Fondant and a Wedding Cake

Spring is here (for today anyway)!  It’s sunny and a high of 12C.  Not warm to some of you, but it feels pretty great to me!

So this has been a long time coming.  I’ve been meaning to post it since early December, but of course, haven’t.  A friend of ours got married, just a small, very quaint wedding, and she asked me to make the cake.  Numero dos on the wedding cakes for me.  First one was for a friend in August, but that one was with buttercream.  This was my first attempt at fondant [EVER], and I made the fondant myself from scratch.  Which was pretty sweet, slightly nerve-wracking, and yummy!  I liked the taste quite a bit more than pre-made, bought fondant.

I used a pound cake recipe for the cake, and made 4 layers (2 bigger, 2 smaller).

Then I made a peanut butter cream filling for in between layers.  Coated it with buttercream, and then layered the fondant on top.

Then decorated with blue coloured buttercream.  It was quite the process, even for a small cake.

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

You can find one very similar to the one I used at HowDoesShe.  Check it.

{Daddy and baby strutting their hats.}

Wedding baking

I just thought I’d do a little post on the baking I did for my friend, Ivy’s, wedding.  It was in August, so this post is a tad late in coming.  But better late than never!  …Right?

Warning – there are going to be many photos in this post!  :)  Enjoy!

She asked me to make her cake (I was honoured… and VERY nervous), and to make & decorate 50 cupcakes.  So I said sure!

It was a slightly crazy week.  We had decided to start ripping apart our bathroom, so all that was (… and still is) functional in our bathroom, was our toilet.  Bathtub gone, sink gone.  New drywall in, and floors and walls getting ripped up.  Window (which makes me cry to think about) ripped out (it was the only way to fit a shower in…).  And the groom stayed with us for the week before the wedding.  And then one of the groomsmen for a few nights.  On couches/the floor.  Poor guys.

Plus, of course, there were wedding preparations, rehearsals, spending time with the bride (as I hadn’t seen her for months!), and all the other routine things that happen everyday in my life.  Like, work, baby, family, cleaning, cooking, being preggo, etc, etc, etc.  It was actually a really great week.  I was exhausted by the end of the wedding, but it was definitely worth it.

So, here are a few pictures of the cake – it was based off of a cake we found on Pinterest (of course).  Ivy’s wedding colours were a mustardy-brown, seafoam green, and cream/white.  They turned out beautifully together, and the cake followed the theme.

It was a three-layered cake.  Two chocolate layers, sandwiching a vanilla layer.  With a mocha custard in between the bottom layers, and a deep, dark chocolate buttercream between the top two layers.

 

Then.

Buttercream frosting.  Seafoam, of course.  I got the perfect colour…  somehow.

Here is the imperfect crumb coat.  Good colour though, eh?

And now onto the details.  Also imperfect, but I wasn’t aiming on perfection.  So we’re all good.

Keep in mind – I was doing this the night before the wedding…. late.  And tired.  So.  I think it went fairly well considering.  I was almost expecting a breakdown and a spoon or two being launched across the kitchen, tears, screaming….  but I got it done.  First try.  And pretty happy with it too.

Just one more shot of the cake, I promise.  Then we’ll move onto cupcakes!

So, for cupcakes, we went with chocolate and white.  Simple.  50 of ‘em.

 

Frosted with chocolate, seafoam, and coral buttercream.  Except in this buttercream, I used half shortening, half margarine.

I didn’t get any awesome pictures of the decorated cupcakes.  This will just have to do.

 

Here’s a picture of the lovely bride and her new beau, with her family, on the wedding day!

 

And some pictures of my little family (the lighting wasn’t great in the church at the reception, but they turned out pretty great anyhow).

 

Did I mention that I was a bridesmaid?  Great dress huh?  Cute little boy and handsome hubby too.

And at last – a photo of my baby bump.  This was at about 20 weeks.  I’m 26 weeks along now.  And bigger.

