This is a cake I did yesterday, sort of last minute. It's amazing how the month has just flown by! I knew I had to do this cake for about two weeks but it really just crept up on me so I decided to try something different to make it fit into my schedule. First off I used store bought frosting... I was nervous at first since I have never had much luck frosting a cake until Heather showed me how to do it properly, and most of that I contributed to the crumb coat and the type of frosting it was. But in this case I was doing a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting so I thought that even if I got a few crumbs it wouldn't be the end of the world. It actually worked rather well and i was able to get the cake quite smooth looking. The only problem occurred when I went to decorate it. Because the frosting does not harden it is much harder to pick up your design with a toothpick should it be less than desirable. I had to patch the cake a few times which was a nail biting experience. In the end the cake turned out great and everyone was happy.

Yesterday was Whitney's birthday and Mom and I took her up to the DC to go to the Spy Museum and lunch. We also happened upon a Bed bath and Beyond which was a pleasant distraction as well.

Yay for cupcakes! So, I really like the idea of a cupcake... it's your own little piece of cake. There's no end piece with too much frosting and you don't have to go through the hassle of actually cutting the cake. Also, I love that it has a wrapper; like it is a little present in and of itself. That said... have you ever had a batch of cupcakes where they all turned out perfectly? I haven't. Some have been great; perfect domes, standing straight, no crevasses on the top. But others, those lazy ones that decided it would be too much effort to rise above the paper or if they do rise they have poor posture, it's those that make cupcakes a hit or miss baking experience. Well enough about that. For my sister's birthday I decided to make her some cupcakes and use poured fondant. The actual making of the poured fondant was pretty easy and after I got the hang of how long to heat it before dipping it went rather quickly. Poured fondant is essentially sugar and light corn syrup. you heat it, let it cool, beat it, let it cool and then heat it again. If you want a really good tutorial click here. I think the project turned out well considering none of my tops were very smooth and the poured fondant is a rather thin layer of glaze... I dipped them a few times to get a more even coat and that seemed to help. I don't know a lot about the properties of sugar or anything, so maybe this is common knowledge but the biggest piece of advice I can give in this is when you are reheating your poured fondant, do not let it boil! You always want it to be opaque. If you boil it, it will not go back. (as far as I could tell at least) So I did the big cupcakes and I made flowers on the top of them, and then I did the mini cupcakes and wrote out the happy birthday message part. I also wrapped a ribbon around them to make them look prettier since I didn't use a decorative paper cup.