Cake fillings... the difference between "cake" and "dessert"

After baking and decorating cakes for so long, I am very picky about the cakes that I choose to eat. I love cake, but eating a piece of ho hum cake with ho hum icing is like eating... well, "just cake," and I would just as easily pass it by. But when you have a deliciously moist piece of cake with a scrumptious filling and a great icing, it becomes a delightful dessert instead of "just cake." That is hard to resist. At Cathy Leavitt custom creations, we offer a wide variety of different fillings, from fruity to chocolate to fluffy mousses. Each one, combined with the right cake and icing, can be very tempting indeed. I have combined some of my favorite flavors as our Specialty Dessert Cakes on our menu. It's hard to pick a favorite, but anything with chocolate is always a hit. Lemon is becoming a strong second. 

Dark Chocolate Cake with Raspberry and Fudge Filllings

When we add a filling to a cake, I slice each layer in half. Note: I have an Agbay cake leveler that levels the top of the cake layer and slices the layer at the same time. One of my very very favorite decorating tools. Pricey, yes, but so worth it! Over the years, I have used many cake levelers and the problem is... they just don't work. If you're serious about cake decorating, look into this amazing tool!

Each cake normally consists of 2 layers, so after you slice each layer, you have four layers. I put filling between the top 2 layers and the bottom 2 layers, and add whatever icing I'm using in the middle. Before adding the filling, be sure to apply an "icing dam." Not only does this hold in the fillings, but it keeps the cakes level. Click here to visit my tutorial on filling cakes. This tutorial also contains recipes for an easy basic mousse filling and Bavarian Creme filling. To make a yummy coconut creme filling, you can add toasted coconut to the Bavarian Creme. (And then try not to eat it all before putting it on the cake... I know this from experience.)

Dark Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Mousse

Fill cupcakes? Oh yes, but you do not need a fancy cupcake corer in order to fill them. Just load your decorating bag with a large open round tip, like #12, push it into the center of your cupcake and squeeze... just don't go overboard. After awhile, you'll get the knack of it... so easy. After you've eaten a filled cupcake, you'll not go back to one without. 

 Spice Cake with Salted Caramel Mousse and 

Cream Cheese Icing, Drizzled with Salted Caramel

 White Almond Sour Cream Cake with Raspberry 

Filling, Vanilla Buttercream, and Toasted Almonds

Chocolate Cake with Bavarian Creme,

Chocolate Buttercream, and Toffee Bits

Fresh fruit can also be used as a filling in cakes. It is best to add a thin layer of whipped cream or mousse to the cake first, and then slice and layer the fruit on top. Some other good fruit fillings to use are Solo Raspberry Filling, Dickinson's Lemon Curd (my favorite), and Cherry All-Fruit Spread. Be creative and try different combinations! 

 Yellow Cake with Whipped Cream and Fresh Strawberries

Sample Cakes for Cake Tasting-

Chocolate Mint Mousse, Shirley Temple (1 layer of vanilla, 

1 of chocolate, with Bavarian Creme and white chocolate curls),

Lemon with Lemon Curd and Lemon Buttercream

Arizona Wedding

Last week I went to my friend LaDelle's wedding in Glendale, AZ. She requested that I come and do her wedding cake, so... because I had very limited time, I prepared everything except the cake itself before hand, and packed it into 2 check-in bags, and off I went to the airport. I made sure everything was labelled ... icings, fillings, fondants, flour, crisco, etc. ... along with cake pans and business card in each bag. Yes, both bags were inspected, but at least everything arrived intact. I got to AZ about 8 PM on Tuesday night, baked the cake, went to bed around 1:30 AM, got up at 8 AM on Wednesday to start decorating, and finished the cake about 10 minutes before time to deliver the cake... with a little help from my new friend Sara, who wanted to observe me as I decorated. I had an enjoyable time at the wedding, visiting with old friends while cutting the cake and giving best wishes and congratulations to my dear friend. Thursday morning I got up a little after 4 AM, and off we went to the airport for my trip back home to CO. Thanks bunches to my friend Denise, for letting me take over her kitchen to decorate, and for cleaning up my decorating mess and cake pans that I left because I ran out of time. A quick trip, but glad I could be a part of LaDelle's special day.

