Oh Baby Showers!

Hi Ya'll!
I have been doing a lot of caking lately so I have been busy but I have noticed that my baby shower orders typically come in clusters. I'll get a few scattered here and there and BAM! I'll client 3 or 4 clients asking about baby shower cakes in the same week. So I thought it would be fitting to do a post dedicated to baby shower cakes:)

First up we have the baby shower cake I just delivered this past weekend to the Springettsbury Township Park in Springettsbury, PA. It a really nice park and lots open space, so if you are an outdoor person and have a shower coming up I would recommend that location.

This cake really didn't have a theme, my client K saw a cake online and sent me the photo to replicate it. So you know how I feel about doing someone's else exact same cake so I put my whole little twist on it. The baby booties were different in that mind where hand made and not from a mold. I also made my gift box part of the cake a little different as well. The cake flavor was vanilla with vanilla buttercream.

The next baby shower cake I did a couple of months but since my photos were bad (need to get a better camera) I never posted them. My client actually sent me some photos yesterday when her sister in law wanted to place an order for guess what?? A baby shower cake for her niece:) So here are the pictures she sent me. The cake was an 11x15 sheet cake with an 8 inch square on top. For the life of me I can't remember what the flavors were but the theme was "Eat your Peas & Carrots" so I made the 8 inch square look like a garden with a hand molded baby (my babies look so much better now than this one) and some hand molded vegetables. The "dirt" was crushed oreo cookies.The cake was delivered to Shank's Mare in Wrightsville, PA. It is a store located on the bank of the Susquehanna River that specializes in outdoor equipment rentals and tours of the area. They also have a meeting facility upstairs that they rent out for events like baby showers!

The last baby shower cake was for a client D, I did about 2 weeks ago and was delivered locally to a bed n breakfast here in York City. The name of the bed and breakfast is Grace Manor B & B on West Market Street in York, PA. The inn so is cozy and has all of the detailing and sophistication of an earlier era. The cake in the shape of a lady's church hat in various shades of brown and beige with ruffle flowers and sugar beads. D also order cupcakes as well to go with the main cake which were decorated with little babies wearing hats.

So that is what I have been up to lately..more to come:)

Peace & Blessings
Kima

Hubby's 30th Birthday!

Soo I have officially slacked off again with my blog! Great thing is have been busy, bad thing my blog has suffered. So I am going to work backwards starting today to get caught up yet again. Since today is my husband's 30th birthday I decided to talk about his cake and go back from there. So I have a huge wedding and baby shower this weekend so I couldn't give my hubby another party like last year so I decided to keep it simple and make a cake and surprise him at his job.

So I asked him what flavor and theme he wanted.. of course he said Amaretto (which has been his favorite flavor since he tried it) but he surprised me with the theme..Superman. I say, "Superman? Really??" and he says, "yes Superman!". So Superman it is.. I made a mini 2 tier cake (5 and 7 inch rounds) covered in blue fondant. The one thing I did differently was I made Swiss Meringue Buttercream for the first time.. and boy let me tell you..it is sooo freaking DELICIOUS!!! No lie! All family cakes will be made with this buttercream from now on and I will offer it to my clients now. It takes some work to make, but it is soo worth it. It has silky smooth texture and its not overly sweet..it just melts in your mouth. And I don't even like buttercream so that is saying something!

Back to the cake..so I made some stars, hand molded 30 and a the superman logo to on the cake. Nice and simple the way my hubby is:) He loved it so I am happy. Now off to make cookies, cake pops, and etc.. for this wedding.

Peace & Blessings
Kima

Carrot Cake Recipe (Yes its diary free too:)

Good Afternoon Ya'll!

I know two blog posts in one day...cupcakes must be flying through the air! But alast no.. I have just finally been able to get my thought together this week (and I baked up all of my orders yesterday) so now I have some time to blog and since my posts have backed up I thought I would you guys 2 in one day as a way to catch up. 

Now I am not a fan of carrot cake..GASP! I know.. but those who know me know I don't really eat much cake these days. After baking and decorating for 3 years now cake doesn't look the same to me any more... I love it don't get me wrong but I just can't eat it unless I am trying out a new recipe. What prompted me to search for a really good from scratch carrot cake recipe is my mother in law. She loves carrot cake so a while back I was on the hunt for a really great recipe that she would enjoy being that its always a nice thing to impress the mother in law (beside she cooks wayyyyy better than I do, so cooking for her was out lol).

 Now this recipe I am going to give out will be one a very few recipes.. as you know.. us bakers they are our trade secrets. So to stay in business we keep them close to the vest, but I don't mind giving one out every now and then to my readers:) This recipe is also great for someone who is on a diary free diet because there is no diary in this recipe at all! Eggs aren't really considered diary so because they aren't made with milk (or the casein protein which alot of people are allergic too). The recipe calls for grated carrots, I cheated and use my food processor which I would recommend for those of you who have one. This recipe makes a great moist carrot cake from scratch  (cause I'm all about the scratch baby). 

