Red and Black Rose Cake

One of my classmates asked me to provide a cake for his party – and he requested it to be very dramatic! He wanted a two-tiered red and black rose cake. I’ve never created black roses before, so this was something I was excited about.

For the flavour, he wanted it to be gluten free (and peanut free!) red velvet, which I’ve also never done before. I’ve made vanilla and chocolate gluten free cakes/cupcakes, but never red velvet. This was a challenge, but I was really excited to be doing it!

Creating red buttercream is always a difficult process. Since you are starting with white buttercream, adding red food colouring will just make it pink. The more you add, the more pink it gets. I’ve come to the realization that you need to let the buttercream sit, because overtime it will darken. Normally, I just use Wilton’s Red Food Colouring, but this time I used that in combination with Loretta Red Food Colouring. Yesterday, I made the red buttercream a couple hours in advance and it darkened up to a nice dark red.

The best way to achieve black buttercream is to make chocolate buttercream (with cocoa powder) and then add black food colouring.

Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 1¼ cup granulated sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp xanthan gum
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1½ cups gluten free rice flour
• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of red food colouring

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease an 8″ round cake pan with non-stick cooking spray
2. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
3. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together milk, vegetable oil and eggs. Add vanilla, vinegar and red food colouring.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix until combined.
5. Pour cake batter into the cake pan and bake for 40-44 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

*I baked two 8″ cakes, so I had two thick layers of cake, for the bottom tier.
*I used this exact recipe to make my second tier by filling two 6″ cake pans.

Red Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted icing sugar
• Red food colouring

Directions:

1. In large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.
2. Gradually add icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Add cocoa powder. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. Add the desired amount of red food colouring to your icing until you reach the colour you like.

Black Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 2 cups sifted icing sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• Wilton’s black food colouring

Directions:

1. In large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.
2. Gradually add icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Add cocoa powder. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. Add the desired amount of black food colouring until you reach the colour you like.

Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies 🌷

There is nothing better than finding a really good sugar cookie recipe, baking those suckers and decorating them as if you’re Martha Stewart. Okay, well not really Martha because she would do so much better… but a girl can dream okay!

This recipe makes 3-4 dozen sugar cookies, so perfect for giving some to your bae while you still have enough for yourself ;). Last year, I made very similar Valentine’s Day cookies but with a different recipe. That recipe was a lot more chewier, while this year’s recipe is more cookie-like with a bit of a crunch to them. Using powdered sugar rather than granulated sugar gives it more of a harder bite to them. Both delicious, and both smell delicious while cooking. Seriously, is there anything better than the smell of a freshly baked sugar cookie?

The royal icing recipe is a classic, only requiring two ingredients. Super easy. And it’s actually a Martha Stewart recipe, so I’m somewhat like her okay!!!

(Again… not really.)

The perfect thing about the royal icing recipe is it makes a lot, so you can split it up into however many bowls you’d like and dye them different colours. If you’re looking for a more thicker consistency, use less water. If you want your icing to bleed into one another, use more water to give it a thinner consistency.

So come on, give these cookies a try! If you try them out be sure to tag me on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #CrumbsandTeaEats. And follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook! Let’s chat!

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1½ cup sifted powdered sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1½ teaspoon vanilla
• 2½ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. With a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together powdered sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
4. Sift together flour, baking soda and cream of tartar and add to sugar mixture. Mix until well combined.
5. Divide dough into two disc shapes, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Roll out dough to ⅛ to ¼ inch thick and cut into cookie shapes. Place on lightly greased or silpat covered cookie sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes.
6. Remove and cool on cookie sheet. Frost with royal icing.

***This dough can be made ahead and refrigerated up to 3 days.

Royal Icing Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of powdered sugar
• 5 tablespoons meringue powder, or 2 large egg whites

Directions:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine sugar and meringue powder (or egg whites if you are using those).
2. Mixing on low speed, add a scant 1/2 cup water.
3. For a thinner consistency, usually used for flooding, add more water. If a thicker consistency is desired, specifically for outlining or adding details, use less water.
4. Mix until icing holds a ribbon-like trail on the surface of the mixture for 5 seconds when you raise the paddle.

