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Gray Barn Baking

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Gray Barn Baking

Tag Archives: raspberry mousse filling

My Favorite Birthday Cakes….

16 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by Laurie in Cakes

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birthday cake, chocolate cake, ganache frosting, raspberry almond cake, raspberry mousse filling

I’ve made quite a few non-character, non-themed birthday cakes over the past few weeks.  Just simple, happy, feel good celebrations cakes.

These cakes aren’t fancy or flashy or dripping with a theme. They’re just classy, understated, and say to the recipient “you’re special, so we got you a special cake.”

They are decadent, delicious, and not ones you’d typically make for yourself…or get at a bakery or grocery store. They’re one-of-a-kind unique and made just for that special birthday person.

I love doing these cakes, because it kind of lets me create what I’d like brought to the table on my own birthday.

 

Here are a couple of my favorites…

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This one is a version of the raspberry almond cake I posted a few weeks ago, only I added colored sequins on top for some color.  It’s an 8″ sour cream almond cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream.

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I made the plaques and stars from homemade marshmallow fondant; the plaques are painted gold with edible paint.  I added the chocolate hearts kind of as an afterthought as I was making them for this drip cake I was doing at the same time…

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I love the look of these drip cakes, especially black on white.  So dramatic.  The cake was a 10″, 2-layer (one chocolate and one sour cream vanilla).  There was a raspberry mousse filling between the layers, so I used raspberries on top.  I used chocolate ganache for the drip and melted chocolate for the hearts.  This one was for a father and daughter who celebrated their birthdays together ;0)

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For this one, the birthday girl wanted rustic icing and fall-colored buttercream flowers.

I used a special petal tip and variegated icing to pipe the mums on pieces of parchment paper, then popped them into the freezer to firm up before adding them to the cake.   Then I filled in with a star tip for the yellow flowers and leaves.

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And then there is the humble-but-oh-so-yummy chocolate cake with whipped ganache icing and multi-colored sequins…mmmmmm.choc_ganache_cake_2

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Sports-Themed Graduation Cakes

06 Thursday Aug 2015

Posted by Laurie in Cakes

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banana cake, bavarian cream filling, double chocolate cake, football, graduation cake, graduation cap, homemade marshmallow fondant, hummingbird cake, jersey, raspberry mousse filling, vanilla buttercream

I have a wonderful client who’s ordered many cakes, cupcakes and cookies from me in the past few years.  This last spring, she came to me with an order for her son’s graduation party…3 cakes with a football theme.  She sent me a picture of a cake display of 3 cakes showing a graduation cap, a jersey and a football. sports-football-graduation-cakes-2 So I got to work… The football I made from chocolate cake with raspberry filling baked in a Wilton football-shaped pan.  I smooth iced it with chocolate buttercream…then when it had crusted a bit, pressed a textured paper towel over it to give it that “pigskin-like” look. The letters, stripes and seams are homemade marshmallow fondant.  The letters I cut with cutters I had from a cookie making kit, the stripes with this neat-o Sugarcraft ribbon cutter like this one, and the stitching I made with a  Walnut Hollow clay extruder I got just for this order (but have used a bunch since). sports-football-graduation-cakes-3 sports-football-graduation-cakes-6 The graduation cap was a 6″ banana cake filled with bavarian cream filling.  I cut an 8″ square out of stiff cardboard and covered it with homemade fondant colored blue, added tassels made from blue fondant (again, extruded with my neat-o extruder) and a button on top. The cake is iced with blue vanilla buttercream colored to match the fondant.  The letters and numbers are cut from white fondant with these easy-to-use Wilton letter cutters. sports-football-graduation-cakes-9 sports-football-graduation-cakes-7 sports-football-graduation-cakes-4The jersey is made from a half-sheet pineapple mandarin cake (sometimes referred to as Hummingbird cake) with a pineapple cream filling.  I cut it to resemble a jersey with a template I made from cardboard.  It’s iced with the same blue buttercream as the cap and the letters are cut with the same cutters as on the football.  The “22” I hand cut using a template with a “collegiate font” to look more like sports numbers.

