Still Alive!

No, this cake didn't take a month to make....just a month to post. The design is very simple, I am still not the most creative person, just a good copier of the geniuses out there. Thank you Pinterest! It was a double layer chocolate cake with marshmallow fondant over the top. I used a Christmas tree cookie cutters to do the trees, and then outlined and detailed with royal icing. It was for a church activity. They didn't know that I had included a little surprise with this order. Whoever finds the little piece of paper is the winner! (Embarrassing)

Our family Christmas was legend "wait for it" ary. During which I discovered the glories of How I Met Your Mother. Which, if you have watched, you will understand my "wait for it" joke. Or...you think I am a nut. It was legendary for our family because my littlest sister got engaged. SO FUN! Lots of planning and girl talk and remembering this exciting time in my own life. Congrats Sis!

Then I returned filled with goals and resolutions for the new year. I started a cleaning/ organizing/purging kick here at my house that has taken up every free second of my time and my hubbies. Every day I am adding to his "to do" list. He comes home at the end of the day, helps get kids to bed, and then marks stuff off of it, only to find more in its place the next day. Bless him! And...after three weeks of pushing our selves, our house is looking WAY better. Now, closets aren't falling in on us, the garage has work space, there is room for new Christmas toys, etc. Back to regular life again...which means....baking again. Good for my mental stability not good for my healthy resolutions. Oh well, one thing at a time, right?!

Sponge Bob...and a yellow cake recipe

Where would we be without Sponge Bob? Sponge Bob represents pure stupidity in children's television...yet we all laugh away. I, myself, have watched one episode (it was enough).

This cake, however was so fun to do! It made me almost like Sponge Bob for a brief second...almost. I covered the whole cake with yellow marshmallow fondant, added a stripe of white and brown along the lower half, added eyes and spots, and a red tie, and bada bang, got yourself a Sponge Bob. I outlined all the details with black royal icing.

Last year I made a Dora birthday cake for this customer. One layer was a yummy homemade chocolate cake and the other layer was a doctored yellow cake mix. This year they requested yellow cake. They said they have been thinking about my moist yellow cake for the last year. Ha-Larious! So.....here is a simple recipe for what they say is AMAZING yellow cake! I have tried three or so homemade yellow cake recipes. This easy one is comparable to homemade.

Doctored Moist Yellow Cake
Pretty much made up by me from two other recipes I have tried

1 box yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp butter flavored extract or lemon or vanilla ...whatever you want

Life's a Beach Cake

One of my girlfriends threw a super cute surprise Luau for her husband...and even managed to keep it a secret. She ordered this cake from me. We found the cake idea on family fun website I believe...but there are photos of this cake EVERYWHERE on line. I added my own twist. I added a gumpaste/fondant shark fin. I also added a little more dimension to the cake by adding the hill on the beach with an upside down cupcake. The sand is finely crushed graham cracker crumbs. I also used candy rocks...my original twist on the cake. Making the white caps on the waves took some trial and error. What worked for me was to smooth on the blue blue frosting with swirly motions. Then I pipe white swirly lines with frosting. Then I took a butter knife and smoothed the harsh white line into the blue frosting blending the two together. I bought the surf board, hula figurines, palm trees, and the beach chair at my local cake supply store. They were like .25 a piece. EASY cute cake that anybody could do!!!

Happy Happy Birthday!

I believe that the best birthday present you can give anyone, is a nice, fat, rich, chocolatey, homemade cake.( well, I can actually think of a few things I might want more, i.e. money, but you catch my drift!) So this cake is a no fail recipe that I promise you will use EVERY time! I found it on The Girl Who Ate Everything. Then I just added my personal touch by making the letters out of fondant. So incredibly beautiful, easy and delicioso!!!! This post is a shout out to my precious first born child who turned 5 this week! I cannot believe it! Kindergarten here he comes!



The Best Chocolate Cake
from The Girl Who Ate Everything
1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small box Jello instant chocolate pudding mix (not the sugar or fat free kind!)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips (you can use regular too)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a VERY large bowl (4 qt), mix together everything except chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into cake pan of choice (I normally use two 9-inch pie pans). You could use this batter to make any kind of cake: sheet cake, cupcakes, bundt cake, etc. For cooking time, use the cooking times on the back of the devil’s food cake box as a guide and add around 10 minutes to whatever it says. Do the toothpick check, and if it’s not done, I check on it every 5 mins after that. It usually takes around 45 mins for two, 9-inch pie pans.

Bibbity Bobbity Boo

In honor of the "Royal Wedding"(sorry, just thought that should be capitalized and in quotations) I thought that I would post a picture of a cake that I made for a princess that is as equally stunning as the Duchess herself! But first I had to share this little beauty that I found on facebook. Seriously so funny!



