Happy Graduation, The Finale!

I am very proud to announce that I've completed my first round of teaching all of Wilton's Courses 1-4! I am grateful to my students who have continued on with me from the beginning. Here are their final cakes! Now the world's their oyster....who knows if one of them will become the future Bonnie Gordon??

Happy Graduation!

After 4 weeks of teaching my first Wilton Cake Decorating course, my students have graduated with beautiful cakes topped with roses, bows and shell borders! Some of their pics are located on the slide show.
I look forward to teaching them again in Course 2!

Wilton Cake Decorating Classes at Michael's!

I'm so excited to announce that I will teaching Wilton Cake Decorating classes at Michael's in Richmond Hill starting in  February. Details are as follows:

Course 1- Wednesday February 3, 10, 17 and 24 from 6:30-8:30 pm

Location- Michael's Arts & Crafts
                2-20 John Birchall Rd

                Richmond Hill (at Elgin Mills/ Leslie)

Cost- $22.50/ 4 weeks (50% off regular price) plus cost of supplies

I'll also be teaching Course 1 in March on Sunday afternoons. Details to follow! Course 2 will continue on Wednesday evenings, followed by Course 3 and 4. For more details, visit http://www.wilton.com/classes/local_classes.cfm

Recipe of the week: Chocolate Lava Cakes

ATTENTION CHOCOHOLICS! This recipe is a MUST HAVE!!!

Melt-in-your mouth lava cakes look like little chocolate cupcakes but when you cut in the middle, a gooey surprise awaits! Top with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Make sure to use a good quality chocolate such as Green & Blacks or Michel Cluizel for extra richness.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate, broken into pieces

4 eggs

4 egg yolks

3/4 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 400 F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper cups (they will be removed later). Melt butter and chocolate over low heat or in double boiler. Beat eggs and egg yolks with sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add chocolate mixture and vanilla and mix until well incorporated. Add flour by hand until just combined. Divide in prepared muffin tin (they will very full, but not too worry because they won't rise).

Bake for 10 minutes, not one minute longer or you will not get the gooey center. Remove from oven muffin tin and serve immediately (don't forget to remove the paper cup!). Dust with icing sugar and top with ice cream. YUMMMMMMMY!

• 
  
  
  
  
  

Doll Cakes

Doll or Barbie cakes are by far the most popular type of cakes for little princesses! They are so much fun to make as the "dress" (or cake) can be decorated many ways. To make a doll cake, you have to start with an inverted cake, or cake baked in a bowl. Once cooled, you can cut in layers as you would with a standard cake to create height. Frost as normal and decorate with coloured buttercream or fondant.

This Barbie cake was created for my friend's bridal shower. Both the "dress" and base are made of cake and would serve around 100 people. Fondant was used to create flow and dimension. The pattern on the base was created with a patterned matt (available at cake decorating stores) and the pearls on the dress were pastel dragees.

The Tinkerbell cake on the left is a smaller doll cake I made for a 6 year old's birthday. It was frosted with pastel pink and lavender buttercream. Doll picks are available at Bulk Barn to create a simple doll cake and come in blond, brunette, light and dark-skinned. If using a real Barbie, remove the bottom clothing and wrap the legs with saran wrap before inserting in the cake so that it won't get smeared with cake and icing.

The last picture is a castle cake in which both the castle and base are cake while the doll figurines sit on top.