Gluten and Dairy Free Success

Well I've been baking my little heart out lately, so I've been away from my computer and at my mixer and oven. Forgive me I have a lot of posts to catch up on.

This first one is cool because I ventured into the the gluten free and territory and one step further... dairy free! It was a success!

I was asked to make these cupcakes for an amazing kid who's conquered so much. He was diagnosed with Autism and God healed him. It's true. God healed him. He has great parents who prayed and prayed and prayed this kid through it. So to make cupcakes for his 7th bday bowling party, was an honor.

His parents are in the process of writing a book to tell the world of this hope. Click here to get more info.

Didn't know cupcakes could get so deep huh? Eh, that's how I roll, with faith and sprinkles ;)

Here is the delicious gluten and dairy free recipe.

It calls for almond flour instead of regular flour. That's just almonds blended down to flour texture. You could blend them yourself if you buy slivered almonds or buy some at Trader Joes. I love almonds! Almond milk is also a great dairy alternative. The taste is perfect and so is the texture!

Ballerinas and Balloons

My friend opened her own Ballet Studio and she celebrated the anniversary today! How did they want to celebrate? With cupcakes of course! The studio's name is Dance With Purpose. What's awesome about this studio is she really focuses on young girls dancing for God which is pretty cool. Ballet can be very competitive, we all saw how Black Swan turned out :/and she wants to keep it all in Jesus.

I loved making the cute tutu's with the top and itty bitty ballet slippers. The flavors we're chocolate chocolate, vanilla vanilla (I'm not too creative on these names for flavors), strawberries and cream. I should of done a close up on the fresh strawberries and cream swirl on the frosting, delish!

A few weeks ago a friend had a 1st B-day party with the theme of balloons. So we went for a simple cake with colorful balloons on top. The balloons we're definitely a hit with my kids.

The cake was chocolate with cookies and cream filling and swiss meringue buttercream.

The frosting was a swiss meringue buttercream. It is not as sweet as buttercream because you don't use powdered sugar. Here is the recipe from Annie's Eats.

Ingredients:

5 large egg whites

1 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar

Pinch of salt

1 lb. (4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

To make the frosting, combine the egg whites, sugar and salt in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Heat, whisking frequently, until the mixture reaches 160° F and the sugar has dissolved.

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form and the mixture has cooled to room temperature, about 8 minutes.

Reduce the speed to medium and add the butter, 2 tablespoons at a time, adding more once each addition has been incorporated. If the frosting looks soupy or curdled, continue to beat on medium-high speed until thick and smooth again, about 3-5 minutes more (don’t worry, it will come together!) Stir in the vanilla extract and mix just until incorporated. Tint with gel icing color as desired.

Keep buttercream at room temperature if using the same day, or transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze up to 1 month. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat with paddle attachment on low speed until smooth again, about 5 minutes.

Yield: about 5 cups

Butterfly Cake

It was a an honor to make a cake for my grandmother's memorial reception today. It's amazing what you learn about people at a memorial service. I had no idea she almost signed a record deal as Las Hermanas Islas, or she cooked gangsters dinner as she told them about Jesus. Pretty remarkable stuff. Life's a vapor, live it.

She loved the color purple and I wanted to make something pretty...

I saw these butterflies in a Wilton magazine and I thought I would try them out. Here's how to make them.

1. Make royal icing.

1 egg white

1 tsp of lemon juice

1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

Whip the egg white till foamy add the rest of ingredients and mix for a few minutes till it's shiny.

2. Spray foil with aerosol oil.

3. Pipe our your butterfly wings with a #2 tip. Let dry overnight.

4. Gently lift the wings off the foil. Pipe a thick line for the butterfly body and tilt the wing into the body. Let it rest on a cotton ball and dry for a few hours.

Tah-dah! Aren't they purdy? I love, love, love this cake. And the inside we gorgeous too. 3 layers of chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream. Needless to say there wasn't a slice left. That's a good sign to a baker :)

Chocolate Buttercream

This is one of my favorite frostings. It's your average buttercream but I add cocoa powder and it turns into this fluffy chocolate texture thats just lovely. My sister Beth runs the Homeless Ministry at our church and she asked me to bake up some cupcakes for the people she ministers to. Here's the recipe...

Chocolate Buttercream

frosts 12 cupcakes generously

1 stick butter room temperature

2 cups of powdered sugar

1/4 cup of cocoa powder

1 tsp of pure vanilla

Add milk a tablespoon at a time to avoid it getting too runny

A dash of salt

Whip that butter up add the ingredients. Whip it all together for a couple minutes for maximum fluffiness.

Let me tell ya about this Homeless Ministry, it's not just about getting people food, clothing and shelter (which we do) but it's really into building relationships with them and when they want to get off the streets my sister tries every way she can help them. She's really good with relationships. She's kept in touch with a homeless couple who was pregnant for years now. I remember her throwing them a baby shower. Now that couple has been in a home for years and go to church. God is so good!

