Barn Animals!

I recently had the pleasure of doing two fun barn animal parties that I wanted to show you :)

I was lucky that one of my customers sent me fabulous pictures of the dessert table they put together with the desserts I made.  Look how cute it was!

The sunflowers and chocolate pigs were from Jaques Torres

 

The Cupcakes!

The Cake close-up 

The second was a barn cake and cake pop barn animals :)

Bridal Showers

I wanted to share some pretty bridal showers I have done over the past few months.  I have been expanding and trying to learn some sugar flowers.  These are very basic for now, but glad I can offer them and will hopefully continue to teach myself some more :) 

I really love simple cakes with a pop of design (which here is the flowers)

This was a lovely shower hosted in a home in northern Westchester.  They were great and sent me a lot of pictures :)

The Whole Spread!

I did the desserts for the dessert table and they did a fabulous job putting it together.  There were a variety of mini sandwich cookies, berry pie bars, cupcakes, cakepops and mini peach and berry tarts!

This is not a great picture but I wanted to show you the cute cupcake designs upclose.  The bride to be just got a scooter and the invitation had a scooter and balloons on it so we matched it with the cupcakes.  

Look how beautiful the tables were and such cute favors!

These were cupcakes for a shower that I put their edible logo on

Another simple cake with some edible sunflowers (sorry also not a great picture!)

 Another simple yet elegant bridal shower cake with flowers :)

Fun Children's Cakes!

I have been terrible about updating you all with my most recent kreations!  Once the summer hits it always amazes me how fast time flies and how it is over before you know it!  I cannot believe it is almost August.  Over the next few weeks I am going to catch you up on some of my favorites from June and July (and even some from May that I never shared).  A lot of my photos are from Instagram which is the easiest way for me to capture my cakes before they are delivered (you can always follow me on Instagram as well @kristanwatson).  I am also thankful for those of you that send me fabulous pictures :) 

I have had a lot of creative request for tons of different children's cakes that I wanted to share with you today :)

The first is a cake based on the movie Where the Wild Things Are - I did cookies as favors for the party as well

The next was a fun Pirate Cake I did for a little boy who turned 2

The next was a fun LA Lakers Jersey Cake for a little boy who chose the design of the cake himself - his last name is Poses and he turned 8 which is the meaning behind the name and number on the back

This cake was definitely a fun challenge for me! This was for a little girl who just came back from India and loved the Taj Mahal so much she wanted that for her birthday cake! I cannot take credit for the design though as the mother sent me a picture she liked, but I was happy I could come close to what she wanted.  

The last are actually cupcakes that were for a Build a Bear Birthday Party 

Graduations!

Hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July holiday!  I wanted to share some graduation cakes and cupcakes that I made over the month of June.  

This was a cupcake tower for an 8th grade graduation.  THe cupcakes had an S for The Spence School, books and graduation caps.

This was another 8th Grade Graduation - A Cake was in order this time :)

  

My brother in law became a Doctor of Physical Therapy - so I was excited to make him a cake to celebrate!

 

These were just some mini cupcakes with graduation caps :)

Pippa's Dohl

One of my friends from JCrew threw her daugher an amazing Dohl, which is a Korean first birthday.  In regards to the scale and importance of the event, Korean first birthdays can be compared to a Bar/Bat Mitzvah or a Sweet Sixteen.  A large dessert table is one of the traditions in which I was excited to be apart of!  One of the other traditions is to lay items of signficance out and whichever one they pick is what determines their future.

The colors of the party were grey, pink and white and it was a bunny themed birthday since Pippa was born in the year of the Rabbit :)

This wonderful party was held at Bann Restaurant and all of the fabulous pictures below were captured by Mike Ngo Photography.

This is my favorite photo of the birthday girl!

Here she is determining her future!

A Bunny Cake Pop and Cupcake Tower

My Bunny Birthday Cake!

April and May Favorites!

I have been super behind in keeping you up to date with my projects so wanted to get you caught up!  I have been doing a lot more custom cakes which has been a lot of fun!  Hope you enjoy!  

A Zebra Cake with a Hot Pink Princess Crown

This was one of my favorites!  The birthday party was an Under the Sea theme at an Aquarium in Riverhead Long Island

A Simple and Pretty Cake for a Bridal Shower with Bow Cookies as Favors!

Hungry Hungry Caterpillar Cupcakes and Cake Pops!

A Baby Shower Stroller Cake that matched the invitation

I love getting inspiration from the invitations - this Sports Cake for a 2 year old boy also matched the invitation

Another Animal themed Party Cake!

Girly themed Cupcakes

A Lovely Spring Bridal Shower

Two of our best friends are getting married this September, but unfortunately they are on the same day!  I am the matron of honor in one and Chris is a groomsman in the other.  Since I am very sad to be missing the one wedding, I was excited to be able to do the cake and favors for the bridal shower a few weeks ago! It was a fabulous day for a lovely outdoor spring shower.  The cake was red velvet the brides favorite! 

