Calais' Cakes

Sorry it's been awhile everyone! I am currently typing a paper and then studying for finals, all while doing the finish touches for my Christmas Wedding! So hectic! So, this may be my last post until January. Then, i promise i will pick it back up and post recipes and cakes photo's and "DIY's" :)
Hope all is well and hope you all have a VERY Merry Christmas!

This recipe is very yummy! My boyfriends family wants me to make it every year for Thanksgiving! I hope you all like it as much as they do. It is quick and easy to make and best of all it's NO BAKE! :)

You'll need:
4oz Philadelphia cream cheese package (softened)
1cup plus 1 tbs milk (divided)
1 tbs sugar
1 tub cool whip
1 Honey Maid pie crust
1 15oz can pumpkin
2 packages instant vanilla pudding (dried)
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Step 1) Mix cream cheese, 1tbs milk and the sugar in a large bowl until well blended. gently stir in half of the tub of whipped topping then spread all of this mixture onto the bottom of the crust.

Step 2) Pour 1 cup milk into a large bowl. Add pumpkin, dry pudding mixes, and spices. Beat with a wire whisk for about 2 minutes, or until well blended. Spread over cream cheese mixer. Let refrigerate for 4 hours.
** I suggest after adding the cream cheese to the crust putting it into the freezer until you are done with step 2 because it will get too soft otherwise.
*** when adding pumpkin mixture to cream cheese mixer start on the outside and work your way toward the middle. Use a spoon to do this. This way the cream cheese wont overflow over the edge of the crust.

These are perfect for Thanksgiving! If you love Pumpkin Pie but don't want to eat a big piece or you're watching your calories this holiday season, then this is PERFECT for you! This recipe makes 28 bars and each bar is 133 calories, 2 grams of fat and 17 carbs. Not as much as a slice of pie.

You'll need:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cloves
4 eggs, beaten
1 15oz can pumpkin
1 cup cooking oil

preheat oven to 350 degrees F
In a bowl stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and cloves. Stir in the eggs, pumpkin and oil until combined. spread batter into an ungreased pan. (size of pan varies depending how think you want them, but if you want to stick to the calories and fat content i mentioned above use a 15X10X1 in pan).
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. If you have a gas stove it'll will take about 5 to 10 minutes less but check with a tooth pick to make sure center is done. Let cool for 2 hours.

* I can't follow directions lol. I have to change it up! So, i'll add another 1/4 teaspoon cloves and another 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon for extra flavor. Spices don't have calories, so it's all good! ;)
**Also, if you want a richer flavor, add cream cheese icing after the bars have cooled!

Hope you love this Thanksgiving treat! Let me know what you think! ENJOY!!!!

For those of you who are thinking about taking up our whisk and baking up a storm, I say if you want to do it, go for it! Some of you may be thinking, 'I don't have time to take classes.' Well, i didn't have time for classes either, so i didn't take any. I think that you never know what your capable of unless you try. If you think 'I can't' then you wont. Plus, making cakes is something that takes practice. It is a learning experience. My first cake that i made was for my mother-in-law and OMG! I messed up the fondant BIG TIME! You can't tell in the picture i posted but i had to add an extra piece of fondant to it because i made a hole in it! I cried! I told my boyfriend that his mom was going to hate my cake because it looked like crap, but he said it looked really good. Then again, that was the only answer he could give me because the negative one would've made me mad at him LOL My point is, as time goes on and you work with it and try new things and new ways of doing things you'll get better :) It is very frustrating at times but well worth it! I think that if you work hard at something, you appreciate it more. So, don't give up. Hang in there! Get your Kitchen Aid mixer, or whisk, and go for it! ;)

For those of you who love my work and would like to place an order or contact me about one, I have now added an e-mail box to the bottom of my blog! :)
Hope to hear from you soon!!!!

Now that i have decided what I want to do for a living, the hard part is find a job at a wedding cake bakery! I have been e-mailing various wedding cake decorators asking if they hire interns. Hey, it's worth a shot right? I just want to be able to gain experience before i go on my own. If you  know of any places hiring in the Oklahoma area, and wouldn't mind passing on that info, that would be AWESOME!

So many of you may be wondering how to paint on cakes. A helpful hint: add a small amount (a couple drops) of lemon juice to your food coloring. The lemon Juice is very acidic and will evaporate leaving the color vibrant on the cake when it dries :) I love to add a little edible glitter to the mix to make it more metallic.

