Cupcake deluge

 It's strange, but not so very long ago I was writing to a fellow baker, telling her that the vast majority of all my orders are for cakes, not cupcakes.  To be sure, I have made hundreds of cupcakes in the past year, but most were donations or gifts, with the one glaring exception being the cupcakes I made for TLS in December.  Now all of a sudden I have more cupcake orders than ever before?!

I don't mind, as they are in general less work and far less stressful to create than cakes, but I am a bit bemused.  My cupcake bouquet, which I originally made as a gift for a sick friend, has become rather popular, with my fifth one being delivered all the way to Heidelburg (about an hour's drive away).

 These cute puppies were made for a client who wanted to give them as a surprise gift to a friend.  However, this friend also ordered a birthday cake from me to be delivered the same day as the puppy cupcakes.  Needless to say, the cupcake order had to be cancelled:(  I had no choice than to pack the orphan puppies carefully in a box and hope they would find a home soon.

 On a happier note, the same client contacted me a couple of weeks later to order flower and butterfly cupcakes for her mother.  I was given pretty much free rein with the design as long as they were chocolate and had butterflies.  These are what I came up with.

 June 21st, or the closest weekend after that is cause for midsummer celebrations in Finland.  Our small, but very proactive Finnish section of our school put on a whole morning of performances, culminated with snacks and drinks to celebrate.  I donated these strawberry cupcakes to the event.  The flowers are copied from the Marimekko® "poppy" fabric, which is their signature design.

 Most exciting of all is that I was finally  asked to make 2 cupcake towers! One was for a seven-year old's birthday and she wanted something very pink and very girly with butterflies.  I made a cupcake tower that was silver and pink and sparkly just for her.  The cupcakes were strawberry and vanilla  and I made a gazillion sparkly pink and white butterflies in different sizes.  During my last Alan Dunn course in Holland I had purchased some fuschia edible disco glitter dust which I use liberally!  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the final set up as the client picked them up herself.

The other cupcake tower was for a colleague's 40th birthday party.  She wanted a shabby chic theme with rich chocolate cupcakes and Kahlua white chocolate ganache.  I was getting all excited about the design, but then her budget limited the possibilites and I ended up doing light turquoise and pink ribbon roses.  Still, she was delighted, which in the end is all that matters!  Unfortunately the picture is not very good as I took it on location and in a hurry.

 Last week my daughters and I drove to England for a week long whistle stop tour of all the universities my youngest was thinking of  attending.  One of our first overnight stops was at a pub/B&B that my cousin runs near Brighton.  I hadn't seen her in 30 years, but that wasn't a hindrance at all.  We had a fabulous stay at her George Inn www.thegeorge-alfriston.com, which is definitely worth visiting!  Anyway I wanted to bring her something special, so tried my hand at these fondant covered cupcakes.  I had a devil of a time covering the cupcakes, but I managed in the end.  Since we were spending the previous night in Canterbury and spending that day looking at Kent University, I arranged to leave my precious cupcakes at the Inn in Canterbury for the day, so that they wouldn't spoil!  The staff were very gracious about my unusual request, although they did threaten to eat them if I forgot to pick them up!

After an exhilarating and exhausting trip all around England, I had to find a way to thank my lovely neighbours for feeding our cat while we were gone.  They are dog lovers and in a sudden flash of inspiration I found a home for my puppies! And voila; out of left-over flowers, butterflies and orphan puppies these yummy cupcakes were born.

They were delighted, and I have guaranteed good care for our kitty whenever we're away:)

Now it is time for a break and head north for the summer.  Since I know I won't be able to resist the urge to work with sugarpaste, I plan to practice my flowers and piping skills over the summer.

 

Easter rush....

 This Easter was definitely the most rushed and "unholiday-like" that I have experienced!  All work and no play as the saying goes.  Unfortunately it was so busy that almost the only quality time I had with my daughters was just prior to Easter when I thought to include them in the Easter cupcake process.  With no tutorials and armed only with our imaginations the three of us sat down to create some Easter chicks and bunnies for cupcake toppers.

