• About Me
  • Fairy Tale Collection
  • Photos by Location

rampant

~ living a lifesong of discipline, creativity and art

rampant

Category Archives: Cakes

It’s a Birthday!

13 Wednesday Oct 2010

Posted by Crystal in Cakes

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

almond, cake, cakes, caramel, cupcake, cupcakes, peanut butter

Which means…CAKE!

Today is my friend & co-worker’s b-day today. So of course I used it as an excuse for cake!

I’ve been wanting to try a peanut butter cake, so a few days ago, I made an almond cake & cupcakes and a peanut butter cake and cupcakes. I wasn’t sure how the PB would taste overall, but the batter was good. ;-) I was planning to bring Brenda the almond until I found out she didn’t like almond cake, so the PB it was.

The Icing Adventure

I didn’t really feel like making buttercream (mainly b/c I’m lazy and hate clean-up), so I decided to try a homemade whipped cream for the icing. I stopped by Wal-mart on my way home from the theatre classes I teach on Tuesdays so I could grab some whipping cream and various chocolate chips. (And there’s another story: the time a creepy man hit on me by asking me if I liked cheese.)

And then the adventure began. I made my whipped cream, which was delicious, and then added some melted milk chocolate. Also delicious. Then I thought I’d try to make some ganache for filler (white chocolate) and drizzle (milk chocolate).

Unfortunately, I did not actually even look at the measurements in the recipe, so the filling was a bit grainy and runny. It still tasted good (and is my favorite part of the PB cake), but I needed to put a solid wall of icing around the edges and it still ran over a bit.

The drizzled ganache turned out well. I didn’t like the flavor overall, but on the cake it was yummy. Added some chopped up reese’s cups, and there you go. All done.

I  just brought in some of the almond cupcakes and used store-bought caramel icing to top them. (Which I heard was amazing; haven’t tried mine yet.)

And now… PICTURES:

of course I forgot to take a pic before I cut it…

Share this:

  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • More
  • Google
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Chocolate goodbyes…

28 Wednesday Jul 2010

Posted by Crystal in Cakes

≈ Leave a comment

Yesterday was our good-bye lunch for one of our staff, and I was asked to make the cake.

I went for a simple design. I definitely need to work on writing. I redid it over and over until I decided that it would have to work.

I did enjoy the color contrast in the black (actually still brown) and white. I kinda wish I coulda left it entirely plain after the shell borders.

Contrast-y shells.

If red wasn't so hard, I would have used that instead of blue.

Share this:

  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • More
  • Google
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Autumn in May

25 Tuesday May 2010

Posted by Crystal in Cakes

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

autumn, birthday, cake, roses, tree

Last night was the final night of the Cake Decorating class number 1. We spent the whole class working on roses as the centerpiece for our cake, so we had to bring in a cake that was complete and ready for the centerpiece.

I had a really hard time deciding what I was going to do with the cake. I wanted to use chocolate icing, possibly to make black, and or red icing, though it’s a hard color to make with the taste still edible.

I looked at so many cakes photos last week, and I still couldn’t decide on colors or design.

I ended up doodling cake panels* in small group class** and came up with a design I liked.

* I made a diamond-shaped cake, so I was thinking of the sides as identical panels.

** I promise I was paying attention. I focus better when doodling. And I apparently come up with better cake designs that way. I did my Wonderland cake sketch during a sermon on the back of my notes.

Picture time!

panel sketches

Pre-roses Cake

with roses

Things I learned:
Cake Boss/Duff brand buttercream icings are not the same consistency as homemade/wilton brand. I had to add a TON of sugar to thicken it.

Maybe it was because I carved the diamond down from a larger size on one layer, but I had an AWFUL time with crumbs. I don’t think I’m crumb coating correctly.

I do like multiple colors in one bag.  I love the colors my roses turned. Yellow with a bit of red.

Overall design, I think this was better without the roses, or with much smaller ones.

Share this:

  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • More
  • Google
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts
Newer posts →

Social

  • View crystalliora’s profile on Twitter
  • View crystalliora’s profile on Instagram
  • View crystalliora’s profile on Pinterest

categories

  • Art & Crafts
  • Cakes
  • Decorating
  • Fairy Tale Collection
  • Graphic Design
  • Inspiration
  • Introducing!
  • Miscellany
  • Parties & Food & Cakes
  • Photography
  • Rambles
  • Travel
Follow Me on Pinterest

Top Posts

- Looking Back at Alcatraz   - National Snaps   - National Zoo   - Maymont, Part 1 - The Final Project All Together   - Maymont, Part 2 - The Alice in Wonderland Dinner Party   - Romantic Rosewell   - Snow White  - Garden Light - Circus Dragons - Movement of the Dance   - The Princess and the Pea   - Norfolk Botanical Garden   - Wonderland Cake  - maternity, yoga-style  - The Little Mermaid  - Hand-Lettered Verse  - Patchwork Tote Bag  
Buy my art at ImageKind.com.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Instagram!

There was an error retrieving images from Instagram. An attempt will be remade in a few minutes.

archives

Artsy Friends

  • Three Little Cameras
  • Jessica's Photo Blog
  • Oh So Happy Together
  • The Mind of Sue
  • Gypsy Feet
  • A Global Walk Photography

★ Crystal Liora

  • Crystal's Flickr
  • Crystal's Shop
  • Crystal's Pinterest
  • Crystal's Tumblr

Inspiration

  • Lullahoo/Trafalgar Square Watercolors
  • Jim LePage
  • Rosie Hardy's Photography Blog

★ Flickr Photos

BootedStella
More Photos

Follow the Ramblings…

  • Things you don't often hear at work: "I needed to tell somebody to fix my bullhorn." Thanks, @VSCEducates. Always entertaining. ★ 5 months ago
  • About to experience @PuffsPlay through @fathomevents. Should be an entertaining evening. ★ 9 months ago
  • A rather cryptic thing to find at the bottom of your meeting notes. No idea what this means. https://t.co/77DZpF0YAb ★ 1 year ago
  • #BlockPartyMagic @katowns @laurabee2581 @TJ_Bilbrey https://t.co/tLp5OpEQpn ★ 1 year ago
  • I'm pretty sure there's a mosquito living in my house. Thanks, October. ★ 1 year ago

What I’m Reading

Blog at WordPress.com.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: