Food Styling Challenge: Tidymom

Food Styling Challenge: 12 Bloggers, 12 Cakes

 

The Food Styling Challenge is all about showcasing talent for styling food.  I have asked 12 amazing bloggers to pick any chocolate cake recipe they want and style it anyway they want.  The catch?  They only have $25 to do it!  Join us on the journey to see how they can transform a cake stand into a work of art!

 

April is all about Cheryl from Tidymom.  Cheryl is one of my favorite bloggers and has taught me SO much!  When she agreed to be a part of this challenge I was literally giddy.

Not only is Cheryl one of the smartest bloggers I know, but she is totally willing to share everything she learns.  Her blog is an amazing combination of scrumptious food and homemaking and photography tips!

And just look what she made for us today!

 

Malted Chocolate Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Cream

(be sure to click over to Cheryl’s blog to get the recipe for the mouth watering cake creation!!)

Malted Chocolate Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Cream -TidyMom.net

 

Did you find the Food Styling Challenge to be easy or difficult?  A little of both.  Generally I don’t give much thought to how I will style a shoot before I make a recipe.  I usually make it, them rummage thru what I have and start playing while I shoot. – I know that’s not how the pro’s do it, but, it works for me.  I’ve learned to just pick up cool stuff when I see it, so I’ve grown a pretty good collection of props.

For your challenge I actually gave thought weeks ahead of time of how I wanted to style my cake shots, and had items in mind that I wanted to look for.  Shopping second hand is what I usually do, but it’s definitely more challenging when you have specific items in mind.  I do have a large Antique Mall almost walking distance from my house, and GoodWill and a few resale shops in town, so I was able to eventually come up with what I thought would work.

Decorating cake is a challenge in of its self, so I decided to make this an easy one, and I found shooting a dark chocolate cake to be a challenge too.  It’s hard to get the right light on the cake,  without blowing out everything else in the shot.  That took some time, I didn’t expect.

 

 Malted Chocolate Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Cream TidyMom

Was the spending limit a challenge?  Not at all, I’m pretty sure I was well under budget.  Let’s see….. the silver tray was $3.50, the assorted silver ware  came to $4.00, the blue cup $ .50 (the pink cup I had), plates $1.00, books were $2.00, fabric remnant $1.00, blue mason jar $.50, glasses $2.00, the faux wood surface is a piece of wallpaper I had.  So that comes to… $14.50!!  All of these items are pieces I will use again.

 

What are your favorite props to style with?  Oh gosh, I’d have to say old darker pieces, especially pans and fun fabrics and napkins, I have a huge collection of both.

 

What is your favorite part of the challenge?  Pushing myself to think about styling BEFORE I even make a recipe.  I also tried my hand at more of a darker feel, by using my black foam boards instead of white.  I wanted my photo to have a feel that “is was a lazy day spent reading, it was getting late and I stopped to enjoy a piece of cake with a glass of milk.”  It’s funny to look at my first photo in a shoot, and then see where I end up, usually nothing  like where I started.

Kudos to you Amanda on all your beautiful cake decorating AND styling!  You sure make it look easy!

 Malted Chocolate Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Cream Filling -TidyMom

 

 I cant get over how delicious this cake looks.  I might have to skip breakfast and lunch so I can have cake for dinner!

Thank you so much Cheryl!  Please do take the time to visit the amazingness that is Tidymom. net.  And check out her Pinterest boards… over 100,000 people follow everything she pins!

Blog             TidyMom.net

Twitter       https://twitter.com/#!/tidymom

Google +     https://plus.google.com/106011087914023320492?rel=author

Be sure to check out the Food Styling Challenge Participants thus far!

JANUARY – Dine & Dish

White Chocolate Confetti Cake

Food Styling Challenge: Kristen from Dine & Dish

 

 

 

 

 

FEBRUARY – Verses From My Kitchen

Blackberry Chocolate Cake

mikevfmk2

 

 

 

 

 

MARCH – Inspired by Charm

Cookies and Cream Cake

michael5

· 12 Comments

Puppy Chow Cake

Puppy Chow.  Monkey Munch. Muddy Buddy Mix.

Crazy fun names. Crazy yum taste.

Mix that with a crazy baker and  you just know I just had to make it into a cake.

