Spongebob!

Wasn't quite done with him in this picture. Had to do some detail outlining.

This cake was for a girls 9th birthday party, she wanted either Hannah Montana or Spongebob and I helped her make her mind up :) Her Mom wanted some cupcakes to go along with it so I remembered Bakerella had some cupcakes that looked like hamburgers for Father's Day back in June so I decided to make them Krabbie Patties!

The cake was a marble cake with standard buttercream icing. Nothing super fancy, but I was told later that it tasted really good! So I guess that's a score. I must tell you that some of the best cakes I've made have come from "The Joy Of Cooking" and my "Baking Illustrated" cookbooks. They are the two cookbooks that I know of that actually have a reputable test kitchen panel that scrutinizes every aspect of every recipe before it goes into publication. "Baking Illustrated" even has troubleshoot pictures, and will tell you what went wrong if your baked goods did not come out the way you wanted it to. I would even recommend those over any BHG




This was him after the detail outlining of his mouth and putting the belt and eyelashes on him.












Here are the Krabbie Patties! A patty made of brownie and a bun made of yellow cake :) The icing in it is just regular buttercream tinted to look like lettuce, mustard, and ketchup. Everything from scratch, because it's cheaper that way, and though it takes more time... considerably more time... it's worth it.






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Though I make cakes, and people who know me think it's the biggest irony in the world, I don't eat cake, not a big fan. I love to decorate them, love that other people love them, etc. I have come under some scrutiny as of late because I am a nutrition and dietetics major, looking to become a registered dietitian.

"How can you possibly be a dietitian and make cakes?"
"I thought you were a NUTRITION major and you make cakes for others to eat?"

Yes. I do. Here's why.

Everything in moderation. If you want a piece of cake, fine. Just don't eat a huge slab or half the cake. If you forbid yourself everything you will binge on it when it's put in front of you. Easier said than done, I know, as someone who struggles with their weight constantly. I've lost close to 70 pounds in a year and a half, just making small changes.

I realize that's not a big definitive statement on why I do what I do. I just know that doing this brings people joy, because every cake I make is for a special occasion. I don't just make cakes to make them, I never will, because I believe that's where people cross the line into bingeville and I would be aiding in that.

Anywho. My two cents :)
I have another birthday cake in a week and a half and a photo shoot between now and then! Also have a final due by midnight tomorrow night so I should stop this procrastination junk.

Tweet!

I'm on Twitter if anyone cares :)

suzyQcakes is my name :)

Steelers

So this is my first attempt at a Steelers cake. Those of you who know me know that we are a big Steelers household. My husband is from the Pittsburgh area and has grown up being a Steelers fan. Well, there are other Steelers fans at the congregation we attend and one of them graduated from High School yesterday and his party is between services this afternoon. His mother asked me to make him a cake, but instead I made him one that was graduation themed and one that was Steelers themed because it was just a given that I would do that if I was asked to do his cakes.

The other one I didn't take a picture of but I have made a total of 3 of them now for graduation season, so I'm posting a picture of the one I did for my sister 3 weeks ago.
The biggest difference between the one below and the one I did yesterday is that the colors are green for the cap, yellow for the tassel, and the boys name is Stephen :) Essentially the basic shape is still the same but everything else is different :)

Hope you guys have a good day :) I know I will as soon as I get some breakfast in my tummy.

What I've been up to in the last 7 months....

I did this one back in January for a reception for a couple who got married last September. Everyone thought it was so pretty that no one wanted to cut it. So no one did. The couple took it home and ate it. It was a strawberry cake with cream cheese filling, obviously covered in fondant.












This one was a mock up for a bride who is having hydrangeas in her wedding. I wanted to see if I could do it. I think the centers of the flowers would look better with a darker blue, but I was going more for the "can I do it?" effect with this cake. And I did, but she chose something else.






I love doing the fancier cakes but I've done others that haven't been as fancy but still yummy.

I'm doing my first Steeler's cake tomorrow and I'm really excited about it :)

Have a wonderful day!

Chocolate Plastic

This is my first attempt at Chocolate plastic and I think it turned out wonderful. I found a recipe for it on another blog about a week ago when I saw these cute little pumpkins and I thought "hey, theres a potluck coming up... I'll try it." So I did. It is time consuming but it tastes 100x better than fondant and molds just as well into flowers and other. Doesn't harden up as nicely as gum paste but oh well :) You can only ask for so much, right?

I didn't realize until I was taking the pictures of my cake that I messed up on the siding, so pretend you didn't see the huge creases on the side :) Truthfully we were trying to get out the door and I was trying to get the cake iced and out the door in less than 30 minutes and speed does not translate well to decorating, unless you like the stuff from Wal-mart and need something NOW. In which case, you go here and realize that you do not need anything so fast that you're cake ends up looking like that :)

These are the little pumpkins I made, they probably don't even stand a half an inch tall. It's a good thing my hands aren't that shaky and I can still pretty much see up close when I get things right up to my eyeball to put that tiny little stem in. I love those little things though, and the best part was that I made it with Ghirardelli chocolate... so yeah. They were GONE off of the cake :)

My next adventure will be for this Saturday, it's another potluck :) And I feel like that's really the only place to try and drum up business under Kentucky law :) haha

Have a good one :) Enjoy.

Cakes? What?

No cakes that I took pictures of recently. I've done a couple but I've been in school, busy and junk.

Hope those of you who read this are well ;) I'd like to be in bed. So I think I'll head that way.

Ciao.

Vacation??

Maybe I do something too much when I am thinking about running to Wal mart at 6am to pick up a couple tips and some bags to do some decorating. Maybe I should go back to bed... who knows.

Nothing is on the dockett for August, no cakes thus far. We'll see how the month pans out though. I may make cakes just to keep in practice! We do have a gospel meeting coming up... maybe I should do something for the potluck I know we will have :) Course, the day after the meeting starts is when school starts back up. That's gonna be a busy week.

I do have a wedding shoot in September, but that's not cake stuff :)

I did enjoy painting the pieces on the cake below, it's food coloring and a couple drops of almond extract. I use the gel food coloring so I added just enough extract to make it liquid. I'm sure the stickets probably didn't taste good but at least they were edible!