North Texas Cake and Sugar Art Show 2011

Sugar Wonders'

North Texas Cake and Sugar Art Show

April 30 - May 1, 2011

Cascades Event Center

The Colony, TX

So I decided to take a "me" day and drive up to Dallas for the Sugar Wonders' North Texas Cake Show by myself.  I felt like I had missed out on some of the Austin cake show earlier this year because I was stuck volunteering most of the time!  I had a great time and got some awesome pictures.  The cakes were really impressive.  I was hoping to splurge on a bunch of new cake toys, but I didn't really find anything that would be consistently useful for me.  Earlene Moore's new lace molds were certainly tempting, though!  If I lived nearby I would have put some cash into the raffle drawings, but I could only do a day trip.

Stats:

•     Approximately 164 cake decorating competition entries
•     3 additional cakes on display, but did not appear to be in the competition
•     cake decorating competition categories were:
•     Buttercream Dream
•     Special Occasion / Holiday Cakes
•     Sculptured Cakes
•     Novelty Tiered
•     Wedding Tiered
•     Special Techniques NOT on a Cake
•     Floral Display
•     Artistic Impression (this year’s theme was “Texas”)
•     Approximately 7,700 square feet of cake show enjoyment!
•     Approximately 10 vendors, including
•     Grex
•     Earlene’s Cakes
•     Deseret Designs
•     Cake Carousel
•     CakePlay
•     LeeAnn’s Cakes & Supplies
•     essense cakery
•     PhotoFrost
•     Cake Connection
•     Approximately 35 raffle items plus a huge Cuisinart mixer and an airbrush set from Grex

There were several demonstrations during the day, mostly popular vendors showing how to use their specialty products.  Earlene Moore showed us how to use her new silicone molds and how to make shimmery sugar pearls.

This cake was my favorite.  She hand-punched thousands of gelatin sequins for this cake!  She was kind enough to post a tutorial on how she did it here: http://confessionsofascratchbaker.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-first-tutorialgelatin-sequins.html

 Here are my other favorites:

Before I left I nom'd on a champagne cupcake with white chocolate frosting from essence cakery.

Hopefully they'll post the winners soon.  I had a great time and will definitely try to attend this show every year from now on!

Here are the rest of my photos.  I think I got one of every single cake!

https://picasaweb.google.com/102708657112413354279/NorthTexasCakeShow2011#

Emeril's Cheesecake for Shawn

Emeril's Cheesecake for Shawn

Happy Birthday, hubby!

Happy Birthday to my dear husband who has reached the big Three-Oh.  Can you believe a hubby whose wife is totally in to cake decorating only wants a plain cheesecake for his birthday???  He didn't even want a topping!  Oh well, it's his birthday, not mine.  Sorry it's not a pretty picture, but we can blame hubby for cutting the cake ;)

Stats:

• New York Style cheesecake recipe from Emeril Lagasse
• 9" round spring-form pan
• Honey Maid graham cracker crust

It's been a very long time since I've made a cheesecake, and I only used the recipe on the back of the cream cheese box.  This was for something special, so I took some time to research on the internet.  There are a variety of cheesecakes out there, but I determined hubby's favorite to be New York style.

Baking911.com suggested to keep the graham cracker crumbs uneven.  Fine, even crumbs from a food processor was a no-no, so I put some crackers in a gallon freezer bag and crushed them with my rolling pin.

Hmm, the recipe said to combine the crumbs, sugar, and butter together until well mixed.  I didn't see how cold butter would mix, so I melted it.  Maybe the instructions had omitted that part.  The mixture spread evenly on the bottom and I used my hand to mash it down.

I've never used a cheesecake recipe that had sour cream and flour!  I read that the flour can help stabilize the cake while baking.  Looked like runny batter by the time I poured it in to the pan.

After about 30 minutes of cooking, I noticed a dark brown ring forming and I freaked.  I put baking strips around the pan, praying that all this shaking wouldn't totally collapse the wiggly cake.  After ... um ... 30 more minutes? I took it out of the oven.  The browning did not progress, thankfully.

Interesting!  10 minutes in to cooling and it has shrunk around 30%.

