Baby Showers and desserts!

Hello all!  So, even though I am done with my lab classes for the summer (I am still in a lecture called Purchase and Cost Control once a week), I have been busy the last few weeks doing some really fun personal stuff!!  First, I helped make the food and desserts for my sister's baby shower in Cleveland.  

It all started with a trip to the West Side Market downtown to get some great produce and meats...

After about a day and half of prepping, the food went out...

Here are some pickled vegetables (on the left) and raw veggies with hummus and curry yogurt dips

Assortment of cheeses on the left with a fruit chutney (in the martini glass), spicy black bean dip with fruit salsa garnish, and assorted crackers and chips

Clockwise from the left: fruit platters, thai chicken lettuce wraps, potato, egg, and cheese "tortillas"-these are Spanish and made like a frittata, salami and pepper relish canapes (fancy word for 1 to 2 bite appetizers)

Another angle...

We put a lot of the food items on floor tiles which I thought turned out really neat looking!

And, here is my cake again!  It made it to Ohio (after melting a bit in the car) and after a little TLC turned out pretty good!

I added some birds and lady bugs for a color contrast (plus it mama animals with their babies!)

Here I am with Nena and my cousin Rachel, looking good!!

So, after getting back to MI and recuperating for a few hours, I had another major project to complete: my first non-family dessert catering!  I made mini desserts for a co-worker at the hospital, including: chocolate truffles, macarons (the cookies not the coconut balls!-which I have made before in class and posted...), lemon bars, and cake ball lollipops.  Here's how they turned out!

Here's my "production line" for the truffles... they started as a basic chocolate ganache (good quality chocolate and heavy cream), then half were rolled in toasted almonds and the other half in toasted coconut

Here they are ready to be delivered!

Here are the macarons: the green ones are filled with pistachio butter cream and the purple with strawberry and raspberry butter cream

Here are the cake ball lollipops, which were actually pretty tricky to get right-the white chocolate wouldn't melt enough to dip and then some of the cake would fall off the sticks...ahhh!  But, they are a hot item right now, so I better really start loving them!

Lemon bars, which I cut into triangles

Here's all the stuff ready for delivery!

I delivered all of this on Friday (because then I was headed off to Columbus for Nena's second shower!) so I couldn't actually set up the desserts for the reception, but Emily did share some pictures with me...

I bought the lollipop stand for the cake balls and then Emily's family set up everything else, complete with a candy station-love it!

I also made raspberry sauce for the lemon bars which they drizzled on top...

I'm really happy with how everything turned out and Emily said the desserts were a big hit!

So, then it was off to Columbus!  This shower was less people and took a less complex approach to the food.  Here's how it turned out!

One of the first things I did was made homemade hot fudge and honey butterscotch sauce for the ice cream sundae bar for dessert.  Here I am getting started... do I look tired??

Here is the boiling honey, sugar and water for the butterscotch sauce

Next goes the cream... it gets very steamy and bubbly!!

Then, it is finished with butter, yum!

Here I am with Nena a week after Cleveland... did she get bigger??

Here's the beautiful watermelon carving made for the centerpiece (can't take credit for this... thanks sweetie!!)

Veggie platter with root vegetable chips and homemade French onion dip

Red bean dip with tortilla chips

Pretty fruit tray!

The main course was shredded pork tacos (bottom right corner), then there were mac'n'cheese cups (middle left) made in silicon cupcake holders (great idea mom!!)

Another view... to the right of the bean dip were other homemade condiments: mango salsa, guacamole, and chipotle sour cream

The party was great!!  I didn't get a picture of the ice cream bar, but that was a success as well!

So, later that night Nena threw a surprise 30th birthday party for Kevin (her husband) and a restaurant in town.  He was surprised!!

Guess who was asked to make the cake??  (Hint: it wasn't Walmart...)  His favorite candy is Reese's PB cups, so I made a peanut butter cake with chocolate frosting and mini PB cups on top and in the layers...

It was a hit!!  (This picture reminds me of the importance of wiping your knife in between each cut... the anal student in me had to come out!!)

Okay, just reviewing this post is making me exhausted!!  I did have a busy few weeks, but I learned a lot and am starting to build a name for myself here in MI, so that makes it all worth it!
Coming up, I am taking an awesome weekend trip to Chicago, then have some family coming to visit, and finally doing a Michigan tour, including Sleeping Bear Dunes, Traverse City, Mackinaw Island and Pictured Rocks (in the UP, Upper Peninsula).  I am looking forward to relaxing and having some really delicious food, of course!!  I can't wait to share my experience with you all soon!  Hope everyone is having a great summer =)

The Wedding Cake Class

Hello family and friends!  It is hard to believe that I have finished another class!!  Well, it's true =)  This class was a little bit different because we didn't actually bake anything... the point of the class was to work on fondant and gumpaste decorations for wedding and theme cakes and also buttercream piping.  We used styrofoam bases for our stacked cakes (we had to make 4 cakes in the 5 week class), but also did get to make a sculpted cake on the last day with real cake scraps (that was our fun day!!).  This was definitely the most tedious class so far and my feet actually hurt more from just standing and making flowers than running around the kitchen!  Anyway, let me show you what I made!!

