Wedding Tasting

I did a wedding tasting this weekend, and I am so excited to make the cake that the bride and I designed!

For her tasting, I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with French buttercream: chocolate, raspberry, vanilla bean, and caramel. 

I love meeting with brides and designing their cake. It is so much fun to be a part of someone's most special day!

Happy birthday, Lizzy!

My oldest baby, Lizzy turned 7 last week! She designed her own cake, and I made it for her. The cake inside was her favorite flavor, red velvet with cream cheese frosting. I iced the outside in white chocolate ganache and covered it in Cinderella blue fondant. I hand painted a little Cinderella topper for the cake and used my silver food dye to make a silver 7 topper and some fondant glass slippers. 

Lizzy loved her cake, and I can't believe she is getting so old!

Halloween Cupcakes

I sold cupcakes at a Halloween fair this weekend, in Salt Lake City. Always fun to get to meet new people!

I made 7 varieties of fall-themed cupcakes. First, I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with whipped American buttercream, colored orange for fall, with fun Halloween sprinkles. Next, I did chocolate orange cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, topped with homemade candied orange peel. Then I did chocolate peppermint cupcakes with peppermint frosting and crushed peppermint candies. I also had chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel French buttercream, always popular. Then I made gingerbread cupcakes, filled them with apple pie filling and frosted them with cream cheese frosting. Last, I made cinnamon roll cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting. Those were my most favorite of all. 

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

Makes 12

7 large egg yolks

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups cake flour

3/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, soft

Whisk egg yolks, buttermilk, and vanilla together in a liquid measuring cup. In the bowl of your mixer with the flat beater attachment, add cake flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low 20-30 seconds to combine. Increase speed to medium and drop in butter one tablespoon at a time. Mix until butter pieces are as small as peas. Pour in two-thirds of the liquid mixture and increase speed to medium high. Beat just until it smooths out, 30-60 seconds. Reduce speed to low and add remaining liquid. Mix just until incorporated. Spoon batter into a 12-cup muffin tin lined with paper liners. Let the batter sit in the tin for 20 minutes while the oven preheats. Heat oven to 350. Place cupcakes on the middle rack and bake 15-20 minutes until the tops spring back when touched. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then remove to cool completely.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, soft

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, cold

2 tablespoons 100% pure maple syrup

In the bowl of your mixer with the wire whip attachment, beat cream cheese on medium until smooth. Scrape down the bowl, add powdered sugar, and beat until smooth. Add whipping cream and beat on medium until incorporated, then increase speed to high and whip until soft peak consistency, 2 minutes. Add maple syrup and whip just until combined. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Raspberry Neapolitan Cake

This sweet little cake has alternating layers of chocolate and vanilla cake with raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream. The color of the frosting is entirely from the fresh raspberries, which I puréed and strained to add to the buttercream. 

I added a simple ribbon and some sweet sugar paste blossoms to the top, to keep it fresh and pretty.

Spider Web Cake

I'll be selling cupcakes at a Halloween fair next weekend, and I wanted a cool display cake to show off.

 I made some homemade black fondant and used it to cover two of the styrofoam cake dummies I used at my last fair. Then I made homemade marshmallows, and after they set up overnight, I melted some and then stretched it into long, gooey strands, which I wrapped around the cake. Definitely one of the most fun things I've done with a cake! Then I used extra black fondant to make a big, creepy spider! 

Homemade marshmallow is really fun and easy to make, and they are so delicious, with an amazing creamy texture. You can flavor them with extracts to be any flavor, with vanilla being traditional. They are delicious melted into hot cocoa or on s'mores. You only need to melt a few cubes of homemade marshmallow to make the web effect on the cake, and then you can enjoy the rest of the batch however you want.

Homemade Marshmallows

Makes 80 jumbo size marshmallows

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 cup cold water

2 packets unflavored gelatin (about 2 tablespoons)

2/3 cup light corn syrup

2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or other flavor as desired)

Sift powdered sugar and cornstarch together into a small bowl, set aside. Line a 9 by 13 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Spray a rubber or silicone spatula with cooking spray and set aside. Pour 1/2 cup of water into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the wire whisk attachment, and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Let soften while you prepare the sugar syrup.

