Monday, December 7, 2009

Christmas Tree Cake

Was 22 nights before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, except for my cat Franklin...and me finishing a cake
No stockings were hung anywhere since they are still in storage
In hopes that the renovations will soon be done
Nobody was nestled all snug in their beds yet
But visions of red velvet cake and fondant decorations were dancing in my head...

......anyway........

When we had to have our front yard dug up to replace the sewer line this summer, the company that came to do it just happened to be owned by the husband of the niece of a good friend of mine so he has had my cake before. He ended up knocking a bunch of money off of our final bill in exchange for a cake for their Christmas party. All he said was "something Christmasy and cakey"...which wasn't a lot to go from. But he had a lady from the office call me and she suggested a Christmas tree cake and "ornament" cupcakes.

The cake started with 6 layers of cake - 3 layers of 6" round and 3 layers of 8" round - red velvet cake with cream cheese icing filling.


Then I carved it to a tree shape


Then iced it with juniper green buttercream icing


Then piped the branches with a star tip our of buttercream icing

Then decorated the tree with royal icing tinsel, fondant decorations that I had made ahead of time and some large sprinkles and dragees that I had



Then Dale and I delivered the cake and the 40 cupcakes to the party. There were 20 chocolate cupcakes and 20 white cupcakes. All were frosted with Swiss meringue buttercream and decorated with assorted sprinkles.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Saskatchewan Roughriders Cake(s)

Oops! I forgot to post about this cake!

Every year SIGA (where my husband works) holds a bake sale/auction thing to raise money for their kids Christmas party. Last year I donated this cake with the SIGA logo on it and it raised a lot off money! This year, since the sale/auction was on the Friday before the Grey Cup and Saskatchewan was IN the Grey Cup, I made a Saskatchewan Roughriders logo cake in hopes that it would make a bunch of money. And it did! Sadly the Riders lost, but the cake was great! :)

In honour of the Riders, I made green velvet cake. Similar to red velvet, but...well...green! VERY green!

The batter was eerily green


I didn't get a photo of the inside of the cake, but I had made some test cupcakes a while back so this is what the baked cake looked like


The cake was 2 layers of 10" round cakes filled with cream cheese icing, then iced with white buttercream and covered in white fondant. The logo was made of fondant, gum paste, and royal icing.


I put a little gum paste bow around the base to finish it off. I didn't want to do anything TOO girly since it was a football cake.


Closeup of the logo


I actually made 2 of these cakes because I accidentally made way too much cake batter. But it all worked out fine because I took one to my workplace and took the leftovers of that cake to SIGA. So everyone had a chance at some green velvet cake.