The Sweet Tooth Fashionista

A Spa Skunk Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:12:00 +0000

This is Madyson and she has turned 10. Madyson has a spa day and .... (wait for it).... she thinks skunks are cool... and perhaps a bit misunderstood. So of course this cake had to be a Spa-Skunk Birthday Cake!

You know? I am loving this table cover. It really works with the cake colours.

When you are a gum paste skunk at a spa, naturally you've got to carry a mirror

And of there is his friend wearing a plush blue robe.

Have a "Spa-Cial" Day Madyson! Get it... Spa-----Cial??? Ohh! I crack myself up!

Sesame Street Cake for Connor

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:59:00 +0000

Wow! It was a busy summer. So busy, I forgot to include Connor's cake on my blog. I know! What's up with that? I had so much fun with this character cake.

Connor loves Sesame Street. Of course for his 1st birthday it would only be fitting to decorate his cake based on his favourite theme.

This is a chocolate two tiered cake decorated with fondant. I created Elmo, Big Bird, Oscar and Cookie Monster with gum paste. I then covered the gum paste figures with royal icing.

You know... I think the most difficult part of this cake, was making those teeny, tiny cookies.

Mango Flower Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 02:22:00 +0000

Well we have just finished with the last unofficial weekend of summer, yet I still felt the need to decorate a cake with fruit. The fruit du jour? Mango!

I made some black gumpaste flowers.

The Ingredients:

(serves 12)

1 3/4c All purpose flour

1 to 1 1/4c Powdered sugar
1 1/2tsp Baking powder
3 Eggs room temp
1/3 c Butter room temp
1/2c oil
1c Fresh mango puree
1 tsp Vanilla essence

I cut up a mango and placed it into my grinder.

Then I pureed the mango

Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and keep aside. In a separate bowl beat oil,butter and sugar till creamy. Add eggs one at a time and beat after each addition. Add the vanilla essence. Now mix the flour mixture slowly in to batches. Fold in the flour mixture by adding the mango puree in between.

Mix well till all the flour is incorporated well.

Batter is poured into pans for baking.

Preheat the oven at 325 degree C for 15 mins. Grease a cake tin pour the batter to the tin. Bake the cake at 325 degree C approximately 45 min or insert a toothpick andmake sure it comes out clean. When the cake is done allow it to cool on wire rack.

After the cake is baked I made a butter cream icing. I smoothed the icing on one layer, chopped another mango into small chunks and added it the layer.

Added another layer and icing the rest of the cake.

I did this also for the smaller tier that was to be placed on top.

Added fondant

And Voila!

Delish!

It Was A Very Pink Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 01:57:00 +0000

Three cakes in one weekend! The Theme.... Shades of P-I-N-K.

A Bridal Shower cake for Alicia

This is a white cake with a strawberry filling

A Shoe Box Cake

(uhm... the "T" in Birthday was corrected after the photo shoot)

A Sweet 16 Cake Purse

This and the Shoe Box are lemon flavour

Carrot Cake For Mom

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 03:19:00 +0000

It was my mother-in-law's birthday, so of course I wanted to contribute a cake for this wonderful occasion. I have married into a family that appreciates a more traditional dessert. I decided on a carrot cake. While this cake was for Mom, I knew my husband loved this flavour.

I was a bit short for time, so I decided on a cake that was (ahem) partially from scratch.

I found a cake recipe on allrecipes.com that incorporated a carrot cake mix with added ingredients.

Ingredients
1 (18.5 ounce) package carrot cake mix
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 finely grated carrot (optional.... I added it in)
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8 inch round pans.

2.In large bowl, blend cake mix, oil, water, undrain pineapple, eggs, and nuts. Beat for 2 minutes with an electric mixer at medium speed. Spread batter into prepared pans.

* I used 3 boxes and baked three 10" pans.

You can view my cream cheese frosting recipe here.

And then it was time for assembly...

One layer with come frosting on top

Lets add on the other layers

Cream cheese frosting is on

I decorated with orange coloured butter cream icing

And voila!

This cake was a hit, and it was nice and moist.

DELISH!

Monkeying Around

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 02:15:00 +0000

Awhile back, I thought I would practice creating fondant animals. Here is what I came up with.

A baby panda. Aren't those paws cute?

A pondering frog....

A cute little monkey.

The "Clumsy" Fashionista

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 21:57:00 +0000

Thank you to Liz who requested a cake for her daughter Samantha's first birthday. She wanted a to tiered cake, flavour chocolate to serve 40. The theme....Elmo.

I decided to add a bit of pizazz by making the top tier Devils Food Cake, and the bottom tier Chocolate Fudge.

The bottom 10" tier with buttercream icing

And the top 8" tier.

