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Oldie but Goodie: What's the Best Fondant??

June 10, 2018 Add Comment lainnya Edit

I have a crazy schedule the next few weeks with classes, so I will have to pull a few posts back out from the archives. And The Great Fondant Comparison I did about a year ago is one of the posts that I am the most proud of. It took a lot of work, and I really enjoyed it.

Below is the shortened version:

To find out which brand of fondant, or which recipe, is best, I covered each of 5 cakes with fondant. I purchased three brands, Pettinice, Satin Ice and Wilton, and I made two myself, a homemade scratch fondant, and a homemade marshmallow fondant.

(All of the score sheets from my testers and complete details can be found on the complete Great Fondant Comparison post.)

Categories/Winners:
Ease of Preparation: Wilton
Cost/ Availability: Homemade marshmallow fondant
Ease of Kneading/ Rolling: Satin Ice
Ease/ Success on Cake: Tie between Homemade scratch and Satin Ice
Appearance: Satin Ice
Taste: Homemade scratch fondant
Texture: Homemade scratch fondant
Overall: Tie between homemade scratch fondant and Satin Ice

!! THE WINNER IS SATIN ICE!!

In the interest of full disclosure: NO ONE paid me anything or provided me with anything for this test. I am a Wilton cake decorating instructor, but they didn't give me anything either.

Click the Links Below to See:
Fondant Decorating Ideas
Recipes for fondant and more

And don't forget, if you shop at Amazon.com through my link, you support this blog and its contents. Thank you!

Back to School Week!

June 10, 2018 Add Comment lainnya Edit

Many of you may have started school weeks, or even months, ago. But here in the frozen tundra, we wait until the day after Labor Day to start school. So, this week, I'm featuring some Back-to-School goodies for all of you (horrible) parents, like myself, who are really relieved to hear the school bell ring again.

Here's a little teaser to what you'll see this week:

Until tomorrow... Enjoy the last few hours of "summer."

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MY Favorite Recipes from 2012

June 03, 2018 Add Comment lainnya Edit

I know I'm a tad late with this, but I was resisting the "year in review" stuff.

Below are my Top 10 Recipes from Beki Cook's Cakes Blog in 2012.

Click Here for YOUR Favorite Posts of 2012 - Based on pageviews.
Click Here for My Favorite Decorating Ideas of 2012.

#10- Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This cake was pretty special, for our neighbor, who saved a bunny that got trapped in our window well.

#9- S'Mores Cake

Soooooo good. Not the easiest cake to make, I'm not going to lie, but so worth the effort!

#8- Strawberry-Rhubarb Sauce

I love this sauce. In the summer, I think it belongs on top of positively everything.

#7- Caramel Sauce

And this sauce I discovered this winter. It's such a rich delight!

#6- Creme Brulee

Hands Down. My favorite dessert.
Confession Time: I may actually have tired of this for now because I made so many of them recently, and overdosed a little.

#5- Homemade Cherry Pie with Flaky Crust Recipe

Dang, maybe this is my favorite dessert? Well, a close second anyway. I love cherry pie!

#4- Picnic-Perfect Portable Pies

These were a huge hit. I will be making these again next summer.

#3- Chocolate Caramel Cookie Bars

These rich, rich bars are just terrible. I can't stop eating them when I make them.

#2- Homemade Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

This was one of those "leftover" recipes that I made because I had a little bit of this and a little bit of that left over. And they're amazing.

#1- Most Ridiculous Chocolate Cake Ever

This cake was 'designed' by the team of my husband and two five-year-olds for my husband's birthday last year. He may not get a cake this year, thanks to all of the work I put in to this one... I'm still earning on the chocolate overload this provided.

And don't forget, if you shop at Amazon.com through my link, you support this blog and its contents. Thank you!

One Million Visits! Thank You!

June 01, 2018 Add Comment lainnya Edit

I'm really excited that I have hit a big milestone, ONE MILLION PAGEVIEWS on my blog!
Thank you for being one of those pageviews right now!!

It's kind of fun for me to see what are the most popular posts from those million views:

Polka Dots Inside Cake (How-To & How NOT To)

Twin Boys Baby Shower Cake Pops

How To Make Cake Pops

The Great Fondant Comparison

The Cupcake Swirl

Royal Icing Recipe

Banana Split Cake Pops

How to Make a Firetruck Cake

Donut Frosting Recipes

How Long Does It Really Take to Make Cake Pops?

Happy Easter - Sweet Treat Ideas

May 31, 2018 Add Comment lainnya Edit

Happy Easter!!

Easter Basket Cake

The basketweave technique looks really amazing.

This post includes video of how to make a cake that looks like an Easter Basket.

Easter Egg Cake Truffles

These are just like cake pops, but you make them with toothpicks, instead of lollipop sticks.

Easter Egg Cookie Pops

There's just something better about when you put anything on a stick.

Click the link to see how to make cookies on a stick.

Easter Cookie Bouquet

These Cookie Pops are perfect to make a bouquet.

Click this link to see how to make a cookie bouquet of your own.

The Simple Easter Egg Cake
An oval pan, some pastel colored icing... it's all you need.

Simple Spring Cupcakes

These might be a little more generically spring than Easter, but they fit the color scheme here.

Click the Links Below to See:
Vanilla Sugar Cookie Recipe
Royal Icing Recipe
How To Make Cake Pops
Spring Decorating Ideas

The Best Part About Decorating Cakes for Other People...

May 18, 2018 Add Comment lainnya Edit

LEFTOVERS!!

