~Live.Laugh.Love... & Bake~

Happy Easter!

~Blows dust off my blog~  Oh goodness!  It has been forever since I last updated.  Life was getting semi hectic with all the graduating, moving back to the city, and finding a big girl job.  For the most part, things are settled down now and I finally have enough time to do what I love again in lieu of adult things.  Enough about my crazy life!  How about some Easter baskets??

Actually, more like Easter basket cupcakes.  :P  I made these to bring to work for all those (myself included), that had to work on that Sunday.  Nothing like sweets to bring some cheer! 

The cupcakes are your run-of-the-mill vanilla cupcakes baked in pastel cupcake liners.  Unfortunately, the color of the liners faded during baking.  (Darn you cheap liners!)  They are topped with tinted buttercream frosting, a marshmallow bunny, and Whoppers Mini Robin Eggs. The basket handles are made from melted chocolate.  They look quite fancy, but in actuality are so easy to make (and the practice ones are delicious to eat).  Hahaha.  I highly recommend making the handles a little thicker and placing them in the fridge overnight because when I assembled the basket, a few of the handles snapped.  I ate all the broken ones.

I baked the cupcakes the morning of and let them cool while I made and tinted the frosting.  Since the grass needed to be somewhat stiff, I let the frosting settle for a while before filling the piping bag.  There you have it!  a completely edible (don’t eat the liner) Easter Basket complete with the Easter Bunny and chocolate handle.  :)

Total cuteness!  :) 

Until next time…

-Stellabobella

Happy Birthday Carmen!

Birthday cake for my dear friend Carmen!  It is her favorite!!  Chocolate cake with chocolate icing!!!  :)  Mmmmm!  Decorations are a fondant/gum paste mixture of my own recipe and the writing is simple buttercream icing!  Sorry for the short post!  I have been so busy with work but I will update with more yummy goodness soon!  :D

~Tummy Full of Flowers~

Behold the tastiest and most beautiful garden I have ever made!  :D  Ive always wanted to grow real roses, carnations, and daisies, but I have a black thumb.  :(  I have killed every plant I have attempted to raise to date, and that list includes several cacti.  Needless to say I pretty much gave up.  :P

But now, I can make beautiful flowers and bake my way to a beautiful garden.  The cupcakes are simple white vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.  The flowers and leaves are made of a 50/50 mixture of fondant and gum paste.  I have to say, gum paste is growing on me!  I absolutely love working with it.  The results are fantastic!  Be careful though, it dries really fast.  Like within 30min to 1hr fast.

This one is the carnation.  Simple enough using a middle sized circle cutter, one over lapping another.  Didn’t have much trouble.  Easy, yet so pretty to look at.

The rosebud.  I have wanted to make a medium to full sized rose, but my gum paste kept drying out!

The daisy was easy as well.  The center is covered in yellow sprinkles.  I know daisies are suppose to be white, but this is my garden.  I get to do what I want. :D

I am in the process of making another cake for a belated birthday.  More calla lillies and chocolate to come! 

-StellaBoBella

~Congratulations Jess~

Congratulations Jess on your new bundle of joy!  I can’t wait to meet baby Kylee! 

This is the first cake I have ever had to ship!  It wasn’t too hard and less expensive than I thought it was going to be.  The cake itself was about 6-8lbs.  I taped the cake board to the bottom of the cardboard box and inserted ziploc bags full of dry ice along the inside of the cake box to keep the cake frozen during transit.  Then one layer of bubble wrap followed by packing peanuts into a 16X16X8in box and off it went!!  Cost about $60 including guaranteed delivery times, $100 insurance, and tracking number, so not too shabby. 

The cake is Devilish Chocolate with Chocolate buttercream frosting.  The covering of the cake is marshmellow fondant while the rest of the decorations are a 50/50 mixture of fondant and gum paste.  I find that the decorations harden and hold their shape better than just fondant by itself, and will not dry out as fast as just gum paste by itself.

The ribbons and bows were the most fun to make!  It was my first time using a fondant cutter and embosser so it took many tries before I got the design I wanted. (Pity Wilton doesnt provide free instructions on how to put together their embosser for certain designs.)  Oh well, here’s to YouTubing! 

Again, CONGRATULATIONS to Jess and Baby Kylee!!  I’m sure there will be many more sweetness to come!

~StellaBoBella

Pretty in Pink

Isn’t this one pretty?  This cake was made almost a year and a half ago, when I was just starting to work with fondant.  Honestly speaking, this was the first project with fondant that wasn’t camera-shy.  :P  Very simply white vanilla cake and marshmellow fondant.

The fondant decorations are shiny because I had used too much water to melt the marshmellows down.  Lesson learned! 

I will be posting another cake possibly tonight or tomorrow.  I will be making my first Baby Shower cake and over-nighting it to my friend.  Wish my cake good travels and good luck!!  :D

-StellaBoBella

Happy Birthday Jaden!