 We worked hard, laughed a lot and made an unholy mess of my "studio" and came up with some cute little figures.  I then baked and iced some cupcakes and again gave my daughters free rein to decorate the cuppies as they wished.  This is what they came up with.  I thought they were adorable and this box was proudly presented to my brother and niece when they stopped by for the night on their way back to England.

 Easter weekend continued at a frenetic pace with three birthday cakes to complete.  Below is my first ever attempt at a Barbie cake.  I wasn't happy with the draping of the over skirt, realizing after the cake was done and delivered that I could have first made the over skirt and then added the draping separately. Aah well, we live and learn!

 I also got to make another Minnie Mouse cake, which was interesting to compare to my first attempt a year ago.  Looking at it critically I feel that although this one has a far better finish and looks more professional, the proportions aren't as perfect as on the first one.  The ears are too close together, the bow is too narrow, etc etc etc.  I also experimented with my extruding gun to make the "piping" that trimmed the face and formed the letters.  I bought the extruding gun when I was at the Lorraine McKay course in Maastricht earlier this year, but except to make hair I haven't had the time to play with it to see what else it can do.  I really liked how easy it was to make "piping" and saw the beginning of a long and meaningful friendship with this handy little gadget.

 Easter Sunday was spent creating yet another birthday cake, this time for a colleague of mine.  This cake was challenging on so very many levels that I found it hard to know where to begin.  The cake had to be gluten free.  The flavour was to be a complete surprise, as was the theme.  The cake had to include marzipan and be as "fondant free" as possible.  I decided to recruit the help of my colleague's husband and instantly regretted it.  He wanted the cake to have a "Strandkorb" which is a German beach chair for two that can be folded away into a huge basket.  The beach had to be reminiscent of the beaches on the island of Sylt in the North Sea.

Originally I thought to cover the cake in marzipan to represent the sand, but the only marzipan I could find was very dark, and since the sands of Sylt are almost white I rejected that idea.  However, the problem remained on how to incorporate marzipan into the cake.  Hmmmm.....Finally it came to me:  A chocolate cake made with rice and corn flour, filled with marzipan and raspberry coulis.  So after much experimentation  on how to soften the marzipan and much consultation with experts on the internet, I concocted a marzipan spread out of brandy, heavy cream and marzipan.

Now came the next problem; what else other than marzipan can one use to cover a cake that is not too sweet?  White chocolate ganache!  Whipped up to lighten the texture and to enable me to make it look like sand.  The sand dunes were made of white chocolate modelling paste which I placed on the cake prior to icing it with the ganache.  I used MM fondant dyed blue to make the waves and to cover the board.  I made shells out of modelling chocolate and used them to decorate the base of the cake.

The Strandkorb was hugely challenging as I had to work out the construction in a way that it would be properly supported.  In the end I had to create a sand dune out of modelling chocolate to support the back rest.  Even so, it was leaning far more horizontally than I had originally intended it to be!

So that was my Easter.  Busy, busy, busy, but oh so much fun!

Spring flowers

With sunny skies and longer days, spring is definitely here despite the cold nights.  The snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils are in full bloom and it won't be long before the cherry trees start to blossom!  After the inevitable green cake for St. Patrick's Day, I had a relatively quiet weekend to look forward to.  I had a cupcake "sampler" order for Monday which inevitably left me with extra cupcakes. 

For a while I have been itching to try making a cupcake bouquet and now that I had both the time and the cupcakes, I got to work making flowers.  I also got to practice my buttercream roses, which I have to admit I haven't done in years.  The cupcakes are an assortment of vanilla, lemon, strawberry and chocolate flavours.  In the end I was pretty pleased with the result and so was my friend who received it.  She is battling cancer and I thought I would cheer her up with this edible bouquet.  Perhaps next time I make one of these I will try using fancier cupcake cases and more ribbon.  I think this is a great gift idea for anyone who loves cupcakes.