Some fondant stars and a number 1.

Cover both layers with yellow fondant.

Stack the cakes add the stars, fondant rope, of course Elmo and voila!

Delish!

By the way.... This is titled "The Clumsy Fashionista" because as I was making my way up Liz's steps, I tumbled upwards. I lost my shoe, hit my wrist on her step, but do not fear..... I saved the cake!

Wait a minute....

Maybe I am not too clumsy afterall....(?)

Pass me a Cigar

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:56:00 +0000

A special thank you to Barbie, who requested that I decorate a couple of birthday cakes for two very special people. Her husband Sheldon and their son Reed.

Reed's cake was to serve six, so I decorated a 6" round. The flavour was chocolate, and I decorated it with green fondant. I added some yellow coloured buttercream to accent it.

Barbara's hubby Sheldon was turning 65 and he has a fondness for a good cigar now and then. With this information, I decorated a red velvet buttercream cake and added a fondant number 65 designed as cigars.

Delish!

In The Night Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 02:59:00 +0000

Thank you to Maria who requested that I decorate a cake for her son Luka. This was super special because it was for Luka's first birthday. Apparently, Luka is a huge fan of In the Night Garden.

I had not heard of this program before, so I decided to tune in one evening at 8pm. You know... to get to know my subject. Luka ... Believe me... I tried to watch this. But after about 3 minutes, I had to tune out. I think it may have been an age thing. I would like to honestly say that I got "it". I mean I think I did because I had such a fun time decorating this 2 tiered cake.

Let's go through some of the steps:

This is a two layered cake. One layer chocolate, the other a white cake. I smoothed buttercream icing coloured in green. I then added fondant trees around it.

Of course where there are trees, there is grass.

I added a top tier which was baked as a vanilla white cake with a chocolate marble swirl. I smoothed blue icing to symbolize the sky. More trees were added as well as some fondant clouds.

More grass and toadstools are added... and of course the fondant characters. Happy Birthday Luka!

Sasha Turns 4!

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 02:18:00 +0000

Hmm... Don't know if you remember my niece Sasha? Well I'm sure you do. Last year I had the honour of decorating a cake for her 3rd birthday.

Well OMG! Sasha's turning 4, and I shall be decorating her cake again. (Yey!)

So before, she was all about The Little Mermaid. This year, girlfriend is all grown up and of course her tastes have changed. Sasha is all about The Backyardigans.

Who? What do I know about the latest cartoons. I'm (ahem) 40. But I never back down from a challenge.

I am quite loving how this 2 layered chocolate cake turned out. Now I know the pink fondant character's name is Uniqua. Please help me out if you know who her blue friend is.

Kiss Me... I'm Irish

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:32:00 +0000

Ok. Ok. So I'm not Irish. I just needed a catchy title to grab your attention. Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day so I decorated this cake as a leprechaun hat.

The bottom layer was baked as a 6" round white cake. The top layer is chocolate cake with buttercream icing blended within. I molded the chocolate cake by making it dome shape at the top.

I coloured some fondant green and shaped it over the cake.

Out of gum paste I made the brim and the band of the hat which (ahem) I forgot to take a picture of and a three leaf clover. And voila! A cake for St. Patrick's Day!

Tinkerbell Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 05:07:00 +0000

Thank you so much to my friend Tricia who requested that I decorate a cake for her daughter Tia. Tia is turning two and is apparently a fan of Tinkerbell.

This cake is a two layered white cake and is covered in buttercream icing. I was able to apply the image to the cake using the cocoa transfer method.

I enlarged a coloring sheet of Tinkerbell, then printed it out. Then I taped it to a small empty box. I used a push pin to poke small holes all around her for an outline. The picture is placed the picture on top of the cake. I then spread a tsp. of cocoa over the picture to complete the outline.

I removed the picture, and had an outline to do the icing with. I outlined her in black first, then filled in all the other colors next. I also added some gumpaste and royal icing flowers.

And voila! Tinkerbell!

Birthday Black Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 03:26:00 +0000

A friend of mine requested a traditional Jamaican Black Cake for her husband's 35th birthday. I had baked this previously, but decided to try a different recipe this time around. With this cake I used fruit that was soaked for two months, I added bread crumbs to the recipe and an extra tablespoon of browning.