Final verdict: Yum-oh!  The cheesecake had about 30 hours to cool/settle in the fridge.  I bet it's even better now that it's been 2 days (luckily we have left-overs).  Nice and creamy, not too dense.  The edges were soft.  Hubby mentioned that he liked that the crust wasn't as thick as we had previously made them. 

Sorry the slice isn't very pretty.  I did research how to properly cut a cheesecake, but our resources were limited since we were on the deck of a pizza place celebrating.  Next time I hope to try my hand at leveling a cheesecake, smoothing it out, and then doing some decorative topping!

Day of Sharing 2010

Capital Confectioner's "Day of Sharing" 2010

This was my first time at a "Day of Sharing" and also my first time really pitching in for Capital Confectioners, the greater Austin-area cake club.  I had a blast but my legs ached for days afterward! 

Stats:

• ~120 attendees + vendors + volunteers = ~150 people
• Wyndham Hotel & Conference Center in Round Rock, TX 
• 8 am - 5 pm fun-filled hours
• http://dos.capitalconfectioners.com

I volunteered to be A/V girl.  Apparently there were some mishaps last year that the club really wanted someone dedicated to this part of the show.  Boy, did I learn a lot from doing that!  I have a mental list of all the A/V things that went wrong.  Hopefully people only noticed half of them.  Next time, if given the chance, it'll go much, much smoother!  Many thanks to Jeanette for volunteering to be camera girl for all the demonstrations!

The day started of with a mini-disaster.  I was running a little behind setting up prior to the show.  My length calculations for the composite cords ran too short to offer much wiggle room, so I flew out the door and on to the highway to the closest Walmart to buy extensions.  It was about 8:20 when I got back.  All my wires were running along the front of the room where some people where bustling about setting up vendor booths and what-not.  I busted out my trusty roll of duct tape and started taping down the wires to the carpet so no one would trip.  My first attempts were pilot tapes just to get them in to a good position.  Suddenly someone cries out; I turn around and there's some poor women on the ground!  She tripped on the power strip that was plugged in to one of the floor outlets.  She couldn't get up and her knee began to swell.  I got her a drink of water, helped acquire a bag of ice, and some paramedics were called.  Not sure what became of her, but I like to think she was eventually ok.  She was so cute; she didn't want to leave.  She said she came here for a cake show and intended on staying!

When I wasn't scurrying around, I tried to pay attention to all the lovely demonstrators and what they had to share.  First up was Brian Stevens.  He showed us how he did the internal structure and how he painted the Gollum cake that created earlier this year for the "That Takes the Cake" cake show/competition.  This show cake won 2nd place.

Next was Ximena Sempertegui who showed us how to make an ADORABLE christening outfit from fondant.

Up next was Marco Antonio Lopez Sanches and another lovely lady (I didn't catch her name) demonstrating techniques for stenciling and also creating the most beautiful and delicate looking flowers.  They didn't speak English so we had a translator explain what they were saying.  Below is a stencil she showed us using royal icing and disco dust.  When she peeled the stencil away, almost everyone said "wow" or "ahh" out loud.

Last but certainly not least was Stephen Benison and his line of intricate and unusual cutters.  It was funny during his demonstrations because for some cutters the audience (myself included) didn't have a clue where he was going, how it would look, or what would turn out ... and then he'd suddenly flip something here or twist something there and flair the edges out ... and then came the "aaaahhh"s.  He sold out of the products he brought quickly.

We served everyone breakfast and lunch, including this wonderful dessert bar:

On display in the lobby were lovely and whimsical cake/sugar designs from Jeanette and Kimberly.

AND there were raffle PRIZES!  I even won something!  I put plenty of tickets in to a box to make sure I got Mike McCarey's DVDs that he graciously donated to the club.  Sucks that I didn't win the airbrush set though!  The heavy hitters of the raffle prizes included a KitchenAid mixer and a Cricut Cake.

This adorable winner said she's giving it to her mom!

Perhaps the best part of the show was when Kyla presented Irene the "Heart of the Club" award for all her efforts towards the Capital Confectioners.  She was so surprised and touched, we squeezed a few tears from her and some of the audience members!

Plus a nice gift card!

