ELVIS' 6th Birthday!

ELVIS' 6th Birthday!, originally uploaded by CAKE Amsterdam - Cakes by ZOBOT.

DIY birthday cupcake kit for ELVIS! With CAKE Amsterdam supervision! ;-) For our really good friends kid's birthday we went over to their house, baked cookies and decorated cupcakes with Elvis for his school friends! They came out amazing!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELVIS!!! X

The Scooby Doo Cake - Part 4: The finished work!

"ZOINKS, like Happy B-Day SHAGGY!"

The finished product! The ultimate MYSTERY MACHINE birthday cake for a 23 year old SCOOBY-DOO fan! And get this... the birthday boy's name is SHAGGY too! This was my first cake made as a free agent, working from home and for myself! It took some serious prep but now my kitchen is set up and it was an excellent first challenge. Now I know what I can offer and make from home! I was very happy with how it turned out. What was really important to me was that I wanted to avoid the typical issues you see with car cakes... it was very handy having my boyfriend Tim help with the planning of the project. Since he is an engineer, he designed and built the chassis and he also helped get the scaling and sizing correct! Important details when trying to make the best replica cake you can, FROM CAKE and SUGAR!!! ;)

Building the Scooby Doo Cake - Part 3: Decorations

I pre-made some of the decorations like the Scooby-Doo and Shaggy figurines and the Mystery Machine van logo a day or 2 in advanced from fondant.

Building the Scooby Doo Cake - Part 2: The CAKE

Baked sheets of chocolate cake are now cut, stacked with layers of chocolate ganache, cooled, then carved and covered with a thin layer of vanilla butter cream over it. The cake is cooled for about 1 hour and then trimmed and then covered with blue and green fondant.

Building the Scooby Doo Cake - Part 1: The Chassis

My boyfriend Tim is an engineer... and I called on his expertise to build/rig up the chassis for the Mystery Machine! I really wanted the van to look like a van and not a lot of other car cakes and or Mystery Machine cakes I had seen online. It had to be authentic! the chassis is made from foam board, duct tape, wooden dowels and pvc pipe.

Tim Burton Commercial!

Commercial featuring Tim Burton inspired cakes made by Sweet Things and Zoe Gottehrer. Tim Burton Promi for Chello/UPC by Champagne Valentine.

http://vimeo.com/12106639

MACAROONS and OLIVE OIL CAKE (YUMMY!)

My first attempts at making French Chocolate Macaroons... They were really good, but a bit meringue like (flakey outside with a chewy inside) and less on the french Macaroony side... i used a recipe from Martha Stewart's website actually. I think because i live in quite a damp and wet climate i think i'll have to reconsider the rations of almond flour... making them a bit more cakey cookie like. They were filled with chocolate ganache.

The OLIVE OIL CAKE on the other hand was a success! DELICIOUS... not as heavy or as oily as i had thought... i added lemon zest instead of orange zest... i think this would be a wonderful desert for people who aren't the typical desert or sweet lovers... i'd serve it with a rosemary home made ice cream or a lemon rosemary drizzle syrup or lavender syrup.... to close that gap between sweet and savory.

but it's an excellent breakfast cake and or tea cake as well.

OLIVE OIL CAKE from CHOW.com

http://www.chow.com/recipes/10760-olive-oil-cake