Abraham Lincoln's Birthday Cookie

Happy 204th Birthday, Lincoln!  Here! Have a cookie! :D

Okay, so maybe I made these for his birthday 3 years ago. Oooh well. ;)

Enjoy!

Belle from Beauty and the Beast Cake : Holly's Birthday (2011)

Hey guys. :)
It's been just about forever since I've posted on here, and I've still got a lot of cakes I've never posted about.  So am I going to be more consistent with this?  I guess we'll just have to wait and see. :P

So, about this time LAST year, my buddy Holly had just turned 22.  So in honor of the event, I made her this surprise Belle cake.

 I used the Wilton doll pan to get the shape of her dress.  The doll is a pick, but the entirety of her dress is made from fondant.

Looking back, I find it amusing that I did all the buttercream details with a medicine syringe.  I made this before I learned anything about piping with pastry bags, so although its kinda shoddy, at least I was innovative. :P

And here she is all lit up. :) 

As for now, I just finished making a peace sign cake, which I'm about to go drop off now... at 4am. :P

More posts soon?  I hope so. :)

Andy the Ankylosaurus Cake

This is Andy.  He is an Ankylosaurus. And he is my favorite. <3

He was made at the request of my buddy, Ben, who's love of  ankylosauruses is shown here via awesome dinosaur pajamas.

 

Andy's final hours were here, at Ben's super dorky cool ;) game night.

This cake was my first real attempt at a shaped cake. (Weelll, I suppose you can count Edgar the Turkey, but Andy was a bit more complicated.)  

And I really like how he turned out. (Even though I think something went wrong with the buttercream recipe on this one...)

So thus ends this lovely story of Andy the Ankylosaurus. :D

The End. :)

Easter Donuts!

Welcome back to meeeee. :P

Long time no see, little blog, and I've got bunches of excuses too!...no money, no pictures, no time...etc etc. But regardless of all that, here I am, and here's some donuts I decorated on Easter at work!

Unless I've talked to you elsewhere, the fact that I decorated donuts at works needs just a tad bit of explaining.

Well, just about a month ago, I got hired at a gas station for the donut and breakfast food shift, which meant being up at fun hours like 3:30am and putting up with grumpy/hungry customers all morning.  I wasn't trained very well, so the majority of this job has been a lot of stress, trying to keep up with everything. But...

On Easter, my assistant manager left me some colored frosting and Easter-themed sprinkles, so work ended up being a lot of fun for once. 

Most of what I did was a matter of drizzling frosting and tossing sprinkles here and there, but I also got a bit creative and made a few flowers, butterflies, and suns.  And I before leaving work that morning, I even bought a 1/2 dozen of them and felt absolutely ridiculous. :P

I really have a ton of entries I need to post, and a few more possible ones in the near future.  I have my ankylosaurus cake, my Disney Belle Princess cake, a Converse shoe bridal shower cake, a Dead Space 2 cake, and food from my Oscar Party back in February, just to name a few.

So hang in there readers, and hopefully I'll be back soon. :D
<3 Rachel

Dr. Seuss in Clay and Cake

I'm much more of a Dr Seuss fan than I use to be. (Aside from the classic Grinch Christmas special. I've always loved that.) When I was younger, I really didn't have much exposure to his books. I mostly just remember a big stack of them at the doctor's office and reading "Green Eggs and Ham" there. To be honest, I wasn't super fond of it. I just never liked books that repeated lines over and over again like that. And I hate to admit it but all those silly made up Seuss-words kind of irked me when I was a kid. (Which doesn't make any sense at all. I was a weirdo. :P)

The Grinch's leg broke off  :(

Steve, on the other hand, has always been a big Dr. Seuss fan.  He also happens to be fantastic at reading his books aloud.  The summer before we were dating, I sat on my porch swing one warm night and listened to Steve read me "The Lorax" over the phone, and ever since then I've realized just how lovely "those silly made up Seuss-words" are. :) 

So, for a late V-Day/early 1.5 year anniversary gift, I decided to try my first attempt at modeling clay.  (Yeah, I know. It's not edible.  But hang in there! I'm tossing a cake in at the end of this. :P)  I figured if anything, it would be good practice for fondant figures.   Overall, it was a really time consuming fun project, and a neat gift.  The Lorax seemed to approve of his miniature-self as well.  Grinch, on the other hand, just looked as devious as always :P.

