Cake Crazy



Usually, I make a whole lot of cupcakes every week with the occasional cake thrown in. Lately, it seems like all I make is cakes, something I just noticed this weekend when I was looking for recent cupcake pictures to throw up. I have been a cake machine lately, churning out custom fondant occasion cakes, signature buttercream birthday cakes, and the ideas just keep coming! Although these are much more time consuming than cupcakes, I've really begun to love working with fondant, and I've started to plan for taking some of my "dream courses" next year. While I have a knack for decorating, I have sooo much to learn and I just don't think you can ever learn enough. There is always going to be room for improvement! Right now, I'm taking every opportunity to try something I haven't done before and to find the styles and techniques that work best for me. I never ever thought my cakes would be a big thing for Little Bow Sweets- they've always been an afterthought for me. Apparently, all of you lovely people have other ideas! Here's a little of what I've been up to lately.

 



This classy striped cake was made for a photography fanatic- her 19th birthday party was a photograph scavenger hunt, which I think is an awesome idea!

I made this Little Red Riding Hood cake for the Cake Central inspiration challenge. I would never normally enter a contest, but I thought it was a great opportunity to try something new and stretch my skills! We were given this inspiration board to design from, and there were some crazy amazing entries! The winning cake had the same painted silhouette idea as mine, although with considerably more skill behind it and another tier! I'm really happy with my entry though and will probably enter the next one just for the awesome practice!

Painted Pumpkins and other creations from the Fall season so far!

This cake was a last minute request- no time to plan ahead, no time to work our alternative methods...while I would have liked to put a little more effort into the prep, I'm actually really happy with the end result on this one, and the birthday boy was thrilled!



The glitter all over this top tier is still turning up in my clothes, on my face, in my hair...it just won't go away!

Turkey Day Sweets: Cranberry Almond Scones

I'm just gonna say it, I hate pumpkin pie. I don't get it, I don't like it, and I don't make it, so I always try to make something different for Thanksgiving festivities. We didn't do a dinner this year, so instead of some big decadent dessert, I threw together some fall-flavored scones to go with the several hundred litres of tea I have downed this weekend. They're pretty delicious, and since I haven't fallen off the wagon with a massive turkey dinner, I've let myself have one or two. Or three. Let's leave it at two for my conscience's sake though, and move along to the recipe!

Ingredients:

2 cups cake & pastry flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
5 tbsp cold butter
3/4 cup milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup cranberries, halved & tossed in 2 tbsp sugar

Directions:

1) Move oven shelf to slightly higher than the center of the oven. You want your scones closer to the top element than the bottom. Preheat oven to 350. 

2) Stir vinegar and almond extract into milk- mixture will thicken and curdle slightly. Set aside.

2) Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together in a large bowl.

3) Cut butter into small cubes, and use a fork to cut it into the flour mixture.

4) Use fingertips to lift mixture and rub butter into flour until there are no pieces larger than pea-size.

5) Mix sugared cranberries into bowl.

6) Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour milk in.

7) Using a small fork, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, starting to use your hands as the dough forms. Use your hands to knead the dough, scraping all the dry ingredients in the bowl into one elastic ball.

8) Pat the dough out on a floured board to about 1/3" thick, and cut with a pastry cutter.

9) Place cut scones 1" apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush with eggwash, and let rest for ten minutes.

10) Bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown on top. Let cool for 10 minutes.

*I drizzled them with a glaze made of 1 tsp milk and 1/4 cup icing sugar, but a dusting of icing sugar would also work just fine!