CAKE #35 - Shannon's Graduation from Law School

Cake # 35 - Shannon's Graduation from Law School 

As if this were a foreshadowing of the wedding cake, I first attempted rosette sides for this cake in baby pink and in an hombre style with color changing as the sides went up (or down.) My color mix was not great and the pink to dusty pink to white didn't really blend well. The dusty pink was too 'brown' and the baby pink was too bright. BUT I think it was o.k. anyway. 

For these cakes they were entirely covered in rosettes. There were 3 'stacked' though for ease of serving since I wasn't worried about too fancy, I kept the cardboard bases between the large and the medium cake.  There were 2 small cakes (like the wedding), one to top the others on a separate stacked serving tray (to make it look like it was 3 tier) and another one to hold the graduation trinkets! 

The next size cake was smaller with gum paste roses that were painted in an edible gold glitter. Very disappointed on how the paint did not stay on well and it was really a bronze at best. I must have painted like 5 coats and it hardly was painted, but kind of worked with the dusty pink on the middle ring of the big cake below it. 

The final piece:

And...the final presentation: 

I would be remiss if I didn't also add a photo of my amazing daughter Meghan( who started this blog) has opened her own business in 2025, for charcuterie boards called "Cheese and Snackers" out of Las Vegas area in Nevada, though she also will serve Orange County when she's here. Look at this beautiful display she was in the middle of putting together for the graduation. If I can figure out how to post a link to her Instagram I will. 

Great job new law school graduate Shannon Marie!

 

 Link to Meg's site Cheese and Snackers 

 by Meghan

Cake #36 - The Ultimate....4 cake wedding cake

Cake #36 -     THE ULTIMATE.....SHANNON and KASEY'S WEDDING CAKE  - January/February 2025

Not going to share too much as I make it...will reveal after the wedding on 2/13/2025....the day before Valentine's Day. 

But...we will have four cakes....two large 3 layer, Maple with Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese filling, one medium size with Vanilla Bean and Bavarian Vanilla Cream filling, and the small, with Strawberry cake and Strawberry filling. All will be iced with white buttercream. 

There will be a separate small cake with layers of all 3 flavors for the bride and groom to freeze! 

Here are some samples of the test cakes. The first 4 are the small strawberry one. Ran out of 'test' frosting so it wasn't frosted well...just trying to see what will fit where and whether I can get it really level with some tricks. Meh...pretty good. 

 

 

These were the ones I tested more for the content of the cake. Shannon wanted maple so we had to play around with syrups and flavorings to make sure the maple flavor stood out. After a couple of tries we got it right! 

For this, there were multiple side options...smooth completely, striped, and roses, so the bride (or the baker) could choose. In our case we will be doing each large maple in striped and roses and the vanilla in striped and the small in roses (or vice versa). Haven't decided yet, but the smooth isn't it. Too boring.

 

Pretty comfortable with the top being somewhat 'petaled' vs. smooth. I think it will hold the glitter well.

Tried some gold glitter spray on it and it was horrid. Very yellow looking. So that's a definite "no."

The rosette sides look like this: 

 

 

And the likely finished version (without all the glittler and gold flakes.....)

 

 

Will post the finished product, when.................

Cake #34 - A Strawberry Experiment

Cake #34 - Thinking ahead to Shannon's and Kasey's wedding next year, and wanting to test out some of the interesting new 'things' I found at my local Bakery Supply store, I wanted to make a strawberry cake or cupcake and use the ready made filling. I also wanted to test out their cake mix "creme cake" and see how that came out. That recipe called for way more eggs than normal cakes so I as expected the cupcakes rose beautifully (almost too high) and were pretty good. Not that tender but maybe next time I will bake them less. (Still prefer my own cake recipes to the ready mix, but alas, this is an experiment.) 

I used a 'corer' to remove the center of the cupcake and then filled it with the filling, which I liken more to the gel that is used in a fresh Strawberry or Peach pie to hold it all together. It was o.k...like a jelly donut, but not really that spectacular. 