View all my photos of this wonderful day here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/102708657112413354279/DOS2010?feat=directlink

Snickerdoodle Cuppies: Review

From The Cake Mix Doctor

Snickerdoodle Cake (in cuppie form)

My dear husband and brother-in-law bought me The Cake Mix Doctor and Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor books for Christmas.  This is my first recipe attempt from these thoughtful presents.

Stats:

• Snickerdoodle cuppies
• IMBC (Cake Love's recipe), flavored with vanilla and white chocolate

The ingredients were simple, but I did have to specifically buy a pint of whole milk (we only drink 2%).

I don't have much experience with doctored cakes.  The first doctored cake recipe I made was WASC cake.  This batter really surprised me.  It was very thick, almost the tensity of whipped cream.  After everything was mixed in, it was disappointing to realize I couldn't use my new batter dispenser.  Instead, I tried my disher (similar to a small ice cream scoop).  That didn't go well either.  It took several squeezes to dump the batter out and I still had to do at least two passes for every cuppie.  What would have been a better idea was to put the batter into a decorator's bag and "pipe" them in.

Unfortunately I overbaked the cuppies.  I'm unfamiliar to the recipe and how they should look when done.  The bottoms and tops were slightly crispy and hard, but luckily not burnt.  Here they are with a 1M swirl top.

The cinnamon in the batter smelled soooo good while baking; it was heavenly.  I was so excited to taste them.

Inside it was very fluffy, balancing nicely between dry and moist.  My husband said the taste reminded him of a cinnamon muffin.  He also liked that I overbaked them because the harder portions were a nice contrast to the fluffy innards.

I'm glad I tried this recipe.  It's important that I branch out of my safe shell of "cakes I know".  Honestly, I wasn't a big fan of the fluffiness, but the cinnamon was a nice change of pace.  I'm looking forward to more doctored cakes!

Pound Cake: Review

I finally had a slice of my pound cake (Paula Deen recipe).  Three slices were reserved for my husband and myself while the rest went to my coworkers.  Here's what I thought:

As suggested by the recipe posts, I used 2.5 cups of sugar instead of 3 (see update below).  That left the cake slightly less sweet and more available for pairing it with other foods.  I bet if served with a fruity compote, the subtle sweetness would support any sugary or tart flavors.  The crust seemed sweeter, making that part of the cake more desirable to me and my husband.  This recipe would work well in a bundt pan so it can maximize the surface area.  I had made mine in an 8" round pan.  Be forewarned that the recipe makes too much batter for an 8" round, so bail out about 1.5 cups.

The texture of the inner cake was dense and firm.  The outside had crusted so it was harder, but not crunchy.  It also tasted noticeably different than the inner cake, allowing a large range of flavor in a bite.  There was a prominent buttery taste that I personally didn't like, but I won't hold that against the cake ... I really just don't like the taste of butter.

As for moisture, this cake wasn't particularly dry or moist.  It was right in the middle so I completely forgot about commenting on it until a day later.  I've seen other recipes say that adding sour cream will make it more moist.

This is a heavy cake, so I can't imagine scarfing down a lot of it.  The buttery taste and density doesn't seem to be elegant enough for a special occasion cake.  I really see this cake simply served, sprinkle of powdered sugar, paired with something very sweet like pie filling or ice cream.

UPDATE (09-24-2009)

I made this cake again because I needed to do some carving for my husband's birthday.  This time around I forgot about not adding as much sugar.  The cake still came out great, and I think my husband and I agree it tastes better with the full 3 cups of sugar.  What was interesting is that the top crust ... kind of ... collapsed.  I baked the batch in a 10" round pan.  The batter amount was perfect for that size.  After trimming off the top, I was still left with a 2" cake.  After the cake cooled, I went to flip it out of the pan and on to a cooling rack.  My hand made the top crust collapse.  There seemed to be a thin pocket of air from the very top crust and the rest of the cake.  After removing the broken pieces, the cake was left missing a 6" circle of crust from the center.  But man did that crust taste good.  All nice and carmelized, crispy and sweet.  I definitely need to buy a bundt pan.  Anywho, this recipe is great if you need to carve a cake.  I had 2 10" x 2" layers that had a spiral path carved in to it.  The cake was easy to cut while still allowing me to maintain control (I used a pumpkin carving knife because it was like a little saw and also a steak knife when I needed a longer blade).