Anderson-Dunlap Wedding.

Hello all! I'm back from being back home for one week! It was great to be home and see all my family, and most importantly be a part of my little coustin's wedding! For her wedding present she asked me to make her a wedding cake with sunflowers and daises on it. She wanted the inside to be two layers white and the middle layer strawberry with chocolate cream cheese frosting and covered in chocolate fondant.

It was the first time I had made sunflowers and I love the challenge of making new flowers and designs! They were pretty easy considering the fact that the only daisy flower cutter I had to get the size of sunflower I wanted only had three petals on it! So I had to cut out about five smaller flowers and put them together to get the sunflower exactly how I wanted it. Then for the middle of the sunflower I just piped royal brown icing with a layer of yellow royal icing on the outside.

For bigger flowers like these, or as I like to call them "statement flowers", I always make a stem and and connect the flower and stem with royal icing just so the flower is more securley placed onto the actual cake. For the daises however, I just simply piped a dot of royal icing on the back of the flower and placed it on the cake, holding the flower in place for a few seconds to make sure it stuck!

Anytime I'm making flowers for a cake I always start them three days before the cake is due, it's important that you give the flowers plenty of time to dry. Using flowers too soon after forming them might keep the flowers from keeping their shape so take note!

Anyway, it was a beautiful, outside country wedding and the cake fit in beautifully with the rest of the decorations. I wish her and her new hubby a lifetime of happiness and laughther!

White Cake Recipe

For my very first blog I'm going to go back in time for a bit and explain how I've made some of my cakes in the past. I'll start with a basic white cake recipe from Martha Stewart.

As we all know Martha Stewart is the Queen of anything any woman loves (or wishes she was good at): cooking, gardening, and of course all things crafty! I'm always looking for new and yummy cake recipes to try, but most importantly I'm looking for a recipe that produces a delicious light and fluffy cake that has a nice crumb to it, the following recipe has everything I've been looking for! I think the key to the fluff in this recipe are the egg whites! NOTE: Please have patience to beat the egg white until STIFF PEAKS FORM! It's well worth the wait I promise!

I used the following recipe to make this latest wedding cake for two of my good friends, it was my first wedding cake for another couple (other than my wedding cake I made). I'm very happy with the way it turned out and everyone really loved it (whew!). 

This three tiered cake is an all white cake with buttercream covered in fondant and gumpaste flowers. As I've already stated this was my first try at covering a tiered cake all in fondant and also my first try at making gumpaste flowers, I think it turned out very well and like I said everyone loved it! So without further adue from Martha Stewart herself, a yummy and flaky white cake recipe that is sure to please any crowd!

The Martha Stewart Show, May Spring 2007

• Yield Makes one 12-by-18-inch sheet cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for baking sheet
• 3 cups cake flour (not self-rising), plus more for baking sheet
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
• 8 egg whites

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 12-by-18-by-1-inch rimmed baking sheet, tapping out any excess flour; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour; beat until just combined. Transfer mixture to a large bowl; set aside.
4. In the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on low speed until foamy. With mixer running, gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar; beat on high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 4 minutes. Do not overbeat. Gently fold a third of the egg-white mixture into the butter-flour mixture until combined. Gently fold in remaining egg-white mixture.
5. Transfer batter to prepared baking sheet and smooth batter evenly with a spatula or back of a spoon. Transfer to oven and bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool 10 minutes. Invert cake onto rack, then reinvert and let cool completely.