I get so excited when I get to make a cake but then I grow very impatient baking them! I wish i could just skip right to the decorating part of it all. After all, that is the most fun! My favorite part of making this cake was the Juicy Couture purse. It was the more difficult part because it took me six hours to make but it was well worth it in the end. I made it with Rice Cripies, fondant and butter cream icing. The zebra stripes were a little hard to make because the stripes didn't want to stick to the fondant. If you want to make zebra print fondant, I recommend cutting 1/4 lbs  fondant , dying it black and then cutting it into stripes ( I used 1 lbs white fondant and 1/4 black to cover the base of the cake). In order for them to stick i would dab a little water before rolling them out onto the remaining white fondant OR make sure your fondant is still moist and not turning hard. * Generously use Crisco to keep the fondant moist, too much and the stripes wont stick well. If the stripes do come up of the fondant, make a batch of black icing and apply it under the stripe and hold down a few seconds. If you have any questions about how to make any aspect of this cake or the others I've posted comment below :)

Today I became an English major! I feel as if a weight has been lifted and I have finally found my way in life. Okay maybe not my exact path but I'm heading in the right direction. I'm just taking a leap of faith and hoping for the best. After i graduate college, I want to work for a bakery and learn the "tricks of the the trade." Then, maybe one day, open my own specialty cake shop. I didn't always have this dream. I didn't make my first cake until this last summer; June 2010. You know that "ah ha!" moment you get when everything in the world finally makes sense? That was the day i realized making cakes was something i should do. Thanks to the support of my fiance and both our families, I am blessed with such a great support system and am able to follow this career path.

After talking with my mother and my future mother-in-law, I have decided to look into graduating college early by switching my major from Secondary Education-English to, simply, English. I want to get my degree and be done. I have decided to follow my heart and try to start my own cake business. Making cakes helps me relieve stress and chill out. It is the only thing I'm patient with. I always take risks and will do anything to follow my dreams. I'm sure because of that i about give my family members heart attacks at times. At least i keep them on their toes, right? My Motto is: "You only live once, so make the best of it. Have a happy and joyful life." Don't be afraid to throw caution to the wind sometimes. You never know, you just may surprise even yourself with the things you can accomplish ;)

I made this cake for a Halloween party at church. everything is edible; except the candles and a few bugs but most are gummies. The dirt is brown sugar, chocolate cake and coco powder mixed. The head and gravestone are made of rice crispies,vanilla chocolate and fondant. The blood is pipping gel tinted with Americolor red food coloring; I highly encourage the use of pipping gel for blood, rivers and anything of the sort. It makes it seem more realistic in my opinion, and fun! I bought an airbrush set from Amazon.com and it is amazing! I highly recommend buying one if you do a lot of cakes. It saves a lot of time and makes the cake look smooth without having to get dye all over the place. I used it on the fondant of the body and the sheet cake underneath (the grass part). Also, If you do buy one i suggest watering down the airbrush colors more because they did clog my airbrush. At Hobby Lobby, at least where I live, they do not sell this type of Americolor dye. They do sell Americolor soft gels but it isn't for airbrushes. The Americolor airbrush paint can be bought on Amazon and is fairly cheap. If you buy an airbrush set on Amazon most come with a set of four airbrush colors: green, blue, red, and brown. They are wonderful and i highly recommend them! However, if you do buy the soft gels, mix a couple drops with a few tea spoons of Lemon juice and it is a wonderful cake paint- NOT for your airbrush, it will clog it! I used it on the cake: Flowers, Pearls and Swirls.

This cake is a Lemon cake with Lemon Curd filling. I made it for my grandma's birthday this weekend. The Lemon curd filling is easy to make and only takes about 5 to 6 minutes:
1 cup sugar
2 tbs cornstarch
3 tps finely shredded Lemon peel
6 tbs Lemon Juice
6 tbs water
6 egg yolks, beaten
1/2 cup butter, cut up

Step 1) In a sauce pan stir sugar and cornstarch together, then add Lemon peel, Lemon juice and water. cook on medium heat until thick and bubbly.
Step 2) Stir half the Lemon mixture into the egg yolks, then after it is mixed, put it back in the sauce pan with the remaining Lemon mixture. Cook until lightly boiled. Remove from the stove and put cut up butter into the sauce pan. Then stir with heat on low until melted. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

Hope you like it! :)

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