Easter Cake and Divine Mercy Cake

Here are two cakes I made during the Octave...

  I threw this together at the last minute...which is obvious!!! :) I had promised my kids a cake for Easter Sunday but was soooo very busy with many things to get ready for the kids in our program entering the Church on Easter Saturday Vigil. I was also making Sacrament Cake Topper pieces (which I forgot to photograph...go figure). I did manage to get this little cake iced and decorated. It is not really a great design: but the kids do not care about such things the way that I do!

Divine Mercy Sunday occurs the 2nd Sunday of Easter (the readings for that weekend are very much about Mercy already and go so well with this theme) and since Sundays are my baking days during Easter after giving up baking for most of Lent, I decided to make a small cake again to celebrate. I really wanted Easter to be very different from Lent and the "feasting" aspect of this for us is usually tied to cakes/cookies and the like since Momma's a baker! Divine Mercy is a beautiful devotion started through a favorite saint of mine Saint Faustina. She was a Polish nun who Christ gave a mission to that she should proclaim His love and mercy to sinners that He comes to us first with love and mercy before the day of judgement. There is a lovely prayer that accompanies it called the Divine Mercy Chaplet. I took my daughter to our Parish's afternoon prayer service for Mercy Sunday and then we prayed the short prayer at home before having cake. This design is so simple but very strong in impact. The kids enjoyed deciding which "color" to eat and it emphasizes the teaching of Divine Mercy without too much hassle. I really just spread the frosting on and scraped across it to make the red/blue rays. Here's a link to more info on the Divine Mercy devotion:
Divine Mercy

For this past 3rd Sunday of Easter I made some GF/DF Krispy treats...no photos of that though...not really a lot involved! :)

Easter Blessings,
Evie

Monster Truck Cake

Making this cake was a gift to me. I think that whenever the Lord gives us an opportunity to serve others He gives us tenfold from that service. I really enjoyed making this cake and praying for the family as I worked. Work with prayer is twice as sweet. I made this cake for Evan and his family. Evan has many challenges being an older sibling to a handsome little brother with many medical needs. As a new volunteer with Icing Smiles I was honored to make a cake for Evan. You can read about this beautiful family on Facebook at the below link. Please like their page and show your support! Team Hayden

 Icing Smiles is a great organization and if you are a baker who is interested please check out this beautiful charity here:  Icing Smiles

I didn't get to attend the party but I was really blessed to meet them and become a part of the community support network in our area.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Evan's Cake was Monster Truck themed and based on his favorite truck. I made this cake Gluten-Free with Gluten-Free Krispy treats to make the truck and wheels. I have never had so much fun playing with crumbs of cake and frosting!!! Making mud mountain was a challenge that took time (a deliberate mess always does) and ended up being quite enjoyable. :)

                                              This all was very emotional for me and I really enjoyed the process and the joy in Evan's response to seeing the cake. I always wondered if I couldn't sell my cakes what I could do with this love for baking and I think this experience has shown me that God has a plan for our gifts and finds the right time for them to be given to others. 

This week's Office of Readings had the following scripture from Peter that really came at the right time and touched my heart: 

 "As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace. Whoever preaches, let it be with the words of God; whoever serves, let it be with the strength that God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ..."

Easter Blessings,

Evie 

Rainbow Pony Cake

   Here is the latest baking fun from my home!
I had a very specific request from my daughter to make a Pony Cake based on her favorite toy and that it should be inscribed in exactly the way she directed. Hmmm...I think she gets this from me!

  So I made a very small cake (it was Palm Sunday when we had cake) as we were starting to the holy week fasting/prayer. However telling a girl she can't have a cake for her birthday was not really an option for us. I enjoyed making the very anime-esque eyes and thought it looked as close to her toy's match as it could in the time I allotted time to work on the cake.

 This was a new recipe I found for homemade chocolate allergen free cake that used vinegar and no eggs. I was somewhat happy with the  taste, but I think that it called for not quite the right amount of sugar. Next time I will up the amount. My hubby saw me making all the swirls and was somewhat confused. I did use them, but I made way too many!  I love this design. I think it could have more color (white clouds/white cake sort of bothers me) and if I had thought it through a little more and had the time I might have made the cake blue but I was thinking it would conflict with the blue on the pony. I covered a bunch of mini marshmallows with fondant to make the large cloud and then piped the smaller clouds from buttercream.

She loved her cake and even though it was a quick and short celebration (the cake didn't last more than a day since it was small) she was happy and that made me happy with it. :) :)

Easter Blessings from our home to yours!

May the 5th be With You.

My son is majorly involved in his own little Star Wars world. Sets up entire fleets on his bedroom floor and dumps out all his toys to use each toy bucket as a separate planet. Very cute, very messy, but definitely a new obsession!