Puppy Chow Cake

 

The hardest part about this cake was deciding how to make it.  Do I make a layer of peanut butter?  Should the outside be covered in powder sugar and the inside crispy chocolate?  Should I just eat the entire bag of Puppy Chow and forget about the cake?

Yes.

Muddy Buddy Cake!

 

I mean no.  Must focus.

I used The Best Chocolate Cake recipe for the cake.  (Please just ignore all the pictures in that post.  Talk about terrible!)  Simply bake cakes in 9×9 inch square pans.  I cut a 3-inch section off each cake after it had cooled, then placed the two 3-inch sections side by side for the center layer of the cake.

 

Puppy Chow Cake!

I made a 1/4 batch of this Classic Buttercream to spread in between the layers.  I opted to not use any peanut butter frosting in the cake itself.

I think the flavor of the peanut butter is so subtle in the Puppy Chow that I didnt want to call special attention to it in the cake.  If you decide to try it with some deliciously smooth PB, please do share your results!

Muddy Buddy Cake!

 

Then a batch of this Rich Chocolate Buttercream to slather all over the cake.  Cause like, slathering things over cake sounds fun right?  Ok, ok.  I will invest in a thesaurus and choose better descriptive words next time.

Here is a basic recipe for Puppy Chow, or Muddy Buddy Mix, or Monkey Munch.  I got it right from the box of Rice Chex Cereal! (Which, oddly enough, is what my pregnancy cravings have been lately.  Rice Chex Cereal.  We go through a box a day around here.  And by we I mean me.)

Print
Puppy Chow Cake

Ingredients

  • 9 cups Rice Chex
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups powder sugar

Instructions

  1. Pour 9 cups of cereal into a large bowl.
  2. In a microwave safe bowl, add chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Melt ingredients together in the microwave in 30-second increments until chocolate is just melted. Remove from microwave and stir in vanilla extract.
  3. Pour chocolate mixture right over the cereal and gently stir until evenly coated.
  4. Spoon half of cereal mixture into a gallon sized plastic bag. Cover cereal with 3/4 cup of powder sugar and then close bag tightly. Gently rotate and shake bag around to cover cereal with powder sugar. Repeat with remaining cereal and powder sugar.
  5. Store in airtight container.
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Puppy Chow Cake

· 26 Comments

Rainbow Fruit Cookie Cake

I love fruit pizza.  And I love the latest trend of “cookie cakes“.  So this is my interpretation of a cookie cake.  Its a  Fruit Pizza inspired Sugar Cookie Cake.

Rainbow Fruit Cookie Cake by iambaker.net

 

To assemble the cake: (recipe below)

Bake sugar cookie dough into large round discs.  I used a 5 inch round wide cookie cutter.  Allow cookies to cool.

Prepare cream cheese frosting.  Spread some frosting over six cookies.  Set aside.

Sugar Cookies covered in Cream Cheese Frosting

It’s important to do this step before you place the cookies on the cake stand, because if you try to frost them while they rest on top of layers of fruit it could slide and schmoosh and be generally wretched.  Not that I speak from experience or anything.

Cut up fruit.  Slice strawberries into small pieces, section oranges and dice each section into 4-5 pieces, peel and slice kiwi, and cut red grapes into halves.  Cut up banana last. (You do not need to do anything to the blueberries)

Place one cookie that is covered in frosting on cake stand.  Cover with sliced grapes.

Add another cookie, cover in blueberries.

Add another cookie and carefully lay kiwi slices over cookie.

Add another cookie, cover in banana slices.

Add another cookie, cover with diced orange.

Add last cookie and top with strawberry pieces.

Rainbow Fruit Sugar Cookie Cake from iambaker.net

St. Patricks Day is approaching, and it seems like the trends are green, gold, beer, and rainbows.  Since I dont think I should be giving my kids beer yet and they are highly opposed to eating green foods, I thought a Rainbow would be the perfect way to incorporate a St. Patricks Day celebration in our home.

Rainbow Fruit (Perfect St. Patrick's Day Snack!)

Plus it is awesome having massive amounts of fruit around… I know exactly what to give the kids when they come looking for snacks!

Since I had a few dough scraps around I also made a few 2 inch sugar cookies.

Mini Fruit Pizza's

This was better for some of my more, um, picky children, who wanted to only have specific fruit.

