Update on Whipped Cream Icing

If you are a regular follower of my blog, you know my dilemmas of coming up with good ways to stabilize whipped cream to use for icing cakes. Well, once again I have changed my method. This time, I think it's a keeper because it not only tastes terrific, is readily available, and holds up well, but is also very cost effective... all using the real stuff. Yum. So here's the method... for every pint of heavy whipping cream, add 1 Tablespoon instant vanilla pudding, 1/3 cup powdered sugar, and vanilla to taste. Whip in chilled bowl until stiff peaks form. Voila... incredibly tasting whipped cream icing for your next cake.

I get the 1/2 gallon from Costco since I go through a lot of cream. I also use it in 

my buttercream icing. You can just use the inexpensive store brand for the pudding.

Look at this yummy fluffy whipped cream, perfect for icing this strawberry shortcake specialty cake... rich buttery yellow cake with 3 layers of whipped cream and fresh strawberries... gotta love it!

Sheet cakes vs. specialty cakes...

So, over time I have developed a dislike for sheet cakes at weddings...a few reasons why...

• they take up allot of room
• they don't look all that great
• only one layer of filling vs. two
• square little piece of cake looks tacky on plate
• usually not allot of variety

When my bride's want a smaller wedding cake, and want extra cakes to complete the number of servings needed, I now try to convince them to go with round specialty cakes instead of the sheet cakes. Not only do they look nicer, but serve up nicer, and give your guests more variety. The price is almost the same, and the results far superior, at least in my humble opinion. When I'm catering a wedding and also furnishing the cake, we have a separate table for the wedding cake (of course), and then at the end of the buffet table, I will set up the specialty cakes. That way, if the bride wants to wait for awhile before cutting the cake, the guests can still have a piece of cake early in the reception. I usually prepare about 3 different flavors, and set the cakes up on glass blocks. Some brides that are having more than one reception, will have their wedding cake at one reception, and then opt out for serving only the specialty cakes at another reception or open house. Also, for older brides or second marriages, some are going totally for the beautiful specialty cake set-up instead of a wedding cake. Some of my most popular flavors are chocolate lover's, raspberry fudge, carrot with pecans, strawberry shortcake, banana split, spice with cream cheese pecan, and Shirley Temple. Check out these pages on my website to read about each of these flavors...
 http://www.cathyleavittcreations.com/home/specialty-cakes
http://www.cathyleavittcreations.com/flavors

Specialty cakes in lieu of wedding cake...on separate table

Specialty cakes at end of buffet table

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."

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

Using new silicone fondant mat

My new fondant mat arrived just in time for me to use to decorate my wedding cake for this weekend. It worked like a charm...just as I had hoped. I applied a very thin coat of Crisco before rolling out the fondant and it worked perfectly. No more sticking fondant or cornstarch all over my kitchen.

It was so fun to deliver this cake and see that the scroll work matched the design on the tablecloth overlays and the color of the roses matched almost perfectly to the color of the other silk roses they had used in the decorations. I was very pleased with the results. I also delivered 3 specialty cakes along with the wedding cake...Shirley Temple cake, but used white chocolate shavings instead of curls for easier cutting, Luscious Lemon, and Chocolate Mint Mousse. The flavors of the wedding cake were chocolate mint with chocolate mint mousse filling, and yellow with cream cheese and fresh strawberries. The flowers were done in royal icing, and the red was airbrushed on, leaving the bottom of the roses white, so as not to bleed on the white cake.

New website!!

I am excited to announce that my new website went live today! I put the new site together myself, with a little tweaking from my son, Brent. I'm pleased with the way it turned out, and hope that you will enjoy browsing through it. If you have any comments, I would be happy to hear from you.

http://cathyleavittcreations.com

To fill or not to fill...

Raspberry Fudge cake

Chocolate mint mousse cake Chocolate Lover's cake

Slicing the layers and adding a filling can turn any cake into an elegant dessert instead of "just a cake." Even the so called self-proclaimed non-cake lover may change his mind with the first bite. Several different flavors and ingredients can be used to fill cakes. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Fudge or fudge nut
• Cream cheese
• Mousse--strawberry, raspberry, chocolate, chocolate mint, peanut butter to name a few
• Fruit fillings--strawberry (best when using fresh strawberries in season), raspberry, lemon, cherry
• Bavarian creme
• Whipped cream--vanilla or chocolate

My specialty cakes always have some kind of yummy filling between the layers. For example my raspberry fudge cake has a layer of fudge filling between layers of raspberry filling in a moist chocolate cake, iced in a delicious buttercream and covered with hand-shaved chocolate curls...yumm! Another is the banana split cake...rich layers of yellow cake with layers of whipped cream with pineapple, fresh strawberries, and bananas, iced with whipped cream and sprinkled with nuts and drizzled with chocolate syrup. Makes you hungry, doesn't it? Next time, try adding a filling to your cake and wait for the compliments!!!