Playing Catch Up - Project Snapshots

Often when I am working on a project, I will take plenty of pictures, compose a post, and diligently sit down to write it up within a reasonable amount of time.
Then there are all those other little things that I make in between. All the cakes, cupcakes, treats, snacks, or what-have-you that I don't take a bunch of pictures of, don't really have the time to write about on a Tuesday afternoon, or some that were even made pre-blog.

I don't think those projects deserve to get ignored or left all alone in the iPhoto archives, never to be drooled over, so here are some of my recent (or maybe not super recent) favorites. A series of mini-posts, if you will.

Colorful Bridal Shower "Margarita" Cake

This cake was for my best friend's bridal shower in 2010. They honeymooned in Mexico, so in anticipation of that, the shower was kinda Mexico themed. In a colorful, sangria, margarita, summery kind of way. The cake was white chocolate cake with raspberry filling for one tier, and coconut cake with lime curd filling for the other. I covered the layers with colorful fondant, cut little fondant limes slices, and garnished the whole thing with some glitter. Because glitter. You all know by now that if glitter is an option, then yes, glitter it will be.

50th Birthday Cupcakes

These were birthday cupcakes for my Mom's friend. Dark chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting. Sooooo-oooo-oooo good. The "50" toppers are hand-piped chocolate.

Golf Cupcakes

A going-away gift for a golf lover. These were very fun to make. Chocolate cupcakes (everyone likes chocolate cake), vanilla buttercream tinted green and piped with a grass tip, gumpaste golf balls, and little flags made from toothpicks and scrapbooking paper.

Football Cake Balls

This year my friends threw a Superbowl party. Naturally, I made something. Cake balls. Because cake balls are appropriate for literally every kind of event you could think of. I challenge you to think of something that you wouldn't bring cake balls to or eat cake balls at. (How many times can you say cake balls in a row without it being weird?)
These ones were chocolate shaped like footballs, covered with dark chocolate, and piped with little white laces.

Birthday Cake Balls

More cake balls! These ones were special for me, because they marked the first time that I shipped treats across the country...and they survived! A woman commissioned them for her brother's birthday. The recipient said they were still delicious and intact by the time they arrived in Wisconsin.
His sister said that his favorite color is blue, so I did some blue stripes, some with chocolate jimmies, and some with chopped pecans. A dozen of the cake balls were chocolate, and a dozen were red velvet. All were covered in a dark chocolate coating.

Puppy Birthday Cake

This cake was tons of fun. It was a commission from one of my students. Her mom asked if I could/would make her cake, and when I said that I would be delighted to, her daughter drew me a design. The design included yellow, red, turquoise, purple, a puppy, and writing. Kids should design all cakes; they have the best sense of fun. Anyhow, this is how it turned out.
The sheet cake part is lemon with lemon curd filling and vanilla buttercream, and the puppy face on top is chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream.
She loved it. And so did I. From now on, if it is possible for a kid to design a birthday cake, go with it.

Braunnika Wedding Cakes

A year ago yesterday, a dear friend got married. I was quite honored when she asked me if I would make her wedding cake. In honor of her and her husband's anniversary, I would like to share it with you...

The top tier was chocolate (the Chocolate-Coffee-Whiskey Cake) and the others were lemon cake with raspberry filling. Annika (the bride) specifically requested square tiers, and peach and white flowers to match the wedding decor. Roses seemed perfect. We pinged a couple ideas back and forth, and settled on some floating tiers with roses in between. Very romantic. Each tier was frosted in buttercream (vanilla for the lemon/raspberry tiers and chocolate for the chocolate tier), and then covered in white homemade marshmallow fondant. A silver fondant ribbon (cut with this nifty little guy) was added to the bottom of each tier (actually it was white until I painted it with metallic silver luster dust mixed with lemon extract (you could use vodka, but anything with a very high alcohol content will work)). The whole thing was then brushed with dry pearlized white luster dust to give it a fancy sheen. Purdy. The tiers were stacked on top of these "hidden pillars" to make them float a couple inches apart (I had to trim a couple to make them the right height for the cake tiers plus the roses...fun fact - these little guys are quite sturdy. Some knives are just not cut out (pun intended) for trimming this kind of plastic).
Once the tiers were stacked, the fresh roses (which, thank goodness, were still fresh and gorgeous by then) were trimmed and added to the cake. The stems were trimmed to a couple inches below the flower and then inserted in between the cake tiers. Another fun fact - adrenaline helps get this done really fast, especially when you start hearing the music from the wedding starting, and you are still doing it. And you're not dressed for the wedding. Time management is not one of my strongest attributes.

The cake was topped off with a pretty silver monogram of the couple's name.

This is what it looks like in between the tiers when you take it apart to cut it...

A fun addition to this project was the surprise Groom's cake that accompanied the traditional tiered white Bride's cake. Strawberries were something the bride definitely wanted incorporated into the dessert scene somehow. Chocolate covered strawberries immediately came to mind (to be honest, they never really leave my mind...), but I didn't like the idea of having a little plate of chocolate covered strawberries (can I call them CCSs? No, that's totally lame) just sitting there all lonely-like. Sooooo, put them on a cake. Obvi. Thus this surprise groom's cake was born. Chocolate (duh), with a few CCSs as a rather elaborate garnish (don't judge me, it makes sense). This cake was also the Chocolate-Coffee-Whiskey Cake.

Some face time for the CCSs...

Oh, here's a fun picture. I had access to the church kitchen to finish off the cakes on the wedding day. It was great. I mean, it wasn't Kitchen Stadium, but I was psyched to have access to mondo counter space and a couple industrial ovens (that did a top-knotch job of baking that last tier for me). It kind of made me yearn a little more for an industrial kitchen of my own.

There was more counter space behind the ovens, to the right of the edge of the picture, and about 30 feet of counter space behind where the photographer was standing (my Mom!).

Happy Anniversary to the Brauns! All my love to a beautiful family!