Calculator Cake

Here is a calculator cake I decorated. I was debating decorating it as a fancy TI-84 plus calculator or even as the TI-Nspire calculator, but I decided against it. Both of these calculators have over forty buttons, each different shapes and colors. They also have a lot of tiny writing on them - on their buttons and above the buttons for second and alphabet options. They both sounded a bit complicated to do on a small cake with limited resources, and also if you choose to imitate a well-known calculator, it is important to get every single detail accurate. So I decided just to make a simple calculator cake, not copying any specific design or model, just having a basic picture in my head, and adapting it to fit the amount of space I had left on the cake. At the top I have a large display screen, currently showing the number 123456. Below that, I have a row of buttons as follows: clear, brackets, square route, x squared, and on. I have the ten numbers in the middle, along with a decimal button. At the bottom, I have multiplication, division, subtraction, and addition buttons. On the right, I have a large equal button. 
To decorate this cake, I simply used a 9x13 inch quick chocolate cake covered in my signature vanilla buttercream icing. I added a simple star border using chocolate fudge frosting all along the edge of the cake on the top and on the bottom. Then I partitioned the buttons with more piped stars as I pleased. I wrote on the bottoms by piping purple buttercream icing. It was a pretty simple and fast cake to make, it just required the use of a lot of square and rectangle shapes. And of course, the classic combination of a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and chocolate piping is always a hit.

Black Bottom Slice

I had a yearning to make chocolate squares, so I looked in the Company's Coming "150 Delicious Squares" cookbook, which was sure to have something. I have already made the majority of the squares in that book, especially the chocolate ones, but I managed to find one recipe I had never made before. It is called Black Bottom Slice. It begins with a chocolate shortbread crust, a coconut filling, and a chocolate icing. Sounded simple and quick enough, so I whipped up a batch. The squares do not take long to cool, and I was able to frost them within an hour after they came out of the oven. I put them in the refrigerator overnight to set, and easily cut them the next morning. I do not recommend storing them in the fridge though, they get a little hard, and are better at room temperature. They have a nice chocolate flavor, and a lovely layer of coconut. Even if you are not a coconut fan, you will probably enjoy these squares.

Black Bottom Slice
CRUST
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup cold butter or hard margarine, cut into small pieces
FILLING
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup shredded coconut
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
ICING
1 1/4 cups icing (confectioner's) sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 Tablespoons butter or hard margarine, melted
5 teaspoons hot coffee

Preheat oven to 350◦F. Line an 8x8 or 9x9 inch pan with parchment paper, if desired, but do not grease the pan.
CRUST: In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and crumble together. Press firmly into prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes.
FILLING: In a medium bowl, beat the eggs until frothy. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour over hot crust. Bake 30 minutes. Cool.
ICING: In a small bowl, beat all ingredients together. Spread over cooled squares.

Paré, Jean. "Black Bottom Slice." Recipe. 150 Delicious Squares, Edmonton Alberta: Company's Coming Publishing Limited, 1981. 51.

Mother's Day Cake

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there! I hope you are having a great day! Here is the cake I made for my mom. Luckily, we are actually having some nice weather for Mother's Day, which unfortunately means it is not great conditions for decorating with buttercream icing. Oh well, I think most of my piping still turned out ok. This cake idea came from my Cake Boss book "Baking With The Cake Boss" which shows step-by-step instructions of how to replicate some of his amazing signature cakes. I chose the design for a girl's birthday cake, but instead of writing Happy Birthday, I wrote Happy Mother's Day of course. I started with my white cake layers from yesterday, and sandwiched them together with my usual chocolate fudge filling. Then I iced them with my signature vanilla buttercream. I put a simple double-shell border around the bottom, and a reverse shell border on the top, both with white buttercream. I added some pink dots to the top border. Then I piped a ruffle swag around the side of the cake, with small white stars at the tops. I piped a small pink squiggle border around the inside top of the cake, and wrote Happy Mother's Day! I added some buttercream roses (I still need practice on those), and completed them with some green leaves (although they aren't really leaves, since I don't have a proper leaf tip). It certainly doesn't look quite as polished and professional as the Cake Boss version, but my mother said it was beautiful!

April Fools!

To celebrate April Fools' Day today, I made nachos! These aren't just any nachos though, they are dessert nachos! I made a very simple batch of cookie dough, using just butter, brown sugar, honey, and all-purpose flour. Then I spread the dough out thinly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I baked it at 350◦F for 8 minutes, just until the cookies were golden and set. When cool, I cut them into triangles and other irregular-shaped "nachos". I spread the nachos out on a plate and drizzled them with green icing. Then I sprinkled them with toasted coconut (grated cheese), and red and green candy-coated chocolates for chopped red and green peppers (or green peppers and tomato). This might have looked more realistic if the candies were more square-shaped then round, but oh well. I don't think anyone was really fooled anyway, although the nachos did look cute. Happy April Fools' Day!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Swirls

Here are some more cupcakes I made for the birthdays of two aquatints. I made twenty chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing, and a friend of mine made twenty vanilla cupcakes wit chocolate icing. We shared the forty cupcakes in celebration of the birthdays. These are the cupcakes I made. I simple whipped up some chocolate cake batter and made my signature vanilla buttercream. Then I used an open star tip to pipe overlapping, circular swirls around the cupcakes, piling the icing on higher towards the center, and finishing off with a peak. As you can see, twenty cupcakes fit perfectly in my container. Had I needed to make one more, I would have had to use another container! Surprisingly the container held the cupcakes just right - the icing did not become squished on any sides, and the cover was just high enough so that the peaks of the cupcakes did not squish. The black and white patterned wrappers go perfectly with the black bottoms and white tops of these cupcakes, and the white bottoms and black tops of the other cupcakes. Simple and classy was the aim here, no sprinkles, bright colors, or other adornments. Just sweet and simple.

Halloween Cupcakes

Today I whipped up a batch of Halloween Cupcakes. I used a basic white cake recipe and a simple icing. I made some mummies, by piping long strips with my basketweave tip; some eyeballs, by drawing an eye and piping red squigglys, and some simple "BOOs". They were quite fun and quick to make. Here I have them displayed on my cupcake rack with a jack-o-lantern puppet and a skeleton toy on a Halloween tablecloth. Halloween is just around the corner!

Dad's Birthday Cake

Today was my father's birthday, so naturally, I made him a cake. This was by far the fastest I have ever decorated a cake. I didn't have much time to spare, so I did some simple decorations and stuck a toy motorcycle on top (which represents an inside joke within the family). I completed this cake in just over a half hour, using only one piping tip, and minimal other dishes and ingredients. The result: a delicious, simple cake that made my father smile.
The cake was an eight inch round chocolate with an 8x8 inch square vanilla on top, sandwiched and iced with a yummy chocolate icing. Happy Birthday Dad!