Thank Goodness for Friends

Ever watch the T. V. game show where you have the opportunity to call a friend if you are stumped on the answer for a question? I often wondered who I might call, and of course each time it depends on the question.
Often I will have a customer who will have a variety of occasions to ask me to make a cake. On this occasion it has become one of my favorite clients because she gives me a topic and lets me go to town creatively. Recently she asked me to make not one, but two cakes for her daughters birthday. Her daughter just turned three (and is absolutely adorable if you don't mind me saying so) and was in need of a cake for her pre-school celebration and her family celebration. Both cakes were to be the same character but different if possible. Both the cakes were to be ready for pick up on the same day. Of course when asked if I could make a cake with her favorite cartoon character Kai-Lani I said, "yes, of course." Confession time. Sometimes I say yes, before I realize what is needed.
Needless to say I do not spend a lot of time watching cartoons since my parents informed me in fourth grade that I was too old for them and there for not allowed to watch them anymore. I thought how hard can this be? I googled the character's name and voila, nothing. Slightly panicked (and of course I was doing this the night before the pick up so there was no way to call anyone to double check) I sent a text message to a dear friend of mine who is a cartoon guru and who happens to have a magnificent seven year old daughter who would know if mom did not. After explaining my situation the magic response came to look for ni hao kai-lan, the name of the show. Sure enough that did the trick and a boat load of images came up. Needless to say I saved the image and used my edible image paper and printer to create two very different cakes. On one of them I even found out how to write happy birthday in Chinese to add to the oriental flair of the cake.
When mom picked them up the next day she seemed please with the final product and her daughter could not wait to see the birthday cakes and dig in.

Happy Valentine's Day One and All

A friend of mine asked me if I had a bunch of cakes for Valentine's Day and I honestly replied no. As a matter of fact this cake was for a week after the big event. Honestly I believe most people associate Valentines day with flowers, chocolates, bouquets (rather it be flowers or fruit) rather than cakes, but I wouldn't mind working on adapting that vision.
I have a fairly new customer who asked me to make a cake for her church Valentine's day celebration. It was a cake that needed to feed 50. She requested heart shaped and said, "this needs to feed 50 Robeson County folks not 50 by way of the cake measuring standards." Completely understood. Other than the cake saying Happy Valentine's the design was mine to create.
When making a cake for a bunch of people I always suggest a butter cake, that way those with chocolate issues are not left out. I made two, two-inch tall layers, 16 inch heart shaped cakes. this should be enough for 90 people. After adding icing the cake was probably 5 to 6 inches tall. I added a scroll design similar to the birthday cake I made for Ally. However I made the scroll design in white, just like the background of the cake with the writing in a center heart. So the design was slightly understated.
I understand the cake was devoured and there was just the right amount for everyone. Maybe I should start a Valentine's Day cake offering for those who want to get something a little different for the romantic holiday.

Rocking this Candy

I have always wanted to make candy, specifically rock candy. I have tried off and on through the years and have never been successful at this venture. Thanks to my new found favorite website, Pinterest, I discovered directions that seemed a little too good to be true to make rock candy in a week. I must say the week part was a little too good to be true, but the rest worked like a charm.

Before you start take bamboo skewers and get them wet. Role them in sugar and let the sugar dry on the stick (this will be the starter for your rock candy). As those dry its time to move to the stove top and a heavy duty saucepan. Essentially the plan is to start with equal parts of water and sugar, I think I did three cups of each. You heat the water on the stove top and start stirring. When the sugar dissolves you continue to add more to have a ratio of at least 2 to 1, or 3 to 1, sugar to water. I had 8 cups of sugar to three cups of water by the time I got done.

I let it cool for a few minutes and poured the mixture into glasses. I used icing gels to color each glass (you can also add flavorings at this time). I took a bamboo skewer and placed one in each glass without letting it touch the sides or bottom. I used a clothes pin across the top of the glass to balance the skewer. If the stick touches the bottom or sides this will not work correctly. I placed the glasses in a window sill and waited.

I have to say anytime you are making hard candy the weather and location (temperature and humidity) can make a difference in what you are doing. This took me about three weeks rather than one, although I did see growth after one week, I wanted more and was willing to be patient. There was build up on the bottom and side of the glass when I got done. A little hot water and it dissolved very easily. This would be a great thing to make with kids, and helps teaches patience. It would also make a great science project to show crystallization. Just a thought for educational reasons on making this sweet treat.

Choo Choo Birthday!

