Candy Barrel Cake

I've seen this type of cake on many websites and was happy to finally make one. It's supposed to look like a barrel of candy. I made it for my sister's birthday party yesterday. She's been craving brownies so I used brownies for this "cake."

I haven't been able to make brownies from scratch that taste as good as this one. It's my absolute favorite brownie. I always buy the box from Costco because it make SIX batches. oh, I love brownies!

I needed to use less batter in the 8 inch pans because I wanted my 2 layer brownie cake to be shorter than the Kit Kat bars. So I thought I would take out some batter and make a tiny candy barrel cake also. I used two bags of brownie mix and took out 1/3 cup of the batter for each of my 4 inch pans. Unfortunately I ran out of candy after making the big cake, so my husband gladly ate the brownies meant for the tiny cake.

I had M&M's left over from Easter. I thought I had enough to cover the top of the cake to give it the illusion of it being a barrel full of M&M's, but I did not. I did not feel like making a trip to the store just to buy more. I had to use some mini M&M's and some peanut M&M's, which I already had, to fill in the holes. But I wish i had another handful or so of M&M's because the top still wasn't completely covered.

I put a thin layer of icing in between the 2 layers and around the cake. I tried to make it as thin as possible because the brownies are really rich and sweet. But you can't skip the icing, it's needed to hold the candies in place.

here's a little animated gif I made of me putting the candies on. This was a fun cake to make. next time i think i'll make a few tiny ones with my 4 inch pans.

Chocolate swirl cake

wow it has been a long time since my last post!! this mommy business is a new thing for me and keeping me really busy! there's usually no time for baking pretty things anymore. i did have time though to make a birthday cake for a friend last week. no new recipe or anything though. but i thought i'd try some big fat swirls....from this picture, it looks ok but it was quite messy...the surface, the piping. i don't know what happened to my fine motor skills since the baby was born. i guess i know what i need to work on.

Lemon birthday cake

my sister in law's birthday was yesterday, so I made this cake for her. i'm still terrible at smoothing the icing on the cake, but these swirlies masked the imperfections. The swirlies were time consuming, but i think worth it to hide the flaws in the cake. I'll try to think of another design that might be easier to try for next time.

Lion birthday cake

My nephew requested that I make a lion cake for his 5th birthday party. He wanted it orange because his favorite color is orange. I used prepared icing from the store but to make sure the icing didn't melt (like it has for me in the past when i pipe different designs) i added 1 t corn startch per container of icing. it worked perfectly, it was the perfect consistency!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts....I have been making and baking lots of stuff recently but nothing new so I didn't want to bother posting something you've already seen.

mini birthday cake

One of my nieces had a birthday several days ago. Her family came over for dinner this weekend and I gave her this tiny cake. From the first picture, you can't really tell how tiny it is... icing this this was SO hard! that's why it's not smooth at all. i couldn't keep the cupcake from sliding around on the plate. i should have put it in the refrigerator for while, so that icing on the bottom "gluing" it to the plate hardened up a little.

a cupcake covered in butter cream icing, plus a mini cake stand (it's really a pillar candle stand) makes this cake

i bought this candle stand just because it could pass for a mini cake stand. if you've been reading this blog regularly you'll know that i love cake stands and cake plates.

a cake for one

Lego cake

i made my nephew's birthday cake. the party theme was Legos. i thought i would try to make little cakes that looked like legos that i've seen online, but i'm still struggling with making the icing smooth and it seems hard to make those little rectangle cakes with the lego bumps on top nice and smooth. it would drive me crazy trying to smooth it out, and i don't want to attempt fondant yet. So to make plain round cake Lego themed, i just stuck on some of my nephew's Lego people on it. I also bought Lego shaped candy, but i didn't like that they weren't the bright colors of Legos, so i decided not to put them on the cake.

Nurse Cake

I've missed baking! I've been really busy lately and just haven't had time to bake anything until today.

i made this 8 inch, 3 layer, chocolate cake for my cousin who recently finished nursing school. The red and black icing is Wilton decorating icing that comes in a tube that i attached the tips to.

this is a mini cake, (it's a bit bigger than a standard size cupcake) it's supposed to be a nursing cap

chocolate cake with cupcakes to match

i made these cupcakes and cake for my friend who's birthday was last week. the cake was a tiny 4 inch 2 layer chocolate cake with sprinkles. i decorated the cupcakes so they would match.

2 chocolate cakes

i made 2 cakes last week. one was for my sister. she wanted to give a cake to the person who was her patient during her boards. the other was for a friend who is now a chief in the navy.

6 inch 2 layer chocolate cake (that white thing is supposed to be a tooth)

4 inch 2 layer chocolate cake

another lion cake

i made this 4 inch chocolate cake yesterday also. this one was for my nephew, no reason, except that his sister is the one i made a cake for last week. it was nice playing around more with my grass tip #233. since i was in a hurry making this cake and the cake for my sister, i didn't cut the top off the cake to level it or cut it in half to add a filling.

yellow buttercream icing colored yellow

you know, before i added the nose and mouth, he looked like a hamster or something like that. i think it's because i gave him small ears, next time i'll need to make them 2-3 times bigger

Cake for my sister

my sister called me early this morning to tell me she got her board results. she passed and is now a registered dental hygienist!! i made this 4 inch chocolate cake for her. i would have made her a bigger and better cake but i didn't have time before i saw her a few hours later.

single layer chcolate cake

friends from out of town with a new baby named Havilah, came to visit this weekend. i made this cake for them. I used the vegan chocolate cake recipe but the ganache was not vegan as i used milk chocolate to make it.
I wanted that Hostess cupcake look on this cake with the name stretching from one end of the cake to the other like the loops on a hostess cupcake. i messed up on the h at the end. i had to wipe my mistake and add ganache to cover the mistake then re write the h. hope you can't notice it too much

Flower cake for my niece

One of my nieces starts kindergarten next week. i made this little 4 inch chocolate cake for her. it has chocolate fudge filling, covered in buttercream. i'm still struggling with making the cake smoother and learning how to use the different tips, plus keeping my hand steady. i think it will be easier if i make my own icing since store bought icing is so soft. but for now, store bought icing will have to do just because it's cheaper. i used 2 tips i've never used before, the one to make "grass" and one to make "leaves". i definitely need more practice with making leaves.

the cake says "have fun at school Emeline"

another attempt at that German chocolate cake

I made this German chocolate cake for my brother-in-laws birthday last weekend. this is the same vegan recipe I used a few weeks ago. Everything was great about it, but last time i didn't do well on the ganache at all. I almost perfected it this time. It was still a bit thin, but much better than last time. this is the recipe again:

1/3 cup soymilk
4 oz bittersweet chocolate (i doubled the chocolate to 8 oz)
2 T maple syrup