Patriotic Cake

Miss V loves Pinterest and we signed up to bring a dessert for our Church's July 4th picnic she started searching for the perfect thing to make.

She spotted this cake called Red, White and Blue Velvet.

For the cake:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 cup vegetable oil
1-1/2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring (she used Americolor Super Red)
2 tablespoons blue food coloring (she used Americolor Navy blue)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray two 8" cake pans and line them with parchment.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large mixing bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined, scraping down the sides several times.

Divide the batter in half and gently fold the red food coloring into half, and the blue into the other half. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for about 30 - 32 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cakes with a toothpick to make sure they baked through. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pound cream cheese, softened
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until light and smooth.

I also made Miss V a batch of marshmallow fondant and colored half super red and the other half navy blue.  She rolled it and cut out stars in different sizes.

Miss V asked if I could frost it for her as she doesn't to do that.  After she decorated the cake with the fondant stars, foil picks that look like fireworks, and two little mini pinwheels, she had me pipe little stars at the bottom of the cake.

Miss V was very happy with the way her cake came out and I think she did a fantastic job!  I am very happy to say that her whole cake was eaten and we didn't have a crumb left over.

Assemble the Minions! (I bet you just read that in Gru's voice)

Assemble the Minions!  (I bet you just read that in Gru's voice)

So Friday I baked the cake portion of Miss V's birthday cake and wrapped it and put in the fridge over night.

I got up bright and early on Saturday with the plan to make the fondant Minions and other needed pieces.  Miss V was so looking forward to me making her favorite Minion...Dave.

The bottom part of the cupcake was a Blue Velvet from a box and the top was French Vanilla.  I put a quick crumb coat with canned frosting.

Then I laid out my work space, mise en place!

A little Minion inspiration

 Notice, I even bought Banana flavoring so the little fondant Minions would take like Banana!

The I sifted cups and cups of powdered sugar and pulled out the Crisco and marshmallows.  I went to reach for my dough hook and it wasn't where it always is.  Hmm I thought, so I start looking around the different places that it has been put away in.  No luck, by this time I am getting a little frantic and my husband joined the search.  We seriously looked everywhere for two hours.  At this point I am in total freak out mode and my husband asked if I could just run to the store and pick one up.  I got a little teary and snappy and said no.  My Kitchenaid is old and I don't know the official size bowl.  I looked online and found out that my model was discontinued YEARS ago and customer service is not open on the weekends.  By now I am crying.  I am about to let down my sweet Miss V.

I explained that I couldn't make the fondant and I just didn't know what to do. We chatted for a few minutes and she said it was ok and I could just make cupcakes with blue and white frosting and she could put the Banana Runts on them.  So that is what we did.  My heart just ached because she was looking forward to this giant cupcake for months!

I made a special one for her.  I made little stars and the runts had three bananas stuck together.

After the Glow Golf party we all went to the food court at the mall for pizza and cupcakes.  I apologized to the moms.  The kids would definitely have BLUE teeth after this.  Of course the boys heard that and did the best they could to get their teeth blue.  That definitely made me smile.

As for the Minion Cupcake this was the inspiration piece.

It was on Pinterest, with no link and I even tried finding it on Google with no luck.

Well Monday morning I placed a call to the Kitchenaid Customer Service department.  I spoke with a sweet lady named Judy. Who informed me that my model was discontinued but will find the part I needed.  After a minute she gave me the part  number and said that if I want other accessories that I could use them if they started with a certain code number and my mixer is the 5 qt version.  Woo Hoo!  So she said I could look at local stores and if not, to call back and they will ship one.

Thank you Judy!!!

I am going to look at Bed Bath and Beyond this weekend.

As much as I am upset, Miss V was happy just spending time with her friends and eating cupcakes and getting blue teeth.  She said that maybe we could make the giant cupcake another time, just for fun.

Assemble the Minions! (Cupcakes that is...)

I think I am almost infamous at Miss V's school.  Last week a mom had messaged me and asked if I could make 3 dozen Minion Cupcakes for her daughter's 16th birthday.  Sure can and I even brought them to school and put them in the lunch room as a surprise.

Since I needed an odd amount of cupcakes I made some Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes from Taste of Home.  I made one regular size batch and then halved it for 12.

½ cup unsalted butter softened

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

2 eggs, room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ cups King Arthur Unbleached AP Flour

½ cup baking cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

¼ salt

½ cup buttermilk, (you can use ½ cup milk and ½ tbs of white vinegar.  Just let it sit for a few minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Combine buttermilk and water. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk and water, beating well after each addition.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

For these I made two batches of Marshmallow Fondant.  One was colored yellow and the other was left white and then tinted black, gray and brown. 

