Future Posts

All future posts for Crumb Coat Cakes will be featured on Apron Strings Baking. Two blogs was just too ambitious.

Check it out...cakes and so much more!
www.apronstringsbaking.blogspot.com

Puppy for Sophia

Happy 2nd Birthday to my sweet Sophia!

When it came time to plan Sophia's cake, it was an easy choice.  A puppy!  But what kind of puppy?  

I started looking at puppy cakes that people have made and this one caught my eye.  It's been done in a few different versions, all adorable.  Problem was no one really had instructions on how to "build" it.  I  was left to fend for myself.  

Here's what I came up with:

body - 2 oval layers, top layer carved so the "rear" would be fuller
head - a 6" round and a 4" round carved to get the shape I wanted
legs - 2 mini wonder mold cut in half


All covered in Fondarific.

Chocolate cake with coordinating vanilla cupcakes.  Gotta please them all!  I was happy with the result!  As for Sophia, she loved it!  But honestly at 2, she would love anything colorful and sweet that I put in front of her.

The hardest part?  Cutting it!

Icing Smiles for Kids

A quick follow up to one of my earlier posts, A Worthy Cause...


Recently, a non-profit organization with a fairly simple, yet impacting goal caught my attention.  They provide custom cakes to critically ill children and leave them with an Icing Smile.
  
So many of us have it in our hearts to make a difference, but don't act on it due to the lack of time and resources.  Me included.  That can't be said for Tracy Quisenberry, founder of Icing Smiles Inc.  Tracy, realizing the importance of bringing a smile to a child's face when he/she needs it the most, made it happen.  As a working mother of two, with an already full plate, she made the time and found the resources to bring a little bit of happiness to some well deserving children.  It's that simple, and with this, I knew I could help.
  
For those of you that read my earlier post and voted, THANK YOU! Unfortunately, Icing Smiles will not receive the Pepsi grant.....but in the following update, you will see that they have succeeded nonetheless.  They are thrilled with the overwhelming support and are focusing on the rapid growth of the organization.  Please read on, and if nothing more, follow Icing Smiles on facebook and see for yourself the impact of an icing smile!


http://www.facebook.com/notes/icing-smiles-inc/update-for-our-baking-partners/429920081242


Sometimes it's the little things in life that make a huge difference!

Fondant of Choice

I have gotten quite a few inquiries on fondant lately.  Do I make my own?  NO CHANCE!!  With so many great products available, there's no reason to. Unless of course, you're a glutton for punishment.  Seriously!  It even comes pre-dyed!

I'm no expert, and I've only tried a few different brands, but my favorite by far is...

Drumroll please...

FONDARIFIC

It was my first (maybe that has something to do with it), and I promise you it will be my last.

Extremely pliable, not too sticky, and did I mention the flavors?!  That's right, flavors.  So many different flavors!  My very favorite, of course, is buttercream. YUM!!  Finally!  There's no longer a need to peel away the layer of fondant before digging in to your piece of cake.  Well that's not necessarily true.  My kids still peel off the fondant, but now they eat the fondant and leave the cake.

www.fondarific.com

Buttercream

When a dear friend calls and says "I need a cake, but just slap some 'regular' icing on it.", what do you do?  You make a cake, and slap some 'regular' icing on it.  I was actually happy with the outcome, just simple and pretty.  

Oh, the woes of buttercream.  Why is it so much harder for me to throw something together with buttercream than to cover it in fondant?  Part of the reason I stopped making sheet cakes, is because they bore me.  I know there is a lot that can be done with buttercream, I just don't practice enough.  So don't look too closely, my skills need some work!  

Not wanting it to look like your typical grocery store cake (not that there's anything wrong with that), I added a subtle texture to the sides and top.  With no texture sheets on hand, I grabbed a clean paper towel.  After the final coat dried out a bit, I rubbed the paper towel over the cake with a fondant smoother and was left with a light texture, adding the extra touch I was looking for.   

It was a 3 layer chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream, and they LOVED it. Mission accomplished!   

2 Blogs??

I'm becoming addicted to this blogging thing!  So many fun ones out there to follow, who knew?!  Not sure if I'll be any good at it, not sure if I'll have the time for it, but I started a second one anyway!

Apron Strings Baking 

So if you're looking for the Cream Cheese Bars, you can find them there. Crumb Coat Cakes will be dedicated to my cakes, and all of my other baking related ramblings can be found on Apron Strings Baking.  This way I can stay a bit more organized by interest.  That's the plan anyway, but those of you that know me can attest to the fact that organized and my name shouldn't be used in the same sentence.

That's it for now, but I have quite a few cakes coming up....so stay tuned!

Thanks for checking in!

Happy Birthday To Me??

