The difference a camera makes

I did an engagement cake this past weekend for a good friend of the family's and I had left over red velvet cake batter. So, I decided to make mini red velvet cupcakes for my coworkers. At work, we have a photo box to take pictures of our product and my boss graciously took pictures of my cupcakes. This picture is 5 million times better than what my little camera takes, so I just wanted to share it. I like how the cupcakes are reflected onto the plate! Tyler and I are looking at used professional cameras online, crossing my fingers that we can find one soon! Until next time, happy baking!

~Danielle

Hibiscus Cake

My little sister turned 21 last week and all she wanted from me was a cake with a hibiscus on it. So, I thought I would use her cake as an opportunity to practice my hand-painting techniques. Her cake was a 6" 4 layered cake (2 vanilla buttermilk, 2 red velvet) covered in white fondant.

I haven't learned how to do gumpaste flowers yet, so I couldn't make the hibiscus three-dimensional. Hopefully, I'll be able to take a class soon!

But, my best friend did give me a fondant/gumpaste tool set for my birthday that I wanted to use. I decided to make the petals come off the cake a little to give it a bit of dimension.


Then I hand-painted each hibiscus. Here is the finished look with red velvet cupcakes to match :)


Happy Birthday Jen!

I baked my own birthday cupcakes!

I know, I know... my friends said I shouldn't bake my own birthday cupcakes, but hey, I'll take any opportunity to decorate! I want people to look at my cupcakes and go "yea, that's Danielle." I love black and white... everything I own (journals, jewelry cases, filing folders and clothes) are black and white. So, I wanted my cupcakes to be black and white... and then I came across these really cute yellow polka dotted cupcake liners at the baking supply store... sigh. In the end, the cupcakes turned out to be yellow, white and black. :)

Enjoy! (I apologize for the bad picture quality)

I colored the fondant pale yellow and embossed the fondant with a Parisian wallpaper stamp

I colored the cream cheese frosting with yellow food coloring and used a very large piping tip to create the dollop look. I then used a gum paste flower cutter to cut out these cute flowers! Then I sprinkled yellow colored sugar and added some candy pearls.

This one is a little hard to see... I tried to get a good shot, but I couldn't. I created a happy birthday pattern by pressing a "happy birthday" stamp and a present stamp into the fondant. Then I added those cute little flowers again.

Finally, I cut out a little circle of black fondant and laid it in the middle of the cupcake. I used a piping bag and a decorative tip to create the peddles of the flower. I sprinkled some yellow colored sugar around the black circle of fondant.

Here are the four cupcakes side by side