3 cake weekend...

All the cakes from this weekend!!!

This one is for a dog's birthday. (more of an excuse to get together and have a BBQ and few drinks). It's made with red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting. The bulldog on top (Soco) is made of rice krispy treats and covered in fondant.

Ok, here's a pic of cake #2... delivered it tonight. It's the first purse cake we've done, so I know it's not perfect. We really had a hard time with the handle. But I love the zipper look.

Last cake of the weekend! Talk about "Death by Chocolate"! This cake was 3 layers... bottom layer, triple chocolate brownie with chocolate chips... next 2 layers, chocolate cake. The filling was a semi-sweet chocolate gonache and it was covered in chocolate buttercream. It was then decorated with fondant cut-out stars as well as hand piped vanilla purple stars. I LOVE tall cakes!!!! I had so much fun with this one!

New Recipe for rolled fondant... BUST

Ok, so I went out and bought a 5lb tub of Satin Ice fondant for this weekend.... the stuff sucks. I have used fondant so many times before, but this stuff is just too soft and thin. It falls apart as soon as you try to lift it. I don't know what the problem is. Maybe it's just the batch. Either way.. from now on I'm only using home made or Wilton!

Anyway... I didn't feel like making the usual marshmallow fondant, so I decided to try this recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup shortening
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 2 pounds confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, stir together the shortening and corn syrup. Mix in the salt and vanilla flavoring, then gradually mix in the confectioners' sugar until it is a stiff dough. If you are using a stand mixer, use the dough hook attachment. Otherwise, knead by hand. If the dough is sticky, knead in more confectioners' sugar until it is smooth. Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
2. To use, roll out on a clean surface that has been dusted with confectioners' sugar until it is 1/8 inch thick or thinner if you can. Drape over frosted and chilled cakes and smooth the sides down, or cut into strips to make bows and other decorations.

So far it's just too soft to work with... but I read the reviews and they all say it has to sit for a little bit. I hope it works! Otherwise all the fondant work I need to get done today will have to wait until tomorrow.

Nope... didn't work!!!! Back to the drawing board! Or I just have to stick with the marshmallow

New Stand Mixer!

For the past year or so I have been using a hand me down mixer that's probably as old as me, if not older. It was my aunt's mixer that we used for countless years to make all our cookies and other yummy treats. I always borrowed it when I had a lot to make, but I usually just used a whisk or a hand mixer. Then my aunt treated herself to a new one and passed old glory onto me. It was great, but lately started making lots of strange noises and it really sounded like it was on it's way out. It also developed had a mind of it's own and would just speed up for no reason. It sounded like a helicopter trying to take off.

So, my mom decided that it was time at last for me to have my own brand new KitchenAid stand mixer! She got me a 6qt and I LOVE it! I got it yesterday and I have already used it to make beer cupcakes, a red velvet cake, and some frosting. In a little while I will be using it again to make more frostings. I can't wait! It works great! LOVE IT!!!!!

It also came at a perfect time. The delivery date was scheduled for Friday, the 24th. I have 3 birthday cake orders for the 25th, so having it delivered early was perfect!!!

The rest of the weekend (July 18th&19th)

Canadian dude enjoying a chocolate Guinness cupcake!

Totally awesome little dude enjoying a chocolate cupcake!

Ok, so this past weekend was pretty much a failboat! I sold enough cupcakes to cover the cost of the booth rental as well as the ingredients, but made next to nothing for profits. And for this weekend I baked sooooo much more than usual because I'm so used to selling out by Saturday and not having the energy to re-bake for Sunday. I just can't believe how dead it was.

The worst part of it all is that it really starts to pick up at around 6pm and by 6:30 they're telling you to start packing up. I didn't go home with much, but going home with anything is a little disapointing.

So as it stands right now, we will not be at the FTBS anymore. It's just too expensive and the price just keeps going up. If it goes down again, then we'll see.

July 17th at "Flea by the Sea"

So this was the first Friday where we sold next to nothing! Today was totally not worth it. We didn't even cover the cost of the booth rental, let along the ingredients. I hope tomorrow we at least break even.

Not only that... but now Thor Equities has decided to not just raise the price for the vendors... not even double it.... but it's now double PLUS $75! And it doesn't even include parking!!!!

When this "Flea" opened... we paid $50 for a full weekend. Then for July they doubled it to $100 for the weekend. Now this!?! NO WAY! I'm done.

I'm glad I already decided that this would be my last weekend. I had a great time doing it, don't get me wrong. I LOVE to see peoples faces as they bite into the cupcakes and it shows they really enjoy it.

Today a small group passed by and 2 of the guys got the beer cupcake. The first one who ate it, seriously, I thought he was gonna pass out! He couldn't stop saying how good it was and that it was the best cupcake he ever had. Weather or not it really was, who knows. Maybe he was just being nice. Either way, I loved hanging out with them while they ate the cupcakes and just chatted about beer, cupcakes, photography, tattoos and whatever else.