So, once again I had a bit of a learning curve with the fondant so let me share some do's and don'ts with y'all (you do know I am from Texas right? Just thought I'd share!) I used a whipped cream frosting again because the taste cannot be beat, but it definitely makes for some more challenging decorating. I initially made the stripes on the cake with pink fondant, but I put it on the night before and the pink bled onto the frosting, (lesson learned!) so you need to wait and apply to a nice crisp buttercream frosting if you are using fondant detailing. I ended up piping the dots and stripes with royal icing. The pink circle on top is also made from fondant. I am signed up for yet another class where I will be learning a lot more about fondant and I am so excited to share what I learn with y'all (there I go again!)

Until then, happy experimenting!

"V" is for violet...roses that is!

I have been posting a lot of cakes lately! Which means I have been baking a lot of cakes lately. Which means I hope I can still fit in my new swimsuits next week in Mexico!!! Oh yeah baby!! One week from tonight I will be holding my hubby's hand, gazing out at the ocean, feeling the sand between my toes, and hearing the waves crash against the shore. Sigh! I can smell the salt in the air! I have some posts lined up to share with you while I am gone. And this week I have to do one more Countdown to Mexico post! Right?! Maybe some homemade churros...

This cake was my final project from Cake Decorating 101. My pearl/snail trail border is not so pretty, but check out my roses! My class was a little confused why I wrote a letter "Vv" on the cake. It was for preschool snack the next day and we were learning all about the letter Vv. (Also why I chose to make purple, or shall we say violet roses?) The kids loved it! They loved to eat a flower.

These Wilton roses are hard to master. I took this class almost two months ago and have made quite a few roses. Yet, still only half of my rose creations are passable. Practice makes perfect. Check out this tutorial here and get practicing!!!

Birthday Party Post #3-Cake Baking Tips

Geez!!! I just have a lot to say about the same day of baked goods! I made this yellow cake with chocolate frosting for a friend's husband's birthday that happened to be on the same day as Wyatt. So, this was available for guests as well as the pina colada cupcakes. This was my first layer cake attempt. As previously mentioned, I have been taking cake decorating classes and gum paste flower classes. SOOOO helpful! This cake seemed like a breeze. I will never bake a cake in a 13 X 9 inch pan again!! Seriously, this took probably 30 minutes more and it looks a million times better. This cake is 2 9 inch cake layers, each split in half with a cake leveler. I didn't have to level the 2 original cakes due to the bake even strips I used. Here are some tricks and products I swear by. Buy them, have them for life, and never bake a 13 X 9 inch cake again!!! (No, I am not under contract with any of the manufacturers I am about to mention...just sharing what I know to help you!!!)

Layer Cake Baking Tips for the Beginner

Supplies that will save your life...worth the expense for the result!!!

2 8 or 9 inch cake pans

Bake Even Strips

Wilton Cake Release

Cake Leveler

Angled Spatula

Disposable Decorating Bags

Decorating tips #3 and #21

Tip #1- For high altitudes like Denver, never bake a cake at 350, keep your oven at 325 degrees and bake longer.

Tip#2- If you don't want to buy the bake even strips, my instructor swears by the following method to bake an even cake. (I haven't attempted this yet since I have the bake even strips)... Grease the bottom and seam of side wall of pan. Do not grease the side walls of the pan. You may flour if desired. Fill pan half full. Tilt pan until batter goes to top rim of pan, coating walls thinly. Drop pan on counter a few times to free up any bubbles and level batter. Should bake an even cake.

Tip #3- Measure by cups how much batter you put in each pan...this way your layers of the cake are exactly the same height.

Tip #4- test cake for doneness all over pan, not just center of pan.

Tip#5- if careful while icing...no crumb coat is needed. Crumbing lessens if you work with a chilled cake. Also, start with a big blob of frosting. You can scrape the frosting off as needed. Be careful not to let your spatula touch the cake, only frosting. This is easy with a cake spatula...there is something about the angle to it. The above cake does not have a crumb coat and there was not a crumb in sight.

Tip #6- When you add a layer on top of the frosting of the previous layer, drop it on, shimmy it to be in place and twist...this makes it a firm, stable stack.

The Box's Fav. Chocolate Cake Recipe

A talented gal pal of mine just started a cake blog called Catastrophic Cakes. I was thinking of her on Friday when I was putting the finishing touches on a week long project-my first fondant cake. It truly was catastrophic. I felt like anything wrong that could have happened happened. My headboard broke (see pict. The bed, blocks and words are fondant. The toys are toys.) and I had to use the footboard instead. The text "Happy" broke and I had to piece it together like a puzzle for the presentation. Okay it really wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things...especially since it was the first time I have literally EVER touched fondant. The part that was catastrophic was the cake part. I had no clue how to level, fill, etc. (Soon to be resolved...taking a great class in a few weeks and I will share what I learn.) My frosting recipe I chose turned out pretty crusty after spreading it out and you can see little cracks across the whole top. Oh Well! I gave it to them for cost and lesson learned! I should not be overly confident in my capabilities until I take some more classes!

