A Wedding Cake For My Baby Sister

I had the pleasure of making my baby sister's wedding cake this past weekend.

I spent one day baking all the layers - 3 tiers, 2 layers each.

Spent another day (and night) making the buttercream, applying the buttercream, making the buttercream look perfect, and finally, stacking the tiers.

I use a bench scraper to get the sides of my cake very straight. Don't say I never shared any secrets with you.

I use drinking straws as internal supports (yet another secret). I stack the cakes with a little buttercream "glue" between the tiers, leaving about 1/4-inch of space between the tiers - the space is covered later. I drove a wooden dowel down the center of the cake to keep the tiers from shifting in the car.

Once the ribbon, flowers, piping, etc are added, the 1/4-inch space is completely hidden.

This Deep Chocolate Cake with Amaretto Italian Buttercream was super yummy! Wish I could have shared it with each and every one of you!!

Btw, did I mention that we had to drive 3 hours to the wedding? Normally I would dread driving a stacked cake that distance, but this past weekend the color of the autumn leaves were at their prime. We had 3 full hours of these stunning views - enjoy!

Happy Fall - 2009!

Favorite Kitchen Things - Cupcake Carrier

Being the mother of 4, I wish I knew how many cupcakes, cookies, and muffins I've baked in my lifetime. Sadly, all of those goodies did not arrive at their final destination in the same condition they left my kitchen!

No longer a problem now that I found this nifty cupcake carrier.  I especially like it for transporting cupcakes and muffins! The insert has little round indentations that hold cupcakes in place so they don't slide around. You can also flip the insert over to accommodate brownies, cookies, pastries... even 1/4 sheet cakes (9x13).

Cupcakes in foil liners can be a little slippery, but I haven't had any trouble with paper liners.

You can use one layer or more... just snap as many together as you need.

Btw, if you're interested in the cupcakes pictured above, I used this cupcake recipe with this frosting.

Happy Baking!