If I Were An Elf Santa would SO Hire Me!

It's been a busy few days for CakeDDS. In the last 3 days we made 6 full cakes, 52 mini cakes and some other misc treats. Now, I'm not complaining in the least, cakin' is something I love. It was a lot of work though. Here's some of the Valentine's Day treats we came up with:


Zebras & Hearts
The "zebra" cakes are chocolate cake with oreo frosting covered in chocolate ganache and white chocolate drizzle.
The "hearts" are chocolate cake with fresh strawberry filling covered in chocolate ganache and eventually topped with a pink champagne heart.




Here are just some of the mini cakes we made. Carrot cakes with cream cheese frosting covered in white chocolate ganache.


An overview of some of the finished products from this marathon baking session. A little of this, a little of that....


A cake "candy box" made of red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting. 100% edible including the lid and the candies inside.

All the single ladies! All the single ladies!
Everything you need for VDay night and then some. Chocolate cake with strawberry filling, dressed in pink champagne frosting & MMF.

Today's Debate: Store Bought Fondant vs MMF

For those of you that don't know MMF stands for Marshmallow Fondant. There seems to be a bit of a debate in the cake community regarding the use of store bought fondant vs marshmallow fondant. They both obviously have their pros and cons: Store bought is easily accessible and immediately useable yet usually tastes pretty horrible. On the other hand MMF is far less expensive and can be flavored to compliment the cake it is being used on but can be a bit time consuming to make.

I have used both and I can say that I've been won over by the MMF hands down!

The texture of MMF is smooth and elastic like store bought but it tastes SO much better. Not to mention that it takes about $3 to make compared to the $15+ for the store bought stuff. Plus the MMF because a part of the cake, not just some gross covering that everyone pulls off before they eat their slice. It colors and flavors easily and is easy to work with. Not to mention the recipe is incredibly easy.

The recipe that I use can be found at

http://candy.about.com/od/fondantcandyrecipes/r/mm_fondant.htm

Try it out and enjoy!

Capoeira

For those of you who were chomping at the bit to catch a glimpse of the capoeira cake here it is.

The top layer is chocolate cake with oreo frosting and the bottom layer is yellow cake with strawberry filling and vanilla icing. And of course we make everything from scratch.

Ok, so it didn't turn out as amazing as I had hoped due to some unforseen circumstances but hey it happens. And it still tasted great.

My kids better never say I don't love them lol. There's photographic proof.

A Random Interjection

Yes this blog is about cake....
But it's also about the million and a half other things that in some way, shape or form can be related to cake. Food (of course), art, creativity, parties, celebrations....the list could go on forever.

I fully intend to reign in my randomness but only as much as is needed to make some sort of sense so do not be surprised is something not 100% directly related to cake appears here. Feel free to just change the channel for that day.

I'm Back....

I apologize for the hiatus but we've been in cake overdrive since the holidays. Santa brought me a BEAUTIFUL stand mixer to replace its fallen comrades so it's been all about focusing on the cakes and expanding flavors and ideas....visualize the full length lab coat, bolts of lightening, evil cackle, the whole bit lol. I love it though and wouldn't change a thing.

Here's a few photos of what Cake DDS has been up to lately. If I can ever get around to figuring out my video camera (also a gift from Santa) I plan on putting up some videos and tutorial too. That should be interesting.