Of course for months now he has been going on about his birthday cake and what-who he wants on it. This was a challenge, but I think if I had started earlier the modeling might have been better. It is all still a learning process. I made Vader and he was a midget! I had to throw out the head and make the krispy treat body taller. No one wants a shrunken bad guy on their cake. I am beginning to think the key to good modeling is weeks of working and plenty of patience. ME I tend to do this 3 days before the birthday event...hehe. That doesn't make for much room to make mistakes. ALSO pieces that are soft are more likely to sink in or squish. Soooo we will try not to procrastinate when my daughter's birthday comes around. the light sabers had to dry but then to stick them into the hands they needed a toothpick which would then crack them. Spaghetti would have been smarter...just saying.

Okay as much as I'm going on about what went wrong I really am happy with it. He LOVES it and the death star wasn't the disaster I thought it might be, it actually does look somewhat like the death star. So I'm just nit-picking because that's how I learn and improve. The size of the cake would have worked better bigger, but the egg free/dairy-free/gluten-free cakes don't cook up well in larger sizes. I find the top burns and the middle is uncooked, so this 10 inch is actually quite large for me in terms of allergen-free cake making. I also remembered just how much better the VIVA towel works for smoothing buttercream. I cannot let myself think that anything else is comparable, because for me, it really is not better. Go VIVA! :)

May the Cake Forces be with you today!!!!!!!!

Advent Blessings!

Mr. Shark!

 

This is a long overdue post!

 I made this cake for my hubby's birthday over the summer. It was kind of a disaster scenario that turned out okay in the end. I did something I NEVER do which is tried to use a canned icing to speed it up and get the "Cotton Candy" flavor. I was very unhappy. I really don't like canned icing at all and the flavor was not ideal. So I just ended up with a much smaller cake after a HUGE FAIL on the first attempt.

I made this at my kids request that daddy's cake have the Shark puppet they love on it. Daddy is often voicing Mr. Shark and has Mr. Shark talk to them and play around. The kids ADORE this puppet. I used fondant to make him and just left him hollow so he'd sink like the puppet does. It really wasn't as complicated as I expected it to be, but the teeth were difficult. Shaping each one by hand and then adhering it with teeny bits of water was a delicate process! I hand painted the dot detail with icing color using a toothpick.

It was simple and had fish on it (Mr. Shark likes to eat fish). There really was not much to go on as a theme so I made this small cake for him. I know he liked it (although after my fiasco it was a day late) and I'm grateful to have him in my life. He is an amazing man.

I guess I should make time to catch up some of the other cakes I made. Life has been a whirlwind since my hubby started his new position in his office and I often feel like everything is moving faster, nothing is done and I'm in a state of chaos juggling everything without any breaks to breathe...but---that said, I wouldn't change it and I know it is all to the Glory of God and His perfect plan. So please forgive my lapse in blogging. I do miss sharing in the cake blogosphere...time to find a little space to explore it here and there again. 

Blessings!

Cinco de Mayo Cake and Bake Sale

These are the cakes I made for the bake sale at our church. I always feel like Wonder Woman and in my mind I think I will make 4 or 5 little cakes. And then I end up frazzled and trying to just be happy with the two I managed to make in my available time. It is a good reminder that I am NOT Wonder Woman and a much needed humbling for my heart and soul.

So I made this cute little chili pepper cake...

 

which I struggled to not cut into myself...I really liked it and wanted to keep it, but I knew it was for a good cause so I had to love it and leave it.

Then I made this more traditional buttercream cake with some fun ribbon roses on top. I actually thought it had a bit of Cinco de Mayo flavor in a subtle way...the bottom ruffle almost looks like a traditional skirt and the rosettes have a sort of Mexican feel (like those lovely flowers used in decorations).
 


I always enjoy having a reason to decorate a cake! :)

Blessings!

My Fave Egg-Free Cupcakes

I really love this recipe.

It's so nice to not have to measure out egg replacer and I love egg replacer, but it is SO pricey. This recipe doesn't use it and still gets a great texture, flavor and rise. Which makes me smile :) I adapted this recipe from a vegan version I found online.

I made this for the kids today and they are excited to have a Tea Party to celebrate...well the 4th Week of Easter and "almost done" with homeschooling week. Well, maybe mommy's just glad to be ALMOST done.

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Allergen-Free Cupcakes:

1 cup of soymilk (or other dairy-free milk)
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil (I use Canola but you can sub any other oil you prefer---flax oil works for healthier option)
1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup rice flour (I prefer white, but brown works too)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tsp Xanthum gum or guar gum
1/3 cup of cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Works best for 24 mini cupcakes or you can do 12 regular cupcakes. I haven't tried a cake yet. I'm a fan of the mini cupcakes for these.

Whisk wet ingredients together. Mix dry ingredients with a fork until combined. Pour into prepared pans (Greased or filled with cupcake wrappers).  Bake until a toothpick comes out clean around 15-20 minutes depending on your oven and the size of the cupcakes.

Let cool and frost with icing of your choice. I like Wilton's Dairy-Free version of their buttercream, but pick the icing that you like best! :)

Blessings!