Wizard of Oz Cake

My mother's birthday is tomorrow, and I promised her a cake. She LOVES The Wizard of Oz, so I decided to go with that. Back to working with fondant and modeling chocolate, I felt much more at home than when I was working with buttercream.

Wizard of Oz Cake



I did not use any new recipes for this cake. I did make a few changes to some of the recipes, but those will be listed below. It is a banana cake with vanilla cream filling, white chocolate fondant, and white modeling chocolate details (shoes and poppies). I put sliced bananas and strawberries between the layers.

I also used luster dust from Wilton to make the shoes and Emerald City sparkle. I think it added a nice touch.



Recipes

Banana Cake
Vanilla Cream Filling - I added 1/2 cup of butter, softened, to thicken the filling.
White Chocolate Fondant - I used imitation banana extract instead of vanilla extract to give it a slight banana taste.
White Modeling Chocolate

Apple Cake: Last Course 1 Wilton Cake

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I did not particularly enjoy my first cake class because my teacher was a bit of a pill. She didn't really follow the rules the way I wanted her to, and I just didn't get along with her overall. Disappointing, but whatever.

I learned that I'm not a huge fan of working with buttercream and that I hate working with someone looking over my shoulder. I also realized that I do not work well when I only have two hours to do something. My final cake looks okay, I suppose...I wouldn't sell it, and I am sure I could do better. It doesn't really matter, though, right? It just got turned into cake bites for Walter's office.



This is the cake in all its amateur goodness. I was the only one who didn't bring pink/red for the roses. I got scolded for this.



Here are some of my better roses. They're still not great, but apparently the teacher was telling me to hold my piping bag incorrectly. Thanks, Teach.



Here is a rosebud. They were easy to make. I guess I made mine wrong, though. I got scolded because apparently you HAVE to have an odd number of buds on the cake. YOU HAVE TO. I don't know. I just added another bud and shut my mouth.



Here is the fluting done on the borders. My border was a little more white than my cake because I iced my cake with cream cheese frosting. I got scolded for that, too.

On another note, did you know that if you bake a cake, you can still eat it if you're diabetic because all of the sugar bakes out of it?! Yeah, neither did I. My teacher is full of knowledge.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT TRUE. PLEASE DO NOT EAT CAKE AS A DIABETIC AND THEN BLAME ME WHEN YOU EXPERIENCE SERIOUS PROBLEMS RELATING TO YOUR DIABETES.

Apple Cake

I made an this Apple Cake recipe from Foodie Two Shoes (I love that blog name, btw). I used the Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting from her blog as well, and it was all to die for. The cake tasted like apple crisp, and the frosting was heavenly. It was fantastic.

Ingredients
-1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-2 teaspoons baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
-2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
-1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (For these two ingredients, I used 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice)
-3/4 teaspoon salt
-2 cups packed light-brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, two coarsely grated and two diced

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 by 13 inch sheet cake pan and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugar, and eggs until well combined. Fold in grated and diced apples. Add flour mixture and mix just until combined.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a pick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool for twenty minutes in pans, then invert onto wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

As I said before, this frosting was heavenly. It was the perfect compliment for this cake.

Ingredients
-2 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
-1 stick unsalted butter, softened
-1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions
1. Combine cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl and beat until smooth.
2. Gradually add powdered sugar until mixture is desired thickness. Stir in vanilla extract.

Bananas Foster Cake Bites

Some friends of ours (the ones who ordered the Half-Life Cake back in June) had a fake Halloween wedding. They wanted lots and lots of cake bites. In fact, they ordered 200: 100 chocolate with chocolate buttercream, 50 red velvet with cream cheese frosting, and 50 bananas foster with almond buttercream. And so, last week I went to work. I was sick the beginning of the week and missed the third Wilton cake class, but I only really missed making the ugly little clowns, so not a big loss. Besides, I am not impressed with the teacher.

Anyway, Katie wanted the cake bites to be pretty, not Halloweeny, so I made them normal looking. Then, I sent the extras to work with Walter, and THOSE were full of Halloween goodness. Pumpkins and eyeballs galore.

By the way, I was a cupcake for Halloween. Walter was Charlie Brown in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" In addition to the ghost costume with extra eye-holes, he had a Charlie Brown shirt on underneath:



Bananas Foster Cake



This cake was sooo good. I found the recipe here at Erin's Food Files. I loved her video on the flambeeing, but I hoped my experience would be more fun.