The dress did a great job of covering it.  Nobody would have even known I was pregnant unless I pulled it in tight below my stomach.

And last, but not least:

Baby and Mommy.

Thanks guys – hope you enjoyed!  Later days.

 

 

 

 

PanCAKE

So the past weekend was slightly insane (which seems to be the norm around here…).  It seemed like go, go, go.  But I think it was mostly my emotions being taken on a hormonal rollercoaster ride.   (ie.- I found out for sure that I’m having another baby!)  So now you know!  :)

But truly, it was a busy weekend.  My poor mother fed me and mine 3 times in the run of the weekend, and we had 2 BBQs, so I didn’t do a whole lot of cooking.  I was in charge of dessert for both BBQs, and somehow managed to ruin both of them.  I saved them, but man…  It wasn’t a weekend for baking for me (apparently!).  Other than the meals, we went for a date on Friday, then we made a small [1 hour both ways] road trip to Costco on Sunday.  Yesterday was fairly calm.  We took Cael to the duck pond, which was fun (and sunny, which was wonderful).  And I decided to paint out a closet in our house to convert it to a bookcase.

And then there was this week…  It was just a right off.  Between being tired and nauseous (thanks to pregnancy…) and just getting the regular day-to-day stuff accomplished, let’s just say I didn’t feel overly motivated.  Anyhow!  My motivation has returned (at least for the moment) so here goes!

Found this one on Pinterest.  Loved it.  Who wouldn’t love chocolate pancakes piled on top of each other with whipped cream in between?  It’s a MUST love.  And the chocolate pancakes are great by themselves too…  (I may have possibly messed up the first few and eaten them… may have…)

Chocolate Pancake Cake

Recipe found on ZoomYummy.com  (it has been VERY slightly modified by me)

1 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 heaping Tbsp cocoa

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 tsp salt

4 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup whipping cream

4 Tbsp icing sugar

Chocolate sauce

Sliced orange for garnish (optional)

Combine vegetable oil, milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla.  Mix until combined.

Add cocoa, and stir.

Stir in flour and baking powder.  Stir until smooth.

Spray a pan with oil, (or if you don’t use spray oil, just put some oil in…).  Heat it up, and add about 1/2 cup of the batter to the pan.  I found that if you put any less than that, it was a real battle to flip the pancake without a disaster occurring.

Cook until bubbles start to form, then flip.  Once it is done (both sides should be dry, and not look batter-y), continue the same with the rest of the batter.

Let your pancakes cool, completely.

While you’re waiting, beat together whipping cream and icing sugar.  Beat until firm peaks form.

To put the cake together, simply layer pancakes and whipped cream.  If you aren’t serving it right away, keep it in the fridge.  I would wait until right before you serve the cake to drizzle the chocolate syrup and add the garnish.  (That way it looks more fresh, less mess.)

Thanks ZoomYummy for the great recipe!

I would highly advise you make this – it is super yummy.  And not too heavy either.  You could even have it for breakfast!  (Pancakes!!)

Hope you enjoy.  Have a great rest-o-the-weekend!

What’s your favourite thing to do when the weather starts to warm up?

Happy Birthday Daddyo!

I had a great weekend.  I know this post is late in coming, but I have been feeling slightly exhausted…  So that’s my excuse.  There you have it folks, Kayleigh is exhausted.  But getting better.  :)

Back to my weekend.  My parents went away for the night on Friday, so I was going to keep my youngest brother for the night.  I had the [brilliant!] idea of inviting his best friend over, and her little sister ended up joining us too.  So I actually had some female company for once, and we weren’t outnumbered, which was really weird, but great.

This is our story.  Friday night, we had s’mores on my new fire pit thing (that my wonderful parents-in-law bought me for my birthday) – the kids loved it.  And I LOVED watching them have fun.  They snuggled up on the driveway with blankets and roasted marshmallows and stuffed their faces.

