Bridal Shower Cake - Stephanie & Dennis

Today I had the honor of putting together a three tier bridal shower cake!  It has been a while since I decorated a cake, so I was beyond excited to take on this project when one of my girlfriends asked me for the favor.

The most important thing about any fancy cake is making sure that it tastes good!  My friend gave me full creative license with flavors, so I went with a springy combo of pink champagne cake, strawberry filling, and almond icing.

Putting together a nice tiered cake takes a little leg work but it's well worth it.  I learned all my tricks from the Wilton Cake Decorating courses I took at Michael's.  My instructor, Maxine, was amazing, and a little fireball.  Her recipe for flawless decorator's icing listed at the end of this post is my go-to recipe for cakes that need to last a couple days and have decorations that hold up.

Are you thinking of trying out a tiered cake?  Here's a few tips as you work through it.  First, you want to make sure all of your cakes are level.  Wilton sells a leveling tool, but I just eyeball it and use a bread knife.

Once they're leveled, pipe a border of icing around the edge of the cake, called a "dam."  This will prevent your filling from oozing out the edges.  Let the dam set for a few minutes (put it in the fridge to speed this part up if you'd like), and then add your filling.  

Once your bottom layer is filled, gently place on the top layer.  Make sure the flattest side is up.

Next, you want to "crumb coat" all of your tiers.  This means putting a thin layer of your buttercream on to trap any crumbs that may come off into the icing.  All of your cakes should be on cake boards the same size as the cake.  You can buy pre-cut ones at most craft stores, or cut your own out of old cardboard boxes and cover them with foil to make them look nice.  Make sure your crumb coat is nice and smooth, and let this set for at least 30 minutes.  I like to let mine set in the fridge, as it's much easier to work with cold, stiff cakes than warm, soft ones.

While you're waiting, I highly recommend trying a tastie- we ate cake scraps topped with filling and icing to make sure everything paired well.   After 3 or 4 tasties each, hubs and I agreed that this cake was going to be a hit.

After your crumb coat has set, it's time to create some support in your cakes.  Depending on how big and heavy your cake is, you can use different types of support.  I used plastic smoothie straws.  Stick a straw in the cake (put it in a place that will definitely be covered by the next tier!) and pull it out.  Trim your support and use that first one to measure others for your layers.  I used 4 on the bottom layer and 2 for the middle layer.  You want to measure and trim your supports, FULLY FROST your cake, and then put your supports in last.

Decorator's tip - see the pretty design on my cake?  I achieved that look by gently pressing a paper towel onto the top!  This is a nice touch when frosting with buttercream instead of fondant.  Some people use a small foam roller to smooth out their icing.   You can buy these for less than a dollar at any hardware store.

So now your cakes are frosted and supported, it's time to stack them!  Very gently, place your middle tier ontop of the bottom, and then place the top tier on the middle.  Depending on the size of your cake, tie all three layers together by putting a sharp support straight down through the middle.  This cake was rather small and compact so I didn't include that here.  Now's the fun part, decorating time!!

I used white and yellow buttercream and a spool of ribbon to decorate this cake.  Pressing the ribbon into the icing while it is just barely still tacky will make it stick yet still be easy to remove without pulling off all the icing.

 

And, voila!  Three tiered wedding cake!  Best wishes to Stephanie and Dennis as your wedding approaches - enjoy every minute! 

Maxine's Decorating Icing:


Note - S= small batch,  M= medium batch, L= Large batch


Need: 


Shortening - S, 1 cup.  M, 2 cups.  L, 4 cups.
Milk - S, 1/4 cup.  M, 1/2 cup.  L, 1 cup.
Confectioner's Sugar - S, 1 pound (4 c).  M, 2 pounds (8 c).  L, 4 pounds (16 c.)
Flavoring - S, 1tsp.  M, 1 1/2 tsp.  L, 2 tsp.

*I made a medium batch for this cake and had some leftover.

Do:
- Soften shortening by stirring it in the mixing bowl for about 2 min.
-Add confectioner's sugar in 3 - 4 batches.  After each batch, add part of your milk, and part of your flavoring
-Continue whipping until desired consistency and flavor.  Add more sugar to stiffen, more milk/flavoring to soften.

Kappa Tuesday: Simply Sweet & a Teaser

I love girls nights. Really, there are few things better than eating good food, drinking good wine, and savoring delicious dessert over uninhibited girl talk with your besties. Last night's Kappa Tuesday was epic. We went through more wine than usual, hung out longer than usual, and laughed as much as we always laugh. Perfection.

You know what else was perfect? Lindsay's dessert last night. She brought over chocolate frozen yogurt and fresh, mixed berries. So simple, and SO good, so satisfying and perfect for a girls night.

I think what made this dessert was the high quality ingredients. I'd never tried Stonyfield fro-yo before last night, and I was so impressed with how creamy, rich and ultra-chocolatey it was. There was none of that yogurt tang at all; it tasted just like full-fat ice cream. I eat fro-yo all the time, and this may be a new favorite. Also the berries Linds picked up were fresh and ripe, especially the blackberries. YUM.

