When Color Attacks - The Recipe

I feel that since I've started this blog, I've been entirely too stingy with the recipes. So my dear readers, prepare for the most luscious cake recipe(s) you have ever tasted. I am not a scratch snob, though I do prefer a good scratch recipe over an "extended" box recipe any day (except for White Almond Sour Cream, which I will reserve for another post where I've actually used it).

The lovely thing about this cake is that it is horribly imperfect, yet it's received the best reception because of that. Some have called it a Dr. Seuss cake (without my prodding), and that is an effect I find delightful! I purposely did not take my time on the details because the book (Whimsical Bakehouse) I got the idea from stressed that it's okay to be imperfect, much like an impressionist painting. It's horrible from up close, but from afar it is fantastic (that's impressionist, right?)

The cakes are 9", 6", and 4", which are relatively small for a tiered cake, but really quite enormous for anything but weddings. The bottom and the top layer are Chocolate Fudge cake (a Toba Garrett recipe), and the middle layer is a Lemon Supreme Pound cake. The frosting and filling is buttercream. I want to stress that unsalted butter is a must. Unless you like things realllllly salty.

I also have a few tips before I get started.

1. Line the bottom of your pans with parchment paper. You would not believe what a huuuge difference this makes in releasing the cake. Also, grease them with butter. Flour is not really a necessity when greasing. Do not use Crisco unless you like crispy edges (learn from my mistakes, peeps).

2. Use GOOD pans. They make all the difference in the world. The two types of pans I typically use are Magic Line and for Springform I use Kaiser.

3. Drop the pans before putting them in the oven. I've gone into more detail in my first recipe.

4. Cool the cakes for at least 20 minutes (some say 10), and before you flip them out (or release them from the Springform), run a butter knife along the sides to release it. The bottom is taken care of with the parchment paper.

5. Wrap them in plastic and refrigerate or freeze until firm.

6. Use gel food coloring in your frosting because it doesn't water down the consistency much; but don't use Wilton - it sucks. I use Americolor or Ateco (Ateco is available at Sur La Table among other places I'm sure).

7. Buy your extracts and other specialty items (like high quality cocoa/chocolate) at a gourmet food store or specialty kitchen store like Sur La Table. Believe it or not, it is usually much cheaper than what you will find at the grocery store. I can get a 4oz bottle of high quality lemon extract for 6.95 at Sur La Table, that at the grocery store costs $5 PER OUNCE.

Now, without further adieu:

Chocolate Fudge Cake

2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed DARK brown sugar

1 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder (IMO it doesn't NEED to be Dutch processed because it is pricey, but if you want to do it right for a special occasion it does make a small difference)

2 and 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 and 1/2 tsp salt

2 and 1/4 cups buttermilk (you can substitute with milk and vinegar [1 tbsp per cup of milk] if you have an oh shit I don't have that moment, but use the real thing if you've got it)

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 large eggs

1 and 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

6 oz melted semisweet fine quality chocolate (Bakers brand will do)

Heat the oven until 325 or 350. If you've got patience you will have much more even cooking results at 325.

Mix all ingredients together in a mixer on low for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl (constantly if you're anal about following recipes to the T).

Blend in the melted chocolate. I have a tip at this point. Before you preheat your oven and measure the ingredients, put the chocolate in the pan on the stove and don't turn on the burner. The heat from the oven when preheating will melt the chocolate very evenly and nicely if you've got a cheapie stove like I do.

Mix on high speed for 3 minutes. If you've got a Kitchen aid like I do (oooh I like my Gloria!), it may take less time. You will notice a consistency change in the batter, it will become fluffy. That's where you want it.

Pour into pans and smooth. Then lift the pans and drop them several times on the counter. Then stand on your head and spin around while twiddling your thumbs and singing "You've Got a Friend in Me". Just kidding, but seriously, do the pan dropping thing, it helps to alleviate air bubbles. Use this as a general rule of thumb when baking cakes.

This will make two nice sized 8" layers. For my 9" and 4" layers I used a recipe and a half and it was plenty.

