Sugar Orchid

I love making sugar paste flowers.  It's a time consuming process, as each petal is hand sculpted and then dried for 24 hours before the flower can be put together.  Then I "paint" color on with brushes and edible color dust.  The result is always so beautiful and satisfying!

Here is my latest sugar flower: a beautiful orchid.  I love how it turned out!

Birthday Butterflies

A good friend of mine's middle daughter turned 10 this week, and I helped her make some pretty chocolate butterfly toppers for the party cupcakes.

My friend made the cupcakes, mini cake, and frosting, and frosted them herself.  I just made the butterflies out of dark chocolate and colored white chocolate.  They came out so cute!  Her daughter and all the kids at the party loved them!

Neapolitan Macarons

This was my sweet oldest daughter, Lizzy's last week of Kindergarten, and so I wanted to make one last treat for her awesome teacher, who is retiring now.

I love making macarons, and they are so unique, and hard to find in Utah, so I knew they'd be a special treat.  I made vanilla bean shells, and then filled them with vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream, raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream, and whipped chocolate ganache.

I can't believe my oldest is a first grader now!  My middle daughter will be starting Kindergarten this fall, too... so I'll only have one at home!

Congratulations, Amy!

A very good friend of mine just had her first baby!  A sweet baby boy, who they named Owen.

I had to go see the precious new baby, so I made a cake for the happy family.  

Amy loves birds, and has her house decorated with them, so I made some simple birds and blossoms out of modeling chocolate to put on the cake.  The cake had five layers of alternating chocolate and vanilla cake, filled and frosted with caramel Swiss meringue buttercream.  The branches and bead border were piped in whipped chocolate ganache.

Welcome to the world, sweet Owen!

Macarons!

I got to do an order of macarons this week:

One box of 24 chocolate macaron shells with chocolate ganache filling, and one box of 24 vanilla bean macaron shells with vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream.

These were for a girl who is gluten intolerant. Macarons are naturally gluten free, as they are made with almond flour instead of wheat flour.  So delicious too!

Raspberry Macaron Cake

I read a post on a baker's blog from New York City that you can use pulverized freeze dried fruit in macaron shells to flavor them.  Macaron shells are very finicky to bake, and no liquid can be added to the dough, or it will not turn out.  I knew that you could add a small amount of cocoa powder to the shells, to make chocolate, so naturally, powdered freeze dried fruit should work similarly.

So, I got myself some freeze dried raspberries and pulverized them into powder in my food processor, adding it into the shell batter.  I then filled the cookies with raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream (made with seeded fresh raspberry puree) and set them atop a 6-inch, 4-layer chocolate cake, frosted in more of the raspberry buttercream.  They were so delicious!

Spiced Carrot Cake

My sister, Angela's boyfriend had a birthday this week, and she asked me to make him a cake.  He requested carrot cake.

I made him an 8-inch, 3-layer spiced carrot cake with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting, decorated with hand sculpted modeling chocolate blossoms and leaves.

The cake is so moist and tender, with a full pound of shredded carrots, and lots of spices - including a hint of black pepper!

Vanilla Bean Cake

Six months ago I had a tracheal resection surgery, to remove a growth in my trachea.  It was a difficult surgery with a hard recovery, and so I've had to go in for follow up visits to monitor the healing.  Wednesday was my 6-month post-op check-up, and I could tell from how I've been feeling that I have healed very well. The doctor confirmed it with a scope down my throat, showing 100% healing.  He said I don't have to come back again!  I brought with me a cake to thank the surgeon for his excellent work.

This was a 6-inch, 3-layer vanilla bean cake with vanilla bean whipped American buttercream, topped with hand sculpted sugar paste flowers.

I really am lucky to have a surgeon close by who can do the surgery I had to have.  Most people who get this have to fly out of state to have it done!  I was also greatly blessed by my family and friends who gave me so much care and support during my recovery!  I wish I could bake cakes for everyone!

Mini Fruit Tarts

My dad and step-mom came up for a dinner with us, and I wanted to make my step-mom something for mother's day.  She loves fruit tarts, so I decided on that.  I recently got some incredibly cute mini tart pans, and have been waiting for an excuse to use them!