I love seeing reactions like that and that's what I will miss the most. I really loved meeting people and chatting and sharing my cupcake obsession with the world.

To the other vendors I have met, because all the vendors down there are really awesome, I will miss you all! I'll be sure to pass by and say hi!

Update for this weekend!

So.. for starters... I decided to go with the majority vote and raise the price of all my cupcakes to $3 (since I voted in my own poll to only raise the red velvet).

Also, I baked more cupcakes today than I ever have in my life! I couldn't decide on weather to make the chocolate beer cupcakes or the peanut butter and jelly cupcakes again... so instead I made both! Well, the chocolate beer cake and the white cake... jelly's won't be filled until I'm there.

So, the cake options are:
Golden
White
Chocolate
Chocolate beer
Red Velvet
Banana nut

Frostings options will be:
Vanilla buttercream
Chocolate buttercream
Peanut butter
Cream cheese

I will also have triple chocolate brownies!

Come down and check it out!

Banana Nut Cupcakes

Ok... decided to try out a new recipe. Banana Nut cupcakes!

I love banana nut, so I hope these are as delicious as they look!

I already tried one while it was still hot and I'm not quite sure if it's "cupcake" or "muffin", but it was delicious. As soon as it cools i'm going to top one with some cream cheese frosting and then judge it's "cupcake" quality.

10 minutes later....

Ok, they cooled enough to be frosted and eaten. I tried one with peanut butter frosting and one with cream cheese. They were both incredibly delicious, but slightly more muffin like. They are very moist, but dense. I guess my hunt continues for the perfect banana cupcake recipe.

BEER CUPCAKES!

I've been dying to try these and OMG did they come out amazing! They don't taste much like beer at all, but they are incredibly moist and chocolaty.

I was going to top these with a chocolate frosting, but since I had some beer left in the bottle (I halved the recipe) I decided to pour some into vanilla buttercream. I would like to try these again with chocolate stout I found at a local grocery store.

July 17th, 18th and 19th!

Ok, so I'm going back to Coney Island to sell some cupcakes! Some small changes may have to be made though.

As much as I LOVE doing this... I have not been making any money off it. I charge way too little for my cupcakes and at the end of the weekend I usually only break even. And that's not even factoring in the HOURS it takes me to bake over 200 cupcakes and whip up all the different frostings. So, as much as I don't want to, I may have to raise the price a little and cut back on other things that don't sell as much... like the chocolate chip cookies. Last week I spent over 12 hours just baking over a 2 day period, not to mention all the time in Coney Island selling them.

Now... I really don't want to raise the price of all my cupcakes, so I'm thinking about just raising the price of the red velvet. They take 3 times as long to prepare and the frosting is made with cream cheese. It's probably the most expensive cupcake I bake.

Last weekend in Coney I was able to sell out of my peanut butter and jelly cupcakes at $3 each. They're expensive, but they still don't even cost as much as the red velvets do to make. So I think from now on I will have to sell the red velvet as a "specialty" cupcake to try to compensate.

I really hope that everyone realizes that when you come down to Coney Island to buy my cupcakes they are never more than 12 hours old and all the frostings stay on ice in a cooler. It really can't get any fresher unless you eat it hot out of the oven!

Mr. Met has been picked up!

Ok, Mr. Met has been picked up. I'm gonna miss him so much! Here's the work in progress:

Almost done!

Here we added the white jersey collar and the blue "shirt"
under the "jersey" and added the blue trim.Then we added the noseThe smile looks a little creepy with the lack of eyes right nowHere we did a double layer of fondant
cut out by hand for the back of the jersey.

I can't wait to get all the details onto the cake. This is the largest cake we have ever done! I'm so proud!

DONE!!!!Ok... we just have to place the hat on the head!!!! The hat is made of blue gum paste and Mike piped on the Met's logo with orange chocolate. Looks great! Better picture coming soon!There he is! All done!The back with the last nameLove him!!!!Us with our cake!

More Mr. Met

First step


We just finished building the arms... they're in the fridge chilling before we can cover them with the fondant. Then we can finally start to decorate! So excited!Added the arms Added the blue for the sleevesAdded more white for the jersey.

Ok, so we covered the board with home made orange fondant... took forever! It was just so soft.
The body we covered with home made marshmallow fondant. Worked out fine.
The huge rice krispy head we ended up having to run to the store to buy a box of pre-made fondant. We just completely ran out of the good stuff.

Everything is going to sit in the fridge overnight again so we can start decorating tomorrow. The hat was cut out yesterday, so it's still drying. I just have to add the face, the buttons, and some other details. Tomorrow is going to be a LONG day! It's a good thing I LOVE what I do!

