Summer Fun

Well, I figure I should update about my summer before the full swing of Fall activities begins! This was a very fun and crazy summer! Many beach trips and times with family filled my summer!

A few cakes were made and here they are!

We had a couple 4th of July parties to go to, so my daughter thought up this one. She really wanted to decorate a cake. We split it to take it to two different parties. It was yummy! All the decorating was done by my daughter. :0) 

Steel Magnolias Armadillo cake... yes, this is, red velvet cake and all. :-) One of my bestest friends wanted this cake for her 30th. So this what I made! I had to buy the flowers pre-made because I just did not have the time to make them from scratch! But I am happy with how it all came together!  (my new favorite!!)

The party spread. What a fun night with friends!! Peter made the best BBQ Chicken too!!  

 This cake was for a friend who's co worker likes eating PB&J at work. This was fun to make.  

This cake is for the Gamer in the family and his friend. :0) XBOX anyone? I had to make this one in record time because the party is at my house and I have to make lots of food and clean the place!! My first time using modeling chocolate that I made from mixing chocolate melts and corn syrup. A lot easier to mold and cover things than fondant!   

 

Looking forward to the change of season and all that goes with it. It will be a crazy Fall, but praying that I will be able to fit in a few more cake projects along the way. I start my International Cuisine class next week, so should have some yummy recipes and dishes to write about!!!

Violin Grad Party

I had the privilege to make a cake for a very talented Violinist. Her mom asked me to make a cake to look like a violin and cupcakes! This one was a lot of fun to make. I have taken violin lesson before and still have my violin. Someday I will make the time to learn to play again.

The stem of the violin was the most challenging, but it worked out using gum paste with lots of powdered sugar mixed in to make it harden quickly.

Here is the set up at the reception. 

Finally Updating!

Wow! Things really got busy and I just could not find the time to update my blog. Sorry!

I had a really great semester and finished out my classes last week! It feels good to get a break for the summer! Here are some pics from the last few weeks.....

Baby shower cake I made for one of my friends. The Noah's ark was a 3D replica of the baby shower invitation. 

 

This past week I got into fruit carving because I was in charge of the decoration for my Garde Manger final class, end of the year buffet. youtube is a wonderful source of ideas and a great teacher!!

My first melon carving. 

My second melon carving. 

And the items I carved for the buffet and the buffet set up at my school. :-) I helped with the ice sculpture, but it was a class effort! 

Melon Fish

Cold food table. 

 

Sea horse melon. 

Buffet. 

 

Cucumber leaves. These are so easy and fun and really can make a salad look good!

 

My favorite carving! Watermelon Discuss fish! I got this one off youtube. 

 

Seahorse ice sculpture! 

 

My fruit tray. Took me a couple hours to cut the fruit and assemble it all on the mirror! 

 

Fruit tray centerpiece. I got this idea off the internet. Lots of fun to put together and really easy!

 

Now that school is out for the semester I hope to make more specialty cakes and play around with new fruit carving ideas! 

I am so thankful to my husband and kids who are so patient with me as I try and finish up my Culinary degree! I am really enjoying all that I am learning and hope to make yummy new meals at home to show them it is worth it! :-) 

Cake Wars Cake making Birthday Party

My friend Johanna wanted a cake making party for her daughter's birthday. They searched everywhere for a bakery that would do such a thing. Well, they couldn't find any business that will do cake making parties. So she called me! I thought the idea was great! I gave Jo a list of things to have ready ahead of time and I brought my box of supplies!

(all these pics courtesy of Johanna!! Thanks Jo!)

The Birthday girl and Johanna.

 I had all the kids ice their cakes to get them ready to cover with fondant. I don't know if more icing was eaten or put on the cake. :-)

I made fondant with 2 bags of marshmallows, 8 cups of powdered sugar and about 1/4 cup of shortening (on my hands to work into the fondant) and had enough to cover six 8" x 1" cakes! 

 

I had everyone roll out their fondant (make sure there is ample sugar under the fondant so it doesn't stick to the table cover!) and then helped them cover their cakes.

With their smooth canvass ready to go they were ready to decorate!

 

I showed them how to make flowers out of fondant and and roses out of icing. 

 

They all did such a great job! It was loads of fun and quite messy!

The whole process took about 2 hours with 6 kids. A doable fun party idea if you have the supplies. If you want to do a party like this I would be happy to get a list of things needed together for you. I would even come to your house to make it happen! :-) This was a really awesome night! 

My friend Johanna's bog has more on the party. 

http://stopforflowers.blogspot.com/2012/02/helainas-bakeryhawaiian-birthday.html

Busy February!!

Hard to believe a whole month has gone by! A lot has been going on and I have just not found the time to update my site! My class is going well The last few weeks we have made some yummy items.

A Po'boy sandwhich. It is fried shrimp and oysters with a type of blue cheese dressing. I am not a fan of shell fish so I did not taste it. My class mates enjoyed it though!

 

A meat and cheese panini with a fig sauce. This was really really yummy!

 There were a lot of really yummy sandwiches this week! 

Yes, and week 4 in a row I got to make Mayonnaise. I am getting pretty good at it by now! :-)

Two weeks in a row I got the chance to fillet a salmon. I LOVE salmon! So anyway I can cook it or prepare it I am up for! These past few weeks we have been learning about curing and smoking fish. 

 

I got to taste this yummy fillet of salmon cured and cold smoked the next week. I  loved it!

 I made some turkey and stuffing for dinner that week as well... I really just wanted some homemade stuffing and I couldn't just eat it alone.... so I cooked a turkey, got some cranberry and made a really yummy meal. 

Since we were curing salmon and that takes days, we made some puff pastries and had those to present. These are made with cheese.

Then with basically the same recipe we made these ones for desert with a yummy cream strawberry sauce. They were really really good! 

The next week I got to make another salmon dish. This one was sooo sooo good! Coulibiac (koo' b ak)

 Rice, salmon, onion and mushrooms, and a fish stock veloute' sauce layered in a puff pastry. Yum!

 

I did say I wanted to make more cakes. So my friends Becky and Shantelle are both February birthday buddies. Two weeks apart in age. So I figured we could celebrate on the week between their birthdays... Maybe I should have put the S before the B.... lol.

Then I made cheesecakes for my brother and his girlfriend whose birthdays are the 27th and 28th!

February is a busy month!  

I also did a cake making birthday party for one of my friend's daughter. I don't have pics yet so that will have to be in my next post. :-) 

Cake anyone?