Doctor Bake

1st Birthday Barbie Cake

Jan 242013

Ashlyn's Pretty Pink Barbie Cake

This past weekend our family celebrated a very special event. Our little baby girl of the family, Ashlyn, turned one. My cousin (her mother) gave me the honor several months back, of being her Godmother. I am so lucky to have another beautiful little girl to call my Goddaughter. Ashlyn is the kind of baby that ALWAYS has a smile on her face and her gorgeous big blue eyes are always watching the situation, she is so aware of all her surroundings. I cant wait for her to start talking, I have a feeling she is going to be a total gas.

Anybody who is a ‘cake researcher’ (this is how I like to refer to myself and the nerds who fall into my category of constantly googling cake images) has seen the classic idea of shoving a barbie doll into a dress bottom shaped cake. A lot of people hate this idea as it seems too ‘traditional’. Being a lover of most things classic, I have always wanted to try one of these cakes. I knew it would be easy and look pretty, also, I was able to give Ashlyn her first Barbie with this cake idea, which was key

So away I went, baking my funfetti cake and filling it with my favorite and most reliable vanilla buttercream recipe. I made sure to cover Barbie’s body with saran wrap before I inserted her into the cake for the sake of germ prevention. On a side note, I have not had a reason to look at a Barbie in a long time, is it possible her body is getting even MORE ridiculous? Not only does she have the 52 inch chest and 14 inch waist ratio going, she now seems to be 7 feet tall?! Fitting her foot long legs into the cake was somewhat of a feat!

The Birthday Girl and Her Mommy

All in all, everything went smoothly with this cake project. Ashlyn’s big blue eyes grew even wider when she saw the cake, it was so cute.

Old Fashioned Cherry Pie and Silky Smooth Pumpkin Pie

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Nov 252012

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a big deal in my family this year because for the first time ever my parents were able to host and cook for the family. Usually my aunt takes the task (and does a fabulous job), but she had to have surgery this year and wasn’t feeling up to it. I was so excited for this opportunity because I have been saying for years I would LOVE to host a Thanksgiving, if only I had enough space. This is a close second, because my parents gave me the baking task, of course and also I was able to make some of the Thanksgiving side dishes as well-Ill take what I can get

Lattice Cherry Pie

I decided to go ‘old school’ this year and bake a couple pies. Pies really aren’t my thing, I don’t have much experience with them, but for a novice, I think these turned out pretty good. I have been seeing a lot of beautiful ‘pie designs’ online lately and love the way they add that extra touch to a dessert. I wanted to give the ‘lattice look’ a try with my cherry pie and after being intimidated by the seemingly complicated ‘dough weaving’ process for years, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it all came together! If you are interested, I found an excellent tutorial that took me through it step by step and made things easy. I used Betty Crocker’s Cherry pie recipe for the filling and baking instructions and one of my favorite bloggers ‘smitten kitchen’ for my buttery flaky pie crust recipe. The Cherry pie was really delicious and I was very happy with how it turned out. The lattice really did add a pretty touch to the pie

Silky Smooth Pumpkin Pie

I used my friend at smitten kitchen for her ‘silky smooth’ pumpkin pie recipe as well. This was really one of the most involved pumpkin pie recipes I have ever dealt with-it involved over 10 minutes of constant stirring and then straining the cooked pumpkin ingredients to ensure a super silky smooth pumpkin filling. All the hard work was worth it, because in my opinion, this was one of the smoothest homemade, non processed pumpkin pies I have ever tasted. I went a little off the recipe for the crust, wanting to try something different, I used butter crackers, brown sugar and butter for the crust in substitution for smitten kitchens buttery crust, or the traditional graham cracker crust. I found this to be a nice deviation from the norm, being that the butter crackers added a little salty zing to the mildly spiced pumpkin filling. All in all, I would make both of these recipes again, I thought they were both ‘party worthy’.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving on Thrusday with my family and then did it all over again on Friday with my husbands family, equally as wonderful. Long story short, I am one stuffed woman right now and need to start the holiday diet ASAP. Maybe after I have just one more piece of my leftover cherry pie

Third Birthday Spiderman&First Birthday Primary Colors!

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Nov 222012

Im back!!! After an extended DrBake hiatus, I have returned to my much missed blogging hobby! I am a married woman now, with fond memories of my wedding day and amazing honeymoon. What a whirlwind year. Finishing my wedding planning has been bittersweet, being that I enjoyed most of it (there were definitely stressful moments in there too of course) but am very happy to have my life ‘back to normal’. Drbake blogging is definitely a big part of that ‘normalcy’ I am happy to return to. So here goes.