The first week of class we practiced gumpaste roses...  I did know how to make these from my cake decorating classes I took at Michael's Craft Store back in 2006 (I couldn't believe it had been that long!!)

A rose starts with a base (the white tear drop in the background), then you add 3, then 5, then 7 petals for a completed rose (that's 15 petals per rose!!)  Here are a few I am in the process of making...

To make all flowers look more realistic, I add color dusts to them (there are a lot of colors to choose from, plus you can mix them together).  Can you tell the difference??  I used a LOT of color dust on the flowers and leaves for my cakes because they look so much better.  Hopefully you will be able to tell on my cakes =)

Okay, so THIS is real cake...  We were supposed to practice "draping"(on this cake that is the fondant in between the flowers).  It is actually pretty difficult to make draping look realistic and not too heavy.  By the way, a lot of people ask for draping on their wedding cakes... I don't think I like it very much, but tried to keep an open mind!

We also practiced gumpaste Christmas bows!

So, for Cake #1, we had to use draping (I couldn't get away from it!!) and make some kind of flower.  From my recent trip to CA visiting the conservatory in San Francisco, I was inspired by all of the amazing flowers I saw.  Plus, since I had learned many of the basic flowers in my previous class at Michael's, I felt that I had to challenge myself and try something new.  So, for my first cake I was inspired by this flower (these are real)...

I have no idea what it is (kinda orchid, lilly hybrid?)  but I loved the color contrast and the thin crumpled edges.

So, here I am holding one of the bases I made...

And here are some petal...  each individual petal has to be put on a wire, then twisted together to form the flower (the foil is used to give dimension to each petal so they don't dry flat since that wouldn't be natural!!)

After adding some purple color to the inside of the the bases and some engineering of each petal, this is how they turned out on the cake!

Here's another angle...A few more details about this one: the tiers are covered in gray fondant and then the bases of each tier are covered with a black band of fondant.  I really like the color contrast and you will notice that most of my cakes have a dark band (I think that will be one of my signature looks!!)  Then, the draping is also gray, and needs to be really thin so it looks like fabric, but then doesn't tear!

Cake #2: Theme Cake.  In coordination with my sister's baby showers, I chose to make a "tree cake" with owls (since that was her theme).  Many of you have seen or will see this cake at her 2 showers (I could save it because it isn't real cake!)  So, this cake is going to be traveling all over Ohio!!

So, this is what it looked like freshly made =)  Mama and baby owl..

The tree is made out of modeling chocolate (which is similar in texture to tootsie rolls), so it is very temperature sensitive!  I did add a few extras for the final product which I will have pictures of on my next blog post!

Cake #3: Wedding style cake with some kind of butter cream piping and different flowers.  This cake was also for us to practice components for our final cake.  Here is another flower I was inspired by from the conservatory called Foxglove...  I love the little dots inside!

 So, I made foxglove bunches and orchids for this cake.  I picked two different fondant colors (green and pale purple) to cover my cakes and of course the black band!!  I was also experimenting with dust colors to make the flowers and leaves look natural.  Finally, I drew a scroll pattern that I piped on 2 of the tiers. Here's how it turned out!

Another angle...

Cake #4: the FINAL cake!!  This was also supposed to be a wedding style cake.  It had to include buttercream piping and flowers.  My instructor was really looking for clean work and neutral colors.  I decided to make the foxgloves and orchids again, but change the colors. The cake is covered in ivory fondant with dark brown bands around each tier base.  The piping is with white royal icing and is a combination of extension work (the loops, which are only attached to the cake at the tops of each loop) and dots.  This was for all the marbles!!

 A better angle of the piping

A couple close up shots of the flowers...

I really did like the way this cake turned out!  But of course I have some critiques!!  The main one was I wanted the orchids to look more lime green so there was more contrast with the dark leaves.  I just couldn't get the right dust colors... Then, my brown base strips weren't completely even and got a little bit stretched out.  I know it isn't THAT bad, but these were the comments from my instructor which I take seriously and use to help improve myself.  Plus, you know from my previous posts that this program is all about being anal!!  I did end up with an A- in the class, so I am happy with that!

Fun, sculpted cake: A Pillow!!
So, I had seen on cake shows and in books cakes that look like pillows (complete with the tassels on the corners) and really wanted to try one!  So, for our fun day, that is what I made!  I was able to give it to Nena and her in-laws when they were at their cottage in Michigan, so it didn't go to waste (since it was made with real cake)!  Here is how it turned out!

For the tassels, I used an extruder, which presses fondant out into a variety of shapes depending on the tip you have attached.  This one had many tiny holes, so it came out looking like spaghetti!

Then, I really wanted to paint with the gold dust (a 1 gram jar cost $120 because it is ground up 23K gold!!)

So, I am done with labs until the fall, but will be busy with Nena's showers and making desserts for a co-worker's wedding reception.  I will have more pictures from all of those events soon!!  I hope everyone is having a great summer!!