shopping trips were to different locations, with different people, and for different reasons. So, what do they all have in common? Baking, of course!

The day got started when my best friend and I went to the mall together. We looked at prom dresses, and found our favorite lotions in Bath & Body Works, and all of that typical teenage girl/shopping stuff. While we were at Borders, though, (because, being the nerdy teenage girls that we are, we just had to stop in the bookstore! Not that there's anything wrong with that), I did see a copy of Confetti Cakes by Elisa Strauss. She is absolutely amazing! I didn't buy the book, though, but I do own a copy of Confetti Cake for Kids (more on that later on).

Do I even need to mention how Publix and baking are connected? That's where Mom and I went to pick up some ingredients for dinner, and also lots and lots of eggs. Lots.

Finally, when my dad came home from work today, he announced that if I finished that scholarship application that I've been putting off all week, he would take me to Michael's. (Yay!)

And, so, for my final baking-related shopping trip of the day, Dad and I went to Michael's, where I bought:

Ta-Da! A Wilton Gumpaste/Fondant tool set that I've really wanted for the longest time. I did have a coupon, so I snatched it up! I also got a couple more #2 tips for cookie decorating, which is what I've been doing tonight ever since I got home.

I can't talk about shopping without at least mentioned all the really cool stuff that I wish I could buy, i.e. "The Wishlist." So here's mine:

That's it for tonight. I've got some Easter cookies that are drying right now, ready to be decorated tomorrow. And I also (yikes!) need to make Katie's birthday cake...which is almost a month late. :( But better late than never, I suppose.

Golf Cake: Gone to the Dogs

2009-04-04T00:15:00.000-04:00

I am crazy.

My father says that I have the "entrepreneurial spirit" but I think I just have a touch of insanity.

Allow me to explain.

My Spanish teacher (mi maestra de la clase de espanol) asked me if I wanted to make a cake for her husband's birthday (and she got a taste of my cakes, if you don't recall, at the Spanish Honor Society induction), and I said yes.

That was about a week ago, and I put it out of my mind because some extraneous things came up that I focused my time on. Well, Wednesday night, I realized that I had a cake that needed to be baked.

Wednesday was a long day, if you didn't know. Wednesdays are often referred to as "hump day" because its in the middle of the week, and I generally like Wednesdays. It's all down hill from there. But Wednesdays are also busy because my sister and I go to church, and we eat pizza, pray, and play volleyball with our fellow Catholic teens. :) It's a lot of fun. But I'm getting off subject, we're talking about cake here not pizza...

OK. So. Wednesday. I get home from church around 8:30 and I start to (finally) make this cake. I got out all of the ingredients-- the big seven pound bag of powdered sugar, the four pounds of butter, the commeical sized bottle of vanilla extract... yes, we went to Costco last week. And I proceeded to bake a cake, mix up a batch of buttercream, and make my own gumpaste (with some gum-tex and really sticky glucose).

And then our oven dies. So two 9" cake layers, which normally take about 20 minutes to bake at 350 degrees, took almost an hour (if I'm exaggerating, it's really only a little bit), because the oven kept shutting off. Sometimes the -F2- or -F3- alarm would sound, and sometimes it would just quietly shut off and I wouldn't even notice. Argh.

Needless to say, I was quite annoyed at our oven (which you may have noticed if you ever check out my Tweets), but it gets worse. Because when the cake finally came out of the oven, I got burned. That's right: the oven gave me a second-degree burn. It's not the first time, and I doubt it will be the last. What's different is that this time, it was on my finger, when normal it's my forearm that gets scorched. I currently have at least four noticable burn scars on my right arm from baking.

Thursday was not much better, as far as being busy goes. I had a fieldtrip that day (to see Don Quijote and eat some tacos), and I was supposed to have a golf game, but it rained. So I made a cake instead, or rather, I decorated it.

The little doggie, a Jack Russell Terrier, is all made from gumpaste. Which, by the way, I think is a lot of fun to play with, if not a little sticky. (And now I really want this gumpaste tool set so I can have even more fun!) The cake really didn't take that long to decorate, but I'm slow and lazy, so it took all afternoon and evening. (And I had to take a break to eat Chinese food, too, of course!) I did go to bed earlier last night than I did on Wednesday.

Finally, today, I delievered the cake. And you would think, well that's that. But no, I still had a busy day today: a test in anatomy, a quiz in Spanish, a make-up test in English... and tonight I went to see my best friend in the play A Midsummer's Night Dream, which was amazing.

But this week is Spring Break (YAY!) so the plan is to sleep as much as possible so I can start all over again with my hectic life in 9 days. ;-) I told you I'm crazy.

Desserts and Downpours

2009-03-28T22:26:00.000-04:00

A few hours ago, the rain finally let up, but it's been a very messy, wet, and cold day here at home, and across the southeast. Thankfully, though, we don't have it nearly as bad as everyone riding out the storms in Fargo, and I hope the their weather conditions will improve as much as ours have.

