Orange Chocolate Cupcakes

I went to Washington DC for American Thanksgiving. Shankar's brother and sister-in-law, Mony and Radhika have a tradition of hosting it.

I was most excited to see the cutest 3 year old around, Sandhya. I had a great time decorating cupcakes with her. Radhika had baked some delicious orange chocolate cupcakes and I made a orange vanilla buttercream to complement it. The icing turned out quite well because of a suggestion to add some whipping cream! It tasted really good. I will have to experiment more with whipping cream in icing in the future. Sandhya decorated them beautifully with sprinkles!
Here is the buttercream recipe:

1/2 cup of butter
2 cups of icing sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4-5 tbsp whipping cream (depending on the consistency you want)
You can add 1-2 tsp of citrus zest or orange liqueur to flavour you icing.

I believe the verdict was "Yummy!"

Congratulations to Mony and Radhika on the latest addition to their family. Can't wait to meet little Gitanjali:)

Mehendi Design Cake

Kanchana has always wanted to decorate a cake with a mehendi design. We decided to use the base of the tiered wedding cake I made to experiment. Chocolate frosting was the perfect icing to get the mehendi effect. I think Kanchana did a great job even though she has never decorated a cake before. I told her some of the tips I learned from class about pressure control and bag handling but I think her expertise in mehendi design helped her the most.

We used some pomegranate seeds for the jewel toned accent colour. I think it looks pretty cool!

Class Finale- Tiered Wedding Cake!

I made a tiered wedding cake at my last cake decorating class. It was an amazing culmination of our course. Our instructor, Maria, was so sweet and encouraging and gave us great feedback and tips on how to make different cakes. I am so happy Renu and I took the class. We learned so much about the artistry behind cake decorating.

I used fake flowers on the bottom tier but the top tier roses are made of fondant. The cake was a layer of chocolate and a layer of vanilla with a strawberry vanilla buttercream filling.
I gave the top layer to my friend Subha. She told me when she gets married she wants me to make her cake!
Kanchana and I decorated the bottom layer with a mehendi pattern. It looked very cool. I will have to post pics of it!

If you are interested in cake decorating I recommend the Wilton courses. They are pretty intense for 4 weeks but the skills you gain will last you a lifetime:)