Edible Stonehenge

Finally, the first official beginning of Caketecture.
Stonehenge cupcakes!

I've been working up to this with all the previous entries that are, well, rather expected in the world of cake design. But what has been marinating in my head for the past 6 months has been the convergence of cake and architecture.

This was a first step. Stonehenge being a prehistoric structure and architectural mystery was the perfect starting block. The imperfection of the actual stones, as we know it today, lent itself to any imperfection I was struggling with out of lack of experience forming the white chocolate.
I used http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/stonehenge-main.jpg as a reference.
Overall, I was pretty excited, especially when someone I passed by with this confection said to his companion, "hey, it's stonehenge!"

Post Baked

These cupcakes were made over a year ago, but I just stumbled upon their delightful little photo shoot and found them to be worthy of note here. I went a little crazy the summer before last and made 3 different cupcake batters and LOTS of frosting in all different flavors and colors. I added sprinkles, and ~voila!

Here's a little cake I made even longer ago!

If I'm not mistaken, it was German Chocolate with my first chocolate ganache icing, so much fun! It doesn't look too bad either for a first and the coconut was a good trick as well.

These "cutie pies" have become a signature delicacy of mine. I'm not sure where I got the idea, but it was a couple years ago when I first made them and they're quite a hit at the bakery and with friends.

They're pie-on-the-go!

These are made with blackberry pie filling, but they're great for pumpkin and pecan as well. (Whipped cream can also be added for a little extra special touch.) Here's the secret...!

Wedding Cake

This cake was crazy easy...and it was actually my very own wedding cake!

Hard to believe that it was one of the easiest "creations by caro" but like the wedding I wanted, it was pretty chill. And very tasty!

 

Garden Party Hat Cake

So, I made this cake despite the 90 degree weather here, which almost sabotaged my frosting efforts, but I think I did pretty well considering the conditions.

It's floating! Haha, there's some accidental photo trickery for you.

Here's a close up on the white chocolate flowers.

Note to self: satin ribbon soaks up melting frosting...oops.

Fairy Cakes

These are my first attempt at making my take on faiery cakes. I'd like to figure out a better, more opaque royal frosting recipe to use. Dripping the frosting is fun but rather messy.

These photos don't give the star glitter I used much justice but it's very pretty.

Snickerdoodle cupcakes! The first recipe made from the new Martha Stewart cupcake cookbook I got for my birthday. I made them on the 4th of July so I decided to use blue food coloring to color half the batter and swirled them together.

Post baking, I dusted them with powdered sugar.
Turned out quite tasty and sent them home with my roommate for his family.
These are chocolate cupcakes with caramel buttercream frosting and chocolate curls I made at work. mmm...!

Dino Cake

Here is a birthday cake I made for a friend of mine for her 22nd birthday. We took a class on dinosaurs last quarter so I took it as my opportunity to make a first attempt at a dino cake.



Here are some simple cupcakes that came about after class one afternoon at work last quarter.

White chocolate plastic discovery

So I've got this awesome new recipe for white chocolate plastic roses that I've found is basically a substitute for fondant. The coolest part is that it's much easier to make (just appeals and corn syrup) and tastes good (unlike most fondant). It's like play-dough when you're shaping it and then it hardens up when you leave it out. But is still completely malleable when it's cut through or squished again! Yay!

So far I've played with making these roses... but more to come!
These are some more cupcakes I made at work.

And batcakes the remix... I think I like the decals smaller like this.

Pink Velvet!

So, I made this Pink Velvet Raspberry Cake at work the other day... check it out!
The roses were the most fun part, but I really liked doing the icing this way too :)

My boss coached me through the whole process of stacking the cake with the pillars inside, then taking it apart to cut it up (my least favorite part by far!). It was so nerve wracking! but it worked out just fine!

Here's a cross-section into the cake. The color baked a little funny. (I made a red velvet cake recipe but used half the amount of red food coloring to go for a pink color. When I've made this in the past it is definitely red all the way through with the normal amount of food coloring but this time around the edges it stayed brownish. Perhaps it's necessary to use a full amount to get an even color.)

Here's the product we sold at the bakery. Unfortunately cakes don't sell whole very well so I had to cut it up, which was really good practice as well.

What an adventure... the entire cake process.
Now, what to make next...

Novelty Cupcakes!

For all you Nintendo fans...
Check out these awesome Mario Bros. inspired cupcakes I made at work!

This is the Mario cupcake.
I used colored rolled fondant to make the decals on top.

Anyone care for a 1-up (green mushroom)?
do-do..do-do-do-do..do-do..do-do..do-do-do..do-do-do.....

Here's the Luigi cupcake.

And...Batman!

I'd like to retry these sometime because the yellow got too thick for these and the black fondant got kinda tacky when I was shaping it. Next time I'd also like to have an actual cookie cutter for the bats. They were really hard to cut out with a knife, but it was worth it.
(The 8 bat-cakes sold in one day! And the Mario Bros. were gone in 2 days!)