If you could eat summer, the flavor would be fruit tarts.  Crisp, sweet, buttery shortbread crust, filled with decadently cool and creamy vanilla bean French pastry cream, topped with fresh, sweet, tart berries.  These are definitely up there at the top of favorite all-time desserts for me!

The filling is one of the most versitile things to know how to make. It is delicious injected into cupcakes, layered with cubes of cake and fruit for a trifle, or piped into eclair shells! It is a wonderful way to showcase the delicate flavor of a real vanilla bean, if you have never tried using one before!

1 vanilla bean

2 cups half and half (not ultra-pasteurized)

6 tablespoons sugar, divided

pinch salt

2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

4 egg yolks

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Cut the vanilla bean on half lengthwise with a sharp paring knife. Use the blade to scrape out the seeds from inside. Add the seeds, half and half, salt, and 5 tablespoons of the sugar to a medium saucepan and turn the heat to medium. Stir frequently to dissolve the sugar. While the half and half mixture heats, whisk the egg yolks, remaining tablespoon of sugar, and cornstarch in a medium bowl until combined. As soon as the half and half begins to simmer around the edges of the pan, use a measuring cup to slowly drizzle 1/2 cup of the hot half and half into the egg yolk mixture, while whisking constantly. Then drizzle the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan while whisking constantly. The mixture will thicken quickly. Continue to whisk for 30 more seconds, then remove from the heat and whisk in the butter until melted. Pour the pastry cream through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pastry cream and chill 4 hours. 

Music Appreciation

Since it was teacher appreciation week last week, I wanted to make a cake for my girls' piano teacher.  She has done a great job with them, teaching them Suzuki piano method since they were 3.

I made her a 6-inch lemon cake with raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream.  To decorate it, I molded a "paper" scroll out of modeling chocolate, and then painted on the music with black food dye.

The music is the first measure of "Lightly Row" - the first real two-handed song that you play in the Suzuki piano method.

Whooo Loves Owls?

It was teacher appreciation week this week, and my oldest daughter told me she wanted to make her kindergarten teacher a cake.  She said it had to be an owl cake, because her teacher loves owls and collects owl things.

So we made her a 6-inch 6-layer chocolate cake with homemade marshmallow filling between layers, frosted with chocolate ganache, and covered in homemade vanilla fondant, with modeling chocolate decorations.

The cake was a big success, and Mrs. Jordan loved it!  The side of the cake says, "Whooo Loves Mrs. Jordan?" Lizzy really wanted to pipe "Lizzy" after those words, but I didn't have the cake finished in time for her to do that before she had to leave for school, so I brought the piping bag with me when I picked her up, and let her pipe her name on it in the hall right before we gave it to Mrs. Jordan.

Mom's Anniversary

It's my mom's and her husband's first anniversary!  For a present, I decided to recreate the top tier of their wedding cake for them.

Their wedding colors were black, white, and red. Their cake had three tiers with a bouquet of fresh, real roses and baby's breath on top, and black stenciled accents on the side.

I decided to create a topper of hand sculpted sugar paste roses and baby's breath that they would be able to have for a keepsake.

Each rose takes more than half an hour to sculpt!  In my decorating classes, I learned the "Wilton Method" of creating sugar paste roses, and they are beautiful, but I saw roses online from a baker in England who made really gorgeous roses, and I wanted mine to look like that, so after some experimentation, I figured out how to do it!  I was really pleased with the result.

Mother's Day Cake

We took my mother-in-law out for a Mother's Day dinner early, and I made her a fun cake to celebrate.

Chocolate cake with chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream is her favorite kind of cake, so that's what I made her.  I did add vanilla bean pastry cream between cake layers, just for a cool, creamy accent flavor.  Then I made a fun modeling chocolate accent flower to stick on the side.  I used some glaze to shine it up.  I love the drama of a single large, whimsical blossom on a cake.

Blossom Cupcakes

I got a fun new blossom moulder this week, and had fun creating these chocolate mini cakes with blood orange Swiss meringue buttercream, topped with modeling chocolate blossoms.

I love the ruffly detail in these! I accented the centers with a sugar pearl.