It wasn't. It was disappointing. Very few flames and no fun. Tasty, though, which I suppose is really what matters...

This was also my first time buying alcohol. I turned 21 last month. I am such a grown up. :P

Ingredients
For the Bananas Foster
-1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
-1/2 cup packed brown sugar
-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
-2 ripe, but still firm bananas quartered (halved crosswise, then lengthwise)
-2 tablespoons dark rum
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Cake:
-2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I did use some whole wheat flour)
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
-1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
-3 eggs
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/2 teaspoon dark rum
-Prepared bananas foster
-3/4 cup sour cream

Directions
For the Bananas Foster:
1. In a saute pan over medium heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cook until butter melts and sugar is dissolved (4 to 5 minutes). Add the banana slices and cook until tender, turning once for 1 to 2 minutes per side.
2. Stir together rum and vanilla. Turn off the burner and add the rum mixture to the pan.
3. Using a long match, light the alcohol by placing the flame just in the outer edge of the pan. Stand as far back as possible. The flame should extingish in a few seconds. There will not be nearly as many flames as you expect. Gently shake the pan from side to side to coat the bananas with the sauce. Spoon the bananas into a bowl and set aside.

For the cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add eggs, vanilla, rum and banana to butter mixture. Mix well.
5. Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream. Blend thoroughly but do not overmix.
6. Pour into prepared pans. Bake 20 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.


Almond Buttercream



This was a very smooth buttercream, and the almond went so well with the bananas foster. I found it here at Bake Space.

Ingredients
-1/2 cup butter, softened
-4 1/2 cups confectioners' Sugar
-3/4 teaspoon Vanilla extract
-1/2 teaspoon Almond extract
-6-7 Tablespoons Milk

Directions
1. Cream butter until fluffy. Add other ingredients gradually, mixing until desired consistency.

Pink Lemonade Cake (Wilton Course 1 Cake 1)

So, I started the Wilton Course 1 classes last week, on my birthday. So far, I am not sure I enjoy it.

My teacher is 73 years old and claims she has been decorating cakes for 50 years. That is great, but she is very sure that everything SHE thinks about cakes is correct. She also thinks she taught us things that she never mentioned. Nobody in the class (there are seven of us) is incredibly pleased with her.

She also believes in changing the rules some. We learned how to make the roses completely on the first night. I came to the first cake class expecting to make a cake with a star tip image on it, like I've seen from others who have taken the classes. Instead, we made a random practice cake using different designs that didn't look cohesive at all. I got scolded for bringing colored icing even though she told us it could be colored the week before. She scolds people if they add flavoring to the icing (I did it anyway. She didn't taste it, so she didn't know). We had a discussion about fondant, and she told me that the only fondant that is worth using is Wilton fondant, and that it tastes best (maybe just because she is doing a Wilton class, she has to promote Wilton products).

Overall, I think I am going to get what I want out of the class. She's a good teacher, albeit a bit too opinionated. But I think that when my cousin and I take Course 2, we are going to see about getting a different teacher.

Here are a couple shots of the cake:


I did pink icing because I was going to make a breast cancer awareness ribbon on my cake, since I assumed she'd follow what most people do in the classes. Note my kind of squiggly shell border.


A close up of my best rose. I am quite pleased with this one. Most of them turn out kind of funny, but this one is kind of pretty. It also has a few leaves from practicing with the leaf tip (which is really easy).


A close up of the circle of practicing the star tip. I really enjoy using the star tip, but she doesn't seem to think it's very important, so we didn't focus on it much.

I made a pink lemonade cake, inspired by the Deen Brother's recipe, but instead of white cake mix, I used this white cake recipe. I added some pink food coloring to get a nice, bright pink color. I didn't use the Deen icing recipe; instead, I used the Wilton Class Recipe with lemon flavoring.

After the class, I tore the cake up and made breast cancer awareness cake bites to send to work with Walter:



Pink Lemonade Cake



Ingredients
-1 recipe Classic White Cake
-3 tabl
espoons pink lemonade drink powder
-1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease three 8-inch round cake pans and set aside.
2. Add pink lemonade powder and lemon zest to dry ingredients in white cake recipe. Make white cake according to recipe.
3. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until pick inserted into center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pans for 15 minutes, then invert onto wire rack until completely cooled.

Fallfetti Cupcakes

Today is National Cake Decorating Day! I didn't know about it earlier, so I decided to whip up some cupcakes to celebrate. Walter and I are going on a double date with a friend and his new girlfriend, and I thought it would be fun to bring my cupcakes with me.

