Wedding Party!

Woo. Not much to say other than Oriental Trading is going down. This thing that they sell and call a "cake topper" is most certainly not a cake topper. Its hell. Solid glass hell.

Here is the back of the cake. All the silver swirls were hand painted.And the front. With that beautiful, elegant, wondrous topper.



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Blueberry Pie!

Mini blueberry pies, ofcourse.

Its hard to believe how eassy these were. Really.

Lets start with the dough. Of course, you could use a store bought pie crust thats "ready to roll", but thats boring and easy. In a bowl, dice up two sticks of butter, add 3 cups of flour, four tablespoons of sugar, and a pinch of salt. Mix it up with a pastry blender, a fork, or even your hands. It should resemble coarse bread crumbs. Once everything is all combined, start adding cold water, enough to make a sticky dough.

The trick with pie crusts is to keep everything cold. I put my bowls in the freezer until I'm ready to use them for added coldness. You don't want your butter to melt.

Happy Dough

Once your dough is nice and happy, and it doesn't fall apart, wrap it up in some plastic wrap and refridgerate for 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile, make your pie filling!



In another bowl, combine half a cup of flour, 2/3 cup of sugar, 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/4 a teaspoon of allspice. Mix well. To this, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and 3 tablespoons of water.

You then should have something like this. Now, go pick your blueberries from your backyard (or take a trip to the freezer isle in your local market). You should have about 12 oz. Pour them into the bowl and mix.

Once the blueberries are partying in your flour spice mix, set them aside and go grab your pie crust and a rolling pin. Here is where the fun begins. Flour your surface like no one is watching. If you think you have floured your surface too much, you still don't have enough.



Roll out your dough to about 1/8in thickness. Using a circle cutter, cut out circles that are slightly bigger than your mini muffin tin. Line the greased muffin tin with the dough and fill with your blueberry mixture. I used a regular spoon and it worked out perfectly.

Now, for the tops. You could roll out the rest of your dough, and punch out more circles and cover the pies (make sure you have a slit for air to escape) like so:


I used a mini heart cutter. Super cute!!
Or, you could do the traditional criscross pie top, like so:


Its up to you. Either way, after all your pies are covered up, pop them into a preheated oven at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until light golden brown and the filling is bubbly.
Let them cool for a few minutes before you pop them out.
There you have it! Enjoy!

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Cinnamon Buns

Oh, why, hello there gorgeous.

This weeks endeavor was cinnamon buns. Now, I know what your thinking.

"Why not just go to the mall and pick up some from a side stand? Prevent all the hassle and clean up and still enjoy a bun of cinnamony goodness. "

Well, because, I'm difficult like that. But oh my, these are heaven. And well worth it. Especially when you have a handy dandy stand mixer (thank you Pio's!!!!..again)

These buns are quite possibly the most moist ooey gooey buns ever. And in the best ways.

My cousin helped me with the glaze on this pan. He may of gotten a little carried away..yeah. Theres a tiny cinnamon bun in the middle; if you look hard enough, you'll see it.

But regardless, these are amazing.

The recipie made 12 LARGE (and i mean large) cinnamon buns. Next time I try them, I'll attempt to make them smaller, maybe even mini (<3).>

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Its been four months..

Yeah, I know. But my New Years resolution is to keep up with this blog again. Woohoo.

So I bring to you....

THE CUPCAKE CAKE

Woohoo!

This was for a friends birthday. I finally got the Wilton Giant cupcake pan (for christmas, THANK YOU PIO'S!!) and his birthday happened to be the next day.

Oh, and here is another cake that I made a while back for my brother. It is a double chocolate cake filled with chocolate pudding and chopped up candy pieces (3 muskateers, crunch, hersheys, and milky way) and covered with a dark chocolate ganache. Oh, and m&m's too. Yes, you did just gain 2 pounds from reading this. But he loved it, so yay.

Thats all for now.

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Happy Birthday

This post is just to show you two birthday cakes I've done recently.

The first was for Ms. L's surprise birthday party. Its a simple semi-homemade French Vanilla with cream cheese frosting.

Semi Homemade French Vanilla Cake
-One box of vanilla cake mix and the oil, water, and eggs called for on package
- Clear Imitation Vanilla
-French Vanilla Flavored Coffee Creamer (the liquid, not the powder)
-Cinnamon

After mixing the cake mix per directions, add a tsp of clear vanilla, 2 TBSP of the creamer, and a few shakes of cinnamon. Mix again, and bake! Its that simple and it makes such a difference! After the cake is cooled, even out the layers, cover in frosting, and viola!

Serious credit to my dad on this one. I can't pipe cursive to save my life, so I let him have a go. Someone make him teach me one day!
This guy over here is a basic yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. Yeah, thats right. CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM. The easiest frosting I have ever made. I have to warn you though, if you plan on covering your cake with it and then decorating with it, CHILL the cake first, if not your decorations will run down the side of the cake (don't ask me how I know, I don't want to talk about it).

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup solid vegtable shortening (I used the butter flavor one, made a big flavor difference)
1/2 cup butter or magerine
4 cups (about 1 lb.) powdered sugar
1 tsp clear vanilla
2 tsp milk.

Cream the butter and shortening. Add the powdered sugar gradually, one cup at a time. If you have a mixer (stand up or hand held), USE IT. I can't imagine how messy this would be without one. After you have added all the sugar, add the vanilla. If your icing is dry, add the milk. It should be a teeny but runny, but should coat the back of a spoon without dripping off. Cover with a moist paper towel until ready to use.

Hope you like it!
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A Heart And A Pearl Necklace

<333

So, this was my first actual order of a novelty cake! (Thank you Mrs. Daub!) Its a heart shaped box with a "pearl" necklace. I have to say, this cake was NOT easy. First off, AC Moore let me down. They sold out of FONDANT! I nearly died. Luckly, I have an amazing dad that solves problems in under 5 minutes (or your money back). Generally though, a lot of time went into this cake, but I'm super happy with the way it turned out. A few nicks here and there, but I'm super happy, and everyone loved it.

It's a devils food cake with buttercream frosting (made from scratch!!!!), and covered in fondant. For the "pearls" I rolled out little balls of fondant a few days before, and strung them on some floral wire. Then after I atatched them to the cake, I painted them with some Wilton Shimmer Powder in silver mixed with a tad of water, giving them a really realistic pearl look. Then I added a ribbon and bow made out of fondant, and my signature roses all around.
The cake board was made out of Foam Board covered in super cute wrapping paper (think I got it at walmart a few weeks ago) and then some clear plastic wrap. Over all, I was thrilled with the outcome and look forward to making more novelty cakes.

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Mini Cakes!

Short, sweet, and to the point. =]

This idea hit me when I was walking around in my happy place (AC Moore). I saw the cutest little cake pans ever. The best part? ON SALE! My heart skipped. So I got them, and rushed home and luckly, I had two birthday gifts I needed to come up with. So, mini cakes were born.

For Alicia

Hmm, wonder who this one is for..

And another for "Ms. L", hence the giant purple L. ^_^

Its simple really. Take your favorite cake mix, bake, cover in your favorite dressings, add a cake box, and you have a really cute birthday gift idea. And they are the perfect size for two (or a very nice helping for one).
The cake boxes, found them at AC Moore also.


And ofcourse, I added my signature fondant roses.


And this one, I just had fun with. Everyone is allowed one messy cake, right?

Ok, maybe too much fun.. Don't report me to cake wrecks!

Thats it for now!

<3 JessyBakesCakes