Opening up another session of the FNCC! Who's up? Whatcha' workin' on?
Cat
Hi there! Just working on figures this week for upcoming cakes. I'm doing a tutorial for my blog but that's really it. I DID stumble upon a homemade smores recipe to share tonight.
Break up graham crackers into two pieces per bar. Set those on a sprayed cookie sheet till it's full. Then sprinkle with mini marshmallows till covered. Sprinkle half a bag of chocolate chips on top. Finally take 5 crackers and make them into fine crumbs, sprinkle these over top of the chips. Roast at 375 for 5 mins (do NOT go longer or the crackers will burn). Marshmallows will be puffed and brown. Let cool 15 mins. Since you already broke the crackers up into serving size these are easy to serve. Nice, gooey, chocolatey and toasted marshmallow goodness!
love,
Cat
Finished and delivered an unusual grooms cake. His nickname is FAX so the bride had me make a FAX machine processing a marriage license. Thought my brain was going to explode but it came out great. Tomorrow is their wedding and I'm embarassed to admit I had more fun with the grooms cake.
Birthday cake for a turning 50 year old and a first birthday cake and smash cake finished and ready for pickup. I have four dozen cookies to do tomorrow that will be picked up Monday morning. Had nine dozen croissants and five loaves of bread for an event on Sunday. Hopefully, I will get some pool time tomorrow!
Tammy! That is a LOT of fondant!
Denise, too funny...LOVE the Fax machine idea!
LKing, that is one truck load of croissants!
Suddenly glad I have a sort of a week off!<G>
Cat
Yeah, it's a lot but I'll use all of it, and maybe have to make more. It's easier to make several batches at once, then it's just ready.
LOVE the fax machine idea! I bet that was fun to make. Sometimes the grooms cakes are just more fun because they are less serious 
Cakes from work today:
bird reveal cake
martini cake
olive boarder
proposal cake
Cake and desserts from last weekend:
whole setup
closeup
cake
desserts
Meg, ok, so which was it inside the cake? Pink or blue???
And I simply LOVE the way the citrus cake turned out!!! It's just GORGEOUS!
Cat
Good Evening all, finishing up with the Finding Nemo cake for my grandaughters baby shower. I've made all the favors and chocolate lollipops, Not to mention the shopping with my daughter. I'm sure glad I didn't have any real big sugar projects this week. Was able to enjoy the planning and shopping with my kids.
A returning customer came to order a 3 tierred cake a quinceanera for August 19th and I've had my share of other cakers coming in to have us make their frosting sheets and fondant. Some are freaking when they hear the price. I can't help it, everything is going up fast, Gas and Food alike.
I made the bubbles from the tutorial and I'm rather pleased. Going to give a class to my caker students.
I just finished my daughter's birthday cake and we're about to cut into it. I made hydrangea petals and a fantasy flower for the first time and they look goooood! lol
I have a question for those who use crusting buttercream. Lately mine has been crusting before I'm done smoothing. Yes, I'm taking a ton of time smoothing because of this and that going wrong (those 8" Wiltons are about to go out the door, folks!). Once it crusts, is there anything other than misting water on it you can do? Even the water mist isn't cutting it lately.
Lesson learned today: no matter what the internet peeps say, do NOT use canned pie filling for cake filling. I double dammed it and still ended up disassembling, removing, scraping off frosting, and starting over. Grrr!
Ginn, what were the party favors? I'm part of a party planning team so I'm always interested<G>
I'm loving that citrus cake as well! Gorgeous! What a fun set up!
Oh no...canned filling? Oh no... (((HUGS))) been there, tried that, cried those tears. UGH.
As for the crusting...nope..Only thing that helps is to scrape down to the crumbcoat and mix in more milk to loosen it up a bit and give it a little more fat back to offset the sugar. I use IndyDebi's recipe and when I'm using it for the final coat I always use about a cup less sugar when I make it so that it's more fluffy and crusts slower. Spraying the water never really worked for me. But..here's an idea...what about a warm spatula? Melt the fat a bit to see if it spreads easier. Just an idea,not a tested theory.
I love making hydrangeas! One of my favorite flowers!
Cat
I use the same recipe. This time I cut down on the Dream Whip by half. I swear something's up with one of the ingredients. Perhaps the powdered sugar has changed? It's crusting quite a bit faster than it used to and that's really, really odd since it's summer.
I considered trying a hot knife. I was afraid it would mess it up more and I'd end up scraping it down again. I was in no mood for that and the cake was staying in house so I let it be. I have a client cake next week so I'll start earlier than usual and try the hot knife.
Why oh why do people type things on the internet that aren't true? It's not just the pie filling. I've made lots of recipes and tried a lot of things that don't work. It can't all be user error. Sorry, it's one of those things in life that bugs me.
The cake tasted great. Ditto the ice cream. I set the opened can of filling on the table along with a spoon and told them to have at it if they wanted cherry filling.
Why did you cut down on the Dream whip??? I think that's one of the ingredients that keeps it fluffy, less crusty. As for the sugar. I learned the summer, yes the hard way, to make positively sure that the sugar is pure cane. Beet sugar changes the texture and crusting. UGH. And you should see what beet sugar does to fondant! Grainy mess! Oddly enough they taste ok, it's the texture that is totally off.
I seriously LOL'd when I read about how you "served" the filling...just too funny and SO something I would have done! LOL!
I'm headed off to bed. I have to work at my other job in the morning and that's just 8 hours away...gotta do some sleeping in the meantime! LOL!
Night y'all!
Idydebi said when Crisco got rid of the trans-fats she didn't notice the difference in her frosting. Dream Whip has corn starch in it. I thought perhaps they reformulated it and added more cornstarch so I cut back on it to see if it made a difference. Interestingly, it also has yellow dye in it. I'd prefer they leave that out so my frosting is as white as possible, but what do I know?
My powdered sugar doesn't say what kind of sugar. It does have cornstarch in it, though. Perhaps they reformulated? I use an off-brand (Aldi) and always have. Sam's Club brand is gritty for me and the Meijer brand is a bit gritty, too. I'd have to use name brand if I switched and I don't care for the price of it. If I must, I must but I'll whine a bit about it first.
I'm off to bed, too. We're going to the State Fair tomorrow for the first time in years so I have to up and going early (for me). Night y'all!
Cat, the favors were not edible. I made baby faces from cold porcelain, add a round petal bonnet and ribbons. Added this to a clear swizzle stick. Also teeny tiny crochet diapers, a onsie that are pinned on, and pacifiers on a rope ribbon. The lollipops were made with Nemo from frosting sheets and other baby items.
Here is the pic of the bubbles
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2378596/nemo-swimming-thru-bubbles
Hi Cat and everyone,
It is Saturday night here in the land of Oz and I am busy baking a butterscotch and caramel swirl mudcake , and them some little cakes using a brownie lollipop cake pan that I just got from the latest Avon catalogue. they are sort of cone shaped and I am going to dip them in a caramel ganache. They are just to take for a Show meeting so it won't matter if they aren't spectacular those ladies will eat anything .
I did a birthday cake on Friday for another decorator , we all have a deal that we as decorators don't have to make our own birthday cakes. I did think it was just going to be a few of us for lunch , the cake was a bit of a rush job , a lemon mudcake with passionfruit cream cheese filling . I just did one of my simple bow cakes . I was slightly horrified when I realised that there were two cake judges amongst the party. However I got rave reviews so it all turned out okay.
The cake in the oven now is for a birthday on Tuesday it will be another simple bow cake , I also have to prepare for my lesson on Tuesday, I am teaching cherry blossoms this week , last week's peonies went well .
I am also doing a ford mustang carved cake car next week as well . So I need to get started on the elements for that that will need to dry.
thats about it from me this week .
Happy Caking.
Ginn, the favors sound adorable! And the bubbles look like perfection! Seriously, they are PERFECT!
Chelle! Welcome! That caramel swirl sounds amazing! Anytime you want to share recipes....<G> And, yes, I, too would have been mortified to find that what I thought was a casual meet up ended up being with 2 caking judges!! YIKES!
Good luck with the car. They are not my favorite cakes to do.
Cat
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%