Then we came inside and they snuggled in to watch ‘The Quest for Camelot’ (my most favourite movie ever).

Then came bedtime (midnight).  (One of my other brothers decided to crash here that night too (he was in for it… keep reading, haha)).  One slept on a couch, two on the floor, and my brother took the other couch.  I didn’t hear them at all until 7 the next morning (I got to sleep in!!).  However, my brother wasn’t quite so lucky.  Apparently, they had been awake since 5:30.

Anyhow, I got them settled into another movie (Robin Hood) and they enjoyed some ‘baby tea’** while I started cleaning up and getting ready for breakfast.   After the movie, breakfast still wasn’t ready, so they took some chalk to the driveway and coloured it up.

**Baby tea is really milked down, sugared up tea.  About 1 tsp sugar, 1/4 cup tea and fill to the top with milk.  Kids love it, and get to feel ‘grown up’ too.

Breakfast menu – Homemade waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, smoothies and perked coffee (for those old enough to have it).  Breakfast went great.

The youngest girl told me that ‘You make the best waffles ever!’  Then she thought about it for another minute, and decided she’d better not say that, so she changed to, ‘You make the second best waffles ever (after Mommy)’.

I thought it was pretty cute.  After breakfast, we went for a walk, and then made cards for my Dad for his birthday.  Then their mom came and picked them up, and I had to get started on my dad’s birthday supper and cake!  Whew.  What a day.

So – my father had a birthday and I want to share his cake with you!

He requested a Hershey recipe that he loves to make (and eat too, apparently!).

The link to the recipe is here.  I’ll type it out for you too though.  I did make a few changes to the buttercream icing, so I’ll give you my version of that.  :)  Hope you enjoy!  The icing is amazing – just to warn you.

Oh oh oh!  And I used my Kitchen Aid Mixer for the first time ever!  It was really awesome.  I can’t wait to use it again.  I know, I know, you’re probably asking yourselves why I haven’t used it before.  Well, I am slightly old school, and a tad lazy.  Old school:  I tend to use a wooden spoon or a hand mixer for a lot of things (but I just couldn’t for cake, it needed a REAL tool).  And lazy:  I just didn’t want to drag the mixer over to my counter (it won’t reach the plug in my under-sized kitchen) and then have to clean all the parts…  *sigh.  But it was totally worth it.

Hershey’s Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup boiling water

I’ll give you my directions, as I make things differently than most recipes tell you to…  I just can’t follow directions!

Preheat oven to 350F.  Cream together sugar and vegetable oil.  Add eggs, vanilla, and salt, and beat well.  Add cocoa and boiling water.  Mix until combined.  Mix in milk.  Add flour, baking powder, and baking soda, and stir until smooth.

Pour into two 9×9 cake pans that have been greased and floured.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Let them cool for about 10 minutes, and then take them out of the pans and cool them on wire racks.  Frost with One Bowl Chocolate Buttercream Icing.

One Bowl Chocolate Buttercream Icing

1/2 cup margarine, softened

2 2/3 cups icing sugar

3/4 cup cocoa

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Beat butter until smooth.  Add the rest of the ingredients, and beat until smooth.  If it’s too runny, add more icing sugar, and if it’s too thick, add some more milk!  Easy as that.  Now frost that cake.

It’s sooo good.  I hope you really like it.  And I’d use the icing on just about any recipe that you need chocolate icing for – it’s super good.

Happy birthday Daddyo!

What kind of cake is your absolute fave?

Happy Birthday To MEEE!

So, it was my birthday yesterday, and I had a request for a birthday post.  I do realize that it’s not my birthday today, so technically, this is the day-after-my-birthday post.  But I warned her that I would probably be late in doing this…  I enjoyed every second of my birthday doing other things.  :)

{I think Cael had a good day too.}

I’m getting on in my journey towards 30, which is pretty crazy.  I had decided a long time ago, that I really wanted to reach 20, but after that, I would just stay 20 forever.  So let’s just say I’m 20.  And I’ll say that forever.  Sounds pretty good to me.  What do you think?  Will it work?  Will it have staying power?

