Tips to Make Scratch Baking & Decorating Easier

Over the years, I have had many conversations about baking and decorating cakes. Most people express to me their personal difficulties. The number one complaint seems to be lack of time. "I just don't have the time to bake." Even though I love baking, I too have uttered the same words every now and again. Between work, children, and attempting to have a personal life, most people can't afford to give away any more time than they already have.


Here are a few tips I personally use that help save precious time:


1. Pre-mix your dry ingredients for your cake recipe and store for later.
Store your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, etc...) in large Ziploc bags and add your wet ingredients (eggs, butter, oil, extract) when you're ready to bake!!


2. Make your frosting and store it in the freezer until ready to use.
Store frosting in freezer friendly containers and defrost the morning you need it.

3. Pre dye your frosting or fondant at least a day before you need.
Not only will this save on time, the color will deepen as it sets in.


4. Avoid baking and decorating in the same day.
If you bake earlier in the day or even the day before you can save on the time waiting for the cake to completely cool necessary before you frost the cake.




I hope this helps and happy baking!!

For the Love of Minions!!

I wanted to share some photos of the minion themed birthday I had for my son's 5th birthday. All of the decorations are handmade! My husband and I had a lot of fun making everything while we watched two seasons of The Good Wife...lol. 

This year I decided to finally make a miniature version of a dessert bar with cotton candy, chocolate covered pretzels, cookie brownies, chocolate drizzled rice krispies, minion cake and cupcakes.

My suggestion is to enlist a helper. I asked my niece to help. She dipped and drizzled everything in chocolate and made the cotton candy. My husband helped with the fondant work on the big minion. The big minion took two 8" cake pans and one 8" domed Betty Crocker pan. I used twinkies to make the minions on the cupcakes.

The minion decorations and games were super easy to make. We had pin the goggles on the minion and decided to put a "J"  on the uniform for my son James instead of a "G."

I know this is a bad picture but I completely forgot to take pictures of the good and evil minion bags that we made. We used purple and yellow bags, construction paper, cut outs, and
markers (brown, purple, yellow, black, and silver).

 We used minion cut outs for everything!!

Finally we decorated our front door using a yellow plastic table cover, blue poster board and computer paper.

How to Make a Army / Milatary Camouflage Cake

 I recently made a camouflage cake for a friend and I was surprised how easy it was to
make! I decided to make a quick and easy guide to follow!!

Tools Required

1. At least 3 piping bags filled with different colored CRUSTING buttercream

FYI: Crusting buttercream is frosting that will dry to the touch.

 2. High density foam roller and offset spatula

Step One: Crumb Coat Cake 

 Step Two: Make abstract patterns on cake

Make sure the same color of buttercream is never touching

Once complete let buttercream dry for five minutes.Don't worry if some of the white crumb coat shows from underneath. It won't when you're finished.

Step Three: Roll cake gently with foam roller until smooth

Do not stay on one area of the frosting too long. Over rolling the cake in one area will result
in the oils from the cake rising out of the frosting, making the foam roller wet. It make also
result in bleeding of one color into another. 

Step Four: Finish with the border of your choice

 

 

Watch my YouTube video for more instructions

Easy Holiday Cake Idea

Whenever I feel like baking something quick and easy, I always make cookie cakes!! It's a great addition to any party especially during the holiday season.

 

Ingredients

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Whipped Vanilla Frosting

White Chocolate Chips

 

Instructions

Step One: Preheat oven to 325 degrees, Press 2 cups of dough into 10 inch pan, Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

Step Two: Melt white chocolate chips on lowest possible heat, dip knife into white chocolate and drizzle over cookie cake. 

Step Three: Fill zip lock bag with vanilla frosting, twist bag, cut the tip of the bag.

Step Four: Hold bag at a 45 degree angle pipe a ribbon border around cake (u pattern)   

Optional: Make poinsettia by making two intersecting cross patterns, decorate center with sprinkles luster pearls, or shimmering sugar...Enjoy!!