I also tried to use some "whipped" frosting that was frozen ready made, and 'strawberry' flavored. It too was just 'o.k.' The flavor was akin to marshmallow cream and not all that strawberry. Was it o.k.? Yes, but it was just that...o.k. I don't think I would use any of those 3 items again. There was another strawberry filling option that I will try next week and they do have some OTHER great stuff there like amazing carrying boxes, ready made wedding candy flowers and some decorator icing, plus colors galore and dusts and sprays that will be great for the decorating I am sure. 

Here's how they came out...delicious enough, and with the chopped fresh strawberries, (oh and a nice dusting of powdered sugar right before serving,  that made it! The ones that were in the fridge were even better.

Cake #33 - USA USA USA! 

This is actually an older 4th of July fondant cake...actually 3 of them...made by Shannon. This is either 2022 or 2023, but isn't it cute. She used cookie cutters for the letters, ready made fondant for each of the cakes and cut strips on the blue/stripes one, and stars on the other. 

Cake # 32 - Cupcakes for Cal State Fullerton LaCrosse event (that bombed out due to rain). So we had all these lovely CSUF school colors (blue/orange) colored cupcakes to share with family! If they hold it again, we will just make more!

 

 

Cake #31 - Shamrock Cake

Cake #31

This was made for Shannon and Kasey's engagement party on March 12, 2023, an Irish-themed one, right around St. Patrick's Day. And of course being the Patricks, we had to do it right. The model for this was a napkin ring that had been on my table since we started decorating for St. Patrick's Day. I looked at it and thought that's such a pretty sparkly version of a shamrock and then realized I had a heart pan so I could probably duplicate it relatively easily... and on short notice since Shannon forgot to mention her desire to have the cake until a few days before. 🙂😘

 This was a simple white cake done in the heart-shaped pan which I had to do four times the day before I decorated. I also created the middle with a small round pan and left the raised tops on rather than cut them off since that seemed to go well with the pedal theme of the shamrocks.

The tedious part was the decorating because except for the center, they were all covered with a star tip. I used a bigger star tip though hoping to cover more territory more quickly. The sides were also a little challenging because by the time I got to the sides the buttercream had softened quite a bit and it was not as nice a star coming out. I did make my standard buttercream though a little more powdered sugar than usual and actually with 1/4 of the butter substituted for shortening hoping again to give it a little more stiffness. Not sure that really worked that well. Next time I might do half and half or just more powdered sugar to solidify it as I don't really like the taste or texture of the shortening frostings.

I intended to crumb coat them first and then frost them with the star tips but just didn't get around to it. So I put the cakes in the refrigerator ahead of time which helped a little.

The centerpiece doesn't show that well in the photo that it is coated in edible gold glitter. It really came out pretty and didn't taste any different than if it were plain sugar on top. Actually you really couldn't taste it at all. The glitter was expensive so you would have to use it sparingly. I haven't worked with the glitters that much but I liked this effect for sure so I will definitely do it again. I did buy some alternate forms of it including some gold dust and a spray on gold glitter which I will probably try next time.

When I was done decorating, I moved enough junk out of my freezer temporarily into a cooler (which lol I forgot to put back in the freezer until the next day) that I was able to freeze all four after they were decorated. That made transporting them the 45-minute drive to the venue less challenging. That was something I considered when deciding on the design, that I really had to have it in multiple pieces in order to transport it. (I did have to buy the gold plates it was on and although it was pretty the roundness sort of detracted from the cloverleaf shape of the cake itself.) I also happened to have three cake takers, and one that I could stack and fortunately the hearts fit the smaller stacker and everything arrived pretty intact.

I do wish I had made one more piece for the stem, probably an 8x8 square and then carved it into the shape of the stem but I just ran out of time and energy. All in all I thought it came out pretty well this shamrock, four-leaf clover, Irish, St Patrick's Day, engagement party cake and my estimation of how many pieces I would get out of it was right on target. One piece left at the end. :-) congratulations Shannon and Kasey.

Cake #30 - Duplicate of #18 (oops)

 Boot and Cowboys. School dance...Let's start with the ponies.....then the hats...then the boots! 2015.

 

 

COOKIES IN A BUCKET OF 'SAND' BROWN SUGAR! (Filled it with other filling first, (junk newspaper etc., then saran wrap and the last 2 inches were the sand.