Stuff I Make

Rain-Cakes, Cup-Bows...

... sometimes being clever is hard. And after a marathon two weeks of baking and decorating, I haven't much cleverness left. So how about we just leave it at Rainbow Cupcakes?

One by one, they seemed a bit tedious. There was a LOT of fondant coloring and cutting - most of which took place around midnight Thursday, making it a bit of a blur. Everytime I finished a color I felt victorious.

But after it was put all together, cupcake and all...

... I was super happy with the results. I made 60 of these babies.

Each sat upon a nice luscious dollop of vanilla bean buttercream (yes, I used real beans).

And of course (Of Course!) there was a surprise on the inside:

I found this project to be an interesting lesson in baking. Each color was individually piped into the cupcake liner and spread out in even layers. Yet when baked, it sort of did a volcano looking thing, with the red sinking and the bottom colors rising. Upon discovering this I squinted my eyes and scratched my chin. Unfortunately physical gestures were all I could conjure as my brain was devoid of explanation and any higher thought processes at this point. Remember, I'd just piped 6 individual colors into 60 individual cupcake liners after making 6 fondant hues, then developing 4 color variations within each hue, then cutting each variation into 6 shapes to evenly distribute over 10 cupcakes per hue.

Brain. Fried.

At one point I could have sworn I saw the Care Bears. Doesn't my yellow look especially Fun-Shiney?

But overall this was a fun order. Who doesn't love rainbows? Even the wrappers are pretty!

 

 

 

Pink and Pretty

My neighbor and friend asked for a classy, pink, flowery, baby shower cake for her sister-in-law. With a little creative license, this is what I came up with:

I couldn't tell you what kind of flower this is - it started as a rose but I kinda made it up.

My grandma taught me how to arrange flowers. She also taught me to paint. I can't help but think that even though it's a different medium, that I'm using those same skills here.

Flower cakes especially make me think of my Grandma. Which makes me happy.

 

Hiding inside was white chocolate mud cake, strawberry preserves, and vanilla buttercream.

Boy Scout Cake Auction (Wherein I Pass On My Master Craft to Future Generations)

Max is in his first year of Boy Scouts and this past weekend was the Blue and Gold Banquet. Part of the event was a cake auction and Max (and dad) were very insistent that we enter. The "Cake Lady" cannot NOT enter a cake auction to benefit the Boy Scouts, right?

One problem: I was broken. Having been in a snowmobiling accident a week earlier, I was struggling to stand up straight, let alone bake and decorate cakes. Thankfully I had help from Big Pharma and was able to come through for Max.

We entered two categories: Most Colorful and Adult Entry. Not "adult themed cakes", this is the Boy Scouts after all, but rather cakes made by adults. The scouts were required to make their own entries.

Max started by taking my recipe and halving it. (Insert The Importance of Math In Everyday Life lesson here.) Then he found all the items in the pantry and read the directions. Of course I was there to direct, but he did it all himself. And look at those nice even layers. (I taught him my top secret tricks!)

Icing was a bit trickier, so I guided his hand until he got the hang of it. (Pardon my son's aversion to wearing shirts as of late.)

The best part was applying the sprinkles - or jimmies if you want to be technical. We placed the cake on a big platter and between me, Max, and Clara, we covered every square inch of the cake and the kitchen:

And I'm proud to report that he did indeed win first prize for most colorful! He was called to the front and spent a good minute or so talking into the microphone, hand gestures and all, explaining how he made it. Unfortunately nobody could hear him due to people in the auditorium not shutting up. But he was pleased as punch and now owns a trophy that says "Most Colorful Cake!"

The cake that I entered:

Listen closely, it tells a story:

Psstt... wake up.... did you hear that noise? Quick, Toby, grab your flashlight!

Here's one. I'm so glad I'm always prepared.

Um.... Guys.... are those BEAR TRACKS?? FREAK!

Holy Moly Mother of Sponge Bob! The bear tried to eat the honey!  Guess we shouldn't have been messing with that beehive earlier.

Guys, those aren't bear tracks, those are ALIEN tracks. I totally know.

You're dumb.

It IS bear tracks because we're CUB scouts. GET IT?!

Now you're dumb.

Oh sick... did you fart?

Yeah, I totally get gas when I get scared! Isn't that awesome!?!

Yeah, I think your gas scared away the bear.

AWESOME!!!

I'm really good at imagining conversation between 8 year old boys. And then making it into a cake. Toby is the one with the goofy brown hair, by the way. Zeke, the blond, impresses with his flatulence. Manfred Montebank II holds the flashlight and he's always prepared.

Man, those were good drugs. Anyway...

The tent was slightly technical to make because I really wanted to create a "tarp" look on the top. I don't know why I needed it to be complicated. I tend to do that to myself a lot. Spaghetti noodles ended up being the perfect solution. I actually use spaghetti all the time in my cakes to hold things together - like heads and bodies. Great, now the drugs are making me give away my secrets.

I ended up being quite pleased with the finished product. Max was impressed, too. We dropped it off at the cake auction and saw that another great local cake maker (and friend!) had the same idea. I can only assume that great minds think alike (and also visit similar sites for inspiration)!  In my case, I was inspired when I saw a cute cake by Creative Cakes by Julie that had a tent and three little heads sticking out. I went with it from there.

Sadly, my cake didn't win in the Adult Category. The winning prize went to a giant (I mean GIANT) cake that was covered in coconut to look like a giant ski hill with gummy skiers. It was rather impressive. As was the other winning cake which was titled "A Pile of Poo." And it looked just like that. Next year I think I might play more to my audience - i.e. 8 year old boys - and skip the detail and go for either the grandiose factor or the gross factor.

