hApPy bIrTHdAy LATISSA

12-29-10

  Happy Birthday Latissa!  So here it is....your Red Velvet cake with cream cheese icing.  Ok, I know it's not what you kept saying you wanted.  Yes...a red velvet cake is supposed to have at least 2 layers of icing not just one.  But hey this isn't a cake now is it?  I hope you enjoy it because I worked ALL DAY LONG trying to get this cupcake bouquet just right!!!
  I had to make 3 different batches of icing.  I don't know what the deal was with the first one?  I tried softening up the cream cheese in the microwave, which I've done before, but the cheese curdled.  I COULDN'T get it to a creamy consistency so I had to trash it and start all over.  The second one (whipped cream cheese icing) I thought was going to work and taste better.  The recipe said it was good for piping but it WASN'T.  If it didn't work on the third try, you just might not have gotten it at all.  I also needed more cupcakes to finish what I started.  And then there were all the butterflies which I won't even go into.  It sure would've been a whole lot easier if I was using buttercream icing instead of cream cheese icing! 
  I thought I would include an article at the end of this post on the history of Red Velvet cake...if anyone's interested in its origin.



Just an empty bowl ready to be transformed before your very eyes.


 






I really tried to get the colors you said you liked.  Hope this was close.



I usually take multiple pictures of one shot so I can pick the best one
 but I couldn't decide on these 3 choices.
All 3 of the angles were different and the bowl showed better in this shot.



Since I have so many pictures of the process in creating this cupcake bouquet
I didn't take any shots of these butterflies or the others (posted later)  being made.
All I'll say is that these 2 were free handed not molded.

Of the 2 I liked this one.  I didn't fill in the wings like the other one for two reasons.
First  of all it was difficult filling between the chocolate outline and ....
second,  I didn't want to melt more candy for the little I needed.



I took this shot so my finger would purposely show through the wings.



Round one of the Red Velvet cupcakes.

I like the way the bowl showed in this shot too.

Top view.....excuse the smudge which will soon disappear before your very own eyes

Round two...

Again with the bowl ... I know.
I'm not obsessed with the bowl, it's a presentation thing.

See the smudge is almost gone...

TA DA...Look, no more smudge.  I told you I would make it disappear.

All done ... or am I? ... just one thing missing.....

The cream cheese icing.

Ok there's more than just icing added here.

It looks like the bouquet has antennae (plural)...

Maybe it's some kind of alien form of life?

NO....

More flowers

I REALLY wanted to pipe these into Roses to give it more of a floral arrangement

 but the icing wasn't stiff enough.

White rosebuds would've looked really cute.

These were the first 2 that I iced so the colors weren't mixed yet

 (which actually is the look I was going for)

I wished I could've gotten all my flowers to look like these.

But where did the butterflies go....?

There they are, including the others that I mentioned previously.

So here are most of the final shots >>>>

I used a paint brush to add just a touch of pink candy to accent the butterfly wings on the molded butterflies.

The molded butterflies were made in peanuts & chocolate.  

 I added just a touch of dark chocolate with the milk chocolate because

I know Latissa likes dark chocolate.

I loved these butterflies.....you'll be seeing them again.

You can see the M&Ms under this butterfly's wings. 

I didn't need them for the other one because the wings stood up in the icing firmly.

I wished the one that needed the support would've been the solid pink one

so that the M&Ms wouldn't have shown through.

I know you probably wouldn't have even noticed if I hadn't pointed it out.

The body of the top 2 butterflies wasn't actually chocolate.

I added brown coloring gel to the cream cheese icing which made it look like chocolate.

If I had been thinking ahead

I would've attached this one butterfly with the M&Ms disguised under the icing.

I saw how to make the butterflies and use candy for support on line. 

You can see some of the peanuts in the top molded butterfly.

Again with the M&Ms showing... hum maybe I could pass them off as

butterfly droppings..... 

ALL GONE... 

Thank you for checking me out...

Let me know what you think in the comment section. 

And don't forget...

  

Red velvet cake

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

Red velvet cake

A Red velvet cake is a cake with a dark red, bright red or red-brown color. It is usually prepared as a layer cake with either a vanilla or chocolate flavor, topped with a creamy white icing. Common ingredients are buttermilk, butter, flour, cocoa, and beetroot or red food coloring (beetroot is traditionally used). The amount of cocoa used varies in different recipes. Cream cheese frosting is most commonly paired with the cake, as well as buttercream.^[1]

[edit] History

James Beard's 1972 reference American Cookery^[2] describes three red velvet cakes varying in the amounts of shortening and butter. All use red food coloring, but the reaction of acidic vinegar and buttermilk tends to better reveal the red anthocyanin in the cocoa. Before more alkaline "Dutch Processed" cocoa was widely available, the red color would have been more pronounced. This natural tinting may have been the source for the name "Red Velvet" as well as "Devil's Food" and similar names for chocolate cakes.^[3][1] While foods were rationed during World War II, bakers used boiled beets to enhance the color of their cakes. Boiled grated beets or beet baby food are found in some red velvet cake recipes, where they also serve to retain moisture.