Open Gift Box Cake

Lesson learned.  Don't be stubborn, let someone else make your birthday cake.  Last year I did the same, insisted on making my own cake.  But last year there was no design, I just focused on my favorite flavors (white cake with apricot filling and white chocolate buttercream, mmmm).  Since this year I gave into the kids and made vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream, I decided to attempt the open gift box design that I've been wanting to try. You might not be able to tell from the strategic angle of the photo, but it was a disaster!!  A disaster that could have been avoided in so many ways. First and foremost, a little planning would have helped.  I spent the entire weekend celebrating (I had sooo much fun!), leaving very little time to make and decorate the cake.  With the proper equipment and products, a few hours would have been sufficient.  But due to my lack of planning, that wasn't the case.  Believe it or not, I do not have one decent 8" square pan. Thankfully, I did find an old one that was probably stolen years ago from my mother's kitchen.  Sometimes you just have to work with what you got. Uggh!  I had to bake and cool each layer (3 of them) before I could start the next one.  Another mistake was using store bought buttercream.  I ALWAYS make my own, but because of my time constraint, I cut a corner. Maybe it's me, but it just wasn't the same to work with.  And not to mention the "store bought" taste, but don't get me wrong, I could still sit back and eat the entire container with a spoon.  I told you I have a wicked sweet tooth!

Well, at least my bow and tissue paper had enough time to dry....

After all the excuses, here it is.....

Sloppy crumb coat, not enough lid support and poor fondant work.....everyone has a bad day now and then!  Time ran out, so the only corrective measure taken entailed a big knife and some hungry kids.

As for the vanilla cake recipe......moist and delicious!  I've searched and tested many, this one is a favorite!

Sylvia Weinstock's Classic Yellow Cake

I've made it with cake flour and I've substituted with 2 cups of all purpose flour, it always comes out perfect!

A Worthy Cause

Icing Smiles Inc, a great non-profit organization, needs your help.  Even if just one person views this post and votes, it will be one vote closer to their goal. Click on the following link, it only takes a second.

Provide custom celebration cakes to children with critical illness. | Pepsi Refresh Everything

The small things in life can make a HUGE difference!

Icing Smiles Inc.
"Cake has a way of creating smiles and memories. We serve some very special children and leave them with an Icing Smile."
-Icing Smiles Inc.

Go Bananas! UPDATE

Feedback on the Chocolate-Banana Cupcake was just as I thought.  Cake thumbs up, icing too sweet.  Too sweet?  So what's the problem?  I don't think there's such thing as too sweet, but I get it.  Every cupcake has it's liner.  Easy fix, scrape some of the icing off....

Ok, next time I'll tone it down.  Live and learn!

Go Bananas!

Here's a little something fun...

When it comes to cupcake liners, let's face it, grocery store selections are usually pretty boring.  I always make an extra trip to a specialty store or have to wait for my online order to be delivered.  Well, not anymore!  While at Wegmans the other day (I spend way too much time there), I stumbled across some new selections from Reynolds.

This is what excites me, cute cupcake liners.
What can I say?!  

I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one!

It's not too hard to figure out the necessary ingredient here, but I didn't want to do my typical banana cake.  So I mixed it up a bit.  I whipped up a batch of my favorite Hershey's chocolate cake, stirred in some ripe banana and there it was, as simple as that.

Chocolate-Banana Cake
w/Banana Cream Cheese Icing

The cake was out of this world!  Adding banana to the icing gave it just the right hint of flavor, but it took a lot more sugar to get the right consistency.  Very sweet, I LOVED it!  Did I mention my uncontrollable sweet tooth?  

Banana Cream Cheese Icing
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups icing sugar
mashed ripe banana pulp to taste*
*may need to increase amount of icing sugar for desired consistency

After throwing these together, I decided to look up a banana cream cheese icing recipe.  Seems as if I could have made a few changes, which may have helped cut the unbelievable sweetness.  The recipes I found increased the cream cheese by 4oz, added 1/4 cup sour cream and a dash of nutmeg.  Hmmm??  Maybe next time.

Cakes & Cupcakes

I managed to include photo galleries in the tabs above.  For now, that's where you'll find my pre-blog creations.  However, as for my photography skills, I have gotten some flak from a dear friend of mine.  I do realize that photography is a big part of blogging, so "M", from here on out, I promise to try harder!!  Happy caking!

What is a Crumb Coat?

Strange name?  Well, I guess I should quickly explain...a crumb coat is the first layer of icing that traps in the crumbs.  This makes applying your final coat easier, and gives it a smoother finish.  After your cake is completely cool, cover it with a thin layer of icing (a thinner consistency is easier to spread during this step) and let dry.  The icing should be dry to the touch before applying the final coat.  A crumb coat also serves as an adhesive when applying fondant.  Hope that helps!

I did it!

After much talk of creating a blog to journal my cakes and share them with those that are interested, I did it!    Now, how often I'll actually post is a mystery.  My goal is to collect my creations, ideas, and other information I might find interesting in one place.  My hope is that this might actually be of interest to someone else too.  Well, at least I know my mom will follow...she's has to, right?!  So bear with me while I figure this whole blogging thing out.  It could be fun!