Of course I am not looking at the camera!

A Girly Elmo Party!

I would say Elmo and Sesame Street are the most popularly requested theme for children's parties.  I had fun doing a girly version for an Elmo Party this past weekend.  They had a fun pizza party and they ordered these adorable centerpieces for the party from which I drew some inspiration from!  

March Favorites!

Hi!

Sorry I have been so MIA, it has been quite busy around here which has been great! I wanted to share some of my favorite March Projects with you :)

 "Under the Sea" Cake Pops in flower boxes for a Sweet 16

White Chocolate Covered Oreos with Lemon Lime Pop Rocks that were for Little Miss Party Planner's amazing Pure Nail Ice Party (see more from the party here)

A new cake for my menu!  Coconut Cake!

A Train Cake for Jack's 1st Birthday!

A girly Baptism Cake

A Totoro Cake!

Milk and Cookies Baby Shower Cake

A customer was celebrating a year after his heart surgery!

New York Magazine Wedding Event 2012 Photos!

The New York Magazine Wedding Event last week was fabulous, I met a ton of wonderful new brides, event planners, caterers, bloggers and photographers!  

I wanted to show you the dessert table I put together for it.  I had Raquel from Raquel Bianca Creative shoot my work for the event. Raquel has been my photographer and designer for over a year now, and takes all my site photography. I asbosultely love working with her!  First, she makes my work look incredible! She is also someone you can count on which is great.  I never send an email and have to wait days for her to respond, she is super reliable! I also love that she is always sending me ideas to help me grow my business which, is much appreciated when you have a small business.  

About four months ago she launched Raquel Bianca Creative, a photography & paper design company based here in New York. She shoots children & infants, portraits, fashion, engagement, food, events and more. She also designs invitations and created the paper tags you see on my wedding display. This aspect of her business is unique because she can shoot your photo, and then design the card or announcements that you send out to friends and family. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

February Fun!

February was an exciting month filled with a lot of small custom projects.  I have become obsessed with instagram! I have really enjoyed capturing all of the projects with it, so I wanted to share them with you here!  

Our wonderful wedding photographer, Maggie Harkov, posted some pictures from our wedding and I wanted to share those with you as well.  You can see them in her most recent blog :)

Minnie Mouse Cake Pops and Mini Cupcakes

"Cute as a Button" Baby Shower Cake

Blackberry Cake

Present Cake Pop

Valentine's Cookie Cake

Custom Valentine's Cake Pop Boxes

Abby Cadabby Cake Pops

Chinese New Year Cupcakes

Simple Football First Birthday Cake

Favors for a Twins Milk and Cookies Baby Shower

Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cherry Buttercream

My husband and I fell in LOVE with South African red wines while we were there.  They are unique, bold, robust and full of flavor! Very strict US customs laws and expensive shipping make it tough for distributors to import to the States, so we have had some trouble finding good variety since we have been back.  One night, Chris brought home a bottle with a description made just for him! “A burst of intense rich coffee and chocolate aromas with ripe nuances of mulberry, plum and maraschino cherries”.  

The wine is amazing and I suggest if you like the sound of it you should run out and buy it!  The coffee is the most prominent of all the flavors but you taste the hints of chocolate and its sweetness reminds you of cherries.  After doing a little research, I discovered the wine maker now has the nickname Starbucks and that is why it is called Barista DUH?! (read here if you want to learn more).  

I immediately thought of a recent post I had read on Love and Olive Oil about a red wine chocolate cake and thought this wine would be perfect, especially since coffee brings out the flavor in chocolate.  I decided it would be the perfect birthday cake for my husband.  Since he loves cherries and chocolate together I wanted to do it with a cherry buttercream.  Similar to Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil, I decided to use my-go to chocolate cake recipe and just swap the milk for the wine.  

Since this cake is so intense, it would also be lovely as a bundt cake (or mini individual bundt cakes), which make a great, quick dessert for a dinner with friends.  If serving this as a bundt cake, simply serve with powdered sugar or a dollop of whip cream.  If you are married to someone who loves cherry you can drizzle it with a cherry compote as well :)

Chocolate Wine Cake (inspired by Love and Olive Oil)

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups dry red wine (I would use a wine you like to drink because the wine does not cook off entirely)

Directions: 

