It's A Piece of Cake!

I've been decorating cakes as a business for about 3 years.  Anytime I'm perusing the internet for ideas, I always enjoy the tutorials with step by step pictures showing how a cake goes from the batter to the finished product.  So I thought it would be fun to do my own version of that.  


My latest cake was for a wedding that had a very unique theme to it - peacocks!  I had a lot of fun planning and making this cake and the bride and groom provided me with some beautiful accessories to finish the cake off.  


The couple wanted a three tiered, fondant covered cake.  Each tier was vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream in between the layers.  So this is how it started out:

This is the bottom tier - 12" round and 4 layers high - I think it was probably at least 5" high.  Each layer is sandwiched together with buttercream.  I then put a crumbcoat of buttercream over the entire cake and cover it with fondant:

The holes are special hidden pillars that will help in supporting the other tiers.  I cut them to fit - just slightly higher than the top of the cake.  


On to the next tier!  The next level is a 9" round cake.  The middle and top tiers are placed on special separator plates that have little "feet" on the bottom that are designed to fit inside the hidden pillars.  The weight of the cakes are then supported by the pillars instead of the cake itself which eliminates any bulging and settling that could occur if you were to just place one cake on top of the other.  

The same crumbcoating and fondant covering process is repeated with the 9" and the 6" top tier.  Then they're all stacked together making sure the feet of the separator plates lines up with the holes of the pillars.  

Now comes my favorite part - accessorizing!  First I put the wide ribbon around the bottom of each tier:

Then I add the topper and the two peacocks - mostly so I can get an idea of how it's going to look.  I'm also going to be adding a paisley pattern with peacock colors and I need to know where the peacocks will be sitting so I can plan my paisley accordingly.  

Next, I begin cutting out the paisley patterns - I used a leaf cutter set which has 3 different sized cutters meant for leaves.  I just rounded the bottom instead of leaving it pointed which gave me the perfect paisley shape.  I used a combination of lime green, purple and teal:

Next step was to color some of my icing teal for the dots that were going to be around the paisley patterns.  I used the teal Wilton gel color:

So after "gluing" the paisleys on with icing, I added the finishing touches and hot-glued some thinner ribbon around the sides of the cake board.  And just like that, you have a finished, 3-tiered wedding cake all ready to go :)

The "fruits" of my labour

Strawberry season is here!  Nothing says "summer" better than fresh picked berries.  Some friends of mine and my kids went berry picking at a local patch this past Wednesday and it was great.  I usually pick a LOT.  I freeze some, I bake with some but I mostly make jam.  So I decided that I needed about 32 L of berries to make this work.  If you've never made jam before, it's really quite easy.  It may seem daunting but it's not hard at all.  I was fortunate to have a mother who showed me how to do this delicious tradition.  And I thought I would share it with all of you :)

This is what you will need to make your own delicious jam:
9-10 cups hulled and washed fresh strawberries
1 pkg Certo Light pectin crystals (available in most grocery stores around the sugar)
4 1/2 cups white sugar
250 mL or 500 mL glass mason jars with rings
5-8 canning lids (usually found around the mason jars)
potato masher
measuring cup
Large stock pot
wooden spoon
ladle
canning funnel


1. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F.  Wash mason jars thoroughly with soap and water and place in preheated oven.  This is to sterilize the jars.  They need to be in the oven for 10 minutes and then you can shut the oven off and leave them in there while you're making the jam.  

I use 500 mL jars and I usually get 4-5 jars worth of jam but if you were to use the 250 mL size, you'd get around 8-9 jars worth.  

2. Wash strawberries thoroughly in a colander or in your sink.  The berries we picked were so nice and clean already that there wasn't a whole lot of work in this step for me :)

3. Crush strawberries one layer at a time.  I do this in a large 8-cup measuring cup but you could do it in any container and just dump each layer into a measuring cup after you've crushed them.  You need 6 cups of crushed berries which is about 9-10 cups of whole berries.