Also, this last weekend, I did some bridal gown cookies that were to die for and these cupcakes. Aren't they cute? I will teach you how to make the stars later this week.

But for both projects...I used this recipe. My fav. chocolate cake recipe by far...and I have tried alot! This recipe stays moist for DAYS! We love it!

The Box's Favorite Chocolate Cake Recipe...so far

Source: My Kitchen Cafe

Makes two 8-inch or 9-inch cake layers , 1 9X13-inch pan

Makes about 2.5 dozen cupcakes

Put the following ingredients into your cart...

1 ¼ cups unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

2 ½ cups sugar

2 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

1 ¼ teaspoons salt

2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk

1 ¼ cups warm water

1 ¼ cups buttermilk

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Put your apron on and get busy...

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, making sure the baking rack is in the middle of the oven.

Prepare your cake pans by cutting out a piece of parchment or wax paper to line the bottom of the pan. Grease the pans, place the parchment or wax paper in the bottom of the pan and lightly grease again. Dust the pans with flour (or cocoa powder if you don’t want the white dusting on the finished cakes). Set the pans aside.

Using a fine mesh strainer, sift together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add the eggs, yolk, warm water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Mix on low speed (with a handheld mixer or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer) until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake the cakes for about 32-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Do not overbake! Remove the pans from the oven and set the pans on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Gently run a thin knife around the edges of the pans and unmold the cakes, removing the parchment paper liners from the bottom of the cakes. Let them cool completely, top sides ups, on a wire rack.

Trim the tops of the cake layers with a long serrated knife to make them level.

Ode to Summer...And Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Watermelon, sweat, sunshine, flip flops, park days, ice cream, swimsuits in the backyard, gardens, green leaves, grass, lemonade, and shorts. These are a few of my favorite things...NOT snow, slush, boots, scraping ice off your windows, runny noses, coughs, stir-crazy boys, and stinky dogs allowed inside during negative 20 degree days. MAKE IT STOP!!! I really miss stepping outside and feeling warm. Last Sunday I decided to make a summer treat. We closed our eyes and imagined eating this cake with summer berries on the picnic table outside. Oh!! Or maybe lounging in the hammock. Sigh! Alas, we probably have many more snow storms to come. Til then, make this cake and pretend.

This cake was the best pound cake I have ever had. It was easy, light, buttery, and addicting. It was so moist yet dense. It kind of reminded me of the eggnog bundt cake from a while back. DELISH!!



Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Source: Smitten Kitchen

Put the following ingredients in your cart...
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 (8 oz.) package Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt


Put your apron of and ...

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour a bundt pan or tube pan (line the bottom with parchment if using a tube pan). Combine the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar, increase the speed to high, and beat until light and airy, at least 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts. Add in the flour and salt and mix until just incorporated.

Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean, about 75 minutes. Place the pan on a wire rack and allow to cool for about 20 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and allow to cool completely. Serve at room temperature with berries and whipped cream.

Eggnog Bundt Cake with Caramel Sauce

I had a few posts all ready to go for today...when last night I ate a slice of the best holiday treat EVER!!! I HAD to bump it to the top of the list. Last night we were invited to dinner at our friends Annie and Jeff's. Dinner was amazing!!! For dessert we had this cake.... Ohhhh yes! It is so moist and the warm sauce over the top is ....tantalizing!! Annie sent me home with the leftovers to give to our friends who were coming over. They were a no show and I am ashamed and embarrassed to admit that I ate this slice for breakfast...don't judge me...I know each of you has done this before!! Then...I had another for lunch and knew I had to share this recipe. Thanks Annie for the little bit larger muffin top I have today! Folks, this is a winner...try it!

Eggnog Bundt Cake with Caramel Sauce
Source: my dear friend Annie via The Sisters Cafe

Put in your shopping cart:

1 yellow cake mix (preferably with pudding in the mix)
3 T. flour
2 c. eggnog
¼ c. butter, softened
2 eggs, slightly beaten
¼ tsp. rum extract
1/8 tsp. nutmeg

Beat until smooth and creamy. Pour into greased bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes. Dust lightly with powdered sugar for presentation.

Caramel sauce:
½ lb brown sugar (~1 1/8 c.)
½ lb butter½ lb powdered sugar (~2 cups)
½ T. cinnamon
½ qt. rich vanilla ice cream

Melt together over medium heat. Pour warm over individual servings immediately before serving.