On the Payroll!

First ever cake that I got paid for!! Two layer cake, with vanilla cake and vanilla icing on the bottom, and Vanilla cake with Lemon curd and lemon icing on the top tier! All topped off with calla lilies and blue icing.

I made this for an 75th birthday, for my mom's best friends mom. Catch that?

:)

Anyways, I hope you liked it!

Four Layer Red Velvet

The elusive red velvet cake! My parents 25th anniversary was coming up, and so I thought that I would make them a cake. I asked my parents what flavour they wanted and then began the ping pong game. I asked my mom first, and she said to ask my dad. I then asked my dad, and, what a surprise, he told me to ask my mom. After running back and forth between the two of them, I finally got a flavour, and a type of icing. They decided on red velvet cake, with buttercream icing instead of cream cheese icing. I used the cake recipe that I had found on the AllRecipe website, and found a matching icing. It was the first icing that I made that had flour in it, which confused me to no end. I had to go back online and check to make sure that the words didn't get jumbled or the recipes didn't get mixed up. But anyways, the cake was very moist, and I had enough icing for a four layer cake! In my opinion, it was a bit too much icing, and next time I would probably put a thinner layer on, but to each his own.

Here's the recipe!

• 2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• Red food colouring (The original recipe calls for 2 ounces, but I think that is too much)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 shortening (or 1 margarine square if you don't have shortening)
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. white vinegar

Preparation:

1. Grease two 9 inch pans, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Combine the buttermilk, salt and vanilla. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening (or margarine) and 1 1/2 cups of sugar until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the cocoa and red food colouring.
3. Beat the buttermilk mixture alternately with the flour, mixing until incorporated. Stir together baking soda and vinegar, then gently stir into the cake batter.
4. Pour batter into the two pans, and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.
5. Allow to cool before frosting.

Note-- The original recipe says to mix the cocoa and red food colouring together before even starting the cake mixture, but this is not necessary.

Icing

• 1 cup milk
• 5 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preparation:

1. In a saucepan over low heat, combine the milk and 5 tablespoons of flour. Stir constantly, until the mixture thickens. Set aside to cool completely.
2. Cream together the butter, 1 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until it is light and fluffy,then stir in the cooled milk mixture.
3. Beat until the icing reaches spreading consistency.

Valastro's Vanilla Cupcakes

I watch Cake Boss religiously, and when I found out that there was going to be a Kitchen Boss I was pretty excited. I'd always wanted to try a recipe from a famous baker and wonder if the desserts are really as good as they look. Guess what? They are. This recipe was featured on the Valentine's Day special of Kitchen Boss, and I printed it out from the site. As soon as I baked and iced them for the first time, they were gone. For the next few days, all I heard from my family was the word "more". I want more cupcakes please! I hadn't really been successful in finding a creamy vanilla buttercream until this recipe, and I use this icing anytime I can. I made a half batch of these cupcakes, which usually make 12 cupcakes exactly. I wanted to test my icing tips, so I tried a yellow rose, using a rose tip, and a flower, using the same tip. The pink cupcake ended up being my favourite, because it looked exactly like a rose. Even my sister's boyfriend was impressed, which is saying something since boy's don't really notice things like that ;)

I really recommend these cupcakes because they are delicious, and so is the icing!

Here is the recipe:

• 1 1/4 Cup of All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 Cup Butter, softened
• 3/4 Cup of Granulated Sugar
• 1/4 Teaspoon fine Salt
• 1 1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
• 1/4 Cup of Milk, room temperature
• 1/4 Cup of Buttermilk, room temperature
• 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla extract
• 1 Large Egg
• 1 Large Egg White, room temperature

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and put cupcake liners in a standard 12 hole muffin pan.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt together.

3. In another bowl, mix together the milk, buttermilk and vanilla.

4. In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, combine the butter and sugar and beat on medium for 2-3 minutes. Add the whole egg, starting on low and increasing to medium until incorporated. Slow down to low again and add the egg white, increasing the speed to medium until it is also mixed in.