Recipes retrieved from Foodie Crush and Martha Stewart.

The “Blues” Cupcakes

 

Cupcakes, cupcakes and more cupcakes!

I had an order last week of 60 chocolate cupcakes with blue buttercream for a 50th birthday. These were so easy to make, yet super fun! You gotta love a simple, delicious cupcake.

There are some exciting posts coming up. I have two Valentine’s Day orders this weekend… one being cookies, and the other being cupcakes. I also have a Valentine’s Day themed cake which I am super thrilled to make, so look forward to that!

Next week, I’ve got a two-tiered ombre rose cake, and the week after I’ve got a fondant cake order along with 75 buttercream themed cupcakes. Whew!

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Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Line a second pan with 2 liners – this recipe makes about 14 cupcakes. Set aside.
2. Whisk the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil, and vanilla together until completely smooth. Pour half of the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Then half of the buttermilk. Gently whisk – about 5 stirs. Repeat with the remaining wet ingredients and buttermilk. Stir until just combined; do not overmix.
4. Pour/spoon the batter into the liners – fill only halfway to avoid spilling over the sides. Bake in batches for 18-21 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons of milk

Directions:

1. In large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.
2. Gradually add icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry.
3. Gradually add milk; beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

 

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70th Birthday Cake

My uncle John celebrated his 70th birthday this past week, meaning I was in charge of making him is favourite kind of cake: lemon.

Now I don’t know about most people, but typically vanilla or chocolate is the go-to cake flavour, and not so much lemon. My family doesn’t typically enjoy the taste of lemon cake – I mean they’ll eat it because its cake (hehe), especially when its covered in buttercream to help cancel out that lemon taste in your mouth, but it’s definitely not their favourite.

But it doesn’t matter what the majority of people like in my family, it was John’s birthday and he wanted lemon! So there!

I knew I wanted to spice it up (not actually add spice… because ew) but I wanted to add a little extra flavour in the cake to make it more delicious. I decided to make a raspberry filling, that I would layer in-between the layers along with my vanilla buttercream.

 

Lemon Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (250 mL) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups (500 mL) granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) grated lemon zest
• 2 tsp (10 mL) vanilla
• 3 cups (750 mL) all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) baking powder
• 1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
• 1-2/3 cups (400 mL) milk
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) lemon juice

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time; beat in lemon zest and vanilla.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir into butter mixture alternately with milk, making 3 additions of flour mixture and 2 of milk.
3. Gently fold in lemon juice to make curdled-looking batter.
4. Divide between 2 greased and parchment paper–lined 9-inch (1.5 L) round cake pans.
5. Bake in 350ºF (180ºC) oven until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.
6. Let cool in pans on rack for 10 minutes; transfer to rack and let cool completely.

Raspberry Filling

Ingredients:

• 1 package (16oz) of frozen raspberries
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions:

1. Drain raspberries, reserving liquid.
2. Add enough water to liquid to equal 1 1/4 cups.
3. In large saucepan, combine liquid, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice; mix well.
4. Heat and stir until mixture boils and thickens. Cool completely.
5. Stir thawed raspberries into cooled mixture.

Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons of milk

Directions:

1. In large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.
2. Gradually add icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry.
3. Gradually add milk; beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

If you want to follow exactly the way I made this cake, here are the steps listed below:

1. I sliced my two cakes in half, leaving me with 4 layers.
2. I placed my first cake layer on the cake board, and added a layer of my vanilla buttercream, followed with a thin layer of the raspberry filling (you don’t want to add a thick layer of the raspberry filling, because remember by the end you will have 3 layers of the raspberry filling, so you don’t want it to be over-powering because it is quite sweet tasting).
3. Next, I added another cake layer and repeated the same steps, until I used up all my cake layers.
4. Once all my cake layers were stacked, with the two fillings in-between, I added a crumb coat** of buttercream around the outside.
5. I placed it in the freezer for 20 minutes to allow it to harden really well. Typically, I will set it in the freezer for 10 minutes (doesn’t need to be too long) but because there was raspberry filling coming out the sides when I did the crumb coat, I wanted to make sure the raspberry filling was locked in tight. You want to avoid any raspberry poking through your final layer of buttercream (unless you want to achieve that look! It would be very pretty, but considering this cake was for a man… I decided pink was not his colour, hehe).