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I put the cakes on separate boards for ease of handling and transport.  The larger board is a foam-core board I covered with blue poster board. The congrats message on the board I cut using Tappit Funky Letter cutters, glued down with a little piping gel. That’s about it!  Hope you had a great party, Nicke, I sure had fun making your cakes! sports-football-graduation-cakes-1

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Fresh Raspberries & Cream Cupcakes and Wedding Shower!

21 Saturday Feb 2015

Posted by Laurie in Cupcakes

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Raspberry Frosting, raspberry mousse filling, Strawberries Raspberries and Cream Cupcake, Vanilla-bean cake, vanilla-bean frosting, wedding shower

This week I had the opportunity to provide the dessert for a darling girl who was celebrating her upcoming wedding with a shower on Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, it was a cold, blustery, snowy Saturday.   But her family and friends braved the weather and were there to wish her well (and to enjoy a few cupcakes :0)

These fresh raspberry and cream cupcakes are a vanilla bean cake filled with fresh raspberry mousse. Topped with a pillow of raspberry buttercream and a swirl of vanilla-bean buttercream, they are crowned with a sugared fresh raspberry to add to the Valentine theme…

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The bride-to-be also ordered sour cream chocolate/marshmallow and chocolate turtle cupcakes (see later posts), so I provided her with flavor signs and set up the display at the venue (these pictures are taken with my ipad, so they are a little dark).

I typically don’t get to see this part of the process, so it was a pleasure to deliver my goodies and help with the set up.

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Congrats on your wedding, Ashley!  I hope you and your guests enjoyed the cupcakes!

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Pink Buttercream Rose Swirl Birthday Cake

15 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Laurie in Cakes

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homemade marshmallow fondant, pink ombre, Raspberry Frosting, raspberry mousse filling, rosette, Sour Cream Almond

I made this cake for a dear friend for her Mother’s 80th birthday last summer. She wanted a simple, elegant cake and this buttercream rosette swirl design fit the bill.

rose-cake-1 rose-cake-2It’s a 3-layer 8″ sour cream almond cake with raspberry mousse filling, covered in raspberry flavored buttercream with swirls made with a Wilton 1M tip.  The pictures don’t show it very well, but the swirls were actually pink ombre (graduated darker at the bottom to lighter at the top).  I added pink pearls to give a little shimmer and made a monogram plaque with her initials and age from homemade marshmallow fondant.

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Pink ombre rosette cake…no better way to say “I love you…”

Happy birthday, Lisa’s dear mother!

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Valentine White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with Pink Fondant Hearts

02 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by Laurie in Cupcakes

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homemade marshmallow fondant, raspberry mousse filling, sour cream almond cake, valentines day cupcake, white chocolate buttercream

These scrumptious white chocolate raspberry cupcakes will show anyone how much you love them….for Valentine’s Day or any day!  The sour cream vanilla cake is filled with fresh raspberry mousse and topped with a fluffy swirl of white chocolate buttercream–a TERRIFIC combo!  Then they’re topped with sprinkles and a dainty pink fondant heart.

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I packaged some up last year for a Valentine treat for the sweeties in my life.   Who can resist love in a cup tied with a bow?!

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About Me

Life is crazy and I love to bake. I'm a wife, mother of 3 nutty kids, and an admitted sugar-holic. Ten years ago I left my job as a senior consulting engineer in Salt Lake City, UT, to get out of the rat race and raise kids. We up and moved to a quiet, small town in NE Ohio to be near family and bought a 180-yr-old historic home, always a dream of mine. Along the way, I discovered my joy of baking, which allows both my engineering side and my oft-suppressed creative side to emerge. It began with the desire to bake birthday cakes for my kids (I hated to buy them) and has blossomed into a cupcake-baking business for a local bakery. Over the years, many people have asked if I take orders. So, here they are. Check out the site, we'll be adding new cupcake flavors weekly as well as the occasional cake. And in case you're wondering about the name, it's an homage to the big, old gray barn in my back yard. What a bonus, it came with the house! Put on a smile and BAKE!

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