Seashells, seashells, by the sea shore

You got me, that's not how the tongue twister goes. But, I've got something better than a tongue twister. I've got cupcakes! Not just any old cupcakes. I have sea shore cupcakes! These little cuppies were very simple to make. All you need are cupcakes, buttercream, a chocolate mold, and some chocolate wafers.

Melt your wafers using your preferred method - microwave, melting pot, or double boiler - and pour the chocolate into your mold. Pop the mold into the freezer for the chocolate to set. For me it took about 20 minutes because I was impatient. Then you pop those suckers out and lay it onto your swirl of frosting.

Now, you'll notice my shells aren't monotone. Personally, I'm not a fan of pure white shells. Why, you ask? Have you been to the beach? Did you ever find a snow white shell? In case you're wondering, I really do mean on the beach, and not something found in a store that was probably bleached.I thought not. Most shells aren't pure white. They have some color to them - so why should mine be any different?

Regardless of how you like your shells, these cupcakes are a great way to say goodbye to summer and ready yourself for fall...unless of course you live in Hawai'i and it's summer all year round!

The danger of reality baking tv

Do you watch reality tv? What about shows such as Cake Boss, Amazing Wedding Cakes, etc? I do. I can spend an entire weekend watching them even if they are repeats. Yes, it's horrifyingly true - I have no life. Watching these shows does 2 things: it teaches me how to cake and it gives me crazy ideas about ingredients that I obsess over.

One such show is DC Cupcakes. Granted, I only watched half of an episode but it was enough. The sisters were shopping and tasted hibiscus syrup. Yes, hibiscus! Who knew hibiscus was edible? I grew up around the flower (how could I not, being from Hawai'i?) but I never thought to eat one. Of course I then needed to find some syrup. That's the advantage of working for a grocery store - I went to the office and bothered - *ahem* excuse me asked - the Natural Foods department if they had any. No luck there. So then I asked the Gourmet division, which, incidentally share the same assistant so yes, I bothered her twice. No luck. She did however tell me that I should stop watching food tv because I would always ask her about specialty ingredients which we never seem to have.

So what's an obsessive baker to do? Figure out how to make my own syrup of course! I found some dried hibiscus (which was actually very easy to find) and experimented. The dried flowers turned my syrup into a pretty pink color so I went with pink macaron shells with a white chocolate/hibiscus ganache. Unfortunately the pink syrup didn't translate well with the white chocolate so I had to add some color to pink it back up. I also ended up with lilikoi macarons and a...wait for it...this is a long one...a chocolate hazelnut macaron with vanilla bean/fleur de sel caramel filling.

I'm thinking macarons are going to be a part of the Christmas gifts this year. Yes, I know it's August but really, it's right around the corner and I've got more flavors in the works. Besides, if you're over on the East Coast, wouldn't some tropical flavor macarons make you feel warm and fuzzy inside while it's freezing and blustery (using my Winnie the Pooh words here,) outside?

And now I am off on vacation, heading towards what we Hawai'i folk call "the 9th island," then it's right back here to deal with more egg whites and almond flour. I'm warning you - there may be more macaron posts ahead!

Oh and I also have my version of a maple bacon cupcake but more on that later. My flight is tomorrow and I still haven't packed. Oops!

Bridal Shower

I did my first bridal shower cake today! I was pleasantly surprised by how it all turned out since the fondant and the stacking didn't give me a bit of trouble (could this mean that I'm *gasp* learning?) and there was only a minor incident with a fallen decoration that was easily remedied with a bit of RI. How did this cake come about? Read on...

Last month the other half and I went out to a birthday dinner for a good friend whose daughter is getting married next weekend. As she and I were talking, I asked if she wanted me to do a cake and/or favors and she said yes. As Aunty started telling me what she was thinking, I immediately said "oh good, I've got it all planned out and this is what we (read: I) are doing."

My husband scolded me for that. Apparently, since it isn't a cake for me I'm supposed to listen to what the other person wants. Ooookay. I listened. And it's wasn't so bad (shhh, don't tell him that he was right.) I said chocolate, she asked for lemon so what the heck, make it 2 tiers and we're both happy. Easy, peasy and here's the plan.



Bottom: chocolate cake, but not just any old chocolate. This cake had another flavor that you had to think about for a bit. What was it? I'm not saying so if you weren't at this shower then we'll just say it was plain Jane (PJ) chocolate.
Top: Lemon.
Filling: Buttercream. But if you know anything about me, then you will know this wasn't a PJ BC. Nope. This was a lemon buttercream with fresh lemon curd that I made specifically for this cake.
Design: Fondant (of course) with butterflies flying up the cake.

Notice the embossing on the ribbon and cake board? The invite had an embossed frame around the invite panel so I did a play off of that.

Aunty also asked for 2 small giveaway cakes for the bridal shower games which weren't a problem. Since the top tier was an 8" cake there was still enough batter to make 2 4" cakes and more then enough buttercream to fill them. I found 2 clear plastic boxes at a local hardware store (who knew I could find stuff in there while waiting for the husband to buy lumber??) and decided they would make the perfect boxes for what I had in mind.

Doesn't it look like someone caught the butterflies?

