Red Velvet Cupcake Tests

This is my fourth attempt at making red velvet cupcakes.

Test #1: cake was reddish, not too chocolatey but it was light-tasting; Swiss meringue cream cheese buttercream icing was not smooth but it was light

Test #2: cake was not red at all, very chocolatey; cream cheese icing made with icing sugar was too grainy, heavy, and very sweet

Test #3: cake was not red at all, very chocolatey; Italian meringue cream cheese buttercream was too lumpy and runny (didn't incorporate when I substituted half of the butter for cream cheese)

Test #4: cake was red/brown, chocolatey enough and light;

Icing A was white chocolate cream cheese: it had a tangy flavour but it wasn't as smooth as I like but it was better than Test #1 and #3; it's a bit rich and not so sweet

Icing B was Italian meringue cream cheese buttercream: this worked out way better than the first time; I folded beaten cream cheese into the completed IMBC; it holds its shape really well for piping and it was light-tasting; it's not too sweet

I would say the latest test on cake and icing were the best and clients can choose between the two. :)

Left: Italian meringue cream cheese buttercream on red velvet cupcake
Right: White chocolate cream cheese buttercream on red velvet cupcake

Under the Sea Sugar Cookies

This order was created for an upcoming baby shower.  The shower theme is "The Little Mermaid" but I thought it would be complemented better with items "Under the Sea."  All the cookies were custom-cut (no cutters used; only template and knife) and were about 4" in size.

 Ivory nautilus shell with pearl/disco dust

 Pink scalloped shell with pearl/disco dust

 Orange starfish with raised bumps

 Pink coral with sanding sugar

Purple seahorse

Happy First Birthday, Max!

A good friend of mine requested a small cake to celebrate his first birthday.  She decided to make it a jungle theme and settled on having a monkey on the cake.

The cake is 6" round and just under 4" high, with 3 layers (chocolate, vanilla, chocolate).  It has Italian meringue buttercream icing for the filling and beneath the marshmallow fondant.

Design inspired by The Violet Cake Shoppe.

Nom Nom Nom... Chocolate Cupcakes with Italian Meringue Buttercream Icing

During my quest for a moist cake (who ever wants dry cake?) I came across a chocolate recipe that looked promising.  It's for cupcakes, but I'm sure it would be OK in cake-form with a few adjustments. 

To pair it up, I wanted to try my hand at Italian meringue buttercream.  I've always made Wilton's buttercream icing, but I found that it always came out grainy (research says that the main culprit could be underbeating) and too sweet.

It took a long time to make (probably close to 25 minutes for prep and cook time) but it was so worth it!  The cake was super moist and quite filling; the IMBC was so smooth and not overly sweet.  These two recipes will be going into my collection, for sure. :)

I coloured the icing for St Patrick's Day and decided not to do little fondant details (but for orders, that could be done).

And the Academy Award goes to...

The Oscars are coming to your TV sets this Sunday, and I have been working on cookie versions of a few nominated films.  Unfortunately for me, I haven't seen ANY of the films I have depicted in cookie form, so most are based on images I've scoured over the Internet.  All the sugar cookies are royal icing-based and painted with edible icing colours and food writer pens.

And the nominees are...

127 Hours

Black Swan

Inception

The Fighter

The King's Speech

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

... we'll find out on Sunday!

Sample Cookies

I made these sugar cookies for a friend as a surprise.  I hope she'll enjoy them and they remain intact in the mail.  Note that I've placed them in the traditional order of events. :)

Engagement.

Wedding.

Baby boy.

Baby girl.

Happy Family Day!

Owen's First Birthday

This past Saturday was when my baby turned 1 year old!  He likes the children's program "In the Night Garden..." so I decided to make Igglepiggle to put on his cake.  To cover the cake, I made marshmallow fondant.  This was the first time I made it from scratch, since I've read many reviews of how much better it tasted versus traditional fondant.  It was really sweet and tasted different since I put a little orange oil in it.  The cake had 3 layers: lemon, chocolate, and lemon; orange-flavoured buttercream in between each one.

Design inspired by Andrea Sullivan from Andrea's SweetCakes

I also made little chocolate cookies with buttercream icing and fondant flowers.