Lydia's Princess

After viewing my Betty Crocker (Howdini) videos, Lydia was inspired to make a Princess cake for her granddaughter's 2nd birthday. Definitely pretty in pink!

Lara's Cupcakes

All of Lara's clever cupcakes were inspired by our Chocolate Method techniques. Create your own chocolate templates to match the theme of your party.

Ladybug and Spider Pans

The ladybugs and spiders from our "Little Cakes" book are fun ones to do with the kids - my 4-year old has made his version of the ladybug.

But it seems the pan is difficult to find. We used a Wilton "mini ball pan" (see the link below), but if you want to make them a bit larger you can use 6-inch (diameter) stainless steel or Pyrex bowls.

Also please note there was a typo on the template page - do not increase the size of the template 4 times. I'm not quite sure what happened, but the images are all just slightly smaller than they should be. You can increase the image maybe 115% or using the size in the book, unaltered, should be fine. http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30ABC4-475A-BAC0-5E435F6A2968955C&fid=0D0BED4E-475A-BAC0-5A68AF3A1910E9AD

Have Fun!

Ice Storm

Everything looked white as my son and I looked out the window in the morning. SNOWMAN! YAY! but when we got outside the snow crunched beneath our feet- there was a 1/4-inch of ice on top. Our plans were foiled until I had an idea. My son stacked shards of ice. I filled squeeze tubes with water and a couple of drops of food coloring and let my son go crazy. The colorful results....

Log Cabin

I recently made a cake in the shape of a log cabin. The customer gave me a small ornament (which is actually a model of their real log cabin) to work from. I experimented with some new techniques, which ended up working quite well. To make the logs I spread a thin layer of white chocolate onto a parchment paper lined sheet pan. Once it was set I spread dark chocolate on top. I then proceeded to mix a variety of chocolate earth tones and drizzled these across the chocolate. Using a paring knife I traced irregular lines across the chocolate, not only to blend the earth tones, but to add a bit of texture to the chocolate as it began to set. Before it fully set, I cut the chocolate into 3/4-inch slats. The rocks were made from a variety of tinted chocolates. Once the rock forms were set I painted contrasting chocolates on top to give them a worn and weathered look. They were set into a tinted buttercream "morter".

Hayley's Creations

cookie guitars

Hayley's masterful version of the W.Bakehouse's Safari Cake.

What a great idea: display the cake with the cupcakes!

Gia's Cakes

Adding "chocolate method" appliques to a simple shaped cake is a great way to add detail without having to do intricately carve the cake.

Vicki's "Mini" Birthday Cake

Vicki said, "I can honestly say with confidence that a novice could make this cake, just like I did and I'm certain that with even more practice I could eventually have it looking like the one in the pages of Whimsical Bakehouse."

Food Coloring

I have been searching for the liquid gel colors and candy colors in teal, neon pink, royal blue, and purple and can't find them. I see other shades of pink and violet and wasn't sure if these were the exact names of the colors used in the photo on page 63 of The Whimsical Bakehouse or if they are called something else. Also if someone could tell me where to find them I'd appreciate it. Unless I'm getting things confused please tell me what colors are needed in the liquid gel colors and then the candy colors. Thank you.

There are four main types of colorant for icing: LIQUID, GEL or PASTE, LIQUI-GEL, and POWDERED. Liquid is less concentrated than the paste or liqua-gel. Although you can still achieve a wide range of colors you may need more of the liquid to mix dark or rich colors. Personally I do not like the powdered colors - I find that they don’t dissolve completely, leaving speckles throughout the buttercream.

Candy and chocolate can be colored with liquid (oil based) candy colors or powdered pigment. Again I prefer the liquid candy color to the powder because it fully incorporates with the chocolate.

At the bakery we use Chefmaster colors. But, really, any colorant will work. Even McCormick's from the grocery store makes a variety of colors, including neon. All of the icing and chocolate colors in our books (with the exception of sky blue for chocolate) were mixed with a palette of Chefmaster liquid-gel and candy colors.

Chefmaster makes a wide range of liquid-gel colors. If you want neon colors you must specify: neon pink, neon green, etc. But, with the exception of neon pink, the bright colors I mix can be made by mixing other colors: neon green can be mixed by adding yellow to green; teal can be made by mixing green and sky blue: midnight blue is a combination of violet and royal blue. Chefmaster violet is equivalent to what I think of as purple.

The candy colors come in fewer colors. The Chefmaster pink will give you a great neon pink – to get a pastel pink just use less or use small amounts of red. Chefmaster’s blue is a royal blue. To get sky blue we use Wilton’s blue candy color. To make teal we mix equal parts of Chefmaster green with Wilton’s blue. The Chefmaster red, orange, yellow, green, and violet are all standard colors and can be substituted with other brands.

I recently discovered that Chefmaster (Byrnes and Kiefer Company) is making a selection of new glycerine-based natural colors. I have found a couple of other sources that make all natural colors. I am going to experiment with them and I’ll let you know how they work.

Chefmaster liqua-gel colors variety pack:
http://www.cakedeco.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_prodid=6184&p_catid=56&page=1
Chefmaster liquid candy color:
http://cakedeco.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?p_catid=53

Icing colors from Wilton:
http://search.wilton.com/?q=icing+colors&x=13&y=12#i=1&page=2&q=icing+colors&u1=q&x=13&y=12
Candy color from Wilton
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30B819-475A-BAC0-5F5189466A40B391&killnav=1

Ateco gel color variety pack:
https://www.atecousa.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ateco&Product_Code=1112&Product_Count=&Category_Code=
Ateco candy color:
https://www.atecousa.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?

Mc Cormick liquid food coloring:
http://www.mccormick.com/Products/Extracts-and-Food-Colors/Food-Colors.aspx

For more detailed information about food coloring visit http://www.bkcompany.com/default3.htm.

Coloring Buttercream

I have not been successful with getting the vibrant colors that you have photographed in your books, but I am not giving up. How do you acheive such great color with Kaye's buttercream?

It is difficult to create vibrant colors using Kaye's Buttercream. Although Kaye's is far superior in taste we use House buttercream when mixing rich or neon colors. There are a few things at play:
1) Kaye's buttercream is made with all butter which gives it a creamy tint. This slightly mutes the color, i.e. blue might have a greenish tint.
2) I have found that Kaye's buttercream is great for pastel colors, but once large quantities of colorant are added the color tends to bead up and not fully incorporate into the buttercream.
3) The high-ration shortening in the House Buttercream allows for absorption of liquid and colorant. It also has a pure white base which allows for a purity of color.

At the bakery, because we always have both buttercreams available, we crumb coat with the Kaye's (for flavor) and do the final coat of icing (if colored) with the House. Sometimes we mix equal parts of the two buttercreams which gives us the best of both worlds (we use this concoction to make our roses).