Garnish

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Mini Cakes for a Beautiful Bride-To-Be

Sunday, April 20th, 2008

This past week has been full of baking, baking, and more baking, so look forward to many posts this coming week. The first of many posts is probably my favorite! This past weekend I had the pleasure of making more treats for my friend Karrie’s second bridal shower. This time the shower was in San Diego, CA and it was at Tea Upon Chatsworth. I had never been to a tea house before and had an absolutely wonderful time. Tea and yummy treats…what could be better! I was asked to make about 40 bridal shower favors for the ladies and decided that trying out mini cakes was the route I was going to take. My wonderful friend April from culinary school came over to help me with the project, but when midnight came she had to leave and that left me to finish them…lets just say that my head didn’t hit the pillow until around 4:30am…I don’t think I would’ve finished without April! I do have to say that I still ended up having a lovely day at the shower, even on 2 1/2 hours sleep, and I was pretty happy with how my little cakes turned out. The circle cakes were chocolate cake with chocolate mousse buttercream and fresh strawberries and the square cakes were buttermilk cake with passion fruit mousse and fresh strawberries. I took photos at my house and also at the shower, so sorry for the overload of photos, but I love taking pictures of my goodies…please let me know your favorite photo, so I can see which one I should put on my official website!

To make them I baked the cake in 13 x 9 pans and then used cookie cutters to cut circles out of the cooled cake. I used a serrated bread knife to make the squares out of the other cake. One I had enough cut outs for each cake to have two layers I piped on a outer ring of vanilla buttercream with a piping bag on the bottom layer and then piped in the filling for the cakes and added the sliced strawberries. Next I placed the second cake layer on top and piped buttercream around the cake before I smoothed it down. Piping the buttercream on the mini cakes is easier than trying to frost them completely with only a offset spatula because the cakes are not as stable as larger ones. After covering the cakes with buttercream I rolled out fondant, I prefer using Satin Ice Fondant, and smoothed it over the cakes. (Side note: I am really happy with Satin Ice Fondant and got many compliments on how the fondant tasted…since many people have a mad mindset about it. Also I have tried marshmallow fondant, but found that I didn’t like the consistency as much as regular fondant…so I’m sticking with Satin Ice). After the fondant is on the cake and smoothed I use a pizza wheel to go around the bottom edge of the cake and cut off the excess.

I then adhered different color ribbon around the bottom of each cake with a dab of buttercream. I also piped three small dots of buttercream at the seam of the ribbon and then adhered three silver dragees to the buttercream dots.

For a decorating accent I rolled out some gray fondant and then stamped the flower design onto the fondant and lust dusted the whole mini cake. As you can see in the photos I used three different flower stamps on the fondant. (For more info about these kind of stamps check out my other posts on cupcakes). I then used circle cookie cutters to cut out neat circles and adhered them to the cake with a dab of water. To package the mini cakes I used 4″x4″x4″ clear boxes, which you can get from Garnish, and tied them with different color ribbons. On some of the boxes I cut fresh button mums and stuck them underneath the ribbon.

And lastly here are some more photos from the shower that were too fun not to post…hope you enjoy them!

Tags: bridal shower favors, Bridal Shower Ideas, buttom mums, dragees, fondant cakes, fondant stamps, garnish, luster dust, mini wedding cakes
Posted in Cakes, Desserts, Recipes, Wedding Ideas | 24 Comments »

Mini Brownie Wedding Cakes

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

About a month ago I got my hands on the new Martha Stewart Wedding Book that is filled to the brim with gorgeous photos, recipes, and techniques. This book is a definite buy for anyone who is into cakes, party planning, or weddings. I would highly recommend it! One of the photos in the book caught my attention because it was so adorably cute, and yet seemed easy at the same time…it was the mini brownie wedding cakes. Martha did a variety of designs on her brownie wedding cakes, so be sure to check the photos out in the book, but since I have been crunched for time lately I went with my favorite look and called it a day. These would make great wedding favors or a yummy bridal shower dessert…you could even ditch the wedding idea and throw a candle on top and use them as mini birthday cakes; the ideas are endless. Anyways, I hope you try these at home because they really are a ton of fun and are definitely worth the little time and effort you put into them.

I tried out a new brownie recipe (Double Chocolate Mocha Brownies to be exact) that I found from epicurious.com and I actually got really good reviews from my taste testers (aka my family & friends), so I would recommend trying it if you get a chance. My friend said that she loved that there was chocolate chips still in the brownie…just a side note, I used mini chocolate chips instead of regular size ones since I thought they would cut better with my cookie cutters. I also baked the brownies in a slightly large pan than they recommended…a half sheet pan to be exact, although it didn’t really make too much of a difference…they would’ve been thin brownies either way. So the first step is to bake your brownies and let them cool. Once they are cool, you can cut out your desired shapes. As you can see from my photos, my brownies were a little thin, so I stacked two of the same size brownie circles on top of each other and sort of smushed them together. You can play around with the exact size dimensions to make YOUR perfect brownie cake.

