Holy Cupcakes!

thefreshcake — Sun, 15 May 2011 16:35:37 +0000

Well, it seems like cupcakes are the name of the game lately. Not that I’m complaining- cupcakes are an opportunity to have simple but beautiful designs on a small scale. Lately I’ve been a big fan of molding my own chocolate to put on top as decorations. This week, I fulfilled an order for confirmation cupcakes, with the request that I put crosses on top. Here is the end result.

You may notice if you head over to the flavors tab that there is a new filling flavor- these were filled with a filling reminiscent of whoopie pies and Hostess desserts that was suggested by the client. Yum!

Sweet Cupcakes

thefreshcake — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:46:30 +0000

I decided to celebrate spring by trying out some new flavors! These cupcakes are whipped cream cake and I filled them with blueberry cream. Then, for the frosting, I substituted limoncello for milk and WOW! They were quite a hit. I love creating new combinations. The decorations on top are my own, homemade fondant. Care to try one?

For All the Celiac Sufferers

thefreshcake — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:35:37 +0000

When I received the order for a gluten free cake, I was both excited and nervous. After all, it seemed like it wouldn’t be too much different from a regular cake save for the types of flours I would use. But, there were a lot of website dedicated to warnings about all the perils of gluten free baking and that alarmed me. Weeks worth of research later, I was armed and ready. The order? Gluten free chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling for a baby shower. Ganache, after all, is beautifully gluten free (assuming you check the chocolate you’re using, which I did). I received many compliments from people who said they didn’t even know the cake was gluten free until after they’d been told, which of course was very exciting for me. And the cake, designed to look like the invites for the event, was a huge hit aesthetically as well!

Chugging Along

thefreshcake — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:19:23 +0000

Life and work has been incredibly hectic through the holidays, so after a long respite I thought it only fair I share with you some of the great things that have been happening here at The Fresh Cake. It has been all about custom cakes lately. When a client approached me about making a winter themed transportation cake for her husband, who recently graduated from MIT and is working as a transit planner, I couldn’t pass it up. I decided to create a kind of “painting” out of buttercream that embodied both aspects: winter and transit. I took a picture of an older Green Line trolley and created a painting of it pulling into a station decorated with wreaths:

Thankfully, the guest of honor really enjoyed it. Congrats to Jared for all his accomplishments! Best wishes for a fulfilling career.

Retrospective: Winter Cake

thefreshcake — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 18:32:46 +0000

I went to the grocery store and was smacked in the face with all the Christmas stuff. They don’t waste time, do they? That, coupled with the holiday orders starting to pour in, have forced me to set my sights squarely on that time of year where trees invade our homes and good food invades our stomachs. Here is a cake I made last year for a holiday party. I still have this design so would be able to replicate this quite easily.

Try it with one of these great holiday flavor combinations:

Gingerbread cake

Chocolate cake with peppermint cream cheese filling and peppermint buttercream

White cake with peppermint ganache

Or, let me know if there’s something else you think would be tasty!

Happy holidays!

Happy Holidays (ish)

thefreshcake — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 10:13:38 +0000

I know that I owe you guys some vanilla pictures. They have been taken, but then I had the audacity of leaving the country for the weekend before uploading them from my camera. Woops. They’ll be up soon (and just so you know, it is smelling delicious!).

In other Fresh Cake news, I’m gearing up for the holidays. This week and the weeks surrounding Thanksgiving see me making a bunch of the mini cupcakes. I tried out a new combo on request: black forest cherry cupcakes. YUM! Pictures soon (I know, I know. Bad Wendy). Chocolate cake filled with a dark cherry filling, topped with whipped cream and shaved chocolate. Due to the higher cost of ingredients, they are more expensive than the other minis, but at $15 for two dozen, how bad can it be?

I also tried out a snickerdoodle cupcake which people enjoyed as well (one person told me, “I think these are the best because they are so sugary!”). That means that so far, I’ve made the following flavors of mini cupcakes:

white cake with buttercream
chocolate cake with peanut butter filling and chocolate frosting
pumpkin spice with cream cheese/maple cream cheese frosting
carrot ($15)
snickerdoodle
black forest cherry ($15)

Here are some other flavors I’d love to try out for the holidays:

chocolate peppermint
apple spice

Will you give me a reason?

There’s a Cake For That

thefreshcake — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 10:06:32 +0000

In my family, as in many families, there are many dietary restrictions. I also have many friends through work, life, and theatre with restrictions as well. Some are self imposed, some are doctor imposed, but regardless, they are all important. I’m here to help. For many years, my husband and I were vegetarian and while this does not necessarily affect our cake consumption, it certainly made us aware of the challenges of eating out or going to friends’ houses for dinner.

