Garrett's Groom Cake - Fish Plaque

Garrett has a lot of hobbies and talents!  Therefore, it was really hard to pick one specific idea for a groom's cake.  We talked a lot about a tool box with tools and also about tackle boxes with different fishing tackle, but, we finally decided on a 'stuffed' fish plaque.  The cake is chocolate, with chocolate peanut butter ganache and chocolate peanut butter frosting.  The fish is hand formed out of fondant with gum tex added to help it stiffen up sufficiently and hand 'painted' with food coloring mixed with extract.  The chocolate frosting has also been 'painted' with food coloring to give it a wooden look.  The silver plaque has their names and silver food coloring sprayed on it to give it an official look.  The nice thing about the fish is, it could be made in advance while I was still suppose to be down with my fractured foot up.  Garrett helped give  me a lot of tips when forming the fish, since I have SOOO little experience with fish and had only flat pictures to go by. We dried it on a board with cardboard wedges holding the back fin and head up to give it a more realistic position.  It did completely finish drying and help up with no extra supports.  Having the fish completed ahead of time made this a simpler cake to finish at the last minute!  Thanks for looking!

Garrett and Rebecca's Wedding Cake

Malibu Blue Wedding Cake with Gumpaste Roses and Fountain

Here is Rebecca and Garrett's "wedding" cake...  well, kind of...  I fractured my leg 6 1/2 weeks before the wedding, and although we were kind of talking about a dummy cake, after I broke it, our only option was to make a dummy cake.  It was hard enough to just make and frost sheet cakes, without the extra hassle of making sure they were perfectly frosted, even, and also stacked without any problems.

So what you see here, are three layers of styrofoam, frosted with sugar crystals on the outside to really give it a sparkle.  The top square is a real cake though... red velvet with a mock whipped cream frosting that literally melts in your mouth!  Joy made the beautiful gumpaste roses you see here as well.

Garrett and his dad Greg made the beautiful wooden base under the cake, which matches many other things that Garrett made for the wedding. Becca decorated the serving tables to coordinate with everything else in the auditorium and foyer areas.  It truly was a beautiful day and a beautiful ceremony!

Let me share a few pictures of the day:

The Happy Couple

Guest Book made by Garrett

The Wedding Party

The Ceremony

Their First Kiss

Cutting the Cake

Pumpkin Caramel Cupcake Recipe

This past week I had two cupcake classes to teach at the Hobby Lobby's in Moline, IL and Bettendorf, IA.  Since it is November, I decided to make a Cinnamon Pumpkin Cupcake.  When I was figuring out the kind of extract I wanted for the frosting, I decided to add some caramel extract and WOW... I then redesigned a pumpkin cupcake recipe and Cinnamon Pumpkin Caramel Cupcakes became a new big HIT!  I used fall colors and Wilton fall sprinkles to make some fun and festive fall cupcakes!

Cupcakes:
3/4 cup pure pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon caramel extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

** Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat pumpkin, eggs, oil, sugars and extracts together on a medium speed until well blended.  In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg together.  Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture until well blended, about 2 minutes on medium speed. Bake approximately 20 minutes (more or less depending on your oven).

Filling:  I simply bought the Marzetti's caramel and stirred in some cinnamon to make a simple but flavorful filling.

Frosting:  This recipe can be used to pipe whatever you want on either cupcakes or cakes!
1/2 cup shortening
1 stick butter
8 teaspoons water
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon caramel extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound (4 cups) powdered sugar

Blend shortening and butter together on low speed.  Add water, cinnamon, extracts, and sugar on low until well blended.  Do not beat on high speed. Color frosting, bag up and frost and pipe!