Baby Shower Cakes January 2, 2012

This fall I had several orders for baby shower cakes, and they were all quite unique.  You can click on the pictures below to see additional pictures of each order.

The idea for the first cake came to me while I was looking at the registry for the mom-to-be.  The theme of the baby’s room was to be sailboats.  I took my inspiration from the wall hangings that go along with the bedding set.  The cake itself is a 12″ chocolate cake with swiss merengue chocolate buttercream filling and vanilla swiss merengue buttercream frosting.  Congratulations to Izzy & Jen!

The cake below is for a MSU themed baby shower for, of course, a huge MSU fan!  The bottom tier is white cake with vanilla swiss merengue buttercream frosting and filling.  The top tier is chocolate cake with chocolate swiss merengue buttercream filling and vanilla frosting.  The decorations, including the blocks, are made of fondant.  Initially, the blocks that spell out Nolan were supposed to be on top of the cake.  However, the blocks ended up bigger than I had planned, so I just improvised.  One of the great rewards of cake decorating is a successful improvisation!  Oh, and I have to say that the S’s on the top tier really are symmetrical.  It really bothers me that some of the angles of the pictures make the S look all distorted!

And, finally, this most adorable cake for my very good friends shower.  Since I was throwing the shower, I had free reign over the design.  I really took advantage of the creative freedom, tried a few new things, and really love the end result!

Typically I bake two cakes of the same size and sandwich them together with filling.  Because we were only planning on about 16 people at the shower, I took another route with this one and only made a single cake for each layer (no filling).  This also allowed me to make two different flavors and give each guest a taste of each (without giving them an overwhelming amount of cake).

I also used petal/flower shaped pans for the first time with this one.  To enhance the shape of the cake, I used fondant flower cut outs on each tier of the cake.  The owl on the top of the cake matches the invitations (you can see the invitation inspiration if you click on the picture below).  The bottom tier was chocolate cake and the top tier was pink colored vanilla bean cake.  Both are frosted with colored vanilla bean swiss merengue buttercream frosting.

Congratulation to Nirmal & Rachna!  We are so excited to meet Anoushka in just a few weeks!!

Up next are kids birthday cakes, but don’t hold your breath on seeing those tonight!  I think I’ve probably maxed myself out for today, but I will continue to update as I get time.  Thanks for bearing with me during this lengthy update process, adoring fans!!

Mini Bundt Cakes June 12, 2011

I’ve been experimenting this past week with mini bundt cakes.   They are super cute and just right for a single serving.  I really like the rustic look of them, so I usually just use some sort of light drizzle on top, rather than giving them a thick coat of frosting.  Just a few of the flavors are featured below, and they can be yours, in any flavor, for the bargain price of 6 for $12 or 12 for $20.  They are a perfect desert for Father’s Day (which is next Sunday), too!  Order yours today!

Carrot

Chocolate with Cream Cheese Drizzle

Lemon with Lemon Powder Sugar Drizzle

 

When your oven hands you cupcakes with brown edges, make cake pops! April 11, 2011

Some say, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.  I say, when your oven temperature turns up to 425 degrees for no reason and gives you brown edged cupcakes, make cake pops!  What is a cake pop you ask?  They are only the most trendiest trend in cakeology these days!  Basically, they are cake on a stick.  You should know that everything tastes better on a stick, and, if you don’t know that, place an order for yours today!

I’ve been wanting to try them ever since a friend of mine saw them at Starbucks.  Now, I am an adoring fan of Starbucks, But, Starbucks is for coffee!  Who needs cake pops from Starbucks when Cake Utopia is here to serve and meet your every cake pop desire?!  Surprisingly, they were actually pretty easy to make.  Please remember that this is my first attempt, so don’t be too critical about my technique.  I learned a lot , too, such as:

• Chocolate cannot be colored with gel coloring.  When I tried to color the chocolate, it turned into a solid state and did not have the right consistency to make poparific.
• Too much chocolate makes for a drippy cake pop.
• The pre-colored chocolate wafers are good to use because they set up fairly quickly and are not sticky at all once dried.

Click on the picture above to be transported to a land of… more pictures!  More adventures to come later this week… stay tuned!!

Cupcakes April 10, 2011

Yesterday was likely the warmest day that we have experienced here in Michigan since last October. How did I spend this most lovely day, you ask? Of course, I baked cupcakes!!

Starting with the top left corner and moving clockwise, here is what we have:

• White with Mango Buttercream
• Chocolate Lava with Vanilla Bean Whipped Buttercream
• White with Vanilla Buttercream
• Chocolate Lava with Ganache
• and in the middle: Lemon with Lemon Buttercream

If you would like to see more pictures, just click on the picture above.

I have been thinking that cupcakes are easier to make and bake than cakes. Now, I’m not so sure. They are actually pretty tricky. They are really easy to overbake and once a cupcake is overbaked, there is no fixing it. Also, when you make lots of different flavors, you have to mix up lots of different batters. And, of course, that leads to lots of different flavored frostings.

This order came with the request of “some chocolate, and some not.” So, I took a few liberty’s and experimented with some new flavors like chocolate lava and mango buttercream.

In other news, cakeutopia.wordpress.com hit over 2,000 views this week. I now get steady hits on searches for things such as “Minnie Mouse cake” and “Finding Nemo cupcakes”. Thanks so much to my loyal fans and customers who place these orders!! Next weekend I am working on two cakes: Chica (from Sprout) and another Minnie Mouse inspired. Both are for one year birthdays. I also have a carrot cake for Monday.