A New Course....

I'm starting a new blog! It'll be full of tips and tricks and reviews of crafts and baked goods I've made. I'll be teaching you how to make the items yourself. If you've been following my blog here please follow my blog there. I'm really excited about it and will be putting in most of my efforts and focus into it. Thanks!

http://frombeccashome.blogspot.com/

Decisions, decisions....

With all the changes that have been going on I've been exhausted. Exhausted and I've been thinking.... I'm thinking about taking a break from the baking business for a bit. I've felt like it's been taking over my life for a while. I love my customers and I love making the cakes but I'm missing out on time with my kids. It kinda hit home when my son got home from school this week and said, "mommy will you play with me?" and I had to sigh and then say "mommy can't right now, she has to go make a cake." It's like this every week. And I just am thinking to myself, "how much longer is he going to want to play with mommy?".... probably not much longer. My husband works hard so I can be home with the kids and I feel like the point of him working is so I can be here for the kids, so what am I doing? I'm going to take a break and focus on the family for a bit :) Before I know it both kids will be in school and I'll have more time on my hands to bake....and I'm not quiting completely...just slowing it down a lot :) 

Jack Skellington Cake in buttercream

This cake was for a customer's husband's birthday. I thought it was fun, definitely different than my typical birthday cakes. And I love Halloween so this was a little bit of a treat for me to be able to do something like this. Anyway...the cake is a chocolate cake with oreo crumb filling and vanilla buttercream filling. It started out covered in smooth buttercream and I piped on all the details- this part took a long time. 

Aside from taking a few breaks for hand cramps it went really smoothly. And the finished cake looks like this:

 Around the sides of the cake are quotes from the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas". They say "What's this? What's this?" and "I can't believe my eyes!" Both are memorable quotes from the movie.

Baking Secret: To achieve the right shade of black buttercream- use cocoa powder and black gel food coloring. 

Every baker has her day...

Yes, I create cakes as a job. Yes, I always deliver my cakes on time. Yes, I'm proud of my work....but it doesn't always go as smoothly as it seems. If you've ever watched "Ace of Cakes" or "DC Cupcakes" then you've probably witnessed their stress or one cake collapse. It's just part of the business. When you work with sugar it doesn't want to stay- it wants to pull away, separate, melt, etc. So here I am admitting I've had my fair share of mishaps, forgotten steps and fondant failure. When that happens it ends up like this: 

But as I've told myself hundreds of times, "it's just cake. It's not the end of the world". Go ahead and get any tears out you need to. Give yourself a little break. Then come back and start over. I know it's not what you want to happen, but it just does. And it's ok. This is why I watch cake shows - as horrible as it sounds it's nice to see them stress out and see their $1,000 creations collapse. It makes me feel better :) 

But it's usually fixable. In this case my fondant didn't go on right....grrr...yes, still a lil bitter about it. But I went back and removed all fondant and cut the cake underneath (a crucial step). This is what it looked like- a bit bare:

But it turned out like this:

Hopefully this will inspire someone not to give up. Everyone has challenges, but you can work through them....even if it keeps you up till 2 am multiple nights in a row. In the end, it'll all work out and maybe it'll turn out beautiful. 

It's done!

Phew.... once I stepped back from the table and admired the wedding cake I had just assembled I wanted to jump for joy. There is a lot of work and a lot of stress that goes into a wedding cake. And this cake just happened to be delivered on Friday the 13th.... (insert twilight zone music here). 

As you can imagine the stress goes beyond the date on the calendar. It's from the being up late at night baking the cakes, filling, icing and trying to make them look perfect. It's from the bumps and turns on the road while the wedding cake is in the back of the car. It's from those late night calls from the bride worrying over the table cloth being under the cake properly. All of which is totally understandable....and yet it all went smoothly.... thank goodness. 

The venue that the bride picked out was gorgeous. The room had 2 full walls of windows that looked out onto the marina. Absolutely gorgeous. I really hope this couple has a very special day. And I REALLY hope they like their cake :) I already got a text from the bride saying it looks amazing which totally made my day. Now, I think it's time to relax, at least before tonight, when I start on a chocolate cake.