Aging is not actually something that bothers me.  I love getting older.  And I think I always will.  It means that I’ve made it through another year.  And this past year was pretty exciting.  I had my first baby [EVER!], and we bought our first house.  I’d say that’s a fairly productive year (if you were going to ask me what I thought…).

So to my birthday!  It was awesome!  I always feel let-down by birthday (well, not always, but sometimes).  Because you wait for them all year, and then they’re not entirely awesome, and then it’s a day gone and you have to wait 365 more days until the next one.  But yesterday when I woke up, I decided that I was going to make it a good day.  It’s all about how you think, and how your heart is.  Wake up with a prayer and sunshine outside your window, and I’d say it’s going to be a pretty good day.  I got an awesome hug from my hubby first thing, and then went to my mother’s house for a shower!  For those who don’t know, we don’t have a shower at our new house, so this was a really great thing.

Then, I made the frosting and filling for my birthday cake!  Mom had already made the chocolate cake.  I made myself a hot chocolate, and helped myself to lots of the chocolate cream cheese frosting.  Then I had my dad’s amazing chili for lunch, and Cael, Mom, and I walked back to my house, stopping to visit my grandparents along the way.

Keep reading, the awesome continues.

{Don’t you love the scarf?!  It was a gift from an amazing family.}

After I put Cael down for a nap, I was going to go outside to clean up a garbage mess that some rambunctious raccoons had made through the night.  BUT, on my way down the driveway, an amazing family came barreling up in their minivan. With tidings of the best coffee ever, homemade birthday cards and origami, a present AND cookies.  Like, the best day ever, right?

Over coffee and cookies, we hung out and talked for quite awhile.  Eventually, I lost track of a few of the boys in the family, and they came in my door bearing a bag with all of the garbage!  They picked it up for me!  Yay!  So happy at this point.

Soon came suppertime at my parent’s house, with all my family, and a friend.  Do you know what the best dinner ever is (in my books)?  It consists of BBQ chicken, BBQ potato slices, vegetables, Greek salad, corn bread, and butternut squash.

{Dad makes these – my Grampie’s recipe.  Don’t they look awesome?  And my crazy little bro… haha}

Followed by my favourite cake EVER.  Let me describe this cake to you.  This chocolate cake recipe, made into three layers.  The layers are filled with whipped cream, and then the whole cake is iced with chocolate cream cheese icing.  Pretty close to perfect.  Mind you, the cake never stands up quite straight, but that does nothing to how wonderful it tastes.

Then, there were presents.  Enough said.

Around 9 o’clock, I convinced my hubby to watch a chick flick with me.  Flicked through Netflix, and chose Vanity Fair.  I must say, it was pretty good.  He was bored, but oh well.  My birthday, right?  ;)  (Thanks babe for watching it with me.)

So there you have it.  That is most of my birthday summed up in, well…  I guess it wasn’t really summed up.  Quite detailed actually.  Oh well.

Here’s the recipe for the cake!

Cream Cheese Trifle Cake

One chocolate cake, made into three layers

Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing (recipe follows)

Whipped Cream Filling (recipe follows)

Place first cake layer on a plate, top with whipped cream.  Repeat for next layer.  After you’ve placed your third layer on, coat the entire cake with the chocolate cream cheese icing.  The more you can slap on, the better.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup margarine, softened

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 heaping Tbsp cocoa

3 cups icing sugar

Cream the cream cheese, margarine, and vanilla together.  Add cocoa and sugar, and beat until smooth.  Frost that cake!

Whipped Cream Filling

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup icing sugar

Whip together until firm peaks appear.  Fill that cake!  Do it.

