Last week we celebrated Peach turning 5!
We started the day out with an afternoon at the park with our friends.
It was kind of funny… 3 families = 17 children!!! Ya gotta love big family life!
Then we had a family birthday dinner at Emma and Josh’s!
Not sure what we did before God gave her to us 2 years ago. 
LOTS of excitement!!!
God is good!
I made her cake using fondant and buttercream.
Here are a few pictures from the cakes I did this weekend.
This cake was stacked 5 high, each tier had 3 layers of strawberry cake with a strawberry cream cheese filling.
The edible glitter and rhinestone ribbon really made this cake shine!
The bows were made of fondant.
This cake served 200.
This Groom’s Cake had fishing lures on wire and real fish in the tank below.
The fish on top is plastic.
The tree stumps had a glass base.
Chocolate on chocolate, served 150.
We have decided to name our catering business Valor Catering, it is a part of a long range family plan we have… Lord willing.
Here is a great video to walk you through this cake!
I added some lemon on top for a garnishing because I love the color and because this icing has a little lemon zest in it.
Here are a few tips for making a moist chocolate on chocolate cake.
I almost always use a box cake mix for my orders.
There are a couple things you can do to make them a little better:
Baking Tips:
Icing:
The Joy of Baking has great recipes! Here is a good video with a basic chocolate cake.
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Cream Crisco, butter, and vanilla together until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat in sugar and cocoa on medium speed, scraping down bowl often.
Add water (and corn syrup) until light and fluffy forming peaks.
Do not over mix.
Store in airtight container.
Bake your layers. Let them cook completely.
Make plenty of icing. For this cake I used buttercream.
Mix your icing colors.
For this baby shower cake I am using 3 shades of pink. I made a large batch of white then tinted it very lightly with pink.
I iced the smallest and lightest color layer first.
Always put the bottoms (flat sides) together in the center.
Be sure that your board is the same size as your cake.
For the next layer I tinted the bowl of icing a little darker, then placed the cakes together. Then I added 4 plastic dowel rods. They need to be cut evenly, I use a utility knife to do this. They are then placed evenly through the cake. This will support the upper layer without adding stress the the layers below.
When placing the dowel rods be sure they are evenly placed as far out as possible and still be under the previous layer’s board. If they are too close to the center, or uneven your cake will tilt.
The pillars need to be slightly higher than the cake. For this cake I will be using some ribbon to hide the rods, but you can also use icing, just be careful to have the dowel rods close to flush with the cake.
For the last layer I tinted the icing a little darker, cut dowel rods to place in the bottom layer to support the middle layer.
Stack the layers evenly upon thedowel rods.
Cover the gaps using ribbon or icing.
Add some fresh flowers or decorate how you wish.
Learning to bake a cake correctly and then learning the simple skill of basic decorating can lead into a great way to make money. Not to mention, you save money making your own cakes.
The same decorating techniques that are used in making a wedding cake are the same as a regular birthday cake, with the exception of learning how to stack them.
Wedding cakes are where the money is at!
You really don’t make much money at cake decorating if you are just making a birthday cake here or there. But when you start doing bigger cakes for weddings, anniversaries and showers that is when you start making some good money!
For a basic wedding cake I charge $2.00 a serving. This is for a simple buttercream, stacked cake (I will also do fondant).
A cake that serves 100 people I can sell for $200.00 and it cost me about $50 to make it, after the investment of pans/tips/bags. That is a $150 profit for a day’s work (I bake half a day and decorate half a day).
It is a natural progression to move from wedding cakes to a catering business.
Start small.
Work on your skills. Practice. Practice. Practice.
Slowly buy what you need.
Do cakes for free to get the word of mouth going.
Hang out on Pinterest to get lots of ides.
Most states have a Cottage Law that allows you to sell cakes form your kitchen without a food licence.
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