Guitar Cake

I made a guitar cake for a few friends birthday. Things didn't end up as perfect as I wanted. I would have liked to spend more time making things perfect and putting in more detail, but I ran out of time and was rushing. I seemed to forget all about putting on the frets!! oops! This is the first time really piecing a cake together with many parts. The cake isn't nearly perfect, but I'm enjoying trying to get to that stage. However, the cake was quite a hit and tasted yummy! 

I create these cakes in my tiny little studio apartment downtown. Which is alright, however, having a bigger freezer would be AMAZING! I froze this cake over night and then pieced it together the following day. After putting a thin layer of icing on my cakes, I usually stick the cake back in the freezer or fridge for just a while. This makes the icing harden a bit and then I can go back over the cake with more icing, creating a smooth surface. This method seems to help with not allowing crumbs to mix in with the icing. Due to the size of the guitar cake (which was just a tad smaller than an actual electric guitar), I was not able to chill the cake in-between. If I had the capabilities of doing so, icing the cake would go much smoother and faster! I could also stand to have a larger oven :)  but.... I LOVE my studio apartment. It's cute, cozy, and a fun little space. 

Oh, and I had a hard time trying to find something to put this big cake on.. so I ended up taking the top off my cheap coffee table and covering it with paper! It was the perfect size!

Croissants

Note to self. Pastry from heaven.

Croissants, Pain au Chocolat, etc.. .

cuteness

I love these paper cupcake/muffin cups. So elegant and beautiful! They would make each cupcake even more of a treat. DIYable.. If only I had the Craft Robo to cutout every little detail!

I also love this little bakery. It really isn't very special. and.. several matching tables and chairs would be desirable. But I love the cuteness and the pale colors. Kind of an artsy feel to the space. 

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie!

The NY Times has an interesting article about chocolate chip cookies, Perfection? Hint: It's Warm and Has a Secret. Ruth Graves Wakefield invented the chocolate chip cookie. Ruth, owner of the Toll House Inn, developed this recipe wether by mistake or experimenting in the 1930's. (Interesting! I never knew who this lady was!) This article also tells techniques for creating the perfect tasting and perfect texture of chocolate chip cookies. Well known bakeries mention their secrets to their special cookie. Even though the chocolate chip cookie seems simple - there are many ways it can go wrong and a lot of specific techniques that perfect the cookie! And it is good to experiment and find ones own techniques or additions that satisfies. I found this site from Joy the Baker.

the beginning.

As a little girl I always enjoyed baking. My mother never really did a whole lot of baking, but whenever she was in the kitchen making monkey bread, I would be ecstatic to help! We would also make cookies all the time. I remember, I would often go into the kitchen when my mother wasn't home and try to start baking. I would end up getting flour every where and then leave dishes all over. My mother would come back and be disappointed in my large messes and get mad that I attempted to bake when she wasn't around (I could have burnt the house down!). Once I was 11-12, I started creating baked goods weekly. I would experiment with different cookies. I remember when I was 11 I was so into finding the PERFECT chocolate chip cookie with the right texture, crispy and soft. I would go through all my mothers cook books and try every peanut butter, chocolate chip and other types of cookies and put check marks or "ick" in the books next to certain recipes. For christmas gifts, I made sugar cookies with fancy cutouts and jam in the center, chocolate crinkles, and more. I always had to make sure they looked perfect. Perfectly round, perfect thickness, etc. I would also have fun making pies, kuchen, crepes, cupcakes, gingerbread, cinnamon rolls. I made my mom get out the fryer so we could let grease splatter at us trying to make donuts! (I have never really liked donuts, but i was determined to make them! and make them perfect.) My brothers and dad loved them! Bread was also an interest to me. I would make bread and braid it in different ways and put a nice egg wash on top. I loved the elegance of shiny golden bread.

I would make baked goods weekly and then display them on a gorgeous antique plate all fancy and lay them out perfectly. I thought it was good decoration. I would get mad when my brothers and dad would eat them! I often told them they could only eat the ugly pastries. My dad would always give me a hard time for "decorating" when working with food, putting food on a plate - wether it be baked goods or something I had cooked. I always worried about it looking beautiful on the plate. Chocolate swirled perfectly, creating a beautiful piece . . .

Before I came to school for graphic design, I really looked into Brown College outside of Minneapolis. They have a Culinary program that one can master in just pastry. However I was unsure of leaving South Dakota and the rest of my family went to the same college. So I came to SDSU for Interior Design, then felt like it wasn't really what I wanted. So I switched to Foodservice and Hotel management thinking I would learn what it would take to run a bakery. However, I didn't even continue taking any of the classes, I thought I enjoyed my art classes more - so I switched to graphic design. Living in a house of 5 girls my third year of school, I would find occasions to make pretty little cupcakes. I kept making lots of cupcakes for the next year. Then I decided to make a graduation cake for my boyfriend at the time.. which led to me making a fake wedding cake and then more cakes and more cakes! I developed the PERFECT icing recipe that is just the right texture and not too sweet. Months ago, I had a dessert party with friends and made a couple pies and 3-4 fancy cakes and truffles (which I long to do again soon!). I've experimented with truffles and discovered how to make some amazing cherry truffles!

It's always been about the beauty of pastry. I see the art of pastry and enjoy the pretty picture of pastry goods. Gradually, I am learning the science behind baking and techniques. I continue to find ways to alter recipes and create my own tastes. I enjoy browsing random sites and looking through magazines/books for ideas and figure out how certain things are created. I continue to learn on my own and I enjoy it so much! I love everything about baking. It makes me extremely HAPPY :)

I will start off by sharing a few cakes that I have created! I enjoy using my big cake decorating kit in which I inherited from my great grandmother. I hope to soon master creating flowers! and I still need to find the perfect fondant recipe that actually tastes amazing.