Enjoy.  It’s really the best thing since sliced toast bread.  (That actually went through my brain, I had to write it.  Toast is completely different from bread, right?)

30 Day Challenge

Day 4 – Your views on religion

Religion, as such, is not something I believe in.  Religion is performing acts to achieve a purpose, normally eternal peace, life, etc.  Works does not get you these things.  Obedience does not get you these things.  The sole way to salvation is through Christ Jesus; believing in Him, that He died for you, that you’re a sinner and he can reconcile that.

“I am the way the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me”  John 14:6

He is the only way.  You can never work your way into heaven.  There is no possible way we can be good enough on our own.  Only through Christ’s death and His covering of our sins, can we come to God.

Spring Cupcakes

So, the title of this should really be – How to make a disastrous mess.  Because I did.

Man, did I ever.

And of course, who should come home to catch me red-handed in messiness?  But my hubby.

‘WHAT are you DOING?  Why don’t you put a tray underneath, so that you don’t make such a mess on the counter?’

It’s a good question really.  And the only real, true answer is…  I’m stubborn.  There you have it folks, I confess; stubborn to the bone.

You see, I tried a new icing recipe.  I’m constantly using our ‘Buttercream’ Icing recipe.  I use that about 90% of the time. So I thought I’d mix things up.  I used a royal icing.  And instead of following the recipe (as usual…) I made a few changes.  Which resulted in a runny mess of icing.  If it calls for meringue powder, use it.  Just saying.  Anyhow.  This is what I used for icing.  It worked in a sense, but not at all how I had envisioned them to be.

Royal Icing

4 cups icing sugar

2 egg whites

Water

Food colouring

Blend together the egg whites and icing sugar.  Add enough water to make the icing come together.  It should be slightly runny, but not overly runny (ie – more like molasses than oil).  Divide icing into bowls, and add food colouring, as desired.

For my cupcakes, I used this chocolate cake recipe.  It made about 2 1/2 dozen regular-sized cupcakes.

I dyed the icing four different ‘springy’ colours.  Then I bagged them (be careful if your icing is runny – it’ll run right out of the bags – no squeezing required!).  To achieve the tye-dye look, I put a circle of one colour (a 1-inch circle, filled in) on top of the cupcake.  Then I squeezed 2 or 3 other colours on top, and just let it run down the cupcakes, to create the effect.

If you’re smart, you’ll listen to hubby and put a tray underneath the cupcakes BEFORE you frost them.  But if you don’t, hey, that’s cool too.  

Cael thinks they’re pretty good…

30 Day Challenge 

Day 2 – Where you’d like to be in 10 years.

Okay, so it’s most definitely time for day two of the 30 Day Challenge.  This one will be a tad more difficult than the last one… but here goes!

Realize that these are dreams, and I realized that some of them may be slightly far out…

In 1o years, I’ll be in my thirties…  man, that sounds old.  I will still be happily married, my little boy will be in the double digits, and he’ll probably have 2 or  3 (or 4?) little brothers and sisters.  We’ll be living in our house (made by us), which will have an amazingly big shower, and a kitchen with lots of counter space.  I will bake for my kids, and they’ll learn to bake with Mommy too, and love doing it (and I’ll have learned patience…  hopefully).  I’ll own a business, and bake for pay.  Yes, those are the dreams.

Where will you be in 10 years?

30 Day Challenge. And Easter. Wait – a cake too.

So, I came across a challenge on Tyler’s blog (which initially came from Elle’s blog).  It’s called the 30 Day Challenge (pretty self-explanatory, no?).  I’m going to attempt to do it.  I don’t promise to do all 30 days consecutively, but I will try my best to do all 30.  This way, you can get to know me better, and it’ll change things up a bit too.  Hope you enjoy.  And I’d love to hear from you – your thoughts, comments, and questions.

My next post will begin the challenge.  :)

But for now, I’ll (finally) share my Easter with you.  And my brother’s birthday cake.

