Happy Birthday Sarah!

 Happy Birthday Sarah! 


This is my petite birthday cake that I made for my best friend Sarah. It was a vanilla and chocolate cake with my homemade Reese's Buttercream filling. It is dirty iced and covered in white fondant. After that it is piped with white icing that is pained pearl pink. I also piped her the writing with red/pink piping gel.  The bow is made from gum paste it was actually the easiest thing on the cake to make. The roses were the hardest. They are white buttercream with pink food coloring. Buttercream Roses were the hardest thing for me to make. It took me at least 10 times to get it perfect. The top o the cake is just the same pink buttercream with the pearl tip piped along the edges to give it a nice border. I looked for ideas online for the perfect cake for Sarah and imitated the cake that was online with a few extra special things. This was the first and only cake so far that I have used a image or tutorial 
to help inspire me...Happy Birthday Sarah! 

Hotdog, Grilled? Nope baked in an oven. Why? Its a CAKE!

HotDog Cake

This was my first hotdog cake. It is a vanilla pound cake with buttercream and apricot filling. My grandfather loves hotdogs he might love them more then anyone in the world, for his birthday I decided to make him a cake he would never forget. This was just one cake in a pound cake pan that I carved to look like a hotdog in its bun. I cut the cake in half and applied the filling and stuck the cake back together like glue. After that I dirty iced the cake and covered it in white fondant. I then airbrushed the sides of the cake with yellow and orange food coloring to give it that "hotdog bun" color. Then I rolled out another piece of fondant really thin and made the color the same color as a hot dog. Then painted the hotdog part with water and laid the hot dog colored fondant on top and the water acts like glue so the hotdog color sticks to the white food coloring. Then I took black icing and made my grill marks. After that I rolled out two strips of fondant and colored them red and yellow to imitate mustard and ketchup. But something was off the mustard didnt look like mustard but I didnt no what was missing. So I pulled my mustard out of the refrigerator and compared it to my fondant, and I saw what was missing, the pepper specs in it. So I ran to my cabinet and grabbed my cinnamon sugar and mixed it in with the fondant. That was it. It was perfect, and done! Oh and my grandfather loved it (just incase you were wondering).

 

Whats this? A Turkey. NO, its a CAKE !

Turkey Cake

 Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

This is my first turkey cake. When I show people the picture people dont believe me that it is a cake and then I have to go ahead and explain the whole process. It isnt really that hard to explain. First let me start off with what type of cake it is. This is a vanilla pound cake with italian buttercream and chocolate ganache. I took my own pound cake recipe and baked it in two circle pans. After that I layered the cakes on top of each other with the 

buttercream and ganache in the middle, I guess you can say as the "glue." Then I took my knife that I carve every cake with and hand carved it into the shape of the turkeys body. I then shaped rice crispy treats (cereal treats) into the shape of legs and shaped some fondant into wings. Then it was time to dirty ice(icing the cake with the buttercream so the fondant can stick) Then rolled out fondant and colored it a pale brown. After covering the cake I painted it different colors of brown and black giving it that "cooked" look. After that it still didnt look real so I said to myself, what is it missing? and then it came to me, it didnt have an seasoning. So i quickly threw together my own form of seasoning (cinnamon sugar and brown sugar) and rubbed it all over the cake as if it were a real turkey. After that it looked a little undercooked so I took my torch and gently torched the top carful not to burn it but just enough to caramelize the sugar into looking cooked. That was the perfect touch. 

Eggs for Breakfast!

Hard Boiled Eggs

So, Saturday morning with a kitchen full of Thanksgiving leftovers and NOTHING to eat for breakfast. So what do I do when there is nothing fun around to cook? Go straight to the eggs. You can do so much with an egg for breakfast, scramble, make an omelet, sunny side up, poach, hard boiled, soft boiled, over easy, there are over 100 ways to cook an egg. 

Poached Eggs

 Scrambled Eggs

My personal favorites are a nice omelet with a little shredded mozzarella and a poached egg on toast. This morning I decided to make both. One for me and one for my mother. Now let me tell you, I have really mastered eggs especially poached and omelets, considering I make them almost every week. 

For my one egg two egg whites omelet with mozzarella...

(optional egg white if you dont want that you can add however many eggs you want making it a full egg omelet or adding just plain egg whites and no yolk making it a plain egg white omelet)

1. take three eggs crack one into a bowl, separate the other two leaving just the whites so you get two egg whites and one full egg 
2. whisk them together make sure they are fully blended 
3. put some butter and any seasoning (salt, pepper ect.) in a pan over med-high heat and let it melt while spreading the butter 
4. once the butter is all melted add the egg to the pan moving the pan so the egg spreads onto the entire pan covering the bottom completely 
5. let it sit then take a rubber spatula and lift the edges while moving the pan so the uncooked egg can spill under the sides 
6. once all the uncooked egg is cooked and you cant move anymore of it when you move the pan its time to flip!
7. for me I like to just flip the egg with the pan but I'm a little more experienced, I started out using a spatula to flip the omelet just like a pancake
8. after flipping just let it sit and cook for a little 
9. then its time to flip again only your are flipping the omelet in half this time 
10. after you have flipped it in half its time to add the cheese or whatever topping you desire (I personally like my omelets with mozzarella and spinach but I didnt have any spinach today) 
11. take the topping(s) that you have chosen and add them to half of the now folded omelet 
12. the take your spatula and cover the toppings with the side of the omelet that doesnt have any toppings on it 
13. take the cover of the pan (or if u dont have that just use a plate, anything that can cover the pan) and turn the heat down to low. This allows the cheese and all the toppings melt together 
14. allow this to sit for about 20 seconds 
15. take the cover off and flip the omelet to the other side and cover again and allow to sit for another 20 seconds 
16. uncover
17. with the spatula place the omelet onto a plate, maybe toast a piece of bread, poor some orange juice, grab a fork and ENJOY

STEPS to the perfect POACHED EGG 

The Perfect Poached Egg ... (have to give credit to my Uncle Rich for giving me the tips on perfecting my poached egg, it was good before but with his help its perfect!) 

Step 1: take one egg and crack it into a bowl

Step 2: make sure its all together and the yolk didnt split

Step 3: put some butter into a pot over med-high heat

Step 4: let it melt

Step 5: once butter is melted add water to the pot

Step 6: let water come to a simmer

Step 7: take Distilled White Vinegar

Step 8: poor just enough into the cap 

Step 9: poor vinegar into the water

Step 10: Let water and vinegar come to a soft boil

Step 11: once at a soft boil lower the heat 

Step 12: GENTLY add the whole egg into the boiling water 

Step 13: Count to 40 

Step 14: gently spoon the egg out of the water 

Step 15: prepare a piece of bread

Step 16: Toast it

Step 17: place egg gently on toast 

Step 18: slice the egg right down the middle  

Step 19: add the seasoning that you desire 

Step 20: ENJOY!