beachy

You don't need a destination wedding to enjoy a beach theme reception! 

 

The bride and groom-to-be requested a beach themed cake to celebrate their engagement. They asked for a fondant-free buttercream finish and turquoise accents.

Once the buttercream was smoothed out, I piped some coral detail and added white chocolate seashells and gumpaste pearls and frangipani flowers.

 

The hardest part about this project was covering up the cake inside! It was a grasshopper cake (chocolate-mint buttercream sandwiched between layers of chocolate mud cake) so I needed quite a bit of buttercream to cover up the dark cake inside. But, the job is now done and I am happy to have finished my first beach-themed cake!

-Danielle

neapolita[macaro]ns

I had wanted to try this out for quite some time and with another afternoon spent indoors due to inclement weather, I decided to give it a whirl. Neapolitan ice cream has been my favourite flavour (because there's three!) since I was a kid and I figured a macaron cookie would be a delightful way to capture the vanilla, chocolate and strawberry flavours. The two shells are each vanilla and chocolate with a strawberry buttercream filling.

I used the same macaron recipe I always use except I added 10g cocoa powder to the dry ingredients for the chocolate shells. The buttercream was also my standard swiss meringue buttercream recipe with 1/4 cup pureed strawberries and 0.5mL strawberry extract added.

While this certainly aren't the most well-executed batch I've made (I think I overmixed the batter for the shells), I love the three colour combination and the flavour reminds me of ice cream. I'd conclude that it was a success and I encourage you to try it as well!


-Danielle

butterscotch macarons

In the limbo between post-afternoon sun and pre-evening long weekend festivities, I find myself back in the kitchen trying out new macaron flavours. I had previously made salted caramel macarons and I loved the contrast between the sea salt and saccharine flavours; this time I traded in the refined sugar for good ol' fashioned brown.

A. Macaron shells
recipe yields 1-2 dozen macarons

 

Ingredients:

110g ground almond 

200g powdered sugar

90g egg whites

25g brown sugar

Directions:
The full recipe for french macarons can be found here. Combine ground almond and powdered sugar; set aside. Using a mixer on high speed, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Add brown sugar (this can be temperamental! For more predictable results, substitute with 25g white sugar) and continue to mix until sturdy peaks form and mixture resembles shaving cream. Add dry ingredients to meringue mixture and fold until all ingredients are incorportated. Transfer mixture to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip and begin piping 1 inch circles of batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in oven at 300F and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until just before shells begin to brown.


B. Butterscotch

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 whipping cream

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 tsp sea salt

Directions:
Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat; add brown sugar and mix thoroughly. Stir infrequently until mixture resembles magma, then add cream. Turn the heat to high and continue cooking for 10 minutes. Take mixture off stove top and let cool before adding salt and vanilla. 


C. Swiss meringue buttercream
recipe yields 2 cups

Ingredients: 

2/3 cup egg whites

1 cup white sugar

2 cups butter (4 sticks)

Directions:
Heat egg whites in a double boiler stirring frequently so that egg whites do not become cooked. Slowly add sugar and mix thoroughly for about 5 minutes or until mixture reaches 55F. Transfer mixture to mixing bowl and whip on high until stiff peaks form. Switch mixer attachment to paddle and slowly incorporate butter. Turn the speed up until mixture becomes uniform. Add butterscotch and continue to mix until incorporated and mixture is creamy. 


Now you can add the buttercream to the macaron shells, and voila! Delicious.

Give it a try! Any leftover butterscotch can be used as topping for ice cream or other desserts.

-Danielle 

titika store opening

For the first time, I was asked to provide desserts for a corporate event! Titika clothing makes stylish, high performance athletic wear for women, and this past weekend they opened a new location! In addition to hosting a fashion show, the client wanted to serve a whole range of goodies to their new customers. The only request was that the logo be incorporated into the design.

I made miniature cupcakes with fondant toppers, onto which I applied Titika's logo printed on edible paper (I also made the cupcake stand).  

I also made vanilla sugar cookies with icing and edible logos. Because I forgot to take a picture of them set up at the venue, this is a photo taken while they were drying on my kitchen table. Oops!

Lastly, I provided a vanilla sheet cake in the shape of a shopping box featuring the logo and the company name prominently displayed. 

As a little something extra, I included a scaled-down version of the company's customer shopping bag! I made it out of crisped rice treats in order to achieve a perfectly shaped (and structurally stable) form. 

 Here's a close-up of the little bag. To polish off the cake, I cut out some blossoms and printed the company's motto on a fondant ribbon ("inspired by life"). 

I had such a great time preparing all the treats, which served about 200 people. The grand opening was a huge success! Congratulations on your new store, Titika!


If you are interested in having sweet&splendid bakeshop provide confections for your corporate event, please contact danielle@sweetandsplendid.com.

-Danielle

happy mother's day!

-Danielle

welcome baby

It's a boy!

 This weekend I was asked to provide cookies and cupcakes for a baby shower. The mother-to-be is having a little boy, so blue and white dominated this colour scheme. For half of the cookies, I made vanilla sugar cookies in the shape of baby onesies and decorated them in different shades of blue:

For the other half I made cookies in the shape of baby bottles.

 

After the icing had set, I packed them individually into cellophane baggies and attached a special greeting to each one. 

 

As for the cupcakes, I baked half vanilla and half chocolate all topped with vanilla buttercream and attached fondant cupcake toppers in different shades of blue with different baby-themed decorations. Here, we have baby footprints, bottles, pacifiers, bibs, teddies, and way off on the blurry right side of the image are individual blocks that spell "L-I-A-M". 

I had a ton of fun with these, even if my hands were left somewhat blue afterwards. Congratulations to the mommy-to-be :)

-Danielle