First – the cake.  I had asked my brother what kind of cake he wanted (mostly wondering what I should decorate…), but all he said was chocolate.  He wasn’t very much help.  I already knew that.  Anyhow.  I thought about it for awhile, and came up with something quite easy, but that fit.  He has been set on watching all 9 seasons of X Files with my husband.  So – the X Files logo it was.

Sides first, then the top.

Then to the logo, the edges…  The blowing of the candles.

Now to Easter.  First off, our Easter is a little bit different from a lot of people.  We grew up without the Easter bunny.  Instead, we focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

This is the reason we celebrate Easter.  Jesus has risen.  And we aren’t just saying this.  We really believe that it’s true.  Christ, our Saviour, reigns.

We also have a family dinner.  Which means lots of food.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that there is no end to food when it comes to my family.  It is central to all of our gatherings.  I love it.  Mostly because, well, truth be told, I love food.  I didn’t have a hand at much this year, as we were in the process of moving into our new house.  But feast your eyes on what I feasted on.

As you can tell, I share my passion for baking with others in my family.  I think it’s genetic.  :)

Cael loved sitting with Papa at dessert time…  Cookies for him.

I also made a cake on Good Friday for a bunch of people that came over to decorate Easter eggs.  It was a really quick decorating job, but I thought it turned out pretty good.

My hubby got a hold of it after it had been cut into though…

Ohmy…

So – I hope that you have a great weekend.  I’ll get started on that 30 day challenge soon.  Thanks for reading.  And sorry my Easter post was so late.  Better late than never??

What’re your Easter traditions?  

Berry Trifle – A Brothers Kitchen Expeditions

This post is going to be a smorgasbord of many things.  Just to warn you.

The last 24 hours have been pretty great.  It started out last night with an apple crisp.  We got home from our Bible study, and I needed something to eat.  Something half sweet and half healthy.  Apple crisp was my answer.  It was pretty darn good.  And cute too.

I’ll share this recipe with you some other time.

Then today, we (as in me and Mom) made a blueberry streusel coffee cake (minus the steusel, adding cream cheese icing).

She made the cake, I made the icing and iced it.  Combined effort.  It happens a lot around here.

I thought it looked really pretty, so I just couldn’t resist the urge to photograph it.  :)

I forgot to mention that it was an absolutely beautiful day today.  The most excellent first day of spring.  23 degrees, sunshine, clear skies – wow.  I just wanted to find as many chores outside as possible, so that I could spend as much time soaking up the sunshine as I could.  And soaking in the good mood it puts me in.  I love what a good, pretty, day-in-the-sun kinda day can do.  It really lightens my spirit.  I am always so thankful for the beauty around me on sunshiny days.  So pretty…  that we went for a walk.  Or two.  The second walk took my little family downtown.  Such a pretty little town, with cute, obnoxious ducks, and friendly people.

We started with the ducks.  Cael loves to watch them.

Then we walked.  And visited the store.

It was really just a great all-around day.  I enjoyed it.  I hope tomorrow is just as great.  I pray that I would just really appreciate every day, more and more.  Each one is special.

To the recipe.

Caleb.  He’s my biggest little brother.  He has finally gotten taller than me, he’s blonde, and he’s REALLY good at making a mess. …. .  Especially in the kitchen.  He’s actually quite notorious for it.  He never follows a recipe (he tries, it just never happens), and always makes the biggest mess physically possible ever time…  And leaves the mess for someone else to clean up.  I must say though, he’s gotten better.  I’ll give him that much.

Just a disclaimer before I start…  Caleb has informed me that the next time he makes this, I am to take better pictures as this one ‘is not pretty’.  (He kind of tried to squish too much into a little bowl…)  So, I’ll give you better pictures sometime in the future.