I decided to do Funfetti cupcakes, but I didn't have any rainbow sprinkles. I had many fun fall sprinkles, though, so I used fall colors and call the cupcakes Fallfetti!

Fallfetti Cupcakes



I found this recipe here at Amber's Delectable Delights. She borrowed it from Annie at Annie's Eats. I really like this cake recipe. It was fast and easy and tasted great. Very moist and fluffy.

Ingredients
-1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
-2 teaspoon baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-6 Tablespoon butter, at room temperature
-1 cup sugar
-3 large egg whites
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/4 teaspoon almond extract
-1/2 cup milk
-1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place 12 cupcake liners in cupcake pan and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg whites to the bowl and beat until combined. Add in the vanilla and almond extracts and mix until incorporated.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients in thirds, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix just until incorporated.
5. Fold in the sprinkles with a spatula.
6. Spoon batter into cupcake liners. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a pick inserted into the cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pan for ten minutes. Frost when completely cooled.

Wilton's Buttercream Frosting

I usually use Wilton's recipe for frosting, but when I went to their site today, I found a different version of it that included real butter. I decided to use it instead of the normal one.

Ingredients
-1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
-1/2 cup butter, softened
-1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
-4 cups sifted powdered sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
-2 Tablespoons milk

Directions
1. Cream butter and shortening together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and mix until combined.
2. Gradually add powdered sugar to the butter, mixing until incorporated. Add milk and mix until smooth. If icing is too stiff or too soft, add more powdered sugar or milk respectively until desired consistency.
3. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle with nonpareils or sprinkles.

Fall Pumpkin Cake

My mother's best friend's birthday was on Tuesday, and she jokingly told her to make her a cake. I decided to take her up on the offer after finding some lovely leaf sprinkles at a party store.

I made a pumpkin cake with cinnamon cream cheese filling and white chocolate fondant.

Pumpkin Cake



I found this cake recipe and the cinnamon cream cheese frosting recipe here at The Milkman's Wife's blog. The recipe was originally for cupcakes, but I made it an 8-inch round three layered cake instead. This cake was wonderfully autumnal and moist and tasted like pumpkin pie. I loved it, and so did the birthday girl.



Ingredients
-1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
-1 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar
-1/3 cup granulated sugar
-2 cups cake flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1 teaspoon ground ginger
-1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (I used 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice in the place of these ingredients)
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (I ommitted)
-2 large eggs
-1/2 cup buttermilk mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla
-1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin
-1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips, tossed in 1 tsp. of flour (keeps them from sinking) (I ommitted)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease three 8-inch round cake pans and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
3. Sift together dry ingredients in another bowl. Set aside.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Alternately add the flour and milk mixtures, beginning and ending with the flour. Add pumpkin and beat until smooth.
5. Pour batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until pick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting



This frosting went with the cake wonderfully. It had just enough spice to compliment the cake well.

Ingredients
-2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
-1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
-2 cups powdered sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions
1. Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add sugar and cinnamon and beat until desired consistency.

Stepford Sweets--Black and White Wedding Cake

This was the second cake I did for Stepford Sweets, and I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. It got a little warm on the way and melted a small bit, but it's still pretty nice, and the clients were very pleased with it.



It was white cake with vanilla cream filling and white chocolate fondant. It tasted amazing!

White Chocolate Fondant

This recipe was found here at A Year in the Kitchen. It is a little more difficult to make than marshmallow fondant, but I think it tastes even better, and it was actually more manageable for me. I think it is my preferred fondant recipe.

Ingredients
-1 pound white chocolate
-3/4 cup corn syrup
-4 pounds powdered sugar
-8 Tablespoons hot water
-1 cup glucose
-2 teaspoons vanilla
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-4 Tablespoons shortening

Directions
1. Melt the white chocoalte chips in the microwave or over a double boiler, stir in the corn syrup, set aside until cool.
2. Put powdered sugar in a large bowl and make a well in the middle.
3. Mix water, glucose, vanilla, salt, and shortening together in a saucepan. Heat until shortening is almost melted.
4. Pour into the well of powdered sugar and mix with a flat spatula until incorporated. Add chocolate mixture and mix well.
5. When mixture is too hard to mix with the spatula, take it out and turn on a powder sugar dusted surface. Knead in the remaining powdered sugar.
6. Wrap very tightly in plastic wrap, then place in a ziplock bag. It will get somewhat hard, but kneading it will loosen it up. Use within a month. (Do not refrigerate)

Lemon Dinosaur Cookies

Tomorrow is Walter's birthday. We have guests from out of town staying with us until tomorrow evening, so I did not have time to make the cake I had planned on. However, our guests went into the city for some sight-seeing today, so I whipped up some cookies.

