Let’s have a slice.. or two..or three!

Welcome back everyone! This week I wanted to share something sweet with you! Love to decorate cakes? Then you’re at the right spot! Horrible at decorating cakes, but love Little Red? Not a problem at all! I will post some awesome bakeries where you can bring your favorite little red cake photo and they will create something similar for your Little Red themed party! I found this amazing site called “One Charming Day” and they have a collection of Little Red Riding Hood cakes! They not only look delicious, but they are fun and creative as well! I definitely suggest looking at their cake pictures before you jump into baking! Here’s the link to their webpage: http://www.onecharmingday.com/15-beautiful-little-red-riding-hood-cake-designs/ I also wanted to post my two favorite cakes on their site, which also happens to be the first two on the site. The first one looks extremely difficult to make, and I honestly wouldn’t suggest a beginner attempt to make this for a party. Maybe try a practice run or two before the actually day first? If I wanted this cake, I would personally bring this picture to my local bakery to see if they could create something similar. They are the experts, and I trust their fondant skills more than mine!

This second one looks a lot easier to create! Just by looks of it, I would say a beginner could make something like this. However, like I said maybe try a practice run before the event! Especially if you are trying to enter a cake decorating contest!

So now that we have the images, how do we make the cake? If you’re like me then you don’t have too much time to be making a cake from scratch. So my top two favorite brands are Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines. They always come out moist and delicious! For those bakers who love to make things from scratch, I found a great website that has tons of pictures and instructions on how to make the perfect cake! There is a list of ingredients at the bottom of the page, so take a look before you start mixing things together. Nothing is worse than having to run out to the store in the middle of cooking because you are missing a key ingredient. Here’s the link to the website: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-cake-from-scratch-224370

How to layer a cake and more: Layering a cake is not easy. IT can get messy and can break apart if not done correctly. Because of this, I figured it would be good to give you guys a little help. I found this very helpful website called “Cake Journal”. It isn't just helpful for layering, but can be useful for your future baking experiences as well. There are several tutorials on the site, so click around! Here’s the link: http://cakejournal.com/tutorials/cake-tins/

Last but not least: How to make fondant

The most important part to making your cake special is the sugary fondant on top! MyCupcapAddiction does an amazing job at explaining how to make fondant. I have tried to make it in the past, and I’m sorry that I didn’t look up her videos before I made mine. MyCupcapAddiction has several videos including how to make the fondant and how to color it! So look for more of her videos on her page. She also includes a list of ingredients you will need to make fondant, so once again make sure you have everything before you start!

Gluten Free: If you have a gluten sensitivity, have Celiac disease, or are on a gluten-free diet then fret not- you can still have cake! I have tried many different gluten free cake mixes before because my mother has Celiac disease, and trust me some are

100% better than others. You need to be careful when picking out your cake mix because some have horrible textures and just fall apart. My top favorite gluten free brand is “King Arthur Flour”. It has a great consistency and it tastes like regular flour cake- that’s a win win! IF you want to buy off of their website here’s the link: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/gluten-free-yellow-cake-mix

However, I would check out wegmans before buying online (no one wants to pay for shipping).

Top cake decorating bakeries:

To my surprise there are actual tons of websites that have “top bakers” or “top cake decorators in the US”. I found one cool website called “Dessert Professionals” with an article called “Dessert Professional’s Top Ten Cake Artists of North America 2014”. I found this really amazing, mostly because they decorated cakes in the article, and they are outstanding! Feel free to check it out: http://www.dessertprofessional.com/index.php/top-ten-chefs/top-10-cake-artists-of-2014

If you cannot decorate cakes yourself though, I wouldn’t try asking these top professionals, mostly because they are going to be expensive. If you’re from New Jersey, I would check out Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken. http://bakeshop.carlosbakery.com/

If not, I would try your local baker! If they don’t decorate cakes themselves, they may know a place that does them in your neighborhood! So I hope you enjoyed this week’s post! Eat up and enjoy!

#CraftingDIY