Berry Trifle (Recipe by Caleb)

1 angel food cake (a cake mix works, but if you really want to make your own, that’s cool)

500 ml whipping cream

2 pkg cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup icing sugar

1 pkg vanilla pudding mix (optional)

Mixed berries (a mix of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc – whatever you like, however much you like)

Prepare angel food cake.  Cut into cubes (about 1-inch cubes)

Blend cream cheese, sour cream, and vanilla together.  Add icing sugar and pudding mix.  [The pudding makes it more of a mousse, but it works fine without it if you don't have it on hand or if you just don't want to use it.]  Whip the whipping cream.  Fold into cream mixture.

Stir cake cubes into the cream mixture.  Put half of mixture into a trifle dish.  Top with berries.  Add the rest of the cake/cream mixture, and top with remaining berries.

This is delicious.  I can never help but take at least two servings.  Even when my belly feels like it might just explode.  I have GOT to eat more.  Mmmmm…  If you are on a diet, sorry, but you need to try this.  Please.  It’s just so good!

He enjoys it….  :)

Do you have fun in the kitchen?  Do you make a mess? 

{I know I do!}

Velvet… {Cake}?

When I think of velvet, I think of really uncomfortable dresses.  I’m not sure why, something from my youth triggers it, but I just can’t remember what exactly.  Anyhow.  When I put that velvet picture in my head and add the words ‘red’ and ‘cake’…..  Well, it just doesn’t seem quite right.  Downright awful actually.  But, I was wrong.  There.  I’ll admit it [for once].  I.  Was.  Wrong.

A friend asked me the other day what was so big about ‘Red Velvet Cake’.  I responded that I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t think it was anything too crazy.  So, I proceeded to look them up (I had before, but hadn’t looked at it too hard…).  Anyway, it wasn’t anything too crazy, so I thought I’d give it a try.  I found a recipe on Bakerella, but I tweaked it a tad, and made it into cupcakes instead of just a regular cake.

Red Velvet Cupcakes  (adapted from Bakerella)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 Tbsp cocoa, heaping

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

1 cup canola oil

1 cup milk

1 Tbsp vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp red food colouring

Preheat oven to 350.  Pour milk and vinegar into a measuring cup, set aside for 10 minutes.  Line cupcake pans with liners.

Whisk eggs lightly.  Add remaining liquids and whisk until blended.  Stir in cocoa and sugar.  Add flour, salt, and baking soda.  Mix until smooth.  Pour into cupcake pans.  Bake for 20 minutes (or until tester inserted in middle comes out clean).

Makes 18 cupcakes.

Anyhow.  It was kind of a busy day making these.  I had two younger brothers to feed, and a baby who just loves attention.  But!  I prevailed, and they turned out pretty good I must say.

After I had delivered my cupcakes to my friend (who had mentioned them to me), I got home to less cupcakes than were there when I left.  Turns out they were too good to just look at.  An additional brother landed home while we were gone and just couldn’t help himself.

{I attempted to fill the cupcakes with the boiled icing… didn’t work too well (it’s just not the right consistency – too fluffy), but it kinda worked…}

A piece of interesting factual information for you about red velvet cakes – they are called red velvet because of their colour.  (Duh, right?)  The cake turns red because of a chemical reaction between the cocoa and the buttermilk (or vinegar).  It also turns red because of added RED food colouring.  Apparently, most cocoa used to be lighter than it is now, and it turned cakes more red, but cocoa is darker now, and while it still turns slightly brown-ish red, colouring is needed for the full effect.  You can still buy the lighter cocoa though.

{Just for extra prettiness, I put an espresso candy on top with a sprinkling of cocoa.}

I also did something different for icing.  Seven minute icing.  It’s a type of boiled icing.  And it’s pretty good.  But I’d never made one like this before.  One reason I really like it, was because you don’t need to use a double boiler (which you normally do).  But, it’s not quite the same.  (Not as good as my mother-in-laws, that’s for sure!)

