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!

Naughty Bachelorette Cake

Good day, readers! I have a rather risque cake to share that I recently made for one of my friends (she is married as of right now, so congratulations to Violet and Tramell!)

It doesn't involve nakedness, so I don't need to bring out the blurry-pixely- type editing for this one. It's a clothed sexy torso, complete with necklace and corset!

I started with a quarter sheet cake and two ball pans about 1/3 full (I am finding more and more uses for this ball pan, by the way... good investment idea!)

After trimming the cakes down, I placed the *ahem* spheres in the proper place and carved out a curvy figure.

Eek! Should I have blurred this...?

I base-iced the cake in the bride's fleshtone and also the pink she wanted the corset in. After that was smoothly iced, I added black Cornelli lace accents, ruffles, and strings.

And voila!

Ooh la la!

The heart-shaped pendant added a personal touch (it has her new initials!). She loved it, and it matched her pink and black bachelorette party theme. Success on my first naughty cake!

Gumpaste Roses

It's been so long since my last post! OK, OK, OK I will try my best to at least make new posts twice a week. We'll see how that goes...

So I decided to get back into gumpaste since I randomly found a brand new package in my cupboard.

I haven't tried to make my own yet, since I find the Wilton brand gumpaste to work pretty well for me. Eh, I'll try mixing my own someday just to compare. Anyhoo, I took the Wilton courses ages ago, so I wanted to get back into doing roses, at least. I already have the rose cutters (3 sizes), the ball and vein tool, the thick foam, and thin foam from the Wilton Course 3 kit, which is super convenient. However, all of these components are sold at your local craft store separately.

I started with breaking off and kneading my gumpaste with a light dusting of cornstarch and confectioner's sugar mixed together.Then I cut out a flower with the smallest cutter and made it into a cone shape. *At this point, you can slip the cone onto some wire wrapped in florist tape if you want to go a bouquet route. Another easy way to handle the roses is by slipping the cone onto a toothpick and working from there. This reduces handling the gumpaste and making it stickier. *

Next, I rolled out my gumpaste to 1/16 an inch then cut out a flower with the medium cutter. (Make sure to wrap up your unused gumpaste!) I used a spatula to cut notches between each petal, and I placed it on the thin foam pad. I then ruffled the edges of the petals by running the ball tool over the edges to thin them out (dip the ball into the powder mixture if you need to!)

I flipped the flower over and pressed the ball into the middle of the piece to create a cup. Then I applied a bit of piping gel (or water or flavor) into the cup and placed the cone in. 

Now for the next set of directions, I'll refer to the petals as a little man with a head, two legs, and two arms. So I applied some piping gel to the head and wrapped it around the cone. Then the same went for an arm, the opposite leg, the other arm, then that opposite leg. At this point you have a rosebud!

 If you want to continue to a medium rose, cut out another medium-sized flower, cup up two arms, then flip over and cup up the head and legs. Wrap the arms around, then the legs and head...

If you want to continue on to a large rose, use the large cutter and cup all petals, flip over and add to the rest.

Alright, this one looks a bit shabby, but it's my first rose in a couple of years, so I kept practicing then got a little playful with some pink luster dust...

Not too bad! I hope I inspired some of you to try gumpaste! It's not as scary as it seems, and all it takes is a bit of practice! Now to see how this can come together on a cake...

Pink Pineapple Cake

This birthday cake is the start of many confections to come in the next month. My friend, Violet, had her 24th birthday, and she loooves pink girliness... and pineapples, so I figured I could combine that into one delicious birthday cake. I did some digging, and found a way to incorporate a can of crushed pineapple into a yellow cake mix to make a very moist cake. Here's what you need:

• 1 box yellow cake mix (I'm a huge fan of Duncan Hines brand)
• 1- 20oz can crushed pineapples (with juice)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 3 large eggs

Here's what you do:
1) Preheat oven to 350. Baker's Joy 2 8in round pans.
2) Cream the butter until smooth then blend in the eggs. Add the cake mix and crushed pineapple and mix until smooth (about 2 minutes)

3) Bake for 20-30 mins. Remember to check the centers with a butter knife!

This cake came out moist and amazing! It's so moist, that you might want to chill it for an hour or so (or overnight, if you can) so that you can better handle it. And you will for sure need a crumb coat.

I paired this pineapple cake with my Butter-Vanilla Buttercream and mixed in some rose pink color. I also used some white and red to make swags on the sides (I found my Wilton brand swag kit and decided to try it) and topped it off with some roses.

Yes, this cake looks Valentine-y, but Violet loves pink, so I wanted to focus on the pink and complement it. However, feel free to use purple and/ or lime green.