As for the auction part, Max's gifted and talented teacher had the winning bid. I was glad because I KNOW that she'll appreciate my engineering efforts! 

 

She Likes Dogs and the Color Pink

To round out Clara's birthday MONTH, she requested a pink dog cake to have at her friend party. We searched around on Google for a while and settled on a basic design using two round cakes:

Of course it had to have a crown.

We named her Pinky. And she was full of chocolately cake and minty fudge goodness.

Thank goodness my client approved!

 

Rock'em Sock'em Cake'em

I was asked to create a design based on the vintage fighting game Rock'em Sockem Robots. The cake was for cousins, both turning one. Not wanting to spend hours creating fondant robots (and passing that on in an indecent price), I decided to do the design in royal icing.

There were two more robots on the back...

And room on the top for two "dueling" candles:

Even the inside of the cake was "dueling" with alternating layer of chocolate and vanilla cake. But I never get pictures of the insides. :(

Overall I was really happy with this cake, especially after dreading the detail on the robots. I hope it knocked their socks off too!

 

Kicking Out Cakes Left and Right

Roundhouse Cakes has been busy. We're barely into the new year and I've already breezed through over 21 pounds of powdered sugar. For those who are new to the site, or have found me on Google, when I say "we... at Roundhouse Cakes" I mean ME. It's a one woman operation here, from start to finish.

I've been working hard at updating my Facebook page as well as the galleries on my business site. But for now, here's a quick digest of what Roundhouse Cakes has kicked out lately:

Dr. Seuss cookies:

With custom toppers (for a baby shower):

More Lego cakes:

Pink Yoshi Cupcakes:

A Superhero Cake:

Pink Dog Cookies:

More football cakes:

(the football is made of red velvet)

A rainbow balloon cake (for my daughter):

And last but not least, a Bird Cage Cake, in celebration of my kid's great grandmother's 100th birthday:

The top tier was chocolate with chocolate fudge filling, the middle tier was carrot cake with vanilla buttercream, and the bottom tier was butter pecan with caramel buttercream fillling.

 

 

Christmas Cookies

I opted for the nostalgia this year:

I found myself unable to committ to a border style:

But I thought these Santas were pretty darn cute.

I really couldn't committ to a background on these babies...

Thinking that the bottom middle is my favorite.

I also made a giant batch of "peppermint candy" cookies as seen here:

... but Santa ate all those!

Hope everyone out there in the cookie/cake world had a great Christmas!

Autumn Flowers

Last week was pretty much the end of our beautiful fall colors here in Virginia. Thankfully I got to extend it a litle bit by making some of my own!

This cake order was gluten-free and was my very first. I have to say that the little tester piece I cooked wasn't half bad. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised.

Hoping that everyone got to enjoy some fall colors this year. They're the months I live for!

Gingerbread House of Epic-ness

Every year the Historic Association here in our town holds a gingerbread contest. I've always wanted to enter but have never had the time. This year I ALSO didn't have the time, but at some point in the past few months I lost my mind - giving me the gumption to enter.

I had many visions for this house. I originally wanted to recreate the house from the movie UP. But after some google searches I saw that it'd already been done. I hate when people copy me retroactively. Next I thought about doing something with a Woodland/Fairy theme. I pictured a rustic house nestled into a tree stump with lots of fairy dust, magic mushrooms, and flowers. Yes!

First problem was obtaining a tree stump. Yes, my house is nestled up to a large woodland area, but I'm not about to cut down any of MY trees. So I looked up a tree cutting service, called, and kindly asked if they had any stumps to spare. To my surprise, they called back a week later, having saved two perfect stumps for me. Yes! My husband was the lucky one who got this call:

"Honey... on your way home can you go to Hilton off of the freeway, drive behind on the access road, find a large green truck, and pick up two stumps that are sitting next to it?" He didn't even ask why. He stopped enquiring about such things long ago. He did however arrive home with my stumps!

Looking at the final product and the sketch of my original "vision", I can see that I was perhaps a little too lofty in what I envisioned. The house isn't part of the tree, it sits on top. The woodland look was a little less so because there wasn't a ton of room, plus I wanted it to have a fresh snow look. There are only two fairies, simply because I hate modeling faces and bodies.

I can't even remember how many pounds of gingerbread I made... but it was like a factory in my kitchen. I'd erected a plastic model of my house, so it was easy to use those guides and bake it all up. The windows are simply melted butterscotch candies. Everything is edible (no glue allowed!!) except the lights inside the house.

Ready to see it?

There is a lot of piping and detail. I kept going back and forth from "too much?!" and "MORE!"

The back:

Sides:

(Inside that little extension above is a battery pack connected to lights inside the house.)

After I had finished the roof, I was surpised to see that I'd used an entire box of Golden Grahams. I may have eaten just a few. Some.  A lot. Oh how I was delighted to rediscover Golden Grahams!

A sitting area:

The front porch:

My little fairy lady is wondering if this fresh snow will freeze her beautiful flowers! Her name is Lily Grace, by the way. Oh yes, when you work this long on something you begin to make up all sorts of stories.

The house at night:

And this folks, is my first real gingerbread house. If you want to find out how you can see it in "real life" and even vote for it!... like my Roundhouse Cakes Facebook page (at the top right) where you'll find all the details.

 

 

Lego Batman

A two tiered, Gotham-esque cake with legos galore!

The Joker:

Batman:

Gotham City:

The top tier was red velvet with vanilla buttercream and the bottom tier was chocolate cake with fudge and chocolate ganache. Yum!