Yes, It's Been a While

My first attempt at a two-tiered cake

 

It's been over six months since I last posted. I know. I am a terrible blogger. I teased you with all sorts of good treats and then left this place a desolate ghost town with nothing but tumbleweed in my wake. I apologize. I have had some changes in my life in the last year that have taken up all of my focus. I've still been baking (though not as much as I had been) but have not felt up to photographing and posting pictures. Over a year ago Mr. Mac and I split up. I am now a single parent and each night once I get Mini Mac in bed I just want to crash. My biggest pleasure right now is climbing in bed at the end of the day and hanging out with my iPad. (Don't tell anyone about how wild and crazy my life has become. I wouldn't want to have CPS show up at my door.) I am not complaining. I have a great job that supports my daughter and I, and we have an amazing support system. I am incredibly blessed all around. I'm just so busy that when I finally get free time it's usually not enough to post how I want to post. So, I just haven't had the motivation to share on here since Easter. Every now and again I would pull up the blog and see that Easter cake staring back at me and cringe at how long it's been. I finally could not take it anymore. Plus, I just completed one of my most fun projects to date and I had to share it with all of you. I apologize for the massively uncreative pictures. One thing at a time.

 

My friends Jessica and Bobby are getting married today! She asked if I would make a small cake and some cupcakes. Above is a picture of the cake. This is big for me. This is the first two-tiered cake I have made. I have watched countless videos on how to create a support system in a stacked cake so I knew I could do it. It really is not hard at all. A few bubble tea straws and a thin wooden dowel and this baby was good to go. It's white cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream. It's covered with piped rosettes.

 

Pumpkin with cinnamon cream cheese frosting

 

Jessica also wanted a few cupcakes. I made three flavors. Pumpkin with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, chocolate with raspberry buttercream, and good old fashioned yellow with my Aunt Joanna's fabulous chocolate buttercream. I piped dark chocolate W's (their monogram initial) to use as embellishments on the pumpkin and chocolate cupcakes. Then for the yellow cupcakes I piped white chocolate letters so that they would stand out against the chocolate frosting.

 

 

I have a trick for piping the letters. I printed out the W's using Microsoft Word. I selected the font I wanted and made rows of them in the size I needed the letters. I laid down 5 of the pages next to one another on my kitchen table and covered them with a strip of wax paper using the letters underneath as a guide. I "traced" the letters onto the wax paper with melted chocolate in a piping bag. The first few letters were just for practice but once I got about 5 done I had a good rhythm going.



 

They are so simple but add such an amazing touch. You might remember that I did this technique once before for some wedding shower cupcakes. I was vey happy with the overall results.

 

 

Thanks for hanging in there. I hope to be back soon to share some of the projects I did while I was away. That is if I can retrieve them from the hard drive of my dead former computer. (Woo-hoo, technology!) Plus, the Holidays are coming up and I have many treats in my arsenal.

 

Happy wedding day, Jessica and Bobby!