Once each round has been formed you need to lightly brush the cut edges with water. Then dip the brownie rounds in sanding sugar. After the rounds have been rolled in sanding sugar you can add a small filling, frosting, or just a tiny dab of plain corn syrup to the center of the rounds so that they stick when you stack them on top of each other. Note: make sure the side that was on the bottom during baking is now on top, since it is much smoother than the other side and will make your brownie cakes look crisp and clean. Now your brownie cake is technically done, but you can add other details to it if you want. I piped on small dots of royal icing and added dragees on top so that they made a monogram, but try anything and have some fun with it!

You can package the mini brownie cakes in these plastic boxes from Garnish and they would be perfect for a gift. I also added a color cupcake liner at the bottom of the box to make the cake look even more cute. Hope you are inspired to try Martha’s idea like I was!

Tags: brownie recipe, epicurios, garnish, martha stewart, mini brownie wedding cakes
Posted in Cakes, Desserts, Products You'll Love, Recipes | 14 Comments »

More Valentine’s Day Treats

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

Life has been quite hectic these past couple of days with Valentine’s Day orders…lots of fun, but little sleep. I thought I would share with you some of the photos of the final products I did for a couple clients. Hope you enjoy them! These first photos are some new cookie designs I tried out and brought to my hair dresser as an early Valentine’s Day present. I love this packaging from Garnish and so did she! I really think that cute packaging makes all the difference when you are selling a product or giving a gift…first impressions really do count. Garnish also liked my idea and blogged about it again…yippee!

Here a few more cookies & cupcakes that I did.

Here is a Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie I did for a client…yummy! It has an oreo crust, peanut butter mousse-like filling and chocolate ganache on top. I also personalized it for him so that it would be extra special!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Tags: Cookies, Cupcakes, food packaging, garnish, Valentine's Day
Posted in Cookies, Cupcakes, Products You'll Love, Valentine's Day | 5 Comments »

So Exciting!

Monday, February 4th, 2008

I was so excited today to find out that my idea was posted on Garnish’s blog. Like I have said in the past, this company has such creative products for your food and they have even created a blog to share with you ideas of how you can use your products for that next special event. I can’t wait until I find the next way to use their adorable products! I think today is my lucky day because today I was also featured in the #1 Cupcake Blog, Cupcakes Take the Cake. You can check out the spread they put up of my photos if you go to their blog!

Tags: Cupcakes, garnish, Products You'll Love, Valentine's Day
Posted in Cupcakes, Products You'll Love, Valentine's Day | No Comments »

Embossed Valentine’s Day Cupcakes

Saturday, February 2nd, 2008

Using embossed fondant on decorated cupcakes is yet another way to bring out the stylish side of your yummy treats. This technique is extremely easy and very user friendly…a perfect project even for kids!

The first step in making this type of embellishment is to find the perfect stamping device. You can buy any type of stamp/embossing tool that you like, but just make sure the the design is clear and deep, otherwise the image won’t appear as nicely. I found some really great clear stamps at Target. The brand name is Autumn Leaves and this is their new Clear Stamp Set. You can find them online too at Scrapbook.com. I bought one of their swirly whirly designs for these cupcakes, but here is a photo of another one of their adorable stamp sets just so you can see what they look like.

Once you have your stamps, you need to get out your fondant and knead it for a while until it is nice and smooth. You can color your fondant too, but I would recommend coloring it the night before if you want a specific color, since the shades tend to change over night. Roll out your fondant to about 1/8″-1/4″. If your fondant is sticking then lightly dust the surface and the fondant with cornstarch. Once you have the desired thickness, start pushing your stamps into the fondant to create the design you want. Then cut out the shape you want with a cookie cutter. You can do this beforehand and let them dry if you prefer (just not the circle shape that is suppose to cover the whole cupcake).

Once you have your shapes cut out you can decorate you cupcake in whatever way you heart leads you to. To add shimmer/sparkle to your fondant you can brush Luster Dust onto the fondant with a small painting brush. Here are a few designs that I did. Again, if you have any questions please feel free to ask!

Oh, here is one way you can package them too. I used the clear boxes from Garnish and just added some M&M’s on the bottom and a pretty bow and you have yourself a delightful little gift.

Tags: Autumn Leaves, Cupcakes, embossing, fondant, garnish, scrapbook.com, Valentine's Day
Posted in Cupcakes, Desserts, Products You'll Love, Valentine's Day | 13 Comments »

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

I think that packaging it extremely important when it comes to the appearance of your dessert or product. The packaging is the first impression that people get of what is to come. I think that this company, Garnish, will definitely help you make your first impression a good one. They not only have great products to contain just about any type of food product, but they also have a section dedicated just to ideas about how to use their product and help you add that extra little something special to your next party or event. After placing my first order with them, I even received a personally written note thanking me for using Garnish and letting me know that they would love to see what I used their product for…what a personal touch for a company to do! Well, I hope you enjoy checking this website out as much as I did and hopefully your next dessert endeavor will be that much cuter thanks to that little extra Garnish!