As far as cake goes, I figured I'd post my first fondant cake, which  I made for Steve's birthday last summer.  It's subject-related obviously, but also, I'm desperately searching for the best fondant recipe out there.  The batch I made for this cake came from the funkiest fondant recipe I've every seen.  It even had a small amount of glycerin in it. (At the time, I didn't realize how strange that was.)  Since then I've tried simpler recipes and marshmallow fondant, and I've yet to be satisfied.  Then again, I've had professionally made cakes with fondant, and I still think the stuff is unappetizing..  Either way, if you have a good fondant recipe, drop it this way.

  On a quick side note, I've been adding a few things to the blog.  I've had it set so you don't need a Blogger account to comment for awhile, but now you can subscribe via email by using the box to the right of my posts. (Or find the button for subscribing through my RSS feed if that floats your boat instead.)  Also, if you use Stumble Upon, it would be just awesome if you could click on the Stumble Upon badge, or even click the link to share any posts on Facebook.  See, lots of fancy stuff here. :P

Alright, I'm done shamelessly self-promoting now.  Toodles! ;)

<3 Rachel

Funfetti and Banana Window Cookies

I've made cake mix cookies before, but when I found this recipe from Monster Mama for cake mix sugar cookies, I wanted to brainstorm something fun.  I decided to combined a few design ideas I found in my new cookie recipe book, and I came up with what I deemed: "Funfetti and Banana Window Cookies."

The only modification I made to the original recipe was replacing the french vanilla cake mix with Pillsbury's Funfetti mix.  The dough was a bit, well, cakey, so it was difficult to roll out and work with.  I used a biscuit cutter to give the cookies a crimped edge and removed a small heart from half of the them with one of my new fondant cut outs.  Then into the oven they went.

These cookies only baked for about 5 minutes.  The trick was taking them out while their middles were still soft, since they continue to bake on the hot pan.  Keeping cookies in the oven until the look done is a mistake I've made too many times to count.

 When all the cookies were done, I stacked them into piles and set them aside.  I still needed a filling, and honestly, I hadn't planned that part ahead of time.  After a lot of experimenting, I ended up with a bowl full of frosting made up of many different things like powdered sugar, french vanilla creamer, maple extract, cherry juice, and banana pudding mix.  People seemed to like the end product, but no one could really guess the flavor.

Overall, I suggest just combining the pudding mix with some water and powdered sugar to make the filling, along with some food coloring and sprinkles for appearance sake.  This recipe ended up yielding just over 20 cookies, and the filling flavor went really well with the funfetti mix.

These cookies were so adorable, that I found myself opening the refrigerator several times just to look at them.  Not to mention I had a bunch of fun making these with my friend Janey, who's camera took all the lovely pictures.  :)

Well, that's all for now. I realize I've been posting pretty infrequently, so hopefully I can start keeping up with this better.  Annywho, toodles for now!

<3 Rachel

"Gingerbreads" and Sugar Cookies

My mom's never been much of a cook.  I mean, dinner's always good when she does make it, but cooking just isn't something she's ever enjoyed very much.  Because of this, I've probably had more than my fair share of Mac and Cheese and PB&Js over the years.  But for as much as my mother dislikes cooking, she makes up for it in baking.  I didn't even realize (until I started writing this entry) all the countless times I've come home to a full cookie jar or Oreo brownies in the fridge.

Now that it's Christmas time, Mom's gone a bit cookie crazy.  The freezer's jam packed with Thumbprint Cookies, Oreo Balls,  and Chocolate Chips.  And after tonight, some decorated sugar cookies and gingerbread men are occupying the fridge as well.

Somewhere within the last week or so of extremely stressful Christmas preparations, I missed out on the actual baking of the two types of cookies.   I'm serious, this year has just about turned me into a Grinch.  Being absolutely broke and trying to Christmas shop had me super worn out a few days ago, and even though I had a good time at  Secret Santa party the other night, the world's just got me down.

But today's been nice. Thank goodness.

Steve and I woke up at 4pm today after arriving home late from the Secret Santa party last night.  Sometimes I really hate sleeping in forever, but today it was just relaxing.  In contrast, the last-minute-shoppers traffic was soo crazy by the mall when I dropped Steve off at his car.   I'm surprised it didn't make me berserk. (Okay, so it didn't a little.)  Maybe I was just happy I wasn't actually shopping in all that craziness, who knows, but I was in a pretty darn good mood.