I also had time, finally, to practice making sugarpaste peonies.  Here is a picture of my very first attempt.  Not perfect, but I hope that in time they will get better.  They are not so much impossibly difficult as time consuming; each petal must be hand shaped and shaded and there are so many in each bloom!  To make this peony I followed an online tutorial...in German no less! For those interested the link is http://tortentante.blogspot.com/ .  Monika is a very talented lady whose cakes have won prizes and have been featured in wedding magazines. 

Last but not least, here is this year's St. Pat's Day creation.  Every year the Irish staff members throw a buffet lunch for all staff members at the school and it has become habit for me to provide the cake for them.   I will admit that the leprechaun is recycled from last year's cake, but everything else was fresh!  The beer mug was made from rice krispie treats with the "foam" being Bailey's flavoured buttercream, yum!  I am somewhat amused to see how inordinately popular the rice krispie treats are with the staff.  The Brits like it because I suppose it is a familiar treat from "back  home", but the Germans have been hitherto completely ignorant of this treat.

Next on my wishlist is time to make a tiered wedding cake, just to prove to myself that I can do it.  Tempting as it is to use up every free moment cake decorating, I do have to make time for my family and the garden occasionally!  However, before I get too caught up in the wedding cake theme, I have a birthday cake to create for my husband......

Happy Valentine's Day

It has been a little while since I last blogged; my apologies for that.  On the bright side I have been very busy with various orders, but on the not-so-bright-side I have been bogged down with the usual winter ailments.  Not enough to keep me in bed, but enough to make me feel tired and drained all the time.

This past weekend I had time to bake some cupcakes in celebration of Valentine's Day.  My original plan was to experiment with making fondant covered cupcakes, but in the end I ran short on time and motivation and stuck to my trademark rose swirls.  I did experiment with making so called ribbon roses and was delighted at how quick and easy they were! Suffice it to say that you'll be seeing a lot more of those from me in the future!
                                 
I find that the more I bake, the more I enjoy it.  With every cake I create I get more imaginative and bold.  There are innumerable new techniques and fads out there just waiting for me to try that until recently I simply had no idea about.  My greatest frustration at the moment is that I have so little time to explore and practice these new methods.  I have several video and pdf tutorials that I have purchased, none of which I have had the time to try.  It is soooo tempting to take the plunge, quit my day job and devote myself full-time to this new passion.  However, the knowledge that next year I will have 2 daughters in university and the UK threatening to raise tuition fees radically brings me back to reality.  The orders are coming in steadily, but not yet in the volumes that I would need to devote myself full-time.  All in good time!!

Sacher Torte and kitchen disasters

 Christmas 2010 has come and gone with all the stress and sleepless nights that preceded it.  Yet all of that was worth it when I reflect on how lovely and happy Christmas actually was.  Many have bemoaned the chaos that all this snow has brought upon our lives, but come on, admit it; there's nothing like a white christmas!!!!  Granted when one has a 4 wheel drive Volvo tank, it's easy to dismiss icy conditions and unexpected snow drifts.  Those with  compact, 2 wheel drive cars really were in trouble and we did our fair share pushing our neighbours' cars when they got stuck.

Despite being extremely pressed for time, I did find time to bake cupcakes for the neighbours and a sacher torte for a friend of mine.  This was my first attempt at a Sacher torte and I probably spent more time researching the best recipe than was spent actually baking!  What surprised me was the range and variety of chocolate glazes that were used to cover the cake.  In the end I chose two different recipes; one for the actual cake and apricot glaze and the other for the chocolate glaze.  The cake recipe was Austrian, and I used a ganache-like glaze that had a higher proportion of chocolate to cream and incorporated butter as well.