In a medium heavy duty saucepan, add the remaining 1/2 cup water, corn syrup, sugar, and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat, swirling the pan so the sugar dissolves. Do not stir. Simmer until the mixture reaches 240 F degrees, 6-8 minutes. 

Turn the mixer onto speed 2 and slowly pour the hot syrup into the gelatin mixture, trying not to get it on the side of the bowl or on the whisk. Once all the syrup is added, carefully increase the speed to high and whip 10-12 minutes, until the outside of the bowl feels lukewarm to the touch. 

Quickly scrape the marshmallow into the greased foil lined pan with the greased spatula, spreading as evenly as possible. Sift two tablespoons of the cornstarch and powdered sugar mixture over the top and let the marshmallow sit 8-12 hours to set up. 

Sift another 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar mixture onto the counter and use the foil to lift the marshmallow out of the pan. Turn it upside down onto the counter and peel off the foil. Sift 2 more tablespoons of powdered sugar over the marshmallow. Spray a very large, sharp knife with cooking spray and cut into 10 by 8 (80) one inch cubes. Toss the cubes in the remaining powdered sugar mixture and shake off the excess. Store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.

Vanilla Petits Fours

It feels so fancy to serve tiny little petits fours! I had found a great new recipe for poured fondant that is easy to use, and delicious, as seen a couple of posts ago, when I made the chocolate version. Today I wanted to try the vanilla version, and it came out great! Click here for the recipe from my other post.

I made a half recipe of my favorite light and fluffy white cake, and spread it into a thin layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. It baked up fast, and cooled fast, as it was so thin, and then I cut it in half, spread one side with luxurious vanilla French buttercream, topped it with the other half and froze the whole thing until it was firm. Then I cut it into little 1 inch by 1 1/4 inch rectangles and covered them with the white chocolate poured fondant. Then I piped a little rosebud and leaf on each one with some extra French buttercream.

They're so moist and creamy inside, and the not-too-sweet French buttercream is the perfect filling to offset the sweet fondant glaze. Now I just need some lace doilies and a china tea set... Pinkies out!

Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies

I got a sugar cookie order this week, and since it's October, I decided to make pumpkin shaped sugar cookies. Then, I thought, of they're going to look like pumpkins, why not make them taste like pumpkin pie? I swapped out part of the white sugar for brown, and added the traditional pumpkin pie spices to the dough. 

As the cookies came out of the oven, I topped each with orange colored modeling chocolate, impressed the lines, and piped on the leaves and vines with royal icing.

These sweet, soft, spicy cookies taste as delicious as they look!

Chocolate Caramel Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cake

I'm very excited about this cake. I took two layers of chocolate cake and put a layer of creamy, rich caramel cheesecake in between them. Then I frosted the whole thing with peanut butter French buttercream, and topped it off with a chocolate ganache glaze and caramel drizzle.

Chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter!

Cheesecake in a Cake

2 9-inch cake layers, in your flavor of choice, baked and cooled

4 cups buttercream frosting, in your flavor of choice

1 crustless 9-inch cheesecake layer, very cold, recipe below

1 pound cream cheese

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest from 1 small lemon, minced

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons heavy cream

2 tablespoons sour cream

INSTRUCTIONS

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line bottom of 9-inch springform pan with foil, tuck foil underneath pan bottom, assemble pan, then pull foil around side of pan, spray with cooking spray. Set pan inside a turkey roasting oven bag, rolling down the top of the bag to be flush with the top of the pan, and set in a 12-inch cake pan. Bring 4 cups of water to boil for water bath.

Meanwhile, beat cream cheese in bowl of electric mixer on medium speed with wire whip attachment until smooth. Gradually add sugar and beat on medium speed until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated and scraping down after each addition. (If you don't scrape down the bowl after each egg, cream cheese that sticks to the bowl will ultimately show up as lumps in the batter.) Add zest, vanilla, cream, and sour cream, beating just until incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Set roasting pan on oven rack and pour enough boiling water to come about halfway up side of springform pan. Bake until perimeter of cake is set, but center jiggles like Jell-O when pan is tapped, 40-45 minutes. Internal temperature should measure 170. Turn off heat and leave oven door ajar, using a long-handled kitchen fork or spoon to hold it open for 1 hour longer. Remove springform pan from water bath and set on wire rack; cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate at least 24 hours. (Can be refrigerated up to 4 days.)

