Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Ganache

I decided to cook through my cupcake cookbooks! The first recipe I chose is from my book

called Cupcakes! By Elinor Klivans. They sounded so delicious! And guess what... they are!

I was surprised by how much batter the recipe said to put in each baking cup! 1/4 cup of batter!

That's a lot more than I usually use for each cupcake. But... they didn't raise as much as I thought

they would, so it's a good thing I followed the recipe. Haha.

Next time I am going to use more butter and less peanut butter. The cupcakes were really dense

and the peanut butter was overwhelming! I'd like more of the chocolate flavor to show through.

I had to have some milk with it... they are really rich!

Pink and Ladybugs!

Happy first birthday to my little niece, Chloe! Her birthday is today! So I got up nice and early.... (okay, early for me) and started her cake. Chloe loves bananas, and with banana cake still on my mind from the last cake, I decided on banana cake again! This time I get to eat some. :)

Here's a little trick I learned for cupcakes: toothpicks!! I always had a problem getting the cupcakes out of the cupcake pan without hurting the cupcakes. You can use toothpicks to loosen the cupcake from the pan and to help slide it out onto a cooling rack.

RAWRRR!!

Okay, so... CUTEST CAKE EVER!! I love this dinosaur! He took a lot less time to make than I planned on! Originally my friend, Thomas, was going to join me so we could make it together. He LOVES dinosaurs. The first thing he asked me when we met was if I could make a dinosaur cake for him. :)

When Rikki asked me to make a dinosaur cake for her son, Jaxon, I was soooo excited! I am sad that things didn't work out so Thomas could join me... but it's okay. Gives me an excuse to make another dinosaur cake... just so he can help! You never know who will have a talent for caking!

Another thing I am still overly excited about is the mini cake pan set I got from Amazon. I used the two 4" cake pans for the dinosaur! The larger one is 7" and the bottom two are 4".

The set came with two 4", two 3" and two 2"!!! That's sooooo small! You will start to see mini-cake contests soon. I want a reason to use them! Haha

The cake was banana cake (so delicious!) with green buttercream frosting. Once the bottom tier was all frosted it went into the fridge to chill. Then I got started on the dino! His neck and head are rice crispy treats formed around a dowel. Once I had the right shape I put it in the freezer for about five minutes. It hardened really quick then I covered it with fondant and started decorating.

I love making cakes for birthdays. There is so much less stress than a big elaborate wedding cake. Rikki, I hope you loved your cake! I sure did. :)

--Jana

Let's Play Some Pool!

I am so thrilled with how this cake for my dear friend turned out. This was such a fun cake to make! I had a lot of time to plan for this cake which made it even better. My dilema was trying to decide how to make the cake look like a pool table. I wanted as much of it to be edible as possible.

I went online and found a cute video about how to make mini tables. I can't seem to find the video anymore... hmmm :( It was a super simple video... they had kids making the tables for dolls! So here is the mini table I made:

I moved the legs in towards the center mimic a real pool table. I couldn't believe how easy it was... and it didn't take long at all! Well.. it did have to dry for a day between coats of stain and poly. I made it before I had my blog up or else I would've taken more pictures for you all.

The stand was the simple part. The cake was spice cake (first try at this recipe and it's delicious!!!!) with buttercream frosting. I used green sugar flakes and sparkles to make the felt. The wood panels, bumpers, and the balls are all fondant. And the pool sticks are sucker sticks decorated with fondant to match the table. I realized after the fact that I forgot to put the hole in the side where you get the balls out. Oh well... haha!!

Everyone at the birthday was so pleased with the cake! Especially the birthday boy. :) He even helped me arrange the pool balls according to the billiard rules. I play pool a lot, but didn't know the specifications of racking the balls for pro tournament billiard.

I can't wait to make more cake stands! More cake stands means more cake!!

-- Jana

Welcome to the beginning of the future!

Hey everyone! Welcome to my cake blog! I cannot wait to share all of my cake adventures with you. It's only been 2 years since I started 'caking' and I absolutely LOVE it!!! <3
But this is about so much more than just cake. I have big plans for Cakes By Jana. Cakes, cupcakes, mini cakes, mini desserts, cookies! I want to try it all and now I finally have the time! This blog will have all of it! So you better get ready for this cause I can't eat it all. I am going to start having contests and giveaways again!

I hope you share as much enthusiam about this as I do!
Thanks everyone for you support!
-Jana