Today’s post is twice the treat!  Not only do we have a beautiful new cake design to showcase, but we’re going to learn something new as well!  Our contributor, Miso of Miso Bakes, created this incredible cake and is kindly sharing one of her techniques with us.  So once we finish swooning over Miso’s lovely design, we’ll learn how to make one of the elegant sugar flowers she used.  Frilly and flirty, carnations are not just a filler flower!  They’re a great place to start if you’re new to making gumpaste flowers.  The layers of ruffly petals are more forgiving for beginning hands.  Plus, carnations would be perfect for your upcoming Valentine’s Day cakes!  I can just envision the pink carnations now!  So first, let’s enjoy the beauty of Miso’s Modern Sugar Flower Cake and then we’re on to her Frilly Handmade Carnations.

Miso shared a few thoughts about her design:

“I have always wanted to create a cake using my favorite colors but never really got around to it until early last Spring. I spent a couple of weeks creating tons of roses, carnations, ranunculus, and gardenias out of gumpaste so I could pick and choose the finest ones to be displayed on the cake. I wanted the cake to be covered in flowers but at the same time be chic, bold, and crisp.”

Be still my heart!  From the striking color combination to the elegant flowers, this design is just stunning!  I love the varying shades of purple against the white contrast with just a few pops of green.  And now… the promised tutorial.  Frilly and flirty, handmade carnations!

To make carnations:

1. Create a core using a pea-sized ball of gumpaste. Dry until hard.
2. Cut out a flower or a circle using a flower or round cutter.
3. Using a knife, make slits all around the edge of the flower or round gumpaste.
4. Frill the edges.
5. Slide through the wire all the way to the base of the core.
6. Wet and fold in half.
7. Glue a corner to the center.
8. Repeat on the other side, but this time, folding it the opposite way.
9. What it looks like with the first layer.
10. Repeat with as much layers as desired. You should increase the size of the cutters every 2-3 layers. When you get to the last few layers, folding the petals is not needed. Just slide it to the base, wet the petals, and gently mold it to the shape of the flower.  This is what a completed carnation looks like!

A special thanks to Miso for sharing her exquisite Modern Sugar Flower Cake with us today!  And for teaching us all how to create our own Frilly Handmade Carnations!  If you give Miso’s carnation tutorial a try, be sure to come back and tell us about it!  Happy flower making!

Vendors & Credits:
Cake & Carnation Tutorial :  Miso Bakes
Photography (cake images) :  Sylvia G Photo

With the NFL playoffs in full swing, the big game is quickly approaching.  Whether you love football or hate football, you’re sure to watch the Super Bowl.  It’s a great excuse to have a party!  Good friends, drinks and of course, food!  So why not kick it up a notch and serve something just a little different for dessert.  Something a tad more ‘manly’ that can hang with chicken wings and chips.  Something like beer brownies or whiskey cookies!  You’ll score big with these super sweets, shared with us by Esther of Batch from Scratch.  From Whiskey Ginger Cookies to unique Black & Tan Pretzel Bars, these mouth-watering desserts are sure to please even the toughest crowd!

Crispy and chewy, these Whiskey Ginger Cookies are filled with whiskey-infused cherries and drizzled with a shot of whiskey icing!  We featured this recipe last year for Father’s Day, but I think it would be perfect for the football-watching crowd too.  You can find Esther’s recipe for the Whiskey Ginger Cookies HERE.

And now for the second gameday sweet!  A layer of fudgy beer brownie topped with butterscotch ale ganache and salty pretzels!  These Black & Tan Pretzel Bars would definitely have the crowd roaring!

Black & Tan Pretzel Bars
{recipe and images shared by Batch from Scratch}

For the Beer Brownies:

4 oz Bittersweet Chocolate
8 oz Butter
1 Egg
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Cocoa
1 1/4 cup Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Vanilla
8 oz Beer (Malty)
8 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate

1. Melt bittersweet chocolate & butter (in microwave or double boiler)
2. beat egg, sugar and brown sugar for 3 minutes
3. while eggs & sugar are mixing, mix dry ingredients: cocoa, flour, salt
4. add melted chocolate to egg mixture
5. mix in dry ingredients
6. add vanilla and beer until incorporated
7. add semi-sweet chocolate
8. bake at 350 for 35 minutes until knife comes out clean

For the Butterscotch Ale Ganache:

7 oz Condensed Milk
5.5 oz Butterscotch
5.5 oz White Chocolate Chips
4 oz Ale
1 tbsp Butter

1. combine condensed milk, butterscotch, white chocolate and ale in a small pan, over medium heat
2. stir until melted and smooth
3. add in butter

For the topping:
1/3 cup Crushed Pretzels

Assembly

1. top baked stout brownies with ale ganache
2. top with 1/3 cup of crushed pretzels
3. refrigerate until firm, cut and serve

Whatever you plan for the big game, make sure you’ve got plenty of finger foods, cold drinks and a sweet treat for your guests!  Thanks to Esther of Batch from Scratch for sharing her crowd-pleasing recipes with us!  Now, who’s ready for some football!

Hold on to your hats because today’s adorable baby shower is sure to blow you away!  Up, Up and Away, that is!  When I first received a note from Jessica Harris about this event… I knew it would be good!  We’ve had the pleasure to ooh and awe over Jessica’s cakes in the past (see them here).  She is an incredible cake designer who also happens to be part of a family of artistic women!  So what happens when a talented graphic designer (Kim Harris), cake designer (Jessica Harris) and photographer (Jamie Zanotti) come together to welcome a new baby girl into the family?  An amazingly sweet and thoughtful event full of charming DIY touches.  Based on the baby’s hot air balloon nursery, prepare to be swept away by this Up, Up and Away Baby Shower!

Kim Harris, creator of the invitation and graphics, was kind enough to share some of her thoughts with us about this adorable shower.

“Jamie and I decided on the theme for the baby shower based on what Ashley (the mom-to-be) wanted to do in the nursery, hot air balloons.  Since this was her first girl we wanted everything to be soft and vintage and girly, thus the reason for all the pink!  With a little vintage blue added in here and there!”

More from Kim…

“I knew I wanted to have hanging hot air balloon decorations that had a strong impact but I couldn’t find anything online that wasn’t expensive.  I was looking through Ashley’s nursery inspiration board and she had saved these tissue paper lanterns from Martha Stewart.  I decided I would make the hot air balloon decorations based on a different version of these, using pages from a book instead of tissue paper, which I thought would look a little more vintage.  I used paper lanterns for the base of the balloons, scrap book paper for the hot air balloon basket and bakers twine to tie it all together.  Cheap, fun, cute and easy!”

Okay, can we pause for a second and talk about this cake?  I absolutely love the striped details around the bottom and the detail work on the hot air balloons is perfect!  Staggered in height and intermixed with clouds, these hot air balloons are oh-so-charming!

The pink and white striped ‘tablecloth’ is actually a twin-sized sheet, found on sale at Target.  Such a clever way to save money without skimping on the pretty!

A few last thoughts from Kim:

“This shower was truly DIY – we did everything ourselves, from the cloud cookie favors to the suckers and sucker stand to the invitations and signage and food.  The beautiful cake by Jess was truly the cherry on top that tied everything together.  What a talented family we have!!”

I could not agree more!  A huge thank you to all three of these talented ladies for sharing this delightful Up, Up and Away Baby Shower with us today!  It’s absolutely dreamy!  You can get the full scoop on Jessica’s hot air balloon cake on the Jessicakes Blog.     

Vendors & Credits:
Cake:  Jessica Harris of Jessicakes
Invitation & Graphics:  Kim Harris
Photography:  Jamie Zanotti