Well, well, well.

Secret Recipe ClubHere we meet again in 2012 for this year’s first Secret Recipe Club. What do I go and make… another cake! I seem to be making my own little trend of decorative cakes inspired by SRC assignments. First that pumpkin and chocolate cake, and now another chocolate cake – this time inspired by my bloggy assignment for February – Crystal at Mrs. Happy Homemaker. She has such a cute blog and is cranking out all kinds of great ideas pretty much on a daily basis it seems!

I actually had every intention of making something else this month since her pepperoni pizza with the pepperoni pieces cut into the shapes of hearts was too cute to resist, but then just a few days ago I decided to take another look and see what Crystal had been up to recently. I’ll still be making that pizza, but now I’ll just wait until Valentine’s Day to do it.

When I saw her cake inspired by fudge ripple ice cream, I just couldn’t resist. I have to admit though, in my mind, fudge ripple would be a vanilla cake with a fudge stripe, but that’s just me. Either way, am I going to quibble about having a cake with a lovely strip of cheesecake in it? Not in this lifetime!

The decision was an easy one since I still had a fair amount of candy clay in my fridge from a cupcake job I did a few weeks ago (pictures of the cupcakes are below as well as instructions on how simple, fun and easy these cut little roses are to make!).

I resized and tweaked the cake recipe just a bit – mainly because of what ingredients I had on hand since I went straight into the kitchen to make this, and the size of cake I wanted to make so I could use my heart shaped pan. The basic recipe is pretty close though (most changes were to the cream cheese swirl and the frosting to make them slightly lighter in texture). I’m sure the original cake is amazing all on it’s own – it’s a double decker 9-inch round! – or else mine wouldn’t have turned out so nicely!

I thought this would make a great Valentine’s Day dessert that anyone would feel comfortable putting together and would feel like a rock star when they showed it off – especially with that gorgeous stripe of cheesecake inside! Or you could make cupcakes and decorate them with the roses too – seriously cute! As for the frosting on the heart cake, it was light, chocolatey and so easy to make. The cake itself isn’t too sweet, so once you have the frosting it was the perfect balance.

So, a few weeks ago a friend of mine (Gina over at Eat Your Veggies, Peas.) asked if I would be willing to make cupcakes for her sweet baby girl’s 1st birthday party. Since it was a good reason for me to play around some more with the candy clay, and since I adore Gina, I couldn’t say no! I was REALLY happy with how the cupcakes and the decorations turned out and unless Gina was just being kind I think they were all really happy with them too. The birthday party was a vintage roses theme and used pink roses as well as red and yellow ones.

I ended up making her 18 vanilla cupcakes and 18 chocolate ones, then frosting them with vanilla buttercream. I’ll post those recipes soon, but any good cake and frosting recipe could easily by elevated by a little decoration. Also, the roses taste just like candy melts since that is what they are made from, so they are a completely edible and delicious decoration!

I used one of each color of rose on each cupcake – 3 dozen cupcakes! That is 108 roses (and I made extras so actually around 120 roses) that I was able make in about a day and a half of shaping (really only about 4 hours total and that was probably with a lot of little distractions too!). That was A LOT of practice and I loved how they turned out. I’ve shared the recipe as well as a little picture tutorial at the bottom of this post. If you try it out, I’d love to know what you think, and if you get stumped you could always tweet me for some tips or troubleshooting. If you do make something, I’d love to see it, especially if you pin it so I can add it to my pinboards on Pinterest!

Thank you to _______ for this month’s SRC recipe inspiration and for a cake recipe that my boys went bonkers over!

Candy Clay Rose DIY Tutorial

 

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{ 17 comments }

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies

January 9, 2012

This is my first, fully iPhone photographed and written post. I figure it’s better than the no posting I’ve been doing since I never seem to be able to make it to the computer. No surprise it’s a cookie! A super easy one I just made for Aidan and his friends. All you need for [...]

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Double Chocolate Gingerbread Macadamia Blondies

December 12, 2011
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I can’t say I’m entirely sure what has happened to my last month… it is honestly all a bit hazy and the rest of the month promises to be just as much of a blur! I had a great time deciding what to make for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap created/hosted by Julie and [...]

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SRC: Irish Cottage Pie

December 5, 2011
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For this month’s installment of the Secret Recipe Club I decided to go a bit more savory with a delicious and easy meal option inspired by this recipe I found on my food blog assignment for the month at Paulchen’s Foodblog?! written by Astrid who is located in Vienna. I just loved what she had to [...]

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TWD: Sour Cream Pumpkin Tart & Creme Brulee

November 29, 2011
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This week we had the choice of pumpkin or apples for Tuesdays with Dorie. While I actually had every intention of making both tarts, last week just didn’t go as planned (when do they ever… and why do I persist in thinking they might??) I went ahead and made the Sour Cream Pumpkin Tart (or Pie) [...]

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TWD Rewind! Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows and Russian Butter Cookies

November 22, 2011
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In a frenzy of creativity yesterday, I finally got around to making something for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie post. I’ve been awfully hit and miss with my posts for the group, pretty much ever since my last pregnancy began. Before that? Never missed a week. I can’t believe that the group is coming to [...]

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Homemade Quick Cinnamon Roll Waffles with Maple Glaze

November 20, 2011
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I have been spending a lot of my *me time* hanging out on Pinterest (me and thousands of others). It is a great distraction tool for me when I’m sitting in the waiting rooms at the kids doctor appointments and helps keep me a bit calmer than I would be if I just sit there [...]

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Life in our PheMOMenal Village and A Giveaway!

November 14, 2011
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THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED:   UPDATE: ****drumroll**** The Powers That Be at Random.org have chosen lucky #2 as the winner of the spa day! Nats, you lucky girl, you’ll be heading for a spa day soon! I will contact you directly to get you your prize.   My thanks to everyone for playing along! [...]

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TWD: Mini Spice Madeleines

November 8, 2011
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It has been a little while since I made Madeleines, and every time I do, I wonder why I waited so long… other than I snarf them all so quickly it is probably better that I don’t make them that often. I knew when I saw the November recipes for Tuesdays with Dorie that I [...]

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SRC: Dark Chocolate Granola Bars and Pumpkin Spice Bubble Buns

November 7, 2011
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Well. Apparently another month has already evaporated right before my eyes. I am hoping that November is a bit kinder with my schedule, but frankly I think I’m just slightly delusional to think that is gonna happen. I have had about a billion and one (ok, at least 20 for reals) posts that I wanted [...]

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