This birthday cake belongs to Jaden who turns 1 today!!  Happy 1st Birthday Jaden!  I made the icing extra yummy for the kids.  :P  Its a good thing Im not in charge of cleaning up. HAHAHAHA. 

Anyways, the top layer is a rainbow colored vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream frosting.  The bottom layer is chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing.  The outer layers are all crusting vanilla buttercream and the decorations are made of fondant. 

The Mickey Mouse head was the hardest to make. :(  I think my fondant was too thin and it started drooping in the refrigerator!  But the buttercream is smooth as a baby’s bottom thanks to the paper towel method!  I can see a reflection. :D  YAY!

Hopefully I can request pictures of the insides of the cake from Miss Nikki so that I can add to this post later.  :P 

Cha Siu Bao

BEFORE

AFTER!

The pork is soooooooo juicy and tender!  It was marinated overnight and slow roasted.  Unfortunately during the basting process, I dropped all of the marinade.  *tear*  That is why the color of the meat is so light.  Next time, I won’t be so clumsy!  :P

~yum~  Dinner time!

-StellaBoBella

Red Calla Lillies

I absolutely love calla lillies!  They are so simple yet extremely elegant. This was my first attempt at making these and I really should have used gum paste instead of fondant but unfortunately, marshmellows were all I had!  The flowers came out beautifully except once taken out of the fridge, they start to become limp very fast!  That is why gum paste is preferred for making flowers and figurines.  Plus you can roll gum paste out thinner than fondant to give the flowers a very “real” look.

The cake is just plain white vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream icing.  The bows, drapes, and lillies are all made with MMF.  Since this is my first cake blog, I will also be uploading a couple of personal recipes I use for all my cake needs.  Hope this helps!

New Beginnings!!!!!!

Today…. on July 18th 2011,  I will officially be taking my last final.  As soon as I cap my pen, I am done with my college career!!!  YAY ME!

So what now?

Job?  More school?  What do I REALLY want to do.  At his point in my life everything is an open opportunity.  I can travel if I wish to do so.  I can also be a bum and live off my parents.  I can also go back to school for a Masters.  I can also go to nursing school and get an ADN which will eventually lead me to an MSN.  I can also get a research job in the biotech industry and work my way to the top.  I can also start running my own bakery business.  So many options….

Floating around in graduate limbo is not too much fun… options are endless yet restricting at the same time.  The only thing I know for sure now is that I’m graduating with a Bachelors.  It took me long enough but I did it!  (And really thats all that matters).

So here is my plan of action for the next year or so of my life (I like planning ahead… like AHEAD ahead).  :P

1 - Find a job

So Ive been doing the whole phone interview/face to face interview with a few companies now and so far… all rejected.  The job market is in the pits and my situation is further aggravated by the fact that I have no research experience.  Im praying that more Entry Level jobs open up.

2- To nurse or not to nurse?

Nursing… If I cant be a cake decorator/fat ass, then my next best option is nursing.  AGAIN, unfortunately, my grades arent exactly up to par with the other candidates who wish to pursue an MSN after a BS degree in another field.  So my options thus far are accelerated BSN or ADN.  With my sub-par GPA I think going into ADN would be my best chances followed by the accelerated BSN (assuming by some miracle they take pity on my poor soul).  LOL  The future is not so bleak.  There is a silver lining to every cloud… you just gotta find it right?  Well I suppose that my silver lining is that not all hope is lost!  I can definitely achieve MSN status through an RN-MSN or ADN-MSN program.  I just have to KICK MAJOR ASS in classes and work experience.  So that will probably take up the next… oh… 6 years of my life?  Not too shabby.  So I need to find a program STAT and start working on my pre-reqs.

3- BAKING!!

Since I wont become a world renowned cake decorator, but I can still be an awesome baker!  Ive decided that since I will have copious amounts of free time (after running errands and various chores for my parents), I am going to transfrom this blog about me… into a Baking Blog!!  :D :D  YAY!  First, I need a name for my blog.  Then, all I have to do is bake deliciousness and share it all on Tumblr.  Maybe I’ll be the next Bakerella (http://www.bakerella.com).  Shes so awesome.  :) 

So the next time you visit this blog… it just might be sweeter. <3

-StellaBoBella

Random Quotes I Happen To Like

God said, “When I made the woman, she had to be special.

I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet gentle enough to give comfort..

I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children.

I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.

I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly.

I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart.

I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly.

And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed.”

“You see my son,” said God, “the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart - the place where love resides.

Women are also like tea.  You dont know how strong she is until in hot water.

God didnt make woman from a man’s head to be superior.  God didnt make woman from a man’s feet to be walked on.  God made woman from a man’s rib so she can be by his side, protected under his arm, and close to his heart.

Be careful to not make a woman cry, God counts her tears.

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry;
to get my work done
and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.

People will forget what you said,
People will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.