Crazy Cakes!

So I've been taking this super radically fun cake decorating class at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts with the awesome April, and every week we learn some bonkers new techniques and we get to practice on baked cakes we bring to class as well as on styrofoam "cake dummies." My intention with taking the class was to develop my old-school buttercream piping skills, for as my friends and blog reader pals know, I love vintage-looking stuff!

I learned "the basket-weave" for example, as seen on the chocolate ganache and mocha buttercream cake at the top; also, I covered an ENTIRE two-tier cake a.k.a. the white chocolate buttercream-piped shag rug avant-garde hat, with those little drop stars-- (see below) --boy my wrist was sore after that! The white cake smooshed down on itself when I drove home, sadly, and the yummy raspberry filling gooshed out the sides a bit.

The chocolate ganache mocha buttercream basketweaver: I took this to a potluck and my friends were crying they were laughing so hard-- only because it just didn't look like I made this crazy thing! It sort of looks like a grandma's 80th birthday cake.

Slicing out some good times!

A whole lot of cake: I left the rest at Lori's!

"it's alive, it's ALIVE!!" I had piped all of the shaggy white drop stars and it occurred to me that I naturally wanted to put an animal face on it as I love cute faces and making cute cakey faces. But then I had to practice with all the flowery stuff!! I still think it looks like a little shaggy vintage alien from the 1960s, haha.

A little zoom-in for your viewing pleasure: drop stars, buttercream roses, leaves, gold dragees for flower centers... two tiers of out-of-control crazy delight!

"And what do we have here??" inquires my main man. Rich dwarfs the cake in this pic, but the cake is actually pretty big-- and SOOOO heavy! You could use it as a doorstop! Your door would look like hell after though, but it would taste good.

Fun times at cake class...! And I learned lots of techniques I can apply to my little friend the scrumptious cupcake.

Additional pics taken by Andrea Nunes.

For Your Eyes Only... The Bunny Box!

Bunny box! Perfectly cute little vanilla cupcake bunnies, teamed up with their friends grassy town cupcakes with malted milk speckled eggs! How cute can an Easter treat be?

Happy Bunny Times everyone!

Coco Cake Cupcake Trio

There's many ways to have two moms-- one of the ways is marrying an awesome, awesome dude with initials RT, who happens to have a very awesome mom-- a woman I call Mom T! For Mom T's birthday, I surprised her with a bounty of beautiful cupcakes, even carrying it over very carefully on the ferry to Victoria, BC!

I made dark chocolate cupcakes with an assortment of frostings: vanilla buttercream tinted pink and piped into a lovely rose, chocolate buttercream in a pretty swirl, and vanilla buttercream with toasted coconut!

Happy Happy Birthday Mom T!

Bit Bit! Froggy Cupcakes!

Eeks, my nephew Brody is the cutest little rascal. Only last week he started walking, arms raised up in "grizzly bear" position with the most determined little look on his face! He can also now say "Hi Auntie!" which kills me with cuteness. I was trying to get him to say "Hi Unko" to Rich but it sounds more like "Uncle" instead of Unko... Another thing that kills me is when my sis asks him "what's this? pointing to a picture of a frog, and he goes "Bit Bit!" Aghhhh Brody!! You're so cute!!

The very nice Kevin phoned me with a particular request: frog cupcakes! I hadn't yet attempted the frog so I was eager to try. I was pretty stoked on how these little green nutters turned out, each with their own little personality! I hope your GF Becky had an awesome birthday Kevin!

See you all soon,

LKS

Coco Cake In A Real Pickle

When someone loooooves pickles, you just gotta make them a crazy cake: starring a pickle with a face on it wearing a top hat, sitting on top of a scrumptious lemon raspberry cake with creamcheese frosting. You can just hear this little guy singing an old timey tune or cracking a really corny yet hilarious joke!

Remember how I was telling ya that I tend to draw my designs before givin' er in real-life cake form? I took a pic of the drawing for your amusement and possible interest! The little flowery thing on the right hand side of the drawing was actually an idea for a sliced fondant pickle to adorn the sides.

Mmmm, I would love a crunchy garlic pickle right about now... I made this crazy pickle out of green colored fondant, and poked about a million holes into the poor guy to simulate the surface of a pickle. He's pretty casual times, layin' down like it ain't no thang to be a crazy cool old pickle in a top hat!!!