Lemon Dinosaur Cookies



These cookies are Walter's favorites. I used this recipe and substituted lemon extract for the vanilla extract.

Wilton's Fluffy Boiled Icing



It occurred to me while baking the cookies that I had no powdered sugar, so I whipped up this icing instead. It was a little gritty, but for a sugar cookie icing, that is not really an issue. Instead of the 1/2 cup water, I used lemon juice to give it that fantastic lemon flavor.

Ingredients
-3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
-1/2 cup cold water
-2 cups granulated sugar
-1/4 cup light corn syrup
-1/2 cup water (I used lemon juice instead)

Directions
1. Beat meringue powder and 1/2 cup cold water until stiff, about 4 minutes.
2. Mix sugar, corn syrup and water (or lemon juice) in saucepan. Bring to boil and cool slightly.
3. Slowly add corn syrup mixture to meringue, beating until stiff and glossy.

Funfetti Picnic Table Cake

My family has a lot of July birthdays, so we have a joint party every year. I saw a cake similar to this one in Wilton's Celebrate with Fondant book, and I HAD to try it.

Funfetti Cake



For this cake I used this recipe for white cake and made the following changes:

Ommitted almond extract
Added 1 4-ounce box of French vanilla instant pudding
Added 1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles

I used Wilton's Classic Buttercream (also in the link above) for the filling and marshmallow fondant and white modeling chocolate for the details.



Close up of the cake, burgers, hot dogs, and catsup and mustard dispensers. All made from fondant and white modeling chocolate.



Close up of watermelon.



Close up of ants on the picnic table. When I was cutting the cake I thought they were real bugs!

Three Little Pigs Cake

My sister-in-law's baby shower was yesterday. I did a fun Three Little Pigs cake.



Each tier was a different flavor of cake that corresponded with the colors of the tier. The straw tier was a yellow butter cake (recipe below) with Wilton's buttercream with butter flavoring. The stick tier was chocolate cake with chocolate cream filling. The brick tier was strawberry cake with vanilla cream. All of the tiers were covered with marshmallow fondant. For the chocolate tier, I used chocolate marshmallows and a little bit of chocolate syrup instead of regular marshmallows. The three little pigs and big bad wolf were made with white modeling chocolate.

Yellow Butter Cake

This cake was very moist and a fantastic example of what yellow butter cake should be. I found the recipe here at Joy of Baking.

Ingredients
-6 large egg yolks
-1 cup milk
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-3 cups cake flour
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
-3/4 teaspoon salt
-12 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into pieces
I also added 1 4-oz package of instant vanilla pudding.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two nine-inch cake pans and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, combine egg yolks, vanilla, and 1/4 cup milk.
3. In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pudding mix (if using). Mix until well combined. Add butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk and mix until well-combined.
4. Add egg mixture gradually, beating well.
5. Pour batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until a pick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

Strawberry Cake

My sister-in-law's birthday is July 1st, and Walter's is July 31st. Because of this, they usually have a joint party in mid-July to celebrate both.

Strawberry Cake



I found the recipe for this cake here at Country Living. It was well-loved, very moist with a great strawberry flavor. I do wish I had added more food coloring than I did, because it was not as pink as I wanted it to be, but that is purely an aesthetic issue that nobody seemed to mind.

I used marshmallow fondant to cover and decorate. I used the star imprint mat from Wilton to get the star design on the cake--it was really easy to work with, but I do suggest spraying the mat with nonstick cooking spray before you use it. It's a silicone mat and very easy to clean. I liked it a lot.

I used vanilla cream for the filling and placed fresh strawberry slices between the layers. It was a perfect summer cake.

Ingredients
-2 1/2 cups cake flour
-1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
-3/4 teaspoon salt
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-3/4 cup butter, softened
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-1 cup strawberry preserves
-4 eggs
-3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/8 teaspoon red food coloring
-1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9- or 10-inch cake pans and set aside.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda, and set aside.
3. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add strawberry preserves and vanilla and mix well.
4. Add eggs to butter mixture, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Add dry mixture to butter mixture in thirds, alternating buttermilk between additions, beginning and ending with the dry mixture and beating well after each addition. Add food coloring and mix well.
6. Divide batter evenly among cake pans. Bake at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes or until a pick inserted in the cake's center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.