Step 1: Take spare banana cake out of freezer. (See Monday's post about the freezer.)

Step 2: Slap leftover icing on top and sides.

Step 3: Drop leftover dots on top. (More info in a later post about icing decorations.)

elapsed time: 5-10 minutes (other than defrosting time)

Step 4: Let your kids think you made it "just for them!"

Step 5: Eat!

Bring on 2012!

May 16, 2018 Add Comment lainnya Edit

Thank you all for your support and interest in Beki Cook's Cakes Blog in my inaugural five months of blogging. I have a lot to learn, and have already learned tons.
I'm going to take a little week-long break after the Season of Baking craziness the last few weeks to gear up for a good start to next year.
Please don't be a stranger. I have something really pretty in mind for New Year's Day.
Love,
Beki

Laissez les Bons Temps Roullez!

May 13, 2018 Add Comment lainnya Edit

In a perfect world, I'd have made a King Cake, some Hurricane drinks, and host a parade today in honor of Mardi Gras.

Instead, I added some food coloring to vanilla pudding...

And some sprinkles to pancakes.

Enjoy your Mardi Gras!

Happy Easter

May 10, 2018 Add Comment lainnya Edit

That is all.

- Beki

Cake Decorating Classes in the Twin Cities

May 10, 2018 Add Comment lainnya Edit

I don't often post about the cake decorating classes I teach around the Twin Cities, but I have some really fun ones coming up, and I'd love to see you at one of them!

Cake Decorating 101

If you want to learn the Cake Decorating Basics I teach my favorite techniques in this one or two-session class.

Stillwater Area High School on Thursday, May 3 from 6-9pm.

Thursdays May 24 & 31 in White Bear Lake from 6-8:30pm.

Fun with Frosting

I really love this class. In it, you will make Royal Icing, Swiss Meringue Buttercream, Cream Cheese Icing and Chocolate Ganache. You'll also learn how to fill and swirl cupcakes. It's so fun! I really love teaching it.

Thursday, April 19 at Sibley High School in West St. Paul from 6-8:30pm.

Stillwater Thursday, June 7 from 6-8:30pm.

Grass & Bugs Cupcakes

This is a fun class for kids and parents. For this class, you can bring one or two of your children (recommended ages 6 and up), and you'll decorate a dozen cupcakes with grass, ladybugs, bees and caterpillars. It's a lot of fun.

Saturday, May 5 from 1-2:30pm in White Bear Lake.

Saturday, May 12 from 10-noon at South St. Paul High School.

Wilton Cake Decorating Classes

I also teach the Wilton Classes every month at the JoAnn store in Edina. (That's right by the Galleria.) Coming up in May, I have two of the "advanced" classes. So, if you've taken some cake decorating classes (or have some experience with decorating), and you want to learn more about decorating with fondant, gum paste or royal icing, these classes are perfect for you!

Course Two will run on Monday nights in May beginning May 7 (from 6:30-8:30pm).

And Course Three is scheduled for Tuesday nights in May beginning May 8 (also 6:30-8:30pm).

You can always find a list of my classes by going to my home website, bekicookscakes.com.
The community education cake decorating classes, which I teach in West St. Paul, White Bear Lake, Stillwater, Maplewood and Elko/New Market are found at bekicookscakes.com/commed.
And you can find the schedule for my Wilton cake decorating classes in Edina at bekicookscakes.com/wilton.

If you have a few friends who want to get together to have a cake decorating party, workshop or private lesson, I do those, too. We can work around just about any theme you want. We can decorate cake pops, cupcakes, cookies or cakes. You can find my pricing and ideas at bekicookscakes.com/parties.

*Please Note: You have to register in advance for all of these classes. They also all have minimum participant requirements, so occasionally the classes have to be canceled for not enough students. Please contact me if you have any questions. You can leave a comment here, or you can email me.

And don't forget, if you shop at Amazon.com through my link, you support this blog and its contents. Thank you!

Tip for Tuesday - Icing Bag Bullet

May 06, 2018 Add Comment lainnya Edit

Did you know that you don't always have to have a coupler to use an Icing Bag Bullet?

Today's Tip for Tuesday: As long as the tip is wide enough to thread the plastic wrap through, you don't have to use a coupler, and you can still use a bullet. This makes it a lot easier to, say, swirl a bunch of cupcakes with various colors or icings.

If you haven't heard of the bullet before... prepare yourself. You are now learning how to make cleaning up after decorating cakes, cupcakes, cookies, whatever, a zillion times easier.

It's simple:

You scoop about 1/2- 1 cup icing onto a piece of plastic wrap. Fold the bottom up, the top down, then grab it in both hands around the ends, and swing it gently to create a column of icing in the middle.

You feed the end of the plastic wrap through a coupler (or a large tip), cut it off, and voila! icing bag filling made simple.
I recommend that you not use the bullet with any tip smaller than a #12 round tip or #21 star tip. I haven't had much luck using it with the bismarck filling tip either.

The best part... the clean up. Simply pull the bullet back out of the bag. All you should have is a little icing down on the coupler. Makes those disposable decorating bags reusable for a much longer time.

Have you used the Icing Bag Bullet before?? Do you love it? Let me know in the comments below.

Click the Links Below to See:
My Original (more in-depth) Icing Bag Bullet Post
Icing Recipes and Ideas
Other Tip for Tuesday posts

And don't forget, if you shop at Amazon.com through my link, you support this blog and its contents. Thank you!