Bake for 50-75 minutes depending on your oven temperature. They say that when the toothpick comes out clean it's overcooked, but I've always used this rule and my cakes are never dry.

Are you still with me? Are you ready for the Lemon Supreme cake that I find "okay", but non-chocolate lovers find fabulous? Here goes:

Lemon Supreme Pound Cake

(I usually double - but for this particular cake you wouldn't need it unless you want scraps for filling and that's another topic for another day)

1 box Lemon Supreme cake mix (Duncan Hines is the best for cake mixes)

1 box Lemon Jello

1 Cup Hot Water for the Jello

3/4 cup Vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 TBSP lemon extract

Dissolve the Jello in the hot water and mix the rest of the ingredients while the water is becoming one with the Jello.

Add the dissolved Jello

Bake.

Yup, that's it.
Again, cooking times vary depending on oven temperature. The cake will look very crispy very quickly, but that's okay, the inside is still moist.

The BEST Buttercream frosting ever

(provided you like powdered sugar based frosting's):

2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup vegetable or hi-ration shortening (yeah, fancy words...just use solid Crisco)

1 and 1/2 tsp Lemon extract (you can actually substitute with any extract, including vanilla, but lemon really works well and gives the frosting a nice subtle touch that you do not get with vanilla)

3 lbs confectioners sugar (technically you should sift, but who the heck has time for that?)

1/2 cup + 1 tbsp water - start with just the 1/2 cup and add the tbsp if you need it.

3 TBSP meringue powder (you can find this with the Wilton Cake Deco Supplies at craft stores. It is NOT a necessity, but very helpful during the warmer months in stabilizing the frosting)

1 tsp salt

Cream the butter and Crisco (or whatever). It should be nice and creamy, not lumpy at all.

Add the extract and salt.

Add Confectioners sugar one cup at a time (but I usually cheat and add more, it depends on how much *poof* you want from the sugar and what your mixer can handle - but you definitely need an electric mixer).

When all of the sugar is added, mix in the meringue powder. Your mixture may become too dry before this point, if it does, you may add a small amount of water to help.

Add the water or milk (if you so choose) and mix for 7-8 minutes (again, Kitchen Aid's need less) until light and fluffy.

Sample for quality.

Then sample again for good measure.

And sample a third time for prosperity.

Oh heck, sample until you feel sick to your stomach so that you can resist the finished cake.

Note: Even though you can store this (freeze for up to two months) - I make this right before I'm ready to decorate because it has the best consistency at this point. If you do store it before making, make sure you mix it again in the mixer before using on the cake.

Now, if you want to decorate it like the above cake, umm, I have no advice. It was a modge podge flurry of color and I'm actually quite surprised it did not collapse. Okay, well it didn't collapse because I at least know how to support a cake, but the rest of it was just a lot of dye on my hands and coupler changes (for the frosting tips).

I know there are a few of you out there who are going to be making cakes soon and have expressed interest in getting advice from this non-expert. Please don't hesitate to email me at sugarbunz at gmail dot com. It would make me feel important :)

Garden Time

I literally threw this cake together. I decided at about 1:30 this afternoon that I had a cake making bug up my butt and went out to the store to get the supplies I needed. I figure the "messyness" is okay because it's kind of a nature-ish cake. Yeah, it was intentional, mmm hmmm, yeah that's it.

Chocolate fudge cake with cookies and cream buttercream filling and buttercream frosting.

And here's a small picture of another cake I did for a coworker for giving me his monitor. It's really hideous up close so you only get a little peek!


Hey, I had to make lavendar and mint frosting into manly colors, and this is really the only color combo I could think of that would work.

The Birthday Cake

Here it is, the cake I made for my mom's birthday. It was good, but I am not a big cheesecake fan so I could have done without the layer of cheesecake.



Mom loved it so it's all good.

Chocolate Fudge cake with chocolate (Godiva liquer) frosting, Cream cheese frosting, and a layer of plain ole cheesecake.

Oh Gee, Another Flop

Not much to say about this one, except I'm not proud. Not in the least.

The bottom, unseen tier is strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream filling, and regular buttercream frosting.

