Reindeer Cake Pops

I made red velvet cake pops/balls to take to the family Christmas get-togethers this year. I used cream cheese icing with the red velvet cake. The balls dunked in milk chocolate were made into reindeer using buttercream icing details. The rest of the balls were dunked in white chocolate. They turned out really cute and yummy! They are really easy to make and really delicious. You can make them with any flavor of cake and icing that you like.

Cake Ball Recipe

***Instructions for making reindeer pops included***

Ingredients: 1 cake mix (boxed or from scratch) and 1 cup icing

Bake your cake as directed on boxed cake mix or follow your recipe for a cake. I usually do mine in a 9x13 cake pan. Allow cake to cool.

Crumble cake until there are no chunks of cake. Mix in icing a tablespoon at a time until cake mix is able to easily stick together when rolled into a ball. It usually takes about 1/2 a can of icing if I am running in a hurry and need to use canned icing.

Roll cake/icing mixture into desired size of balls. Place on cookie sheet and put into the refrigerator.

Once the cake balls are firm you can melt your chocolate (milk or white). Dip cake ball into chocolate and allow to dry. This usually makes a good many balls, but it wouldn't be hard to do several batches at once if you needed more.

***To make reindeer: Once your chocolate has dried, you can use buttercream icing to make your eyes, nose, and mouth. I stuck them back into the refrigerator to allow the buttercream to crust slightly. If you want to place the cake balls on lollipop sticks you will need to do this when you are first forming the balls and placing them in the refrigerator.

Merry Christmas!

I made a Christmas ornament cake for Dusty's mom this week. I wasn't really happy with the way it turned out...I was in too much of a hurry the night I was trying to get it decorated. I didn't think it would be as hard as it was to ice and decorate a spherical cake. I just made it a buttercream cake with almond/vanilla buttercream icing and filling. I did use a little bit of fondant for the hook part on top of the ornament.

I'm also making some red velvet cake balls today and some reindeer cake lollipops. I'll be sure to post pictures of these in the next few days. Hope you have a Very Merry Christmas!

Ladybug Cake

I went home this past weekend to make a cake for a 1st birthday party. The theme was ladybugs and everything turned out really cute! I made the shaped cake and also LOTS of ladybug cupcakes. Luckily, my mom was able to help me out since I also needed to get out of town for a Christmas party the same evening.
The mom posted pictures online, and it was so nice to see how much the birthday girl enjoyed her cake!
I've got at least one more cake planned in the next few days, so there will be more pictures coming soon.

I've been absent pretty much all semester, but the good news is I have officially finished my last class ever...a clinical is all that stands between me and a much anticipated graduation in May. I'm hoping that now I will have a little more free time to get back to my baking. I've got plans to make a cake and some cupcakes for a 1st birthday party this weekend, and a cake for Dusty's mom for Christmas. I'll make sure to get pictures up as soon as I finish these projects! Stay tuned...

Mom's Birthday Celebration

Mom's birthday was this past weekend so I made her a birthday cake. I wasn't really feeling well on Friday night while I was baking it, or on Saturday when we went out to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Atlanta to celebrate her birthday. It still came out pretty I think. I went to the doctor yesterday, and apparently I have this flu bug going around....by Sunday I could barely get out of bed for more than 5 minutes at a time. I was so upset because we were supposed to enjoy the
Braves game on Sunday and I couldn't go. Anyways...its finally back to classes for me today...hopefully I last all day.
The cake was a chocolate cake like the birthday "girl" wanted with buttercream icing.

Quick Update

I just wanted to post a quick update with few of the cakes I've done lately. The first one was a cake for my Wilton Course 3. It was my first fondant cake and I think it turned out pretty cute. Unfortunately, the bow ended up drooping before I could snap a picture because of the crazy humidity.

That same week I had to make a birthday cake for Dusty. I used my oval pans to help shape a football and then added the UGA symbol in fondant. The outline on the symbol got messed up slightly, but it still turned out pretty good and he was very happy with it.