Place one 9-inch cake round on a cardboard round and spread with one cup of buttercream. Remove the chilled cheesecake layer from the fridge, pop off the pan sides and invert the cheesecake onto the frosted cake layer. Remove the bottom of the pan and then carefully peel off the foil. Spread with one cup of buttercream, and add the second 9-inch cake layer. Frost the outside of the cake with the remaining buttercream. Serve immediately. Refrigerate leftovers. 

Chocolate Raspberry Petits Fours

I came upon a new recipe for poured fondant that looked better to me than other recipes I'd tried. It contains melted chocolate (dark or white) and doesn't require a candy thermometer!

I made a half recipe of chocolate cake and spread it to make a thin layer in a half sheet pan. I baked it and let it cool, and then spread half of it with raspberry French buttercream. Then I placed the other half of the cake on top and froze the whole thing, so I could cut it cleanly into small squares.

After cutting one inch squares of cake, I placed them on a cooling rack over a baking sheet and made the poured fondant. I placed the warm fondant into a piping bag with a medium round tip and piped the fondant over each square of cake, so it flowed down the sides, coating each piece. After a few minutes, the fondant set up, and I transferred the little squares of cake to mini muffin liners. Then I topped each with a modeling chocolate blossom.

I was quite pleased with the recipe. While still very sweet, it was not as cloying as traditional poured fondant recipes, and was quite easy to work with.

White Poured Fondant Icing

9 cups Confectioners Sugar (1080g)

1/2 cup Corn Syrup, slightly warmed in the microwave (120ml)

4 oz white chocolate chips (112g)

1 tsp Vanilla or other flavor Extract

1/2 - 1 cup Water, Warm (adjust amount for desired consistency)

Mix Method:

Place the sifted confectioners sugar (and cocoa powder if you are making the chocolate variation) in the bowl of your Kitchen Aid Mixer with the paddle attachment.

Add the warmed corn syrup and the melted chocolate all at once, and continue to mix smooth.

Add the warm water starting with a half cup first, then add more to adjust to your desired consistency.

Add extract of your choice and food color as desired.

To Make CHOCOLATE ICING:

Replace the White Chocolate with Dark Chocoloate chips

Replace 1/2 cup of the Confectioners Sugar with Unsweetened Cocoa Powder. 

Banana Peanut Butter Caramel Cake

I got a cake order this week, and the customer said her son, the birthday boy, doesn't like chocolate, vanilla, or anything traditional, but he loves bananas, peanut butter, caramel...

So, I came up with this cake: soft and fluffy banana cake with peanut butter French buttercream, glazed with caramel, and topped with brûléed banana slices.

Banana cake is really wonderful. Made with bananas and sour cream puréed together, it has the great banana taste, like banana bread, but with the light and fluffy texture of cake. All together, it was a delicious combination, and everyone loved it. Part of the fun of being a baker is the creativity involved in creating cool flavor combinations and beautiful decorations.

Cleaning up the kitchen after making caramel... not so fun.

Birch Bark Autumn Wedding Cake

This week's wedding cake is a delicious vanilla bean cake, hand painted to look like birch tree bark, and decorated with hand sculpted fall sugar paste flowers.

To create the birch bark look, I spattered black food dye onto the cake with a paint brush. Then I used a bench scraper to streak the spots around the cake.

Each tier has three layers of moist, fluffy vanilla bean cake, and is frosted with vanilla bean whipped American buttercream.

Congratulations, Melissa and Shawn!

Butterfinger Cake

It's my father-in-law's birthday this week, so of course, I made him a cake!

For this cake, I made some chocolate French buttercream and folded in crushed up butterfinger candy bars. The frosting is so delicious and rich, so I paired it with light and fluffy vanilla cake layers. Then I added a milk chocolate ganache glaze and more crushed butterfingers on top. 

