Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss article from USAToday.com

Thought this was a really interesting article in USA Today about the Show, Cake Boss on TLC. Buddy Valestro is the "boss" and they air on Monday evenings at 10pm on TLC (in my area). On the side (to the left) is a smaller article about Charm City Cakes.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2009-07-28-cake-boss_N.htm

Amazing what they are able to charge for these works of art! You'll notice the minimum charge for Duff's cakes is $1000.00 and the minimum for a cake from Carlo's Bakery is $11 - $15 PER SERVING!!!! WOWZA! Imagine... you want a cake to feed 25 people for a Birthday Party. You order it from Carlo's Bakery in NJ. You are charged at least $275.00!!! If you get a cake that looks like the cakes I do with the detail, you are looking at $375.00. Wrap your head around that one for a minute!! HOLY COW!

So... when the bakery tells you a cake to feed 50 people is going to run you in the vicinity of two hundred with the detail you want, you can do a happy dance at the huge bargain you are getting! And make sure you laugh at those people that ordered a similar cake and paid 5-6 times as much! And you had no idea you were a bargain shopper! ha ha

Chocolate Cake and Fresh Strawberries!!!

The first and third Sunday's of the month we have home fellowship with a group from our church. We meet at the home of one of our Asst. Pastors. We get started by eating an enormous amount of food and visiting with each other, then the kids go to the family room and play while the adults spend some time in worship, study, and prayer. After that, we get back to the kitchen for DESSERT!!! It's a really good time and we've had the opportunity to get to know people from our church that we wouldn't ordinarily have had the chance to build any type of relationship.

All that to say that the food comes from everyone in the group. We all volunteer to bring something or other. For tonight, I decided to make a chocolate cake, with a creamy cheesecake filling, and a whipped vanilla topping. Then to make the whole thing pretty and extra tasty, it is covered in sliced fresh strawberries and drizzled with dark chocolate.

Can we have dessert first??? PLEASE!!!

Steps to a finished cake...

Have you ever considered how much work goes into a custom cake? Not the kind of cake you get at a grocery store, but an honest to goodness custom cake where the recipient is considered in every step. Their likes, personality, and style?

So my niece is turning 2. Her party is scheduled for April 4th, and she LOVES LOVES LOVES Mickey Mouse. She's a girl and girls need a little pink, so I'm doing Mickey and Minnie to make the cake more feminine.

Tonight I started prepping for this cake. It took me 2 hours for these two heads. Crazy huh! But detail is important and I've never sculpted Mickey or Minnie before. I had a print out of about 9 different photos of the two of them at different angles so I could try and get it right.

The step by step on this one should be fun. It will take a little time though so keep checking back on the progress.

Here's what I have so far.

Banana Cream Cake Popcorn Cups

Aren't they cute!!! These are Banana Cupcakes, topped with sliced bananas, banana filling, and topped with a whipped banana topping. Then to make them look like they are my Dad's favorite food, they are placed in molded red chocolate cups with white stripes and topped with shaped and painted marshmallows to look like Pop Corn.

Think of the inside as more like a trifle. It's my creative way of decorating a "cake" and still offering my Dad Banana Cream Pie for his Birthday.

Want to know how to bake a moist delicious cake without baking from scratch???

I'll bet you do!!! And I'll be happy to share how easy it really is!


To doctor a cake mix so that you can create your own moist, melt in your mouth, delicious confection, all you need is...

1 cake mix (flavor of your choice)
1 package of pudding (If using chocolate cake, use chocolate. If using yellow cake, use vanilla)
1 cup of sour cream
3/4 - 1 cup of water (See how much your original recipe calls for and then drop it by 1/3 - 1/4 of a cup)
1/2 cup of oil
4 eggs

Mix according to the directions on the box and bake according to the box. Remember... if you have a little (just a little) cake sticking to your toothpick when you test to see if it is done, that is OKAY!!! Your cake will continue to cook after you take it out of the oven.

Is it worth the extra's? ABSOLUTLEY!!! I promise, you'll get compliments on that cake!