The happy bride and groom... LaDelle and Phil

Cake was chocolate with fudge nut filling and chocolate buttercream, and yellow with cream cheese and raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream, all covered in chocolate fondant.

Satin ribbon with antique gold embellishment, quilted pattern with ivory dots, and fondant rope border

Peacock feathers included in fresh flower arrangement on cake top. Sahuaro Ranch Park (where the wedding was held), is known for its peacocks which roam freely throughout the park and roost on the roofs of the building at night.

Whipped cream and fresh flowers...a great combination

I love fresh flowers on wedding cakes. I also love purple on wedding cakes...it's a very bold, beautiful, and striking color. So I designed this wedding cake for a bride yesterday...the flowers were beautiful. Lilies were a bit large, so I had to put on a few more flowers than I believe she wanted to balance out the size, but overall, I think the finished product was quite stunning. The cake flavors were lemon with cream cheese and lemon fillings, fudge marble with Bavarian Creme filling, and yellow with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Used the Chantilly whipped cream stabilizer to whip up the cream to ice the cake.

USAFA Bridal Faire...

After some mis-communications and not being able to participate last year, I was able to have a booth at this year's Bridal Faire at the Air Force Academy. I prepared most of the week (amid a house full of visiting grandchildren), and then set up on Friday morning. The event took place on Saturday between 10 and 3. I felt that it was successful and got some good contacts and leads, both prospective brides and vendors that will hopefully refer me. I was able to experiment some more with SugarVeil, which seemed to be very interesting to several visitors. Overall, a successful and hopefully profitable day...

My friend Nancy and I at our booth, getting ready for the Bridal Faire to begin.

Background display for booth, set up day before

Display cake

Display cake with SugarVeil lace over chocolate fondant. Lace made in SugarVeil silicone mat

3 out of 6 of sample cakes to taste...

SugarVeil heart piped on greased parchment over printed design...placed on chocolate fondant.

Cake was fudge marble with Bavarian Creme.

Chocolate mint with chocolate mint mousse and vanilla fondant.

Strawberry shortcake...yellow cake with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Tried new Chantilly whipped cream stabilizer which worked like a charm...whipped cream held up through entire show.

Two weddings...one tiny and one big!

Yesterday I delivered two wedding cakes. One was for a very small intimate wedding. I designed an 8 inch round cake for a couple from Austin, TX that were coming to the Springs to get married. They wanted a cake just for them and their kids. So anyway, the flavor was German chocolate with two layers of coconut pecan filling and one layer of fudge filling, all covered in a white chocolate ganache. This is the first time that I have made a white chocolate ganache. I really like the way it turned out...set up well, but didn't get too hard, so it was easy to cut, and tasted great! Just added a little ribbon and fresh flowers. I delivered the cake to the Pineview Grille at the Colorado Country Club.

The other cake I designed was delivered to the Falcon Officer's Club at the AF Academy. It was a very large cake...8, 12, and 16 inch square tiers...all done in black and white with a beautiful fresh floral cake top  in hot pink roses. I was very happy with the finished product, and so was my customer. The cake was done in 3 flavors...fudge marble with bavarian cream, yellow with strawberry mousse, and chocolate with raspberry and fudge. Again, the black portions were all done with Hershey's special dark chocolate fondant. The people at the Falcon Club were so wonderful to work with. When I got there, they let us use one of their carts, and helped to roll the cake in. The cake table was loaded with plates and a white table linen (two of my pet peeves...see older post), but they were so kind as to get another small table to put the plates on, and also put a black tablecloth overlay on top of the white linen. I also set this cake up on my new 22 inch square silver cake plateau...it made the cake look even prettier. 