The top tier is Chocolate Fudge cake with buttercream filling/frosting.

Gloria did a fabulous job, the heat and my lack of motiviation made this cake a disaster. Once the fondant started tearing I literally just threw stuff on it. While it's still true to my original vision, I had much better plans for it. I've been having a lot of flops lately so I am going to ease off a bit for the summer. I'll still make one on occasion, but me, cake, buttercream and heat don't make such a great combo.

Orange Crush

Umm, yeah. I know. It's not even smooth. I did do the whole decorating process in about 30 minutes if that counts for anything. I had a beautiful picture of what I was going to do in my head. I was going to name it "Orange Blossom", but "Orange Crush"seems a bit more fitting considering the sorry state this cake is in.

This cake is:Orange butter cake with orange mousse filling and orange/vanilla buttercream frosting. Think Creamsicle.

Despite it's flaws, I'm happy I did this cake. It was 106 degrees yesterday (yes, you read that right), and I wanted to see how fillings and buttercreams react under the heat. The answer for this particular cake is, not well. I probably could have kept the oven off, and just stuck the cakes outside to cook for a few hours, but instead turned the oven on inside. Let me just tell you, it doesn't matter how low your air conditioning is set, when it's that hot outside and you turn on the oven, you're screwed. As are your unstable cake fillings.

Live and learn though, right? Even with the "icing dam", the orange mousse filling oozed out the sides and caused the top layer of the cake to slide around everywhere (hence the hurried deco job). Now I know that until the temps dip below 90, I need to stay away from anything less stable than plain Jane buttercream. That means no meringue buttercreams, whipped cream based fillings (IE mousse), etc. That's no skin off my back (or should I say 'that's no frosting off my cake'?), because I am particularly fond of plain Jane buttercream and now I have an excuse to decorate exclusively with it and/or fondant.

mmm mmm good.

I Would Like to Formally Apologize to Blue Bonnet

I just have to say it. Are you ready? Drum roll please.....

I am pleased with this cake.

*Collective GASP*

I know, I know. It's a shocker. I actually LIKE a cake I made and can admit it. No self-defacing comments in this post. Well, at least not yet.

The cakes are as follows:

First tier 8" - Chocolate Fudge Cake with Natalie's own concocted chocolate buttercream. The chocolate flavor is derived from cocoa powder, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and chocolate extract. It came out a bit dryer than expected, but crusted very well (for smoothing).

Second tier 6" - Sour cream white cake with raspberry flavoring. Frosting is lemon-y buttercream.

Third tier 4" - same as the first. Someone gets a personal sized cake. Kinda like a personalized pizza, but with a lot more calories. Scary, I know. How can anything contain more calories than a personal size pizza? Well, here it is. In the flesh. Erm..in the frosting. I dare not estimate the reality of the calories and fat inside.

As you can tell, my flavor of the moment is scrolls (specifically pink and brown). I wanted to make a small three-tier cake with scrolls and I wanted to do it quickly. The baking was done last night after work, the decorating, tonight. It took, all in all, from warming butter to room temperature to the last buttercream rose, about six hours. Yeah, a lot of time, but a lot less than the full day task I am used to. I want to get used to doing cakes quickly, as it's a possibility I may be doing it for real in the future.

Now for the title of this post. Last night I ranted and raved about Blue Bonnet margarine and how I felt a bit misled that it would work well in buttercream. I used all butter tonight (with a small amount of Crisco-blech), and had the same results. I now know it was the stinking butter and NOT the margarine that was giving me crappy results. I was still able to ice this cake successfully enough, but something in the butter seems to cause the powdered sugar to crystallize so that you get "chunky" frosting (it's not the sugar because I used two different brands last night and tonight). Eeeeew, sounds gross, but it's similar to tasting granular sugar in something, and it royally pisses me off! As a result I didn't bother to smooth the frosting as well as I could of, but it's all good.

So there it is, my official apology to Blue Bonnet. I am sorry, I shall not give up thee just yet!

