Collection of My Cupcake Bouquets

I tend to make these for only a few occasions, not a everyday order. Valentine's, Mother's Day and certain people's birthdays.  If you're a home baker in limiting when you offer these beauties, it increases the demand when you do. I love how many variation of flowers you can create. Your creativity can run wild.

Simple Wedding Cake

This cake has 10 layers of cake stacked directly on top of one another. It's heavy, different and what a client requested.

Other than being rather tall and not being tiered it's relatively simple to put this cake together.

In the end what you get is 10 layers of a classic vanilla cake filled with fresh tart raspberries and a full bodied cream cheese buttercream and frosted with cream cheese buttercream.

Vanilla Bundt Cake

When you want a nice cake without all of the fuss, try a bundt cake. You can glaze, gananche , leave it simple or as I did here just sprinkle with powdered sugar.  

If you'd like a vanilla recipe click here. You can add any flavor you'd like to it and just use the vanilla as a base.

There are a variety of bundt pans on the market, these are Wiltons.

Always allow your cake to cool before adding any topping.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

I love bread pudding so much. This chocolate version is simply divine. Although  I'm not including the recipe her but a dark chocolate rum sauces is delicious as a topping.

Ingredients

1 (12-inch) piece day-old baguette, cut into 1/3-inch slices, then slices halved crosswise (4 cups)

3 cups half-and-half

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

10 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped

6 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits

Directions

1. Generously butter a 2 1/2- to 3-quart soufflé dish. Put bread in dish.

2. Heat half-and-half, sugar, and salt in a 2-quart saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved and mixture is hot but not boiling. Remove from heat and add chocolate, then let stand 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Lightly beat eggs together in a large bowl and slowly add chocolate mixture, whisking until combined. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over bread and let soak at room temperature, pressing bread down occasionally, 1 hour.

3. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F.

4. Dot top of pudding with butter bits. Bake in a hot water bath until edge is set but center still trembles slightly, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Cool pudding to warm in dish on a rack. (Pudding will continue to set as it cools.)

Simple Rosette Wedding Cake

 

If you're trying to save money not just on a wedding cake but any cake where you may want to get  a little fancy but on a budget. Why not DIY with this tiered rosette cake? This cake can be made by a novice, all you need is the Wilton 1M tip to make the rosettes.  

You can decorate a single tier with the rosettes to jazz it up.

Top tier:

Coconut Rum Cake - Coconut rum cake & white chocolate buttercream

Middle tier:

Lemon Drop - Lemon cake filled with lemon curd & white-chocolate ganache.

Bottom tier:

Lemon Kiss - Swirls of almond and lemon cakes filled with raspberry puree & lemon cheesecake.

Sugar Flowers

I'm a very detailed person and for me when creating I try to be as detailed as possible. These are just a few of my creations and my process. These flowers are a mixture of fondant and gumpaste.

All Butter Pie Crust

Another super simple recipe. This is a go to pie crust when I don't have buttermilk it's a butter pie crust that uses minimal ingredients that most of us have in our refrigerator and pantry daily.  I use this to make fruit pies or savory pies. *When making a savory pie (meat pie) I add herbs and spices to the crust just to make the dish more flavorful.

If you don't have a pastry cutter or a food processor to combine the dry ingredients with the butter you can use a fork.  It may take a little more work but it works just as well.

Be sure to refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours. I myself prefer doing it ahead of time overnight just to cut down on time preparing everything.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced

1/4 cup ice water

Directions

1.  In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

2.  Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

*  Makes 1 single crust pie

Engagement Cake

This is an engagement party I had the pleasure of creating for. The bride to be loves Tiffany's but didn't want the normal Tiffany themed set up so we took the Tiffany blue color and used it as the accent color to accompany black and white.

Top tier:

Decadent Chocolate - A divinely decadent chocolate cake filled with chocolate fudge & chocolate-chip mousse.

Bottom tier:

White Almond Sour Cream - White almond sour cream cake filled with cheesecake & raspberry puree. Also great with chocolate-cheesecake filling!

Cupcakes:

Devil's food  with a Italian buttercream frosting.

Reflecting on Cakes I've Created

Valentine Cake Pops

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm not going to into detail about making cake pops simply photos as a basic summary of the process.

Roll you cake and icing mixture into balls.

Melting candy melts, I love my warmer and to thin it out I use paramount crystals.

Dip your stick into the melted candy and place it into the balls.

Naked Cake

Vanilla cake and Fresh Berry Naked Cake that you don't need to be a cake decorator to make. You can make a one tier for dessert. You need a vanilla cake buttercream (American, Italian or Swiss) and fresh berries.

My vanilla cake recipe can be found here

My Italian Meringue buttercream can found here

STRAWBERRY FRENCH MACARONS

Macaroons

1 1/2 cups ground almonds

1 cup icing sugar

3 egg whites

Red liquid food coloring (not gel), 8 drops for pale pink macaroons or 24 for dark

1/2 cup sugar


Directions

(Macaroons)

1. With the rack in the middle position, preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a food processor, process the almonds and icing sugar into fine powder, about 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside.

3. In a bowl, beat the egg whites with the food coloring until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, beating constantly until stiff peaks form. With a spatula, firmly combine with the ground almonds mixture and mix until the meringue fall and soften slightly.

