Blueberry Buckle

We have been in the same playgroup for a few years now. I have never been able to host because our old house was just way too small. We recently moved and hosted our very first playgroup. I made blueberry buckle, and it was super delicious!

I had fresh blueberries and lots of them, so I wanted to use them in a breakfast coffeecake kind of thing. A buckle was the perfect thing! I made a simple batter almost similar to a butter cake batter and stirred in some blueberries. I topped it with a delicious crumble of butter, flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. It was so yummy when it was still warm that I had to have two pieces. My husband had a piece and said it was one of the most delicious things that I had ever made. For him to say this about a dessert that did not contain chocolate is pretty amazing. I have been wanting to make another buckle ever since this one was gone because it was so good. Maybe later this evening...

Lowbush blueberries, also known as "wild" are the smaller variety of blueberries. Highbush blueberries are the larger species. Maine produces 25% of all "lowbush" blueberries in this country making them the largest producer in the world. The Maine crop requires about 50,000 beehives for pollination. Michigan is the leading producer of the "highbush" variety in the US.

How to Train Your Dragon Cake

This was a difficult cake for me. I have never seen the movie and had no idea what to do. I made a white cake with sweet buttercream, but was stumped at that point. I ended up sculpting a dragon out of rice cereal treats and covering it with fondant. I think it was cute, and my client was happy with it :)

I ran into so many road blocks trying to conceptualize this cake. My client, at first, did not want a fondant character. So my next idea was to come up with something cool with edible paper. However, I do not have a printer with edible ink. The local grocery store will print things on edible paper for you, but not of a licensed character. Then, I was going to go to the toy store and pick up a toy to use on the cake. I was at three different toy stores, and no one had any How to Train Your Dragon toys. I was getting a little nervous at this point. I had no idea what I was going to do. I contacted my client and explained the predicament that I was in. We then decided to do a fondant character, so I started my search for what character to do. I thought the dragon was adorable and would not take me a year to do. It was the night before the cake was needed, so I didn't have all the time in the world. Luckily, I had everything for rice cereal treats and fondant. I was happy quite with the end result and so was my client, which is really all that matters to me.

If you are interested in making sculpted figures, I would suggest that you start with rice cereal treats. It is much more difficult to do a sculpture completely out of fondant, especially a large one. I just melt marshmallows in the microwave and stir in crushed rice cereal until it is a good consistency for sculpting. I like to crush it so that it makes a smoother surface to cover with fondant. You will need dowels or something to hold the pieces together. I like to use plastic coffee stirrers in my smaller pieces because I know that no one will get hurt on them. Even if someone accidentally bit into it, they would not break their teeth :) It just takes some practice and patience, but these sculptures make really cute additions to cakes .

Scooby Doo Cake

A friend of mine requested a Scooby Doo cake for her son's third birthday. I thought about what I should do with this for weeks. I always agonize over cake designs for weeks, then come up with something the night before. She and her son were very happy with the cake, and I think it was super cute! And, on a side note, she made me some awesome Empanadas. Check out her facebook page if you are in need of delicious food :)

I debated for weeks about what to do with this cake. I decided the night before that I was going to sculpt a Scooby and a box of Scooby Snacks out of fondant for on top of the cake. I worked on Scooby for maybe an hour or two and let him sit over night. This was my first time sculpting a character completely out of fondant. He was not perfect, but he was pretty cute. I iced the cake with sweet buttercream in a chartreuse color and decorated the cake with a dark purple color. I added Scooby at the party and added some cereal to act as the Scooby Snacks. I was happy with the results. The birthday boy enjoyed Scooby's ears and the box of Scooby Snacks :)

If you are interested in cake decorating, you need to have the right kind of food coloring. DO NOT buy the liquid kind at the grocery store. It takes a ton of it to turn the icing any rich color, and it waters down the icing. You can buy the Wilton gel paste anywhere that they sell Wilton products, like Michael's. I prefer the liqui-gel kind in squeeze bottles, like Chefmaster. I would recommend going to a cake decorating store or shopping online and just buying a bunch of colors so that you can just mix colors to achieve the color that you desire.

Baptism Cake

I did not make the cake when my older daughter was baptized. She was only 3 weeks old, and I had a pretty rough pregnancy toward the end. Things were totally different my second time around. I had a great pregnancy, worked out all the time, and only gained 7 pounds! I felt great after my second daughter was born and was completely up to the challenge of making her cake for her baptism.

I went to my favorite cake combination when I was making this cake. I really watched what I ate when I was pregnant, so I wanted something super yummy for her baptism that I could really enjoy! I made my famous chocolate cake with French buttercream icing. I decided to do a pretty standard design for christening cakes with a cross made of roses. With a 6 week old, I wanted to do something fairly easy and fast, and for me, roses are easy and fast. With sleep deprivation playing a role, I was pretty happy with the results of my cake. Everyone loved it, and more importantly, everyone loved eating it :)

If you have a desire to learn to decorate, there are many things that you can do to help you along your way. Firstly, you can buy Styrofoam cakes that can be decorated over and over again. And, this will prevent you from eating lots and lots of cake ;) Secondly, you want to use a very stiff buttercream. I always used this recipe when I was learning in school. It tastes awful, but it's a good consistency for learning. There are many places that offer classes as well. Joann Fabrics and Michael's have Wilton decorating classes. I know many local community colleges offer decorating classes as well. But most of all, don't be afraid to fail. It is not super easy, but definitely gets a lot easier each time you try. You just need the right tools, some instruction, and lots of patience.