All in all the cake came out very well, although I suspect the ganache had cooled a little too much by the time I got it on the cake.  At any rate I would have wished for a smoother finish on the cake!  Being a little tired of snowflakes I opted for christmas roses and holly for the decorations.  I discovered that by mixing burgundy and Christmas red, I was able to achieve that rich, deep red that holly berries really are.  A bit of gloss spray made leaves and berries look more authentic too.  At the last minute I added a red fondant band around the base to hide the slight irregularities.

Now I am on a forced baking hiatus for a week or so as our kitchen suffered several disasters over the holidays.  Namely on the evening of the 23rd, right after business hours, our dishwasher broke down.  That in itself is not an unsurmountable problem, merely annoying as heck!  On Christmas morning I managed to wreak havoc in the kitchen by omitting to remove the ceramic stove covers before heating up some mulled wine to take with us to the stables.  Sure enough the covers exploded, leaving the kitchen filled with acrid smoke, and the stove covered in shattered glass and melted plastic.  Again, once the glass had been cleaned up, the kitchen aired out and the plastic scraped off the stove, no apparent damage to the stove itself. Phew!

The crowning glory of all disasters occurred during Christmas dinner in the evening.  The oven had been left on low to keep the desserts warm.  No sooner had my daughter removed the  desserts and closed the oven door when the door, which was glass (of course!) literally shattered for no apparent reason.  My daughter got a fright but no one was hurt.  It will be well in to the first week of January before we can get that repaired.  In the meantime there will be no turkey pie, sausage rolls or cakes prepared in this house.  An awful prospect indeed!

Piglets and flowers

Just a very short blog to show off my little piglets that I made for a rush order last Friday.  Originally I was just going to cover the cupcakes with fondant discs made to look like pig faces, but I couldn't resist making these little pigs.  They were a lot easier than I thought they would be and they do look cute, don't they?

Jimmy Choo and Chanukkah

It was with a satisfied sigh of relief that I put the final touches on a Jimmy Choo shoe cake late last night.  This creation was for my daughter's birthday today and I had been slightly worried that I wouldn't have time to finish it in time.  Luckily she had said that she didn't actually want a birthday cake since she was a) "caked out" with all my recent baking, and b) she was desperate to have pumpkin pie.  So pumpkin pie it is for tonight's celebrations.  Nevertheless, I needed something to make the shoebox, so I cut off a wedge off one of my mega Christmas cakes I have been serving at the theatre, re- marzipanned it and covered it with fresh fondant.  The whole shoebox is only 12 x 7 x 4cm.  The shoe is not perfect, but overall I was pretty pleased with the result. A great many hours, and countless failures along the way were all made worthwhile when I saw her smile this morning as she was presented with her little cake.

Last week I decorated this fruit cake as a Chanukkah cake for a wonderful lady to whom I am much indebted to.  Encouraged by my turquoise Christmas cake I had decorated earlier and knowing this lady also loves turquoise,  I experimented with turquoise, blue and silver for this cake.  I daresay I like it better than my original!!!!  Maybe I'll remove the silver border and change it to blue rope with silver balls as well......:D

"Dickens by Candlelight" has kept me inordinately busy with cupcakes and Christmas cake, but it has been an invaluable launch pad for me.  Much praise has been received for my cakes and my business cards have been snatched up eagerly.  Sales have been brisk, albeit the few times when the audience has been small, so there weren't many potential buyers to begin with.  Lessons have been learned, methods streamlined and this week it is already becoming routine work for me.  The first week I massively overestimated sales, or rather, was paranoid of running out and sadly had to throw a great many cupcakes away.  Last week I was left with less than a dozen extras on my hands.

Best of all, I now have four cake reservations for the coming year!  I also have a cupcake order for a teenage birthday this Friday.  Originally the client did want me to make a cake, but with so much going on there was no way I could foresee that I could fit in another cake.  So piggy cupcakes it is.

I am overworked and tired these days, but also very happy.  Decorating cakes and baking in general gives me great pleasure; especially when a new experiment is successful.  Watching people enjoy my cupcakes or christmas cake at the theatre fills me with a sense of satisfaction.  And who could resist the pleasure incurred from all the lavish praise!