4. With a pastry bag fitted with a 7-mm (1/2-inch) in diameter plain tip, shape 2.5-cm (1-inch) in diameter macarons, spacing them about 5-cm (2-inch) apart. (The batter should fall slightly. Otherwise, it is not quite soft enough. Remove from the bag and mix again). Hit the baking sheet flat on a work surface two or three times to slightly spread the batter.

5. Bake, one sheet at a time, for about 12 minutes, leaving the oven door ajar with a wooden spoon. The macarons should not brown. Cool completely on the baking sheet. (For smaller macarons, bake from 8 to 10 minutes. They should therefore be baked on two different baking sheets.)

(Basic Macaron Buttercream Filling)

Ingredients

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 1/2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Cut butter into pieces, and mash with a spatula until the consistency resembles mayonnaise.

2. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then add the granulated sugar, and whisk until the mixture lightens to an off-white [3] and you can no longer see the granules of sugar. Add the milk, and whisk to combine.

3. Pour the egg mixture into a small saucepan, and heat over low heat, whisking frequently to ensure that the mixture does not curdle or scorch. Cook until the mixture becomes thick and custardy, like pudding.

4. Pour the egg mixture back into its bowl, and whisk constantly until it returns to room temperature. Whisk in the butter in three batches, add the vanilla, and stir until smooth and all ingredients are fully combined. Pipe or spread onto one macaron half and sandwich between the other.

Italian Meringue Buttercream

So you want a great buttercream that's not so sweet, Italian buttercream is a go to for me. It's easy to make, takes color and adding not only flavor but I melt chocolate to make it chocolate. All of those factors are a must for me.

Again allow your egg whites and butter to reach room temperature before starting.

Get your sugar and water mixture up to 240. I used a candy thermometer because it's import for the temp to be 240.

When the sugar is at 230 start whipping your eggs with your stand mixer and whisk attachment, getting it ready to combine the sugar mixture when it's ready.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups  granulated sugar

1/2 Cup Water

8 large egg whites

4 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar and 1/2cup water to a boil.

2. While your sugar mixture is heating, place egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.  When your sugar reaches about 230 degrees on the candy thermometer, begin to whip eggs whites at medium-high speed until stiff but not dry; do not over beat! 

3. Once your sugar reaches 240 degrees, remove it from heat immediately, and with the mixer running, add it to your egg whites in a stream and beat on high speed.  Be careful, it's very hot!

4. Continue to whip your meringue until no heat remains in the bowl. You can place your hands along the sides of the bowl to check - it should feel like it's at room temperature.

5. Now, with the mixer still running, add your butter bit by bit, beating until spreadable, 3 to 5 minutes; then, beat in vanilla. If your buttercream appears curdled, keep beating until smooth.  Makes about 6 cups. 

6. Finally, taste your Italian Meringue Buttercream...delicious, right?  And the best part is, because of the amount of butter in this recipe, it carries flavor incredibly well.  You can flavor your buttercream with anything from coffee to maple syrup to fruit puree!  They sky is the limit! 

Storing And Using Your Buttercream

Your buttercream will keep for up to a week in the fridge, and about a month in the freezer.  I pre-make 3-4 batches of this buttercream recipe and freeze them all the time!  Before using your buttercream to fill or ice a cake, make sure it is room temperature.

18th Birthday Cake

Top tier:

Strawberry Chiffon - light lemon buttermilk cake filled with fresh strawberry mousse-line covered with white chocolate buttercream.

2nd tier:

Almond Mocha latte - moist sour cream pound cake filled with a velvety coffee mocha cream frosted with almond amaretto buttercream.

3rd tier:

Black and White - Dark chocolate cake filled with white chocolate mousse, accented with sliced strawberries and frosted with white chocolate buttercream.

Bottom tier:

Lemon Satin Cake - Zesty lemon cake filled with silky tart lemon mousse and frosted with Cointreau buttercream.

Moist Vanilla Cake

 

This vanilla cake yummy and moist. It can be used as a base for you to add whatever flavor you want. I promise you follow the recipe you won't be disappointed.

Be sure to allow your butter, milk and eggs to be room temperature before combining.

Creaming butter and sugar in the stand mixer until fluffy.

Add eggs 2 at a time until combined.

Because I made such a big batch, I poured my batter into a large bowl and a hand mixer to finish it off.

Because of the depth of my 6 inch pans I line the bottom with parchment paper and use a heating core so that the cake doesn't sick and bakes evenly.

For pan not really deep I use baking strips and I run a knife criss cross to get rid of air bubbles.

Allow the cakes to cool after baking. As you see below even after cooling enough to be removed from the pan I place the cake on a baking rake to cool thoroughly.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter

3 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

3 3/4 cups flour

1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder

3/4 teaspoon

Directions

1. Sift your flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and whisk together. Set aside.

2. Cream your butter, sugar and vanilla at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 8-10 minutes.

3. Add your eggs to your sugar mixture, two at a time, and blend until incorporated. Scrape down the sides as needed.

4. Add your dry ingredients alternatively with your milk. Begin by adding dry, then alternate with wet. Add the dry in four parts, and the wet in three.

5, Pour your batter into your desired parchment lined pans. Always bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean