Baking Joys

Men In Black 

Little guy turned 9 and after much tussle between MIB and Harry Potter decided on the MIB theme. Rich Chocolate Cake with Grape Jelly filling, Vanilla Butter cream frosting covered with Marshmallow fondant.

Ninjago Llyod Cake

Chocolate sponge cake with Peanut butter frosting

Wooden Bucket Cake40! A special milestone in my hubby's like definitely called for a special cake! Baked a Chocolate bundt cake and placed it upside down. Sliced it horizontally to add in cherry filling & finally frosted with vanilla buttercream. Used Fondant to create the brown wooden strips with the Gobaker mould and the black strip to hold them together. The name tag is hand painted using Americolor edible gold food color and the hearts were an addition by my 7yr old. Topped the cake with sugar crystals to give the effect of ice. The cake topper and bottles completed the look.

Strawberry Shortcake
New found fandom for Strawberry short cake. Baked the thin layered cake. Assembled it by layering with cream cheese and fresh strawberries for the filling. Taste of heaven in each bite!

Soccer

The soccer bug has bitten. The kiddo went all out to make his own soccer themed birthday banner. To his great excitement, we got him a personalized Barca jersey. 

Of course I got my chance to work on a spherical cake. Baked a a rich chocolate cake and for additional excitement, I made a small cavity inside and stuffed it with green M&Ms. 
















LEGOs!!!

 

My son is enamored by blocks which is great but it also means his LEGOs are all around the house; sink into the couch and chances are something will poke you! For his new found love, I created him 2 lego themed cakes, one on his actual birthday and other for his birthday party over the weekend.

The Lego block - Chocolate sponge cake with whipped vanilla frosting, decorated with yellow vanilla frosting.

The Basket of Legos - Again his favorite flavor, Rich Chocolate Cake. I added Strawberry filling and frosted with chocolate ganache. He picked out Twix for the basket design and I ordered the Lego candy from Amazon to fill the basket. Real LEGOs to make the banner holders and a handmade LEGO themed name banner were the perfect finishing touches!!!