Banana Cream Cupcakes

My Dad's Birthday is March 9th. He loves banana cream pie but that's not really something I can decorate so I'm creating a banana cream cake for him. I wanted to come up with a really moist, melt in your mouth, banana cake recipe that I can use for his Birthday. So today is my day to test this recipe.
I tweaked my usual vanilla cake to come up with this moist and banalicious cupcake! It's topped with a very light whipped icing.


As usual, my husband is my taste tester. Thanks Matt!!! We've got a winner!

Chantilly Lace

My friend Kristin celebrated her Birthday yesterday. We don't exchange gifts and I didn't see her but I felt this desperate urge to make her a cake anyway. So it will be a day late but it is the thought that counts.

White whipped icing and butter cream decorations. This is my first attempt at Chantilly Lace and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Vanilla cake with blueberry filling. It is only a 6" cake and I had left over batter so I made some vanilla blueberry cupcakes also. My husband told me that they are "terrible and we shouldn't share them with anyone". That's how I know he likes something. He gives it a bad review so they won't leave the house. HA!

One Crazy Week

My good friend Nicole was drafted to make a surprise 30th Birthday cake for a good friend. I offered to help her and we worked side by side. She worked on her 30th Birthday cake while I worked on the Monster truck. It was a LOT of fun to have someone to share in the creative process. We did a lot of laughing, a little commiserating, and made a HUGE mess 3 nights in a row. It was a blast. I hope we can work on another project together in the future.

Other than helping her learn how to make fondant and cover a cake, the only other thing I did is help make the topper. She did the rest by herself! Not bad for her first attempt at fondant. She did a great job!!!

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Believe it or not this is a healthy version of a double chocolate chip cookie! Amazing that such healthy ingredients can turn out such a moist, chewy, and oh so chocolaty delight! As opposed to a traditional chocolate chip, these have less than 1/2 the fat, about 1/2 the sugar, and they have whole wheat flour!

Want to make them yourself? Here's the recipe!

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (HEALTHIER VERSION)

(side note: I spent about 6 months tweaking the ingredients to get this cookie just right. If you make substitutions or change measurements, I can't be held responsible. Make changes at your own risk!!!)

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees

3/4 cp Land O Lakes Light Butter (Softened)
1/4 cp Applesauce
1 pkg Chocolate Pudding
1/4 cp White Sugar
1/2 cp Splenda
3/4 cp Brown Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla

Combine the above ingredients and mix.

2 Eggs(room temperature) (or egg beater equivalent)

Add Eggs and mix

1 cp. White Flour
1 cp. White Wheat Flour (King Arthur Brand)
2/3 cp. Cocoa Powder
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt

Combine these ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk together lightly to incorporate. Then gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients just until they are thoroughly combined. Do Not Over Mix.

1 1/4 cps Mini Chocolate Morsels (Yes, it makes a difference!!!)

Add Morsels and stir

Spoon onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Do not over bake. Pull them from the oven before they look "done". When cooled they will firm up and you'll have a chewy and chocolaty treat. You can add nuts if you like and you can also add dried cherries.

February Birthdays!

The month of February is huge in our household. We have 6 Birthday's between my family and my husband's family this month. With only 4 weekends and a limited amount of time, we've been combining the Birthday celebrations for the past few years. This weekend we are celebrating the Birthday of my 84 year old Grandmother who is a HUGE fan of the Cleveland Indians (her hometown team). My nephew Eli is turning 3, and my son Garrick is turning 6.

I wanted to make a cake that combines all 3 of them in a somewhat cohesive design. This is what I came up with. Matt was a big help as usual.

The top of the cake is Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians on home plate with a stack of balls and a baseball bat. Happy Birthday Gram!!!

The 2nd tier of the cake is in honor of my son Garrick who has had a passion of construction and heavy equipment since he was old enough to see his first one.

The bottom tier is all Eli. My nephew is in LOVE with trains.

Happy Birthday!!!

