Italian cream cake with walnuts

My Favorite Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 Cup unsalted butter, room temperature

4 Cups sifted powdered sugar (You can decrease this amount if you don't care about it being as stiff for piping)

1/2 Cup cocoa powder

Mix cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.

Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time.

Mix in cocoa powder.

Tae Kwon Do Cake

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour*

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 oz. red food coloring (two bottles)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

2. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.  In a small bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste without lumps; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as you go.  Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.

4. In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda.  Yes, it will fizz!  Add vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine. Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake cups with cake batter (they should be 2/3 – 3/4 full).  You may not fill all the cups, I ended up with 20 cupcakes.  Place muffin tins on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree oven.  Bake for approximately 20-22 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Check early and don’t overbake!

5. Cool the cupcakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely before frosting.  Frost cupcakes with cream cheese icing (recipe below) and decorate with red sprinkles if desired.  The cupcakes above were decorated using the Wilton Cupcake Decorating Kit and Valentine’s Sprinkles. They can usually be found at craft stores like Michaels or Joann.

6. Enjoy the cupcakes with those you love!

Recipe Notes: *Sift cake flour once before measuring, then sift again with the other dry ingredients per recipe instructions. Wear an apron and be careful with the red food coloring–no matter how hard I try, I always end up staining something!  As you’re mixing the cake batter, use a spatula to scrape down the bowl frequently throughout the entire process.  Since the batter is fairly thick, I have found that an old-fashioned ice cream scoop works best for filling the cupcake wells (also great for muffin batter!).  Since all ovens are different, make sure you check the cupcakes a little early.  Mine were ready in just over 2o minutes, yours may be done sooner, or they may take a minute or two longer.

 Cream Cheese Frosting

16 oz. cream cheese (2 packages), softened

1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick), softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

pinch of salt

With an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Turn mixer to low speed and blend in powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract.  Turn mixer on high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.  If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting softens up, beat with mixer until smooth).

Recipe Notes: If you prefer a sweeter and/or stiffer frosting, more powdered sugar can be added (up to four cups). But remember, the more sugar you add, the less you’ll be able to taste the tangy cream cheese!

How to Make Pink Teddy Bear

Chocolate Cupcakes with Cheese cream icing

I love it !!!!

Gum Paste Recipe

1 tbs Wilton Gum-Tex
4 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
1 heaping tbs Wilton Glucose
4 tbs warm water

In large bowl, combine Gum-Tex with 3 cups of sugar. Make a well in the center and set aside.
Combine water and glucose in a glass measuring cup. Heat in microwave on high for about 30 seconds until mixture clear. Pour into well of sugar and mix until well blended.
Mixture will be very soft.
Place mixture in a plastic bag and seal tightly. Let rest at room temperature 8 hours or overnight.
Knead remaining sugar into gum paste when you are ready to use.
Keep it covered to prevent it from drying out.

How to make Gumpaste

Ingredients:

4 - Large Egg Whites
1 - 2 lb. bag 10x powdered sugar
12 - Level teaspoons Tylose (Available in our online store)
4 - Teaspoons shortening (Crisco)

Directions 

1.  Place the egg whites in a Kitchen Aid mixer bowl fitted with the flat paddle.

2.  Turn the mixer on high speed for 10 seconds to break up the egg whites.

3.  Reserve 1 cup of the powdered sugar and set aside.

4.  Turn the mixer to the lowest speed and slowly add the remaining sugar. 

    This will make a soft consistency royal icing.

5.  Turn up the speed to setting 3 or 4 for about 2 minutes

    using this time measure off the tylose into a small container.

6.  Make sure the mixture is at the soft peak stage.  It should look shiny, like meringue and the peaks fall over.  (If coloring the entire batch, add the paste color at this stage, making it a shade darker than the desired color.)

7.  Turn the mixer to the slow setting and sprinkle the tylose in over a five second time period.  Next, turn the speed up to the high setting for a few seconds.  (This will thicken the mixture.

8. Scrape the mixture out of the bowl onto a work surface that has been sprinkled with some of the reserved 1 cup of
powdered sugar. Place the shortening on your hands and knead the paste, adding enough of the reserved powdered sugar to form a soft but not sticky dough. You can check by pinching with your fingers and they should come away clean. Place the finished paste in a zip-top bag, then place the bagged paste in a second bag and seal well.

9.  Place in the refrigerator for 24 hours if possible before using to mature the paste.

10.  Before use, remove from refrigerator and allow the paste to come to room temperature.  Take a small amount of shortening on the end of your finger and knead this into the paste.  If you are coloring the paste, add the paste color at this stage.

11.  Always store the paste in the zip-top bags and return to the refrigerator when you are not using the paste.  Will keep under refrigeration for approximately 6 months.  You can keep the paste longer by freezing.  Be sure to use zip-top freezer bags.  If you will be freezing a batch of paste, allow it to mature for 24 hours in the refrigerator first before placing into the freezer.

Fondant Bow

Princess Cake

Spiderman Cake

Tiara ( royal icing) 2

Butterflies (royal icing)

Spiderman ( fondant )

SPIDERMAN

Tiara ( royal icing)

I made my first royal icing tiara.

You can use Royal icing recipe from

http://cakesbyzana.blogspot.com/2011/09/royal-icing_05.html

Royal Icing I

This smooth, hard-drying icing is perfect for making decorations that last. It is also useful as a "cement" to fasten decorations together. Royal icing is edible, but not recommended for icing cakes.

INGREDIENTS:

3 tbs Marinque Powder
4 cups (about 1 lb.) confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons warm water
Makes:

About 3 cups of icing.
Instructions:

step 1

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed
 with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).
step 2

NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency.
* For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.
**When using large countertop mixer or for stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.
Thinned Royal Icing: To thin for pouring, add 1 teaspoon water per cup
 of royal icing. Use grease-free spoon or spatula to stir slowly. 
 Add 1/2 teaspoon water at a time until you reach proper consistency.

Royal Icing by Edna

Billowing Tutorial

Click here to view these pictures larger

Baby Boy Shower Cake

Chocolate Cake

Dee Dee and her Baby Shower Cake !!!