MY FIRST MARBLE CAKE! OH YEAH! OH YEAH!

Hey Guys!

I did my first marble cake a few weeks back! whoop! whoop! A customer requested a chocolate and vanilla butter cake. She wasn't exactly sure how she wanted it but knew these too flavours were the ones she wanted. 

So I thought I'd try something different, something I've never done before....a Marble Cake! 

This is my Marble Cake Journey...

First I made the mixture, the vanilla butter mixture and divided into two (forgot to take pics at these stages), to the chocolate part of the mixture I added two tablespoons of cocoa powder (baking cocoa powder of your choice) and chocolate pieces to make it really chocolatey. Then poured both mixtures equally into two !0" cake tins and swirled it with a knife and spoon till I got the affect shown in the top first half of the picture. The bottom half of the picture shows the cakes after they were baked. I was very happy with the result! *ALL SMILES HERE MATE*

Look how great it turned out! At this stage I wag starting to put icing on the cake. I had put icing in between the two cakes (Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting with Whipped Cream) 

This was the end RESULT...

Vanilla and Chocolate butter marble cake with vanilla cream cheese frosting with whipping cream. decorated with shredded coconut and milk and white chocolate! 

These are the pictures my customers sent me (I've gotten my customers in the habit of taking pictures of the cake once its been cut for my social media sites and blog). 

It looked amazing and I was very happy with what I accomplished with this cake. 

The feedback was amazing! I love what I do! I love when people enjoy the things I've made,

Could do with a slice now! lol

Well my lovelies, until next time...Mwah!

Love Caulene. XxX

Hey Guys! I've Missed Ya!!! Its been 10 days!

Been busy the last couple days! Last 10 days actually that was my last post!

Last week was my convention at church, 4 days of blessings and teachings galore! Was amazing! I was involved in the behind the scenes work and was baking for it also (forgot to take pics of what I baked.  Red velvet cake, Banana cake and Carrot and Ginger cake with cream cheese frosting).

But I'm back now! I'm always looking up and creating recipes. I've spent the last two days researching recipes, and watching cake shows on food network (my favourite channel) in particular. I love watching them and can’t wait to reach that stage in my career. Practise makes perfect, so I watch and I learn to build on skills and improve on something I love so much! 

This is what my work desk looks like when I'm researching, baking books here, there and everywhere and notebooks to make notes.

My thing of the moment is looking up icing recipes and creating my own. From previous posts you'll see that I've had problems with icing. My problem with icing has never been the flavour but the consistency! oh man! Especially with cream cheese frosting! For the longest time mine was always too runny. I could never get it thick enough to frost the cake properly. So I've researched and re-researched and tested and re-tested then researched and re-researched, then tested some more. LOL (you get the point)  I've learned some tricks that have helped and I'm better with icing now than I was a year ago. (Thank Ya Jesus!!!). One thing you need to have when baking and learning baking tricks is patience! ONE MORE TIME...KEY WORD...PATIENCE. 

One of my tricks to do is to leave the butter and cream cheese in the fridge until I'm ready to use it. In all the recipes I've seen or used they always say to let them rest outside at room temperature for a while. That never seems to work for me. So I let them stay cold, I even freeze the bowl I'm mixing in. Plus never over beat cream cheese it just loosens and becomes more runny. I always put it in last.  These are the little tricks that work with icing consistency! 

This was one of the shows I've been watching and studying from. It is exactly what the name says. AMAZING! 

Look how beautiful that is and its not even finished yet! I cannot wait till I've reached this level. This is simply amazing. *IN LOVE*

Not to mention the detail and work that went into this beauty. All done by hand I just want to point out. The theme on this cake was Alice in Wonderland.

The skill, the practise, the time, and the love to want to do a cake like this! I admire the art work, the craft and the dedication! I will reach this stage one day. Watch this space........

And enjoy this journey with me! 

I love you guys, for following my blog! I really do! 

Until next time...Mwah! 

Love Caulene. XxX

My Pastor's Birthday Cake!

Hey guys,

It was my Pastor's birthday on Sunday and I surprised her with a birthday cake courtesy of Caulene's Bakery House! 

I do love my Pastor so very, very much! She is such a beautiful and inspiring woman of God and I admire her so much! 

I had to show her love, and what better way than with a cake! 

The initial plan was to do her a fluffy, vanilla butter cake with mango buttercream frosting, but the frosting completely flopped on me! I wanted to surprise her with that as she has a very unnatural obsession with mangoes! An obsession I have only ever seen on one other person...My Mum! LOL

I had to improvise and go with plan B on this one, which was the fluffy, vanilla butter cake, with milk chocolate shaving in the middle, and a vanilla cream cheese frosting. I then sprinkled a mix of milk chocolate and coconut shaving around the edge and decorated the centre of the cake with a flower (store bought) and boom! 

Was very happy with the outcome of this cake, even with the mango buttercream disappointment , and it received great reviews!, I was told it looked like it came from a store! *tear* #WINNING

I love what I do! and I love when people enjoy what I've done! 

Its so worth it! 

So until next time my bakery lovers....Mwah!

Love Caulene. XxX

The Icing Journals......

Hey guys and girls!

This week I had an order for a birthday cake. I'm getting more confident with my cake making and decoration. That saying "practise makes perfect" is actually very accurate. Anyone who follows my instagram page or my facebook page will see the improvements in my frosting techniques. Its nice to actually see the progress myself.

It can only get better.....I hope. lol

I'm always taking pictures, so its easy to document and see my progress. I've gotten my customers in the habit of taking pics too of when the cake is cut, so I can post them on my social media sites!

I do love my loyal customers and supporters! 

This shows my icing process, this actually use to make me very nervous when I first started baking and it never quite turned out how I imagined it in my head. This really use to knock my confidence and I would think to myself "do I actually have what it takes to do this?"

But eventually I got better, I'm not exactly where I would like to be at this stage but the key thing is I'm getting better. I practised and I have a lot more confidence doing it now and really enjoy it. Its messy, its fun and I've started to really enjoy this part of the baking process. yayyyy!! *thinks to self "wow, how things change!"* 

I looked up different techniques, tried out different icing recipes, mixed recipes together, created my own till I found out what worked and what was best for what I wanted to accomplish. 

This was the end product of the birthday cake I did this week....

I was really happy with the result! So was the customer! #WINNING 

 So I say to anyone out there with a dream or passion, keep at it, keep practising, and put the work in.

 It will definitely pay off!!

Just to show you my progress...

 

This was my icing capability November/December time last year! My first ever Red Velvet Cake! Now don't get it wrong, the cake tasted great! The decoration however was a different matter! *Hangs head in shame* LOL!

This is a Red Velvet Cake I did in August....

Cleaned up round the edges....

Improvement? I think so! LOL

So like I said before, practise makes perfect!

I'm glad i can share my journey with you guys! its nice to tell you the behind the scene problems that happen sometimes. 

Until next time....Mwah! 

Love Caulene. XxX