Lemon Bundt Cake Here is a St Patrick Day themed Lemon Bundt Cake. I split the batter into two parts and added green food color to one. Poured the two as layers in the bundt pan to get this beautiful marble effect In a home where everyone swears by chocolate, it was a pleasant surprise when this delicious, super moist cake disappeared in minutes. Definitely a winner!
	Its Paw Patrol this year! 4! yes my little one is already four... This year he asked for a paw patrol cake. He has this paw patrol book which he has "read" so many times that he knows it word by word (so do we at this point!) and he is absolutely in love with the characters! So that lead to the creation of themed cake & cupcakes. He excitement knew no bounds especially when helping me decorate the cupcakes. Cake - one 6-inch chocolate-coconut cake with 4 cupcakes, vanilla icing, M&M & Paw Patrol topping for décor Cupcakes -Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing, different sized M&M for décor.
Christmas Fruit Cake I wanted to try this for a long long time. I have some great memories as a child of my neighbors sharing the scrumptious cake with us at Christmas and I gobbling it down at a break neck speed.  Finally I decided to try it at home. I made 2 versions, one with rum drizzled over it and the other without rum for my little one. Both were so very good! This is definitely going to be my annual thing now on.
	Chocolate Cheesecake New York is famous for its cheesecake but I never quite liked it. Then at the suggestion of a cousin, tried the Godiva cheese cake at Cheesecake Factory and am hooked to date! This is my attempt at replicating the rich goodness at home.
Little Man themed Baby Shower I had never attempted making cookies as no one at home is a cookie fan. So when my friend asked if I could bake some for her baby shower, of course I panicked. But then what better chance to try something new. After reading blogs of instructions and recipes, here is the cute result of my experiment. I used cookie cutters for the onsie & moustache. The bow and tie are hand cut
	Excavator cake My little dude turned 3 and the only thing he asked for "eshcavator on my cake". The thought was attempting it was nerve wrecking but then I decided to give it a try anyways.
Halloween themed cupcakes & savory roses Red velvet & Rich chocolate cupcakes decorated as a ghost, witch, pumpkin & spider web. The roses are savory using red potatoes & pepperoni
	Black Forest Cake Light fluffy chocolate cake with Cherry filling, Vanilla buttercream frosting topped with chocolate curls and cherries.
Easter bunny cake More and more interesting cakes come to mind as I bake for my tiny tot. He gets all excited and enjoys helping me. I baked two 10" cakes. One was used for the face and the other I cut to make the ears and the bow. Coconut flakes gave the bunny the cute look and the my son could not keep his hands off the colorful jellybeans!
	Chocolate Mousse Cake For my dearest chocolate loving hubby, on his birthday... Chocolate mousse topped with chocolate ganache
Mommy Cake Two of my girlfriends were having babies around the same time so our gang decided to surprise them both with a wonderful tie-dye themed baby shower. A cute mommy tummy cake with a pretty tie-dye dress seemed apt. I made a rainbow cake covered with tie-dye fondant to go with the theme.
	Bone Cake My friend's cute little Shitzu turned one and a cake shaped as a bone seemed like the most appropriate one to celebrate the day. A 8x8 inch cake and 4 large cupcakes worked together nicely to create it.
1st Birthday My son turned one and I spent quite some time trying to decide on the cake. And then it struck me, Obviously should be a number 1! We picked out Circus decorations for the house so that helped me design the cake too. Kept the design very simple and experimented with Wilton sugar sheets, definitely dont plan to use them ever again. Yes they are easy to use but taste wise, I peeled them all away while eating. I baked 2 8x8 inch Rich chocolate cake, cut them up and arranged a layer to make the 1, added a layer of chocolate fudge topped with raspberry filling and topped with second layer of the cake. Finally decorate the cake with sugar sheets & blue butter cream frosting.
	Gift Cake My son completed 11 months on Dec31. I couldnt think of a more appropriate cake to celebrate the most amazing gift we received in 2013 on the eve of stepping into 2014. I baked a 3 layer Rich chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream filling (yes we are die hard chocolate fans!) and marshmallow fondant to wrap it up
Crib cake This is the fanciest cake I have ever made. Its been on my mind for a long long time and I finally got the courage to try it.
	Halloweeny Cake My son completed 9 months on Oct 31, of course a pumpkin cake seemed quite appropriate to celebrate on the occasion of Halloween. I baked the usual Chocolate cake but gave it a twist with marmalade filling which turned out to be a very interesting combination. I had to trim the cake before frosting it to even it out. After frosting with orange colored buttercream frosting, I used the cake leftovers to make the mouth, eyes and nose and dripped chocolate syrup over them. The stem created using green frosting completed the look.
Fruity Cupcakes My husband and me are big fans of chocolate so all the desserts & cakes usually end up being chocolaty ones. Though I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chunks in them, I decided to decorate them as fruits to go with the summer theme picnic where I was taking them. Apples I covered the cupcakes with white vanilla buttercream frosting and dipped them in red sugar crystals. A mint stem fitted well as an apple stem and using Wilton tip#66 the leaves were created. Oranges The orange colored frosting gave the perfect look to the oranges. Using wilton tip#2 I created the sections and the seeds I could not really think of another fruit to make at the late hour when I was busy decorating so finished off the last set with just green stars using wilton tip#16
	1/2 year Cake My tiny tot was going to complete 6 months and as always I was planning on baking a cake. This time I decided to try my hand at decoration. I had seen the basket weave and it always intrigued me. For this first attempt at decoration I used ready-made Easy Flow Icing. However after trying multiple times, I was unable to use the can so I decided to go all out and got myself a new Wilton decorating tip set and some decoration bags. Using Wilton tip #47 I was able to get a nice basket weave going on my  Chocolate cake.
Pear upside down cake Another delicious fruit cake followed. I had pears sitting at home and quite ripe at that. Googled and found this great recipe to use them up in the most delicious manner
	Pineapple upside down cake My first attempt at a very fancy looking cake. Was very happy with the great shades that the cake developed by the use of the brown sugar.