Then it was time to get creative.  I used all sorts of round cutters and imagination.  Each little Minion had it's own personality.  I used a tiny bit of store bought vanilla frosting to adhere the Minions to the cupcakes.

They came out adorable and were a huge hit with the high school kids.

Back to Football Friday Butter Cookies with Marshmallow Fondant Decoration

Last week was Back To Football Friday at Miss V's school.  We always have cookie bakers make desserts and I love to make special cookies that fit the theme.

So I whipped up some Marshmallow Fondant (actually two batches) One was tinted all brown and the other was half brown and the other I just left white.  I borrowed a football cookie cutter from one of the other moms.  I cut out the brown footballs and added white fondant stitching.  I left them to dry a bit on the counter and then made my favorite rolled butter cookie recipe.

For the Cookies
6 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 cups unsalted butter - room temp

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs - room temp

4 Tbsp milk

3 tsp vanilla

Combine flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Cream sugar and butter, then add eggs milk and vanilla.

Slowly add the flour mixture and beat until combined.

Roll out on waxed paper about 1/4 inch thick and then put into the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes.  While chilling preheat oven to 350.  After chilling, cut out shapes and place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

I can not stress this enough, keep everything; pans, dough, cookie cutters cold.  This makes it so much easier.  Between batches I would chill the pans in the fridge and the cookie cutters in the freezer.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.  You do not want them to brown.  I did find that 10 minutes were perfect for this size cookie.

 When one batch came out of the oven, I put them on the table and immediately placed a fondant football on each cookie.  When that is done, go back and press GENTLY on the fondant.  It should have warmed up nicely and it when cooled it will be adhered to the cookie.

They came out adorable and one of the first cookies to disappear!

Minion Cake

So the other day a friend sent me a picture of a Minion cake from the Betty Crocker Site and asked if I could make something like that for her son, who happens to be in Miss V's class.  Oh sure!  The more I thought about it, it kind of looked boring, it is just a flat sheet cake carved with frosting.  Well I turned to my favorite site Pinterest for inspiration and found it!  Here is a link to the inspiration Minion.  I chatted with my friend a bit about cake flavor and went out and picked up two French Vanilla Cake mixes, a couple cans of white frosting, 4 bags of mini marshmallows and powdered sugar.

When I got home Tuesday morning from dropping Miss V off at school, I started working on Mr. Minion.  I made the two cake mixes and put them in a prepared 11x15 sheet pan.  It took about 30 minutes to bake.  Wilton has a great chart on how much batter per pan and cooking temps and times.  You can find it here.

I then put out my fondant mat and used Minion Yellow Duck tape to keep it in place.

While he was in the oven, I made a batch of Marshmallow Fondant.  I kept it simple and just used clear vanilla extract and water.

When the cake was done, I flipped it and let it cool on a wire rack.

With the first batch of fondant, I colored some with black, grey, brown, pink and left some white.  So I made some shoes, hair, hands, parts of eyes, and buttons from the black.  With the white I designed some teeth, and eyes.  I made the pupils out of the brown.  With the pink I made a cute little tongue by using a small heart shaped cookie cutter.  I also made the goggles from the gray.  I rolled it out pretty thick and used different sized round cutters.

I wrapped the extra fondant up in plastic wrap to keep from drying out.  Then it was time to carve the Minion.  I kind of stood and looked at him for a few minutes deciding how he should look.

He then went into the fridge to cool down for about 30 minutes.  When he was cool, I gave him a quick crumb coat and added a little tiny section from the scrap cake for legs.  Minions have to have legs.

Then back into the fridge.  I normally like to put them in the freezer, but the cookie sheet he is on is to big to fit in the freezer.

While he was chilling in the fridge, I put the eyes together with the goggle frames and looked at the scale and looked pretty good.

When he was done with his chill time, I made another two batches of marshmallow fondant and tinted it yellow with Americolor Lemon Yellow.  Rolled it out and covered Mr. Minion.

I put on the eyes/goggles and the mouth to check for scale on the body.  Whoa....I did not like the mouth at all.  It made him creepy!

That mouth came off very quickly!  Then I made another batch of marshmallow fondant and colored it with Americolor Royal Blue.  Rolled it out and made a nice straight rectangle then put it on as his overalls.

