Friday, June 29, 2012

Gymnastic Petal Ombre Cake

WoW! Just like that June is gone....time is flying and I can't keep up!! This month has been oh so busy. It seems like lately all I've doing is baking up a storm. I love it!! Partly because I have been selling my goodies at the Farmers market every Friday and partly because I've been making some very special birthday cakes and cookies.


I just had to share this one with you all because.... 1. It's adorable!  2. I'm totally in love with the "ombre technique" and 3. I love the "petal frosting technique too". Three very good reasons to love this cake I think, oh and it doesn't hurt that it was Triple Vanilla Cake.

Super moist delicious vanilla cake, vanilla pastry cream filling and soft and fluffy vanilla buttercream, to all the chocolate lover's out there....in your face!!! I do like chocolate but I'm not a chocoholic by any means and it seems like most people are, so when someone orders vanilla anything it's right up my alley:) I use the vanilla cake recipe from Joy of Baking, it is so buttery, fluffy and moist perfect for cakes and cupcakes. If you looking for a great vanilla cake recipe try this one you won't be disappointed, you can find the recipe here.


The theme for this cake was gymnastics. I made two very cute girls doing gymnastic poses from fondant, some very cute rolled ribbon roses. For a tutorial on rolled ribbon roses click here. Then I frosted the cake using the petal ombre tecnhinque. 



Ombre means shaded or graduated tone. Easiest way to do this with icing is to first decided how many shades you want to use, get separate bowls, and piping bags ready for each shade. Then starting with the darkest work your way up. I first separate the white creamy buttercream evenly into 3 bowls. Then I tinted the icing, I use gel colours so for the deepest blue I used 4 drop of food colouring gel, 2 drops for the next lighter shade and finished with white. Want more layers then just slowly graduate the colour make darkest 4 drop, next 3 drop then 2 drops and so on. Don't be a afraid to experiment and have fun!!


The petal technique is quite easy. Once you tinted all the icing and filled the piping bags with each colour. Start piping big dime to quarter size dots starting with lightest colour to darkest. Work vertically one row at a time. Once you've pipe the row, with a clean teaspoon press the back of the spoon gently in the center of the dot and pull and drag icing out. Continue working all the way down the row. Pipe the next row the same as first leaving a bit of a space between. Press and drag same as first row. Here's a link for a great petal cake tutorial.

But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Before the ombre and petal effect I cut out these super cute gymnastic girls out of fondant and added some 3-D effects with the hair, and clothing.


So cute!!
Add caption



Rolled Fondant Roses......for tutorial click here.




And the final result is a super cute Gymnastic Petal Ombre Cake. I think this is one of my most favorite cakes. I really love the petal and ombre techniques I definitely will be revisiting them both again and again. 


L.O.V.E......


Petal Ombre Frosting





My cake was featured on Create & Inspire Linky Party, click on the link here:

                                                           


Thanks for stopping by,






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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Oreo Swiss Meringue Buttercream...no twist, lick and dunk required!!



Delicious, moist chocolate cake, Oreo Swiss Meringue Buttercream topped with a chocolate ganache, can anyone say......yes please!!! If there is only one thing that you could try making this summer then I say TRY THIS recipe. It's so simple and so good. The great thing is that you can frost a cake with this buttercream or cupcakes, both are good and easy. I made these mini cakes for my nephew's 14th birthday and they were a hit. My nephew has food allergies, which required many changes to the originally recipe but I'm happy to say that his cake turned out the perfectly and he loved it.    


I have made this buttercream quite a  few times now,it's so tasty. If you love Oreo cookies, if you love chocolate or if you just love sweets this one is for you :) No witty words or fancy wording needed here I will let the pictures do the talking......this cake was adapted from Bakers Royal blog site, check it out here.