Seven Minute Icing (adapted from bakedbree)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2/3 cup water

Pinch cream of tartar

4 egg whites

Pinch salt

1 tsp vanilla

In a saucepan, combine sugar, water and cream of tartar.  DO NOT stir.  At all.  Okay?  Bring to a boil, and boil for about 10 minutes.  While you’re waiting for that, put the egg whites and salt in a mixer, and whisk until whites are peaking.  Pour sugar water over egg whites and beat the frosting for 7 minutes (hence the name of the icing…).  Add vanilla extract.  The icing will be really nice and fluffy.  And it will taste sooo good.

I had a LOT of icing left over from the cupcakes…  And my hubby just so happens to LOVE (that’s right folks.. another baked good he’ll actually eat) chocolate cake with boiled icing.  So.  After my cupcakes were made, iced, and delivered.  .  .  .  .  .  (it took awhile)  .  .  .  .  …….  I set out to making a chocolate cake.  (Needless to say, I didn’t get a whole lot else accomplished this day!)  I made this chocolate cake recipe and slopped ALL the rest of the icing on it.  It was pretty delicious.

Notice I [attempted] to pipe the icing onto the cupcakes…  it didn’t work so amazingly well.  Boiled icing isn’t quite the right consistency… but it worked.  Just thought I’d give a warning there.  You WILL make a mess if you attempt to do that.  I would suggest using a flat spatula, and smoothing it on instead (as I did on my cake).

Anyhow.  There was my greatest adventure for the week.  (Notice I said week, not weekend.  I had quite the spree on the weekend, but we’ll talk about that later, when it’s not so fresh on my mind.)

Ever tried a red velvet cake before?  

Cake=Gateau

So, it’s been a bit longer since my last post.  I’d really like to be able to post every day, but I just can never find time.  Ever wish there were a few extra hours in a day?  I’d love 3 or 4 extra hours.  You know what I’d do?  Bake, sew, knit, scrapbook… and READ.  I love to read.  In fact, I just finished (I couldn’t put it down… it only took me a few days) the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I read the first one in the series, and it was SO good.  I can’t wait to read the next two.  However, I’m in the middle of 2 or 3 other books, so I’d better wait.  It’s just so hard though!  I. Want. To. Read. The. Next. Book.      SO.      BAD!

Anyways, a few weeks ago, I posted a few cake posts.  Check out my KitKat birthday cake, and my rose birthday cake.  Since then, I’ve made another cake.  This one was a character cake for my hubby’s birthday.  He turned 22!  Old eh?  ;)  Happy Birthday Babe!

It just so happens that he likes to play Super Smash Brothers with my younger brothers.  And I just so happened to have a Mario cake pan.  Therefore…. well, you know what happened…

Tada!  Super Mario!

Now, you can tell who he is here… right?  But when I first started, it was kind of scary.  First of all, how could this possibly be Mario?

But, after much time, effort [and frustration]… hemhem… Mario came to life.  My mother came to me when it was done and said, ‘So, it is Kirby?’  Which it most obviously is not.  But she enjoyed the exasperated look on my face, I’m sure.

After the cake was done, I made icing for it, and dyed it the colours I needed (Warning:red is HARD to achieve).  Then I coated the cake with a layer of white icing.  I then outlined my Mario and started to fill him in.  There are a LOT of little stars of icing on this guy!

I have to tell you though, the hardest part of this whole cake experience was cutting into it.  All the work…  Eaten.   At least it tasted good.  :)

Cael enjoyed it too.  He loves EVERYTHING.

Back to cakes – I have done other cakes as well, and I’ll share those with you some day soon.  There are always so many things that I want to try and share with you, but again – never enough time.  Those who live close to me – need anything baked – call me.  I’d love to help you out (my dream is to bake for a living – wouldn’t that be great?).

By the way, any suggestions, questions, etc – please let me know!  Thanks for reading!  Hope you enjoyed!