Tow Mater Cake

Ok, so I know it has been a while since I have blogged!! It has been a crazy couple of weeks... I started a new bakery business and Dawson and I just took a road trip to South Carolina and back! I have had several orders for cupcakes and cupcake pops and have done many for other events that I have gone to in the last couple of weeks. I had one lady email me and ask me if I could do a "Mater cake" from the Disney movie Cars. I had NO idea if I could do a 3D cake or not...so I did a practice round to see if I could do a tow mater cake for this lady... here is what turned out.

Not too shabby... first try for a 3D cake and on a whim..not much prep or anything. It ends up that the lady can't get the cake, but I still did the practice round and now know that I can do it! Lots of new things, but it's so fun!!

I used fondant for the wheels, teeth, eyes, windows and side mirrors. A reeses is used for the engine...twix and twizlers for the tow part in the back. The cake came out of two 9 x 13 cake pans. I cut two inches off each cake lenghwise and then cut those two pieces in half so there were both about 6 in long- those 4 pieces were used for the cab part of the truck. I would probably do it a little different next time, but it's always a learning process!

Pink Fondant Flower Cupcakes

Yesterday I decided to try to make some marshmallow fondant and then play with it and make flowers. So I came out with the white & pink daisies and stacked them on top of each other and put an edible pearl in the center.  I made 12 of them and just left them on the counter to use them for something...who knew what!

Today, Dawson and I are headed to the AGGIE GAME!! (WHOOP!) We are going to meet up with my sister, so I decided to make some cupcakes and take to her and her roommates. I haven't made yellow cupcakes or vanilla icing yet, so I decided to give it a try!

I used my yellow cake recipe and made cupcakes and then made some homemade vanilla icing and died it pink :) I figured out how to swirl the icing on the cupcakes to make it stand up tall and then placed the premade fondant flower onto the icing and sprinkled the cupcake with clear sprinkles- I think they turned out pretty cute! And there were 2 extras- so Dawson and I got to taste them too :) They tasted great too! I love getting to bake and make fun things!! Thank you Jesus for providing the time for me to do something I love!!

Now I have another cute cupcake I can sell with Kakes N Bakes!!

First Customer!

Kakes N Bakes is up and running! I have had my first customer already and have several others set!! It's been fun so far! The first order I had was from my friend Courtney, she ordered a birthday cake for two girls in her office. It is a yellow cake with chocolate fudge icing- I hope it turns out well!! I got a fun pink box to put it in and then made a Kakes N Bakes label to put on top of the box.

If you have any more ideas of either cute things to make or detailed things that I need to make sure I keep track of (ie. Invoices, how much I spend, etc.) please let me know! I'm excited about this new adventure!

Kakes N Bakes

I enjoy baking cakes, cupcakes, cupcake pops (and much more!) and have made lots these past few months. I have now decided to create a little side "business" and start selling my homemade cakes, cupcakes, and cupcake pops. I was inspired yesterday and sat down, thought of a name, created business cards, made up a price list, and created a blog site for my new company.

Kakes N Bakes

I used my initials "K.B." and thought of Kakes N Bakes. I'm not exactly sure where this will end up, but we will see where the Lord takes it! I am excited to go on this adventure and do something that I love to do!! AND.. I don't have to eat all of the left overs if I sell them all! Perfect! ha.

I created a blog site for Kakes N Bakes so that I could have all of the information in one place and a website to send people to. Check it out... http://www.kakesnbakes.blogspot.com/.

If you know of people around the Austin area that would be interested in a cake, cupcake, or cupcake pop- please let me know!!

We'll Miss You Cake

These last two and a half months have been great to reunite with my best friend growing up, Courtney! We hadn't seen each other and really got to spend time with each other in a long time. My husband and I just moved to the Austin area and Courtney lives around the area too!! However, she just took a new job in the Dallas area and will be moving in just 2 short weeks. Sad day. She had us over for dinner last night, so I made her a "We'll miss you" cake.