** A crumb coat is a thin layer of buttercream around the outside of the cake, to lock in any crumbs so they don’t get into your final layer of buttercream.

Lastly, I cut out a 7 and a 0 and placed them on top of the cake, to allow me to sprinkle around the numbers leaving the numbers clean and white when I removed the stencil. Buttercream can start to stiff up relatively quickly, so you want to move fast after you buttercream the top of the cake.

 

 

Dark Chocolate Brownies with White Chocolate and Sea Salt

Anything dark chocolate… anything white chocolate and anything with sea salt is a recipe that you know is going to be delicious. These are so moist, so chocolatey, so delicious.

The chunks of white chocolate really help break up the rich tasting brownie, especially with the added touch of sea salt on top. It isn’t overly salty, but that hint of salt really adds to the flavour.

Brownies in general are so delicious, but when you add that pop of colour (from the white chocolate) and give it that salty and sweet flavor (with the sea salt) you really start to step up your brownie game. They look especially lovely when you cut them into nice even squares and set them out for your guests to try.

At first when I photographed these bars, I didn’t add any white chocolate drizzle on top. I was making these for my friend’s Christmas party, and right before she came to pick them up, I realized there was something missing. I decided to melt some white chocolate, put it in a plastic bag, and drizzle it all over the bars to really give them something extra. So as you will see when you view the photos down below, the last few have the drizzled white chocolate on them. They taste just as delicious with or without the white chocolate on top!

Next time you decide to make yourself some brownies, give these a try – I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Ingredients:

• 350g butter
• 350g 70% dark chocolate, cut into chunks
• 6 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 1 2/3 cups plain flour
• 1 cup dark Dutch cocoa powder
• 1 cup roughly chopped white chocolate

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. Melt dark chocolate and butter together in the microwave at a low heat. Heat in bursts of 30 seconds, stirring in-between until smooth and melted.
3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with caster sugar until pale and creamy.
4. Stir in chocolate mixture. Sift flour and cocoa into mix, and stir to combine.
5. Mix in chopped white chocolate and pour into a 31cmx 22cm deep baking tin (or equivalent sized) lined with baking paper.
6. Sprinkle with about 1/2 tsp flaky sea salt and bake for 40 – 45 minutes until cooked through.
7. Let cool before you cut into squares.

Adapted from: From The Kitchen

Fox Cupcakes

I made these adorable little fox cupcakes for a baby shower. I made 40 of these chocolate cupcakes, and made buttercream to decorate each one. I separated the buttercream into 3 bowls: one white, one copper coloured (I used Wilton’s Copper Food Colouring) and one black coloured.

I first piped on the copper icing for the base of the fox face. I used tip 5, to pipe white area around the face, and then used a spatula to smooth out the buttercream. I also used tip 5 to pipe the black icing for the nose and eyes. I then used tip 352 to pipe the copper icing for the pull-out leaf ears.

I also made a cake to match with these cupcakes, but I will post that tomorrow. Hope you guys enjoy!

90th Birthday Flower Cake!

One of my best friend’s Grandma’s just turned 90, and for her celebration they wanted me to make a cake that would involve flowers! So this is what I came up with.

This cake is very simple, just a 2 layer vanilla (gluten free!) cake with vanilla buttercream, garnished with buttercream flowers and leaves.

This weekend I have a baby shower order to complete (40 cupcakes + a cake) which I am SUPER excited about! And I also have a 50th anniversary cake I have to do for Friday. So stay tuned! xx

Strawberries and Cream Cake

My friend at work requested this strawberries and cream cake for his mom, which I was super excited to do because I love making cakes with strawberries on top. I think it’s the most beautiful little touch (especially when you cover them in chocolate!) But for this cake, no chocolate was involved.