One of my first thoughts waking up this morning was that today is my Aunt Elsie's 48th birthday (and I'm sure she wants that information posted all over the Internet for the entire world to know). Elsie is the one we should all blame for getting me hooked on this baking and cake decorating obsession: she gave me my first instruction books, tools, and inspiration, and she's always a phone call away when I need some baking help.

So this afternoon I baked up a batch of 2 dozen cupcakes to celebrate this momentous occasion. I used an amazing recipe: Wilton's butter cupcakes. They weren't too sweet, and had a great texture. Next time, I might use a little less butter, because the bottoms were a little greasy when I first pulled them out of the oven. Also, the recipe really makes more than 24 cupcakes; I overfilled a lot of mine, and probably could've gotten closer to 3 dozen.

Elsie was pleasantly surprised and everyone enjoyed them, which, of course, is the whole point of cupcakes anyway: to bring out the kid and you and have some fun. (You should've seen my uncle Kerm eat his cupcake; it was a treat in itself.) The hardest part was actually delivering the cupcakes to my grandparents house in all this rain. Mom and I had to manuver with the tray of cupcakes and an umbrella. Unfortunately, I don't have a neat little caddy like this one to hold my cupcakes; the container I do have will only hold a dozen.

From start to finish, the cupcakes only took a few hours. I cheated a little bit and iced them before they were completely cooled, but since they are only cupcakes (and not an entire cake), the structural integrety did not falter and the little cakes were cool enough so that icing did not go sliding all over the place. And, yes, I did use left-over icing from other cakes because I was too lazy to make more (and we were out of butter). Of course, shrew cake decorater that she is, Elsie noticed that the icing colors matched the Spanish cake that I made a week ago. She didn't mind, though, because she does the same thing with her left-over icing.

To wrap this up, these hastily thrown together cupcakes certainly served their purpose in celebrating yet another birthday! :-D

Felicidades!

2009-03-21T21:51:00.000-04:00

This is the fastest rush job I've ever done. From start to finish, the cake only took an hour. OK, so it wasn't from the very beginning, but after I baked and iced the cake, creating the "blank canvas," the clock was on.

I had to get home from school, mix up some icing, decorate the cake, and take it back to school for the Sociedad Honoria Hispanica induction ceremony-- in an hour and a half! I was going to decorate the night before but I was really tired, so I decided that I would have enough time Thursday afternoon. It turns out that I did have enough time, but barely.

The red took the longest to mix up, of course, but I was pretty happy with the shade I got. The roses, I think, turned out supurbly. I'm definitely getting better at them. :-) They didn't have enough time to freeze, unfortunately, so when I put them on the cake, I had to be really careful that I didn't smush them because they were so soft. Thankfully, I didn't!

Oh, and the message says, translated, "Congratulations to the new members!" It's not exactly centered; I could have put the message lower on the cake, but it still looks fine, I think. The only probably I really had was that after I put the roses on, I realized the first exclamation point was covered up, so I repiped it.

In conclusion, I was able to decorate the cake, change clothes, and get back to school in time so that I wasn't late to the ceremony. Afterwards, I had the pleasure of serving the cake (which might have been a disaster because I forgot to bring a serving knife, but someone had a plastic knife, so that was nice) and everyone told me that it looked (and tasted) really nice. Which I was very happy about, because I'm always afraid that when I make a cake for someone I know, it will be a disaster. Thankfully, it wasn't. Also, one lady who ate the cake told me that I did a wonderful job on it, which was quite a compliment, because she used to be a caterer and she knows her cakes!

Despite the crazy afternoon, the induction ceremony, cake included, was definitely a success. And all that craziness definitely keeps life from being boring!

Zebra Cake, II

2009-03-16T18:54:00.000-04:00

This is last weekend's cookie cake for my sister's friend's 15th birthday. I changed the design up a little bit from the last one, and I think it looks awesome. (I might be a little biased, but the birthday girl and her mom liked it too.)

Plus, the said it tasted great, which is the main purpose of the cake anyway.

In other cake decorating news, I have recently been to both Michael's and the "local" cake decorating store. At Michael's, I bought some tips and some various cookie decorating equipment, like squeeze bottles. The "local" cake store was a little more interesting: I bought a tip saver and a lily flower nail, which will come in handy when Easter is here. I say that the store is "local" because it's really 45 minutes away-- not really in the local area at all. However, it's only about a minute from the dentist's office, and Mom and I were able to stop by and browse before my appointment.

This week I've got to make the Spanish Honor Society Induction Cake (the NHS cake fell through because I didn't have a pan big enough to make a cake for 100 people) and Katie's birthday cake.

If you haven't been able to tell, with my lack of blogging recently, March has been a very busy month. And it's only half over! I will try my hardest to stay on top of things, though, which includes blogging. Oh, and Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!