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. 

Wedding Cake Tasting

I love to do tastings with brides. Being part of someone's most special day is one of the best parts of being a baker.

I like to showcase a lot of different options, so the bride has a good idea of what's available to her. Textured buttercream finishes are becoming really popular, so I finished all three with different buttercream looks. The cake on the right is vanilla bean cake with whipped American vanilla bean frosting and a gum paste fantasy peony-type flower. The cake in the center is a chocolate cake with caramel French buttercream in a piped design, with chocolate ganache chevron pattern. The cake on the right is red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting in a rustic texture finish with a modeling chocolate sunflower and leaves. 

The bride and the tasting party loved all the cakes, and ended up choosing all the flavors, one for each tier. 

Neapolitan Cake

Aything is delicious with chocolate ganache glaze! This cake is the classic Neapolitan combination of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. Light and fluffy vanilla bean cake with strawberry French buttercream and a dark chocolate ganache glaze. 

Ganache Glaze

glazes one standard 8 or 9 inch cake

4 ounces dark chocolate chips (recommended: Guittard semisweet)

4 ounces heavy whipping cream

Place the chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Place the cream in a 2-cup glass liquid measuring cup and microwave, watching very carefully, until it just starts to simmer, 30-60 seconds.

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips and let sit for 1 minute. Wisk until completely smooth, then refrigerate for 20 minutes. While the chocolate cools, frost your cake and place into the freezerfor the  last 10 minutes of cooling to chill and harden the frosting.

Set the cake on a turntable. Re-whisk the ganache and pour onto the center of the cake. Rotate the cake around and use an offset spatula to quickly spread the ganache to the edges, so it flows over. Grasp the turntable and gently shake the cake to smooth out the ganache on top.