Alternatives to Cupcakes

After a long silence, I am posting a couple of the tasty things I've made in recent months. WhenI had the business, I was often asked to provide gluten/dairy/or egg-free desserts. I don't particularly enjoy using cake-y substitutes for flour and dairy like 'garbanzo starch' or 'soy silky dream'...they never quite taste like the thing they're pretending to be. Instead, it is fun to make a 'safe food' cleverly disguised to look like festive birthday fare.

This little cupcake is made out of jello. Following the recipe for "Jigglers", I layered the various flavors to make a fun rainbow. The reusable silicone cupcake wrappers that you can find at any cake store or craft store featuring Wilton products work well, and can be unmolded easily after properly chilling. The icing is a non-dairy whipped topping, sprinkled with dark chocolate covered sunflower seeds.

These cupcakes served along side their egg, dairy, and gluten filled counterparts were actually the first to go.

These little morsels are made using chocolate and ice cream. One could easily substitute sorbet or fresh fruit, and not non-dairy whipped topping to accommodate other allergies.

To make the pho-cupcake base, use melted chocolate chips (in this cake dark chocolate) and apply with a pastry brush to the inside of parchment cupcake liners. All to harden in the cupcake tin to keep the form consistent. When solidified, peel away paper. Now the form is free to fill with ice cream, mousse, fruit, or sorbet, and top with something creamy. In this example I used heavy whipping cream and raspberry jam, accented by upside down chocolate chips for polka dots.

Nanny Libby

So, I have been making the occational cake for friends and family. Saturday, we had a baby shower for a friend with a great sense of humor. We constructed a replica of her Boxer, Libby. Libby is very excited to assist in the nurturing of the new little arrival.


I have included a couple of pictures to give you an idea of how this cake was made. The basic shape of the cake began with a stack of 6" hearts on the bottom, followed by 8" ovals, and the neck used 3 1/2" rounds. The head was constructed using foam balls and modeling chocolate (this cake needed to be kosher for religious reasons, so the typical medium of rice cereal and marshmallows could not be used)


Now that I am not baking for the general public, Sonya is allowed in the kitchen to watch.
The cake is covered in "stucko" after carving, which is a mixture of mousseline buttercream, filling, and cake crumbs. It allows for a smoother surface to ice.


The next step is a thick and very smooth layer of ganache. At this stage, you add the subtle details like muscle tone, brow ridges, etc.


Now, you can add the fondant, food coloring paint, ears and eyes.


The finishing touch of a matriarchal-looking lace cap and, VOULA! Instant Nanny!


Which one is the cake? Who knows- they both look soooooo excited!

So, what did I do on the first day of the first year without my cake business....?

...I made a cake, of course!!!


This was a wedding cake for the little sister of my very good friend, Rebecca. The request was to have an Oregon Forest-looking waterfall with a little bench and outhouse incorporated. I followed instructions. In the picture, the water looks black...weird lighting, I guess; but I assure you the waterfall was a dark blue.

You can see, in the background of this picture (in my kitchen just before delivery) that I used icecream cones to form the trees. I also mashed up fresh brownies to form the boulders, and poured gelatin to give a running water look.

The Last One...officially

This is the last cake that I will be doing under the name of Karren's Specialty Cakes. It was a sweet sixteen cake for a girly-girl who likes purses, shoes, and purple. This is what we came up with.
I will still post fun little cakes I do for family and friends along with, perhaps, some of my secrets and tips in the future. Stay tuned...

Food that looks like food....

...that it tastes nothing like. I promise you that these Tater Tots do not taste like nuggets of fried and salted potato mush:-).

The Battlestar!

Believe it or not, this is actually a Wedding cake. It was for a SUPER fun couple, with the groom being a huge BSG fan.

They even let me stick around to watch it's demolition! So much fun!

A Pretty Garden Wedding

This wedding cake was designed to match the flowers of the family's backyard garden. Unfortunately, this past Saturday topped out at over 100 degrees, and the cake needed to be set up in the air conditioned living room.
This will be one of only a few remaining cake posts, as we will be discontinuing our business. Stay tuned for the final 3 weddings remaining on our schedule.