Cool Tip!

Tip Of the day!

Ok so I was thinking about my blog and I know I use this as a site to show customers different cakes and desserts I have made. However, I have decided I need to share a little knowledge along the way. So whenever I get the chance I will give a little tidbit of decorating knowledge from my vaulted brain. And yes my brain is a vault. I guard my recipes and a lot of how I do things, because this is my career and I don't want people to think it's so easy I don't need to pay her! I have put a lot of time, money, and practice into what I do to make it better. And a lot of love! So with that being said, I'm going to try and share my gift of cake decorating and desserts with whomever is interested. Please use my knowledge don't abuse it and hopefully you can gain a little from my tips.

Today I decorated this 2 layer cake with butter cream icing. I wanted it to be a little different from what I normally do. Let's face it birthday cakes tend to look the same! Same shell border, flowers, and greeting. The only difference is the shape and color. I decided to make the border have 2 colors. The way to do this is really simple. Take your decorating bag with tip attached. Use a butter knife or flat edge spatula(one that is skinny) and spread a single line of the darker colored icing into the bag. Make sure to only put about butter knife width line no more. Then fill the rest of the bag with the lighter color as normal. Remember too much icing in the bag will make it harder to handle and harder on your hand. Practice a few times on the counter or onto a plate squeezing out the desired shape. If done correctly the colors will come out at the same time giving a border that looks like the trim below. Have fun and good luck decorating!

A simple cake for Chris!

Chris's mom ordered this cake for him. He just came back from Iraq and he also recently graduated, so they gave him a party for both. This cake is a white cake with butter cream icing and fondant ornaments on top. I painted the flag, ribbon, scroll, and hat with luster dust and edible ink. It's hard to tell but the flag has a slight shimmer to it.

NAUIAB luncheon

I made this cake for a large meeting last Monday. I had no idea what the group was, they just sent me the logo. It was a fun cake to make. It's just a simple white sheet cake with butter cream icing. But what made it great was the gum paste magnolia. It was a leftover flower from a previous cake. I remembered that I had saved it and thought it would be great to use. I could have made one out of butter cream, but it wouldn't have had the same look! The ribbon is the only other part that isn't icing. I made it with fondant and then dusted on copper and gold luster dust. They took a professional picture with Judge Graves making the first cut. I can't wait till they get me a copy. I will post it when they do. And it will be on the http://taylorgrocerycatering.com website. As are other pictures from the banquet last week.

Banquet's for MSMA

This past weekend we had a Friday, Saturday, Sunday event for the MSMA at the Oxford conference center. We served breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day for 2oo people along with a few small events in between those times. I have a few pictures of the desserts Me and my crew made. I ran a kitchen with about 10 people or more. I did most of the baking Wednesday and Thursday with my mom and sister Christie. And then all the finale details (cutting, icing, plating, etc...) the day of the event with the kitchen and serving staff. It was so much fun and I'm so grateful for all the help! I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I don't have pictures of everything, but as soon as I get the ones butch took I will post them.

Gourmet cheese cake with strawberries and whip cream,

we served this Saturday night and one lunch that afternoon.

This was the breakfast buffet we set up each morning. It had blueberry muffins, apple cinnamon muffins, banana bread, cinnamon rolls, fresh fruit, 3 types of danishes (of which Christie made), bagels, biscuits, sausage, bacon, and gravy.

This was the dessert buffet served Friday afternoon. It included: German chocolate cake, strawberry cake, caramel cake, coconut meringue pie, chocolate meringue pie, and apple pie. The lady that ran the entire event collects glass cake stands and brought several of hers to display the desserts on. It was so pretty! This picture just doesn't do it justice.

Here I am making a face at one of the servers! I finally had an excuse to wear my new chef coat!

The strawberry cake was so moist that it began to fall. We had to plate one whole cake

German chocolate cake! My favorite, I'm such a chocoholic!

The inside and top have the German icing. And the outside is iced in a rich chocolate icing.

The coconut and chocolate pie look very similar. The only difference is the coconut on top and the chocolate chips on the other! You can see the caramel cake in the back of this picture. I didn't have a recipe for the icing. I had to make one up that morning. It actually turned out great!

I wish I had more pictures to show now. Unfortunately I spent most of my time in the kitchen and had to get someone else to take the few that I got.