Ready for the final product?




In case it's eating at you and you need to know, yes, I did favors too but it was just plain old macarons with ganache. Nothing special but they are still so dang temperamental! I was ready to cry. And yet, I'm still willing to whip up more almond flour and keep trying. Go figure! And yes, the colors are off. 2 different cameras, oops. If anyone who was at the shower has better (or any!) pics of the cake, please send them my way.)

Baby Shower Cake and Onesie Cookies!

We finally got to have the baby shower for a couple of CWs after the original date was canceled due to a sick mommy-to-be. Lucky for everyone, she's much better and eagerly awaiting the arrival of their little one who should be coming next week. For me, this meant a busy week, first making up a whole new batch of cookies for favors, then making the cake.

Now, I had a design in mind and let me tell you, in my mind, it was great. 3 tiers, edible image, fondant perfectly done....what I did wasn't even close. Thank goodness for CWs who let you practice your caking skillls on them!

Note to self: when people (especially those taking photography courses,) with actual (good quality) cameras are taking photos of your wares, remember that all of your mistakes will come through bright and clear. Must either get better at cake, cover up mistakes better, or do not allow photos....





Not the I prefer one colored cookie over another or anything but they yellow onesies were the cutest, IMO. C'mon, can you picture a little baby boy wearing a onesie that said "Chicks dig me." How cute is that? The Hula Girlz onesie is a nod to my friend, Hula Muvz who produces the original shirt.

Baby, keys, and shoes are all made out of gumpaste.

Now if you're asking what happened to the 3rd tier, I could say that it exploded into cupcakes but the reality is that the edible image I ordered was not what I was expecting. Oh, the image was correct...it's the way that it looked once it was applied to the fondant that I didn't like. I assumed the background of the image would be sheer but nope. It was very noticeable, like a bandage and not quite the image I was going for. Oh well. I'll figure it out.

Next up, a break! At least for a few days. Heck, maybe I'll even take the weekend of from anything baking related. Yeah, right!

Thank you, Shan, for sharing your great pics!

Baby "Crocs"

I made the cutest little shoes last week. Yes, I made SHOES. Not shoes that anyone would want to wear, but they were pretty darn cute. These shoes were going to be a decoration for a baby shower cake that alas, was not meant to be. Okay, to be fair, the shower will still happen but just not this weekend so that means the cookies favors will be introduced to my trash can since they will not survive - darn my efficient border-line OCD ways!

Anyway, back to the shoes. Thanks to the genius of makatralsy (I know, you're probably thinking "Who??" but it's okay, I know who I'm talking about so just go with it,) I had the cutest pictures to work from. I made a trial shoe and then went to town.

I'd show you the individual pieces of the shoes as they were put together...if I had taken any pics of the process. As it stands, I only managed to take 1 little pic of the process and then some of the completed shoes.

After each piece was added and it had dried, I had the cutest little life-size shoes a baby has never worn.



The shoes are completely edible, but since they are made out of gumpaste, I wouldn't recommend it. Not only are they very hard, it probably wouldn't taste very good. If you'd like to try it, though, I still have the practice one. We'll just have to get you to sign a waiver first clearing me from having to pay for any dental work you may need.

In case you are wondering why orange, I'd love to say the parents are huge Mario Batalli/Iron Chef fans (you know, before the Food Network decided to drop his shows and he left IC,) but really, it's because the parents-to-be haven't found out the baby's gender and I was using trying to stay away from green and yellow. And orange is such a bright, cheery color don't you think? Or it could be my construction wife side coming through again.

What do you think these are?

Any guesses? *Knock, knock* is this thing on? Any one know what these are, or what they will become?

Cookie Stencils

Have you ever seen cookies that a beautiful design that is so detailed you wonder how they decorator created it? I've seen them too and learned that some decorators use stencils to create their images so of course, I had to try it too.

Stencils can be used on cookies or even cakes such as the gorgeous damask cake from my friend Martha...maybe you've heard of her? We're pals but please, don't spread that around. I don't need any crazed fans hounding me for an intro.

Photo of Martha Stewart Damask Cake from Martha Stewart Weddings & Culinary Stencils

These stencils are made from food grade plastic and can be used on BC or fondant covered cakes using an off-set spatula and stiff royal icing. I tried stencils recently on 2 different projects, with 2 completely different results.


Project #1 - Cookies for a friend's event, using her company name.



I used a metal stencil for the hula dancers. Definitely very sturdy and easy to use. Since the metal didn't bend, I had crisp outlines as long as my stencil was clean of any other icing.

Project #2 - Wedding favors

These cookies were made using the plastic stencil below. Obviously I need a lot more practice with this type of stencil (sorry Tiff!) I don't know if it was the way the cookie was iced or because of the font on the stencil which allowed the upper right portion of the S to wiggle (and was probably just my own inexperience) which made it hard to keep the stencil from moving.

The cookies look good from a distance but when you get closer, you can see that the edges are rough. Note to self - ask CookieMookie for tips since she is the stencil guru...



Regardless, I have an amazing cherry blossom cake stencil that is just begging to be used on a stacked cake so I will definitely need to practice again...after my next few projects of course. Next up - gumpaste!