Happy 2nd Birthday to Annaliese!

This cake was so much fun, it just might be my favorite so far of all the cakes I've made! Little Annaliese is turning two, loves Elmo and girlie things...what to do?
I dreamed up this cake and got to work, and am extremely pleased with how it turned out.

-Scratch zucchini cake, 8" and 6"
-Handmade white chocolate ganache filling
-Traditional fondant and marshmallow fondant
-Vanilla Almond buttercream
-Edible opalescent finish

The Elmo was hand modeled out of fondant, as were all the accents.

A HUGE thank you goes out to little Annaliese's family for sharing this special day with me! As always, it was an honor to be a part of it.

Until next time,
Jessie aka Jemoiselle

A Special Baby Shower..

I made this cake for a good friend's baby shower, it was my gift ;) I got to play hostess for the first time ever, and it went well I think!

The cake was a 10'' and 6'' Almond Butter Cake, filled with Semi-sweet chocolate ganache and vanilla buttercream. The fondant was a new kind of fondant for me, normally I make homemade MMF (Marshmallow Fondant) but this time I got crazy and made it from scratch, using a recipe where instead of using marshmallows you use gelatin and effectively make your own. Both are "scratch" recipes compared to buying it in a store, but being the purist I am, I just had to kick it up a notch. It took two tries to get it to come out right, lol.  But, the second time was a charm and we ended up with a lovely cake that everyone enjoyed, including me! How often do I get to eat my own cakes?

Congrats again to Janelle, we're all excited to meet Mr. Dylan any day now!

Until next time,
Jemoiselle aka Jessie

Happy 29th Birthday to a dear friend...

This cake I made for a dear friend's 29th birthday. She is a complete girly girl, so we thought it was fitting to do the whole thing all shimmery with luster dust after this photo was taken!

-Chocolate fudge cake (new VERY moist scratch recipe)
-Homemade semi-sweet ganache filling
-Vanilla Almond Buttercream
-Scratch vanilla butter fondant
-Modeling chocolate roses and pearls, hand formed, hand made

I learned a very useful lesson with this cake, as I got overly confident with my fondant skills and tweaked the recipe to make it easier to knead. It was easy to knead, but the added ease resulted in more kneading, which resulted in more air in the fondant. No matter what I did, it kept getting more air pockets in the finish! I had to use a pin to remove air pockets all the way until delivery...but it worked, and it looked acceptable. SO----to all you working fondant at home, it is stiff as a brick for a reason. Just take the beating on your shoulders, and delight in a smooth finish. Nothing perfect ever comes easy, eh?

Jessie

~Special Birthday and Adoption Day Cupcakes~

I was asked to make these for a friend's two beautiful children. It was a Birthday and an Adoption Day celebration! There were 40 color matching cupcakes in all, but only these two were decorated like this. It was such a HUGE honor! The cupcakes are a scratch recipe chocolate fudge cake, and the frostings are homemade semi-sweet ganache and whipped vanilla-almond buttercream.

Olivia's cupcake, the pink one, is decorated with a white chocolate rose, brushed with luster dust, and topped with a gelatin butterfly, the body of the butterfly including the antennae in their entirety is dark chocolate plastic. The pearls are made from white chocolate as well, rolled in pearl dust. Her name is rolled out of a fondant rope.

Evan's cupcake is covered in the semi-sweet ganache, with a special flag of his home Country, Guatemala. I was asked to make that the theme, celebrating his heritage! The "worry dolls" (little people) were inspired by a story his Momma told me about how they have these little dolls over there, you tell your worries to and place under your pillow to find peace. I tried to recreate those to the best of my ability, they are traditionally made with bits of string, fabric, and sticks inside for support. I used fondant for the flag, and a mix of fondant and modeling chocolate for the dolls. The bananas, a chief export, are both fondant and modeling chocolate as well.

My thanks goes out to the Momma of these two little tots, who put a lot of trust in me today =)  I am so thankful they are all happy with their treats, they could barely contain themselves!

Until next time,

Jessie

A preview of the next project...

I am not going to mention what this is going to go with until after I have delivered the finished product to the lucky recipient...but I just cannot resist posting a little appetizer for you =) Or is it for me? Stay tuned, and without further distraction, enjoy my newest endeavor! Yes, it's all from scratch, and 100% edible-riffic!

Craving Birthday Cake? Chocoholics unite...

Another vacation creation (wasn't I supposed to be NOT working?) but I couldn't help myself! It was the night before I flew back home when Dad started "craving Birthday cake"! I wouldn't have been a good Daughter if I didn't oblige!

This is my always from scratch Devil's Fudge cake, drenched in semi-sweet chocolate ganache. Do I need to say that is homemade too? Didn't think so, just checking. I am so BIG on making everything from scratch, as it is a dying art. 
Truly. I digress. The chocolate on chocolate action wouldn't be complete without more chocolate, the modeling chocolate roses. I have to mention my little sister helped me make this cake and did a fabulous job! If she lived nearby, she would be my right hand gal ;)

Can you smell the chocolate yet?

Jessie

Happy Valentines Day!

 

While I was on vacation I decided to make my family a bunch of chocolate roses for Valentines Day! It was so fun, I got to show my family a bit of what I do in person instead of through photographs on this blog, it was wonderful! I used Ghiradelli chocolate, made it into modeling chocolate and off I went. The smaller roses were wrapped in a beautiful argyle print in pink and green, tied with a ribbon, they were lovely. I love doing stuff like this! I have a feeling in the future I am going to be big into making flowers out of all sorts of edible mediums. This is truly addicting!

Happy Valentines Day!