Happy Groundhog Day! So, I have been getting to know a lot of amazing and talented folks through the magic of the interwebs, and one of these people is Andi Butler (please go to her
website to see her gorgeous artwork and follow her on
twitter while you are at it). She mentioned that she made some Star Wars cupcakes one day and they totally blew my mind! (check them out
here). Amazing, right? Being the wonderful gal that she is, she told me about this cookbook:
With a kid birthday around the corner, the firefly birthday cake (page 80) was chosen as my first attempt at creating a fancy cake with chocolate decorations. This cookbook is great, easy to follow, and full of great photographs. I made the chocolate fireflies a week ahead of time:
This photo documents me attempting to be organized! hee hee
You melt candy chocolate and then pipe it onto parchment paper to create the chocolate decorations. Andi makes it look SO EASY!!! Luckily, the firefly designs I attempted were relatively simple and the chocolate reheats easily. It was tricky, but fun, and got a little easier as time wore on. After the designs are drawn out, I melted white chocolate and colored it, and filled in the firefly bodies. Oh, and I threw in a few hearts and butterflies for extra practice.
They kind of look like a mess from the working side, but are awfully cool when you flip them over...
A little firefly army! They are really delicious, btw!
Andi told me that she usually makes the italian meringue buttercream icing, so that is what I did, too (page 37). Here is the meringue before all the butter went in... it was SO dreamy! I had to take a photo of all of the marvelous swirls. It had a sweet and delicate flavor, but wasn't TOO sweet...
Here is the finished cake. Two leveled vanilla cakes with a layer of chocolate buttercream, too. I still cannot believe I made this cake. It didn't turn out as beautifully as the one in the cookbook, but that was okay with me. The kids *really* loved the fireflies the most. I just really love that I was lucky to have found a wonderful new friend who has inspired me to stretch my wings and fly a little.
Thank you, Andi!
