Friday, November 28, 2014

Made the big YouTube step!!

Ok, so I've been procrastinating for a couple of months with my blog posts!!  Mostly cause I have wanted to focus on things that I am doing over here at Tasty-Cakes...not just type some stuff and add a bunch of links to things I like.

I've been wanting to get into the online tutorials that I see a lot of cake decorators doing...not that I'm this amazing teacher or that I've discovered some amazing new technique...but I've noticed on my Facebook groups that some people have been having trouble with making a GOOD icing / butter-cream that will firm up nicely and is also tasty.  I've also had a bunch of people on Facebook ask questions about what is called the "upside-down" icing method  and also how to use acrylic discs to get sharp corners on cakes.  So...I decided that I would attempt to video me making my old-standby buttercream - it's a "mock-meringue" style butter-cream developed by an awesome decorator/cake artist named Lauren Kitchens who is the owner of a Dallas based cake studio Fancy Cakes by Lauren.
I can't say enough about this icing...I simply love it!  I use it for fillings on my cakes and also my cupcakes and for crumb coating my cakes when ganache isn't wanted. So here is a link to the video that I made and posted to YouTube!  If you leave a comment please be gentle and remember it's my first video!!


Wednesday, June 25, 2014

How I fixed my LMF issues with the new Wilton

When I first started using fondant, I was like most decorators and used commercially made.  I was taught to cover cakes w/Satin Ice and I thought (as many new decorators do) that because Buddy Valastro loved it then I should use it an love it too!  Even the 2 bakeries I worked at used Satin Ice exclusively!

One day I was puttering around on my computer and found a Facebook posting about this awesome fondant  called - LMF - I was like "what the heck brand is that?"  After a bit of Googling I found out that LMF stood for Liz Marek Fondant! Liz Marek is the owner of the Artisan Cake Company in Beaverton, OR. In addition to being an AMAZING decorator with mad skills, she came up with a very economical and yummy fondant. (Liz's Fondant Recipe)

I started using LMF pretty much exclusively. Now if you are familiar with the recipe - or - if you clicked the link above, you will note that Liz uses good ol' Wilton brand fondant  in the recipe.  It's just what regular MMF needs for that little bit of stretch.  However, recently the brain-childs at Wilton decided to "reformulate" the Wilton brand fondant - boasting a more palatable taste and better consistency and better color (it's really a white fondant!).  While all of these statements are true - it is now reeking havoc for LMF users!  The taste and color is not the problem, it's the softer consistency of the fondant that is the issue.  I've made several batches of LMF with the new Wilton and ending up with a nice, tasty and WHITE fondant but a much softer fondant as well.  While not impossible to work with - if you knew what to expect from it - it was a little more difficult.Decorators on the many Facebook cake groups I am a part of were complaining about LMF tearing and stretching soo much.  I had to agree...the fondant would tear on cakes and took much longer to dry.

My solution to the new problems with the LMF came quite by accident! This past weekend I had several cakes to make and was making 2 batches of fondant.  I normally buy the Wilton in the larger 5# box so I had one silver package that I had opened a week or so earlier and made a batch with.  I took the half of the silver pack that I didn't use and wrapped it in saran wrap and left it in my pantry till this past weekend when I needed to use it.  I prepared the recipe as usual and noticed that I got a nice, firm fondant - practically identical to what I used to get with the old formula Wilton.  I then made a 2nd batch with a new fresh piece of fondant from an unopened foil pack.  The results were the softer fondant that everyone was hating!  I came to the conclusion that the little bit of air exposure from the fondant being open and just wrapped in saran wrap  for a week or so was just the right amount of drying that the fondant needed to get back to it's original consistency.

Open, saran wrapped Wilton (l) and unopened pack (r)
So if you are a frustrated LMF user, give this a try.  I plan on opening all my foil packs of Wilton and helping them "cure" to the correct consistency/texture from now on.  If this method works for you please let me know!!


Sunday, May 4, 2014

My new toy!

I've been seeing for a few months all of these awesome cakes on the Facebook group that I belong to for Texas Home Bakers by this really great cake designer who I believe is outside the Houston area.  Crisp clean and CUTE - she would have the cutest lettering on her cakes...I heard that she had a machine called the Cameo by Silhouette America.  Now us cakers have to be creative when it comes to designs and this machine is no different.  What is the Cameo?  It's an electronic cutting machine - kinda like the Cricut machine that you see in the craft stores.  Unlike the Cricut, the Cameo doesn't work with individual cartridges that are full of images.  With the Cameo I can use their editing software (free when you get the machine) and can design literally ANYTHING to be cut out.  Many people use it for scrapbooking and paper-crafting...but leave it to us crazy cakers to find a way to manipulate this machine to work for us!

There is an amazing sugar-artist by the name of Linda McClure who is from Louisiana who is the Silhouette Cameo Guru! some of her cakes (ok, all) are truly works of art - and all created using this amazing machine!
Her website is http://www.thebakerycottage.com/ She has developed and designed a way for us cakers to use the Cameo machine with very thin sheets of a special gum-paste.

Anyway, I kept hearing about this darned machine and dammit I wanted one!  I saw it in Michaels on sale for $279 (yeppers it's pricey) and then decided that I could find it cheaper - and I did.  I was able to win an auction on E-bay and got it for just under $220 (with shipping) - I also had to get a special blade that Linda McClure sells to cut through the sheets of gum paste...I grumbled at the cost of the blade, but after receiving the package that she sells that contains the blade, I was VERY glad that I bought it.

