James Bond Cake, Bond car. 007. Aston Martin DB5 cake

Bond. James Bond. The making and demise of a glorious Aston Martin DB5 cake.

January 24, 2012October 5, 2015Leave a comment

We had a James Bond party. Movie marathon, themed arts and crafts, guests in cocktail attire, spooky villain’s lair decorations, the whole thing. Of course, I made cake. And chocolate tuxedo strawberries. Also some cake pops and chocolate gems. But let’s start with the cake, shall we?

(Photo by Duncan Ballentine)

I studied so many pictures of car to make sure this was absolutely perfect. This was also my first carved cake – very exciting.

The insides are chocolate/strawberry marble with swiss meringue buttercream inside. I baked two 9×13 and one 9×9 cake, then plopped them on top of each other.

I attacked it (carefully) with a big serrated knife. I spent a couple hours staring at the form and tweaking it. At this point, I was jumping up and down because I couldn’t believe it actually looked like a car.

I called a few of my friends to explain:
“I’m making a car cake and it’s really hard and guess what it looks like? … It looks like a CAR!”

Then it was time to cover it in buttercream. I made sure to use the frosting to help emphasize my carving and build up on areas where I was a bit overzealous with the knife. Yes, big mess. What else is new?

I then covered it in one huge piece fondant and started pressing in details with the back of a paintbrush. I didn’t have any idea what I was doing because I don’t ever work with fondant, but it seemed like a good idea, so that’s what I did.

It was spray painted with edible silver paint (gorgeous stuff), I added details, and it magically became a car.

JB007. Get it?

I painted the windows on with a paintbrush and a bottle of black food coloring.

Even the little mirrors are in the right place and the trimmings were painted silver with a little vodka and silver luster dust mixture.

I tried to add in tons of details and make it as lifelike as possible. This cake took me 3 days, I fell in love with it, and you know what?

They made me cut it!

(photo by Duncan Ballentine)

It took about 10 minutes to bring myself to slice it and I’m still crying on the inside about my poor dead car.

This is me killing my cake. But it really was delicious.

Now, what to do with all the scraps leftover from carving?

Cake pops! These are bowler hats. I was very sick of cake by the time I made these, but they were still fun and they came out alright.

And here are some white chocolate gems because a James Bond party requires treasure and jewels. They’re shiny.

Since we asked the guests to dress up in the spirit of the event, I thought it would be appropriate to make sure the strawberries were similarly attired.

These aren’t nearly as hard as they look and there’s a great guide here.

I’m so happy with how everything came out, but you won’t see me working with fondant anytime soon. I’ve never had so much trouble destroying a cake and cutting this one just made me feel too destructive. Maybe it gets easier, but I’ll take my difficulty slicing it as a sign that it’s my best cake so far. And I’m definitely okay with that.

Oreo Cheesecake

January 5, 2012September 29, 2015Leave a comment

Vanilla cheesecake covered in oreos and chocolate ganache with a cinnamon graham cracker crust.

You really don’t want to know how many days in a row I ate this for breakfast.

It baked a bit funny in the middle, so I dumped oreos on it and everyone was happy.

Let’s all just pretend that I didn’t eat this for breakfast for an entire week, okay?

I know the cinnamon crust sounds kinda weird, but it gave it a great bite and was really tasty.

Am I the only one who thinks this slice looks like a little mouse?

Yum!

Mini cupcakes, truffles, wedding cake, lemon meringue pies, peach tarts, cake pops, cookies, and more!

The wedding! 450 mini desserts and a cake, but I survived to tell you about it.

December 16, 2011October 5, 2015Leave a comment

And now for the one post everyone keeps asking me about! Finally time for the wedding dessert table pictures. These lovely photos were taken by the lovely Stephanie Fishbein. She came over right before I packed everything up and took these shots as I was rushing to get everything into the car.

This project was incredible. My mom and I made 450 miniature desserts and a cake. Everything was drenched in color and so bright and happy. The baking took days and a mind-boggling amount of work, but I’m so glad we did it and the adrenaline rush lasted for days. The wedding colors were purple and orange and it was great to make the treats so bright!

Without further ado:

I made 50 little lemon meringue pies

50 vanilla cupcakes dipped in sprinkles and topped with creamy vanilla frosting. The cakes themselves were orange and if you look carefully you can see a bit of color peeking out from under the sprinkles.

And, of course, topped with orange glitter.

50 of these very popular Oreo red velvet cupcakes dipped in chocolate ganache with cream cheese frosting.

And 50 chocolate mint cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

Dipped in orange sprinkles for an extra crunch and pop of color.

75 beautiful vanilla-bean checkerboard cookies.

Little fruit tarts. These all had nutty crusts, vanilla-bean pastry cream, and fresh peaches. They were topped with an apricot-lime glaze to keep them fresh and juicy.

Don’t you love the heart shapes?

Homemade coffee ganache truffles.

The chocolate, surprisingly, tempered beautifully and these traveled very well and lasted a few days unrefrigerated, so I was able to make them a bit ahead of time. I love the luster dust on top!

Quadruple chocolate cake pops.

These were so much fun to decorate and I went crazy with the sprinkles. The bride and groom supplied the vases and the marbles – I think they’re prefect.

At this point were were running short on time, so I had Stephanie photograph these in their transportation container, not on the pretty white plates.

They still look delicious!

Last but not least, the wedding cake. Inside are layers of purple cake, orange cake, and purple/orange marble cake.

Everything very carefully hand piped, which was a challenge given my lack of sleep and shaky hands. the purple dragees were carefully placed with tweezers.

The monogram topper is made out of white chocolate and edible glitter, propped up oh-so-carefully with bamboo skewers.

