I’ve been swooning over shag cakes for years now, so when The Cake Blog asked me to do an autumn-inspired shag cake I was all about it! Heavily inspired by shag carpets of the 1970’s, the texture of this buttercream is unreal. It took everything in me not to run my hands through it after the cake was finished. Just look at it:
Read More
If you were offered a ticket to space, would you go? I totally would (even though I’d be terrified) because I have always been captivated by all things space. The planets, the stars, the crazy colors, the final frontier – it would all be worth floating around in a spaceship and eating weird food just so I could see it all up close! So far, the closest I can get is channeling my love for space into an out of this world Galaxy Cake:
Read More
I have a little confession to make: when I first started making cakes, my secret go-to for far too long was the box vanilla cake mix by Betty Crocker.
Phew. Now you know.
Since I became accustomed to the light and fluffy texture of said box mix, every time I tried to make a vanilla cake from scratch, the result seemed off. Blame it on the lack of Propylene Glycol Mono (or the handful of other ingredients in box mixes that you’ve never heard of), but my from-scratch vanilla cakes always ended up too dense, tasted a little cornbread-ish, and just didn’t have that fluffy appeal. Finding a go-to vanilla cake recipe from scratch felt like a mountain I had to climb, but after (what felt like) five hundred tries and a whole lot of not giving up, I’ve found a recipe that is beyond my wildest cake dreams.
Of all the beautiful foliage in the world, cactus is among my very favorite. I was so excited when The Cake Blog asked me to create this cactus cake and make all my desert-loving dreams come true! The buttercream ombrè sunrise, pretty piped cactus shapes, and edible (graham cracker) sand have me all heart eyed. Just look at how pretty!
Ever since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated with the ocean. I think this is solely because The Little Mermaid was my favorite movie growing up, and I’m still so smitten with colorful coral reefs and the sea life that surrounds them. So when I stumbled upon this Sea Life Gumpaste & Fondant Mold at my local JOANN store, I was so inspired to turn my love for ocean life into an under the sea themed cake! Just look at how magical:
Read More
Word on the street is it’s almost National S’mores Day (aka the best food-related holiday)! Since I’m a s’mores lover to the core, it honestly feels like every day could be National S’mores Day and I celebrate as often as I can. I love them so much that I whipped up this S’mores Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Buttercream last year, and this year I bring you the cupcake version. Behold!
Read More
A few months ago, I got a wonderful opportunity to design a cake for SugarBearHair Vitamins and I’ve been over the moon for their products ever since. I detailed how much I love their Hair Vitamins on this post, and was so excited when they asked to partner with me again for their newest release: SugarBear Sleep Vitamins! After trying them out for myself, I can honestly say these Sleep Vitamins are incredible. I’ll tell you all about them below, but first, behold this beautiful dream-inspired cake I made to celebrate these new SugarBears:
Read More
A few years back, the ultra-creative Alana Jones-Mann popularized the cactus cupcake trend and it was one of the earliest cupcake projects I tried. I’ve gotten to make the design for a handful of events, and they’re so much fun to create every time. So when I saw the gorgeous Cactus Flower sprinkle mix by SprinklePop, I instantly thought of re-creating the cactus cupcake design with a more sprinkly aesthetic. They added such a celebratory element to the look:
Ever since I picked up this set of Wilton Cake Combs from my local JOANN, I have been absolutely obsessed with making striped buttercream cakes. Before cake combs became part of my life, I was getting the striped buttercream look using piping bags, but my hands aren’t the steadiest so I’d always end up with stripes that were uneven and a bit wonky. Being the perfectionist I am, I’ve been loving how these cake combs do all the hard work of creating perfectly spaced stripes for me! And after a few rounds with them, I’ve learned all the secrets of ensuring flawless buttercream stripes, every time.
There’s a reason why the majority of my cake recipes call for cake flour instead of all-purpose (aka plain flour). The short answer is that cake flour is what makes my cakes ultra light and fluffy! Maybe it’s because I grew up on boxed cake mixes, but I’m always after that light, fluffy (yet moist) texture when crafting a cake recipe. I get tons of questions about whether or not it’s ok to substitute all-purpose flour and while it’s not something I recommend, there is a way to create homemade cake flour using all-purpose. I’ll show you how!