 
4. In the meantime, take your BRAND NEW lids (don't ever reuse lids that you may have used on other jars before as the seal will probably not work properly and you will have spoiled all your hard work!) and put them in a small pot with some water.  Heat the water on the stove but don't bring it to a boil.  

5. Dump crushed berries into a large stainless steel stock pot.  You don't want it any more than 1/4 full of berries because it will bubble up a lot.  

 6. Open the Certo Light package and dump into a cereal bowl sized container.  There are many pectin products out there but I prefer using Certo Light.  It uses something like 40% less sugar than the other Certo pectins (regular and liquid varieites).  I'm not a huge fan of sugar to begin with but I'd much rather have that than the pectins that are made with artificial sweeteners.
Mix this with 1/4 cup of the sugar and dump into crushed berries.  Stir well.  Turn on the heat to almost maximum.  Stirring constantly, bring to a boil.  Once it's boiling, add the remaining 4 1/4 cups of sugar.  It's helpful to have this measured out beforehand.  

7. Return mixture to a full rolling boil (where the bubbling cannot be stirred down).  At this point, I turn it down to medium and STAND BACK! hahaha :)
It starts bubbling pretty fierce so make sure you turn it down to medium. 

8. Remove from heat and stir and skim the foam of the top for 4-5 minutes.  This prevents "floating fruit" from occurring in the jam where all the fruit floats to the top in the jars and leaves the jelly part on the bottom.  It also makes your jam look much prettier if the foam isn't in it :)

This is what it will start to look like after you've been "skimming" for a while

9.  Now it's time for the fun part!  Take your jars (using oven mitts!) out of the oven.  Place your clean canning funnel into one and start filling!  I like to use a ladle for this.  A canning funnel is really a must.  They're really cheap and make your canning life so much easier!  

 

 10. Once you have filled your jars to 3/4"-1" below the top, put on a lid and screw a ring on.  Make sure any drips are wiped off your jar.  As the jars cool, the lids will make a popping sound as the heat seals the jars.  They will keep for a long time in a cold storage or pantry and once they're open, they need to be refrigerated.

 
Go ahead a try making some jam!  It's really easy, you're not getting near the amount of sugar as many store-bought jams (or preservatives, colors, etc.) and it really does taste better :)  I'm not sure how many jars I made but I lost count at 35 :)  I should be good for a few months with that amount!

p.s. Just a tip - All these directions are on the paper insert inside the Certo packages.  Also, Certo recommends that you neither decrease or double the recipe because that could result in an undesirable consistency. 

Family

I recently made the decision to shift my focus at home from cake decorating (which I have grown to love) to 100% family.  As much as I will miss expressing myself through cake and icing, I'm so happy with the decision that has been made.  
I have had many people ask me the reason for stepping aside from cakes and there really are several.  But the main reason is that my family deserves all of me, not what I have left at the end of the day.  I heard a poem the other day and it's so fitting to my situation.  I'm sure many of you have been there too so I hope you enjoy it.  It's simply called "Family"

Family

I ran into a stranger as he passed by, "Oh excuse me please" was my reply.

He said, "Please excuse me too; I wasn't watching for you."

We were very polite, this stranger and I. We went on our way and we said good-bye.

But at home a different story is told, How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal, My son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down. "Move out of the way," I said with a frown.

He walked away, his little heart broken. I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed, God's still small voice came to me and said,

"While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use, but the family you love, you seem to abuse.

Go and look on the kitchen floor, You'll find some flowers there by the door.

Those are the flowers he brought for you. He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.

He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise, you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes."

By this time, I felt very small, And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed; "Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.

"Are these the flowers you picked for me?" He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree.

I picked 'em because they're pretty like you. I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."

I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today; I shouldn't have yelled at you that way." He said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay. I love you anyway."

I said, "Son, I love you too, and I do like the flowers, especially the blue."