Cakes By Lizzie

Update!

2010-03-06T08:46:00.000-08:00

Hi All-

Little inside info as to why I haven't posted lately! My husband and I are buying our first house, I put cake decorating on the back burner for just a short time so we had some extra money =) the plan is to start back up when we get in the house..which will be a couple of more weeks. Lucky for me, I will not have to cook in a little itty bitty apartment kitchen anymore, I will have a bit more room and more up to date appliances! Yay for me!

On another note, if ya'll didn't know...I am really passionate about another hobby, and I have a blog along with my friend Karina. It's called Book Lovers Delight, http://bookreviewerz.blogspot.com/ and we've been trying to get it off the ground. If you guys don't mind I would love it if you took a moment to check it out and follow us. We shall return the favor. Thanks for all the love and support, and I will be back with a FAB cake!!

Loves all!

Elizabeth

Fondant Cake...eeek!

2010-01-23T17:59:00.000-08:00

So I was soo relieved that the first cake I was "selling" was going to a friend of mine. I made a chocolate cake with vienna cream with sugared strawberries in it.

One of the postives of this cake was that I am getting down the stacking of the cake and also somewhat of the art of frosting. I did a lot of fighting with the fondant though, and I kept spilling the glitter dust I was using and the water I was using. I was so frustrated...I think the whole apartment complex knew it. I guess a lot of it is that I just have NO ROOM in my kitchen to do anything! But I did atleast get it looking pretty decent seeing as it was the first fondant cake I have ever done.. I just need to keep practicing! Let me know what you guys think. I know I need a lot more practice, but if this was easy...it wouldn't be fun =)

First Cake Sold?

2010-01-16T09:19:00.000-08:00

So I got some exciting news....someone I know want's to buy a cake from me, this will be the first one I have ever sold. I should have started a long time ago! I'm excited to bake a cake this weekend, I have been "studying" techniques and am expecting this cake to turn out way better then any of the others!! Just have to decide what I want to make! More to come!

Saved by a green cake

2010-01-09T19:19:00.001-08:00

Luckily for me (and my husband so he didn't have to make me feel better) my cake turned out! It was a almond butter cake with vienna cream and white icing. Tasted super yummy!

I was so happy when it came out of the pan in one piece, I was especially worried about the first one since I forgot to grease the pan! I put vienna cream between the two layers. Vienna Cream is a fluffy chocolate filling...to me it tasted a lot like buttercream and I think the receipe is close to the same. I want to do a fruit filling in one of my upcoming cakes, I'm not a huge fan of a chocolate. But that is what the Hubbs likes =)

This time I tried dirty icing the cake, and it did seem to help. Next time I think it needs to set a little bit longer to get a better crust on it.

I need to figure out how to make the edges less noticable...maybe trim them a bit? Hopefully I will get to go to my cake class this week...but since I missed the first class I don't know if I can start with the second.

I ended up cheating and used a premade wilton icing. I was going to do a cream cheese frosting, but the filling was so rich I decided that a cream cheese frosting would be WAY to much. I didn't want to stick to white so I decided to tint it a light green.

I still haven't mastered the art of frosting (far from it) so this was the end result....topped with maroon leaves.

So what did I do better on this cake then the first?

1) I didn't have to piece together cake pieces, it all came out in one piece.
2) Cake wasn't as lopsided.
3) I didn't over fill the cake.
4) Less rich then the first cake of course we all have our own personal taste!
5) My frosting did improve some....but I ended up spiking the frosting because the cake looked boring!

Cupcake Disaster!!

2010-01-09T12:24:00.000-08:00

So I went to one of my favorite stores yesterday The Kitchen Collection and I was super excited to find the "Big Top Cupcake" pan there. I was so excited to use it to bake today (I know I'm a nerd), So this morning I got up and decided to make an almond butter cake.

I got the batter all made, and it smelled amazing even before I put it in the oven. I got the directions out for the cupcake pan not knowing if I needed to grease the pan. The directions said to lightly grease. Just to be sure the cake would come out I put a little extra spray on the pan, then loaded them up.

Then quickly realized that there were fill lines and I need to remove some batter. So I did that and cleaned off the sides of the pan and they the cakes were oven ready. So I set the time according to the pan directions and patiently waited!

The first timer went off for the top half of the cupcake. So I got my handy dandy cake tester out and it was no where near done. About an hour and a half from the time the cupcake pans were put in I was able to pull them out and let them cool. I gave them about 5-10 mintues to cool then went to pop them out of the pans. And this is what I ended up with:

Luckily for me while I was fighting back tears I tried a little piece of the cake and it tasted so good that I decided to say "screw it" I'm making another cake....this time a two layer 9 inch cake. First layer is done and came out perfectly..another post to come once it's done....and hopefully I don't have another disaster!

I knew that this was going to be a long road =)

Baking tomorrow?

2010-01-07T17:46:00.001-08:00

Been home sick all week, but am finally feeling better...hopefully good enough to bake a cake tomorrow. Sadly due to a sinus and ear infection and a nasty cough I missed my first cake decorating class. Hopefully, I will be able to attend the next one this coming monday! I can't decide what I want to bake, anyone have any suggestions?!

Cake One

2010-01-03T12:07:00.001-08:00

I made this cake last weekend, all from scratch.It was a triple chocolate raspberry cake. One of the layers of cake took a little longer to bake then the other, and I ended up overcooking it a bit. When I popped it out of the pan, it tore a little, but I decided that it was worth a shot to make it. I really should have just remade it....I ended up with a slightly lopsided cake. I realized once I started frosting the cake, that my icing may have been a bit to stiff, it wasn't spreading evenly and when I would go to add more, it just wanted to tear back what was already there. Many many lessons learned on this cake. Especially that the frosting I made, will not move once put in the fridge =/ which meant that I couldn't smooth it more like I wanted to!

I do start cake decorating classes tomorrow, and that should help with learing the basics. Does anyone know what "dirty icing" entails?

The Challenge

2010-01-02T21:56:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone-

My name is Elizabeth AKA Lizzie, thanks for taking the time to read my blog! I have challenged myself to learn how to cake decorate, and this blogs primary purpose is to track my progress as I learn and develop my current talents. I have always wanted to learn, and especially now that I have hopes in one day owning my own bakery. Makes sense since my favorite pastime is baking/cooking. This blog will also serve as just sharing some of the things I create, however I will rarely give out my recipes since I take them and develop them into my own. I will post a "recipe of the week" to try and let you guys try to and share your experiences with me! Thank you for the support, I have a feeling it might be a long journey but I am very excited to get started!!