Kima's Karrot Kake Recipe

1 cup nuts (pecans or walnuts) those of you who allergic to nuts can leave them out 

2 1/2 cups of finely grated raw carrots 

2 cups of all purpose flour (no cake flour here)

1 teaspoon of baking soda 

1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon 

1/8 teaspoon of ginger

1/2 of nutmeg 

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups of white granulated sugar 

1 cup of vegetable oil (or you can use canola  or safflower)

2 teaspoons of real vanilla extract (not the fake stuff, the real stuff like Madagascar vanilla)

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray two 8 inch round cake pans (or butter and flour) and line the bottoms of the pans with a circle of parchment paper.   

Toast the pecans or walnuts for about 8 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool and then chop coarsely. 

Peel and finely grate the carrots. 

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

In bowl of electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the eggs until well combined.

Gradually add the sugar and beat until the batter is thick and light colored.

 Add the oil in a steady stream and then beat in the vanilla extract. 

Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. 

With a large rubber spatula fold in the grated carrots and chopped nuts. 

Evenly divide the batter between the two prepared pans and bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  

Remove from oven and let cool.

 After about 5 minutes flip pans over onto a wire rack or pan flat pan (like a cookie sheet) if you don't have one to finish cooling. 

Level the tops, fill, frost and enjoy!

Here is a picture of a cake I did last week that was made with this recipe and a diary free vanilla buttercream filling. 

 

So that's it folks. I hope you enjoy the recipe:) Next post I will be sharing with you  Neapolitan Rice Krispy  Treats I came across on the web. They are soo cute and will work with any party you are planning. 

Peace & Blessings

Kima

My Take on Naughty Cakes

Good Evening Ya'll

Time seems to be flying for this month.. its the end of the month already.. Where did the time go? May is upon us already and I will be gearing up for a big month full of cakes:) So to wrap up April I wanted to tackle the issue over "naughty cakes". This topic was brought to my attention via  a client of mine, M. who wanted to order a naughty cake for her finance for his birthday. When she called me so was at the end of her rope because everyone else she called either hung up on her (her words not mine) or told her they didn't go them. So when I asked her what she wanted and she told me I had to laugh a bit because I was like you were hung up on for that... she wanted a cake in the shape of breast that showed a little bit of nipple. I was like okay I can do that. She was sooo happy that I was able to do it and I was happy to do it for her. Now this is my take on "naughty cakes" and I know every cake decorator is different so you will probably get a couple of different views on this subject but this is mine. Now I am a very devout Christian and thus I do a have in terms of what I will and won't do business-wise. At the same time I make cakes and do them because I love to make cakes and but also to make money as well.  So the only theme that I will not tackle is the male anatomy, particularly some one calling to ask for the male anatomy in the nude. That is a cake that I won't do. Nor will I do cakes nude cakes of the female anatomy below the waist line (a nice way of putting it ;). I will do male and female torsos as well as 3D figures scantily clad, but not nude. Anything above the waist line for me is free reign and I will do it for a client.

Now I know some decorators out there don't have those kind of restrictions but for me I am not comfortable with doing anything more than that, if they are more power to them and I will refer people to those decorators. That is the great part about cake decorating, there is a decorator out there for everyone:)

The best part about this story is that not only did she love the final product, her dad did as well and three weeks later he ordered a cake for someone at his job for their birthday. So it just shows you never know when you will get a referral.

Below are the two cakes that I did for daughter and father. I did get a kick out of doing them to see how real I could make them look and the experience helps me grow as a decorator.

Red & Black Breast Cake- Vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream filling 

Steelers & Penn State Female Torso Cake- Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream 

Peace & Blessings 

Kima

Another Wedding & IPOD cake

Hi,
So this entry is going to be pretty short since I posted the majority of my projects for this week yesterday. I had 2 orders for today. One was an IPOD birthday cake for my pastor's son. The other is a cake and cupcakes for a wedding. The wedding cake and cupcakes were made with the reception luau theme in mind. The bride wanted flowers on each cupcake and butterflies on the cake.

Floral Wedding Cake/Cupcake Tower- 2 tier red velvet cake with cream cheese buttercream. Cupcakes are vanilla dusted with cocoa powder, triple chocolate fudge and lemon with key lime cream cheese buttercream. Various colored royal icing flowers sit on top each cupcake. Cake has wired butterflies and gumpaste flowers on top (orchid, lily, calla lily and jasmine). I made the cupcake tower as well. That was a big learning lesson and now the hubby and I know what to do differently.

IPOD Cake- Vanilla bean cake with White Chocolate buttercream filling. This cake was alot of fun to make. 

I was be posting Saturday night from New Jersey! Yeah! We will be picking up my sister in law for a couple of days before she starts school and visiting my god-daughter because she will be in another pageant! So I will have more pictures of 2 birthday cakes and my first event that I have planned (birthday party) plus cake and high heel cookie favors. I am sooo excited.

Peace & Blessings.