Hello beautiful people!

Beckycakes is back! I’ve got the motivation and time (sort of) and I am looking forward to making beautiful and tasty treats for you again!

I’ve had a lot of changes over the last several years and I had taken the time mostly off from everything. I moved 4 times and that alone made it hard, I didn’t have a proper place to bake! Also with all of the changes it took an emotional toll on me and I just didn’t have the passion I needed.

I am moving yet again but it’s a good move and I’m looking forward to what’s ahead!

And I’m an aunt now to this beautiful little girl Adalyn! I’ll be moving closer to her and I’m really excited about that!

 

 

Princess Birthday

Another from last weekend (it was a busy one!) This was another favorite of mine. Princess themed! 2 dozen cake pops, 3 dozen cupcakes and a smash cake.

The cake pops with the fondant tiaras are chocolate and the ones with sprinkles, vanilla. The cupcakes with the fondant tiaras are red velvet with white buttercream and the sprinkles are marble cake with pink buttercream. The smash cake is marble too with pink buttercream and pink sugar to give it some sparkle with a fondant tiara.

I LOVE LOVE the tiaras!!

XoXo ♥ Becky

Baby Shower Cake pops!

Just last weekend I had the project of 8 dozen cake pops! That was a big but fun task. Complete with clear wraps, ribbons and tags with the baby’s name (tags provided by client).

The pink ones with black swirls are chocolate and the black with pink swirls are vanilla.

XoXo ♥ Becky

Minnie Mouse Birthday!

Back in February I was asked for a Minnie Mouse themed cake a cupcakes, how awesome is that?! Not sure why it took me so long to post about it (I’m terrible at updating!) It was a really fun theme and everyone was happy with the results!

For that cake & cupcakes I used my favorite chocolate cake. The cupcakes have pink buttercream with fondant bows and ears and edible pearls. The cake is filled with buttercream and covered with my homemade marshmallow fondant. The hat is made from Styrofoam and gum paste with a fondant bow.

And as a surprise I brought a smash cake for the birthday girl. It was chocolate cake with purple buttercream and sprinkles.

XoXo ♥ Becky

New slogan!

I’ve come up with several new slogan/tagline options (with help from the lovely internet) but could really use your help.

Currently using: Custom cakes, cupcakes, cakepops & more. I feel it’s too long and not catchy.

Vote on your favorite or suggest a new one!

Atlanta Braves Grooms Cake

Last October I made a really fun grooms cake for an Atlanta Braves fan!

It is a 2 tier chocolate cake covered and filled with vanilla buttercream and then decorated in marshmallow fondant. All from scratch.

Including an edible baseball made of a rice crispy treat also covered in fondant 🙂 From what I hear, the kids loved the ball!

Here I am just after getting it set up before the reception!

 

 

And the lovely cake 🙂

Wishing Trey & Alicia the very best! I’m happy I could be a part of the big day!

XoXo ♥ Becky

2014!

Whew it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged! I haven’t been baking too much lately, took a hiatus of sorts for the holidays. Busy time of year! Did a little personal baking and that was about it. I have however been doing some other business related stuff.

Last year was a good year getting in some more experience and clients & it was also the year I discovered my homemade marshmallow fondant! And at the beginning of this year I broke 100 fans on facebook! ♥♥ Love all of my wonderful fans!! Great start to the new year! I also created a Twitter & Instagram (@itsbeckycakes).

The last big project I did was an awesome grooms cake in the theme of the Atlanta Braves! It turned out great. Simple cake with a lot of detail put into the theme. Used my marshmallow fondant, of course, to decorate! I’m going to make a separate post for the details and pictures so keep an eye out!

I’m REALLY excited about the next project I’m doing! I’m making a birthday cake an cupcakes for a 1st birthday! I’ll post more about that later.

Otherwise, I’m focusing on advertising and social media pretty heavily. 2014 is going to be a big year! My goal is least 6-8 big projects this year. I’ve already got one booked and it’s just January so I think I’m off to a great start!

XoXo ♥ Becky

Super Mario theme!

Hello all!  I wanted to update on the cake I was writing about in the last post, I ended up starting over the next day and cramming all the work of the baking and decorating in one day.  I will start MUCH earlier next time!  I managed to get it all done but I was sure tired!

