Present Cake

For this cake, the requester liked the gift cake design and wanted hearts incorporated into it.  Because this was for her boyfriend's birthday, I picked a color that was more gender neutral but still colorful. 

To start, I covered a square cake in green fondant.

Added ribbons.

Added the border and hearts to the corners.

Made loops using the same ribbon pattern and let it dry for about an hour to harden a bit. 

Started making the bow.  Some people wait until the loops are completely hardened before making the bow but I think it looks better when the fondant is still malleable so that the bow can be molded to the way you want.  

 FYI, I added small folded pieces of paper towels in the loops so that they would hold their shape while drying. I removed them the next day after the loops hardened.

I also made some hearts, placed them on wires to stick on the cake and stuck them on the cake the next day.

Pumpkin Pie Cupcake Toppers

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I wanted to make some pumpkin pie slices out of fondant to top my pumpkin ginger cupcakes.  These are just too adorable and not too bad to make...give it a try!

I first colored some fondant.  I used brown and copper food gels to make my pumpkin color and a tiny bit each of red, golden yellow and black to make my tan color. When coloring fondant, use less gel than you think you might need and then see if you need to add more. 

I took my pumpkin fondant, rolled it into a log shape, cut them into 12 pieces and rolled them into little balls.

Then started forming each ball into little pie filling shapes.  I used a couple square cookie cutters to help flatten the sides but other things (that are food safe) will work as well such as the flat part of a kitchen knife. It helps to pinch the edges with your fingers to make them less round.

Then I thinly rolled out some tan fondant and cut a piece like shown below.  You'll want to have more crust than you think you need for the back as that part needs to be folded over. 

I cut off the excess crust from the bottom of the pie and "glued" the pie to the crust by just brushing some water on it.

 Folded the crust over.

 Then I used the small end of a dogbone fondant tool to crimp my pie crust. 

Now to the whipped cream.  I took a tiny bit of white fondant, made it into a thin log and wrapped it around and on top of itself until it looked like a little dollop.

Added the dollop to my pie.

Repeat 11 more times and your cupcakes are ready to be decorated!

Making Orchids with Fondant/Gum Paste

I wanted to add a little something to the cupcake stand from the last post so I decided to make an edible orchid to add on top.  Orchids are one of my favorite flowers so I really loved making it.  I apologize in advance for some of the shots as I started on the orchid late at night and the lighting was not the greatest.

Below are the tools needed to make orchids minus the fondant and gum paste (I also used pink pearl dust which is optional).  Note: I mixed gum paste into my fondant so that it dries quicker and harder which is commonly done to create flowers.  When I say fondant in this post, it is a mix of fondant and gum paste.  Also, I make an edible glue by adding bits of gum paste into a small bowl of water and brush it on to anything that needs to be glued.  This is a condensed tutorial since there are just so many steps to making an orchid so if anyone needs further clarification on certain steps, please feel free to email me!

1. To begin, take a small bit of purple fondant, roll it into a log shape, cut it in the middle with the knife tool and stick a florist wire in it. Take an even smaller piece of yellow fondant, roll it into a ball and glue it on top of the purple fondant.

2. Roll out some fondant using the rolling pin and cut out a piece using the throat cutter. Jump to steps 5 and 6 and complete those for the throat.  Then take the throat piece, shape each side using the modeling stick so that it curls in and then glue and wrap it around the center.  Place it on a flower former to dry like below.

 3. Next, take the flower and leaf impression mat, place a log shaped piece of fondant over the crevice and roll it out using the rolling pin.  Flip the fondant over and there will now be a ridge on the fondant.  Take either a wide or narrow petal cutter and cut out a petal but make sure the ridge is vertical.  Take a piece of florist wire and place it next to one side of the ridge.

4. Place some gumpaste glue on the wire that is touching the fondant and fold the ridge over the wire.  Do this 4 more times so that at the end, you have 2 wide and 3 narrow petals.

5. Flip the flower and leaf impression mat (to the side that doesn't have the crevice) and press each petal onto the upper left corner of the mat.  When you flip your petal over, it will make your petal look much more realistic.

6. Place a petal on the foam square.  Take your ball tool and using the end with the larger ball, soften the edges of each petal by rolling the tool lightly on the edges.  Repeat for each one.

7.  Place them all on the flower formers to dry like shown below.  This is when you can brush a little pink pearl dust onto the petals. You can really see the shimmer in this shot. 

I let them dry overnight and in the sunlight, you can see the pink and the ridges. 

8.  Wrap each petal with florist tape and place the two wide petals at 10:00 and 2:00 onto the throat piece. Take the narrow concave petal (the one on the far right in the picture above) and center that at 12:00.  Take the 2 other narrow petals and place them at 5:00 and 7:00 positions.  Then wrap it all again with florist tape and angle the throat down a bit.

You now have a pretty edible flower that you can use for centerpieces, cakes, etc.

Cupcakes Tips & GenKAC Gala

I had the opportunity to be part of the annual GenKAC Gala which is held by the Korean American Coalition - Chicago. It was really wonderful getting to meet so many great people and other vendors.  For this event, I decided mini cupcakes would be best for everyone to taste. I made 300 of them (a shot of them below) which was more than enough but I always like to play on the safe side.

 

I decided that I'll have two different flavors so a couple days before the event, I made 150 each of pink and blue flower toppers.  Each flower had a cute sugar pearl in the center.

I chose chocolate and lemon for my cupcake flavors.  My least favorite part to baking cupcakes used to be putting the batter in the cupcake pans because the batter would just get everywhere.  But here are a few tips that can help with that.

For thicker batters like my chocolate one, I use a mini ice cream scooper to put batter in.  No mess and you get around the same amount of batter each time.

For batter that's more runny, I use one of my disposable decorating bags but since I know not everyone has those on hand, you can easily put the batter in a large ziploc bag and then snip a small hole at one of the corners.  It's always better to make a smaller hole then you think because if the hole is too big, it'll be much more difficult to control the flow of batter that comes out.  You can always make it bigger if needed.

After I fill one, I dip the bag into the cup before proceeding to the next one.  This helps control the batter from not coming out when you're moving the bag.

I have to say that I really really love my KitchenAid mixer. For the longest time, I stubbornly refused to get one and was content just using my KA hand mixer.  Then my husband bought one for me and even then, I wouldn't take it out of the box.  Once he threw away the box and plopped it on the counter, I gave in and now I'm happily using it!  I still don't mind using my hand mixer (we have gone through a lot together and we're tight) but for big jobs like this one or for making royal icing which is like mixing cement OR days that I'm plain lazy, I use my countertop KA.

For a sweet surprise, there is a long narrow pastry tip that lets you insert filling into the cupcakes.  I did this for my lemon cupcakes and am excited to use it again for other fillings such as caramel. 

Now to the gala.  My friend and assistant Jenn was awesome! She not only assisted with the event but she also helped create the SKC logo and provided great marketing advice.  Here she is adding the toppers that I made onto the cupcakes when we were setting up.

I wanted to make sure that the cupcakes looked perfect. We definitely eat with our eyes first.

All set up and ready for the gala to begin. :)