Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Tiffany's Cakes for Sharon's Bridal Shower

My best friend, Sharon, had her bridal shower this last weekend and the theme for the shower was Breakfast at Tiffany's. Early on we had discussed I would do some sort of mini cakes as favors for the guests. But once the theme was chosen I knew I needed to make Tiffany's Box Cakes.
I planned for several weeks and ordered all the necessary items, such as the boxes, mini cakeboards and the 3 inch mini square cake pan set. I got them from Confectionary House along with the 3 3/4 inch cakeboards.

About a week before the shower I started baking the cakes, she was having 22 guests so that meant 44 cakes. Hmm it was going to be a long week :)

I made about 15 cakes a night for 3 nights straight. After they had cooled I triple wrapped them in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer. After I was done with the cakes, the next night I made a large batch of marshmallow fondant. I found the recipe via Playing with Sugar which she got from What's Cooking America. It was my first time making fondant on my own. I thought it tasted good and went fairly smooth. It was quite sticky but using lots of Crisco helped! After I was done kneading the marshmallow fondant I wrapped in plastic wrapped and sealed in a bag overnight.

The next day I started to roll the fondant out and started to make all the pieces for the bows. First I started with the loops, then the tails of the ribbon and lastly the middle ribbon that wrapped around the loops. I let everything sit out on the counter and get firm as I continued to work. I even had my girls over to help a little :)

Next came the leveling of the cakes, then the crumb coating and finally the frosting. I make this last line sound fairly simple but let me tell you...it was the most time consuming. Let's just say days of work. To be fair, she did help me frost a few one night :)

Lastly I added the bows and dotted them with white frosting around the edges. Here is a quick picture before they went into the boxes.

I think they turned out adorable. Of course there are always things you would do differently next time.

For the cakes I used Billy's Vanilla Cupcake Recipe paired with my favorite vanilla buttercream.

Billy's Vanilla Cupcakes ( I made 3 batches of this batter)

1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising*
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes (Room Temperature)
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly coat min cake pans in nonstick spray with flour; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour. Consistency will be crumbly.

In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

Pour about 1/3 cup of batter in each mini cake pan , filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.


Vanilla Buttercrean (I made 2 double batches of the recipe below) from Bakerella

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temp
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 box (1 lb) 10x powdered sugar
1-3 tablespoons milk
Teal gel paste food coloring

Using a mixer, cream softened butter and vanilla until smooth. Add sugar gradually, allowing butter and sugar to cream together before adding more. If you want your frosting a little creamier, add a teaspoon of milk at a time and beat on high until you get the right texture. Then, just add gel colors to tint the frosting the color of your choice.
Here are the cakes are packaged up and ready to go!
This was the table all set up! Isn't it so cute! I loved it! The middle cake was made by another person. And it was so yum!!

So what do you guys think? I think half way through the process I thought I was nuts for taking on this project, but in all I think everything worked out. And the bride loved them so that's all that really mattered to me :) Print This

16 comments:

  1. I think you did an amazing job on these! I would be so touched if any of my friends put that much effort in for me! They look gorgeous... and the idea to make Tiffany's boxes is just fabulous!!

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  2. Wow are they cute! You did such a great job and thanks for all of the information about where you purchased your supplies. I am sure your friend was very happy!

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  3. They turned out so well. Like Megan, I would love for someone to do this for me!

    BTW, I just bookmarked that recipe for MMF last night. Was that one recipe or did you double it?

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  4. I am loving the bows! If I wasn't in Australia I'd order some.

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  5. I forgot to tell you how pretty that table looks.

    BTW, I saw you on the Cake Slice blogroll. So glad to have you- welcome :-) I look forward to baking with you!

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  6. Wow, Smitten with each post your cake making skills keeps getting better and better! AND you made your own fondant?! They look marvelous and how awesome are you for making these for your friend!
    ~ingrid

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  7. What a big job to undertake! And you pulled it off so beautifully, too. Good for you!
    I've never even attempted to do anything with fondant. I'm way too intimidated by it. You did an awesome job!

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  8. Great job! Those are adorable favors and a lot of work!

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  9. What a beautiful job!!! You really did take on a task!

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  10. These little cakes are beautiful!!! You did a wonderful job!

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  11. What a fun idea. I would have loved that at my shower.

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  12. Popped in from Ingrid's! Those cakes are adorable! It was so sweet of you to make all of those! I can't imagine making 15 cakes a night!

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