Wilton Fondant & Gumpaste - class 1

I have been a terrible, terrible blogger. Please forgive me. I offer you cake. Lots and lots of cake. I've been taking the Wilton fondant & gumpaste course and I love it! I wasn't sure I would like fondant, since I've heard such bad things about how it tastes, but it is SO much fun to work with. Here is my first fondant cake!




We learned how to make a "handkerchief" for our cakes. Because apparently they need one?


We also had to make a drape. I hated the drape. My cake does NOT need a scarf. Oh well, at least I know how to do it.

PS - the cake tasted phenominal! It was a white cake with raspberry and raspberry mousse fillings. SO good. The only picture I got of the inside was super blurry though, so there will be no making your mouth water today.

Blueberry Almond Cake

I've had this recipe on my "to try" list for months. I bought way too many blueberries at the local farmer's market last weekend and finally decided it was time to try it. This cake was amazing, very rich and moist with the almonds providing a nice crunch. Don't be dumb like me, don't hold on to this recipe for months before trying it!

Blueberry Almond Cake

Source: Deborah's Culinary Confections

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 can Duncan Hines whipped cream cheese frosting (or home made, if you are not as lazy as I am)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8x8 baking pan.
• In a large bowl combine the butter and granulated sugar, beat until smooth. Beat in egg, sour cream, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix until combined. Fold in almonds and blueberries then pour into baking pan - spread evenly.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes until toothpick inserted in middle of cake comes out clean. Allow to cool before frosting with cream cheese frosting and cutting into squares.

Almond Poppy Seed Angel Food Cake

I'm such a bad blogger that I'm just now posting a dessert that I made for Fourth of July. I feel guilty for keeping this one from you for so long, because it is super healthy (127 calories per slice and NO fat) and delicious.

I was terrified to try an angel food cake. I've never had to beat egg whites into any sort of peaks before, and know that it can turn into a disaster if beaten too long. So before I attempted to make this, I read up on "the egg foam method" in Alton Brown's baking book, "I'm Just Here For More Food" (an EXCELLENT read, by the way). I knew that Alton would explain everything I needed to know in order to make the cake great, and I was not disappointed. Me + Alton + BFFs.

I topped it with cool whip light and some strawberries that I sliced and refrigerated with a little splenda overnight. The original recipe was lemon-poppy seed, but since I'm not a big fan of lemon desserts, I substituted almond extract for the 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon zest and 1 teaspoon of lemon extract that the original recipe called for (now you can turn it back into lemon if you really want to, but the almond was awesome).

Almond Poppy Seed Angel Food Cake

Source: The Big Book of Diabetic Desserts

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cake flour
• ¾ cup Splenda
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• 12 large egg whites
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ¾ cup granulated sugar

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Sift together flour, Splenda, and cornstarch. Stir in poppy seeds and set aside.
• Combine egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed until foamy. Beat in almond extract.
• Beat in sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating at high speed until stiff peaks form.
• Spoon flour mixture over the egg white mixture in four additions, gently folding in after each addition. Pour batter into an ungreased 10 inch tube pan.
• Bake 20 to 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.
• Invert cake pan and cool cake completely.
• Loosen cake from sides of pan with a thin metal spatula. Invert cake onto a serving platter.

Ultimate Oreo Cake

I've been taking a cake decorating class, and figured that as long as I have to bake a cake to decorate every week, I may as well try out some new cake recipes while I'm at it. I'm trying to stick to easy recipes, since I have to bake and frost these after work for class the next day. So these "doctored up" cake mix recipes are great. This one was a combination of a couple of different recipes, and it turned out amazing. Seriously, if you like oreos, this cake is for you! A word of caution on the filling though - this recipe makes A LOT. I did 3 tiers of filling and still had a bunch left over, so I would consider cutting the recipe in half next time. Also, the cake recipe was originally for cupcakes, so if you want to make cupcakes, click on the link for Beantown Baker. Enjoy! Next up is a fresh blueberry cake with sweet cream cheese filling!

Ultimate Oreo Cake
Source: Cake - Beantown Baker Filling: Cake Central

Ingredients for cake:

• 18 oreo cookies
• 1 package plain white cake mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients for filling:

• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 20 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed

Directions for cake:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease & flour pan. (I used two 8" rounds).
• Place the cake mix, oil, sour cream, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and blend with an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides and beat again on medium about 1.5 minutes more.
• Fold oreos into the batter and pour batter into pans.
• Bake about 25-30 minutes until toothpick inserted in middle of cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn cakes out on cooling rack to cool completely before filling and frosting.

Directions for filling:

• In bowl of electric mixer, beat until stiff: heavy cream, confectioner's sugar and vanilla.
• Gently fold in crushed oreos

Note - I cut each cake in half (with a cake torter from Michaels, for $2.99 it is worth every penny), put filling in the middles of each cake, then put filling in between the 2 cakes. 3 layers of filling total. Our class decorating project involved a clown, which I wasn't happy about, but the cake was delicious so the clown doesn't matter.

Pistachio Cake

This is my absolute favorite cake. Of course, it's my mom's recipe, so it has to be good! This is the most moist, delicious cake you'll ever eat. And it's super easy to make too. I wish I had been able to get a picture of the inside of the cake to show how moist it is, and it looks really pretty sliced because the cake is cut in half with a layer of frosting in the middle. I made this for St. Patrick's Day, but I usually make it for Christmas too, and decorate it like a wreath.





Mom's Pistachio Cake

Ingredients for Cake:

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1 package instant pistachio pudding
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup club soda
• 1 cup oil

Ingredients for Frosting:

• 1 1/2 cups cold milk
• 1 package instant pistachio pudding
• 1 envelope dream whip

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°
• Mix all cake ingredients together, mixing on medium speed for 2 minutes
• Pour into greased and floured bundt pan
• Bake for 50 minutes
• Cool in pan for 15 minutes
• Turn onto rack and cool completely
• Blend all frosting ingredients with an electric mixer and beat until thickened, about 5 minutes (I usually chill the bowl and beaters in the freezer while the cake is cooling to help the frosting thicken quickly)
• Cut the cake into 2 layers, frost in between layers, then reassamble the cake and frost the outside
• Keep cake refrigerated