Éclairs

As mentioned in an earlier post, my family loves cream puffs. My husband loves éclairs even more than cream puffs. Since they are almost exactly the same thing, I can please everyone with one recipe!

I had made a lot of pastry cream for another project and had a lot left over. Since everyone loves cream puffs, that was the first thing that came to my mind to make for Mother's Day. My husband pointed out that he likes éclairs a lot more, so I decided to make them since they are almost exactly the same thing. Éclairs are made from Pâte à Choux which is also the same thing that you use to make cream puffs, profiteroles, beignets, and many other pastries. You just pipe the paste differently for the éclairs than for the cream puffs. I made a double batch of the choux paste thinking that I would get a lot of mini éclairs out of it. However, I ended up getting a lot less mini éclairs than I usually get of the cream puffs. I guess next time I will have to triple it ;) I just made a simple dark chocolate glaze for the top of each éclair. They went quickly, and I wished that I had made more.

Éclairs first originated in the nineteenth century in France. The first known English language recipe for éclairs was in the Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Mrs. D.A. Lincoln, published in 1884. In some parts of the US, Long Johns are marketed as éclairs, although they are not the same. Long Johns are made with donut dough and filled with vanilla pudding, making them much cheaper and easier to produce.

Wedding Cupcakes

An old friend from high school contacted me months ago asking me if I would do her wedding cake. Of course I said yes! This was my first wedding cake on my own. I had done some wedding cakes at my previous job, but none where I got to choose exactly what I wanted to do.

I visited my friend a little over a month ago with a few different options of cake and icing. I took white, red velvet, and devil's food cakes. And I took two different kinds of icing, buttercream and

French buttercream. Since the bride wanted cupcakes, I told her that she could choose any number of combinations that they liked. They chose white with French buttercream and red velvet with regular buttercream. My red velvet cupcakes are not very sweet, so the sweet buttercream is a better pairing with this cake instead of the French buttercream. On the other hand, the sweetness of my white cake is a perfect pairing with my less sweet French buttercream. The couple also wanted a small eight inch square cake for the top of their cupcake tower so that they could do a traditional cake cutting.

I went back and forth with decorations for the cupcakes. I tried a few things that did not end up

working out for me, so at the last minute I had to rethink my previous designs. I decided to do drop flowers with royal icing. The colors of the wedding were black and white damask and fuchsia. I decided to just stick with black and white in my designs. I made 300 black drop flowers with a white sugar pearl in the middle. Each cupcake got one flower in the center along with

some black and white sugar pearls scattered around it. I think they turned out beautifully. As for the cake, I just did a small 8 inch white cake with French buttercream icing. I covered the top with the flowers that I had made and did a simple bead border around the bottom. I put a small black sugar pearl in between each bead.

Royal icing is fairly easy to work with and is a great tool to allow you to get some decorations done in advance. Royal icing is simply meringue powder, powdered sugar and water. If you fill your pastry bag and have some remaining in the bowl, you must keep it covered with a damp paper towel. Otherwise, it will harden in the bowl leaving it unusable. When making lots of drop flowers, I like to cut small one inch squares of parchment paper. I put just a dab of icing on my flower nail, then stick the paper square to it. I make my flower on the paper and can then just lift up the paper and set it aside to dry. These flowers will last for quite a long time. They are a nice addition to the top of a brownie square for a more formal occasion. You can add these drop flowers to any decorated cake or cupcake. They are fun to make and come in very handy. If you are interested in learning how to decorate, this is a good place to start!

Martha Speaks Cake

My baby was turning 1, so I decided to do a Martha Speaks cake. She loves that show, especially the theme song. It was super cute, and everyone loved it!

Chocolate cake with my French buttercream is my very favorite combination. I decided to do the base which was a double layer half sheet cake with that combo because it is always a crowd pleaser and I love it so much! I did the dog bowl with the same icing, but white cake instead. I made my baby her own little smash cake with white batter as well. I didn't know how much of her little cake she would eat, and I didn't want her eating an entire 6 inch chocolate cake. It turned out that she didn't eat that much of it, mostly icing :) I decided to use a stuffed Martha for several reasons. One of the reasons was because I thought my daughter would really enjoy the stuffed Martha afterwards, which she really does! Another reason, though, was because Martha is a cartoon character and not 3D. I didn't really want to sculpt a 3D version of a flat cartoon character . I used rolled fondant to cover the cakes. I don't like the taste of it, and I think only one person ate it, but it was super cute! Everyone loved the cake, and I am very proud of it!

Do you use nonstick pans to bake your cakes or cookies? You may want to think twice about that. You will get a much more tender, evenly baked product if you use regular baking pans that have been well greased, if the recipe calls for that. Dark metal pans are typically heavy, and therefore conduct and hold heat more than pans that weigh less and are a lighter color. If you do choose to use these dark pans, you must adjust the baking time and sometimes even the baking temperature. Otherwise, your product will be overbaked. I, as well as most professionals that I have come across, prefer lighter pans to bake. I think your product turns out much better overall.