Last night I finished my Wilton Course 3 and made the final cake...a 2 tier wedding cake. I spent about 8-9 hours making fondant roses in 3 shades of pink to cascade down the side. I also hand-painted the roses to make them look more realistic. I wanted to cover the cake in marshmallow fondant, but it was my first time making it and I didn't like the way it turned out. I ended up just using buttercream icing and making a pearl strand border using the marshmallow fondant. The bottom layer of the cake is a fudge marbled cake and the top layer is a Devil's food cake. Both layers have fudge sauce in the middle. I was very pleased with the way it turned out. I think if I had had a little more time during my class I could have made it looked even better, but I was rushing to get out of there and finished with the cake in time. Hope you enjoy!

Course 2 Final Cake

I have been taking the 2nd Wilton course for the past month, and last night we finished up with our final cake. I spent several hours making daisies and apple blossoms to cover it in, but unfortunately my white royal icing must have been exposed to some moisture because most of the daisies didn't harden enough for me to get them off the wax paper without them breaking. I did have better luck with the pink apple blossoms and I love the way they turned out. The sides of the cake are covered using the basket weave technique we learned in class last night, and I did the rope border around the top of the cake. The blue jay is made using the Colorflow technique and turned out really cute. The cake is a cream cheese pound cake, and it tastes great!


I am starting the Wilton Course 3 next week, and should be learning how to make fondant and tiered cakes. I'm very excited....this is the reason I've been taking all the other courses. I think fondant cakes are so pretty! There is a fourth course...but I've never seen it offered anywhere. I'm hoping I can find somewhere to take it once I move back up to North Georgia in September. The fourth course is fondant and gumpaste. Anyways...enough rambling...have a great week!

Tye-Dye Cake

Finally....A NEW POST AND PICS! I did a cake just for fun for my sister this past weekend. She has been really wanting a cake, and was jealous of my friends at school who were getting to eat all my creations. She's a little bit of a hippie I guess, so she got a tye-dye "peace, love, and music" cake. I didn't spend as much time on this one, so I'm not really pleased with the way it turned out. She loved it though.

The inside is a funfetti boxed cake mix (to match the tye-dye of course). The icing is just a buttercream. I used a large star border around the outside and simply drew on all the symbols. The tye-dye was created using colored piping gels and then dragging them out using a toothpick. Next time I think I will buy more than just one tube of piping gel in each color so that I can make the design larger. It took a lot of gel to make the thick concentric circles.

I was initially going to make something for the 4th of July this weekend (I like the firework cupcakes on Wilton), but I think we decided to just do some homemade icecream instead. I may try the cupcakes later though because they really are adorable.

Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July!

Haven't had the opportunity to bake a cake lately...and I'm absolutely missing it! Hopefully once I finish finals and get packed up (and unpacked) for my clinical I will be able to make time for another cake. I know my sister is dying to have one, so maybe I will make the one she is wanting next ☮.
I called Hobby Lobby the other day and I'm going to take the 3rd and possibly the 2nd course in July...it will be a nice break during my clinical. So keep your eyes open for more posts soon....I promise I will get them up here whenever I finally find the time to make a cake.

Yay....I survived the Cake-a-thon!

Yes, it was 2 very long nights of cake baking...but I survived! Dusty came over to help out some, and I think he secretly enjoyed helping me make the cakes (shhh....don't tell him I let you know)! I ended up having a change of weekend plans, so not only did I finish decorating 3 cakes for the horseshow, but now I'm also going to help out the show too. Hopefully it will be fun, but if you know me at all then you probably know my intense hatred/fear of horses!

So the cakes.....First, we have a butter cake with chocolate buttercream icing and some of the accents are done using vanilla buttercream. I think it turned out pretty well....hopefully some kid at the cake walk will like it!

