Thursday, April 2, 2009

Newest Cake!

Just wanted to share my latest creation. It was for a friend who was giving it as a baby shower gift type deal. It was my very first time doing gumpaste flowers. I watched a tutorial on youtube, by this spanish lady with a fantastic accent and a lot of makeup. The steps to create the flowers are actually pretty easy. If you want to watch the tutorial it's in four parts. I'll share the link for those who are curious.

Calla Lily Tutorial! 


Her tutorials are pretty good. But anyways, I had a lot of fun making the gumpaste flowers. It's a skill I plan on building up, so that I can be more versatile in the sugar art world. Hooray! I also highly recommend it for people who like doing hands on intricate work, as it has a great pay off at the end. They last for ever and a day, and make even a plain cake look extraordinary.

Okay, I'll stop sounding like a cake blog, and move on. I also put a stucco or "tuscan" finish on the cake. People that are familiar with the old fashioned way of icing a cake with a textured look will see that this is a very similar effect. The beauty part of it is that you don't have to labor over it to smooth it. I find though, if you do want to use this finish, all the other elements of the cake have to be spot on or else you run the risk of the cake just looking poorly done...rather than having a textured funky finish. This technique is also sometimes referred to as an antique look or canvas. I like tuscan...makes people think rustic and inviting. I like that visual. 

It's just two single layers, with raspberry filling in each. Yellow cake. Oh, and the icing was a key lime flavor by request. I went with an ivory tone to offset the romantic texture and flowers. So...yeah. Fun to make! 





Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Blueberry Heaven

So I've had this pint of blueberries sitting in the fridge for a week calling my name. And night before last I whipped up a batch of shortbread dough, so I had the idea tonight to combine the two into something quite yummy. :-)



 

these little tasties were made with real blueberries and lemon juice/zest. the filling is sandwiched between the Lavender infused Lemon Poppy Seed shortbread I made the other night, and baked for 40 minutes until golden brown. These little guys are best served chilled. Or with a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. :-)

Hooray!