High Altitude Baking

Being the ever generous soul that I am, I thought I would share with you a few things I have learned along the way. First, I have lived all over the world, being a military spouse and all, but for the last 6 years I have lived in different variations of high altitude regions. I have learned the hard way many times that no matter what boxes and recipes say, you have to find your own combination of ingredients that work well for your specific altitude. I am currently in Colorado Springs which is over 5,000 ft and therefore I have had many cake disasters while learning the ropes. My saving grace after moving here was finding a conversion chart that gives you guidelines based on altitude for altering ANY recipe. You have to play around a bit to see what works for you but here is a link that will help you out with that. Remember not all recipes need to be altered. Make it once the standard way and if it falls try to alter ingredients the next time. I usually start with the baking powder and baking soda.  http://www.thecookinginn.com/haltitude.html

Another thing I learned when I first started is that if you are going to used a boxed cake mix, the high altitude recipe directions on there are useless. I was given an insight by a fabulous baker friend and mentor. She told me that for almost any box mix, if you use this formula, you will have perfect moist cake every time.

1. Never use a mix with pudding in it. It is dense and will make your cake fall.
2. Never over beat the eggs because it adds air to the mix and....will make your cake fall.
DO:
1. use 1 box of mix
2. use 3 eggs (or appropriate egg whites listed on white cake boxes)
3. use just over 1 cup of water. I mean BARELY just over so kind of hovering above the 1 cup line.
4. use 2/3 cup of oil
5. add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of flour. You can gauge when you have enough if your batter is not watery but also not a cookie dough consistency.
6. I have also found adding buttermilk in replacement of the water can create a moister and more dense cake instead of a crumbly one.
7. Always bake at 10 to 15 degrees higher than suggested. This allows for the faster cooking time will keep the recipe from rising too much

These directions can be doubled, tripled, etc. Just get the cake into the oven as soon as you can after you have made the batter and you should have no more altitude baking issues. Happy Baking!!!

Pricing and Info

Pricing and Info:

Wedding Cakes: pricing starts at $3.50 a serving and can go up based on design.

Cupcakes:

Traditional sized: Start at $1.50 per cupcake and if filling is chosen can go up to $2.50 based on ingredients.

Jumbo Sized: These are very large gourmet style cupcakes. These start at $2.50 per cupcake and can go up to $3.50 based on fillings and ingredients.

Cakes: start at $3.00 per serving. Below is a chart that gives you a basic idea of sizes and servings. I can also create square cakes. Carved cake pricing will be based on servings and complexity. There is no standard pricing for these cakes.

Specialty Desserts: Pecan pie $25, All other pies $20, Cheesecakes $30 (including sicilian cheesecake made from Ricotta Cheese), Cannolis $2.50 ea etc. If you would like something not listed please let me know. I will do custom orders.

Cookies and Cake Pops:

Jumbo Cookies: $25 a Dozen. These cookies can be made into cookie baskets and are typically about 4-5" across. Flavors include but are not limited to Chocolate chip, Double chocolate chip, Snickerdoodle, Peanut butter, Monster (combo of peanut butter, oatmeal and M&M), Oatmeal, Oatmeal Rasin, M&M, White Chocolate Chunk, White Chocolate Cherry Chunk, etc.

Cake Pops. $2.50 each. Heavily decorated and shaped cake pops pricing varies by design. My cake pops are made from my regular scratch recipies and combined with my fresh buttercreams. These are then coated in premium chocolate or white chocolate. These can be tailored by color, design and theme to meet the needs of your party or event.

Please allow 5 days prior notice minimum when placing an order. Rush orders can be done based on availability and complexity. A $15 rush charge will apply to all orders not placed 5 days prior to delivery date.

If you would like to place and order and are in the Colorado area please contact me at 719-761-0917 or forcakessake5@hotmail.com

Flavors and Fillings

There have been many requests for a list of the flavors and fillings I offer for cake orders. I am able to do pretty much any flavor or filling you can come up with but here are some common requests, interesting combinations and a few of my own creations to choose from. If you are in the Colorado area and would like to place an order, please feel free to Contact me for more info at 719-761-0917 or email me at forcakessake5@hotmail.com. Thanks and enjoy!!!

Recommended Flavor Combinations:

Dark Chocolate cake with fresh raspberry butter cream, Lemon Cake, creamy lemon filling and lemon cream cheese butter cream, Dark Chocolate cake with peanut butter cup filling and peanut butter butter cream (Reeses cup), Hummingbird cake with cream cheese butter cream, White cake with fresh strawberry filling and strawberry butter cream. Yellow butter cake spiced with cinnamon and filled with cannoli cream. Champagne Cake with Champagne butter cream.**Most Unique Chocolate chip cake with Maple bacon butter cream.

Cake Flavors:

Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Hummingbird (contains pineapple, banana and crushed walnuts), Yellow butter, White, Red Velvet, Cinnamon spiced butter, Lemon, Almond, Hazelnut, Marble, Tie Dye (any color combo you would like), Carrot, Champagne, Banana, Italian Wedding, Espresso, Tiramisu, Coconut, Mint Chocolate, Carmel,Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate, and many many more

Butter Cream:

Chocolate, Vanilla, Banana, Raspberry, Strawberry, Blueberry, Cream Cheese, Carmel, White Chocolate, Espresso, Bailey's, Chamboard, Maple, Coconut and many many more!