Now it is time to roll up my sleeves and get to work on the TLS "Dickens by Candlelight" cast party cake for Sunday...............

Cupcakes and Christmas cakes galore!

Sunday evening and I am one pooped out cake baker!  Four nights of selling my cupcakes and Christmas cake for TLS have kept me very busy indeed.  As mentioned in my last post I have several orders for Christmas cakes and the opening night for TLS's "Dickens by Candlelight" was on Friday.  Last Wednesday  was "sneak preview" night at the theatre and naturally I brought my cupcakes along.  Not many people were there, but all who were, bought my cakes. :D  I brought along my Death by Chocolate, Bourbon Vanilla and a new flavour, Mincemeat and Brandy.  Those who are into raisins really liked the latter.  This was the first time I had gone public with my cupcakes, and it was a relief to see how well they were received.   And well received they continued to be, although being completely new to the game I wildly overestimated how many cupcakes would be needed.  Strangely the mincemeat and brandy cupcakes only sold well on the preview night.  Tonight I didn't sell any at all, which made me a little sad.  Perhaps I will withdraw that flavour and try lemon instead.  Death by Chocolate is definitely the most popular flavour, so I will definitely be making proportionally more of those in the future. My christmas cake was also very popular, especially with the English crowd that came.

Also, the director of the play and founder of TLS was delighted with the toppers I had made, which was good because I was a little nervous that they were too blah.  But they incorporated the group's colours, neon pink, yellow and green and thanks to an old-fashioned potato stamp, each colourful disc had the company logo on it.

So to date all my christmas cakes are all baked; nine round ones and three large sheetcake versions to be sold in slices at the theatre performances.  You should see my decorating "studio" a.k.a the basement; cakes, toppers, fondant on every available tabletop, counter and shelf.  Even the ironing board is doing double duty as a place to put the toppers until they have dried!  Right now I am a little concerned that my mail order for about 20 bags of marshmallows has not arrived and I am fast running out of fondant!!!!!

I also decorated this christmas cake for display purposes at the theatre in my colour; turquoise.  I'm otherwise very pleased with it except that it screams "Douglas GmbH" all over.  For all you non-German residents, Douglas is a chain-store specializing in cosmetics, perfumes and bath products.  Their signature colour is also turquoise.  Surprisingly, no-one at the theatre made the connection........

Marshmallow fondant

It has been a while since I last blogged; one can blame one's day job interfering with the real joy in my life of cake decorating and cupcakes.  Last weekend was cold and wet, so I entertained myself by trying out a marshmallow fondant recipe which so many people wax lyrical about.  Everyone who has ever posted anything about marshmallow fondant has claimed it is easy, tasty and infinitely cheaper than the commercial stuff available.  I've been wanting to try this out for a while, but it took a bit of dedicated research to find white marshmallows in Germany.  They all seem to be pink and yellow.  Eventually I got hold of several bags of the stuff and so I eagerly set to work.  First I melted the marshmallows in the microwave, being careful to stir at regular intervals.  When they had all melted into a smooth, sticky, very, very sticky mass I stirred in some bourbon vanilla and food colouring before coating my hands and my work surface with lots of shortening.  Then I emptied a box of icing sugar on to said surface before pouring the marshmallow goo on top of the sugar.  Next step was to knead the sugar into the marshmallow mix until it had the consistency of play doh.  Eventually the impossibly sticky mass did morph into something that looked very much like fondant icing, but the process was so sticky and so messy that I cannot bring myself to post a picture of me kneading the goo, even if my daughter had great fun taking the pictures!  Suffice it to say that eventually these:

turned into these:


The dark grey turned black over night, which was the intention and these colours will be used to make a Halloween themed cake and cupcakes for this coming weekend.  The orange also turned a more vibrant shade when left overnight.  So far the taste is definitely better than the commercial stuff, but time will tell if it is as easy to work with.

I will poste pictures of the Halloween cakes once they are completed!