About the All-In-One Guide to Cake Decorating

This comprehensive and accessible guide to cake decorating teaches all of the techniques and tricks that aspiring sugarcrafters need to create stunning and impressive cakes. Everyone will think these amazing cakes came from the best bakery in town! First Steps in Cake Decorating reveals dozens of expert cake decorating ideas that are simple to achieve yet look stunning. All the most popular methods of icing and decoration are covered, including buttercream, sugarpaste, chocolate, marzipan and flower paste. Detailed, easy-to-follow instructions explain the basics of preparing and using different types of icing, illustrated with step-by-step color photographs. There is a delicious array of fantastic cakes here to suit adults and children alike. Beginners will pick up the basics fast, and even experienced cake decorators will find inspirational new ideas.

Mom Maven’s Thoughts

This book is well written and beautifully illustrated, it is just too advanced for my skill set. My skills didn’t take me past chapter 2-Shaping, Filling, and Simple Icings, but thanks to this book I did try some new-to-me techniques. While my cake isn’t beautiful, I tried and I know some of the mistakes I made and what I need to work on in the future. This book will stay on my shelf until I get to take some cake decorating classes. It is a wonderful reference and instruction manual for those who are further along in their cake decorating journey.

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Peanut Butter Cup Cake Recipe

This easy Peanut Butter Cup cake recipe combines the flavors of chocolate and peanut butter with a yellow cake for a delightful dessert.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 55 minutes minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings 16 slices

Author Cindy Schultz

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 Box of Yellow Cake Mix I used Duncan Hines
• eggs water, and oil as listed on the box

Filling

• 1 cup smooth peanut butter
• 2 cups confectioner's sugar divided
• 1 TBS vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup heavy cream divided

Icing (from The All-In-One Guide to Cake Decorating)

• 4 squares semi-sweet chocolate
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 egg beaten, 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

Instructions

Cake

• Bake the cake according to the directions on the package.
• Make 2 8" round cakes.
• Cool cakes in pans on cooling rack for 15 minutes.
• Remove cakes from pans and place on cooling rack, allow to cool completely. (At least 45 minutes)

Filling

• In a large bowl mix together the peanut butter and 1 cup of confectioner's sugar.
• Add in the second cup of confectioner's sugar, it will become crumbly.
• Add in the vanilla and 1/4 cup of the heavy cream.
• Once that is fully incorporated and another 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Mix until smooth.
• Slowly add in the remaining heavy cream until it becomes the consistency you want it to be.
• If your cake isn't flat on top, carefully slice off the domes portion so that your layers will stack evenly.
• Use a turntable and a long, sharp knife to cut each cake into two even layers
• Place the bottom layer in the center of the plate or cake board.
• Cover that layer with a layer of the peanut butter filling.
• Repeat the layering process, making sure your layers are even, until all four cakes are layered and there is peanut butter between the layers. DO NOT put peanut butter on the top layer.

Icing

• Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of hot water. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon until melted.
• Add the egg and beat until smooth. Remove the bowl from the saucepan. Stir in the confectioner's sugar and beat until smooth and glossy.
• Pour immediately over the cake for a smooth finish. You may need to use a knife or the back of a spoon to help coat the sides with the icing.

I brought this cake to church on Wednesday evening to share with the 3rd-5th grade girls I teach. Since we only had 6 girls in class that night there was a lot of leftover cake. I sliced it up and handed pieces to friends as they walked by. Everyone loved this delicious Peanut Butter Cup cake. It is light and not too sweet because we used a yellow cake as the base. I hope you enjoy this recipe and all of the easy recipes I share here on The Mom Maven. I hope you share them on your social networks. I just ask that you not copy and share the entire recipe with photos. Please use the sharing buttons below and share the link to this post. Thanks!

The post Peanut Butter Cup Cake Recipe appeared first on The Mom Maven.

I got the hamburger cupcake sleeves for my review so last Friday I set out to make my most creative cupcakes ever. I baked up a batch of cupcakes, made buttercream frosting from scratch and then when I followed the guide on how to make light brown frosting…I ran into trouble. I was out of yellow food coloring! The recipe called for yellow, blue and red and I had no yellow-and no car to go get yellow! I put everything away to try again on Saturday.

I still had no car Saturday (the joys of having a teenage driver in the house) so I sent hubby to the store to pick up yellow food coloring. I am used to liquid or paste food coloring…he found gel, hmmm. The gel was easy to work with but it had a totally different recipe for how to make light brown food coloring. Since I had already added the red and blue on Friday, I just kept adding yellow to my current concoction  to try to get it hamburg bun colored! After using the entire tube of yellow gel (note to self you are still out of yellow food coloring) I got as close as I was going to get. I frosted the cupcakes, let them chill in the fridge for 10 minutes then I wrapped them and topped them with large sugar crystals to look like sesame seeds and here is my final product.

Not bad if I do say so myself! Roundabouts Cupcake Sleeves come in over 70 designs and prices start at $8.99 a dozen. You can choose from baby bottles, gumball machines, sushi, basketballs and many more! These are a great, easy way to make themed cupcakes for a birthday party, baby shower or even a Super Bowl party.

The Giveaway: The winner can choose 1 set of any of the 70+ cupcake sleeve designs.

Mandatory 1st Entry: Visit Roundabouts Cupcake Sleeves website and look around, then come back here and leave me a comment letting me know which sleeve you would like to win AND what occasion you would use it for.

Bonus Entries: Leave a separate comment for each entry.

• Like Roundabout Cupcake Sleeves on Facebook AND write on their wall that TheMomMaven.com sent you
• Follow @RoundaboutWraps and @MomMaven on Twitter
• Tweet this “I want to make cool cupcakes with @roundaboutwraps from @mommaven #win http://bit.ly/dVvSiG  “ (you may do this 2x a day)
• Like this post on Facebook using the button at the bottom of this post
• Blog subscribers, GFC friends, Networked Blogs followers and Facebook Likers each get 1 entry

Giveaway is for US residents only. The winner will be chosen by Random.org at 9pm on 2/15/11.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Tomoson Product review & giveaway Disclosure.

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