I have only ever used my Sugar Cookie recipe when make fruit pizza’s, and I cant help but think its the BEST tasting sugar cookie you will ever have.  Then again, I am totally biased.  In a good way of course.

Print
Cream Cheese Frosting for Fruit Pizza

Ingredients

  • 8 oz cream cheese (room temp.)
  • 3 tbsp butter (room temp.)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 1/2 cups powder sugar

Instructions

  1. Add cream cheese and butter to stand mixer and mix until full combined.
  2. Turn mixer off and add powder sugar and vanilla.
  3. Turn mixer on slow and combine all ingredients for about 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high and mix for 3-5 minutes, or until you reach desired consistency.
  4. Pair with the Perfect Sugar Cookie and your choice of fresh fruit for Fruit Pizza's.
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Tips and Tricks:

I would prepare and serve this cake the same day.  The cookies eventually get very, very soft from the moisture in the fruit and frosting.  If you want to prepare it and serve later, I would recommend making your cookies extra crisp or allowing them to harden for a day or so.

I debated as to whether or not the orange slices would be too acidic with the sweet frosting and cookie, but they were not.  So good!  I think if you wanted to substitute lemons for the yellow layer you certainly could, but then maybe switch the orange layer to cantaloupe or another orange-ish fruit.

I did not give specific amounts of fruit to cut up because it can vary so greatly with how you cut it as well as the size of the fruit prior to cutting, not to mention taking the size of your cookie into account.  Generally speaking, I used about 1 cup of the diced fruit and blueberries, 2 kiwi’s, and one banana.

Delicious Cookie Cake, perfect for all celebrations!

If I can get my act together I have one more St. Patricks Day inspired dessert to share.  Would love to know how you celebrate the occasion!

· 64 Comments

The Perfect White Cake

I have been searching for this cake for about two years now.  In my experience, making white cake at home is just never as good as the bakery. (Sorry!  I know some of you just cringed reading that.)

The Perfect White Cake

Until now.

I am not kidding when I tell you that this recipe is it.  The flavor is fantastic and the texture is truly perfection.  Even the-pickiest-dessert-eater-ever, aka my hubby, loved it.

And I know you will too.  As I noted in the recipe I found this cake on epicurious who got it from Cooks Illustrated.  I have never been led astray with either of those sources so I am confident you will find the same success I did!

One major adaptation I did was using 8-in cake pans.  The original recipe calls for 9-in and about 5 minutes less cooking time.  If you plan on using 9-in plans please do consult the original recipe.  The first time I made it I used 8-in cake pans with no time adaptation and was not as successful.

The Perfect Homemade White Cake

 

 

Print
The Perfect White Cake

Ingredients

  • 2 1/4 cups cake flour
  • 1 cup milk at room temperature
  • 6 large egg whites at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons almond extract
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon table salt
  • 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool

Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8-inch cake pans.
  2. Make sure milk and eggs are room temperature.
  3. Pour milk (I used skim) , egg whites, and extracts into medium bowl and mix with fork until blended.
  4. Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter, cut into cubes and continue beating on low for about 1-2 minutes.
  5. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to flour mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat for about 1 minute.
  6. Pour batter evenly between two prepared cake pans.
  7. Bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 27 to 30 minutes.
  8. Allow cake to cool to room temperature.
  9. Frost cakes with favorite frosting.
  10. Just barely adapted from epicurious, taken from Cooks Illustrated.
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The Best Homemade White Cake

Do you have a perfect white cake in your life?

· 125 Comments

White Chocolate Cheesecake and Chocolate Milky Way Cake

White Chocolate Cheesecake surrounded by a layer of Milky Way cake and rich Dark Chocolate Cake!

Most folks are doing what should be done right about now.  Posting healthy recipes, exercise plans, motivation factors to help us follow through with our New Years Resolutions of Losing Weight and Getting Healthier. I am completely incapable of honoring any diet resolution, so instead sharing with you one of [...] Read more »

· 43 Comments

Blueberry Citrus Cake

Blueberry Citrus Cake

I know its fall, but I wanted to make one last summer inspired cake! This cake is right from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.  And its fabulous.  And oh-so-summery! Print Blueberry Citrus Cake Ingredients1 box lemon cake 1 tablespoon orange zest 1 tablespoon lemon zest 1/2 cup orange [...] Read more »

· 467 Comments