Chocolate Ganache vs Bad Lighting: Why Nighttime Photos Don't Work (Plus Bonus Dream Talk)

This cake was a bit of a rush cake.

Four days. Birthday cake. Seems simple right? Anyone could make a cake in 4 days.

Fair enough; it's really not that hard. I just like to plan things out a little more.

Especially since I'm working a full time job that takes 45-50 hours of my week.

Then travel time to and from work.

Not to mention the taking and planning of orders, shopping, hunting down items or techniques to try and the order a little special and unique. Then the baking, and the cleaning. And the torting, and the whipping. And the spreading, smearing, kneading, covering, heating, swirling, cooling, sprinkling, dipping and all the other verbs that come with making a sweets order.

And then the picture taking, boxing up and getting ready for pick up at the end of the day.
Hence, this:

Bad, bad nighttime picture!

 Yeah. No natural light. Late time picture since this was finished in one night after doing a large cake pop order for the few nights up to this. So the pictures are bad no matter how I edit them. Not that the cake was really pretty.

It was delicious though.

Yes, I will fully admit that my cakes are not the prettiest, they are amateur(ish,) and my technique needs work. It's called the learning curve and I'm on the uphill battle.

But my flavour is fleek!

Why is that? I've been baking since I was a chubby, chubby baby. My mom has a picture of my brother and I baking together. I think we were making cookies or donuts. (If I had the picture I'd share. I'd also have it framed on my wall.) Any time my Mom baked anything I was right there. My Oma would even come get me if she was making something while my mom was at work. Eventually I was the one who was showing my loved ones how to make something. Oma and I made her very first pizza together and it was delicious! And I keep growing, and getting better with my techniques on getting that flavour perfect. Pro tip: Use honey in your pizza crust. No sugar. Your crust will be soft on the inside and have a crisp exterior and your tastebuds will thank me! (I also accept cash.)

So you will always get a damn tasty cake with me. Just maybe not the prettiest.

Yes, there is a swirl in that ganache
That's how to do ganache
Delicious ganache

This was my first ganache covered cake.

Mocha cake, espresso between two of the layers, dulce de leche in the middle with some fresh shredded coconut (by request of the client (who is a friend and got the cake for way to little... Never again!) to have coconut on top of a mocha cake, but I couldn't figure how to do that and ganache.) Covered with cream cheese frosting and drizzled in dark chocolate ganache.

Is that too much for you?

I mean check out that drizzle.

Drizzled chocolate is always good
'Cause chocolate

Not the best drizzle. The cake was too cold and my first bit was firming up before I could get out the squeeze bottle to get that drizzle down.

But I do it again. And again. And again. Until it's perfect. And then I'll do it some more cause drizzle is beautiful (just not here.)

And my handwriting piping could use work.

Bad bad picture
bad bad piping

I used to be good at it when I worked in a bakery (for a whole 3 months.) Half of this bad was the fact that I did not thin my white chocolate at all. Secondly I didn't plan it well.

Hello, I am a Virgo. I need to plan.

I'm planning how to get more orders. I'm planning how to get from my kitchen, to a studio kitchen, to sell at the Farmer's Markets. To create a kickstarter to open a cafe. There are a million little steps to it all and I'm going to do every damn one of them.

Because if I listened to myself when I was younger, and realized that I wanted this all along, I would've had it by now.

My best friend can attest to the fact that when we played imaginary store type games I'd always have either a cafe or a pet store (but that's only cause I want a place where the floor is the fish tank. Don't argue that the fish would hate it because of noise! You walk on the frozen lake when you ice fish, right?)

Growing up I always thought it would be amazing to have a restaurant or cafe. I'd hang out in as many privately owned cafe's as I could, talking to owners, writing, sipping on lattes. I would wonder why they wouldn't have more desserts or sandwiches or sell more variety of things. And then I would think what I'd do with mine.

So there you go. Now you know why I'm doing this. Why last year I made over 60 new recipes and why this year I'm making 12 (3 to go!) cakes. I'm making myself better so that I can make my dream a successful one.

That was share time.

Taster Cakes: How To Choose Your Wedding Cake Flavour When You Can't Eat Cake

Uh... What?

You can't eat cake? But you're human shaped.

Oh wait. Ok.

Artistic or Vintage?

I'm very excited to make a winter wonderland cake for my client. I met her while working at the Farmers Market and she has to be the most genuine, happy, excitable and giving gal.

Was that too much?

Who could possibly warrant such kind words from the kitchen bitch witch.

Well I'll tell ya the reasoning for my love for this gal.

She can't eat any of these cake. She's celiac. And she's the only celiac attending her wedding.

