Bake Happy's Got a New Look!

I have been meaning to give my little corner in the blogosphere a facelift for sometime now. It took me too long enough since I wanted to be sure I reached out to the right designer who'd be able to help me. And so I searched and searched and searched for someone who'd be able to translate the look I had in mind for my blog. 


Then I found her! The very creative Liz Barber of Sweet Simplicity Designs did a great job of giving Bake Happy a pretty make over. Head on over to her site to check out the wonderful blogs and designs she has created. She's very patient, giving me lots of options to work with until we found the right look I am aiming for the blog. 


I wanted a very clean, simple look, should scream "happy" and something that would wonderfully complement the posts I have in my blog and she has given me just that and more. Thanks Liz! It's a pleasure working with you. 


If you're reading this post through a reader or an e-mail alert, head on over and check out Bake Happy. I am pretty sure you will love it as much as I do. :)

How to Make Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night Cake

For a shoot Bake Happy did recently [you can watch it here :)], I made a cake version of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night. 

Unfortunately, it did not make the cut. So I thought of doing a proper post for it. Hmmm... let's kick it up a notch shall we? How about I show you how I made it? But let's kick it up a higher notch! If you scroll down below, you can see a video of exactly how the cake came to be. 

Now now... I am not a Van Gogh but I got the idea from Karen Tack and Alan Richardson's Hello Cupcake. It seems to be a very challenging project so In the book, their canvas are cupcakes but this post my canvas is a Lemon Raspberry Cake wtith Lemon Buttrcream Frosting covered in white marshmallow fondant. 

What we need:

Cake covered in fondant

6 grass tips (#133)

1 leaf tip (#66)

1 round tip (#4)

1 open stat tip (#17)

Buttercream in 9 colors (navy blue, electric blue, sky blue, forest green, mint green, electric green, golden yellow, lemon yellow, electric yellow)

Royal Icing

Large Tip (#855)

Here's how:

You can watch it here or you can look it up on Youtube because I can't seem to figure out how to make the video larger in size :)

Once the edible painting is done, using the royal icing and large tip to pipe a border to resemble a frame. 

As an option, you can brush some gold or silver luster dust on the frame to give the cake a authentic frame feel.
Hope you like it! 

How to Make a Typewriter Cupcake Topper

I am a NCIS fan. I have watched the whole series (whole 8 seasons, season 9 on-going) four times, excluding the times I catch the show on Fox and Jack (which is a lot) . I decorate cakes while watching the show which is kind of ironic and contradicting because cakes are all happy, cheery, endorphine enducing cute little things while I watch a show which investigates not so good events every episode. My favorite episode is the first one from season seven because I'm a girl and I'm rooting for Tony and Ziva. And also when Abby found evidence linking Gibbs to Paloma Reynosa. Then there's McGee who loves to his write his novels on a typewriter which got him into trouble because an obsessed fan used the typewriter ribbon to act out the not so good events of his soon to be published second novel. 

That intro took so long. I'm pretty sure you just scrolled down to get down to business. So here it is, a tutorial based on McGee's typewriter.

What we need:

Fondant in black, gray, white

Bronze luster dust

Fondant rolling pin

Small rolling pin or round chopsticks

Fondant smoother

Pasta stick

Knife

Brush

Water and Brush (to glue pieces together)

Here's How:

1. Roll gray fondant into a cylinder.

2. Using the fondant smoother, shape the fondant into a rectangular box.

3. Press the fondant rolling pin into one side.

It should now look like this

4. Cut the excess on the despressed end.

5. Press the higher end of the typewriter using the small rolling pin or chopsticks.

It's coming along nicely now, don't you think?

6. Using popsicle sticks, press it to the curved side to make space for the keys.

7. Roll a small amount fondant thinly and cut out the typewriter keys.

8. Paste the keys into the typewriter.

9. Cut up a rectangle out of the remaining white fondant.

10. Roll out a black fondant into a thin cylinder.

11. Fold the white fondant into the black cylinder and place on the higher end of the typewriter. Paint the typewriter keys with bronze luster dust to give it the "old-school" look.