Monster Truck Cake

I have been having a week of such fun orders! I got to make a birthday cake for a boy turning 10 who loves monster trucks. Specifically, "Mohawk Warrior." 

 this cake was chocolate with chocolate whipped American buttercream. I covered it in black fondant, textured to look like monster truck tire tread. I added a grey modeling chocolate hubcap, which I airbrushed with silver food color. I also added the Mohawk Warrior logo on the front, hand painted on a silver modeling chocolate plaque.  On top, I added some chocolate frosting mud, and then the truck. The truck is sculpted out of rice crispy treats, covered in fondant, and hand painted with gel food colors. The mohawk is made of modeling chocolate.  Happy 10th birthday, Tyler!

Dragon Ball Z

 I got an order this week for a groom's cake, a surprise for her fiancee, and she wanted "Dragon Ball Z," a Japanese anime cartoon. This brought back memories of college, when my roommate's boyfriend was into that show! The client sent me pictures of her fiancee's two favorite characters and the logo to recreate on a sheet cake for him,

I cut out templates in white sugar paste and then used gel food colors to paint the characters and logo on. It was so fun to do! These guys are do awesome!

  The cake is chocolate woth cherry filling and vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. I airbrushed the border of the cake with yellow food dye and pioed borders with yellow and red buttercream mixed together to create a bit of a flame effect.

Too bad my roommate's boyfriend (who is now her husband!) couldn't have had this at their wedding!

The Cake is NOT a lie!

this week is very important: it's my husband's 35th birthday! For months I've known what I was going to make for his birthday cake. 

He loves computer games, and one of the games he plays is Portal, a maze-like game where you have to use a special gun that creates portals to find your way through. A female computer voice guides you, and promises you cake if you succeed. Along the way, you find graffiti left by others reading, "The Cake is a Lie!" 

At the end of the game, you walk into the final room and see the cake at last:

Then the game credits run, and a song plays, sung by the female computer voice. The song mentions the cake several times. I took the song and rewrote the lyrics, brought the cake to my husband's work, 

and sang my version for him. If you are interested, just search for "portal still alive song" to hear rhe original. Trust me - it's hilarious! Here's my version:

This is your birthday.

I'm making a note here: YOU ARE OLD.

It's hard to overlook your graying hair now.

Gerontology.

You do what you must

while you still can.

For the good of all of us

You have to work till you're dead.

But there's no sense crying over every grey streak.

You just keep on eating till you run out of cake.

And the aging gets done.

And you pretend to have fun

Even though you are now 35.

I'm not even angry.

I'm being so sincere right now.

Even though you wouldn't party with me.

And didn't want presents.

Didn't want to go out to eat with me.

But it's your most special day, so I'm so happy for you!

Now these hairs of grey make a beautiful line.

And you need some joint cream

For your knees and your spine.

But although you are old,

You're still sexy and bold,

Even though you are now 35.

Eat cake without me.

Although you'd prefer to eat some pie.

Maybe you'll find someone else to bake one.

Maybe Zack Nilson

THAT WAS A JOKE.

HAHA. FAT CHANCE.

Anyway, this cake is great.

It's so delicious and moist.

Look at me still talking

When there's aging to do.

When I look out there, it makes me GLaD I'm not you.

I've errands to run.

There is baking to be done.

For the people who aren't 35.

And believe me you are 35.

You're getting older but you're 35.

You feel FANTASTIC and you're 35.

You're not dying, you are 35.

You're not dead, you are just 35.

35

Salted caramel Ruffle Cake

One of my best friends had her birthday this week, so i wanted to make her a special cake. The cake is chocolate, with caramel French buttercream, drizzled with more caramel and sprinkled with sea salt. i placed edible silver dragées around the edge, and made a fun, ruffly fantasy flower out of modeling chocolate.

Sugar and Olive Oil Body Scrub

Sugar and olive oil aren't just for cooking! They both have natural properties that make them excellent beauty products. Try this luxurious scrub today!

Sugar and Olive Oil Body Scrub

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Mix together to form a paste. Soak in warm water, then apply using a washcloth, scrubbing gently, especially into rough, dry areas, such as feet, elbows, and knees. Rinse and pat dry.

