Samantha and Bart's Wedding Cake

In October 2013 our dear friends here in the Netherlands were getting married and asked me to make their wedding cake.

The bride choose colors of white and gold and I began to research how to use edible gold. A place in the UK sells gold both in transfer sheet and loose leaf form, so I decided to try both in 23 and 24 carat. After making the floral design based on the wedding invitations, I attempted to apply gold directly to smoothed chilled buttercream icing- and as a bonus this test cake was made up of 8 versions for the bride and groom to have a cake tasting.

The easiest version to work for me with was the 23ct 80x80 transfer sheets. Since the gold is affixed to paper, it is simple to trace the pattern onto the paper (use your pattern correct side up- the other side will go directly onto the cake), cut with scissors, and apply, soaking the paper side with either water or vodka (dries quicker) using a brush.  Leaving a small piece of paper that is bigger than the pattern for you to hold onto helps with removal of the paper. Maybe you are wondering if you can 'taste' or notice texture of the gold- definitely not. It is thinner than paper and has no flavor or texture, and as it is actual real gold, which is fairly inert, it passes right through the body. It is an edible additive, listed in the EU as an ingredient: E175.

For the first time I was creating a four-tiered cake, and using a brand new (a gift from the bride & groom!) 12" cake pan for the bottom layer. Of course I had to make a test cake of the bottom tier - and luckily my friend Viktorija's birthday at the end of September was perfect timing.

Above you can see the wedding invitation next to the test cake. Because this process results in some cracking of the gold on the buttercream, I piped white outlines on top of the gold, both for three dimensional effect and to disguise the cracks. Using a floral design works well for this because nature has irregular aspects, allowing the imperfections to contribute to the naturalness. 

The bride and groom choose the flavor of strawberries and cream over the other filling options: lemon cream, chocolate ganache, and vanilla buttercream. I used my basic buttercream for the icing on the outside of the cake, ensuring a smooth finish and worry free sitting at room temperature for hours before being served. Below: the bride, her cake, and me (even the wallpaper matched the theme!) 

The experience of creating a wedding cake for dear friends was both stressful and wonderful, and made me so happy to see their joyful faces and hear the compliments from the guests on the taste. Doing two different test cakes and cutting all the flowers ahead of time made it possible for me to create the (unstacked) wedding cake in one day. Preparation and my fabulous mother babysitting my children was the reason this could happen.

Thanks, Mom! You are the best!

Thanks to my husband for his photographs. We enjoyed every minute of this amazing event and I felt both fortunate and blessed to be a part of it. Samantha and Bart, we wish you all the best in marriage and life!

For more pictures from the wedding, Click here for the photographer's photos (The second photo is me adding the final borders to the cake and further down you see Dina helping with the rings.) 

Sugar cookies with a Ballerina Cake

A very sweet girl I know well turned three recently, and I made her a Ballerina Cake and cupcakes.

The cake was a three-layer chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache filling, decorated with white chocolate (colored pink), swiss buttercream, and a sugar cookie ballerina on the top.

Sugar cookies adorned the cupcakes, creating little ballerina costumes that tasted as good as they looked. The method I used included re-shaping an oval cookie-cutter so that I could create the toppers for the cupcakes:

 Then, I decorated the cookies using my basic buttercream frosting and candy pearls.

It seemed like a good idea to make a few crown shaped cookies as well (I purchased that cookie-cutter).

For the cupcakes, I used a petal tip (Wilton #104). Piping a blob in the center to begin, then doing three layers of petals:

 

 

I transported the cupcakes and cookies separately, then did the final assembly at the party.

My passion is creating unique desserts that taste as good as they look.

For the chocolate cake, I made a 6" round and two 8" round cakes, and torted them.

I filled the chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache, so it was almost like eating a truffle with every bite.

I frosted the cake with Swiss buttercream, and had previously made pink-colored white chocolate decorations in the shape of bows, dots, and zig-zags a few days in advance.

For the ballerina cookie(I made two, in case one broke!), I decorated it with buttercream icing and 'pearls' (that were actually white sprinkles painstakingly placed).

To assemble, I used a white lolipop stick and buttercream icing to secure the cookie to the top of the cake.

Overall, the cake and cupcakes were a hit. The best part was ballerina-loving Leticia's reaction to the cake and cupcakes. Happy Birthday, Leticia! My Dina is so blessed to have you as her friend.

4th of July American Flag Brownies

 My country's birthday is coming up shortly, and I was fortunate to celebrate over the weekend with other expats here in the Netherlands. Instead of a recipe, this is more of a method to achieve a gorgeous American Flag that you can serve at a 4th of July Barbecue. These brownies start from my modification of a brownie product found here, but you can begin with anything baked (brownies, cake, bar cookies, etc.) in a 9"x13" pan. First, place the already baked brownies in the freezer while preparing the fruit and the whipped cream. Pick through about 500 grams of strawberries (1 or 2 quarts), until you have berries about the same size, that are the prettiest of the bunch, stems removed. Pick through a small carton of blueberries until you have about 50. Rinse and pat the fruit dry and set it aside.

Place 250 ml of heavy cream (at least 30% fat content, so to my friends here in the Netherlands, that is slagroom, not lite, not kookcreme). Whip the cream on high with a wire-whisk until soft peaks form. Add about 2 Tablespoons of powdered sugar and continue to whip until stiff peaks form(the sugar gives the whipped cream some stability).

 Remove the brownies from the freezer and spread the whipped cream evenly over the entire pan. Place blueberries in upper left corner, side by side, approximately 6 rows and 8 columns(if your pan curves at the corners, it wont be perfect, but it doesn't matter.) Next, at the top, place a row of strawberries. Make sure you can put another row of strawberries level with the bottom of the blueberries, and also at the bottom of the pan. Fill-in the remaining rows (I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't get two rows in between where the blueberries end and the bottom. I think it would have looked nicer, but my berries were too big for that.) to create an American flag.

 

Bring your work of art to a BBQ and watch it disappear. Don't wait too long to serve it because the whipped cream will melt in the summer sunshine.

God Bless America!

 Happy 4th of July to everyone in the USA and to Americans all over the world.