Spiderman 3rd Birthday Cake

My Best friend Kim had her son Chris’ 3rd birthday a couple weeks ago. I take cake duties for Kims children pretty much without question these days, happily. Chris is obssessed with spiderman, as Im realizing MANY little boys are lately-Spidey is definitely trending. So this was my 2nd spiderman cake. The first was for my cousins boy, Parker’s 3rd birthday. That spiderman cake was very challenging, the ‘head anchoring’ had posed a problem for me that day. I decided to play it safe with Chris’ cake and do a sheet cake Spiderman. It turned out adorable, in my opinion and did not stress me out one bit that day, which I was thankful for! I used my old trusty vanilla funfetti recipe for the cake and my favorite dark chocolate frosting recipe. Chris had a blast on his birthday. He was wearing a little spiderman costume with built in ‘muscles’ that you pretty much couldnt look at on a 3 year old with out laughing. All in all it was a great party thrown by my dear friend Kim, as per usual.

First Birthday Primary Colors Cake

My best friend Tara threw a FIRST birthday for her little boy, Alex, last week. She decided her theme would be primary colors. Tara wanted a fabulous dessert table filled with primary color cake, cupcakes and candies. What an amazing idea, I was so in to this. I LOVE the idea of a dessert table at any event. I mean, does it get any better than having a whole slew of dessert treats to choose from? The little kids there had a ball going up and filling bags with candy to take home. It was interactive and tasty! I just loved this idea so much. Tara gave me the cake and cupcake honor and I was able to give her a few ideas for her table, like the primary colored sprinkle pretzels and marshmallows. Tara made these-and as a self professed ‘non-baker person’ I think she did a fabulous job and was very proud of her! I absolutely loved the way this cake turned out, it was one of my all time favorites. All the decorations were fondant, minus the cupcake topper of course. I used the same funfetti cake recipe I used for the Spiderman cake and used my favorite go-to vanilla buttercream frosting recipe for filling. Alex had a wonderful time at his party and Tara threw an amazing first birthday party. Check out the dessert table…how beautiful is that?!!!

Cece's 5th birthday and my wedding shower cake disaster

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Sep 092012

I am returning once again from an accidental Drbake hiatus. Oh how I miss my Drbake blogging days. The past several months of wedding planning have been very exciting, but completely time consuming and my blog has suffered because of it! Although the past several months have been a whirlwind of fun (and sometimes stress!) I have to say I am so excited for the next month to fly by so I can return to my normal schedule of working, baking and spending time with the ones I love.

Jem Cake

This past weekend was my Goddaughter Ceces 5th birthday. I cant believe how time flies and am in disbelief over what a big girl she is! Her birthday theme was-Jem and the Holograms-I KNOW RIGHT?! Coolest theme ever. I was ecstatic about the chance to make a jem cake, until I realized Cece actually wanted Jem’s face on the cake-which required some artistic talent, which I am lacking. In retrospect I should have had Cece’s mom help me, who happens to be very artistic, but given my shortage of time these days, this idea did not occur to me until it was too late. So it was me vs the fondant Jem face and I don’t think I came out on top. My Jem came out looking a little like a new age exorcist. Her neck was a little weird giving her the look like her head might spin around at any moment. The pink eyes, mouth, nose probably didn’t help with the creep factor either!

Cece loved her cake and she thought it tasted delicious, so at the end that is what matters. I get an A for effort at least By the way, Cece was dressed in full 80s gear, had her face painted like Jem and pink hair extensions to accesorize, she looked absolutely ADORABLE. The day after her party she told her mom she had ‘the best time ever’.

On a side note, I had my wedding shower a few weeks ago which was amazingly beautiful and so fun thanks to my mom, aunts and grandma who all threw it for me. I decided I had to make the cake for my wedding shower and ended up making one of my least favorite cakes ever-of course, for my own event haha. The cake actually ended up partially falling over in the middle of the shower and had to be taken away early to be cut. Oh well ya win some ya lose some.

Wedding Shower Cake

Please excuse the horrible picture quality, I just had a cell phone picture of it!

Im kind of glad it happened this way because I had formerly planned to make my wedding cake and after this disaster felt very confident in my decision to put that task in someone else’s hands!! My next project will be for my BFFS bachelorette party next weekend. I am not decided on whether I will make cupcakes or a cake, but I will say regardless of what I make it will be a little raunchy!!

Strawberry Chocolate Ganache Filled Cupcakes

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Aug 052012

Strawberry Ganache Filled Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting

Today my awesome Aunts and Cousins are coming over to help my mom and I get are DIY wedding shower favors/centerpieces together- I am so thankful for how helpful and involved my family is. I wanted to make a special treat for ‘sustenance’ to help get us through all the cutting, pasting and arranging that lies ahead today. Last night while I was browsing my favorite bloggers websites I came across these Chocolate Rasberry Cupcakes that not only looked beautiful, but I had a feeling would taste absolutely delicious.

