Boxing Gloves Cake

So, my last cake for a while is for my daughters boyfriend Lucas.

Luca trains in M1 Thai Boxing and Nadia thought this would be a great cake for his birthday.

As I know NOTHING about sports, let alone boxing gloves, I looked around for the proper Thai Boxing gloves. We noticed that these gloves were flatter and more squared off at the top. 

In any case, I started off with a couple of rectangle simple butter cakes.  I made two separate cakes and cut each one into two layers.

This simple butter cake is one of the tastiest of the heavier cakes that is very easy to carve.

I made a paper template that I cut the cakes around.  Because there are two using a template keeps both cakes the same size and shape.

A very simple template and very simple to cut.

Crumb coat the prepared cakes with buttercream icing and refrigerate for about 20 minutes. I used half butter/half shortening buttercream because today is hot and humid!

Thankfully for this project I was able to get ready made RED fondant. What a treat that was. That sliced about 45 minutes and about 2 buckets of sweat off my day.

 

Just a few finishing touches and we’re done.

 

 

Happy Birthday Luca !

 

 

 

Banana Cupcakes

I’ve been looking for a good banana cupcake recipe for a while. I have a wonderful banana cake, banana bread recipe, but I wanted a cupcake with bananas.

This is a great recipe.  It’s more cakey… or cupcakey (?)

Ingredients

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup mashed ripe bananas

1/4 cup buttermilk

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Enjoy !

 

Preparation

In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Add the eggs, vanilla, bananas and buttermilk.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to banana mixture. Fill 18 paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove to wire racks to cool completely. In a small mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and enough milk to achieve desired spreading consistency.

Frost cupcakes any way you like.

 

*  Keep in mind that these are cupcakes and not your typical banana bread muffins.

** For a great article on using butter vs. shortening in baking, click here.

adapted from allrecipes

This Little Piggy – Pig Cake

This one is for Sara.

For Sara’s birthday she requested a pig cake.  Seems she has something in common with my daughter… the love of pigs!

After all who couldn’t love a face like this?

Thankfully Sara had something a little different in mind. She gave me pictures of the pigs she wanted on her cake. It was… a piece of cake!

Here was my main model. Top Pig, as it were.

 

I started out with the Simple Butter Cake recipe. I can’t stress enough how delicious this cake is.  The recipe makes 7-1/2 cups of batter, perfect for a larger cake and it is the perfect cake for carving and dense enough to hold heavy fondant.

Anyway…this little piggy went to Sara’s house.

with a few assorted pigs

And a little pink velvet on the inside

 

Happy Birthday Sara!