Vanilla Beans

Blog moving!

vanillabeans — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:04:54 +0000

Visit me at blogger:

www.vanillabeany.blogspot.com

www.lemonsquezee.blogspot.com

Sarah’s wedding cakes

vanillabeans — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:23:10 +0000

I realize that I haven’t blogged here since April. But it doesn’t mean I haven’t been baking. Actually, the opposite. Baking has really taken off in light of recent events. Chronologically, here’s what’s been going on:

1) Keith and I took Jack to Ireland

2) We got engaged while vacationing

3) Sarah got married in June and I baked her a wedding cake

4) Sarah had a huge wedding reception August 21st and I baked her 130 cupcakes (Hubby Brian ate one the day before the party. Ha ha) And an eight inch cake to top off her homemade tower. Sarah is VERY handy with a hammer and nails.

5) I had many disasters while baking for my darling Sis and her wonderful husband. Please note cake batter spillage pics below.

6) Keith and I are getting married next week. There will be many pics of our DIY wedding to follow. Especially of our dessert buffet, including a petit four wedding cake, chocolate candy, brownies and an assortment of cookies all made by yours truly. Plus Keith’s grandmother’s world famous pies. Yummy!!

Keith and Iare catering our wedding ourselves (With help from Olivia, Brad and our parents). Wish us luck!!

Fondant Roses

vanillabeans — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:41:10 +0000

This is my first attempt at fondant roses. I taught myself how to do them, because I played hookie from class last week.

I started them out with the Wilton Method. I dried the bases on toothpicks.

But I got a little fed up with Wilton’s method of keeping the rose on the toothpick while arranging the petals. I found it was much easier to just take it off and form the flower on the table. I think they turned out pretty well.

Easter Cake

vanillabeans — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:37:31 +0000

Inspired by an ad in some random magazine I was perusing a few months ago, I got my heart set on making a cake that featured a nest with eggs in it. I went for a chocolate cake, covered in ganache with a raspberry buttercream filling. I brought it to my family’s house for Easter dinner. It seemed to go over well. This first pic was taken by me.

Easter Cake

The nest is made from chocolate shavings. And the eggs are Necco malted candy eggs. The following pics were taken by my wonderful boyfriend. As you can see, he’s a much better photographer than yours truly.

Squirrel Cake and Sarah’s Cupcakes Round 1

vanillabeans — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:44:49 +0000

I started this blog to document my adventures in butter cream (and fondant and gumpaste…)

I’ve been decorating!

My first project was to practice transferring an image onto a cake. I also got to work on shell borders and stars. I used the logo from the bank where my boyfriend works. I figure I’ll be sending a lot of cakes to work with him, so why not, right?

My second project was yesterday. I was coming up with some ideas of what I want Sarah’s wedding cupcakes to look like. She had mentioned candied violets, but I didn’t have any violets on hand today. Who does, right?

I liked her idea of putting tiny flowers on the cupcakes, so I piped some on with butter cream. Not quite as elegant as she had imagined, I suppose. But it’s a start, anyway.

I also made some colorful and silly little cupcakes to put with the others. Thus became Beth’s birthday cupcakes.