5. Add 1/3 of the dry mixture, and 1/3 of the wet mixture. Continue alternating until all ingredients are mixed, but not completely smooth.

6. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of batter.7. Bake 20-25 minutes until the cake tester or toothpick has come out clean.

Note-- These cupcakes will bake with a flat top, and will not end up dome or rounded shape.

Vanilla Buttercream:

• 1 cup of Butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups Icing Sugar
• 2 teaspoon of Milk
• Innards scraped from one vanilla bean (optional, but I highly recommend it)
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

Preparation:

1. With the whip attachment on your stand mixer, beat the butter until fluffy.

2. Pour the icing sugar in, 1/4 of a cup at a time until all of it is mixed in.

3. Add milk, vanilla bean seeds and vanilla. Increase to medium-high and beat until the icing is very light and fluffy.

Babies, babies and more babies.

I made these cupcakes for my mom's best friend's sons baby shower. These were the first cupcakes that I decorated with fondant. I made this fondant by hand, buttercream this time instead of marshmallow. I coloured all of the fondant with gel food colouring from Michael's, and dusted the cheeks with red luster dust. My sister decorated the girls, other than the hair, which I did. For the eyes and mouths (of the boys), I used the tip of a #3 Wilton icing tip (eyes), and the bottom edge of the tip for the mouths. I was really happy with the result of these cupcakes, and not once did anyone peel off the fondant! These babies were just placed onto chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing.

Ice Cream Cake?

Hands down, this has been my favourite cake that I've made. My friend told me that she wanted an ice cream cake. After me asking multiple times, and her answering the exact same thing, I decided to make her what she wanted. Well.. kind of. On the inside, this is a normal chocolate cake, topped with chocolate buttercream icing. This cake was covered in chocolate fondant, yes, you read that right, chocolate fondant. I made the ice cream scoops and brand with regular white fondant from the store by rolling the fondant out and cutting the shapes with an exacto-knife. Not only did we all get a laugh out of this cake, the fondant tasted very good and was a hit with my friend, so I was very satisfied. :)

Canned Icing Cake

I made this cake for my sister's boyfriend, Kevin, as a going away cake. He was going away for field hockey training, so it only seemed fitting that I made a cake with his jersey on it. This cake wasn't homemade, so I decided to spice it up by using food colour to make grass and the jersey. I used a grass tip for the green, and just used a spatula for the white of the jersey. I ended up using one of the icings that come in a squeeze tube for the outline, the lines down the middle and the number. I was really happy with how this came out since it was my first time decorating a cake with icing, rather than just putting the icing on with a spatula and leaving it flat.

I was also really excited when I saw the look on Kevin's face when he realized that it was his jersey! :)

Second Fondant Cake

For this cake, I made the fondant. It was a marshmallow fondant, but it ended up being way too sweet, so once again it got peeled off. I tried to colour this fondant with purple food colouring, but because it was marshmallow, it was a bit harder to knead. I made a bow once again, and a thing ribbon around the bottom of the cake.

First Ever Fondant Cake!

This was my first attempt at a fondant cake. For this cake, I actually used boxed fondant from Michael's, which wasn't very tasty. I tried to make a bow, and a twisted rope on the bottom. My sister offered to paint it with food colouring and water, and this is the final product. Overall, the cake tasted great, but everyone peeled the fondant off because it wasn't very good.

I, Sarah, am a Newbie.

Hey there! My name is Sarah, and I'm 15 years old. I absolutely love baking, and try to bake as often as I can. With two sisters that both have boyfriends, and a mom and dad, I can always count on my food to be eaten, whether it's bad or good! I like to try new recipes, and would like to own my own bakery someday. Hopefully after I start posting recipes and some pictures, I will have a couple of followers. Even if I don't, I just like knowing that I have this creative outlet to showcase my baking. I've been reading several other baking blogs and have finally decided to start my own, so hopefully I will stick to it.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah :)