Harkness Wedding
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A fabulous four tiers. The bottom tier is vanilla bean cake with fresh strawberries and a creamy buttercream center. The middle two tiers are carrot cake with fresh pineapple and carrots that make it incredibly moist and delicious with a cream cheese filling. The brides cake at the top is strawberries and creamy buttercream again. The cake is finished with a smooth decadent Swiss meringue buttercream.
The day was gorgeous, the bride beautiful and the setting amazing.
I owe a huge thank you to Karen Leaf, photographer extraordinaire. Her photographs are incredible, as you can see. I found her to be a genuinely kind and helpful person. A very important attribute to have I would think when you are having one of the most important days of your life. You can find her on line www.karenleaf.com. She also does affordable half hour sessions to take wonderful portraits of you or your children and even your beloved pets.
Disco Ball Cake
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I was asked to make a birthday cake that mimicked a disco ball. It needed to be the approximate size of a soccer ball and have layers of vanilla and chocolate cake inside. A round cake that ended up being a learning experience from start to finish.
I was sure that doing this cake for me was what it must be like for those poor cake decorators that are invited to do the cake competitions on the food network. You know, the ones that might not have had time to do a practice run of their cake design before they arrived, but are sure with their experience and design ideas their cake will not only work but should also win the prize. Then however after the start of the competition they realize that the reality is things are simply not going as planned and a domino effect is beginning to take place. With the first disaster affecting the next part of the plan and so on and so on. This is how this cake felt to me as I worked my way through challenge after challenge.
Starry Night
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I was inspired to make this Van Gogh cake from a wonderful book named “Hello, Cupcake!” by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. If you are considering making a Starry Night of your own this book is extremely helpful. They make their design on 24 cupcakes instead of a single layer cake as I did, but it was such a wonderful idea I could not wait to give it a try myself.
A few helpful hints I would suggest before attempting this project is buying the plastic throwaway pastry bags. I used the Wilton brand. There is no need for pastry tips in the bags so when you are done with your cake clean up is easy. Another suggestion would be to mix the nine colors used to make this particular cake in paper bowls with plastic spoons again you can throw away the mess when you are done. To serve the cake I bought an inexpensive eleven by fourteen inch frame and the cake I baked in a nine by twelve inch pan and it worked out perfectly. Read More→
Boston’s Sweet
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Cupcakes from Sweet in Boston, MA
It was a gorgeous day yesterday. Warm enough to walk around in a light sweater bright and sunny. If fall is your thing you could not have been unhappy with a day like that in New England. My daughter, assistant cupcake tester extraordinaire and I headed north on our quest for one of the two Sweet cupcake shops in Boston. Traffic was light conversation was snappy a fast trip down the Mass. Pike and we were in the city. We drove by the first Sweet shop in Back Bay, very easy to miss if you were not paying attention, so keep your eyes on the store signs. We headed over the bridge to Harvard Square after the typical challenge with parking we were finally on foot and enjoying the scenery. Crowded streets, music playing, a lot of people sitting outside, families, couples and students mulling about everywhere. Read More→
Caramel Drizzle and Caramel Swirl Buttercream Recipe
By · CommentsCaramel is one of those flavors that makes a comeback this time of year. I was never crazy about it myself as a kid until I learned how to make it from scratch. Okay, huge difference, love it. You can make a batch add it to your coffee, better than a Starbucks caramel macchiato, thin it with cream if needed. Saute bananas in butter add your caramel drizzle until warmed, again thin it with cream if needed and you have an amazing topping for your pancakes. Read More→
Inspired Fall Flavors
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Yummy Halloween cupcakes
Halloween is over and Thanksgiving is just weeks away. Cool weather outside, pumpkins and apples are back in season, change of seasons, inspired cooking. It does not hurt that I absolutely love all the flavors this time of year offers up. Read More→
Cupcakes and Eyeballs for Halloween
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Halloween cupcakes
I searched for fun and maybe something a little different in the way of cupcake ideas for Halloween. I was doing cupcakes for a friends dance class, tween age girls so I was not going for the super adult gore. I did not see one thing where I said, that is it perfect, just the usual constant reoccurring themes. So I decided to latch on to one idea and see what I could do to make it fun. My muse? The expressive, spooky eyeball with its limitless creepy possibilities. Read More→
A Moist and Delicious Strawberry Cupcake Recipe
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Delicious Strawberry Cupcake Recipe
I had to find a really great strawberry cupcake recipe for my best friend’s birthday party for whom her cake of choice is ever only strawberry. She and her husband are both extraordinary chefs and have been working in the business of food for quite sometime. So after I offered my services to the birthday party hostess her wonderful grandmother that I would be in charge of bringing the dessert. I felt a responsibility, a challenge. Every time I do a cake I look for I think what most of us look for, that it absolutely has to be moist, have a distinctive melt in your mouth flavor, not overly sweet, and that it is paired with the best icing to enhance the taste of the cake. Read More→