I cut straps and put them on and put a little black button on each one.  I wanted that to dry a little so I made the goggles metallic looking by using a bit of silver luster dust and lemon extract.  You can see the difference here.

When both were done I let them air dry a bit and placed them on Mr. Minion.

Next came his eyes

Tried the funky mouth again, just to make sure.

He still looked creepy so I rolled some more black fondant and made another mouth.

Yep that one looks much more friendly and silly!  Next up arms!  I did put a toothpick in the upper arms to keep them attached to the body and did the same with the shoes.  The rest of the parts I used a dab of corn syrup.  Works like a charm!

Next up was hair!  I did use toothpicks to keep the hair sticking up.

I think he is done....then went into a box for safe keeping overnight.

I kept thinking how flippin adorable he was!  He was a lot of hours worth of work, but he was so worth it!

Mr. Minion (Miss V called him Phil) took a ride to school on her lap.  She was guardian of the Minion.

Miss V's 11th Birthday Cake...I did it!

I did it!!!  It wasn't as hard as I expected.  It wasn't totally perfect, but hey...Miss V thought it was the best cake that I ever made.  It did take a few days to make.  It has been a busy week between her school events,  mini birthday party, shopping at the mall, getting everything ready for her brother's pre-deployment party, Easter and her actual birthday which was Easter Sunday.

How this cake started....I was showing Miss V lots of cakes on Pinterest and she spotted this

She quickly decided that is the one she wanted...but had a couple stipulations....It cannot be pink, it has to be lime green.  Ok......trying to figure out what other colors to use was easy.  She looked at her Vera Bradley backpack in Lime's Up.  So off to Hobby Lobby we went.

We found a smaller silicone cupcake mold and she was ok with it.  While I was looking for a large square pan she yelled that she found the GIANT cupcake pan.

We quickly put the silicone one away.  Then we went in search of the colors.  I love Americolor Gels.  They are in little squirt bottles.  So much less mess than Wilton tubs.

So I made the bottom cake which is a 12 inch square pan.  It takes two full cake mixes.  The bottom Miss V chose chocolate cake.  After it was cooled, I wrapped it in plastic and put it in the fridge.

Then the next day I made the cupcake parts.  I did a lot of searching and found some great tips so that the top part doesn't burn.

Set the oven to 325 to preheat.  Use one whole cake mix for bottom, so mix according to the package directions.  Spray the bottom part of the pan really well with cooking spray with flour or you may grease and flour the pan.  Add the cake batter to the bottom section of the pan.  Place the pan on a cookie sheet and place into the center of the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

In the mean time mix up the next cake batter.  When the 20 minutes are up, carefully take out the pan.  Spray the top section with the cooking spray with flour.  Add the cake batter up to the next to last line.  Place back in the oven carefully and bake for 45 minutes.

Let it cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. I crossed my fingers and said a little prayer that both pieces would come out ok and they both came out perfectly.  Let them cool completely.  I wrapped them in plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

Saturday morning I started by leveling all three section and then started decorating.  I crumb coated all three pieces with canned white frosting and placed back in the fridge.

I made some fondant and Miss V helped color small pieces.  I rolled and cut out circles while she played with a piece to make the big "gumball" for the top.

Totally forgot to snap a picture of the cut out circles.  Oh well....

I was slowly running out of time when it came to decorate it and I had to do it in front of guests and talk with them at the same time.  I kind of felt like I was giving a class...I totally forgot to put a dowel through the cakes.  I did push a skewer through it a the last minute when I saw that it was a bit wobbly.  The only real issue I had was that the canned frosting was a bit soft so it looked messy and I really couldn't pipe around the bottom of the cupcake or it would have plopped off.  Does anyone have tips that would help me next time???

Anyway it still came out adorable and the most important part...Miss V was thrilled with it.

As much as I secretly stress out when Miss V asks me to make her cakes.  She was traumatized a few years ago when the grocery store totally made the wrong cake and I didn't notice until we opened at the party. So I am thankful, if that didn't happen, I wouldn't have stepped out of my comfort zone and learned all sorts of new techniques and tricks.  Granted the cakes aren't perfect in my eyes...but they are perfect in Miss V's eyes.

A huge thank you to Hobby Lobby in North Port that had all the supplies that I needed to make this cake and I didn't have to run all around to find the GIANT cupcake pan.

Happy 11th birthday to my sweet little lady!

Also a huge thank you to Do The Happy Bounce for the awesome Army inflatable!  If you live in my area, I highly suggest renting from them!!!!

Our soldier.....

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