Harley Davidson Cake

I made two cakes today. I think the quality of this one (which I made second) suffered because of it. But it's for my father-in-law, who has never seen one of my decorated cakes, so maybe he won't realize that it's not my best work. ;)

Father-in-law collects Harley Davidson memorabilia, so I decorated the cake accordingly.



I made a chocolate chip cake with a vanilla cream filling. I used marshmallow fondant for all of the details except the writing on the logo, which I did with Wilton's Icing Writers.



Chocolate Chip Cake

This cake tasted like a chocolate chip cookie. It was fabulous and incredibly moist. I did make a few changes, so I will write the recipe as adapted. The original recipe can be found here at Recipezaar.

Ingredients
-2 1/4 cup cake flour
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 1/4 cups sour cream
-3/4 cup margarine or butter, softened
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-3 eggs
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-1 12-ounce package chocolate chips
-2 additional teaspoons flour

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 3 8-inch cake pans and set aside.
2. Combine first nine ingredients in large bowl and mix until smooth and well combined.
3. Combine cinnamon and additional flour in a small bag. Add chocolate chips and shake until they are coated. Fold into batter.
4. Pour batter into pans and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a pick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Vanilla Cream

This tasted just like vanilla ice cream! It was fantastic. This recipe makes about twice as much as was needed for this cake.

Ingredients
-2 cups heavy whipping cream
-2 cups powdered sugar
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions
1. Combine all ingredients and mix until thickened.

Sunflower Cake

Tomorrow is my sister's birthday. Her favorite flower is the sunflower, so I used it for inspiration for her cake.



I am getting very comfortable working with fondant. I really enjoy it.



I didn't use any new recipes for this cake. The recipes I used are listed below.

Recipes Used

Easy Chocolate Party Cake--I added a 4-ounce box of instant chocolate pudding to the batter to make it more moist. It worked!
Chocolate Cream Filling--I also used this for the crumb coat.
Chocolate Fondant
Marshmallow Fondant

Stepford Sweets: Half-Life Groom's Cake

This was the first cake I did for my business, Stepford Sweets. I also included a small batch of chocolate cake bites. The customers loved the look of the cake and the cake bites, as well as the white chocolate details. They did say that the cake was a little dry, which I am taking into account and will remedy in the future. But overall, the bride and groom were both satisfied with the look and taste of the cake, so I definitely consider it a job well done.

Half-Life Groom's Cake



Half-Life is a post-apocalyptic video game. The bride suggested it for the groom's cake because the groom was playing the game in his dorm room the first time they met. Headcrabs are common monsters in the game, and the crowbar is a common weapon used by the main character.



I used this chocolate cake recipe, these recipes for chocolate fondant and chocolate buttercream, this recipe for the modeling chocolate headcrabs and crowbar, and this recipe for the marshmallow fondant (the orange detail on the cake). I used Wilton's Fondant Icing Writers mixed with orange food coloring for the writing on the cake. The filling of the cake was a self-created chocolate cream recipe (see below).

Chocolate Cream Filling

This was delicious and smooth. The recipe makes far more than required for filling the cake, but I definitely didn't complain.

Ingredients
-2 cups heavy whipping cream
-1 bag (about 20 squares) Hershey's Cacao Reserve Milk Chocolate Squares
-1/2 cup Hershey's chocolate syrup

Directions
1. Melt chocolate squares.
2. Combine all three ingredients and whip cream until smooth and fluffy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Graduation Cupcakes

Walter's cousin is graduating from high school on Sunday. Naturally, I had to bake for the party after. So, I made some chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and peanut butter cup graduation caps.

Chocolate Cupcakes



I got this recipe here from Ina Garten at The Food Network. I ended up with 18 cupcakes instead of the 14-15 she said I'd get, but I am not too concerned by it. These cupcakes were pretty delicious. Moist and chocolatey. Walter said you could taste the coffee and wasn't thoroughly impressed with that, but I couldn't taste it at all. Although afterwards, he said that perhaps he was just tasting the peanut butter icing, so I am not sure. Regardless, I rather enjoyed them.