1. Grease three 6 inch pans (this also can be made into a two-layer 8 inch cake) and line them with parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until fluffy, 4 minutes. 
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until incorporated. Add the vanilla and beat for 2 minutes longer. 
5. On a low speed (stir if you have), work in two batches and alternately fold in the dry ingredients and the wine, until just incorporated.
6. Separate your batter evenly into the pans.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until cake springs back when lightly touched in center.
8. Let cool 10 minutes and then flip your cakes onto parchment paper to cool
9. To assemble your cake start with leveling your layers.  Place each layer on a cake stand and cut off the domed top of the cake with a serrated knife. 
10. Next place the first layer (flat side down) on your cake stand and spread with a layer of the cherry buttercream (about 1/4 cup - it is really personal preference).  
11. Place your second layer on top of the first and spread with the a layer of the cherry buttercream.  
12. Next place your third and last layer on top with the flat side up
13. Cover the entire cake with a thin layer of your chocolate buttercream and place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes (this is what is called the crumb coat, it does not have to be perfect it just holds in the crumbs that form from leveling the cake and creates a base to cover the cake.
14. After the 20 minutes are finished you finish frosting your cake with your desired look

(Alternatives: 10 inch Bundt pan and cook for 40-50 mins or 8 mini bundt cakes cook for 30 mins).

Chocolate and Cherry Swiss Buttercream

4 large egg whites

1 cup of sugar

2 1/2 sticks of butter (20 tablespoons)

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 oz melted bittersweet chocolate

1/4 cup cherry compote (or cherry jam if you do not want to make)

Directions

1. Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a large glass bowl over a pot of simmering water.
2. Whisk occasionally until you cannot feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers.  
3. Transfer the mixture into the your mixer and whip until it turns white and about doubles in size (10 minutes).  Make sure no water gets into the egg whites!
4. Add the vanilla
5. Turn the mixer down slightly and add the butter in small pieces on a medium to high speed, work quickly and continue to whip.  Once all the butter is in turn the speed up to high and continue to whip until it comes together.  THe mixture will curdle first but do not stop, continue to whip and I promise it will come together (could take up to 10 minutes)!
6. Once it is all together put 1/2 cup of the buttercream in another bowl and combine it with the cherry jam.  Make sure to fold the cherry and the buttercream together until the cherry is fully incorporated (Note: you will probably have some left over).  
7. Add the 2 oz of melted and cooled chocolate into the remainder of the buttercream and blend until the chocolate is fully incorporated. 

Cherry Compote (fabulous for ice cream!)

10oz bag of frozen cherries

1/4 cup of sugar

1/2 tbs of cornstarch

1/3 cup of water

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a small saucepan.  
2. On medium heat bring them to a boil.
3. Let it boil for 5 minutes until slightly thickened
4. You can strain out the cherries but I prefer to mash them with the back of the spoon as it is boiling.

Fondant Baby Zoo Animals

I am very excited to show you the cakes I made for a birthday party yesterday! A college friend asked me to do cakes for her twin daughters' and nephew's 2nd birthday. The theme was baby animals and she sent this link over for guidance. I was thrilled to make these, especially since we had just seen all of these animals in person in Africa! I decided to make these extra special by doing them in 3-D as well. They were so much fun to Kreate!

Hanging out before they go on the cake :)

Brown Butter Pecan Cake and the Penguin

  In an earlier blog I told you about a client who requested a butter pecan cake with a caramel buttercream frosting (yummy!) for her daughter’s first birthday. To make things even more fun, she wanted the cake covered in an ice blue fondant with a giant penguin on top! Her daughter LOVES big, stuffed animals and penguins are her favorite so it made the perfect centerpiece. This was one of the most challenging projects I’ve worked on, as it was my first butter pecan cake and I’m just starting to learn how to make 3D characters.

  I began by researching butter pecan cakes in my cookbooks and online, but was very disappointed by the lack of info. Even Southern Living had the same recipe as Allrecipes.com. Reviewers on All Recipes criticized the recipe for creating a cake that was dry and heavy. To fix this problem, some bakers reduced the flour while others added sour cream. I decided to reduce the flour and add cornstarch to make a cake flour (see note below) to create a lighter cake. I also used some sour cream to add moistness.

  The recipe instructed you to toast the pecans with the butter in a pan. I am not sure if my pan was too small but I ended up burning the pecans.  I decided to take a few extra steps and do it all separately.  I toasted the pecans in the oven first and then browned the butter in a pan by itself to give it a nutty flavor. Next, I mixed the butter with the pecans off the heat.  This was a few more steps but it worked perfectly and I think the brown butter added some extra depth in flavor.  The end result was great and I received a happy approval from a real Southerner!  

     This cake would be perfect for a dinner party if it was made into a simple bundt cake and drizzled with caramel (you may see this on the holiday 2012 menu :).  Since this was a birthday party, it was made into a layer cake with a rich caramel buttercream.  I simply added the caramel sauce to my go-to swiss buttercream was thrilled with the fabulous results!  