So rather than order a gluten-free cake (which I can't actually make; I can only make gluten-friendly goods as there is gluten in my kitchen, but I digress;) she is ordering a cake, of the gluten-full variety, for her fiancee and his family.

No, that's not Black Forest,
But it does have Kirsch

Doesn't that show just how much she loves her hubby? And his family?

Make me think of my love for my in-laws (which I don't call in-laws, cause I love them and saying in-law after everything is annoying exhausting.)

So how do you choose what cake to have when you can't eat them without risking your gut's happiness?

Order three cakelettes for family dinner with the to-be family and let them choose for you.

How nice, right?

This has appeared again.
My Grandma's fav.

She's already embracing all the German. 

Although, I don't think she gets how Germans work.

She picked up the cakes and with the exclamation: "That's too much cake!"

This is enough for 2 G-mans, I don't have the beer displayed.
That costs extra.
And is generally all gluten filled.

I laughed. 

And then I wondered if she knew what she was getting into.

I mean, what German doesn't like food?

Actually what human doesn't like food? 

I can't get enough.

Same with oxygen.

Orange Chocolate with my new frosting

Yeah... I haven't slept much.

Anyways, these 3 cakelettes are counted as my seventh cake.

It's July.

I'm doing alright, I guess.

Blue Cakelette: Ombre Petite Cakes for Mother's Day

Mother's Day was May 10th.

My Mom is about four and a half hour drive away.

It's hard to get there on a weekend. With cake.

Also there's a no gluten thing... I don't get it.

I get it if you're celiac, or trying to be more healthy, but no gluten?

How can you deny this little guy?!

May I introduce you to the Cakelette. Or Petite Cake, but I like Cakelette. 

I think it'll be my substitute for the cupcake.

Not that cupcakes can never happen; they are just over done. 

That's right, Cupcake, you're on your way out.

These were made for the ladies at my work. It had to be later since one only comes in later in the week.

Three inch round chocolate cake with dulce de leche and buttercream. It's splittable between two people, but then you start to eat it and it isn't sharable anymore.

The ombre effect is actually very simple, easy and looks very fancy.

If you need a video to see how click here. Also NicolaBakes is very cute.

Nicola does a cute, simple ringed fringe design on her tutorial, but I figured since this cake is a little over 3 inches across it would look too busy with the texture.

Also I had to top it with a tiny blossom.

Boop!

If you want to learn more about gumpaste flowers I recommend Craftsy. Especially Maggie Austin's Sugar Berries, Leaves & Blossoms. That's what I'm practicing right now. 

Enough free advertising.

Back to what this was actually for...

Happy Mother's Day to all the great mothers out there.

I love you, Mom.

Mr's Baby Ninja Turtle Cake: The Tale of a Love for Pizza

I'm a Liar.

A damn liar.

But in a good way.

See two years ago I arranged a surprise party for Mr's Birthday. I sent him off to watch Roller Derby while I prepared. My excuse was the tickets were sold out and I was making pizza anyways.

Party Pizza.

Most of the surprise party guests were at Roller Derby already, cheering on the E-Ville Roller Derby team. One of the guests arrived early. She drew him a card and I made Party Pizza.

When Mr arrived with another guest I thought for sure the gig was up. The first arrival had never been to our place before and had no reason to just be hanging out at our table. But he didn't get it until the fifth guest arrived.

For that birthday I made a Chocolate Bacon Stout Cake with Maple Frosting. It was as good as it sounds.

Can you see the Bacon? Stout makes for an amazingly moist cake.

Last Birthday I surprised him with Barenaked Ladies tickets. I told him we were meeting my Pops for supper. It was a bit of a walk to the theatre and Mr was getting angry at Pops. When we walked into the theatre, with all the banners and merch about, he still didn't clue in. He had to see the tickets to get what was actually happening.

The concert was amazing. I recommend them to everyone and can't wait to go again.

This year Mr made me promise no surprises.

Can you believe that?

So I made him a little cake.

A very little cake. Six inches on the bottom and a teeny four inches on top.

Baby Donatello (and the pizza toppings) are made with modelling chocolate. He was fun to make.

He started like this:

And ended up like this:

Notice Mr's name on the cake? So he'd know it's all for him.

He shared the pizza part with me. The crust is fondant, and sauce is fondant gunk. Toppings are all chocolate.

Yes, Donatello even has a tail.

Yes... That is a tail.

The cake was what Mr calls "Grape" flavour; which is actually Lavender Honey. Making it purple means it is Grape apparently.

So two cakes down: Ten to go. Next cake will be for my Gram's and Mom's Birthday. I'm planning on making my first gumpaste flower. " 'Cause seriously, speaking for everybody who are me in the car right now, we're very excited."