Galaxy Cake

 

 

     Baked this cake for my little brother's 12th birthday party! The end result was absolutely stunning...definitely worth the 6 hours it took to create it! I baked the four layers of chocolate cake a day earlier so that I'd have a whole day just to focus on the decorating. I whipped up a salted caramel chocolate buttercream for the frosting mmm. I used the same chocolate cake recipe as the Ombre Icing post down below!

    A little close up on the luster dust that I applied to my cake! The dust was magical and added the most amazing shimmer to really complete that space effect. I brushed it on with a clean food only paint brush and made these pretty swirly galaxies!

     I covered the cake with white fondant. Then I put food colouring into a small spray bottle and sprayed that onto the cake to create a space effect. It turned out almost looking airbrushed which was really exciting. The star sprinkles on the outside were really thin and hella expensive but totally worth it! I also made galaxies out of the white ball sprinkles!

 



     I used the premade fondant by Wilton which was actually super easy to work with but ripped a bit on both layers of the cake. I find the fondant really sweet but in the end, it looked super bomb so it didn't even matter!

 

My Go-To Buttercream Recipe (Salted Caramel Version)

1 cup of salted butter (if using unsalted butter, add 3/4 teaspoon of salt)

4 cups of icing sugar

4-5 tablespoons of heavy cream (I use coffee cream)

Desired amount of caramel extract (I used about 4 tablespoons because the extract I used was quite thin)



Ombre Icing

 

     The cake is a chocolate and vanilla cake marble. The icing is a caramel buttercream mmm. I used a large icing tip to create the large swirl on the top of the cupcake. The large tip created a beautiful design but I couldn't fill up much of the bag because the coupler was HUGE which was a bit of a let down. To create the ombre, I fill the right side of the bag with yellow icing, middle of the bag with orange, and left side with red. Also, I can't believe just how expensive cupcake liners are! I got these at Michaels and they were $6.99 for just 24 of them! Anyways, this chocolate cake recipe is the best that I've ever followed so here it is (got it from the blog Add a Pinch):

 

Ingredients:

 

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

 

What to do:

Preheat oven to 350º F. Prepare two 9-inch cake pans by spraying with baking spray or buttering and lightly flouring.

1. For the cake:
2. Add flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk through to combine or, using your paddle attachment, stir through flour mixture until combined well.
3. Add milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla to flour mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the cake batter. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute to add air to the batter.
4. Distribute cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, remove from the pan and cool completely.

Cake Pops

     I've always wondered how these little balls of deliciousness were created aaaand now that I know, I don't think I'll be making them often. I had no idea that a single cakepop was equivalent to an entire cupcake calories wise. During this lab, I learned a couple things, you have to crumble the cake before you create the balls and the crumbs are mixed with frosting. After this lab, I finally understood how cakepops could have that rich and moist texture to it.

 

      I tried the cake at this point and found that the frosting changed the cake but in a good way. Of course, the batter was more dense and a lot richer but it wasn't a lot sweeter than the original cake which surprised me because the frosting is just icing sugar and butter (margarine).

 

     I was just a tad worried when shaping the cake pops because they weren't exactly perfectly spherical but the candy melts really evened and rounded them out. It was really irritating working with the candy melts and the cakepop on the stick because the cakepop would start slipping off. Also, the candy melts would settle quite quickly and I'm not the best at working within a time limit so this wasn't really my thing.

     Making these chicken cake pops was the most irritating thing. I would either accidently wait too long and the candy melt would be too dry to stick sprinkles in; or I wouldn't let the candy melt settle for long enough and the sprinkles would just go wack. Since my chickens weren't the greatest, here's a picture of food artist, Sophia, decorating her cakepop chicken.

     I'm the most proud of these swirly designs that I piped on with a paper piping bag. I wish the candy melt was just a little thinner so that the leaves could have better stems instead of just being these huge blobs. I thought that the overall look was really beautiful though! The bus driver complimented it and said that it was "simple yet elegant". Not to mention, they tasted incredible!

Cinnamon Oatmeal Cake

 

     This cake has 3 layers and is filled with a very rich buttercream. I meant to give it that rustic feel so I didn't ice the cake completely. I went around the neighborhood looking for a bunch of flowers that would compliment the cake. The ending result looked so beautiful with the flowers and leaves!

 

Here's the cake recipe that I used:

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

3/4 cup boiling water

1/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

What to do:

Place oats in a small bowl; add boiling water. Let stand for 20 minutes.

In a small bowl, cream shortening and sugars. Add oat mixture and egg; mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; add to creamed mixture and beat until combined.

Pour into an 8-in. fluted tube pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 22-27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar if desired. Yield: 6 servings.