Mr. Met cake update...

I want to pull my hair out! I decided to use some home made marshmallow fondant so that it would taste better.... NEVER again! EVER!!!!

We had to go out and get a new cake board today because the one we had didn't support the cake enough. The only one they had was a really ugly gold, so we decided to tint some of the home made fondant orange and cover the board. The orange coloring turned the fondant into a mushy mess. We had to use a giant chunk of gum paste so that the fondant wouldn't rip. This is a job that should normally take about 10 minutes... it took us over an hour. This cake may be the death of me!

Then I tried to roll out the rest of the white fondant for the torso. This worked a lot better than the orange fondant, but it was still a huge mess. I don't think I've ever had this much trouble covering a cake. And moving the cake from the first board to the second made a huge mess. But whatever... it looks great! I'm so happy. Not even close to done yet, but it looks great.

We still have to make the arms and get them covered and onto the board. The hat has is drying, just needs a brim. Jersey logo is cut out. Need to go get some orange chocolate tomorrow to pipe the logo onto the hat. And the huge job... covering the Rice Krispy head with fondant! Pretty sure I'm going to have to go buy some regular fondant for that.

AHHHHHHHH

Mr. Met cake

Ok, so were working on a Mr. Met birthday cake for Friday. I want it to be perfect. I know it's only Tuesday, but I'm already stressing out. I woke up today and baked 2 red velvet sheet cakes (3 if you count the one that somehow boiled into a syrup because my oven got too hot, which has never happened before so I don't know what that's about)

For about 2 weeks we have been discussing the size of Mr. Mets head. I have a ball pan from Wilton, but it just didn't seem big enough. Then I have a much larger ball pan with an 8" diameter, but that looked too big.

We also planned on using cake for the head, but after a trial run using the red velvet cake we came to the conclusion that it's just too soft. There just arent enough dowels in the world to get a round ball of soft red velvet cake to stay on top of a 4 layer red velvet cake without falling right over. (Trial cake was then broken down into red velvet balls for the 4th of July, I just can't justify wasting cake lol)

So, Rice Krispie treat ball it is! And the best part was that we didn't need a pan to shape it. It took a double batch of the gooey treat to create this giant head by hand, but at least I know I won't have to worry (too much) about it rolling off before they cut into it.

The majority of the body is already stacked and frosted with cream cheese frosting and chilling overnight before we cover it with some home made marshmallow fondant. We just have to build the arms out of the rest of the cake and I will also need to whip up a 3rd batch of cream cheese frosting. I also made buttercream to coat the ball with before we cover it so it's nice and smooth.

Mike is currently shaping out the tiny Met's hat from a 50/50 blend of regular fondant and gum paste dyed royal blue. This should take about 2 days to set. I am so excited to see this all come together! I'm sure it's gonna look great, but I just can't help but be nervous! So far, about 6 hours have already gone into this cake and we haven't even begun to decorate it. Tomorrow we must complete the structure and cover the whole thing with the marshmallow fondant. I hope everything just falls into place from there.

Next mission...

For my next mission I will be attempting some beer buttercream. I know it's pretty basic, but i've never had it before. In order to do this I will first have to figure out what cake base to start with. I am torn between just a basic chocolate cake brushed with beer or a chocolate beer cake (which I have also never tried before). I think I will most likely try out the chocolate beer cake since I am very curious about the flavor. I will also then be able to taste the cake and frosting seperate as well as together. If this comes out good, I know what my July 17th Coney Island special is going to be!

4th of July!

Us!The "info" corner with the fake cupcakes I made out of plaster and Spackle!The PB&J cupcakes!Festive cuppies!"Independence Balls"

Had a GREAT time! Thank you so much to those of you who came down to show your support! Friday, July 3rd, we sold so much that I had to come home and bake a few more batches of cupcakes, a double batch of brownies and whip up more frostings! Saturday, we sold out of everything but the brownies (Guess I only needed a single batch).

Due to the increase in booth rental prices, I am not sure if we will be able to do this again. I was so happy to see how many people came back looking for us and how many people were told about us by other people.

4th of July weekend!

I am so excited! Tomorrow starts our weekend of selling cupcakes! I have been in the kitchen for just about 2 days straight, but it's worth it.

Cupcake choices:
Golden
Chocolate
Red Velvet
White

Frosting choices:
Vanilla buttercream
Chocolate buttercream
Cream cheese
Peanut Butter buttercream

*option of a grape jelly injection for a PB&J cupcake!

Other choices:
Brownies.. OMG these are to die for! Super thick, super fudgy... with chocolate chips!
Chocolate chip cookies... VERY soft!
Red Velvet cake ball truffles... Limited amount, and they go fast!

Come down to the Flea by the Sea and check us out!