Nothing else were wrong (or funny) while baking the cake and cupcakes but I had a heck of a time with the fondant (at first).  I was planning on using regular store bought fondant just for the base and then using my own homemade marshmallow fondant for the actual design/details.  I decided this because the party was going to be held outside (pool party) and here in Florida it would be in the 90’s with high humidity and I have read that the marshmallow fondant does not hold up as well as regular.  So I get the fondant out and start kneading it to get it workable and adding color as it was white and it was just crumbling and not holding together.  I worked with it forever adding different things to try and save it!  It didn’t work; I threw it away and decided to take my chances with my homemade fondant.  So much easier to work with!  My frustration level went down a LOT!  I get the cake covered in my sky blue fondant flawlessly and make another batch to make all of the other colors I’d need and it went without a hitch.

By the time I got the cake all decorated I realized I was one bag of powdered sugar short (due to the extra fondant I had to make) and I couldn’t make the buttercream for the cupcakes.  That had to wait until the next morning after a trip to the store.  I wonder what the cashier thinks when I come through every day when I have a project (sometimes more than once) to buy only powdered sugar or butter in bulk!  I really should just buy more at once but that would just be too easy 😉

I made it to the party with everything finished and the birthday boy was super excited, that made all the work completely worth it!  The marshmallow fondant held up just fine in the heat and humidity and was a lot better tasting than the regular so that was a big win! 

Lesson learned, make the fondant several days in advance and make sure I have all of the ingredients to make the cake the day before decorating!  That would have lessened the time spent the day before the event and all of the stress that brought with it!

I’m happy with how everything came out and got a lot of compliments ❤

The cake is chocolate filled with Oreo pudding and buttercream and the cupcakes are a mix of chocolate and vanilla topped with buttercream.

Comedy of errors!

I have a project for a birthday cake covered in fondant so I decided to start early to have plenty of time to decorate.  Sounds good right?  Well, I got out of work today around 8 pm and headed home, took care of my pets, changed into pj’s and then sat down to take care of a little bit of business online and before you know it it was after midnight!  I get distracted easily 😉

I don’t have to be in bed at any particular time so I wanted to start on my cake regardless of the time.  I head into the kitchen and start getting everything out that I need and realize I don’t have but a pinch of sugar!  Oh no!  I contemplated waiting until morning to go out and get more to bake the cake but decided to go ahead and get some now.  So I head over to the closest 24 hour drugstore and pick some up.

Good, now I’m ready!  So I start putting stuff together and when I got to the unsweetened cocoa powder for the chocolate cake I found that I only had 1/3 of what I needed.  Oh no again!  Why I didn’t check this before I went to the store I have no idea!  I did not want to head back out as now it’s around 1 am and I’d already been out so I start looking for alternatives.  I find some hot chocolate power…hmm…I know it’s not at all the same but I added some to the real unsweetened cocoa powder I have and dump it in.  Either it works or it doesn’t, we shall see!

Oh but that is not all, I also use a cup of hot coffee and when I got my Keurig going it started making funny sounds and nothing was coming out!  What?!  It’s not even that old!  I powered it off and back on and tried again, this time it is spitting out some liquid but also still making a weird noise.  I moved it a bit and more coffee started pouring out and I ended up with enough.  Whew.  Still worried about my little coffee making baby though 😦  So I pour the hot coffee into my measuring cup (back story, I dropped my usual measuring cup the other day and broke it) and it cracked all down the side.  Goodness, I guess I should have seen that coming but my last measuring cup could handle it just fine.  Managed to get the coffee into the mix and finished up the mixing.  Now on to pouring it into the pans, didn’t seem to be as much as usual but I got both pans filled and in the oven.

Obviously if this doesn’t turn out tasty I will made a new cake with the proper ingredients tomorrow and will just have to do everything in one day somehow!  I am excited to see what becomes of it!  And if I have to do it again tomorrow, I wish better luck upon it!  🙂

❤

So much has been going on lately!

In my last post I wrote about the marshmallow fondant I made and since then I made a ton more and decorated a cake!  It was done just for fun and not for anyone or anything in particular but it really turned out awesome!

I made a cherry almond cake via this recipe and made my own vanilla buttercream to crumb coat.  I let it sit for a day before I was able to make the fondant and decorate so it was good and ready to go.  The cake turned out a bit heavy for me but had a nice flavor and my hubby loved it!  The chunks of cherry mixed in really made it.  

Here is the cake after it was all decorated

And here you can see the cherries

 

Can’t wait to make some more!