I have often talked about my day job and the wonderful people I work with in and out of the office. Many of them have asked me to make cakes for some of their most important milestones. This cake is no different. One of my co-workers, let's call her Michelle, asked me to make a cake for her son's second birthday. One of his favorite things? Choo Choo trains. So what could be more perfect than a Thomas the Tank Engine?
I started with my traditional butter cake and went from there. The cake was done in traditional colors. When decorating a popular character for a two year old I have found it best to stay with what the child will recognize. When I was done I made the number on the tank a two in honor of his second birthday, then added a Happy Birthday and his name to the board to make sure the world could know whose birthday we are celebrating.
Apparently the cake was such a hit that when mom went to cut the cake the birthday boy was crying that they were tearing up his cake. I later got a photo of what was left. This is one of my favorite photos because it says that they enjoyed this birthday treat.

All About Chocolate

Opps I did it again. No I have not lost my mind or been listening to Brittany Spears. What I did was overindulge with a chocolate basket. Can you even imagine? I started with the idea of creating a hot chocolate basket for the North Carolina State 4-H Volunteer Leaders Conference and what I ended up with was nine pounds of incredible chocolate bliss.

Seriously the plan was to get two mugs, a half dozen different types of hot chocolate and maybe some hot chocolate reciepes and leave it at that. Ok, so you know me better than that by now and I must admit when I got creative with it I just couldn't stop. In my last post I told you about my new favorite web site, Pinterest. One of the things I saw on there was jet puffed marshmellows dipped in carmel and chocolate that are used as hot chocolate stirrers. I was not sure how well carmerl would travel in basket so I adapted. The marshellows were dipped in melted choclate and rolled in choclate chips. I also made chocolate spoons. Two were plain chocolate, two were in white choclate with pepermint and then two were in chcolated with chocolate chips. Of course I did not stop there.

I went a little crazy buying at least six different types of chocolate to fill the basket with. There was carmel chocolate, dark choclate, chocolate covered almond kisses and the list goes on and on. Getting it to the auction was another story. My wonderful puppy offered up photos of some of the goodies on his facebook page. Bless his heart it got more responses than most of his posts, and by the time the basket got to Raliegh, 4-H Agents were plotting to appropriate different parts of the basket. However, once I convinced them that they know the person who got chocolate happy and would be more than happy to get choclate happy or spasdic for them. So with the basket safe for the auction all we could do was wait. Around 9:30 pm it was time for the chocolate basket to be auctioned. The crowd was on the light side at the auction. So when the bidding started off at $5 I wasn't shocked. Dollar by dollar the bidding started up and at $20 someone was going home with a basket, literally on a chocolate high.

A New Twist on the Fairy Tale

"Can you make a tangled cake?" Of course the first thing that runs through my head is a Johnson and Johnson shampoo commercial about less tangles and no more tears. Then a flash of inspiration hits me as the person placing the order, let's call her Penny, is talking about her niece's birthday party and how she loves the Disney movie Tangled. Of course being a fairly new movie I do not have a cake pan for that, but I do have an edible printer.

The cake needed to feed about 25 people so I made a simple rectangular sheet cake with the Tangled main character on it. Apparently the birthday girl is partial to purples and pinks which is good since that was fairly easy to incorporate with this design. I also added some flowers to add to the embellishments on the printed edible design.

Overall the birthday girl seemed as happy with her cake as she was with her tremendous birthday party with her siblings, cousins, and friends who came.

Cake a la Crockpot

I have discovered the most wonderful website, Pinterest. It was described to me by a coworker as the female version of fantasy football. It is absolutely fantastic. Basically it allows you to create virtual bulletin boards and link things from all over the Internet (or things you create) to your boards. You also link with friends and you can see what they pin to their boards and repin it to your own and visa versa. It did not take me long to have well over 1,000 pins and lots of neat ideas I wanted to try. That's where this next cake came from.
I saw this recipe and though there is no way it will work, it was for a crockpot cake, specifically a Rocky Road Cake. It involves a box mix, pudding mixes of different flavors, vanilla, milk and other such stuff that I like alone so it should be good together right? I followed the directions which can be found on my Pinterest food bulletin board, which links you to this blog, and plugged that crockpot in. I must admit as I watched this cook, I got a bit panicked. The lid started rising up and I was sure there was going to be a tremendous mess. Alas no such mess (until I drove it around in my car-not such a good plan by the way, at least not until it is done cooking). I have to admit there were some recipe changes. Not being a nut fan or German chocolate cake fan I adjusted to use a chocolate cake mix and left out the nuts. I had everyone's attention when I added the last two ingredients. Although we were all sure it looked not nearly as good as sheep snot might, my friends, being true friends say serve me up a little piece. A little piece here and there turned into larger helpings and taking some home. I tried a little and must admit it was warm smooshy chocolaty goodness like no other and very easy to make.
It may be ugly but many I suggest indulging, it will be a desert you will never forget.