The flowers completed

In my last blog I posted a picture of the flowers I made and that the cupcakes were in the oven.  Well, here they are complete on the cupcake.

Flower practice

Whether you call her a hurricane or a tropical storm, it's ugly out there and I am stuck in the house.  So what better thing to do then to practice on my decorating.  I am really trying to improve on my flowers so you will probably see repetitive posts on flower practice.  In the oven now are some cupcakes for me to decorate using these flowers, but I just wanted to post what I had so far.  I was so excited to use my edible pollen, this stuff is fantastic.  I picked it up at a cake supply store which is heaven to me.  The only problem is that as I keep practicing I find more tools that I want and it can become an expensive hobby, but it is a really fun hobby.

Monster Truck

In my blog yesterday I mentioned that I was making 2 cakes for my friend.  First was Thomas which I posted yesterday and here is a picture of the second cake I made, Monster Truck.  No carving involved, but I did use rice crispy treats to form the ramp on the cake. 

1st Try At Carving

My best friend had asked me to make two birthday cakes for her boys.  One was turning 2 and the other one 8.  Of course I said yes and was excited to hear what kind of cakes they wanted.  First words out of her mouth was Thomas the Train for the 2 year old and then Monster Jam Monster Truck for the 8 year old.  I was excited and new right away my idea for the truck cake, but for Thomas I wanted to try something different.  Someone suggested the cake pan, but I really want to try new techniques and learn new ways to decorate cakes, so I looked online and how quickly I came upon a 3-D Thomas cake. 

I had planned sufficient time to get both cakes done.  I took a 1/2 day off from work on Thursday to bake the cakes and the day off on Friday to decorate so that there was no need to rush on Saturday the day of the party.  I wish it were as easy as that.  I ended up staying the entire day at work, but I was confident I had plenty of time to bake the cakes and not be up late.  I was wrong.  I got the first cake in the oven and started the second, but my dog was sick.  Sick enough to concern me so off we went to the ER.  I was there for a long time and thankfully she is ok now, but she did have to spend the night in the hospital (poor pup).  Anyway, that was more time lost.  When I got home, cake number two went in the oven and yes it was a late night.  Although baking helped me keep my mind from going crazy worrying about my dog.

So today was decorate day and my first attempt at carving out and stacking a 3-D cake.  It is not as easy as they make it look on TV, but I took my time.  There were a few errors in my measurements so I was a little disappointed that some of the pieces were not the right size, but I made it work.  I found this great kit online which supplied the dimensions and a few pieces such as the face and wheels.  What a great way for a beginner to try out their first 3-D cake.  Directions were easy to follow and while it took some time to complete and there were errors, I was happy with the finished product.  I hope the 2 year old is happy tomorrow for his birthday.

Pie or Cake?

So I am on the quest for the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe.  This evening I took a stab at another recipe and I was quite satisfied with the taste.  I was once again not sure what to do with the cake after wards so I decided to decorate a little differently.  I saw this idea in a cupcake book and it looked very easy to do.  Only problem, I don't recommend doing this when its hot, the icing became droopy because it was too warm in the room.  So don't judge the pictures too much, but you get the idea I am going for here.  These simple pie cupcakes are easy to do and if you can't tell from the pictures, the filling are M&Ms.  You cannot go wrong with M&Ms. Using extra touches such as silver cupcake liners and adding cocoa powder with some drops of yellow food coloring to make the pie crust color make a big difference. 

This was a fun project and great for kids.  If you are not into making your own frosting, buy some canned frosting, it is so easy to do.  

Practice makes perfect

Now that I am finally settling into things and organizing all my stuff, I finally took some time on this rainy night to practice my flowers.  Just a little simple test for myself.  I was happy with the flowers for a first try at these.  Not so happy with the cake, but I really wasn't trying, I just wanted something to place the flowers on.  Next time I will just practice with styrofoam rounds and cover with fondant.  I was finally able to test my pollen, not sure if you can see it well in the picture, but I'm loving this stuff. 

Keep checking out the blog because next week I am tackling two cakes for two little boys.  One will be a Thomas the Train cake and the other Monster Jam Monster Truck cake.