One of the main benefits of sugar (when used on the skin) is that it contains glycolic acid (Alpha hydroxy acid). Glycolic acid penetrates the skin easily, and is said to reduce wrinkles and remedy hyper-pigmentation (along with many other skin conditions). With its ability to “peel away” dead skin cells, it is a natural exfoliant, revealing the healthy, live cells beneath which gives our skin that vibrancy and glow we all yearn for. The sugar granules themselves are also an exfoliant and are a great way to bind other skin-saving oils (eg. olive oil) to create the ultimate natural skin product. (It’s also handy that sugar acts as a natural preservative, giving our homemade beauty products a longer shelf life.)

With large amounts of vitamin A, D, and, as well as vitamin E (a powerful antioxidant–antioxidants kill free radicals which cause our skin to show the signs of aging), olive oil is another miracle oil of sorts–its uses and benefits are seemingly endless, for both health and beauty.  

Coconut Cake

OK, so I'm on a bit of a "curl" kick this week, but hey, they're so pretty and fun to make!

This is a coconut cake with coconut Swiss meringue buttercream, coated in sweetened shredded coconut and topped with Lindt white chocolate coconut curls. This cake is so light and fluffy, with a delicious coconut flavor throughout, thanks to cream of coconut in both the cake and the buttercream. It's definitely one of my favorite cakes! 

Chocolate Mousse Cake

This amazing cake has a layer of rich, dark flourless chocolate cake, topped with rich and decadent dark chocolate mousse, and then a layer of light and creamy white chocolate mousse. I topped it all off with dark chocolate curls. A nice bonus - this cake is naturally gluten free!

Carrot Cake with Candied Carrot Curls

If you do a search for "carrot cake images," you will get a page full of cakes with piped frosting carrots for the decoration. I wanted to create a more high class decoration. Carrot cake has a somewhat humble reputation, but with the added spices in mine, plus the vanilla bean cream cheese frosting, I've been able to lift it into the category of fancy desserts.

This cake has 3 layers of moist, spicy carrot cake, with tangy, not too sweet vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. On top are the candied carrot curls.

Candied Carrot Curls

1 large carrot, peeled

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

Heat the oven to 225 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. With your vegetable peeler, peel long strips down the carrot. Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a medium, heavy duty saucepan over medium high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the carrot strips and reduce heat to medium. Simmer 15 minutes, then drain the liquid into a heat proof bowl. Allow the liquid to cool before discarding. Let the carrot strips cool 5 minutes in the strainer, then lay them out flat on the parchment lined sheet. Bake 30 minutes. 

Working quickly, spray a large plastic straw with cooking spray and carefully wrap the carrot strips around it, then slide the curls off onto the parchment. The curls will loosen a bit, so wrap them tighter than you want them to end up. If they get too cool and start stiffening up before you can get them all curled, pop them back in the oven 5 minutes. Let the curls cool completely on the baking sheet, 20-30 minutes.

  

Hobbit House Cake

One of my friend's daughter really loves Hobbits and all things geeky (she has a special place in my heart) and for her birthday, her mom sewed her a Hobbit costume and took her to ComiCon to geek out with all the other superfans. So, naturally, I knew she would need a Hobbit cake.

It is four layers of vanilla cake, with whipped American buttercream, piped on with a grass tip. Then I added little modeling chocolate blossoms and a modeling chocolate door. 

Happy birthday, Emma!

Fashion Inspired Sugar Cookies

I had a fun idea for sugar cookies this week, and had to try it out.

I cut 3-inch square sugar cookies, soft, flaky, and thick, with a hint of almond flavor. Then I made my favorite whipped American buttercream and colored it a beautiful shade of blue. I used a rose tip to pipe the rows of ruffles on, with the top two rows facing the opposite direction, and a piped row of beads separating the two directions of ruffles. Then I added simple sugar paste blossoms with yellow nonpareil centers.

I was so happy with how these came out, and they taste just as delicious as they look! 

Superhero Cake

I got to make a really fun superhero cake this weekend for a sweet little boy's 5th birthday.

The cake inside is vanilla, dyed red and blue in four alternating layers, sandwiched with vanilla buttercream, to create a fun red, white, and blue interior.

I used fondant to create the outside decorations. Seeing Joey's excited reaction to his cake was so special to me! I love making people happy with my creations!