Homemade Ice Cream Sanwiches

Recently I went to a BBQ where the desert was ice cream sandwiches. The kids devoured them and the adults loved them too! I thought I'd make my own ice cream sandwiches for a game night I was hosting. I decided to start with the ice cream. I made it from scratch starting with boiling the cream, milk and vanilla. 

I whipped the eggs and egg yolks with sugar till it was pale and fluffy. I incorporated the boiled milk mix into the egg mix (tempering the eggs).

 

Once it was all in one bowl I transferred it back to the pot and continued to cook the mix on med- low heat until it thickened (enough to coat the back of a spoon). 

I placed plastic wrap directly on top of cream mixture (to prevent "skin" from forming) and chilled the mixture in the refrigerator . Once chilled, I poured it into my ice cream maker. 30 min. later  it was ready to be spread into a shallow baking pan (like a cookie pan). I lined the pan with freezer paper- wax side up. 

Then I spread the ice cream into the lined pan. I let the ice cream set in the freezer for a couple of hours. Then I used a biscuit cutter to punch out perfect circle shaped ice cream serving to go inside of the cookies.

All in all the process took a couple hours but it was worth it. You can't find ice cream that rich and creamy in the grocery stores. It brought back memories my parents' big ice cream maker that you had to hand crank. Thank goodness for Cuisinart! But truly, homemade ice cream is the best. And I offered this delicious treat along with some of BECCA'S blue BAKERY recipe cookies. I made the "Basic Chocolate Chip Cookie" with milk chocolate chips and I made the "Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies" with a hint of nutmeg, dusted with sugar. This was a treat for my hubby as well because I only offer cookies at the bakery during holidays. So he was very excited to be able to munch on a chocolate chip cookie while it was "not in season".  

Wedding Cake Tasting

With wedding season comes tastings! And most of them start off like this. I've made mini cakes and a whole lot of fillings and icings. It may not look like it at this step in the process but it took hours of work just to get to this point:

After the "assembling" is complete it's time to cut. It's very important to have straight, uniform pieces. I start with a tall, well stacked cake. Then I take an apple corer and remove a small circle of cake from the middle of the cake. Then I make about 1" pieces. They are approx. 2  inches long and 4 inches deep. This is the standard size for wedding cake pieces. And yes- there is a method to cutting wedding cakes. For ex. a 6 inch round cake can easily feed 8 people and could maybe feed 10. 

After cutting the cake comes the plating. Which means I'm almost done! This is my favorite part because I get to see the final product. I must say I really enjoy seeing all the uniform pieces of cake layed out. Maybe it's my OCD or just my love of cake. Hmm... anyway- the bride and groom seem to like this part too :) 

 In the above picture: 

*Oreo cake with vanilla buttercream 

*Amaretto cake with almond buttercream

*Bananas Foster cake with a rum/brown sugar caramel layer and vanilla buttercream

*Lemon cake with a lemon cream cheese frosting and a layer of strawberry buttercream

The Ups and Downs of Wedding Cake Season...

So most of you know that my "real" job is a baker. For those of you who don't know that, well, I bake. I started my own home run bakery last year and it's been an amazing journey. And there have been a lot of long nights spent covered in powdered sugar. When the end of summer comes around it begins a wonderfully stressful time I like to call "wedding cake season." In addition to actual wedding cakes that I am doing I have brides who are planning their weddings for next spring. Which means, lots of cake baking for tastings too. I actually don't mind the tastings at all. It's typically a fun time for the bride and groom and I enjoy talking to someone who's just as excited about a cake as I am! I know, I'm a little cake obsessed :) But I figure that's a good thing in a baker.

Now, I'm off to go bake. And wash....lots of washing involved with all this baking. Thus, the yellow rubber gloves. They look real cute when my hair is pulled up and covered with a cap and I have on my apron. A sight that I'm very grateful no one has ever witness except for my kids and husband.

And I should have some new cakes up on my bakery blog soon : http://beccasbluebakery.blogspot.com/