     Creating the penguin was great fun! The internet is full of instructions for building small penguins but I was on my own building the perfect large penguin. My first try was with all fondant, but the base was too large and the body kept shrinking lower until it looked like a VERY fat penguin:) I decided to next try making her out of Rice Krispies, as I had successfully done for my Thomas the Train topper. I recently learned a trick from a TV cake show suggesting you cover the Rice Krispies with buttercream BEFORE putting the fondant on to make it smoother. It definitely worked! It was slightly harder to handle but came out smoother than the truck had. After I figured out her body, the rest was fairly simple and I loved the way she came out:)

Brown Butter Pecan Cake (adapted from All Recipes)

1 1/4 cups butter

2 cups chopped pecans

2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/4 cup corn starch

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1/4 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. Grease two 8 or 9 inch round pans and line them with parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread pecans on a parchment lined baking sheet and toast the pecans for 10 minutes, let cool and chop finely in food processor. 
3. Melt 1/4 cup butter in heavy skillet over medium heat and cook until it starts turning a light brown color and spelling nutty.  Watch closely because the butter can burn fast.  Add the pecans to the butter and fold them together.  Make sure the pecans are fully coated with butter
4. Sift flour with baking powder and salt into a bowl. 
5. Cream the remaining butter (1 cup) with the sugar in your mixer with the paddle attachment.  Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy (3-5 mins).
6. At medium speed blend in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. 
7. At low speed add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk and vanilla extract.  
8. Stir in the buttered pecans and make sure to fully incorporate.
9. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until cake springs back when lightly touched in center.
10. Let cool 10 minutes and then flip your cakes onto parchment paper to cool
11. To assemble your cake start with leveling your layers.  Place each layer on a cake stand and cut off the domed top of the cake with a serrated knife. (I recently bought these rings and they are my life saver).  
12. Next place the first layer (flat side down) on your cake stand and fill with a layer of buttercream (about 1/4 cup - it is really personal preference).  
13. Next place your second layer on top with the flat side up
14. Cover the entire cake with a thin layer of your buttercream and place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes (this is what is called the crumb coat, it does not have to be perfect it just holds in the crumbs that form from leveling the cake and creates a base to cover the cake.
15. After the 20 minutes are finished you finish frosting your cake with your desired look

Caramel Swiss Buttercream

4 large egg whites

1 cup of sugar

2 1/2 sticks of butter (20 tablespoons)

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup caramel sauce

1. Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a large glass bowl over a pot of simmering water.
2. Whisk occasionally until you cannot feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers.  
3. Transfer the mixture into the your mixer and whip until it turns white and about doubles in size (10 minutes).  Make sure no water gets into the egg whites!
4. Add the vanilla
5. Turn the mixer down slightly and add the butter in small pieces on a medium to high speed, work quickly and continue to whip.  Once all the butter is in turn the speed up to high and continue to whip until it comes together.  THe mixture will curdle first but do not stop, continue to whip and I promise it will come together (could take up to 10 minutes)!
6. Once it is all together, add the caramel and blend until fully incorporated.  

Note:

To make cake flour you can replace two tablespoons of flour with cornstarch for every cup of flour. 

January Treats!

I wanted to share some fun projects that I worked on January before I left for my trip!

Disney Cars Cakes from a little boy who turned 5 and had the same birhtday as his Grandfather

 Snoopy and Friends Cake Pops!

Toy Story Cupcakes for a little boy Max who turned 3!

Robot Cake Pops that I did for a fabulous party that Little Miss Party Planner hosted (check out the rest of the party treats here)

Hope you are having a great week!

Hi Friends!

I am super excited because my husband and I are leaving tomorrow for our honeymoon to South Africa. Unfortunately this does mean that KbyK will be closed through January 28th.  I will be periodically checking my email so please email me any questions or future orders you may have!  

For now I wanted to catch you up on some of the fun birthday projects I worked on in December :)

A Willy Wonka inspired cake!

A cute first birthday duck cake :)

Another first birthday!

 An Elvis Cake!

A Surprise 30th!

Mikey's First Birthday

In the beggning of December our friend's Mike and Kate celebrated their son Mikey's 1st Birthday!  Kate put together an adorable vintage fire truck party and I was excited to create the desserts!  He loved his cake so much he went in head first :)

Day 2 til Christmas!!

Did you know....

"Jingle Bells" was first written for Thanksgiving and then became one of the most popular Christmas songs.

I was making my cheese cake with a gingerbread crust and cherry compote today and saved a little to try a mini version - I definitely think they will be added to the menu next year!

Wedding Cake & Dessert Table!

I apologize for the delay, I promised these photos to you when I posted my other wedding cakes almost a month ago! Where does the time go?!?  I had the pleasure of doing the wedding cake and dessert table for a friend I used to work with at JCrew.  I have never done a dessert table this large and vast so I was excited when she gave me the opportunity.  It was a fun experience and the bride was patient enough to work with me through it.  I knew someone that attended the wedding so was able to get a great shot of them enjoying my cake. I was really happy with the outcome and definately learned a few lessons along the way :)