As for the cake. I wasn't so sure at first. The largest layer went well, the smallest, not so great. Thankfully I had planned roses on top and knew that the little mistakes on the smallest layer would probably be a moot point by the time the top was encrusted with pink buttercream. I think I was right. I have to learn that no cake looks great until it's finished. When I am making these "little" mistakes, it really gets me down; until I see the big picture. I just have to learn to see the big picture a bit sooner!

To close this post I must share a picture that really exemplifies how messy cake-making really is. I now know I am a powdered sugar buttercream frosting kinda gal, and as such, powdered sugar is the single most messy ingredient in a cake. The picture below shows just how well powdered sugar can infiltrate your kitchen. I promise this cake had no alcohol in it! How powdered sugar got there is anybody's guess, but if you've never tried powdered wine, I highly suggest it.

The Return of Lady Godiva

She's aged a little so she is not as beautiful as she once was. Actually, this was just a simple cake I was making for home. I have some leftover Godiva frosting in the freezer so I decided to use part of it tonight.

This cake was honestly not worth the work. I am having a rough go of it with cakes lately, and I think part of it is the heat. I get more clumsy the hotter I am. In a cheaply built apartment, when it's 100 degrees outside, the oven heats the entire place up quickly even with the air conditioning on. I know my latest cakes have not been as stellar as previously, and I think the heat is a huge contributing factor.

I had heard that Blue Bonnett margarine worked wonderfully in frostings so I gave it a whirl. First, I decided to put it in a chocolate fudge cake I made tonight for later in the week (it will be part of a small three tier). Usually, the batter in this recipe almost "whips" up as it is beaten. It goes from a very liquidy texture, to a light and fluffy cream. It didn't do it tonight and the cakes came out more flat and uneven than usual, but still usable. I thought maybe I just screwed up something in the recipe...

Until I tried to make buttercream roses that contained just half a stick of the Blue Bonnett, two sticks of regular butter, and a quarter cup of Crisco. I had identical results with the buttercream as I did with the cake batter. Even though the frosting was thick, it was runny...if that's even possible! Just the small amount of margarine threw the "creamy" factor way off. So I had to scrap the roses and just go hog wild with the number 2 tip on the cake. The table was shaking a lot by a certain little three year old who wishes to remain anonymous, sorta accidentally on-purpose sticking his hands in the frosting poopies. Frosting poopies = frosting that's dropped on the table on it's way from the bowl to the cake. Aren't ya hungry now?

The cake itself is a white cake with some chocolate and raspberry extract in it. It's a variation of the white almond sour cream cake. It is filled with the same chocolate buttercream that covers it, and I must say it tastes much more fabulous than it looks!

Just pretend you didn't see this, K?

All right, this is NOT my finest hour, but I expressly forbid ANYONE from telling me just how ugly this truly is because I already know. I am not self-depreciating, really I am not; but this little confection had disaster written on it as soon as I started in on the blobs...umm...I mean flowers.

I was so buoyed by a wonderful email I received today that I decided my mom needed a cake to take to work with her that would not make everyone drunk.

I also wanted to try Italian Meringue Buttercream. I had tried the Swiss version a while back (which is very similar); but thought maybe I had done something wrong because I thought it was disgusting. As I have mentioned, I was kind of floating along today so I decided to give it another whirl.

Meringue buttercreams are not made with powdered sugar. They are made from regular sugar, egg whites, and butter. LOT'S of butter. I cannot tell you how much butter I go through nowadays, but I will tell you that Albertson's had it for 50 cents for four sticks because it is expiring in a week. I felt like a kid in a candy store when I found this, and I made sure to test it on myself before sending spoiled butter out to any unsuspecting cake-eaters. This is another reason for my mad-cake-baking frenzy. I need to use up the TWELVE POUNDS butter or freeze it (that's six bucks worth if you are counting). I literally smell like a stick of butter right now. I am normally covered from head to toe in white powder from the "POOF" of powdered sugar that occurs when mixing my normal buttercream, so I don't mind the trade off of smelling like a piece of toast.