Ingredients
-3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
-2/3 cup granulated sugar
-2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
-2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature (I used 2 large eggs)
-2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
-1 cup buttermilk, shaken, at room temperature
-1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
-2 tablespoons brewed coffee
-1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
-1 cup good cocoa powder
-1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (I used table salt)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners and set aside.
2. Cream the butter and 2 sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg. Add the vanilla and mix well.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
5. Add the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the butter mixture, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture and mixing well after each addition. Fold the batter with a rubber spatula to be sure it's completely blended.
6. Divide the batter among the cupcake pans (1 rounded standard ice cream scoop per cup is the right amount). Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting

This also came from Ina Garten (same link as above). I was worried it would be too sweet, but it was very good and complimented the cupcakes well.

Ingredients
-1 cup powdered sugar
-1 cup creamy peanut butter
-5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
-3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
-1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (I used table salt)
-1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions
1. Combine first five ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and mix until smooth. Add cream and mix on high speed until combined and smooth. Spread over cupcakes.

Peanut Butter Cup Graduation Caps

This idea originally came from Bakerella, but I found it here at A Year in the Kitchen. I thought it was an adorable idea, so I had to do it!

Ingredients
-Reese's mini Peanut Butter Cups (the same number as you have cupcakes)
-An equal amount of chocolate squares (I used Hershey's Cacao Reserve milk chocolate squares)
-Fruit-by-the-Foot candies (Bakerella used Airheads Sours. I was going to use those, but I ate them all before I got to it and then couldn't find more. Ashlee used Twizzlers Pull N Peels. Basically, anything you think will work is great. Be creative!)
-Colored icing (I used Wilton's Icing Writers in blue for this. Ashlee used
-Peanut butter

Directions
1. Unwrap peanut butter cups and chocolate squares. Place a small dab of peanut butter on the underside of the chocolate square and attach it to the small end of the peanut butter cup (so that the cup is resting upside-down).
2. Cut a small strip from the Fruit-by-the-Foot and attach it to the top of the cap with some of the colored icing. Place a small dab of the icing in the center of the square to make it look like a cap top.
3. Place graduation craps on cupcakes and serve.

Winnie the Pooh Cake

I am so glad the shower is over. It took me a week to complete this cake, and then it melted on the way to my mother's house. It looked perfect and fantastic when I left the house, but in 80 degree Missouri weather with no air conditioning, it was droopy by the time I got there, and the fondant was tearing a bit on the top tier, causing the strawberry cream to leak out...everyone said it looked good and that it tasted fantastic, so I guess I am being too hard on myself. But I was nearly in tears at the fact that it melted so much, and I am almost embarrassed to post it on here given how horrible I think it turned out. Regardless, I have a number of pictures of it and its details. I will go ahead and post the pictures first, and then I will post the recipes for the fondant and strawberry cream.

EDIT: I am much more impressed with myself and this cake than I was last night. I have decided that if everyone else in the world thinks it turned out okay, I must be the one in the wrong. :) Thank you so much to everyone for your support.

Winnie the Pooh Cake

This cake was a white cake that was filled and frosted with a strawberry whipped cream and covered in marshmallow fondant. The cake and modeling chocolate recipes I used can be found here. All of the detailing (except the clouds, which were fondant) was done in white chocolate. I used food coloring to color the layers of the cake different colors:



Front of the cake:



Side of the cake:



Back of the cake. Pooh is caught in Rabbit's door...I foolishly put him on the cake before I left home, so he sagged quite a bit:




Winnie the Pooh:



The door to Pooh's house:



Winnie the Pooh, stuck in Rabbit's door. As you can see, he melted and got somewhat squished on the ride there:



Rabbit:



My sister:



The sign for Rabbit's House:



Tigger:



Eeyore:



Close up of Eeyore's tail:



Piglet:



Strawberry Cream Filling

This recipe is an adaptation of the Cookies and Cream Filling I used here, which I found at Annie's Eats.

Ingredients
-1 1/4 cup heavy cream
-2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
-1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
-1 cup strawberry puree

Directions
1. Combine the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Mix until all sugar is incorporated. Whisk until stiff peaks form. Mix in strawberry puree until well combined.

Marshmallow Fondant

This is a delicious and easy recipe that I found here at Skinny Food by Amy. I think I will be using it for all fondant cakes from now on.

Ingredients
-1 cup mini marshmallows
-1 Tablespoon water I replaced 1/8 teaspoon water with 1/8 teaspoon strawberry oil in one batch of fondant--I made about 6 batches)
-1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar

Directions
1. Place marshmallows in microwave safe bowl and add water and candy oil (if using). Microwave for about 20 seconds, just long enough for marshmallows to puff up.
2. Stir marshmallows until liquified and soupy. Add powdered sugar and mix until well-incorporated and no longer sticky.