I am a huge fan of filled cupcakes, dating back to my hostess cupcakes days in grammar school. Really, how could you go wrong with a chocolate ganache filled cupcake?! I adapted these cupcakes to be ‘strawberry ganache’ because the recipe called for rasberry jam, which I didnt have-I did however have strawberry jam and fresh strawberries in my fridge-so strawberry chocolate ganache cupcakes it was. I used the leftover vanilla bean buttercream frosting I used in my Elmo cake this weekend and some of the ‘store bought’ chocolate fudge frosting leftovers as well to frost these babies. I think they turned out beautiful and my best taste testers, my fiance and mom, have already tried them and enthusiastically approved of their tastiness!

Chocolate Strawberry Ganache Filling

Hope everyone has a happy weekend and an extra treat or two!

Elmo 1st Birthday Cake

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Aug 032012

Little Baby Elmo Cake

I don’t know why I get super excited every time I have the chance to employ a sesame street theme in my cakes, but I do, oh boy I do! Maybe it’s because I come from a long line of teachers and its in my blood? Regardless, I had ‘an excuse’ to make another sesame street character cake for 2 of my good friends Lauren and Joe whose little boy Matthew, in all of his adorableness, celebrated his very first birthday this weekend. My first Sesame Street character cake featured Abby Cadabby and I thought that was one of my favorites, well that was until baby Elmo. I just loved my little baby Elmo in his little diaper. He turned out better than expected and was very easily ‘molded’. As I have alluded to over and over again, cakes that are geared towards little ones are my absolute favorite. They always turn out the cutest for some reason. Maybe I subconsciously put a little extra TLC in to these

I had to post this second pic, regardless of its obnoxious glare, because it gives a better close up view of ‘Lil Elmo.

The bottom cake was my favorite chocolate cake recipe with the most awesome vanilla buttercream I have ever made and it is all due to a very talented blogger, Rosie, of sweetapolita.com. If you use this recipe, follow ALL the directions. I had my doubts when I read ‘beat butter on medium for 8 minutes’ but believe me, all the beating of this frosting makes for the fluffiest, lightest frosting I have ever tasted-and the added vanilla bean ingredient doesnt hurt either.

The top cake layer was funfetti cake filled with chocolate frosting. I used the recipe for my funfetti cupcakes to make this cake and filled it with store bought chocolate fudge frosting, because honestly, I didnt have time to make it from scratch! I was happy with the way this cake turned out and had fun making it, as always. Happy, happy birthday to the little man, Matthew!

Happy Graduation Nicole!

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Jun 212012

Nicole's Graduation Cake

My cousin Nicole graduated college in May and we celebrated her awesome accomplishment last week. (I apologize, I am way later with this post than I had intended, the past couple weeks have swallowed me up)! Nicole graduated Depaul University Magna Cum Laude with a spanish/teaching degree-and has already secured an amazing job just a month out of graduation! It goes without saying, we are all so very proud of our little mover and shaker!

For her graduation Nicole’s mom (my aunt) had the bright idea to make the cake based on one of nicoles favorite designs, using her favorite color combination, tiffany blue and white. I really liked the way this cake turned out, I felt it was elegant but not simple. If you have a little bit of a gaudy nature (like I do) keeping a cake elegant, not too simple and not too gaudy, can be a bit of a challenge!

The top tier was banana cake with chocolate frosting and the bottom tier was my favorite chocolate cake recipe with vanilla frosting. We celebrated Nicole’s day in Greektown, one of my favorite places in Chicago. It was a wonderful night for all.

Happy Graduation and all the best in your future endeavors Nicole!

Mother's Day Flower Cupcakes

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May 132012

Flower Cupcake for mama

Happy Mother’s day to all the mamas out there! For my mom on her special day, I whipped up some reeses peanut butter brownie cupcakes. I decided to decorate them with some fun flowers and swirls to commemorate the whole Mother’s day/Spring motif. I had fun with these cupcakes, being that it was a good excuse to try my new ‘fat dadio’ piping tips. I found them at ‘Sur La Table’ which may be my new favorite store. If you have the luxury of living near one of these stores, do yourself a favor and check it out. It is a cook/bakers dream. Everything and anything you could imagine for the kitchen resides here.

Anyways, I got a set of 8 tips and they are the fat kind…also known as, the perfect size to pipe a gorgeous cupcake. I only tried one swirl tip, but can already tell I will get good use out of these little guys in the future.

