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!

Oreo Heaven

I think my favorite flavor combination is probably cookies and cream. Whether it's ice cream or these cupcakes I did today, nothing can really beat it. Plus, there's so many different possibilities of flavors depending on what cookie you use! Today I used chocolate cream filled chocolate cookies. Yummy! Again, these cupcakes seem gourmet but take very little effort.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
1 box white cake mix (any eggs/water/oil called for on the box)
1 package Oreos of your choice (I used chocolate cream)

See how easy that sounds?!

Mix the cake mix as called for on the box. Preheat your oven according to the instructions on your cake mix. Line 24 cupcake tins with paper liners and place one Oreo cookie in the bottom of each liner.

Crumble the remaining Oreos from the package (I always have six left, no snacking!) into the cupcake batter. Spoon about 2T of batter into each liner on top of the whole Oreo.

Bake for about 20-22 minutes. This is longer than I normally go for, but the cupcake liners are more full with the Oreo in the bottom, and will take longer this way.
Let them cool completely and frost with your choice of white or chocolate buttercream, or even cream cheese frosting.
I didn't have extra cookies for a garnish, but if you save a couple you can crush them into crumbs and sprinkle the crumbs on top of the frosting.