it's a girl!

ok, nobody freak out...this cake was for a customer!

actually, this may be the cake order I have been most excited about so far.  I have been seeing these gender reveal baby shower cakes all over pinterest, etc, and I love the idea, but obviously had zero occasions to make one.  If you haven't heard of them yet, the basic idea is that when a pregnant mom finds out the gender of her baby, she "reveals" it to her family, friends, etc, by getting together and having a cake that is gender neutral on the outside, but then pink or blue on the inside to tell whether it is a boy or a girl. 

My hairstylist Mark's wife is pregnant, and they were going to have one of these parties for their family.  When Mark told me he wanted me to make the cake, my mind started racing with ideas.  And the best part was that he didn't even want to know the gender until the party, so not only was I one of the first ones to know, he pretty much let me run wild with picking flavors, etc - best kind of cake order there is.  I love the chance to get creative and come up with ideas that a customer might not even know to ask for.  The only real request he had was that I try to evoke the cake all the way to the right in the picture below, from the movie Meet Joe Black, for the outside design of the cake. 

The decorations were a bit of a challenge for me, but I ended up using gumpaste to make the colored balls that were inspired by the tiny fruits on the movie cake.  Then I added the question mark to continue the gender reveal theme, and just some basic buttercream borders to try to duplicate the feel of the movie cake. 

Finished cake

For the inside of the cake, I decided to try to make ombre pink layers (another pinterest idea, of course).  You can kind of see the ombre in the picture, but I think next time I would try to make the layers more distinguishable with more food coloring.  I was just afraid to have flourescent pink cake and pink cake-eaters' teeth, etc. 

I made a vanilla butter cake and then soaked it in a champagne simple syrup.  Then I used my strawberry pie filling recipe between the layers.  Last, I iced in a white chocolate Italian buttercream.  As usual, I tasted little bits of each component, but Mark told me the finished product was delicious and all the flavors blended well together.  Success!  All in all, I was super pleased with how this cake turned out, and soooo excited to be part of something so special for a family.

Also, a big thank you to Mark if he reads this - not only has he given me the chance to make a cake for him (after only seeing pictures of my work and never tasting it), he talks me up to his other clients and I have already gotten one cake order through him and another lady asked for my card when I dropped off his cake.  Thanks Mark for helping me spread the word!!

during the assembly process

Also this week I made a cupcake pull-apart cake for Trevor's big quarterly work meeting (at the beach this time), plus extra cupcakes.  The pull-apart was lemon cream cupcakes with strawberry pie filling (yes, this was extra from Mark's cake) and American buttercream (not my personal favorite, as you all know by now, but requested by the meeting organizer).  Then for the extra cupcakes I repeated the flavors of Aliana's birthday cake (the Tangled one I blogged about a few weeks ago) - chocolate cake with chocolate chocolate chip mousse filling and cream cheese icing.  It was a big hit at her party and some of the same people were going to be at the meeting. 

Lemon cream cupcakes with strawberry filling and American buttercream

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chocolate chip mousse filling and cream cheese icing

I also made red velvet whoopie pies for a co-worker's birthday.  Yes, I know we work in a bakery, but I just will never be able to resist baking treats as a birthday present.  It is just a foolproof way to make someone feel special on their birthday without having to know what to buy them as a gift.  Garth's favorite dessert is red velvet cake, but we sell red velvet cake, cupcakes, etc already, so I decided to switch it up a little and make red velvet whoopie pies with cream cheese icing.  And of course I brought extras for my other co-workers. 

Last but not least, even though I make about a hundred cakes a week at work, every once in a while I have to take a picture of one or two that I really like and want to remember.  I thought this tie-dye cake was really cool and such a breath of fresh air after all the roses, Disney princesses, and superheroes I look at all week.  I took the picture after I finished airbrushing it, but it also got turquoise peace signs and cream cheese borders later.  Such a cool technique, and I definitely wanted to remember it.