Here are some other cupcakes I did this week. Sesame Street!

My friend's daughter turned 2 and she had a Sesame Street Party.

I tried to do most of the characters.

These came out so cute. They are super easy to decorate. Here's how you do it.

1. Rainbow Gumballs (2 bags). Use them for eyes and noses.

2. Oreos. Separate, cut in half for the mouths.

3. Wilton icing tip #233 for the fur.

4. For Cookie Monster cut large marshmallows in half for his eyes.

Doom Shoes!

Last Tuesday was a special birthday, my brother (in law) Robert turned 28! In fact Richard (my husband) and his brother are the same age for 1 month! Crazy, I know.

I wanted to make him a special cake. I was trying to figure what my brother likes and how I could make it a cake. I could do a drum because he's a drummer, pokemon because he has some funny stories about them, but then I then I began to remember he loves his shoes. I mean this guy takes care of his shoes.

So Richard and I remember him always talking about his MF Doom Shoes. I tried my best to mimic it. As you can see it came out a little stumpy, perhaps an elephant would wear it, but I think we can see the resemblance.

At the end of day I realized, cakes that resemble real things are still fun. He loved it!

60 Years and a CD Release

I got the privilege of doing a cake for an amazing person's 60th B-day. I see this woman in church helping her kids as they do ministry. Not only her kids but her grandkids and she has like 20! Anyways, her beautiful daughter decided to surprise her with this cake.

Her daughter found a picture on the internet and we just changed up the colors from gold to a FUN pink and black. Just because she's turning 60 doesn't mean she can't have fun colors!

I love the sparkles on this cake. I ended up having to make my own colored sprinkles, which I'll explain in another post :)

Here's a pic of my cake waiting for the table at Claim Jumpers, we were the first ones there!

Next baked good I got to do this week were these amazing cupcakes. My friend is releasing her new CD "Transformed" and she wanted some cupcakes there to celebrate with!

She loves the whimsical style and the colors green and pink.

Cuteness, I love the spirals!

Under Da Sea

Baby shower cakes seem to turn out so cute! This one had me singing in my head like I was apart of The Little Mermaid. I have tons of up close pics but for the life of me I don't know why I didn't get a pic of all three cakes!

It was an Under The Sea theme and I used graham cracker crumbs and raw sugar for the sand around the cake.

Mr Turtle! I used rock candy on a string for some coral.

Crabby McCrabbers.

The lettering is fondant cut in a circle dried a little to harden then pasted to a wire and put in the cake.

Octopus Guy.

Hootie the Blowfish.

The Sting Ray.

Now let's talk flavors. #1 Red Velvet with Cream Cheese. They order doubly filling!

Chocolate with Oreo Filling. Drool!

Vanilla cake with Buttercream and Strawberries.

And of course it wouldn't be a normal weekend with out at least one Hello Kitty Cake. I believe this is fifth one I've done. I mixed it up with the Polka Dots on the pink. This cake with Red Velvet and Funfetti for an 18th Bday.

Pink and Zebra

I finally got an order just for cupcakes! I got to spend some extra time and creativity with these beauties.

These we're made for a Bridal Shower with the theme Valentines Day.

Lovin' the zebra. I covered and filled the cupcakes with buttercream and then topped with fondant.

Speaking of black, pink and white, here is Hello Kitty #4 for a little girl named Alexa. Chocolate Tres Leche cake, yum, yum!

Piano Cake

Last Saturday was party central in my life! It started with a wedding ceremony. My friend who's been all over the world fell in love with a man in Israel. There wedding was so beautiful. Seeing a culture blend together. Then she quoted Ruth,

"Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried."

Recently I've been studying that culture back in the days and it's just amazing how much more the Bible opens with the scripture with just a little historical insight. Anyways, back to Saturday.

After that we went to my friends Marnie's baby shower. It was paaacked! That baby got blessed!

Then back home with only 30 minutes to finish the piano cake masterpiece for an amazing girl, Erica's 20th b-day bash.

My sister Leah who is like a super gifted talented painter took a brush to my fondant and used some food coloring to paint the scrollies.

A white, upright piano, just classy.

It's all red velvet and cream cheese frosting baby.

Umlauts and Airplanes

So excited to do a cake with umlauts! Umlauts, don't know what they are? Pronounced "Oom"+"lot," its the 2 dots over the "o" on the cake pictured above. This is one of the largest cake I've done and soooo cute for little baby Bjorn Stephen.

Bjorn mean Bear (cute!) so I did a cute airplane with a bear driving. Its made or rice krispie treats and fondant.

The stork is a logo from the invitation.

And cupcakes! I piped clouds and molded little planes,

I will do another post on the flavors and recipes of this cake, sooo good!