And not long after getting home again, it was time to decorate cookies! :)

These cookies were more for fun than showmanship, but some of them turned out kind of neat.  I divided up our frosting into four colors, which were "the best looking colors we've ever had" as Mom stated several times. :P  Besides that, it was mostly just splashing on sprinkles (and the occasional raisin.)

The cookies got rather time consuming and the initial thrill of them wore off quickly.  So we beckoned my brother John and two of his buddies to come in for Operation Cookie Overlord, and we finished them up a few minutes later.  (On a side note, Operation Cookie Overlord was nowhere near as epic as it sounds.)

The rest of my night so far has been good as well. I  drew a Christmas present for my dad and watched a rather Christmasy episode of Conan.  And since my sleep schedule is all out of whack (just regular kind ;P)  who knows how late I'll be up.

Anywho, I hope everybody has a super awesome fantabulous Christmas!

TTFN!

<3 Rachel

Upcoming Cakes

I probably won't have money for all of my Christmas cakes, but I thought I'd make a list of some of the things I want to do.

1. Santa Claus Cake
2. My House in Gingerbread Form
3. Snowman Cake
4. Christmas Tree Cake
5. Super Secret Holly Birthday Cake
6. Ashley's Pink Princess Castle Cake
7. Anndd... A Neon Pink and Green Ankylosaurus Cake

Wish me financial luck :P

Adios!


<3Rachel

EDIT:  I got bored and made this video.  Youtube will probably disable the sound, but until then, enjoy!

Easy Peasy Pumpkin Squeezy

Whew, I've been neglecting this blog for awhile.  Finals week was awful, so I plan on kicking back and blogging much more often now that winter break is here.  On the downside though, I'm so poor right now that I don't know if I'll be able to buy any of the ingredients for all the super awesome Christmas cakes I had planned...*sigh*

When I last posted, I had mentioned I made several cakes for Thanksgiving.  Well, Cake Number 3 was a lovely pumpkin bundt cake.  I was planning on carving the shape of it myself, but once I come across the idea of using two bundt cakes instead, it was too easy to pass up.  (I was just all caked out at this point.)

Then came my search for the perfect recipe.  I decided on this one from allrecipes.com

Ingredients
* 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
* 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix
* 4 eggs
* 1/4 cup water
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil
* 1 cup canned pumpkin
* 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
* Whipped cream


Directions


1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds; beat on medium for 4 minutes. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve with whipped cream if desired.

I only had one bundt pan, so it took double the time to bake the two pumpkin halves.  In the meantime, I started working on the frosting.  I thought a cream cheese buttercream frosting would be amazing, so I took a recipe from MarthaStewart.com.  I dyed the majority of it orange, but dyed some green and brown for the stem and leaves, too.  (You just cover an ice cream sugar cone in brown frosting for the stem, sooo simple. :D )

This frosting did taste great, but I had a few issues with it when it came to covering the cake.
When I had both cakes baked and cooled, I put the two halves together with frosting.  This left a very apparent line across the middle of my cake.  When I began to frost the entire "pumpkin" I unfortunately discovered the frosting was too thin to completely hide the cake (and the line across the middle) beneath it.  I struggled with it for a good 30 minutes before just coating the whole thing and giving up.  I was super late for a friend's birthday party at this point, so I left, planning to get home early before my family Thanksgiving to give the cake another coat and to add the vines and leaves.

Except....that never happened.  In fact, I was super late to Thanksgiving too.  (Being late is kind of a thing with me. Heh.)  And! To top it off, some of the cake was eaten before I ever got to take a picture of it. :(

All and all though, I'm okay with how everything turned out.  It was still an orange pumpkin shaped cake with a nice brown stem.  Some vine detailing would have been nice, but that one layer of orange frosting got a bit thicker over night, so I'll take that instead.  Not to mention, I happened to think it tasted preeeettty darn awesome.

So, if you have the time to fiddle with the frosting for this one, I'd recommend it.  It's super simple, just a bit time consuming.

Toodles for now!

<3 Rachel

Turkey Time

As far as cakes go, Thanksgiving week felt a little bit crazy.  Okay, so I only baked three cakes, but I put so much time into these things that I felt super busy all week. 

*ahem*  But without further ado, meet Edgar the Turkey!