Twin Cakes

The last party cakes I designed were for two sisters turning 18. One was on a swim team and the other was into ballet. I wanted the cakes to be alike, yet different, and be kind of abstract, so these are what I came up with. Both were vanilla cakes...one with whipped cream and fresh strawberries, the other with chocolate mousse...yum!

Happy Birthday, Carissa!

Today is my youngest granddaughter, Carissa's 1st birthday. We had a party for her the week before they moved to Hawaii, and here is a picture of the cake I did for her. It was done in chocolate marshmallow fondant with a gumpaste bow. Baking cocoa is added to the soupy marshmallow mixture before adding the powdered sugar. It's yummy. The rest of the pink decorations were done in pink marshmallow fondant. The cake flavor was vanilla with raspberry mousse filling. I don't know which she enjoyed more...the cake or the ice cream.

Chocolate Mint Mousse Wedding Cake

A visitor to my website requested some information about making a chocolate mint mousse cake for her daughter's wedding. First of all, she lives at a very high altitude, so it is necessary to make a few changes when baking the cake. For the chocolate mint cake, I use Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate and add 1 tsp. of mint flavoring to each cake mix. I also add 1/4 cup flour and an extra egg (4 total) to each mix. If I am using 2 mixes (I never mix more than 2 mixes at once), I add 7 eggs instead of 6. Also, be very careful not to put too much batter in the cake pans. Too much batter will also make the cakes sink in the middle. I used to always bake my cakes at 325 degrees instead of the recommended 350 degrees because the cakes turned out moister. At high altitudes, I have to raise the temperature slightly to 335 degrees. Just be careful not to overbake the cake. 


The layers of the cake are torted (split) and filled with a chocolate mint mousse. The recipe is as follows:

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese

Approx. 1/3 cup cocoa powder

Approx. 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2-3 cups of whipped topping

Andes mint pieces

Beat cream cheese until soft and smooth. Scrape bowl and gradually add the cocoa and powdered sugar and beat until smooth and fluffy, scraping the bowl often. Fold in the whipped topping and mint pieces.

I would normally ice this cake in a chocolate whipped cream with Andes mint pieces sprinkled on top, but for a wedding cake, I would ice it in a regular whipped cream. One of my past entries will give you the best recipe for a stabilized whipped cream icing. It is important that the cake stays refrigerated after decorating it until just before setting it up. Here are two pictures...one shows the chocolate mint mousse cake, and the other shows a wedding cake iced in whipped cream.                                           

Chocolate Mint Mousse Specialty Cake

Wedding cake iced with whipped cream icing

Combining fillings...

Yesterday we had a farewell party for our son-in-law Eddie, as he goes off  to AF basic training. He requested a yellow cake with raspberry filling. As I began decorating, I realized that I did not have quite enough raspberry filling to fill a half sheet, so I first put a layer of cream cheese filling, and then the raspberry over that. I called him after I had already filled and iced the cake and asked him if he liked cream cheese with raspberry, and thank goodness he said he did. I actually combine fillings quite often on cakes I do. Some of my favorites are cream cheese with fresh strawberries or lemon filling, fudge filling with raspberry, and whipped cream with fresh fruit. By the way, the cake was a big hit at the party!

Update on cake tasting day...

Yesterday afternoon was my cake tasting day for prospective brides. It was successful, even though I was pressed for time getting ready. We had several different flavors to choose from:

• Fudge marble with bavarian cream
• Lemon with cream cheese and fresh strawberries
• Chocolate with fudge and raspberry
  
• Spice with cream cheese pecan and white chocolate cream cheese frosting
• Chocolate with coconut pecan filling
• Banana split cake (everyone's favorite, of course)

Bruce was very helpful in cleaning up while I was talking with my customers. Since we had leftover cake as usual, we invited some of the neighbors we had not yet met over to take cake home. It was a great way to become acquainted and they loved the free cake.