Baby Shower

So this cake narrowly escaped becoming a cake wreck, and because of this I didn't take any photos of the baking process, but below are some pictures of Shannon and soon-to-be big sister Carsyn with the cake at the shower. Enjoy & congrats to the Cunninghams!

Top layer: White cake with pineapple coconut buttercream filling
Bottom layer: Chocolate cake with whipped blueberry buttercream filling

Giants

So the Giants took the world series this year, and while I wouldn't call myself the biggest baseball fan, I did swoop on the opportunity to make some Giants-themed cakes for a few of the Giants fans in my life. With the help of my friends, Sara & Molly, we baked up a storm last Saturday and made these two cakes for the social hour after church on Sunday.

Fear the Beard Cake:
White cake (with orange food coloring)
Chocolate fudge frosting (with black food coloring)
Orange colored fondant

Jersey Cake:
Chocolate cake
Pumpkin cream cheese frosting
White fondant

Weddings!

So October seems to be the month of weddings, at least for people in my life. I have one more next weekend, which will make a total of three weddings this month! Needless to say, October has been very busy, but also very fun.

For the second of the three weddings, I was recruited by my friend Sarah (whom I made bridal shower cupcakes for a few weeks ago) to decorate her wedding cake. I guess the person that was originally going to make her cake canceled on her two weeks before the wedding and Sarah was in a pickle. She only asked me to make a few flowers, but I happily offered to decorate the whole thing and get my first real wedding cake experience. I opted not to bake it because Eriks was coming out for the wedding and I didn't want to spend all of his visit working on cakes. So Sarah ordered a vanilla three-tier cake from Safeway, frosted and filled with a basic buttercream, that I was able to get Saturday morning before the 5 o'clock wedding.

I made all of the fondant and decorations during the week before the wedding, and on Saturday morning picked up the cake from Safeway and got to work. We actually had a really nice time doing it, though my estimate of one hour's work was three hours shy of the amount of time it took! There were a few trying moments, namely when I was failing at rolling out the fondant for the bottom 16” layer, but Eriks provided the moral support I needed to make it through (have I mentioned that he is the best??). Transporting the three individual tiers from Pacifica to Fremont and then assembling them on site was also a little nerve-wracking, but we were successful. Seeing how happy Sarah was when she saw the cake made me glad that I decided to give it a shot. Below are some photos of the decorating process and the beautiful couple enjoying their cake.

Sketch & swatch of bridesmaids' dresses to match fondant color to

Decorations from fondant made in advance

Smallest tier and fondant ready to be rolled out

Prepping the fondant
Had to do a few touch-ups on site once we stacked the tiers
So happy to be done and that it worked!Finished productCutting the cake...and giving it a taste

Congratulations Sarah & Chuck, and thanks for letting me decorate your cake!

Bridal Shower Cupcakes & Quick Cake for an Auction

I don't think I've ever baked this much in such a short period of time! Though frantic at moments, it was really fun, especially when Molly & Isabelle were helping. Basically, in less than 24 hours I had cupcakes and a cake to make. The cupcakes were for a bridal shower our church organized for my lovely friend Sarah. I decided to go with a blue and pink theme, with hearts and floral decorations out of fondant (I have been SO happy with the simple marshmallow recipe I found!). I made the chocolate and vanilla cupcakes from scratch from two recipes I found online, and filled them with a raspberry whip cream filling that I kind of made up. The frosting was (since I hate wasting food) a revamped version of the frosting from last week's baptism cake. I had kept it refrigerated and just added some freshly whipped cream to it and it turned out really yummy! Overall I think the cupcakes and the shower were a great success and was happy to get to make special cupcakes for a very special bride to be!

Cupcakes: Dark chocolate & vanilla

Filling: Raspberry whipped cream

Frosting: Lemon buttercream mixed with freshly whipped cream

*******

After the shower I had about 3 hours to bust this one out. I think had I had more time I would have done it a little more in keeping with my original design. Not to mention, today was EXTREMELY hot and as a result the fondant was being difficult, so I ended up just piping on stripes. I do still really want to try painting with frosting, but due to the tight schedule I just kind of palette knifed it on. Nonetheless it went over pretty well and got a final bid of about $75 toward a very good cause!

Georgia O'Keefe Cake, based on Red Poppy, 1927

Cake: Bittersweet dark chocolate

Filling: Pomegranate, malbec & raspberry filling

Frosting: Pomegranate, raspberry & cream cheese buttercream

Big THANK YOU to my mom for helping clean up my huge baking mess--our kitchen really was a disaster zone after my whirlwind of baking!

Church Baptism & BBQ Desserts

Did a lot of baking on Saturday with Molly before the Giants game that evening. We called it our "All American Day" because of the pie making and baseball combo. We decided to go with two "unique" pie recipes we found online for the BBQ: Mango Strawberry and an Avocado pie. While the mango one was delicious and something I'd definitely like to make again, the avocado was fun to try and pretty easy but not my favorite flavor. We also made a cake to celebrate the two baptisms during the Sunday service. O verall I think we were very successful... unfortunately I can't say the same for the Giants. We still had fun though!

Mango Strawberry Pie

Avocado Pie

Baptism Cake

Cake: Lemon pound cake

Filling: Lemon cream with whole raspberries

Frosting: Lemon buttercream covered by fondant