  ~ Mini Chocolate Oreo Cakes ~


Deep Dark Chocolate Cake


Ingredients:


2 cups sugar


3/4 cup cocoa


1-1/2 tsp baking soda


1-3/4 cup all purpose flour


1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup boiling water




Heat oven to 350 f. Grease and line with waxed paper two

 9-inch round pans or if making mini cakes grease and line 

with waxed paper 9x13 cookie sheet . Bake cakes in cookie 

sheet, cool completely then cut out 4-inch or 5- inch circles 


for mini cakes. Save the cake scraps for cake pops. You can

 bake them in mini cake pans if you have them but the

 cookie sheet technique works great. I found it very quick 

and simple to make a larger amount of mini cake rounds this 

way. When your making a dozen mini cakes each 3 layers 

high, quick and simple is the way to go :) 


Sift together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda

and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat



on medium speed for 2 min. Stir in boiling water(batter will

 be thin) Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30-35 min or until wooden pick inserted comes out 

clean.... approximately 15-20 min for cookie sheets. Cool

 completely.......



OR you can just used chocolate cake mix if your short on



 time. Bake in cookie sheet and cut out rounds for mini 



cakes.








~ Oreo Buttercream Frosting ~


5 egg whites



1-1/4 cup sugar




1 cup butter, softened and



 cubed

1 tbsp vanilla

1 -1/4 crushed Oreo cookies




~ How to make Oreo Swiss Meringue Buttercream ~












Put a pot half filled with water on 

burner and bring to simmer. 

















Place eggs and sugar in 

stand mixer bowl or 

stainless steel bowl, 

place bowl over 

simmering water. 

















Whisk mixture constantly until to 

comes to 150 degrees F. 





Remove bowl from 

heat and place back on

 stand mixer. Beat 

mixture on medium

 until it becomes 

glossy,shiny 

and stiff peaks begin 



to form, about 8-10

 minutes.














Add butter, a few 

pieces at a time and 

beat to combine after 

each addition. 











Mixture may look 

curdled halfway 

through, but continue 

adding the butter 

and beating and the 

mixture will be smooth

 again.






Add in vanilla, crushed Oreo

cookies and beat to combine.










   ~ Chocolate Ganache ~


2/3 dark chocolate



2 tbsp heavy cream



4 tbsp powered sugar



4-5 tbsp warm water



Place chocolate and heavy cream in a bowl over simmering



 water. Let chocolate and cream sit for 2-3 minutes to melt



 without stirring. Then slowly stir mixture to combine. Add 



powdered sugar and mix to combine. Add water 1 


tablespoon at a time, mixing after each addition until pouring 

consistency is reached. Set aside and let sauce cool to 

warm.




Assembly:



Prepare cakes and cool thoroughly or bake and chill 



overnight. Make frosting and sauce.

Slice each cake into three layers or use 3 cutout mini cakes 


rounds. 







 Frost the top of each layer with frosting and then cover 




whole mini cake with frosting.


 Freeze Oreo cake/s for an


 hour, so the frosting does not melt when it comes into 

contact with the warm chocolate sauce. Remove mini Oreo 

cake/s from freezer and pour chocolate sauce on top. Pipe a

 small dollop of frosting on top and then place mini Oreo in 

center.



~ Enjoy ~






See, if a picture is worth a thousand words, you'd still be reading for a long time. But like these delightful mini cakes the message here today is short and sweet.



Oh and by the way apparently Oreo turned 100 years old this year and that's reason enough to celebrate by making these cakes and....what could possibly be better than cake, how about cake and ice cream...yay!!



Oreo Birthday Blast....oh my!!! 



Chocolate Cupcake with Oreo Swiss Meringue Buttercream!!


My nephew's gluten free, dairy free, egg free, Mini Oreo Chocolate Cake. Just because you or someone you know has certain food allergy doesn't mean that you can't modify a recipe to suit anyone.  Not only did it look the same but it tasted the same. I even topped it with a homemade Oreo cookie. If anyone is interested in this version and need the recipe just message me and I will post it :)  


Happy Baking and Thanks for stopping by,








                                                                                                 Love,




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