I strive to include everyone in my cake baking. Whether you be vegan, vegetarian (the fondant does have gelatin in it), kosher, gluten free, or have other medical conditions like diverticulitis, I’m going to work very hard to adapt recipes or, in some cases, find different ones to suit your needs. Take, for example, the cake below.

I was making a much larger cake for a party and knew there would be several vegans in attendance so I made this cake (don’t worry, the fondant I used here for the pig did not contain gelatin and was, in fact, vegan). I always hated going to parties when I was a vegetarian and finding very little to eat, so this was my way of saying “I empathize.”

You can be certain that your diet is very important to me and I will go to great lengths to ensure that everything is perfectly prepared. Not sure if that ingredient is kosher? I will call the company for an answer. Worried about contamination for gluten free baking? All pans and utensils will be sent through the sanitize cycle in the dishwasher before using and cakes will not be prepared or baked at the same time as anything containing gluten. Following a vegan diet? I’m aware of the frowned upon nature of things like gelatin, white sugar, and honey and will exclude them from or replace them in my baking.

Let me know how I can meet your dietary needs today!

The Fresh Puree

thefreshcake — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:00:39 +0000

Once again, in keeping with my mantra that fresh is better, I decided to roast and puree some pumpkins for the ever popular, high in demand pumpkin mini cupcakes. Making my own puree is a little more expensive than buying cans of it, but it tastes soooooo good and makes me happy because my house smells like fall. Behold, a pumpkin prior to roasting:

Hello, beautiful.

And then, a pumpkin ready for roasting:

And, of course, the pumpkins just out of the oven:

Squishy happiness.

Of course, one can’t forget the end product: piles and piles of fresh pumpkin puree, all ready for the next several batches of pumpkin cuppies:

That’s 12.5 cups, for the record.

Retrospective: Smash Cakes

thefreshcake — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:00:51 +0000

One of my favorite things to do is a cake for a first birthday. When I do a cake for a first birthday, I always include a small smash cake for the little one, gratis. My mom always taught us growing up that babies were always allowed to completely mess up their birthday cakes. Well, trends are shifting and parents in the know realize that 1) their guests might not appreciate their little angel’s snotty fingers all up in the frosting and 2) there is an alternative. It is the smash cake. A mini cake made just for a 1 year old to get a total sugar high from and for parents to get priceless pictures from. Behold, some awesome smash cakes for my favorite little people:

For Ryan

For Evelyn

For Becca, who loves monkeys

Fresh Vanilla

thefreshcake — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:54:22 +0000

What do I mean when I say fresh ingredients? It’s a good question. When I purchase ingredients, I am looking for two things. One is cost. I can’t offer my baked goods for lower prices than your average bakery without making sure my ingredients aren’t too expensive. Still, some things, like cage free organic eggs, are non-negotiable to me. I can’t bring myself to spend $2 fewer per dozen if it means that a chicken is going to have a sucky life because of it. The second is, of course, freshness. I named my business after it, so it must be important.

Take for instance, vanilla. Vanilla is expensive. Vanilla beans take a long time to grow and it is an intensive process. Then, the process of fermenting the vanilla beans in alcohol takes a couple months and that means labor to monitor that process and valuable space to store the beans. So, hence the high price. The other day I was bemoaning this to my darling husband because I have been finding myself flying through vanilla lately (yay!). It gets expensive and I absolutely refuse to buy the imitation stuff. It’s just not the same. I demand quality for my customers!

So, my husband, probably tired of my belly-aching, suggested I make my own vanilla extract. Um. Duh. Why didn’t I think of it? Freshness + great cost= perfect! So, I set about to accomplish this goal. It will take two months to make the extract, but it’s worth it. Will you be my first customer to get the homemade vanilla? Check out how simple the process is:

You will need: vodka (whatever brand that friend brought that has been sitting on your bar for months will do), three vanilla beans, a cutting board, a knife, and a jar with a lid (I used a jar left over from my fall canning). Once you have sliced down the length of the vanilla beans, put them down into the jar and pour 1 cup of vodka over them. Shake and store in a cool, dark place for two months, shaking every once in awhile.

Seriously. That’s it. And once you’ve done all that (minus the two month wait), this is what it looks like:

Will you be the first to get a cake with the homemade vanilla? Check out the new page where you can see bi-weekly updates on the vanilla plus a countdown!