Snowman Cookie Meltdown

Made these for our Home Fellowship Christmas Party. I figured the kids would enjoy something fun.

Snowman Cake

Red Velvet Cake with Peppermint Mocha Truffle Fudge Filling and Cream Cheese icing. Everything is home made right down to the fondant.

I really like how this chilly creature turned out!

For the Outdoorsman...

This cake was made for the father-in-law of a good friend of mine. He's a hunter, fisherman, camper... etc. So we went with an outdoorsman theme. (Is that a word?)

Anyway... I'm thrilled with the result. There's a TON of detail in this cake and you really could stare at it for a while. Of course to me... that's what's so cool!

Hope you like it!

Baby's First Birthday Cake.

This is a cake for my nephew's 1st Birthday.
This is a White Cake with mini chocolate chips, butterscotch icing, and Twix candy bar crushed on top under the leaves. The decorations are all fondant.

The bushel is two - 9" round cakes and the little pumpkins are mini bundt cakes sandwiched together with butterscotch icing between the layers. They are iced and covered in fondant.

The leaves are all made out of gum paste. Baby is also gum paste. Absolutely everything on this cake is edible. Minus the cake plate of course.

Here are a couple of photos of the Birthday Boy and his cake.

Baby Asher's Cake

Wedding Cupcake Balls

This was a fun project and a first. Cake balls are made of strawberry cake with cream cheese icing dipped in dark and green chocolate. Gum Paste flowers, bows and royal icing accents.

Wrapped a ribbon around a terracotta pot and used styrofoam to hold them in place. What a cute and tasty little floral arrangement!



Here is the finished basket. I individually wrapped each cake ball and tied them with a ribbon. Then all the basket pieces were added, arranged, and shrink wrapped.

Sarah's Birthday Cake

This is my nieces Birthday Cake. I had a lot of fun making it although the humidity gave me a run for my money! I wanted a fun cake so instead of just plopping the puppies on the cake, I had them wreaking havoc by digging into it. This is the first cake I've covered in fondant that was iced with Italian Meringue Buttercream. It's much more challenging that covering a cake that has been iced in classic buttercream. Guess I'll have to make more of these so I can get more practice!

What a wonderful reception this cake got! I'm so pleased with how much Sarah loved her cake. If I make a custom cake for my niece's or nephew's, they don't get a gift. The cake IS the gift. But it is their choice (or their parents if they are too young). When I asked Sarah if it was worth it to get a cake instead of a gift, I got a very enthusiastic "yes!".

Allie's Dora the Explorer 3rd Birthday Cake

Made this cake for my niece's Birthday. She's turning 3 and just loves Dora the Explorer. It's 2 - 10" layers. Bottom layer is chocolate and the top layer is vanilla. The filling is cookies and cream butter cream. It is iced in butter cream with fondant accents. This is my second Frozen Butter Cream Transfer (FBCT).

My youngest who is 2 months older than Allie also loves Dora so it was like pulling teeth keeping him away from this cake. You know how an excited 3 year old loves to flail around! Talk about mommy having an anxiety attack.

Mom's 60th Birthday Cake

This is my favorite cake to date. It took forever but was a blast and turned out really well. It's a chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip filling. Iced in butter cream with fondant accents. Figures and accent details are all made of fondant and gum paste. There are a few support pieces that are not edible. Mom loved it!

Pre-School Teacher Thank You

I made this cake for the kids end of year picnic at pre-school. It's a Thank You for the teachers. Garrick especially came out of his shell this year and has become a social butterfly. Pre-School was huge for him! I can't believe he will be in kindergarten in the fall. Anyway, this is my very first stacked cake and the first cake to see sculpted 3D figures.

This cake is dark chocolate fudge on the bottom with mint chocolate chip butter cream between the layers. The top cake is vanilla with chocolate between the layers. The cake is iced in butter cream and covered with home made fondant (which tastes better than the Wilton fondant I had been getting at the store). Everything you see is edible except the wires holding the stars in the top of the cake. The picture on the top of the cake is the schools logo.