Vanilla Raspberry Princess Cake

This cake was for a sweet little girl's first birthday. It is fluffy vanilla cake with raspberry French buttercream, decorated with sugar paste blossoms and a crown.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cake

This cake was made for a friend who just got out of the hospital. She loves white chocolate, so I made her a four layer white chocolate cake, filled with raspberry French buttercream, frosted with white chocolate cream cheese frosting, and topped with a small spray of sugar paste flowers. 

Milk Chocolate Cupcakes

These chocolate cupcakes are topped with an incredibly delicious milk chocolate frosting. It is soft, not suitable for piping borders and swirls, but it is so yummy, it's worth making, and beautifully shiny and luscious looking. It tastes like pure melted milk chocolate, so be sure to choose a very high quality brand that you enjoy the flavor of. I recommend Guittard milk chocolate chips.

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, soft

1 cup powdered sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

pinch salt

3/4 cup corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

8 ounces milk chocolate, (recommended: guittard milk chocolate chips) melted and cooled to less than 100 degrees

Place butter, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in your food processor and process 20 seconds until smooth. Add corn syrup and vanilla and process 20 seconds more. Add cooled melted chocolate and process 10 seconds. Will frost a standard 9-inch layer cake or 24 cupcakes.

Pavlova

My girls' piano teacher needed a birthday dessert for her gluten intolerant daughter, so I suggested a traditional Australian dessert, the Pavlova, named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who toured Australia. 

The dessert consists of discs of baked meringue, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, sandwiched with whipped cream and fresh berries. It dissolves in the mouth like a sweet, creamy sugar cloud with the tart berries as contrast.

Summer Berry Cake

This light, summery cake was for my stepmother's birthday. It had four layers of fluffy white cake, filled with vanilla bean pastry cream and fresh berries. It is frosted with lightly sweetened whipped cream and garnished with more berries.

We had a delicious and rich dinner out at Market Street to celebrate her birthday, so the light, not too sweet cake was the perfect ending. Happy birthday, Debbie!

Craft Lake City

I sold cupcakes and macarons at the Craft Lake City fair this weekend. It was a lot of work, but also really fun! I met a lot of really great people, and sold out both days! On Friday morning, before the fair began, my cupcakes got a little mention on the morning news: http://fox13now.com/2013/08/09/craft-lake-city-preview/

Here was my booth, and my niece, who came along to help. We had to be there to set up on Friday at 1:30, even though the selling didn't start until 5:00 pm! I had all the cupcakes and macarons in boxes, with the frostings in piping bags in a cooler, so we could frost everything fresh and not have melty buttercream!

We kept out 3 of each flavor at a time. Katie frosted and I handled the money. We were both very busy!

I sold 8 different kinds of cupcakes: red velvet, cherry filled chocolate with cream cheese frosting, chocolate peanut butter, oreo, coconut with lime filling, pink vanilla, triple chocolate, and salted caramel.

I had 6 different macarons: lavender milk chocolate, vanilla bean, raspberry, honey lavender, chocolate, and salted caramel.

I baked and sold 20 dozen cupcakes and 14 dozen macarons over the two days.

The vendor in the booth next to me was selling "altered landscapes" - she took landscape paintings from yard sales and thrift stores and painted in sci-fi characters. It was really awesome. She also had little ceramic figurines, like unicorns, which she had "zombified." I let her zombify my wedding cake on Saturday night. It was a big hit with the crowds! You can check her out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/katmartinartist

It was an awesome fair!

Orchid Wedding Cake

I made this cake to display at the upcoming Craft Lake City festival in downtown Salt Lake City. I'll be selling cupcakes and macarons there.

The tiers are made of styrofoam, frosted with buttercream and stacked just like a real cake. I sculpted the orchids out of sugar paste, forming them on florist wire, which I taped with florist tape to create a branch which I attached to the tiers.

I really love the new rustic textured buttercream trend going on right now. 

Red Velvet Cake

A good friend of mine's husband had some health problems requiring hospitalization and surgery this week, so I made a dinner and cake for her family.

This cake was red velvet with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting and modeling chocolate dogwood flowers. 

Red velvet cake is a tangy buttermilk cake with a hint of cocoa. The red color comes from a combination of the cocoa powder and red food dye.