Edgar may appear stoic, but he is sad for two reasons: 1. He's upset that I have nothing but a camera phone to "capture his glory". (He's a very arrogant turkey, you see.) and 2. His decapitated head is now chillin' in my freezer. (Pun intended.)

Anywhoooo....

The concept of Edgar began the week before Thanksgiving, as I was announcing to my bestie, Janey, that I was going to make a "pumpkin flavored pumpkin cake" for my mom's Thanksgiving.  To this, Janey replied, "Or how about a turkey flavored turkey cake!"  She was kidding...hooopefully ;)... but when my dad requested a Thanksgiving cake as well, I picked up the idea, minus the turkey flavoring of course. :P

This cake is made mostly out of chocolate cake (the box mix kind, because I'm fancy like that), Scotcheroos, buttercream, and fondant.    I formed the middle part of his body by baking in a 10" round pan, cutting the cake in half, stacking the two halves, and then placing them flat side down.  I used a Bake and Fill pan that I picked up at Goodwill to bake the front part of his body, but I think the same shape could be achieved from smaller round pans cut in half and stacked. 

 His tail-feathers were made out of Scotcheroos, that I pushed into half a saucepan to get the curved shape.  (I think chocolate covered rice krispies would have worked just as well.)  Lastly, his head is made out of an ice cream sugar cone for support and Scotcheroos (minus the chocolate) to give it shape.

It is all covered in fondant and I used the buttercream to coat and paste pieces together.

If you'd like any more directions on how to make yourself an Edgar, feel free to email me.  Also, I'll be happy to share the recipes I used, if you don't feel like waiting for me to post them in a later entry.

Hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving :)

<3 Rachel

The Cake That Started It All

I've been on Deviant Art for about a year now, and I find it pretty amusing that one of my most popular cakes is still this here Oreo Cake:

The amusing part is it's pretty much the first cake I've ever really taken seriously.  I'm still impressed with it, considering how little I knew about baking at the time, but I think I've done better work since.  For some reason though, "Oreo Cake" is still getting a lot of attention. 

I thought this would make a really good first entry since its probably the easiest cake I've done and I've had a few people ask how to get the finished product. (Not to mention, I learned a few reaaally helpful things while baking this.)  I think I'll do this in the form of a lovely little story:

Once upon a time...

(It's a meeee!)

...there was a silly girl named Rachel who happened to have a crush on an even sillier boy named Steve.  It was the middle of a lovely summer, and Steve and his friend J.'s hair was getting a little too long for Rachel's tastes.  In a half joking tone, Rachel said she would reward the two boys with cakes if they committed themselves to getting haircuts. They accepted and soon Rachel found herself with two cakes to bake.  J, not being a fan of frosting, requested a pineapple upside down cake.  

(My buddy/assistant chef Holly!)

Steve, on the other hand, certainly did not have an aversion to frosting. In fact, he loved it!  (And still loves it for that matter. :P)   Baking for such a fan of sweets, Rachel took the second cake very very seriously.  Here's a few of the things she discovered in preparation for his cake:

1. To avoid getting a really lumpy cake.  Don't over-mix the batter.  Also, setting the cake on a piece of aluminum foil in the oven will help distribute the heat beneath it more evenly.
2. Leveling the two layers before stacking makes a much more presentable cake.  Use a big bread knife or thread pulled tightly to cut off any lumps. Then stack the layers with the cut side facing the middle.
3. Adding dry pudding mix to a box cake makes the finished product much more moist.

Most of what she found was probably pretty common knowledge, but Rachel had never heard these things before; They certainly did make a difference.   

So Rachel invited here two best buds over, Janey and Holly, and they began to bake.  To make the Oreo Cake, they simply used a chocolate box mix, followed the instructions, and added a box of chocolate pudding mix.  Rachel applied the above information to bake and assemble the cake, and then very carefully covered it in plain ole' store bought vanilla frosting.  She tore apart a few oreos and lined them up on the sides of the cake, and then commissioned her friends to do some oreo smashing in plastic bags: 

Rachel sprinkled the crushed Oreo on top of the cake, and wa-lah! The Oreo Cake was done!

And  a month (and a bit of drama) later, Rachel and Steve were happily dating.  And still are. :)  Oh, and Rachel kinda sorta loooves to bake now.

The End

See! Wasn't that nice?  Like I said, super easy, since none of it's really from scratch.  But in the end, you still have yourself a pretty impressive little cake.

Try it yourself and enjoy!

-Rachel :)