Happy Sunday! This week was, as you can imagine, full of Valentine's Day fun...you can see more of that tomorrow afternoon at our "Cherry Blog"  
http://thecherryontopevents.blogspot.com/ . But this week, today actually, is also our younger daughters birthday. She is my partner in Cherry and also a caker so it can make it pretty hard to surprise her with new and unusual cakes for her birthday. Happy Birthday TORY!


This year I made her a Cherry Pie cake! She loves pie so I thought I'd make her a birthday cake that looks like pie! The cake is just a yellow cake that I baked in a pie pan. Then I covered it in vanilla buttercream and let that crust up for a few minutes. Then I tinted a little bit more buttercream with burgundy gel color and spread a very thin layer of that on top of the white buttercream. Next I used red decorating gel to put a thin film over the burgundy buttercream. Then I started working on the "cherries".


The cherries are simply red fondant that I added just a touch of violet gel color to darken the red up to a more natural cherry color. I rolled out enough fondant balls to pretty much cover the top of the "pie" making sure to vary the sizes and shapes and adding a little indent where the stem would be on a real cherry. I placed them one by one on the "pie" to get enough coverage and I placed them each at different angles.


I then put some of the red decorating gel on each of the "cherries" so it would look like they were swimming in the cherry filling. I added strips of fondant to make the lattice top and a fondant rope that I pinched (which is not as easy as it is with real pie dough!) at regular intervals. The last part was the handpainting. Using brown gel color mixed with vodka I painted on the first coat. The second coat I added in a little of  yellow gel color to the brown and painted on another layer of color, making sure the edges were darker so it would look like it was a real baked pie. 


The fun part was that I pretty much fooled her when she walked in the door and saw it. From a distance it truly looks like a real pie. It wasn't until she got up close enough to the pie that she realized something was "off" about it and it dawned on her that it wasn't a pie at all! LOL! That is truly the fun of my art when I can, even momentarily, have someone thinking that the purse, toolbox, tv, or, in this case, pie, isn't really anything but cake after all.

 The Valentine's Day treats I made were actually a trio of desserts for the dinner party. The first of the three was a cupcake that was "pierced" with a fondant heart arrow. This is actually two fondant hearts cut out with a mini cookie cutter and then, while still soft, put onto a toothpick.

 The next of the desserts is a White Chocolate Covered Strawberry. Temper your white chocolate and then dip your strawberries in and let them dry on parchment paper for a few minutes. Then, using a piping bag with a small writing tip, drizzle more white chocolate back and forth on the each strawberry. The final touch is gold large grain sugar. The perfect touch!

The last of the trio is a S'more Tart. I made graham cracker shells in these mini tart pans and baked them for a few minutes. Then I turned off the oven. I put three pink marshmallows into the shell and let them sit in the oven till they puffed up and slightly melted. Finally I put on a teaspoon of white chocolate and a little fondant heart into the center. To eat them you simply break them up with a fork and eat it like a cookie!


To see how the trio was presented on the table, and all the other decorations and treats for the Valentine's Day Dinner Party, make sure to check out "Cherry" tomorrow afternoon! Just go to:
 http://thecherryontopevents.blogspot.com/


Also, though most of you have found this blog from our "Cherry" Facebook page, for those who haven't found us there you can visit by going to www.facebook.com/thecherryontopevents . There are daily tips, photos of all the cakes along with occasional treats given away. So stop on by and make sure to "Like" us!


See you next week here or tomorrow on our Cherry Blog!


Cat