Ingredients

1/2 pound unsalted butter
1/2 pound light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons lemon juice
4 eggs
3 tablespoons of browning
6 ounces bread crumbs
6 ounces flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup rum
1 pint Port
4 cups mixed marinated fruit, recipe follows, squeezed and finely chopped

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla, lime juice, and lime zest. Add the eggs 1 at a time, and incorporate well. Combine bread crumbs, flour, all the spices, baking powder, and salt. Combine rum and port. Add flour mixture alternately with rum/port mixture into the batter. Fold in the chopped marinated fruit.
Prepare 1 (8-inch) cake pan. Fill the pan 3/4 of the way and bake until a skewer comes out of the center of the cake clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Mixed Marinated Fruit:

1 pound golden raisins
4 ounces mixed peel
4 ounces cherries
1/2 pound prunes (pitted), cut in quarters or eighths, depending on size
Jamaican white rum
Passover wine

Grind raisins, prunes, mixed peel, and cherries and put in a glass jar and cover with mixture of equal parts Jamaican white rum and passover wine. Cover with a tight fitting lid, label, and date the jar. Put in a cool, dry cupboard. From time to time, check the fruits to see if more liquor is needed, as the fruits will plump and soak up the liquid.
Keep the fruit covered in liquor. It is best to allow the fruit to marinate for at least 1 month for best flavor.

This cake was covered with a delicious royal icing.

Beat 2 egg whites to a froth. Add 1 pound confectioners sugar, 1 tsp lemon juice a little at a time on low speed. DO NOT LEAVE UNUSED ICING UNATTENDED...IF YOU HAVE TO STOP, MAKE SURE IT IS COVERED WITH DAMP PAPER TOWELS, OR COVERED AND REFRIGERATED. This icing hardens and dries up quickly. A second layer of icing may be applied when the first has dried. Decorate as desired.

Red Carpet Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 08:31:00 +0000

This cake was decorated for an Academy Award Pre-screening. This family wanted a theme that celebrated celebrity.

This is two layered and butter pecan flavoured. Decorated with buttercream icing and fondant accents. The cake is adorned with a gumpaste mask.

Heart Shaped Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 03:55:00 +0000

Valentine's Day is around the corner and I received a request for a cake for this occasion. I decided to decorate it into the shape of a heart. The flavour -- red velvet.

First I baked two 8" rounds

I folded an 8"x11" sheet of paper in half and drew out half a heart.

I centered it in the middle of the cake and carved around it.

I then flipped the paper to the other side and carved again. Do this to the second cake.

And there we go.

I layer the cake and the process begins

The crumb coat

Ahhh.... A smooth finish

And we're done!

Happy Valentine's Barbie and Sheldon!

Kiddie Football Cupcakes

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 03:35:00 +0000

So I made these kiddie football player cupcakes due to it being the Super Bowl weekend. Yeah... yeah.... Green Bay's helmet should be yellow not green. It just goes to show you that I am all about baking... not sports. And now that we got that out of the way... let's talk cupcakes.

These cupcakes started off as (yummy) chocolate.

I then added fondant to the cupcake.

I then piped the outline to the football helmet. Black for one team, and green for the other.

I competed the faces with more fondant and black icing.

Add more piping to the helmet and (ten hut!). Let's play ball (err), I mean football!

Shayna's Cupcake Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 21:45:00 +0000

Thanks to Suzette who placed an order for 30 cupcakes for her daughter Shayna. Shayna is turning 7 years old.

She requested a cupcake cake otherwise referred to as a pull apart or pull away cake.

Each cupcake receives dollop of icing beneath it and is placed firmly on a 16" square board.

All 30 cupcakes are placed on the board and now it is time to decorate.

Here is another shot of the cake. I finished off the cupcakes with buttercream icing and added a gumpaste crown, ring, flower and number 7. Can you see the cupcakes underneath?

Sweet Heart Cupcakes

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:55:00 +0000

Instead of just plain white cupcakes, I took them a step further and made them unique. Show that special someone a Valentine's message by adding Sweetheart candies to your cupcakes.

I went to a bulk candy store for the Sweetheart Candy. Ugh! Some of these candies had smudged messages. Have you ever tried picking up perfectly composed Sweetheart Candies with a large scoop? Yes I carried home some "broken" hearts.... but I took care of that by (ahem) eating them.

A Cake for Mya

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 04:05:00 +0000

Thank you Camille who requested a 1st Birthday cake for her very special girl Mya. I baked a two layered white cake, dressed it up with fondant, and adorned it with a gumpaste princess crown. I added silver dragees to give Mya's crown a bit of a jeweled effect.

I wish I took photos throughout this process, but I have so much fun decorating cakes I was in total tunnel vision mode. I wanted to share what I did with the cake. Here are a couple of photos.

I added drops of yellow food colouring on the batter.

I then swirled the food colouring with a toothpick. This is a wonderful way to show colour to the cake itself as one slices it.

