Jeep 3D Cake

I decided to attempt making a Jeep birthday cake for my brother who is a big fan of Jeeps. After browsing a few photos of other cakes online,  I decided to just look at the actual Jeep pictures instead of modeling after an inspiration cake. It certainly wasn't perfect, but you get the idea, and I learn more every time I design a cake.

Inside of the cake - white cake with raspberry filling and white chocolate frosting.

For this cake I used 2 boxes of white cake mix to save time, but instead of following box directions, I mixed the following ingredients with each box of mix:

- 3 eggs

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 cup milk (I used 2%)

- 1/4 cup water

- about 1/3 package of white chocolate pudding mix

- 1/4 cup butter, softened

- 2 tbsp oil

I made one smaller rectangular pan (I think it is 7"x11") and 6 cupcakes with one box, and two 8"x8" cakes with the other box. I saved the cake scraps leftover from cutting the cakes to use for cake balls later.

For the filling, I used 1 container of fresh raspberries and added about 1/2 cup of water mixed with a couple of spoons of corn starch, a little more than 1/2 cup of sugar, and a dash of lemon juice, and cooked it down until the berries broke up and the sauce was thickened. Then I pushed it all through a strainer to remove the seeds. The filling ended up being exactly the right amount, and I only ended up with about a spoonful leftover.

The frosting was mostly based on Wilton's White Chocolate Buttercream recipe, which I modified slightly and cut down by 2/3, which was exactly the amount I needed for this cake.

Buttercream Frosting 

Ingredients

• 6 ounces white baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Makes: Icing serves 2 cups.

Directions:
Add the whipping cream to chopped white chocolate and microwave on 50% power until mostly melted. Stir until the chocolate is completely blended into the cream, and put it in fridge to chill while you mix other ingredients. Beat together the shortening and butter with the paddle of stand mixer.  Add the vanilla and powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Slowly add the slightly cooled but still melted chocolate and cream mixture while beating until fully incorporated.

I softened 1/3 cup of Cool Whip in the microwave and folded it into the frosting to lighten it up, since my brother prefers whipped frosting.

Here's the cake after trimming and assembling.

The side view of the cake. I cut out the shapes for the tires, running boards, and bumpers from the larger cake. Then I figured out how much I needed to build the body. I cut down the 8x8 to fit on top of the larger sized cake, and I used some of the trimmings to make the hood taller.

The cake after frosting, squished in my fridge.

Beginnings of tires, which were cut down cupcakes, lightly frosted and covered with chocolate (dyed black) fondant.

The one major thing I missed was the side mirrors, oops! I remembered the gas cap and wipers, but did not realize the mirrors were missing until I delivered the cake. Next time, I will definitely add them.

Lemon Triple Berry Cake

This was a simple cake I made at the last minute for a friend's birthday. I asked another friend what flavors the birthday girl might like, and she said anything fruity, so I decided to go with berries and a light lemon flavor.

Cooking the berry sauce.

Straining out the berry seeds.

The finished cake, with triple berry decorations.

The recipe was very similar to this Lemon Raspberry Layer Cake except I used strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries for the sauce instead of just raspberries. If I make it again, I will leave out the strawberries from the sauce, as I didn't think they went very well with the other flavors in the cake.

I also used my standard buttercream frosting with a little lemon extract and lemon juice. At the last minute, I decided to do a light glaze over each layer, because I thought the cake looked a little dry, and it wasn't very lemony. The glaze probably made the whole cake a bit too sweet though. Oh well, I am learning!

Patriotic Blueberry Pie

Publix had an awesome sale on blueberries the week before July 4th.. they were $1.50/pint, plus they had a $1.50/off one pack coupon online, so I actually got one pack free. Anyway, I bought a bunch of them, and had to think of something to do with them... so, I decided on pie.

I'm not really a pie maker. Actually, I've only made a few, ever. I think I made a pumpkin one, banana cream, and frozen peanut butter chocolate before, and that's probably it. And I don't think any of those had a homemade pastry crust. Well, this one doesn't either. I did cheat and go the frozen ready made crust route, but someday, when I have counter space, I'll try out a real one.

I looked around at many recipes online, and this is probably the closest to what I actually did: Allrecipes Blueberry Pie

The stars weren't my idea either, I saw that from a different recipe, although I did use 3 different size stars instead of all uniform.

Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients

4 cups fresh blueberries

3-4 tablespoons cornstarch

a little water to mix the cornstarch with

3/4 cup sugar

Dash salt

1 squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Pie crust, ready and chilled

Directions

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees

- Mix cornstarch with water, then add sugar, salt, cinnamon, and the blueberries to a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the sauce begins to thicken. Let cool while you work with the crust.

- Line pie dish with one pie crust. If you're going to do any design with the top, keep the bottom crust in the fridge, and cut out your designs from the top crust. You can use cookie cutters for shapes (I used a 3 pack of different sized star shaped fondant cutters), a knife to cut stripes, etc.

- Pour berry mixture into the crust and lay out your top crust (if not using a design, cut a few slits for steam vents). Crimp and flute edges if desired.

- Bake pie for 30-45 minutes, or until crust is golden

brown. Store bought thinner pie crusts take the lower amount of time and may need foil tented around it to keep from burning. If your crust is thick, you probably don't need to precook the filling, just bake the pie longer.

- Let pie sit a few hours before cutting.

Notes: Initially I used a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg as well, because many recipes did that, but I left it out of this recipe because I think it would be better without it. You can also do an egg wash on the crust, but I was too lazy.

This pie was amazing heated up and topped with Blue Bell white chocolate almond ice cream. It was also pretty good cold.