Cake Creations

Vintage Circus theme smash cake and cupcakes

I was asked to make strawberry cup cakes that where strawberry on the bottom and white on the top with a vintage blue frosting. They also wanted a 4 inch smash cake for their daughter who was turning 1. I was instructed to have it the same blue as the frosting on the cup cakes and red vertical stripes with a red border on the top and bottom of the cake. To me it looked like a small drum!

Here is how I did it:

I used a strawberry box mix for the strawberry part of the cup cakes and THIS white cake recipe I found when surfing pinterest. I LOVE this white cake recipe. It is so delicious and I eat what too much of it LOL.

to get the cake mix in the cupcake wrappers without making a mess I put my batter into a zip lock bag. I then cup a tip of the bag off and piped the cake batter into the cup cake wrappers. This also allowed for get control over how much I put in the wrappers.

I repeated this process with the white cake mix.

This is what they looked like when they were done cooking. I was not expecting the strawberry to come through the white cake but it looks neet!

Here is a picture of the inside of the cupcake

I am not a fan of making cupcakes because I can never seem to get them the proper size. I either under fill them or over fill them :-/ But I think with a little more practice I will finally have it down. It took me 6 batches of cup cakes to get 36 perfect ones!! I of course was making cup cake deliveries to family and friends get rid of the rest! The cupcakes that are to the left in the picture are the ones I used for this order. The ones in the middle are my “back ups” in case I messed up on the first 36 and the ones to the right are the “muffin” top ones.

See the difference between a perfectly filled one and a over filled one that creates an over cooked muffin top.

This is the final result of the cupcakes

I forgot to take pictures of the cake process but I just used a 4” pan and made a 2 layer cake. It has butter cream frosting like the cup cakes. The side of the cake has blue fondant with red fondant stripes. I left the top with just butter cream so the birthday girl could play in it and get nice and messy!!

So this is my first time blogging so let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am a Mother of 2 beautiful children. My daughter, Carsyn, is turning 3 tomorrow! My son, Jeremiah, was just born in July. They are such a blessing to me and my husband Chris. Our family really does feel complete.

I love to create things. Anything from scrapbooking to cooking to building things. My mind works in overtime all the time in a creative way. I am constantly thinking of things I can make, paint, create, cook, bake, sell, and make beautiful. My main job is being a mommy but on the side I do photography. I take portraits on the weekends and edit the photos while my kids nap. The other craft I am passionate about is making fun looking and good tasting cakes!! This is what I am blogging for. I have had so many people ask me how I do my cakes and I want to share my tricks! SO here it goes!

***Please remeber I am self taught and they cakes get better over time!***

Cake batter:

First off I always cheat and use boxed cake mixes for all my cakes except white and cherry almond... I am currently experimenting on new recipes but so far the only ones I like more than a box mix are those too. I like really moist cakes. My trick is that I freeze my cakes while they are warm. I do this for 3 reasons. It holds the moisture in the cake, it’s easier to frost without it crumbling and I can carve the cake much easier if it’s frozen.

Butter Cream:

I usually always make a butter cream unless someone asks for a different flavor. I have a great cherry almond recipe for the cherry almond cake though!

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

Make sure the butter is room temperature. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer blend butter and sugar. A lot of the time it will look clumpy but it will no longer be white like the sugar. Add vanilla and whipping cream and whip on high for 3 mins. Color as desired. (I use wilton paste colors)

Fondant:

4 cups mini marshmallows

4 cups powder sugar

Splash of water

Shortening

Prepare your surface buy rubbing a thin layer of shorting all over. This will help make it so you fondant won’t stick. In a large microwave bowl put marshmallows and just enough water to make the marshmallows moist. I get my hands wet and then toss the marshmallows with my hands this is usually enough water. Microwave on high for 1 min. using a wooden spoon of a silicon spoon/spatula mix the marshmallows until there are no more lumps. Add powder sugar and fold into the marshmallow. It will take some time. Once most of the powder sugar is mixed (sugar will be all stuck to the sides of the bowl but that is fine) rub your hands with shortening and pick up the fondant. Kneed it until it is smooth. You might have to add more shorting to your hands and surface as you kneed. Sometime I have to redo my hands and surface several times. Once it is smooth you can cut chucks off and color it by kneading in the color. If it starts to get to stiff to work with I put it in the microwave for 5 second intervals until it’s warm and easy to kneed again.

Cakes I have made in the past:

This is the first decorative cake I ever made. I had seen on online somewhere and I just knew I could make it myself. I used boxed cake mix and cook a cake in my Pyrex bowl to give it the shape of the dress. I bought a Barbie with permanent shirt so I did not have to try and pipe a shirt on her.

My second cake was for my daughters 1^st birthday. We had decorated her nursery in butterflies for I thought a caterpillar cake was fitting! I used the Wilton sports ball cake pans. They make half a ball at a time and I just used them as caterpillar hump. I hand piped the frosting on the cake and the board. This is 3 boxes of cake!

This is a Lego cake with how to train a dragon. This was for my Nephews 6ths birthday. I used a square cupcake pan. This took 2 boxes of cake.

Lady bug. I used my Pyrex bowl and a small Pyrex bowl. They small bowl I just cut a small protion off so it would sit up next to the “body” better.

Purses. I have made 2 of these. I used round cake pans and then cut a part of to give it a flat spot to sit up. I used 2 round cakes and put them together with butter cream. The second one i forgot to pipe part of it before the picture!

Hats. I used my pyrex bowl and carved it into the shape of the hat. For the curved bill i used tooth picks to help hold it up.

Graduation cake. I used a 13x9 cake pan. I cooked 2 cakes and cut them to the size I wanted. I also used a small Pyrex for the hat part of the cake. For the “diploma” I just bought a sheet of edible paper and rolled it up.

Race car. I just made some sheet cakes and carved them to the shape I wanted.

Saint Patrick’s day cup cakes. This was for my sisters work party so we did these together. I can’t take all the credit! The rainbows are air heads melted together then cut… it was very hard I do not recommend it..