Spaghetti and Meatballs

OK I'm really sorry for the poor picture quality, I use my camera phone for most of my posts just out of convenience and the fact that I always forget to bring my real camera anywhere I go and also forget to photograph my creations right away so I am sorry!!

My wonderful boyfriend Andrew just turned 25 and of course I HAD to make him a classic Birthday cake...Ok so it wasn't exactly classic but for me it was a classic since I tend to make things out of dessert that closely resemble savory food. Andrews favorite meal is a big bowl of pasta and meatballs with homemade pasta sauce..(yes I actually cook other than novelty cakes) so I felt this cake would be suiting!!

The only problem with this cake is that I could not get time alone in my house to put tender love and care into creating it...instead I had about 20 minutes to stack, frost, fondant, and decorate my cake in the 90 degree heat of my kitchen! While I still think it looks cool I had much bigger plans for this cake and given double the time it would have definately looked much more relistic and FABulous. But of course Andrew thought it was great and after eating a homemade meal of real angel hair, meatballs, chicken parm and sunday sauce he was happy to eat another bowl...i mean slice of pasta and meatballs for dessert..along with the Banana Bread Truffles I made for Joe who tried very hard to keep them out of direct sight in hopes of keeping them to himself! Joe, I cant blame you, those Banana Bread Truffles

 are awesome!! 

Of course any cake you ever make for Andrew MUST be chocolate so I made a super moist Devils  cake with my peanut butter icing in the center. The consensus was that is tasted delicious and kinda like a funny bone! 

Fondant Fear?

So this is the very first time I have ever worked with fondant...and the fondant was home-made by me! I must say after all the things I have read about how fondant was so difficult to work with and especially scary to make at home, I think this was quite a success. What do you think?

Also I do agree that fondant is not the BEST tasting icing for a cake but this home-made marshmallow fondant is not as bad as store bought and if you roll it nice and thin you almost don't even know it is there, and if you start with a delicious cake (make sure it's a strong cake to hold the structure of the fondant and shape of your cake) then you won't be disappointed!

The cake...since you are makeing everything else from scratch you can use a cake mix...any flavor and add a few things to make it more like a pound cake. Use your favorite mix (I used yellow) and add 1/3 cup oil, 80z sour cream, any flavor pudding mix (i used vanilla) and 1/3 cup oil...mix it and bake it according to the package in greased and lined pans. Let them cool in the fridge for a while!

To make the fondant...use a 16 oz pkg of marshmallows (i used mini) and mix it in a large microwave safe bowl with 2 TBS water. Microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring, unti

l completely melted (IT WILL BE HOT!!!). When completely melted mix in 1lb powdered sugar. Grease a large work surface with Crisco/shortening and put another pound of powdered sugar on the surface in a pile and turn out marshmallow mixture onto the pile of sugar and knead for 6 minutes or until pliable and mixed...thats it, done! Now, you can use it right away but it is best if you place in the fridge and use it the next day. Those blobs of sugar will dissolve! Coat the ball of fondant with shortening and wrap in saran and place in an airtight container. When you take the fondant out of the fridge you will need to microwave it for a few seconds to make it more pliable and ready to work with, knead for a minute or so (this is where you would add your color if you do not want white fondant) and roll it out to a thickness of about 1/8 and 1/4 inch but wait...don't cover your cake yet!

Frosting your cake with butter cream before the fondant is put on is an important step. You can buy your favorite buttercream or make a super easy version at home. Here is what you need.

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 cup, 1 stick softened butter

3+ TBSP milk1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix sugar, butter, vanilla and 2TBSP milk in a bowl until fluffy, adding milk 1 TBSP at a time until spreadable. Frost your chilled cake (it doesn't need to look nice at this point).

Now you can cover with a thin layer of fondant. Cut off the overhang, and smooth nicely with your hand. Decorate. To stick fondant to fondant, just dampen the area and hold it together for a second or two.

Cheeseburgers and French Fries

If you are heading to a BBQ then you should be sure to bring these sweet sliders for dessert!As you noticed I LOVE to make sweets that look like a main course and when I was cruising the

blog-o-sphere and stumbled upon Bakerella's page filled with "Fast Food Fun" I had to make these with a few little twists. Check out Bakerella's originals here!

Thanks for a great idea Bakerella!!

I made these burgers the size of a standard cupcakesize and used yellow tinted and red tinted frosting as the ketchup and cheese and a sprinkle of green coconut as the lettuce. Then I brushed a bit of honey on the buns (haha that m

akes me laugh!) and added some sesame seeds for the real effect.

The french fries are made from rolled sugar cookies just chill the dough before you slice your fries and bake them! It makes life soo much easier and don't forget the extra sugar to look like salt!

And of course...

I needed a taste tester for these little burgers..If food and eating is involved I always have at least two volunteers to taste test.

So what do you think?.......

Christmas Tree Cake

This was my first attempt at making a stacked and carved cake...it was definitley not the easiest cake I ever made and being that I made it in a super rush I think it came out pretty well. Next time I would be sure to start it a bit earlier and make sure I had a few more decorations to hang on the tree...instead of just a few craisins! 

If I thought making the cake was tricky ... the drive with it to New Jersey was quite the challenge!!! But we made it there and the cake was pretty darn tasty! All you need to whip this cake up is the following;

1. your favorite cake recipe (or a box mix) 
2. coconut
3. green food coloring
4. frosting
5. oven proof bowls or various sizes (pyrex works well)

Bake the cake in three or more different size oven proof bowls, cool COMPLETELY!! Chill the cake in the fridge for an hour (or less if you are in a rush..or pop it in the freezer). Cut each size into a cone shape..frost each one then stack on a big skewer or dowel. cover in green coconut, decorate your tree and don't forget the star on top! 

Hot Dog Anyone?

You can't live in the New York area without running into a hot dog everywhere you go. Walk down the city streets and there are at least three vendors selling dirty water franks on every corner. Walk past a playground and there ya go...hot dogs! Gray's Papaya has about four locations across Manhattan for your massive and sudden hot dog craving needs and forget about a baseball game, there is no way you can sit through a game without a hot dog and a beer or two..or three..or...well, what I am saying is HOT DOGS are everywhere. I do not particularly LOVE hot dogs but my sister Erica has professed her love for the frank! She will eat them at any opportunity, she will even bring her own dogs to a BBQ!
Sooo, it was Erica's Birthday (mid-November so she hasn't had a mass quantity of hot dogs as compared to summer months) and my mom was making lasagna (yum) which she hates and she said all she wanted was a hot dog....So I made her this Hot Dog Cake!!! I made it out of ice cream since my favorite thing in the world is ice cream...and I think it came out pretty good!