Happy Super Bowl Sunday

We are having a few friends over to watch the game.  A sporting event is always a reason for me to bake and practice my cake decorating skills.   This is my standard sugar cookie cake with Wilton buttercream icing.  I’m pretty darn proud of myself!

The fleur-de-lis was the most intimidating part.  But I think I did okay!

I’ve drawn a million horseshoes in my life, thanks to 4 years of being a Murrah Mustang Cheerleader! These didn’t scare me at all!

Of course, I’m rooting for the Saints!  Growing up in Mississippi, the Saints were our team too.  And they always were terrible but we’d watch them on Sunday’s anyway.  Between Archie Manning and Deuce McAllister, the love for the Saints has only grown in Mississippi over the years.  It’s amazing to finally see them have good seasons in a row and to finally be on the big stage at the BIG GAME!  Go Saints!

Pink Cupcakes -- Pink Cake

I try to bake for my coworkers birthday's. I think everyone needs a birthday cake and I like any excuse I can to bake. One of my coworker's birthday was this week so I asked him what kind of cake he wanted. After some prodding, he finally said a white cake with white icing. So I asked what his favorite color was (who wants a plain white cake???). He kept saying he didn't have one and finally said "Pink". "Really?" I asked.... "Really??".

Ask and you shall receive. Boxed white cake mix with Spreading Consistency Wilton Butter Cream Icing. I did half cupcakes to look like flowers...
And half as a cake... as girly as I could make it. (Hey, when you ask for pink, might as well go all out!)
I think he liked it! It definitely was delicious!

Happy Mardi Gras!

The past couple of years we have celebrated Mardi Gras Galveston Style with Suz and Brandon and various other friends. This year, we didn't make it down to the island so I decided to bring Mardi Gras to us as best as I could... Shrimp & Crawfish Gumbo and King Cake.

I am not posting a Gumbo recipe because I haven't gotten it just right.  I use my friend Margaret's mom's recipe and sometimes try to incorporate other recipes.  The roux is still my weakness I think, but with enough Tony's and other spices, its good enough to eat. 

And, my King Cake... Well as you can tell, I didn't really go for looks this year.  Its not ring shaped and I didn't make purple icing, just green and yellow.  Oh well, it still tastes good!   

Happy Mardi Gras!

Cake!

I have always loved cake. Wedding cake is my favorite. What I wouldn't do for a slice of White Wedding Cake from That Special Touch in Pearl, MS. They made my wedding cake and it was "to die for".

But, I have never been too good at decorating cakes. I figure I need to work on this before I start having kids so that I can make fantastic birthday cakes! I am sure I will never be on par with the professionals but one can always try.

I wrote about my Valentine's Day cookie cakes previously. During the NBA playoffs, when my Rockets were playing the yucky Utah Jazz, and the New Orleans Hornets were playing the yucky Dallas Mavericks, I made a cookie cake for work. We have quite the Houston/Dallas rivalry in the office, and one of our managers is from Utah. It was a fun week (Houston and New Orleans won that night, unfortunately the Rockets ultimately were knocked out, in the first round, again).

I thought I did a pretty good job on my cookie cake, but my decorating still has some work. I decided that my traditional icing, though it tastes fantastic, is just not the best for decorating. It's a little too thin.

My friends Erica and Kelly both shared this icing recipe with me so I decided to give it a try and made a cake last night. The cake was just Duncan Hines yellow cake. I baked the cake according to the package directions for two 8" round cakes. Layer cakes have never worked well for me, they always fall apart. I have always blamed the thin icing... but mmm, its so yummy.

After letting the cakes cool, I trimmed the tops to level them out. Then I applied a thin layer of icing to stack the layers and a thin layer on the whole cake to seal the crumbs. I put the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes while I cleaned the kitchen. Then I applied a second layer of white icing and got a pretty nice, even coat with very few crumbs.

I decided to be cute and do a little decoration. I have a mechanical pastry bag from Williams-Sonoma but I have not liked how it works with icing. The icing sort of seeps out inside the tube so I end up wasting a lot of good icing. I was watching Rachel Ray the other day and saw this cake baker making parchment icing bags, so I gave it a try using the tips from my mechanical pastry bag. It worked really well. Here's the finished product.

I haven't cut into it yet. I made it to bring to work but I left it on the counter. I guess Ryan and I will cut into it tonight and then I'll bring the rest to work tomorrow. The icing is not as yummy as my normal, but I think it will work. I think I'll try the Pure White Icing (stiffer consistency) next time.