Flower Cupcakes

Almond Joy Cupcakes with Ribbon Roses and two tone leaves.

Made for a small party my sister threw for the end of the semester at school. They are almond cake, coconut filling, and chocolate buttercream icing. The roses and leaves are almond buttercream. :)

I practiced a lot. :) I actually achieved a "perfect" flower and went running through the house, covered in icing, swathed in a huge apron, waving my piping bag about, screaming for my mother to come see.

Second Cake of the Class

My "Final" cake for Course 1.

I didn't go to last week's lesson so I was a little behind. I was off my groove for some reason so it doesn't look as perfect as I wanted. But that's good! It means I can practice more and get better!

Plus, it was Neopolitan flavored, (Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla) so it tasted AWESUM. I was actually going to do a vanilla cake layer but it fell apart when I stacked it. I was frustrated at first but then I got to get my hands in all that strawberry filling vanilla cakey crumbly mess to reassemble it and I felt much better.  

As far as the decorating goes, this is my very first attempt (ever in my whole life) to make icing flowers. My buttercream was stiffer than concrete and I had no way of fixing that at my class, so piping was difficult to say the least. I tried to do these roses dozens and dozens of times but really only these five were acceptable enough to actually put on the cake.

All in all I have a few changes I'm going to make for the next cake I do like this one. 

-The fresh strawberry filling will be fluffier frosting, not buttercream. The strawberries need to be diced and mixed in instead of sliced and layered. It makes cutting and presetation better. 

-Thinner icing for easier piping. 

-Better roses, I'm going to practice. 

-Better icing job in general. There were a lot of crumbs in the frosting and it wasn't as smooth as it could have been.

-I think I'll do the roses in pink. Some more color would be pretty I think. The chocolate decorations were nice looking, but it would be better with some dusty rosy pink flowers. And my green was borrowed icing from someone else. Next time I'll make it more of a natural green leaf color.

Next cake? Wednesday! My mom needs a dessert for her bible study! :) 

Cake Decorating.

I've signed up for a cake decorating class. I've wanted to get better at my cake decorating and all, seeing as I plan on making them for the rest of my life. Well, today was the first cake day!

I actually baked a lemon cake, filled it with orange marmelade, frosted the whole thing with lemon buttercream and triumphantly carried it off to my class.

I was a little sad that we could only decorate it with techniques we've been taught by our instructor. We have only learned three things so far so it was kinda limiting. Are you ready for this? The three things I could use to decorate my fantastic citrus cake were:

The dot:

If you want to use "the dot" while decorating, put on the "dot" tip, and pipe a dot. It's excrutiatingly difficult. I promise. Second up: the star.

Now, if you want to use "the star" for decorating, apply the "star" tip, and pipe a star. Sometimes it can be tricky! It will leave a little point if you don't stop squeezing the bag before starting a new star. It adds a whole new demension to the technique world....However! The third technique is the hardest of all. The outline...

Pheooo boy. This is tough stuff, my friend. Tough with a capital T. It's like a dot...but it keeps going until it's a line. And then, if you're good enough, the line will eventually turn into a picture -like this superb example of a heart shown above.
Alright alright, I'll end my sarcasm. I just kinda get a little bored in the basics class, that's all. But we are going to learn cool stuff next week I think so I'm really really excited!  Anyway, here are the results of my first class. I thought it wasn't that great, but my family said it was...
"This is awesome! I love you...*hug*" -John Mark
"Very nice, I want to eat it." -My dad
"It looks classy, honey." -My mom
"You're cake looks nice, Candice" -Laura
"It's beautiful." -Jorge

They also thought it was tasty. I couldn't snatch a picture of it til after it had been accosted and sliced into, but you get the idea.

Cherry Almond Tart

This, my friends, is called improv. It is also referred to as "tasty".

I pretty much just threw stuff in a pasty type thing that I made and then we all ate it. It doesn't look like much, but WHOO was it good.

Decmeber Birthday Cake

A birthday cake I did this past month.
My favorite part was the color of the frosting. :) Teal icing for the win.

I can't wait to go to my cake decorating class and learning so so much!

Belated Christmas cookies pictures...

True, these are not fancy super awesome looking cookies because me and my little brother just went wild with the frosting and sprinkles and everything. But what's Christmas with some hideously delicious gingerbread cookies? Am I right?

First Recipe Test of the New Year

So Purple Door Bakery has been a busy little thing lately. I actually registered my name for business in my tiny little beloved town of Duvall, WA. I am officially a real life business! *confetti canon violently shoots cupcake shaped confetti into the air* I think that's a good start to 2011, don't you?

Also, I am getting ready for the holiday of love: Valentine's Day.
I'm planning on putting a small advertisement in the newspaper for romantic treats for the second half of January and first half of February. Some ideas I've had so far are:
-Chocolate covered Cherries (with and without liquor cream inside...mmmm)
-Brazilian Brigadeiros (A type of chocolate truffle/bonbon of delight)
-Red velvet cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese filling and frosting
-Stained glass heart cookies
-A chocolate raspberry/strawberry couples cake (A cake small enough for two-maybe-three-ok-four servings)
-Assorted decorated artisan cookies (super fancy like)

Tonight I started recipe testing! I'm currently in the middle of my kitchen between recipes...  It's where I'm happiest, especially with a good mix of dance music. ;) Anyway, I present you with pictures of my White Chocolate Cherry Cookies! They'd be in that super fancy artisan cookie bunch.

They are a work in progress of course. I'm planning on tweaking the recipe into a rollable dough and cutting them with a scalloped edge biscuit cutter, and placing a halved maraschino cherry in the middle to make them look their prettiest. Right now they are a simple drop cookie with white chocolate drizzle. But I know for sure they are tasty!