I was able to play with the machine for a little bit and then I finally had my opportunity to use it on a birthday cake the other week!  I didn't use gum paste, I used regular icing sheets!  I was thrilled at how well the machine worked!

Big Bang Theory - Bazinga  Cake!

I definitely cannot wait to use it  again!!  the ideas and designs are ENDLESS!!!



Wednesday, April 9, 2014

How it all started (part 2)

Before I moved to Texas, I started looking online for cake decorator jobs in the area I was moving to.  I looked on CraigsList and found a few listings and sent my information and got a response from a bakery in Lewisville.  I moved to Texas, closed on our house on December 17 and started working at Irene's Bakery  the week after Christmas.

While working at Irene's I learned a lot...but not necessarily about cake decorating...I was working there because a) I needed a job b) I wasn't ready to open my own place fully and c) It was a good experience of what to do and also what NOT to do.  I worked there for a few months when it started to become more of a conflict of interest because I was getting closer and closer to just going out on my own. So I decided that it was better for me to leave.

So here I am...working my business, trying to get orders.  I know it's going to be slow...but I'm positive that it's going to work.  I love what I do and I hope that shows through in my personality when I talk to customers and also in my work.

I'm strapped in...my tray-table is in it's upright and locked position and I'm ready for this wild ride!!

Monday, April 7, 2014

How it all started....(part one!!)

If you would have asked when I was 18 what I would be doing 21 years in the future, I highly doubt that starting my own cake decorating business would have come out of my mouth!  Even 10 years ago I would have never seen myself where I am today.  I won't lie and say that there isn't a little bit of fear in what I'm doing.  After-all, what sane person quits their job to start a new one? (your supposed to say "really successful people")

I never knew I loved cake decorating as much as I do.  There is just something about creating something from nothing that brings happiness, joy and smiles to people's faces...and having it taste good too.

Now I'm not saying I'm amazing at what I do...but I think my work is not shabby.  I started cake decorating purely by accident!  My mother-in-law (who is a wonderful woman) is a very craftsy person and we were talking about 12 or 13 years ago about how she wanted to learn how to pipe roses with a piping bag...the only thing is she didn't want to use icing.  She wanted to use spackle  a.k.a. joint compound.  She wanted to pipe them out, let them dry hard and paint them so she could use them to embellish things she made.  I thought it was a cool idea!  Since my MIL is a shy person, she wanted to take the Wilton classes at Michaels but didn't want to go by herself....so...I did what any good daughter-in-law would do.  I signed up and went with her.

I ended up taking all 3 of the Wilton classes and did pretty well at all of it...but that's where it mostly ended for me.  I did a cake for my father-in-laws 50th birhtday, a few birthday cakes for my kids and a few cakes for the karate school that my husband worked at but that was it.   Back when I took the classes no one ever really talked much about fancy wedding cakes or custom made cakes.  Even MY wedding cake was just whatever was included in the wedding package! - I've got a picture around somewhere - I'll dig it up.

Fast-forward a few years.  I was no longer living in New Jersey, we had recently moved to Michigan due to my husband's job (yep, you guessed it...automotive) and I was going stir crazy at home with 3 kids!  I applied for a job at the Kroger up the street from our house - they had a position open in the bakery department.  I kinda embellished my cake decorating skills at the interview and for some reason, they hired me.  I wasn't allowed to work on cakes, but I watched and picked up things quickly.  6 months into working there, I was finally allowed to work on cakes...not special order ones....but the quick - slap together ones for the cake cases (ya know, the crappy ones that ya run in and grab when you remember you forgot someone's birthday)  From there I honed my piping/border skills.  I had no trouble writing on cakes either.  I worked on icing cakes and getting them really nice & smooth....the next thing I knew it was 7 years later and I was STILL at Kroger, running the bakery department as Bakery Manager and getting beat up by management and upper-level management.  But I noticed something...I was doing fewer and fewer cakes.  The thing I started to really love was getting pushed further from my daily work.

I  was getting burnt out...I needed a change...I had thought about starting my own cake shop but wasn't sure what to do or how to do it.  I ended up quitting my job at Kroger after 7 ½ years.  I remember sitting at home the day after I quit and said "well Jessica, you HAVE to do something....I knew I loved cake decorating and baking, but my skills, for the type of customers I wanted to work with, were sorely lacking.  I needed practice but now that I was out of work I had no way to pay for any kind of classes.  I turned to the internet...to YouTube to be exact. I started watching videos on making fondant figures, fondant flowers etc...I practiced and practiced....and while my figures were FAR from perfect, they were a start.

My first fondant bear...definitely rough around the edges!
I worked on different types of figures, and also tried my hand at some gum-paste flowers.  I soon decided I needed to get some more experience - with the type of cakes that I felt that I wanted to make.  I made a PowerPoint portfolio of my work...it mostly consisted of cakes I made at Kroger and some of the cakes I made when I was in Culinary School in addition to the few fondant critters I made after I quit Kroger.  I sent emails to a few local bakeries and only heard back from one - Lisa's Confection Connection The shop owner, Lisa liked my work and I went in for an interview.  My PowerPoint must have spoke for itself as she didn't ask me to ice anything or decorate any cakes.  I worked for Lisa for about 4 months when my husband was offered a new job within his company - the only catch...it was out in Texas.