And here’s where I messed up. Long story short: everything traveled well, I remembered to bring my camera, but I FORGOT TO BRING THE CAMERA BATTERY. I was so excited to take a picture of the whole display, but it just didn’t happen. Fortunately, the photographer got a shot of the table, so you can get a sense of what it looked like.

My mom and I wore out matching bright pink “I Like to Bake” shirts and kept replenishing the treats as the guests enjoyed them. You can’t see the little notecards very well, but we made little signs telling guests about each treat.

I have trouble communicating the enormity of this project. Everything was made in my little kitchen and it was a great experience to spend so much time working with my mom. My sister helped with the sprinkles, my dad made the white stands, and everything happened perfectly. I prepared for months and learned so much!

Sesame Street Cookies

December 11, 2011October 5, 2015Leave a comment

I LOVE THESE COOKIES! They’re covered completely in glitter. Really, what can go wrong?

I made these Sesame Street cookies for a second birthday party. They were due the day after another huge project, so I got started early and made royal icing transfers a few days ahead of time so I would be able to take my time and make them as perfect as possible.

First, I traced the shapes with black royal icing onto wax paper. I used a picture underneath the wax paper so I could follow the lines.

Flood with icing on one section, dump on the glitter, and wait a few hours for the icing to dry.

Don’t you love edible glitter?

Brush the excess off (I use a makeup brush designated for food, not cosmetics) and fill in the rest of the colors

I tie my pastry bags with twist ties so I can put them down and not worry about them exploding and making a big mess.

When they’re dry, you can just peel them off the wax paper.

Flood a cookie with any color icing and, while the icing is still wet, plop the decoration on top.

There was a little bit of bleeding because of the intense black and because they sat for a few days, but I love how they came out.

The glitter gets everywhere, but it’s worth it.

How can you resist?

Great cupcake bar project for a party or special event. Fun for kids!

DIY Cupcake Bar

December 10, 2011October 16, 2015Leave a comment

As part of my sister’s party, which you saw last week, I also made a DIY cupcake bar. Take a look!

We had chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.

Lemon curd and chocolate ganache glazes.

Tons of frosting!

And, of course, toppings

It was a big hit with the adults and the kids – everyone made a cupcake and ended the night hyped up on sugar. I think it made a special party even more memorable!

Carrie’s Dessert Table

December 8, 2011September 29, 2015Leave a comment

A few months ago, my little sister turned 18! Of course, a party was in order, and parties mean desserts.

Mini cheesecakes: chocolate oreo, chocolate raspberry, and vanilla bean raspberry.

Cake pops! These were super chocolately and, of course, covered in sprinkles.

Some fabulous chocolate covered strawberries.

Note the cute little tags. These matched perfectly with the invitation and the party favors.

Yummy chocolate truffles.

Super tart lemon meringue pies. Because they’re smaller they have to pack even more of a lunch. Some had a classic pie crust and other had pecan crusts.

These are so much fun to make and even more fun to eat!

My dad made this great stand for me.

Happy Birthday!

Paw Print Cookies

November 13, 2011October 5, 2015Leave a comment

While making the pig and mud cupcakes I showed you a few weeks ago I also made a few cookies for my vet. Dr. Shane takes great care of our dog and rabbits, so I wanted to show her that I appreciate how much love she gives our pets by making her some sweet treats. These pawprints were so easy and came out even cuter than I expected!

Did I mention that she was just about to have a baby but still found time to call and ask how the doggy has been feeling?

I dropped these off at the office in a pretty pink box.

The next day, I got a call from the vet asking for two dozen sesame street cookies for her other daughter’s second birthday!

She wanted them the day after the wedding I spent all summer working on.

So, because I’m crazy, of course I said yes. But that’s a story (and some pictures) for another day.

Berry Cheesecake

October 31, 2011September 29, 2015Leave a comment

I made cheesecake when I was in LA this summer and thought I’d share the pictures to brighten up your day after all this gloomy snow.

After having company over all evening, I started this cheesecake at 11 pm and finished many hours later, but I’m so happy with how it turned out! My oven left a few wonky marks on top because the cheesecake rose quite a bit, but that’s nothing some fresh berries can’t fix!

I used a hybrid of this recipe and this one.

For the topping, I let the berries macerate in a bowl with some sugar and vanilla bean paste, then tossed them in some warm apricot jam to give them a little extra flavor and a bit of shine.

This cheesecake was sent to a party with my little sister, so I never got a taste, but I heard it went over well! Now I just have to make it again so I can cut myself a nice big slice…

Happy Birthday Michelle!

September 18, 2011September 29, 20153 Comments

This weekend, I have the flu. This weekend, it is also my dear friend and suite-mate’s birthday. What does this mean?

It means I call my doctor to confirm that flu can’t be transmitted via baked goods, text some other friends for help, and start baking! Obviously, the birthday girl simply had to have a cake.

We ended up with this. It was 4 layers of chocolate cake. Between each layer is a delicious glob of chocolate ganache and fresh raspberries. It’s all covered in rich chocolate frosting. And it’s completely dairy-free!

I had great plans for this cake. It was going to be beautifully piped with fancy letters and designs.

Maybe with a touch of glitter on top. Ultimately, the designs were made using a little spatula.

I got a teensy bit too excited by the glitter.

And when you’re baking in a dorm, sometimes you have to use paper plates, even for special occasions.

But you know what?

This cake was delicious. The birthday girl enjoyed it and it was gobbled up in no time. What you see here is a very well-loved cake. And that’s what matters.

We invited people over for a “surprise” party that evening, which, for a number of reasons, turned out to not be such a big surprise after all.