Baker's Secret

Here's a tip for all the bakers out there. Ever have a cake or loaf of bread stick the pan no matter how much you spray it? Well no more. Here is a simple recipe that will save your baked goods from now on.

1c Criso or other shortening
1/2 c oil
1/2 c flour

Blend all together. Now this doesn't look very appetizing at all, but there is no taste at all. To apply it in your pans, I use a ziploc bag. Just use the bag as a glove and smear Baker's Secret all over the pan, bottom and sides. Another way to spread is by using a pastry brush. I'm not a huge fan of the silicone brushes. They don't pick up much at a time.

Will keep refrigerated FOREVER! But you won't need it forever. This is likely to become one of your favorite kitchen tricks.

Happy Cooking!

A Gift Just For You!

This week I tackled covering a cake with fondant and making a big fat bow for the top. Covering the cake was as bad as I thought it was going to be.  (I do know that I will be buying a bigger rolling pin before I do another one though.) I learned though that a square cake is easier to cover than a round cake. So I guess I will be doing only square cakes in fondant. The bow gave me a little more trouble. My fondant was a little too thick, and I wasn't able to work fast enough. You need to really work fast with this stuff or it will start to crack and tear. My bow started to crack at one of the seams. So the group setting wasn't all that great for me tonight, but Isaac and I will be attempting another one this weekend, so we'll see if that does any better.

This cake did give me another idea. The blue, even though it looks Carolina blue, it is actually more of a Tiffany Blue. So maybe I'll do a blue cake and put a big white bow on it and fix up a Tiffany bracelet to drape over the box. I'll let you know how that one goes too.

Happy Cooking!

Banana Cake :)

Well this weekend I spent some time working with fondant. Did I keep anything, no. I was going to, the the ants attacked.

So needless to say, all the fondant is in the dumpster now. But before the attack I started working on a ladybug and bumble bees. Here is the lady bug.

So some of the things I learned. Food coloring is not good for painting! It took forever to dry and was still tacky even when the color didn't bleed onto my finger. Second, use fondant to make the dots and face. It looks pretty good in the picture but not so good in person. I took a carving tool and poked a hole then filled it with food coloring. It looked super cute before the paint, but once it got painted, I think small fondant balls would have been better.

So, on to the really important business. We all know the cake is the star. I tried out the modified banana recipe after my first one failed miserably. This one turned out not so bad! It hasn't fallen apart and I trimmed off the top of one so it would stack flat and it was pretty good. Very subtle banana flavor, so I'll try adding another banana next time.

Even better, the banana takes out A LOT of the fat! So yummy and better for you :) Happy Cooking!

Fondant Flowers

So once again I was proven wrong with my first thoughts about this material. I had said in a previous blog that I thought the flowers looked too cartoon for me. Well I guess I'm wrong. They look more realistic than I first thought.

Tonight we worked on daisies, waterlilies, calla lilies and mums. I really like the color scheme and hopefully will do a cake with this soon. I've wanted to do one for a little while, so maybe sometime in this class.

The daisies I think are super cute and so easy! They are cookie cutters :) The water lilies are made the same way with just an extra layer on top.

The mum is actually made with the same form, but there are six layers to make the mum. (the spikey ball looking figure in the top picture.)

And finally Calla Lilies. Simple "cigars" sprinkled in crystal sprinkles and then hearts painted with luster dust, these are green, but you could use any color.

So again I was proved wrong. I know this wasn't that long but there wasn't a cake to talk about. Look for  next weeks blog, Birthday Present Cake!

Happy Cooking!

First Order!

Tuesday I got my first order for a cake. I think this is a big moment for me so that maybe someday I will be able to have a side job decorating cakes. So for the few of you that read this, yes I am selling cakes and taking more orders.

Here is the first cake. And yes it's similar to the other basket one, but thats what they saw and wanted another one like it.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and really proud of it since it is the first one I did completely on my own away from my instructor. 

Happy Cooking!

Flowers Galore!

The month of July was all about flowers. Over the month hopefully I have learned new skills and mastered some technique. I'll let you be the judge of that. We started off our first night with the flowers from fondant and from royal icing. Here's the picture from last week that wouldn't load.

And before anyone starts, yes that is a shirt box that the flowers are in. It has been making a few appearances lately. Anyways, the small purple flowers are violets, the yellow are daffodil, and then there are daisies in the upper left corner. I love the look of these so much more than the fondant in the upper right corner. But next month we are working on flowers that will be out of fondant and gum paste which look more realistic. 

After our task the first night, we made a cake with the purple violets. Here is the cake we made during the second week.

 

There is piping work on the side of cake that I was hoping would look more like a vine, but it turned out good. I'm really looking forward to someday making a cake that I can do lace detail work on. Piping is a tough workout on your hand though. The side of my hand was cramping so bad by the end, and it was a small cake! This on I think was my second favorite to date.

I'm not sure if my finale cake tops this one or not. I'll let you decide that. My last cake is more bold I think and the flowers are more extravagant. I mean nothing like Ace of Cakes extravagant but for me, the beginner! Here is my Grande Finale piece for the second class.

This cake in a basket weave with rope borders, topped with roses, primroses, and a flower that I forget the name. Really I was just trying to get rid of the last bit of icing :) Notice the little violets from the last cake. I had a few left over and they were the perfect final touch my cake needed.

And I'm so excited, I got my first order for a birthday cake this week. I'm finishing that up tomorrow, so I'll be posting tomorrow night with the finished product. A dozen reddish, pinkish roses :) And I'm proud of those roses! Can't wait to see how it turns out!

Happy Cooking! 

Royal Icing, Friend or Foe?

Well I always thought that royal icing would be hard to work with, hard to make, and well an all around pain in the butt. I was proved wrong last week when I started working with royal icing flowers.

This week we started working on royal icing and fondant flowers. The fondant flowers, ehh... They were cute in that cartoon style way. Maybe when I learn a little more about it and try some new flowers I'll feel differently.

So here is the recipe for royal icing. Now get ready, it's a doozy. Have pen and paper? Ok.

3 c. powdered sugar

3 tsp meringue powder

2 Tbsp os water

Ok, just kidding, not so hard. The next part is actually tough unless you are lucky enough to own a stand mixer. For those less fortunate like myself, we're set for 7-10 minutes with the hand mixer. I guess there is one advantage. Pretty sweet bi-tricep muscles at the end of this.

On to the fun stuff, flowers! We worked on violets and daffodils this week. The picture failed to upload so you'll have to check back later for the finished cake that used the flowers.

Happy Cooking!