Oh my ganache, look at those stars!

This small cake packs a big punch of chocolate! Everything was super rich - chocolate cake with chocolate ganache with chocolate decor. It was made for a 60th birthday celebrant with a strong sweet tooth.

Ganache is nothing but bittersweet chocolate and heavy cream. DO USE A DOUBLE BOILER to melt the chocolate slowly while stirring to prevent burning. If you do not have a double boiler, you can use a heat-resistant glass bowl over a boiling water. To add a bit of flavor you can add rum or vanilla to the recipe. Once ready, pour the mixture portions at a time and spread with spatula. DO USE A COOLING RACK with a baking sheet underneath to catch spillage. While still 'wet' we pressed the chocolate sprinkles on the edge and used those that fell onto the baking sheet.

The stars were by far my favorite part! Using the same technique as the Yogi Bear cake, we piped chocolate (candy chocolate chips, not ganache) onto wax paper into stars and swirls. Then once dried, we brushed on luster dust to make them shimmer.

This turned out to be a simple, elegant cake appropriate for the occassion!

Kiki's birthday cake in NEON.

For Kiki's birthday, we wanted to do a fun, girly cake. This gave us a chance to use NEON (yes, I am going to capitalize it every time) food coloring and practice our piping skills.

Fondant is the new craze, but we find buttercream a medium just as creative. Although using traditional piping designs, the neon color makes it pop. There are 105 decorating tips! Depending on the angle they can create a variety of designs and flowers. We bought a standard 12 piece set of tips and keep adding every so often. There are plastic and metal. The metal tips will give a crisper edge. You will also need a coupler and pastry bag. One day we hope to get one of those cool professional pastry bags, but for now disposable plastic will do.

DO PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE PIPING TECHNIQUES. Test it out on a piece of wax paper or a fake cake. By repeating the designs your hand will grow steadier. To be honest, we are not masters (yet) of piping, but hope to be. We still have to achieve flower piping, which is much more difficult than it seems!

2 tier

Vanilla Cake

Fresh strawberry filling

Strawberry buttercream filling

Neon buttercream accents

America the Beautiful (and Sweet!)

This was a delicious 4th of July cake we made for my Dad's Surprise birthday party last Summer. Everyone literally fought over a piece of it! We were inspired by Ina Garten's flag cake recipe. Her recipe called for a 18 x 13 inch pan! Who has one of those? A simple solution is to use smaller pans and piece them together or to just make a smaller cake.

We did the latter. The white cake recipe was a sweet, dense cake, almost like pound cake. We used this recipe repeatedly as the heaviness provides the stability needed for tiered cakes. Although the cake itself was delicious, the homemade whipped cream and fresh berries hit the spot. The perfect summertime treat!

3 Layers

Special White Cake

Fresh Strawberries, Blueberries, and Homemade Whipped Cream between each layer

Topped with Homemade Whipped Cream and Fresh Fruits