GARDEN-THEMED BIRTHDAY CAKE

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So I had all those posts planned in my head… Mother’s day (in March where I am based), Easter, etc. But now it’s been way after each of these events so I decided to forget about the plan and post everything backwards. Starting with my latest baking creation: a birthday cake for a keen gardener!

Me and my friend who ordered it didn’t want fondant so this made it a little more complicated but I am still happy with the result. Red velvet cake with cream cheese all the way (albeit painted green on the outside) and all edible decorations:

red velvet birthday cake

I loved making all the decorations but my favorite is the watering can. Too much cute, I think!

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BATTLE OF THE YEAR: BUTTERCREAM VS. CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

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Ever since I took that cupcake decorating course I wrote about a few weeks ago, one thought does not give me peace.Luckily I haven’t lost much sleep over it but it has kept me occupied during many times. And here it is…

Should you sacrifice flavor for looks and vice versa?

Let me explain: I personally do not like the taste of buttercream – I find it too sweet and too heavy. But it pipes so prettily! My absolute favorite (which comes down a treat with friends and family too) is cream cheese frosting. But I have so far not found a recipe which gives me the proper piping consistency for a (professional) nice finish. I am constantly on the lookout and keep experimenting but the fails prevail until now.

I honestly hope it is not just me who ends up with an extremely runny cream cheese frosting more times than willing to admit. Just last night I was trying out a new recipe I came across which promised nicely piped frosting. But I failed again – or my basic hand mixer which only has slow and fast let me down (I like to believe it is the latter otherwise I end up doubting if I am any good in the kitchen at all). As I write this, an emergency (recycled) cheesecake is in the oven – I didn’t have the heart to throw yet another bowl of runny icing, after my ridiculous cream cheese quest from the previous post, let alone all the nice ingredients which went is, as well as me spending plenty of time trying to make/fix it.

So I need my dear readers’ advice – pretty please, share it in the comments or write me an email. What would you do? Try out new cream cheese frosting recipes until you find a fool-proof one or settle for buttercream which isn’t tasty but looks good? Help!

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FINALLY A DECORATING COURSE

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So this week I finally did a celebration cake and a cupcake decorating class. While I am not 100% happy with the way the celebration cake came out (fondant can be tricky), my cupcakes turned out absolutely adorable, if I may say so. Without further explanations, here they are:

cupcakes decoration

My only concern is that the newly learned techniques might put a stop to my cream cheese frosting obsession, at least for a while. Buttercream is unfortunately the best for piping this way so this weekend I have had to switch already to buttercream.

Stay tuned for pictures of the 24 courgette and chocolate cupcakes I need to decorate tonight. Yes. On a Friday night. No. I am not crazy. K?

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