So Long, Farewell!

We recently had a coworker retire, so of course I made a cake for the party on his last day. Now this gentleman used to live in Nebraska and is a big fan of the Nebraska Cornhuskers (I know, I know, there's no accounting for taste sometimes). Fittingly I made him a cake in the shape of the iconic Nebraska 'N'. I made sure to take pictures along the way, because I figured this would be a great opportunity to showcase a carved cake.

The Husker-tastic finished product!

To do this cake I baked two 9 inch square cakes, let them cool overnight, took them out of the pans and placed them on my decorating turntable with some wax paper to keep the display plate clean. I printed off an 'N' that I found online, copied into a word document, and measured out to just under the 9 inch cake size. I trimmed the 'N' and filled and stacked the cakes. (Vanilla custard buttercream filling recipe to come another day!) After positioning the cut out on the cake I took a sharp serrated knife and cut through the cake while holding on to the paper with the other hand. And I still have all of my fingers! Woohoo!
Hint: keep those cake scraps to make cake balls/pops, or to fill in any holes should you have a cake disaster.

Ready to carve

Once it was carved I cleaned up any excess crumblies and applied a crumb coat of regular white buttercream frosting. This step is important because it traps any crumbs so they won't show up on the final frosting layer. See how it still looks like that 'N'? I was so excited.

Lookin' good!

After the crumb coat the cake went into the fridge for half an hour to set the frosting. Once those crumbs weren't going anywhere I put another thin layer of white buttercream frosting on, which I then airbrushed a lovely Husker red. To get that buttercream extra smooth, run your spreader under hot water for a few seconds, then dry it off. Smooth the frosting with the hot spreader, making sure to clean the edge frequently.

And look at that clean display plate!

When it was done I (carefully) pulled the wax paper out after running my spreader between the cake and the paper to loosen it. I wasn't too worried about smudging the bottom because the bottom border hides that. All that was left was to pipe on the white border using a round tip, and write on the message! Lots of ooohs and ahhhhs at work that day!

Smother Me....In Frosting!

Chocolate cupcakes w/vanilla & chocolate cream cheese frosting

 Ok, I have to admit, frosting is probably my favorite part of any cake. I request corner pieces just to get the extra sides of frosting. I have a problem, I know. But I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one with a frosting addiction, as my boss recently requested "tons of frosting" for her birthday cupcakes. Oh Fearless Leader, you have no idea how happy that made me since cream cheese frosting is my absolute favorite to make (lots of taste tests!). She requested chocolate cupcakes and cream cheese frosting, which is what we have for a blog subject this week!

For these cupcakes I just used a chocolate cake mix, but upped the flavor profile by adding 2 teaspoons of chocolate extract. Mmmmmm, liquid chocolate....But back to the recipe. Once you have made your 24 cupcakes, whip up some cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 C softened butter
2-3 C powdered sugar (2 C for soft frosting, 3 C for stiff frosting)
1/3 C milk
1 T vanilla extract

Cream the butter and cream cheese together and slowly add the powdered sugar. Add milk until you reach a desired consistency, then fold in the vanilla. Divide frosting in half, leave one as the vanilla cream cheese frosting. Add 1 T chocolate extract and 1/4 C sifted cocoa powder to the other half of the frosting to make the chocolate cream cheese frosting.

I mixed and matched the two flavors by putting a chocolate filling in the vanilla topped cupcakes and vanilla filling in the chocolate topped cupcakes. I used a large star tip for the vanilla frosting, and just a plain ol' butter knife for the chocolate frosting (with a 'healthy' dollop of vanilla on top of that).

Isn't my new stand so pretty?

*Tip* To make it easier on yourself to fill a pastry bag, simply grab a tall drinking glass, place the pastry bag tip end down into the glass, and fold the top sides of the bag over the edge of the glass. Now you don't need four hands to hold, scrape, scoop and clean off the counter!

Do you have a favorite helpful tidbit for frosting cakes and cupcakes?