I also tried out a new cake recipe today. Golden Butter Cake from The Whimsical Bakehouse. I added some new lemon oil that I found today just to give it a little spunk and cautiously proceeded with the buttercream preparation.

I now know what went wrong with my last attempt. I did not mix it for long enough. None of the recipes tell you that you need to mix it long enough for it to basically change it's composition, because it went from whipped meringue texture to buttercream-y after a while. I had nooooOOoo idea it would do that. I am a bit shy of overmixing things after I made butter out of heavy whipping cream (no, I'm not kidding). And it is delicious. It's a much lighter, non-gritty frosting that is much less sweet than traditional buttercream. I still like my traditional buttercream, but this was a nice change of pace. It also smooths shiny, which I thought was kind of fun.

Now onto the mess I'll call a flower spray and scrollie thingees. I thinned down my buttercream because I'm sick and tired of those dang ragged edges. I'm all for the "natural" look on myself, but I want my buttercream roses to look like fake buttercream roses darn it. I did use my traditional buttecream for this part of it.

Well, I thinned it a bit too much, the air is a bit too warm, and my hands are hot. So instead of flowers, I got blobs with definition. Those big blobs are roses, and those three horned blobs are supposed to be Sweet peas. Oh and the green blobs are my sad sad attempt at melted leaves.

I can only hope the cake tastes good. I greased the pans with Crisco instead of butter and the edges got too crisp so I'm worried it's too dry. Oh well, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right?

A little somethin' somethin'

I hereby dub thee...

"Lushious Lady Cake". Emphasis on the mispelling of "luscious" because this puppy is infused with Godiva Liquer. The recipe for chocolate buttercream came from the same book I've got all of my favorite recipes from so I wanted to make it right. Which means when it called for Godiva liquer, I went out and bought an expensive little bottle of the stuff. The frosting has approximately five buckaroonies worth of alcohol in it.

I didn't think the alcohol would be noticable, and as you might guess, it's nearly impossible not to sample the goods to ensure quality when making a cake. No, I didn't pour myself alcoholic chocolate on the rocks, but I did have my fair share of boozy frosting. After about two tablespoons I actually felt dizzy! I'm not a lightweight by any means, so I can only guess the sugar mixed with the alcohol had some kind of special effect on me; but nevertheless this cake will not be going to it's intended recipients: My mom's coworkers. The last thing she needs is to get blamed for a workplace full of drunkards.

The cake itself is Chocolate Fudge. It's funny, but the first time I tried the recipe I didn't care for it, now it is my hands down favorite. I filled it with raspberry flavored buttercream, and covered it with the Godiva infused chocolate buttercream. Honestly, it's ok. I will have a piece later (shucks) to determine if I think it's really just ok, or if when mixed with the flavor of the cake and the filling if I like it.

This was also a good excuse to practice buttercream roses. They are still eluding me with their ragged edges, but I am now convinced it's the consistency of the frosting, not the inexperience of my hand that is causing the problem.

I went a little crazy with the scrolls because they are one of my favorite cake effects, andthere are many MANY mistakes, but the overall effect is very pretty I think. Once I realized that there was no way I was sending this to work with my mom I just had a hay day without regard to how many mistakes I made.

This is one cake my son will not be sampling!

Practice Makes Perfect

This is the first cake that *basically* went as planned. Does it still look like an amateur made it? Yes. But this is the first cake in a while (beside Easy Breezy), that did not give me fits. I did not have the desire to throw my bag of powdered sugar across the room. Nope, not once. Dare I say it? Dare I ADMIT that I might have done a half way decent job on the Power Ranger head that only sort of creeps me out? No, he does not have legs, but by golly, it looks like the Blue Mystic Force Power Ranger! Even my critical-of-mommy's-work-when-I-have-to-go-to-bed son admitted he liked it. So, to celebrate my success, I am allowing all five of you a glimpse into my super secret cake world.



Here is the head on it's respective lopsided cake (6" for perspective). I put a couple of lollipop sticks below it in the cake, and into the head itself for support. It's pretty heavy so it could have easily smooshed in the cake. He's very thick-headed you know.



