Welcome to my humble blog! I'm a cake bakin' gal specializing in wedding, party and GLUTEN FREE cakes and other treats. They're purdy AND tasty!

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Saturday, February 27, 2010

Classes

If anyone is interested in signing up for cake decorating classes, I teach at the Roberts Crafts store at Jordan Landing. We offer Course 1, 2, and 3, as well as smaller project classes seasonally. The Course classes are $30 for 4 weeks. I have a Course 1 scheduled to start Tuesday, March 2nd. Sign up at the classroom desk!
Or call me (Janelle) if you have any questions. 801-755-7666

Each course is four sessions.


Discover Cake Decorating – Course 1

Thousands of people just like you have experienced the excitement of decorating their first cakes in a Wilton Method Class. With your Wilton Method Instructor as your guide, you will see how easy and rewarding it is to decorate wonderful cakes and other desserts that will delight your family and friends. Course 1 is the perfect place to start. Your Instructor will show you the right way to decorate, step by step. You will share the fun with other students, who encourage you along the way. As you learn each new decorating skill, you will gain a sense of pride in your accomplishments. Plus, you will be able to share your delicious results with family and friends!

Flowers and Borders – Course 2

Build on the skills you learned in Course 1! Your helpful Wilton Instructor will introduce you to many dramatic techniques to make your cakes unforgettable. Master elegant new borders featuring rosettes, reverse shells and rope designs. Give your cakes incredible dimension with the addition of bold color flow decorations. Create lovely new flowers like rosebuds, daisies, daffodils, mums and more. Use these flowers in a grand finale — an impressive flower basket cake using the interwoven basketweave technique.

Fondant and Tiered Cakes – Course 3

Reach a new level of decorating sophistication with the beautiful flowers and techniques in Course 3. Begin with intricate accents such as embroidery and lace, stringwork, garland and ruffle borders. Discover the beauty of decorating with rolled fondant — for covering cakes with an immaculate smooth surface and shaping fun figures and elegant flowers. Add several new icing flowers to your repertoire, including lovely holiday blooms like poinsettias and Easter lilies. Complete your course by assembling and decorating a towering tiered cake with beautiful stringwork, flowers and borders.

Project Classes 1 or 2 Sessions Each

Focus on one fabulous decorating project. We have more to choose from than ever — Pre-baked Gingerbread Houses, Fondant Cakes, Star Character Cakes, Cookie Blossoms, Mini Cakes, Candy and more.

Royal Icing

I use the Wilton recipe for royal icing. Click here for instructions.

Cake Pops

Bakerella has awesome instructions on how to make the perfect cake pop or ball. Click here for the cake ball directions. To make them into cake pops, just pop in a lollipop stick after you pull them out of the freezer!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Clara's Birthday Cake



So this is Clara's sixth birthday cake. She requested a cupcake themed cake and this is what I came up with. It didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped, but the end result left me satisfied in a kind of that's-good-enough-for-my-given-time-and-resources way. I've never made a cake that I wouldn't make some changes to, if I had enough time. 

But anyway, this is it. The cupcake topper was a raspberry swirl cake that I carved in two pieces to look like a cupcake. I covered each piece with fondant and stacked them. Pretty neat how a pile of six inch cakes can turn out so cute.

I made the cupcake tower out of strofoam cake dummies and cardboard cake bases. Slapped a little ribbon and paper on it, went crazy with the hot glue, and there you have it.

The cupcakes on the tower were gluten free dulce de leche with buttercream frosting. Not too shabby for GF, though I think chocolate is the best.

It was a pretty crazy day! I tried to brace for the worse with preparation, something very much out of character for me. And a good thing too, because even that barely cut it.

I had all the shopping done, black and white tablecloths, pink plates and forks and cups (um, for what? they drank out of juice boxes) and napkins, her first pinata ever, streamers, balloons, party bags, the works. Its one thing to buy the stuff, but to actually set it up...I bet they'd make a killing off of a party "installation" package. I'd buy in.

And as luck would have it, I had cake class that lovely Saturday morning. I was gone from 9:30-12:30, and the party started at 1:oo. I woke up early to make a ton of cupcakes, because who wants day old cupcakes? Exactly. So I whip up these cupcakes, get ready, feed the baby, wish Josh lots of luck with the three kids and the task of decorating the gym church with the various bits of cupcakey crafts I'd worked on in the previous days, and take off for class.

My phone would vibrate every 5 minutes or so during the class with last minute RSVPs. Clara had invited her entire kindergarten class, hence the church gym location of the party. I was only going to let her invite 10 friends. I said, "Clara, you can invite ten friends. What are the names I need to put on the invitations?" Clara, "Um, mom, I can't remember their names." Me, "Okay fine, here's a bunch of invites, you hand them out. Next day Clara, "Mom, I didn't have enough invitations. I need more." Me, "Great. I don't have any more. Here, you can give them this piece of paper with the info on them."

That's how it went down. And apparently kindergartner's parents don't RSVP until an hour or so before the party. I try to rush my cake class. I do. But ladies with frosting and speed (not the drug, but that would've been helpful) don't mix. I got out of there at quarter after twelve, rushed (within the law) to the church, grabbed Josh, rushed home and that's when things got out of control.

I grabbed all the cupcakes and then went to mix up the frosting. I made it about a week before. Its supposed to be good for two weeks. I opened the lid and got a huge wiff of spoiled. The stuff was rancid. That's just awesome. At this point, it was 1:00. I grabbed my mixer, my cream cheese and butter, called my mom to bring over some powdered sugar because I'd run out, and took off to the church.

When I got there, at like two after one, there were already several kids running around the gym. My sister greeted their parents and assured them, while the parents of the birthday child were not there yet, that their child was in good hands. I peeked in the gym, waved, smiled and dashed into the kitchen. I whipped up a double batch of frosting, swirled it onto the GF cupcakes and set up the cupcake stand.

Done? Not yet. One of the activities was to decorate their own cupcakes. I still had to color bits of frosting and stuff it into decorating bags. This stuff doesn't sound as time consuming as it really was. The kids played with the balloons, pin the cherry on the cupcake, and musical chairs all before I was done. Oh, and the pinata. That too. I finished right as the kids flooded onto the stage to sit at their tables and go through their pinata prizes.

I threw the filled bags on the table, announced that it was cupcake decorating time, and got swarmed. They loved it. Those kids love their sprinkles. Seriously, have a little cupcake with that glob of decked out frosting. I bet their parents loved me.