Fillings:

Candy Bar (Snickers, Reeses, M&M, Milky Way, Heath, etc), Cannoli Cream (with or without mini chocolate chips), Fresh Banana, Lemon, Strawberry, Raspberry, Blueberry, Orange, Cheesecake, Ganache (white, milk or dark cchocolate), Peach, Cookies and Cream...and as always...many many more!

All Cakes are available to be covered in either Buttercream or Fondant. My fondant is all made fresh to each order and is made from marshmallows. I do this because not only do I want you to have to freshest, tastiest cake possible....It is also easier to work with, does not dry and crack as frequently and has a much spongier texture.

When placing your order please feel free to use your imagination. The sky is the limit!

Zebra baby belly cake

There is a funny origin to this cake. One of my very best friends was getting ready to PCS (for those non military folks that means permanent change of station or moving) and I was very sad. She had recently found out she was pregnant with her 7th....yes I said 7th child. She had yet to find out what we would learn the following week...she was having a girl!! We happened to be browsing the Internet for random things...one of our favorite past times....and she told me that I HAD to make this cake for someone. I said "why not for you?" and the adventure begins.
I used my trusty dark chocolate cake recipe and discovered that to appropriately make the chest and belly regions I needed to use certain pans. I used the Wilton ball pan set for the...UMMM chest....and a large mixing bowl for the belly. BE WARNED...if you use a mixing bowl to bake in, it MUST be metal or glass oven safe and the outside WILL bake much faster than the middle. There are things out there to combat this but I wasn't aware of these little tricks until afterwards. UGH. It wound up absolutely perfect in the end and I hand painted the zebra stripes using black food color and vanilla extract.
Such a cute cake but ultimately lead to me making a couple of other female shaped cake that had much less clothing on. Those posts will follow and I will be sure to make them as EXPLICIT in case you are viewing this with impressionable people.

Winnie the Pooh Baby Shower cake

 This was a recent creation for a friend's baby shower. This is their first little one and they are so excited. I know that the nursery theme was Winnie the Pooh so I wanted to come up with something that would be fitting. I took to the web and googled myself cross eyed looking for the perfect inspiration. This is part of my process. Most orders I receive do not include a cut and dry idea so it is my job to look through all the other amazingly talented people out there and find some inspiration for myself. I showed her a picture of a cake that was almost exactly like the one I wound up creating and she fell in love. It was now my mission to recreate this, with the utmost respect to the original, in order to make her big day the best I could.

I asked, as I always do, what her favorite flavors and combinations were and I was tasked with chocolate and raspberry. Everything else was up to me. That night I was brainstorming and it dawned on me....Winnie the Pooh....honey pot....I had to make honey cake. The resulting product was chocolate cupcakes filled with raspberry preserves and topped with fresh raspberry butter cream as well as honey cake with honey butter cream. Want to know a secret??? SHHHH don't tell anyone....the secret to amazing, not overly sweet honey butter cream is...wait for it....SOUR CREAM! Who would have guessed? The cake was chocolate cake filled with raspberry preserves and covered with the same raspberry butter cream.

The characters were some of my favorites and they were really very simple...except Pooh. It didn't realize that his face was so pointed and round and flat all at the same time. Let's just say he took about 3 tries. The ending product though was one of my most proud cake moments.

Fining Nemo Cake

This cake was my crowning achievement at the time. I created this monster for my 2 year old's birthday. He is an adorable and demanding little person. When I asked him, "what do you want for your birthday cake", I was met with a very loud and resounding "PISHIES!!!". My little guy loves fish and while he has never actually developed the attention span to sit through "Finding Nemo" in it's entirety, he is a fan and immediately recognized the characters. I also added an extra challenge for myself by trying my first attempt at a Topsy Turvy cake. This is not for the faint of heart. Those of you that would like to brave it, I have attached a pretty useful link on You Tube that will help give you a general idea of how to go about it. http://youtu.be/xHY_F53ClJ8

The cake was a very good rendition, if I do say so myself, of the famous "Charm City Cakes" pumpkin chocolate chip with cream cheese butter cream as well as a death by chocolate layer. These two cakes, because of their density, made carving much easier. I also make ALL my ingredients from scratch so the fondant was marshmallow based and the butter cream flavors were all personal creations.

My little guy will still come to me on an almost weekly basis and ask to see his "birthday pishies". I am happy I could make my little man so happy and this cake taught me a lot about how cake can both make you laugh and cry.

Wine Crate Cake

This being my first post to my new blog, I wanted to highlight one of my favorite cakes. I love wine. Now I am not just talking about liking it...I LOVE it! I am by no means a frequent consumer but wine holds a special place in my heart. This love of wine is most likely based on a deep rooted connection to my Italian heritage. I am also fortunate to have friends that enjoy this wonderful nectar as much as I do. It was because of this I made a wine crate cake for my friend for her most recent celebration of her 25th birthday.   The cake was made from a recipe that I also hold dear to my heart. It was the exact cake that my husband and I had at our wedding....champagne!! The butter cream was also champagne. The decorations included brown marbled fondant, white chocolate shavings and silk grape leaves. I topped this of with one of the most appropriate bottles of wine I could find....CUPCAKE! There is no fake wine bottles here....that would just create a sad birthday girl.