The cupcakes I made were pure decadence…just how my mom likes it (and me too!). I used brownie batter to fill my cupcake liners half full, then dropped a frozen dark chocolate resees peanut butter cup in the middle and filled the cupcake liners another quarter of the way with remaining brownie batter. After my brownie cupcakes were cooled I used chocolate frosting (with a fat dadio tip) and gave my cupcakes a chocolate lined base. Then I went to work coloring my vanilla frosting and experimenting with different tips to make a couple different flowers.

Fun day of piping for Drbake! Now Im off to celebrate Mother’s day with my mama-the best mama a girl could ask for

Hope everybody has a wonderful day with family and friends.

I Heart Chicago Wedding Shower

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May 062012

Superdawg Wedding Shower Cake

This weekend two of my good friends, Al and Susi are in town visiting. They live in Germany together, but Al was born and raised in the Chi. His sister Kim is throwing a wedding shower for Al and Susi to celebrate their upcoming wedding this summer and decided the most appropriate theme should be a ‘I heart Chicago’ themed shower-because really, if you were born and raised in Chicago and don’t have deep seeded roots to this city-you are in the minority thats for sure.

How could you not love this place?! A big bustling downtown, awesome subdivisions that each carry their own special personality, tons of diversity, awesome shopping, restaurants, history and HOTDOGS…Chicago-style baby. Im pretty sure every tourist who visits Chicago indulges in at least one of these overly processed, bright unnaturally red dogs cushioned in between an unnaturally soft overly processed bun-and dont forget the unnaturally yellow mustard and lots of unnaturally green relish…I am not a fan of processed foods obviously, but OMG, they taste so F&^%$#* good!

Even if you try and eat naturally like I do, a Chicago hotdog is definitely worth the splurge-and not from just anyplace, you need to go to SUPERDAWG. Located on the northwest side of the city, this place is a landmark. It was established in 1948 and has been family owned ever since. Originally, it was a drive thru that had girls on rollerskates bring you your food! The rollerskates have come and gone, the drive thru is still in function but not very popular, but superdawg still stands and has only gained popularity over the years. SO…Kim had the bright idea to make a superdawg cake for Al and Susi, to fit in with the wedding shower’s Chicago style theme. I dont think there could be a better representation of this city…such a great idea!!

Mr and Mrs Dawg

This was my favorite cake ever. It wasnt very hard to make-I used my basic chocolate cake recipe and oreo frosting for filling. The fondant Superdawgs (Mr and Mrs) came together quite easily. All and all I was pleased with how cute this cake turned out and LOVE LOVE LOVE that I was able to make a cake in honor of my favorite city in the world. Also, I may have the title of the only person so far who has made a Superdawg cake, because I was unable to find ANY pics online!!

I am off to Al and Susi’s wedding shower now, cant wait to show them their cake and give them a big hug! Welcome home Al and Susi-wishing you love and happiness together forever!

Parker's Birthday and Greek Easter

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Apr 162012

Old Spiderman Pondering His Life...

This past weekend was a busy one. We had two very special events to celebrate, my little cousin, Parker, had his 3rd birthday and Greek Easter. We went to my aunt’s house on Sunday and celebrated Parker and Greek Easter all in one. I cant begin to describe the spread of food that my aunt prepared. She did an amazing job and everybody left STUFFED! As amazing as the food was, the highlight of the night had to be watching little Parker blow out his birthday candles and open his birthday gifts. He is just so adorable in every way!

I made Parker’s birthday cake for him. He is currently obsessed with Spiderman, so a Spiderman cake was the only choice. I got this bright idea to try and make a cake that mimicked spidermans head and body up to the shoulders. I found a BEAUTIFUL cake that gave me this idea and I basically tried to follow the design as close as possible. If your interested here is the website ‘SpideyCake’

Being as bright as I am, I didn’t think to read the blog that went along with the picture, which I found to be very informative, TODAY, a day after the cake was made. The designer of this cake used an actual ‘dummy head’ and covered it with fondant. The head of this cake was the biggest frustration to me because I couldn’t figure out a way to rig it up on his little neck! I ended up making the neck and head out of rice krispie treats, which proved to be WAY to heavy, so there were a few dowels behind Spidermans head anchoring it in place…and STILL, my Spidey had a head tilt and a sagging neck (I presented my cake as an ‘old’ spiderman, who was pondering his life). So this cake did not turn out how I had envisioned it, but Parker absolutely loved it, which at the end of the day is all that really matters! I also learned a few things along the way-which never hurts either.

Here is a pic of the adorable Birthday boy right before he blew out his candles!