Experimentation Continues!

The last few months I have been experimenting in different products.

My most prized product is my white chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream.  I call it perfection in a bowl!  I find American buttercreams very heavy and gritty, mostly from the powdered sugar.  Icing that has a meringue as its base is very light and fluffy.  And quite delicious!

Gluten-free cakes are also part of my experimentation.  With the increase in gluten allergies, I think this is an important group that needs targeting.

Currently, I am also working on an all natural red velvet cake.  Yes, all natural.  No red food coloring.  This is quite a challenge since originally, beetroot was used to color red velvet cake.  In order to use beetroot, it is critical that the batter be as acidic as possible.  Also, beetroot can cause the cake to be a little gummy if not baked correctly.   

A New Love and Respect

For many years, I had decided that I did not receive the cooking gene from my mother and father.  From the stories my mother tells, my father taught her how to cook.  My sister is one of those people who can go to the store without a list.  She can open a cabinet, look at what is there, and create a meal fit for a holiday celebration.

I on the other hand, was able to burn boiling water.

When my son was small, I decided I needed an artistic outlet.  I turned to cake decorating.  I loved creating beautiful works of art with cake decorations.  As for the baking part, I played around with doctored box mixes.   This was me playing it safe.  Box mixes are developed by manufacturers to be fool-proof.  No matter what you do to them, they should always come out edible.  I experimented with different ways to change their flavors: using juices in place of water, adding pudding to make it more dense, add an egg, lessen the oil, etc.

This summer I embarked on a new adventure.  I discovered the joy of scratch baking.  The difference in the cakes were night and day!  Once I started baking from scratch, I noticed many things about my box mixes.  There is an after taste that is present.  I can only guess this is the chemical stabilizers in the mixes.  If I used oil as my fat, the cake tasted oily.  The cake crumb/texture was very airy.  My scratch recipes produce a softer cake.  They are rich in taste and texture.

My adventures have allowed me to better understand the need for scratch baking.  It truly is an art form that is being thrown to the wayside by grocery store and megamart cakes that are mass produced 6 months in advance and shipped to their destination frozen. Or by the corner baker that uses bags of mixes to keep up with a need for high/fast production with low employment costs.

Our grandmothers really were on to something.  

Quite a Busy Summer!

With Brenda Bakes in business, it has been a slightly busy summer.  In addition to teaching enrichment camp, I had several orders come in.

4th of July Cupcakes for our neighborhood celebration

These were some practice cupcakes for an August wedding

Doctor Who cupcakes for a neighbor's son

A Cowgirl themed cake for a coworker's 30th birthday

A Stephen King themed cake for a coworker's birthday (This is one of my favs!)

A stacked pound cake for a friend's 50th birthday

Wedding cupcakes

An August Wedding

Wedding cookies

A New Chapter in Brenda Bakes!

Exciting things have been happening these last few months!  I have opened up and am officially in business!  My experiences thus far have been priceless, but now I am able to offer my talents to so many other people.

Since I was here last, I have started a legal cake decorating business, created my first wedding cake, and booked many other events coming up this year.  I have to give a HUGE thank you to my co-workers at MES.  They have been the bulk of my business since starting.  Just this weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to create first birthday cakes for a child and grandchild of two co-workers.

Here are some pictures of things I have done the last 2 months.

This was my first wedding cake.  It was alternating tiers of chocolate and red velvet cake.  

This was their groom's cake.  They have a red boat and love to spend time on the lake.  

A Girly Girl cake for a very Girly Girl.  

A first birthday cake for a special little boy

His matching smash cake

A first birthday cake for a special little girl.  Grandma wanted to celebrate her birth in the year of the tiger.  

Her matching smash cake

My Son Turns Four

For my son's fourth birthday I designed a Backyardigans cake based on one of his favorite episodes, Tale of the Mighty Knights.  The actual cake was a castle cake made from dark chocolate.  The towers of the castle were made with a beautifully moist butter cake.  The Backyardigan characters were made from gumpaste and fondant. 

 

Bridal Shower Cupcakes

These were cupcakes I made for a bridal shower at the beginning of March.  The bride's colors are black and pink.  Her flowers are pink calla lilies.  I will be decorating her wedding cake with the dark pink calla lilies as well. 

The calla lily cupcakes were butter cake with a cream cheese icing.  The T cupcakes were a dark chocolate cake with a cream cheese icing.