Jordan Retro 5 Shoe Full Sheet Cake

Hello, all! I have been super busy lately because I got a second job! Yes, on top of working at a bakery full time, I also work as a cashier at an all-natural grocery store as well. Time to start saving for the Big Day next year. I just hope I have the time to make cake orders at home when the time comes.

This cake was the first full sheet cake that I've ever made at home! I've done plenty at work, but actually having a full sheet cake in my tiny kitchen makes me realize exactly how tiny it is!

It's a half-chocolate, half-yellow cake iced in vanilla buttercream. I really wanted to take the easy way out and use a big edible image, but I realized that I should do my best no matter how tired I was. So I set to work scoring the design into the cake. This was my reference.

Courtesy of Google

I attempted to score the design into the cake a few times until I just gave up and had my brother help me. We drew a lot when we were younger, and he was always the one that drew the shoes better than I could! I modified the colors a bit to incorporate more pink. The shoe was a lot bigger than I thought, so I ended up spending quite a bit of time on it.

I'm happy with how it turned out!

Well, not how this picture turned out.

Ah, that's better! The partygoers loved it too!

Note to self: when house hunting in the future, look at the size of the kitchen first!

Hopefully my posts won't become scant due to my work schedule. I hope to find some time to still bake and sharpen my scratch-baking skills. I'm going to Florida in about a week and a half, so I am super excited to have some time to relax and spend time with family. :)

Super Bowl XLVII Cupcakes

Hello again! Such a rare moment, blogging two days in a row! I hope in the future to have more posts to share, though. Well, today is the Super Bowl, and up until about 2 days ago, I had no clue who was in it. I pretty much watch for the commercials. I saw a preview for a commercial where a baby,  panda and a bunch of other animals are going into space!! I want to see that one! I love pandas! And space! *ahem* Anyhoo...

This is perhaps the 4th or 5th year that I've made Super Bowl cupcakes, and it's the only way I remember which teams played! For the San Francisco 49ers cupcakes, I went with a caramel buttercream, so they would already have that tan color for the background. The cupcakes were almond flavored (love that combo!) 

The Baltimore Ravens cupcakes were vanilla cake with vanilla icing. I decided to keep the background white, so that people don't get a mouthful of black icing. Blech!

I went with the simple "B" because the raven's head would just be far too much detail for me (I was making these at 1 am this morning!) I think they turned out pretty nicely, and I hope they're a hit tonight at the Super Bowl party.

No matter what team you're rooting for, have a fun and safe Super Bowl! I'll be on the lookout for the space panda!

Pretty in Pink Birthday Cake

 Hello, all! First, I must say, I finally got a kitchen scale.

Yay! It's so shiny and new! Now to find a fancy recipe to try it on...

I recently made a very pink and girly cake for a really good friend of mine, Violet. She loves everything pink, and even had pink in her wedding! I've made her a pink cake before, but I wanted to make it special-- inside and out. I started with a white cake mix with almond emulsion. Then I stirred in a few shakes of pink nonpareils to add a little extra something. They melt into the cake, so don't worry about crunchiness. Also, don't stir too much or the sprinkles will start to melt into the cake.

I divided the batter into one 6" pan and one 8" pan to make a mini 2-tier cake.

After the cakes were baked and cooled, I iced the tiers in white and stacked them (with a few dowel rods to prevent any sagging).

I rolled out some pink fondant and used my diamond cutter set to make a pink harlequin design on the bottom tier.

 On the top tier I added some fancy scrolls and matching roses. I finished the cake off with a pink "26" made of white chocolate.

Violet loved her cake and she said it made her day, so my mission was accomplished. :) Happy birthday, Violet!