Baking update/new supplies

I haven’t baked anything new, which is why I haven’t created a baking blog post in a while. I have been looking at a few new recipes off of Pintrest(of course) which I do plan to share with you guys my recreation very soon. The only new thing I have to share are some dinosaur cupcakes that I recently made, as well as some new baking supplies that I’ve picked up. I simply piped the cupcakes with a Wilton 1M then, I placed a dinosaur gummy in the center. They’re pretty simple but, I like the contrast of the gummies with the frosting.     

I stumbled upon Wilton’s Instagram and I saw that they were advertising this new product called treatology. I’m excited to use this to change up the flavor of my frostings.

This cupcake corer was on sale so, I decided to purchase it although a melon baller scooper works just as well.

I thought I would give this a try since I always frost my cakes smooth.

Birthday cake

I hadn’t decoarated a cake in a while so, when my moms friends son asked if I could make his birthday cake I was a bit hesitant. I ended up saying yes and he requested a chocolate Dodgers cake. Once I got home I began googling a few images of Dodgers cakes to get inspiration, and I finally decided on how I wanted the cake to look like.

I did a frozen buttercream transfer of a Dodgers shirt.

  

Then I added a border, pipped grass, imperfectly piped the bases(lol), and lastly I placed the fbt shirt. Here is the final result.

Have a goodnight everyone!(:

 

The closet project

I had been complaining to my dad for quite sometime about not having enough closet space. One day when he had some free time off work, we decided to look for a cheap closet storage system but, many of them were extremely overpriced! My dad decided to look on eBay and craigslest for something similar at a more reasonable price. He ended up finding a nice book shelf that worked perfectly inside my closet.

Before (the second door of my closet was way more disorganized so I didn’t take a picture)

Taking everything down

Final touches

Final outcome  (doors inserted back again not pictured)

The total cost of this diy project ended up being less than $100. I love how it turned out and the bonding experience that I had with my dad.

Buttercream problems

Today was one of those days that no matter what I did, I couldn’t get my buttercream to the right consitency. I attempted to conceal my imperfect buttercream with sprinkles, happy birthday candles, and a few cake toppers.

Sidenote I can’t believe that it’s March already! These months are flying by. Have a good Sunday night everyone.

Chocolate three milks cake

My dad was on a chocolate kick this afternoon. I had made a tres leches (three milks) cake the night before so, I thought hey why not make a chocolate tres leches cake.

This is how it turned out

Here is the recipe link  http://www.sweetysalado.com/2014/04/chocolate-tres-leches-cake.html

Final thoughts

The cake is sweet but, not an overbearing sweet. It resembles a chocolate milk kind of taste(I think). Between a regular tres leches cake and a chocolate one my family prefers the regular version.

In case your wondering how I taste test desserts that I make that have milk or any other ingredients that I don’t tolerate, I take a small bite, I chew it, then spit it out lol.

Valentine’s Day dessert ideas

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner here are some quick, and easy dessert ideas.

Strawberry pie
I used this recipe that I found on Pinterest http://www.twotwentyone.net/2012/06/strawberry-pie/

I bought my crust pre made.

Chocolate covered strawberries
I melted bakers semi sweet baking chocolate then, I dipped the strawberries in it. Before the chocolate dried up I decorated the strawberries with different things; sprinkles, heart candy, and red m&m’s.

Chocolate cupcakes with a Kahlua simple syrup

Cake Mix

I like to use, triple chocolate fudge by Betty Crocker but, I change the ingredients it calls for using this Pinterest method

For the simple syrup
Bring to a simmer equal parts of sugar and water. I used 1/4 cup of each. After it has simmered let it cool. Once cooled add one shot glass of Kahlua, and mix. Grab your pastry brush and start brushing the simple syrup onto your cooled cupcakes. I brushed each cupcake twice.

Chocolate buttercream
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter softened
Three 1 oz. semi sweet chocolate squares, melted
1 tsp clear vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
3-4 tablespoons milk (or more depending on the consistency you want)
You can skip this step but, I always add Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa to give it a more chocolatey flavor. I never measure how much I add; I just add to taste on how sweet I want it that day.
I decorated them with a wilton 1m tip and the liners are from Walmart.

Ugly Christmas sweaters

This year my best friend and I decided that we wanted to make ugly Christmas sweaters. We went to the dollar store to get all of our decorations that we needed to create our sweaters.

I formed the shape of a tree to the best of my ability with some decorative rope. Next, I placed some ornaments. Lastly, I lined my battery operated led lights on my tree and I inserted the battery pack inside the small stocking. I have yet to hot glue my lights so, that is why they’re not straight in the pictures lol.

I decided to form vertical lines of garland on my second sweater

Since the garland is so thin I went over it twice.

I placed some ornaments over the garland along with a few other decorations. Here is the final result.

I loved how my best friends sweater came out; It’s so cute!

I don’t think they came out as ugly as we had anticipated but, it was our first time making them. I’m sure next time they will be uglier lol!

Sibling love

I love birthdays…well I love anything that has to do with celebrating lol. My birthday was on the 14th of this month; I turned 20 and it was bittersweet(I’ll explain why in another blogpost). Now, two weeks later it’s my brother’s birthday he turns 22 today. My brother isn’t into celebrating like I am. He always says,”My birthday is just another day.” Trust me, when he says that he really means it; it’s not some trick answer that has meaning behind it that he wants it to be celebrated. But, regardless I still like to buy him a few gifts.

I did a diy guy gift basket filled with Arizona drinks, beef jerky, candy, earphones etc. It was inexpensive and he loved it!

I also baked him cookies and my mom bought him some nikes(inside the gift bag).

Buttercream vs fondant

When in comes down to choosing what cake I would prefer to eat I would definitely choose a buttercream cake over a fondant cake. I personally love the taste of homemade buttercream over homemade marshmallow fondant. Although, I think fondant cakes look more elegant than most buttercream cakes. One day I was on Pinterest looking for some new cake decorating techniques and I stumbled across one called,”Frozen buttercream transfer.” I watched a few videos and read a few DIY pins on how to to do it and I was hooked! I knew that I wanted to try it out. The process is pretty easy but I did have a few errors as expected when you try something new for the first time.

 

Just a slice

I honestly was never a fan of chocolate anything. Whenever I would bake brownies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake etc. I never had the desire to eat a piece. Crazy right? Well my aunts graduation was coming up so I decided to bake her a triple chocolate fudge cake, filled with chocolate buttercream, and decorated with a chocolate ganache. When her big day finally came I gave her the cake; she was so excited to eat it. Once I saw her facial expression after she took that first bite I knew that I had to try it for myself. I took my Lactaid fast act pill and then I proceeded to take my first bite. Wow my taste buds were going wild; it tasted absolutely amazing. I knew I would have to bake another one for myself the next day.