A Pair of Shoes Guaranteed To Fit!!

While here in Vegas it is all to common to hear the phrase "C'mon Papa needs a new pair of shoes" being shouted at every Craps table in every casino, so I knew at some point I would get to make a pair of shoes for someone...I didn't necessarily think I would be commissioned to make a pair of golf shoes...But hey, I always say "You Dream it, I'll Bake it!"
Strangely enough it was my boyfriend Andrew who couldn't think of a great gift for his brother Gavin's birthday. His birthday was three days away and he said to me "Ya know, a Golf Cake would be a great gift" and I said "yea it would"...and continued reading my magazine. He could not possibly be thinking that I had time to bake and decorate a cake in three days while we had visitors in town, I was in school and had a million other things to do...Ummm I was WRONG...he not only expected me to make the cake, he actually placed the order! Lucky for him I gave him a family discount and just charged him the cost of ingredients...(Between you and I, Andrew definitely could not afford me..haha, I kid, I kid!)

Okay, so I am secretly really excited about this Golf Cake, the only problem is..."Golf Cake" is pretty general, what KIND of "Golf Cake"? We discussed some options, a giant golf ball, a golf scene, a landscaped hole, a golf bag and then...we decided...Golf Shoes would be fun!


Now I was pumped...I get really excited about cakes when I first get an order or an idea that I can barely sleep (i know I have issues) but really that is how much love goes into each cake (don't worry, the love I put into each cake is NON-Toxic). I have the same progression of feelings when I begin a cake creation starting with the moment the idea is thought up;
1. Pure Excitement (I'm talking trip to Disney World, Christmas Day kind of excitement)
2. Anxiety (During the shopping and baking steps I work myself up...what if my creation is not as good as I am planning it!!!)
3. Joyful once again during the early creative stages
4. Frustration because I wish i had a huge bakery kitchen and a few extra (useful) hands
5. Exhaustion because I am a perfectionist and cannot stop working until everything is in place
6. I always finish off with this Totally Excited, Happy, Proud feeling and cannot wait to deliver the cake and get some feedback (although I am super hard on myself and DO ALWAYS think I will do even better the next time around)

Okay, sorry...back to the Golf Shoes. So, this cake is for Gavin, an avid Golfer, pure Genius, meticulous perfectionist and a very lucky NEW DADDY of a very beautiful baby girl! My point is, I cannot just slap together some golf shoes and call it a day, I need to do a good job or I may as well make an edible receipt to go with those shoes...He knows his stuff and is picky (as he should be) when it comes to his golf "equipment", right down to the golf balls he uses...I can't slip in any old, generic golf ball on this guy.

I let Andrew pick the flavors and he chose chocolate cake and peanut butter frosting (I know, quite the surprise). I decided to switch up the recipes I usually use and made a fudge-like, almost brownie, chocolate cake with a light, peanut butter buttercream. I made four HUGE cakes and stacked and frosted repeatedly. Then I went to work carving them into shoes...

...Not the easiest part of the process but it's not like it is going to get any easier from this point on.


Then I just piled on the details. These shoes were really looking good. I made little gold, metallic shoelace holes and some shoe laces and then just added some grass. I thought I needed to throw in some tees and some golf balls so I asked Andrew what kind of golf balls Gavin used and of course they were Pro V 1 Titleist (as if I had the slightest clue what these looked like) so I Googled them. Nope, not simple, Detailed...of course. But I must say those golf balls came out great and looked just like the real thing!

I was even happier when Andrew delivered the cake and said Gavin loved it...glad I didn't need that receipt after all!
And YES, EVERYTHING on this cake is entirely edible!





I kinda love to see pictures of my cakes all cut up...Weird, I know!

Happy Birthday Daisy

I like to bake and make fun, good-looking and great-tasting stuff but what I really like to do is give it away and see people enjoy it! Being it is just Andrew and I here in Vegas, I have been sending my baked goods off to work with him, always a bit unsure if they make it there UN-eaten...afterall giving Andrew food to DELIVER and NOT EAT is pretty much doomed from the start.
HOWEVER...I should have more faith in the boy because apparently he is delivering the goodies and while he still eats most of what he brings...at least he shares!!! So, you might wonder how I know he is actually sharing...well about a week ago he came home and said a co-worker needed a Birthday cake for her friend Daisy...she wants a fruit cake with daisies...I was immediately excited because I obviously love what I do but there was no way I could possibly make that cake in a week since my culinary classes leave me exhausted at the end of the day and I don't have much time in the morning...I told him sadly I couldn't do it!




Now here is what I learned from that conversation...I had brought him some baked goods from class and let him eat all he wanted while I was telling him there was no way I could make the cake in a few days...DO NOT TELL ANDREW IMPORTANT INFORMATION WHILE HE IS ENJOYING SWEATS....HE DOES NOT LISTEN!!! It may appear that he is listening and he is usually a great listener but in his massive sugar coma he completely "yessed" me to death and told his co-worker I would do it.

THREE DAYS BEFORE CAKE DELIVERY;
ANDREW: "Hey Babe, hows that daisy cake coming?"
ME: "Ummm, I don't know..where is it coming from?"
ANDREW: "Well, shouldn't you start making it?"
ME: "UMMMm...hell yea I should start making it...if I took the order."
(this went on for several minutes until I realized he can no longer be trusted to relay information)





Ok...so I had three days to bake, fill, decorate and package this cake and I certainly was not going to make it any less perfect than anything else i made. So... I made Andrew a list of everything I needed from the store, (made him pay for it of course) and told him not to come home until he got everything!! And I meant everything!

Ok so while he was gone, and I was at class I felt increasingly bad for being mean...he totally meant well and I couldn't blame him for the miscommunication..I did help induce the sugar coma that caused the problem.



So i decided to be nice to him again and I brought him more goodies as a Thank You for the thought (and the groceries) and I started to bake...I baked a yellow chiffon cake and filled it with delicious pastry cream, fresh whipped cream, strawberry puree (homemade of course) and fresh strawberries...So i had to bak the cake, make the pastry cream and strawberry puree and i needed to make the fondant for the daisies. That was Day 1.
Day2 I made the daisies...a million of them..ok maybe like 65 of them but it felt like a million!!
Day 3...assembly and deliver.
I brushed the daisies with luster dust and they looked like beautiful silk daisies..nothing at all like edible sugar...I just wish I took a picture of the cake before I decorated it so you can see how yummy it looked!!
Maybe I can get a picture of it sliced!!

But i do really like how it turned out..I was going for a rustic look of a bucket of daisies!

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.