I made four layers of vanilla cake, and in between each layer is a layer of strawberry jam, a layer of sliced strawberries and a layer of whipped cream filling.

So I placed one layer of vanilla cake on the bottom, a layer of strawberry jam (I used Smuckers!), a layer of thinly sliced strawberries (1/4 inch or so) and then a layer of whipped cream filling (recipe down below). Then I placed the second layer of cake on top, and repeated the layers until all four layers of cake were stacked.

For decoration, I just made vanilla buttercream and dyed it pink. I piped dollops on top and placed strawberries on each dollop. I then trimmed the top and the bottom with little dots of buttercream.

Whipped Cream Filling

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 cup granulated sugar
2. 1 tablespoon cornstarch
3. 2 cups heavy cream, divided
4. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together in a small saucepan and slowly whisk in 1/2 cup of the cream. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens.
2. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let it cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, whip the remaining 1 1/2 cups cream and the vanilla extract together with an electric mixer on low speed until frothy, about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to medium and continue to whip the cream until it looks thickened, about 30 seconds. Slowly add the cooled cornstarch mixture and continue to whip until the cream forms soft peaks, about 2-3 minutes.
4. Cakes filled with this cream must be refrigerated.

 

Wedding Cake/Cupcakes

AHHH THIS IS SO EXCITING! I completed my first wedding cake order yesterday, and I had the best time!

I made 70 chocolate cupcakes with mint green buttercream, topped with white edible pearls and white chocolate infinity symbol. The groom wanted the cupcakes/cake to have these adorable white infinity symbols, which I absolutely loved.

For the cake I made one giant cupcake cake (chocolate flavoured of course) with mint green buttercream for the “icing” and white buttercream for the “cupcake liner”. I decorated it some more with the white edible pearls and white infinity symbols.

A big congratulations to the happy couple, and I’m so happy that they allowed me to be apart of their big day. I will forever remember this moment! Thank you, thank you, thank  you!!

White Infinity Symbols
Ingredients:

1. White Bakers Chocolate

Directions:

1. Melt your chocolate in a microwave at 50% power, 30 second intervals.
2. Prepare your baking sheet with a sheet of wax paper.
3. Fill a piping bag with your chocolate and pipe your designs onto the sheet. (For mine, I printed out 24 infinity symbols onto a piece of paper and placed it under the wax paper to allow for easy tracing.)
4. Place in refrigerator for 2-3 hours to allow them to harden up.
5. When handling them afterwards, be very careful as they are very delicate.
6. ** TIP: make a couple extra (at least 20) just so you have extra if you accidentally break any when handling them.

(^^^ that photo was taken at the wedding!!!)

Death by Chocolate Cake

One of my friends requested a cake for himself, just because LOL. And I know he loves chocolate, oreos and pretty much anything except Ketchup chips so I decided to make this cake. It’s four layers of chocolate cake, filled with chocolate buttercream, covered in cookies and cream buttercream, chocolate ganache, Oreos, caramel popcorn, Hershey’s chocolates, chocolate covered pretzels and Snickers.

This cake was so fun to make because first of all, that Oreo buttercream (recipe down below) is literally heaven on earth. It was SO delicious, it tasted just like the icing in the Oreo cookies with a hint of chocolate. On top of the cake is just a pile of delicious-ness so that was really fun to make as well.

I think I’d like to make this kind of cake again but instead of using all the chocolate, I’d add fruit. Maybe do a strawberry buttercream and then pile strawberries (chocolate covered ones too), raspberries, blackberries, etc. on top.

Hope you enjoy!!! 😀

Oreo Buttercream Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons of milk*
• 1/2 cup of Oreo crumbs

Directions:

1. In large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and Oreo crumbs.
2. Gradually add icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry.
3. Gradually add milk; beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
4. For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.