The next cake was a yellow cake with buttercream icing. I did it in about 15 minutes, so it isn't the best job...but turned out well enough I think. This was the last one I made, and after all those stars for the teddy bear cake my hand was cramping like crazy!The third cake I'm donating turned out very pretty. Its a devil's food cake with buttercream icing. I was practicing some of the leaves and vines we learned in the final week of class. I think it would be cute for a wine party.Luckily, I don't have to make any cakes that I know of this week. I need a short break before I have to smell any more buttercream! Hopefully, the cakes will go over well at the horse show. I'm about to pack up the car and head up to Blairsville...Yee Haw!

Its about to be a long night....

I'm supposed to make several cakes this week. I'm going to finish one that I started the other day that's covered in grapes and vines. I got the idea from my Wilton Course 1 book. I'm also going to try to do two other cakes to donate to a horse show that my DPT class is hosting this weekend in Blairsville since I won't be able to make it to the show and help. I'm thinking about doing a UGA cake and possibly a horse cake (not positive about this one yet). I might just do a teddy bear cake using my character pan that my mother got me several weeks ago....I just haven't had the chance to use it yet.

I'm also hoping to do a cake for my Maw-Maw's birthday this weekend. I think I'll either do a key lime cake I just got a recipe for or maybe just a simple chocolate cake. Not sure how I'm going to decorate it yet. She hasn't seen any of the pictures of my cakes since I started the class, and I know she is really interested to see how I am doing. She actually took the class years ago, but gave up because she says she wasn't any good at it.

So as you can see, its going to be a long two days of cake baking and decorating...I'll make sure to get the pictures posted ASAP.

Polka Dots and Coconut

I did these cakes after my 3rd cake of Wilton classes. The polka dot cake I did quickly at the end of class. I just wanted to do something fun and whimsical using bright colors. The cake is fudge marble cake with a hot fudge filling....it was so yummy! I did a shell border around the bottom and then piped large polka dots using the figure piping technique we learned in class. Its not the cleanest cake, but I still think it turned out pretty cute.

The second cake I did that week was for fun to give to someone. Its a coconut creme cake with a buttercream frosting, and then covered in coconut flakes. I used the swirl flower technique and once again did the shell border. I think it turned out very pretty. Sorry the contrast isn't great in the pictures between the light pink and the white.

Next week is the final week of class...we are supposed to learn the last part of the rose, stems/leaves, and sweetpeas. Not sure how great my roses will be, I'm having some problems with my icing due to all this humidity and rain. Its also a pretty big week with lots of things going on. I really wish I could sign up to do Course 3 next month, but since I'll be moving mid-month to do my clinical I'm going to have to wait. I think the Hobby Lobby where I'm moving is offering either Course 2 or 3 during July so I'll be able to take one of them then.

My First Cake and Blog

I wanted to start a blog to put pictures of my cakes on. I started taking a Wilton course at Michael's and I'm loving it.

My first week we just got information about the course, got our syllabus, and were told which supplies we would need. At the end of the class, the instructor walked us down the cake decorating aisle and gave us information about several of Wilton's great products.

The next week we had to have a cake prepared with the base layer of icing already on it. I went and bought all my supplies and attempted to bake a strawberry cake with a vanilla creme filling. I then iced it with a sky blue buttercream icing and I was all set for class. In class we learned several techniques including writing, star piping, etc. I just used the cake in the book to decorate this first cake, and my lovely friend Blair has volunteered to help "dispose" all of my cakes so her name was put on it.

I think it turned out pretty well for my very first cake. I need to work on the base layer of icing since there were a few wrinkles and crumbs. I did a star border and filled in the rainbow using the star technique also. It apparently didn't taste too bad either, as it was gone in no time once Blair put it in the break area at school.

I'll try to get the other cakes I've done since starting the course up here in the next few days. Hopefully you will enjoy them because I'm absolutely loving my new hobby!