A red velvet cake was a signature dessert at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City during the 1920s. According to a common urban legend of the 1960s a woman once asked for the recipe for the cake, and was billed a large amount. Indignant, she spread the recipe in a chain letter.^[4][1]

In Canada the cake was a well-known dessert in the restaurants and bakeries of the Eaton's department store chain in the 1940s and 1950s. Promoted as an exclusive Eaton's recipe, with employees who knew the recipe sworn to silence, many mistakenly believed the cake to be the invention of the department store matriarch, Lady Eaton.^[5]

A resurgence in the popularity of this cake is partly attributed to the 1989 film Steel Magnolias in which the groom's cake (a southern tradition) is a red velvet cake made in the shape of an armadillo.^[1]

 





Oreo Truffle Christmas Tree

12-22-10

   I haven't done a lot of holiday specific creations this year.  I have been making different things but not for Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Today though, I finally had an opportunity to make a truffle Christmas tree that I've been wanting to make.  There was more that I wanted to add to the tree but I ran a little short on time.  Oh well, next time.  As for this tree, it was for Jimmy a friend of mine.  They were having a Christmas pot luck dinner where he works so it was the perfect opportunity to make something new.

Ok tree finished!  No need to take a picture of every row added. 
I just started from the top and worked my way down.



Then I added some extra oreo truffles around the base of the tree.

Now for the spice drops to decorate the tree with.  I wished that I had more
than 5 colors because it was kind of hard to get a variety of colors.
I ended up using the white, which I wasn't going to
 because I needed more variation.

Due to lack of time I didn't get to add the garland around this tree.  Definitely on the next one.
This was also my best photo.  I think I had the wrong settings for the other shots (including the ones I didn't use)

12-23-10
  I was having trouble posting this yesterday.  Jimmy said the truffles were a hit. 

Erica's Neopolitan Cupcakes

12-19-10
  So here's the deal on this creation.  Erica, another coworker of mine, ordered some chocolate cupcakes with strawberries and vanilla icing.  They were similar to the cupcakes I did for Sophia's daughter Endya (posted on 11-21-10).  As usual, I tried something different by dipping the strawberries in chocolate.  The taste was fine (especially since it was hershey's chocolate) but the texture didn't go well with the softness of the cupcake.  Some people thought the vanilla icing was too strong but I think that might have been a preference since only a few people mentioned it.  Erica thought the vanilla was fine and the order was for her anyway so the vanilla stays.  Now you might be wondering how I got so many opinions from an order of Erica's right?  No the cupcakes weren't for our coworkers.  The container almost slipped out of my hands when I was putting it into my car and although I didn't actually drop the box.....let's just say that the cupcakes didn't look ANYTHING like the final picture posted on this blog.  Hours of work (not to mention money lost) for nothing.....   But my moto in life, which keeps me from going crazy, is that there is ALWAYS an upside to every down situation in life.  In other words there's always a positive for a negative.   Many times there's even more than one upside.  So the upside here was ..... so that Erica's order did not go to waste, I decided to use them as samples. 

I had to go to 5 stores this time to find fresh strawberries.

I wanted to just eat these and forget putting them inside the cupcakes.

OK, I made myself put them inside the cupcakes.

Then I topped the strawberries with

a little strawberry icing so that......

the little dunce cap would stay attached.

I thought the white icing looked so nice on the chocolate.

I cut off the tip of the cone/cap and added another strawberry

(just the tip of the strawberry)

Then a couple more floret rings.

I couldn't decide which of the previous 2 shots looked better.

TA DA I made it to the top!

Now to add some tiny strawberry stars

Thought the top view was interesting

Then I sliced some more strawberries, cut them in halves

and attached them to the sides.

I thought it looked like flower petals.

The others that I did had more petals.

This one was a mistake.  I forgot to pipe the 2nd row of floretes on the top row.

I was wondering why the strawberry at the top looked soooo much bigger

than the others!  (didn't take the before picture)

I don't think anyone would've even noticed if I hadn't pointed it out.

Then for the strawberry petals.

Just pick one...

or two

OK how fast can you find the one that's NOT like the others?

Do you REALLY need the answer...keep going....

 bottom left.