After we'd polished off our official dessert, the wine was still flowing and we still had plenty of room for more sweets which leads me to my teaser....

Do you know what this is??? I'll give you a few hints, but not too many because I will have a really fun blog post on this coming up this weekend!

-This is a plate full of cake scraps (unofficial tasties!)

-The cake is pink (hopefully you can tell that)

-It's for a celebration

-Do you like champagne?

-Remember how I told you I love cake decorating?

-Super fun project ahead!!

Check back this weekend, and until then, remember, Life is Sweet!

Almond-Lemon-Lavender Cupcakes

It feels like Christmas Eve...except its Cupcake Camp Eve!! I just finished up my cupcakes for tomorrow and I am psyched!

My friend Christina of All's Fare Food Blog & I will be joining the ranks of amateur bakers for tomorrow night's cupcake fiesta.  She put together some super cute Red Velvet Baseball cupcakes (hopefully they'll be good luck to our Sox) and I just finished up my Almond-Lemon-Lavender cupcakes.  They are a heavy white almond cake, with lemon curd filling and topped with some homemade lavender buttercream.  Perfect for spring, right?

I have to say, this is one of the messiest cake recipes I've followed yet!  To be fair I was kind of rushing the fun part so I could make it to my girls night dinner on time, but sheesh, next time I will be sure to use my splatter guard on the KitchenAid and stir slowly with a nice big spatula!

The batter comes together very thick, and bakes into a fairly dense, but still moist cake.  I was initially concerned that the eggs whites were too prominent in the cake, based off of my miniscule toothpick test to make sure they were done. 

So I went to town with my new cupcake corer and tried a "tastie" as my hubs and I are calling them, which made me confident that the over-eggy-ness was just my paranoid imagination.  This cupcake corer is amazing...and affordable.  Only $5.00 at Williams-Sonoma!  Highly recommend if you like to fill your cupcakes.

To make sure I'd be brining something worth sharing, I topped some tasties with a dollop of lemon curd and a dot of lavender buttercream.  So good, and a great way to keep me from "testing" a whole cupcake at 11PM!

I definitely had a blast making these for tomorrow night and my husband can't get enough of the lavender buttercream.  You know it's good when your sweetie goes back for seconds, thirds, fourths... Do you have a recipe that is a super hit? 

Also- for anyone who made it this far, were you at Cupcake Camp too? Let's trade notes!

White Almond Cake (adapted from Martha Stewart's white cupcake recipe)

Need:

• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon pure almond extract
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 7 large egg whites

Do:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake or muffin tins with papers; set aside.
• Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
• Mix milk & almond extract together (Martha suggests a glass measuring cup...I used a plastic measuring cup and it was fine.)  Once mixed, set aside. 
• Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat until pale and creamy. With the mixer on medium speed, gradually add sugar in a steady stream; continue beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low.
• Add flour mixture to butter and sugar bowl in three batches, alternating with the milk/almond liquid, and starting and ending with the flour. Do not overbeat. **This is serious!  Mine got TOO thick...I highly suggest stopping beating as soon as your final batch of flour is completely mixed in.**
• Wash out your electric mixing bowl really well- make sure there is NO butter left anywhere!  Put on your whisk attachment, and beat egg whites on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.
• Take one third of the egg whites and fold into the batter.  This should help lighten it up a little bit. Fold in the remaining egg whites in two batches, and be gentle!  This is where it can get messy, and you also don't want to flatten your eggs.
• Pour batter into prepared tins, filling cups to about 1/2 inch from the tops. Bake until a cake tester inserted near the centers comes out clean and the tops spring back when pressed lightly in the center, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool completely before removing the cores.
• Once cooled and cored pipe in lemon curd filling.  You can make your own, but I used Dickinson's brand from Stop & Shop.

Lavender infused buttercream:

Need:

• 1/4 c. water
• 2 tbsp. dried lavendar
• 2 sticks of room-temp butter
• 1/2 c. vegetable shortening
• 2 tbsp. milk (i used skim)
• appx. 5-6 cups confectioner's sugar
• food coloring

Do:

• In a small saucepan or microwaveable bowl, heat water to boiling.  Add in dried lavender and let simmer for a good 15-20 min or so. 
• Strain lavender water into another bowl, removing the lavender and leaving just the hot infused water.  Put the water in the fridge for another 20 minutes+ to cool.
• Beat the butter and shortening together until nice and light.  
• Beat in milk then add confectioner's sugar 1 cup at a time until it comes together into a nice buttercream.  You may need to add a splash of milk or more sugar to reach your desired consistency.  I always eyeball my buttercreams and never keep track of how much sugar I actually end up using.  The key is to watch the consistency and TASTE! 
• Once you like how it's looking, add in your cooled lavender water and food coloring.  To make the pretty purple color in mine, I used probably 16 drops of blue, 8 drops of red...and then 1/4 teaspoon of violet gel color too.  The drops were just creating a not-so-pretty greyish color, and then when I added the violet gel it finally turned the pretty purple I was hoping for.   Mix your buttercream until all of the infused water and color is combined.  Give it a taste, make sure it feels right to decorate with (not too smooth, not too stiff) and either use immediately or save in an air-tight container for up to one week.