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 02:05:00 +0000

For all of the Red Velvet Cake Lovers out there this is the perfect Valentine's Day dessert.
This is an easy cookie recipe made with cake mix

Ingredients:
1 White cake mix
1 Tbsp cocoa
2 Eggs
1/3 Cup of oil
2 tsp red food colouring

1. Mix everything together and blend well.
2. Spoon cake batter in Tbsp. amounts onto cookie sheet and space a few inches apart.
3. Bake at preheated 350 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
4. Allow to cool completely after baking. Then spread frosting over one cookie, and press another on top.

I like to use either a vanilla buttercream or cream cheese frosting. Delish!

I Heart Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 03:46:00 +0000

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so I decorated what I call the I Heart You Cake.

This is a vanilla two layered cake, covered with fondant. I decorated the fondant by piping red buttercream icing.

It's so simple and oh so pretty. I absolutely Heart it!

Soaking Fruit in Alcohol

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 01:47:00 +0000

I have just returned from another trip to Jamaica with the hubby to ring in the New Year in Negril Beach. Before boarding our flight I stopped at the Duty Free shop to purchase a bottle of Over Proof Rum for soaking fruit. Traditional Jamaican Black cake usually includes fruit that has been soaked in alcohol for months.

I am quite excited about my purchase of my Cuisinart 4 Cup Mini Grinder which was my gift to myself for Christmas. I had a combination of prunes, cherries, mixed peel and raisins soaking in Red Label Wine before I departed for my vacation. I strained the fruit from the wine and added it to my grinder. I had to do this in batches, as this only holds 4 cups.

There is a grind and a chop option. For this process I chose chop by keeping my finger pressed on the button. Nicely done... don't you think?

I transferred the pureed mixture to a glass jar and poured in some of the Over Proof rum. I the sealed it with an air tight cover. I'll let you know when I use it.

Jamaican Black Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 02:04:00 +0000

Thank you to Nadine who requested a Jamaican Black Cake for the holidays. This is a traditional holiday dessert which is deliciously, dark and rich and unlike any other fruit cake you will run across.

It is a dense cake soaked with rum and port wine and allowed to sit and ferment for several weeks or months. It is also served at weddings and special occasions.

Here is the recipe that I used for this delicious cake.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup flour
8 ounces margarine or butter
8 ounces sugar
4 eggs
1 pound raisins*
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces mixed peel*
4 ounces cherries*
1/2 pound prunes (chopped)
1 cup wine/brandy*
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 lime or lemon, finely grated rind only
2 tablespoons browning

Directions:
*I grounded and soaked these ingredients in rum and wine a few weeks in advance. Kept in a sealed glass jar.

Cream butter, sugar and browning until soft and fluffy. Sieve all dry ingredients together Beat eggs, wine/brandy together. Add egg mixture to creamed butter and sugar. Add fruits. Add flour and fold in. Do no over-beat when mixing. Bake at 350F for 1 1/2 hours.

This baked an 8 1/2" round. I decorated this cake with royal icing and silver dragees.

Give Away - Hot Drinks

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 04:22:00 +0000

Yey! My first blog giveaway just in time for cool (I mean cold) weather. Hot Drinks by Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss.

Nothing warms up frigid fingers and toes like a mug of spicy mulled cider or creamy hot chocolate. HOT DRINKS presents 50 original recipes for mixed coffees, teas, punches, cocoas, ciders, and cocktails perfectly suited for cozying up by the fire or heating up holiday family get-togethers.

RULES
This giveaway is available to residents of the Canada and U.S. ONLY. I will mail a copy of the book to the winner, so please make sure that I have a way to reach you by including your email address if it is not in your profile.

How to Enter
- Question: What is your favourite cake flavour that I baked? Search my blog and leave me the answer in the comments with a copy of the link to the post.

- Earn an extra entry by tweeting about the giveaway on twitter - include a link to THIS post. I will need a link of your tweet. Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

LIMIT 2 ENTRIES PER PERSON
The giveaway ends on Monday December 20th at Midnight PST. One winner will be chosen randomly and announced on Wednesday December 22th on my blog.

A BIG thank you to all! Good luck everyone!

Jack and Jill Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Dee) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 01:02:00 +0000

Thank you to Lori-Ann who placed a request for a Jack and Jill Cake for Shane and Jodi.

It was to be two tiered with the bottom flavour a two layered cookies and cream. The top tier would be a two layered vanilla cake with the bottom layer dyed with a blue food colouring and the top tier pink. Here is my recipe for the cookies and Cream Cake.

Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 egg whites
1 cup chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.

2.In a large bowl, mix the cake mix, water, oil, and 3 egg whites with an electric mixer on high speed for 2 minutes. Gently stir in crushed cookies. Pour batter into the prepared pans.

3.Bake for 25 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans. Remove from pans, and completely cool on racks.

I decorated this cake with buttercream frosting and added fondant accents to bring the theme together. I made the baby onsie and booties with gumpaste.