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Kara's Couture Cakes

Learn with me on my sweet sugar and cake adventures!

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Triple Eggnog Christmas Cake

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I've got a thing for "triples" in cakes. No idea where it comes from, other than going nuts with great flavors :) Eggnog is just one of those gotta-get-all-you-can-once-a-year kind of things that must be enjoyed to the fullest. So I created this cake to that end. Eggnog satisfaction, and then some. Christmas is easily the most memorable and nostalgia filled holiday for me. As the story of my culinary career goes, my mother was not a great cook. Like at all. I'm not sure the kids ever ate what she made for our dad. War-toughened man, he simply ate what was served to him and finished every View Post

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How To Make a Wafer Paper Frills Cake Wrap

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This is easily my favoritest of all the wafer paper texture wraps I've made for cakes. The frills!!! They are so fabulously rich, plush, full and ethereal. I originally made this frills texture wrap for my Reindeer Cake Topper Tutorial because I needed a beautiful white cake with a fun, wintery finish to go with that topper. And I fell madly in love with the look, the feel and the ease of making this cake decoration!   If you haven't played with wafer paper (yet) you are totally missing out! You can make your decor a week or more ahead and just set it aside till you're ready to View Post

My Christmas Holiday Cake Tools Wishlist 2016/2017

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I must admit... I'm a cake tool (read: TOY) junkie. I really am. But one thing I've learned through all the fun things I've bought is that there are still a handful of staple tools that I couldn't live without and that still get 90% of the play in my cake kitchen. They are tools I think everyone should have in their arsenal because they are so versatile and easy to use. We get so distracted often by the latest cool tool or toy and we convince ourselves that this one thing will revolutionize what we are capable of doing with our cakes. Like it will magically create new skills or design View Post

How to Make Cooked Sugar and Isomalt to Blow and Pull Cake Decorations

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I'm totally digging some of the sugar work I see 'round the cake world lately. Cute little blown sugar fish, pulled sugar flowers, even complete figurines of girls and boys standing on clouds and hanging out with rainbows. Once upon a time, in a pastry school class, we practiced and played with cooked sugar and Isomalt and made really great sugar displays and decorations for cakes. I learned to pull flowers and leaves, blow figurines like a momma and baby swan, pull ribbons to look like waves, and even a super cool technique called straw sugar which turns out looking exactly as it is View Post

Peppermint Patty Cake and Candy Cane Fondant

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It's been quite a while since I played around with my gourmet fondants. I've had tons of ideas on my mind (and a couple Autumn ones that fell by the wayside) and have finally gotten to the point of "I gotta get it out!" So while walking through my beloved Wegmans the other day I saw a box of the red and white striped holiday cheer in the shape of a shepherd's hook and made from mint, sugary candy cane goodness. Actually I saw many, many more than "a" box. I saw a stack that could easily have engulfed me if I had knocked into it or pulled the bottom box out of the display... something I've View Post

Cinnamon Bun (Breakfast) Cheesecake

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I had the idea in my noggin for quite a while. It took me forever to just do it. I stared and stared at the cinnamon bun canister sitting in my fridge, the family kept asking when they could eat them. "Never!" became my response after about the 437th time I was asked. Poor kidlets. Poor hubby. What an awful tease that was. But I had these grand plans of lining my cake pans with cinnamon bun dough, filling it with my perfect cheesecake recipe, drizzling a thin, warm frosting on top... It sounded magnificent and utterly sinful all at once. Now where the heck did my motivation go?!? This was View Post

Easy Pumpkin Spice Cake with Caramel and Pie Filling

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May I tell you a story about a lazy baker and a can? I hope so, because it is a fabulous tale of consequences and perseverance. And perhaps you have a similar story you could share in the comments below... But first, read this tale of woe. A cake baker, we'll call her Tara, baked a cake. But not just any cake! She baked a cake because the season of chilly air and "pumpkin all the things" was upon her and hey, she was a food blogger. She kinda had to. But she didn't want to. She was feeling kinda like a tantrum-y kid shuffling her feet around the kitchen with a sour puss smudged across her View Post

Whipped Bright White Buttery, Creamy Frosting

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It's not easy to find a great butter cream. Some people like less buttery, less sweet, less fatty (come on, people... it's flippin' butter cream frosting!), less calories, or less/more something. Heaven help me. It is a bee in my bonnet. The pebble in my shoe. The pea to my Princess. Yet still I'm moved to find more recipes to suit more tastes. It's just what I do. And just in case you notice the terminology change here between butter cream, buttercream frosting, and frosting, visit THIS blog post to see why I don't use them interchangeably and how I differentiate between these View Post

Make Bigger Efforts, Not Bigger Excuses

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  I'd like to tell you a story. Not a long one and I swear it'll be WORTH EVERY MINUTE of reading if you have ever made an excuse for not succeeding at a goal or task. It was March of 2012 and I was graduating from The Culinary Institute of America for the second time. This time from the business program and with a little bun in my belly. Not from the kitchens there, though I did eat lots of buns. I was pregnant with my 3rd kidlet and ready to take on the corporate business world. I had a job before I graduated making just over $50k to start and I had a great title: Director! I was View Post

Spooky Halloween Drinks and Other Creepy Things

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There is a tradition 'round these parts. It starts about November 1st, and ends never... It's the "How can we creep out mom and scare the bejeezus out of her on Halloween?" tradition. I am not a fan of this pastime. In fact, I'm certain that I hate it. Because they spend all year trying to figure out what will creep me out most. So Halloween turns into just another day for me because Halloween seems to last all year round. Except it's ok to eat so much candy on October 31st. Not that I don't eat candy the other 364 days - it's just more acceptable to be so excited about it on this View Post