The in and outs of taking cake pictures

Over the years, I have taken many pictures of cakes, but usually it's the outside of the cake. I believe that I have captured some nice shots; however I always seem to forget to take pictures of the inside of the cakes whenever possible. After all, that is what customers, friends, and family are eating, so it would be nice to show that once in awhile. So, I am making it a goal to start taking pictures of cake slices when I can to show off the inside of my cakes, as well as the outside. Here's the latest...

Next time I'll leave out the fork! You can find the recipe for this yummy carrot cake here...
My favorite carrot cake recipe

The best cream cheese icing recipe...

Updated 4/6/18

A follower of my blog asked me if you could put fondant over cream cheese icing. I have learned from experience that it is best not to use cream cheese icing under fondant. The icing tends to have some kind of an interaction with the fondant, making it a little "slimy" and not very appetizing. If you want the flavor of the cream cheese icing, you can always use that as a filling and then put buttercream under the fondant.  This is a great tasting cream cheese icing recipe I have found. It's actually Wilton's recipe with a little tweaking. If you have followed my blog in the past, you know I am not a huge fan of Wilton, but there are a few things that I do like about their recipes and other things...and they are getting better with the products they offer.    

Cream Cheese Icing

(2) 8 oz. packages cream cheese

1 cup butter (2sticks) -slightly softened

8 cups powdered sugar

Cream the butter and cream cheese and butter together for a few minutes. Be sure the butter is not too soft. Gradually add the powdered sugar and then beat until fluffy. The Wilton recipe calls for adding 1 T. of milk, but I skip this step and like the way it turns out. It's not too soft and holds it's shape for borders and other simple decorations, and even simple roses. 

Recently, I have found another cream cheese icing recipe that hold up much better to decorate with.

Decorator's Cream Cheese Icing

1/2 cup (4 oz,) hi-ratio cake shortening
1/2 cup (4 oz.) butter at room temperature
1 8 oz. brick cream cheese
2 lb. sifted powdered sugar
1-2 T. cream
2-3 t. clear vanilla or butter vanilla
1/4 -1/2 t. salt (use lesser amount if using salted butter)

Beat shortening, butter, and cream cheese together with salt and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and cream and beat until smooth, but do not over beat. 

Carrot cake with cream cheese icing and pecans

Lemon Berry Delight - lemon cake with raspberry and lemon fillings, iced in cream cheese icing

Grooms Cake for Avalanche fan...

Jake Lundy, the groom at the last wedding we catered, is a huge Colorado Avalanche fan, so this is the cake I did for him. It was a carrot cake, covered with fondant, and the emblems were all cut out of gumpaste, using my Cricut Cake and Make the Cut software.

Who says you can't have a chocolate wedding cake...look at this...

We catered a large wedding last weekend and the bride wanted a cake covered in chocolate fondant. The decorations were simple, yet elegant. The bride's mom was originally a little concerned that it wouldn't  look right or match the other decorations, but it was just fine. We substituted some snowflakes on the second tier instead of using the original flower motif. All of the decorations were cut with my Cricut Cake. We used fresh hydrangeas and miniature roses to complete the decorations. We also served 3 other specialty cakes and cheesecake. All of those were eaten, but not much of the wedding cake was gone by the end of the reception. Part of the reason for that was possibly because the cake was not cut until half way through the reception. This is the first wedding cake I have decorated using chocolate fondant. For this one, I used the Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder.

 All designs cut out with Cricut Cake

Shirley Temple (chocolate and vanilla layers with chocolate mousse and whipped cream with white chocolate shavings), Carrot cake with pecans, and Chocolate Lover's (chocolate layers with fudge filling covered in dark chocolate ganache). Also cheesecake with caramel and raspberry sauce.

Carrot Cake from Spice Cake Mix

My daughter-in-law asked me for a carrot cake recipe using a spice cake mix. I usually make my carrot cake from scratch, but here is a great recipe to use if you're in a hurry, and would like to make a carrot cake from a mix. I have tried the carrot cake mixes and don't like any of them, but using the spice cake as your base seems to work well.

Simply Carrot Cake

3/4 cup oil

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

4 large eggs

1 box Duncan Hines spice cake mix

1 box vanilla instant pudding

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 cups grated carrots

1 cut chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Cream oil and sugar, add water, eggs, then dry ingredients. Fold in carrots and nuts. Pour into greased floured and lined pan(s). Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool and top with cream cheese frosting. Simply super good!

The Best of Both Worlds...

On Friday, I decorated and delivered cakes for a friend of ours from church. They were getting married in Denver and returning to Colorado Springs for a 6 pm reception. Only problem was that we had one of our April snowstorms, so the bride and groom didn't get to the reception until 7. In the meantime, I had also made 3 specialty cakes - carrot, chocolate lover's, and Shirley Temple. So, since we didn't want to cut the wedding cake until after the bride and groom arrived, we had plenty of other cake to serve. Actually, it worked out much better this way. You see, the wedding cake was just plain vanilla with no filling...good, but not nearly as good as the 3 other cakes. The wedding cake turned out beautifully, so we had the beautiful wedding cake PLUS the great tasting specialty cakes, without cutting the wedding cake. Granted, the family had lots of wedding cake left over that I understand they were able to share with friends, but it was really having the "best of both worlds."

Carrot cakes and new cookbook...

My son-in-law, Eddie, called and asked if I could have a 1/4 sheet carrot cake ready for him to take to work on Friday as a thank you to his co-workers, as it is his last day at T-Mobile. So I found this great recipe for carrot cake and cream cheese icing in my new cookbook, America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. The recipe calls for a whole lb. of carrots, which makes the cake moist, and a perfect blend of spices. I'm still having a little problem with my carrot cakes sinking slightly in the center due to high altitude, even though I added a little extra flour. I think next time I will try raising the oven temperature slightly and baking the cake for a shorter time. The cream cheese icing recipe called for an extra ingredient that I have not used before...sour cream. This recipe is not too sweet and whips up very nice and fluffy. This is not an icing you can do detailed decorating with, but it ices the cake very nicely, and tastes great!

Cream Cheese Icing

(2) 8 oz. bricks of cream cheese

10 T. softened butter

2 T. sour cream

1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar

Beat the cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and vanilla together at med. low speed until smooth. Add the sugar slowly and beat at low speed until smooth. Turn up the mixer speed to med. high, and beat until light and fluffy.