It was a Snickerdoodle cake- so tasty (one of my husband's favorites!). I had some extra icing from the roses on the Red Velvet cupcakes, therefore, I decided to decorate Courtney's cake with roses as well. 

We sure will miss her! We have enjoyed getting to see her just about once a week! But those are the friends that you can go a long time without seeing and then pick right back up where you left off :) Can't wait to see where life takes her!

Love you friend!

Football Cake

My neighbor just turned 15 and he is on the freshman football team at school. I have been making all kinds of cakes, but they have all been with flowers and girly stuff...so I had to come up with something that a 15 year old boy would like.... thus the football cake!

I made two 9 inch round cakes and leveled them at the lowest notch on my cake leveler. I did that so that the base wouldn't be too tall and look silly with the football cake on top of it...and so that I could put frosting in the middle of the two layers, who doesn't like lots of chocolate fudge frosting!? And on a chocolate cake!! MMMMM tasty!

I frosted the two layers like I would with a normal cake with chocolate fudge frosting.

Then I made a cake in a 9x9 square cake pan and used this one for the football on top. I carved the shape of a football and cut some off of the top so the football would look proportional to the base of the cake. Make sure that your cake is completely cooled before you start to shape it- or else it will fall apart!

I then placed the football on top of the round cake and frosted the football with the chocolate fudge frosting as well. This took a couple of coats to keep all of the crumbs out of the top coat.

I used vanilla frosting and start tip 18 to make the laces and the ends of the football. I also used star tip 18 and the vanilla frosting to pipe stars around the bottom of the football- just so the football didn't get lost in the base of the cake.

I then used the grass tip and green frosting to make the grass around the bottom of the football.

It was so fun to make and he really enjoyed the cake with all of his friends for his birthday :)

I also used all of the excess cake (since I had to carve the cake and level the round cakes) and made a lot of cupcake pops!! No need to waste any cake, right!?

30th Bday Cake

I had my last cake decorating class (well for the basics..) and we had to decorate a cake while in class. Mine and Dawson's friend, Lauren turned 30 just the day before class- so I decided to make her a birthday cake! It is a Strawberry cake with Strawberry filling and a Strawberry Buttercream frosting- TASTY!!

I just learned how to do roses in class this same day, so these roses on here were my first roses to ever do!

Not too shabby I'd say. The other flowers are drop flowers and then I used edible pearls for the center of the flowers to make it "girly"  :) I tried using a glitter gel to go over the writing, but it was way too thin and did not work very well at all! I'll have to figure out another way to use the glitter gel (completely edible!). Anyway, this was my "final" cake for the cake decorating class. I am still working on making cakes and perfecting the designs. Can't wait for the next classes!

Red Velvet Rose Cupcakes!

It was Labor Day and a BEAUTIFUL day outside...so we decided to grill out and enjoy the wonderful weather! Our neighbors came over and we played some games and just hung out and enjoyed some yummy food :) What a great occasion to bake something!

Red Velvelt Cupcakes with cream cheese icing- the perfect treat! I wanted to practice the roses that I just learned how to make and the cupcakes were the solution to making roses and having places to put them! I didn't have time to make roses for all of the cupcakes, so I just did some and then made some cupcakes with just icing.

Red Velvet Cupcakes or Cake with Cream Cheese icing is to die for! Here is my recipe for the Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1-2 Tbsp(s) cocoa
1 pkg choc pudding mix
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp veg oil
1 cup + 1 Tbsp buttermilk
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 oz red (gel) food coloring

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees (325 if you are making a cake!).
2. Line cupcake pan with paper cupcake cups.
3. Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside
4. Place all of the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together completely with another wire whisk.
5. Add wet ingredients slowly to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or unil completely combined.
6. Spoon into cupcake pan.
7. Bake 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes about 28 cupcakes or 2 - 8" cakes layers. Ice with any frosting you'd like, but Cream cheese is my favorite with Red Velvet!