All of this stuff is for the bottom cake (10" for even more perspective)! From left to right: Cookies and Cream Filling, *older* buttercream (but not bad buttercream) to *glue* the cake to the drum, spackle paste bowl (to fill in any 'oopsies the cake came off' holes. It works like spackle, go figure),a bowl of regular buttercream frosting. I am sure at this point you are wondering how messy one's kitchen can get. I am here to tell you that you have not seen a mess in the kitchen until you have put seven pounds of powdered sugar, several drops of food coloring, and who knows how much Crisco, butter, powdered cocoa, and eggs into a cake. Yeah, it aint pretty folks. I clean as I go, but it still looks like a sugar coated Tasmanian Devil had at it when I'm done. EVERYTHING about baking and decorating cakes is messy!



Though the frosting doesn't need to be perfectly smooth because it will be covered in smooth (*erm, ahem, supposedly smooth) fondant, I still take a Viva paper towel and a fondant smoother to it, just to help my already lumpy little cake be a little less lumpy. I know what I'm like with fondant, and unwanted lumps come in droves.



LOOK, LOOKIE HERE!!! This Fondant went on like a charm! This is the first time I've covered a cake this large with very little problems with the fondant. Now I can really see that practice makes perfect. I still need to work on my smoothing technique once the fondant is on, but I got it on in one piece, and had very little tearing while smoothing. Nobody better say a word about my fat fingers.



This is smoothing the Fondant. Exciting, huh? Dum dee dum dee do *whistle*



Lollipop sticks inserted into the cake for support so that the top cake with the big ole head on it doesn't smoosh into the lower cake. More "glue" to help hold it in place. Sidenote: I buy lollipop sticks by the package in the candy making section, no need to worry that they are *used* lollipop sticks.



Getting close!



Even closer!



Time for a Vodka break (see fruitcake recipe).


OK, not really. The Vodka is for the gold dust I'm painting on the cake. I pour a tiny bit of Vodka (like a drop) into the dust and VOILA! It's insta-paint.


TA DA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baby steps people, baby steps

I think this looks better than the last, and if you don't, well, I don't wanna hear it! I had much bigger plans for it, but c'mon, this is only my second try at molding Rice Krispy Treats for goodness sakes! I would have liked to separate the helmet from the neck some more, but I think this will do just fine. Plus, I got positive feedback from my three year old. Last night he thought the head sucked; but he smiled big at this one and told me he liked it. Trust me, that is the opinion that matters most! He didn't even complain that there were no legs!

Easy breezy

After the disaster that was the poker cake, I felt I needed to do something that would validate me. Call it an ego trip, but I needed it. If you look at the cake closely, the scrolls are messy, I used a bigger tip and softer frosting than I should have, but the overall effect is nice. I was really just practicing, because I think scrolls done very well can make a cake absolutely stunning. I am not anywhere near that effect, but I like this nonetheless. The best part of this is that the entire decorating process (not including baking, the cake was leftovers from yesterday's project) took about 20 minutes. I just whipped those little squiggly lines out like nothing flat. This is a little 6" White Almond Sour Cream cake with raspberry cream cheese buttercream filling and regular buttercream frosting. Gumpaste rose. Ahhhh, it feels good to be me. Oh and the cake is fantabulous too!

The dragon plays poker

Oh my, so many things to say about this cake, so little time. I think out of all my efforts, this is my least favorite. The sloppiness alone is reason for tears. Of course, frame of mind did not help matters in the least, but I had honest intentions of making this one kick butt cake.
It all started off well-enough. The original intent was that this would be a Wednesday cake. Meaning I would accomplish the decorations and fondant ahead of time. The cake layers would be made on Sunday. Buttercream on Monday. Decorated Tuesday night.

Saturday I made the dice and poker chips out of gum paste. I felt like quite the artist sitting there with my little food coloring palette, adding the details. I thought they were quite nice thank you very much.

The more and more I thought about it the more and more I realized that trying to accomplish a cake like this on a weeknight would be foolish. So I made an even more foolish decision. At 11AM on Sunday I started this cake with the intention of completing it by 9pm. OK, first off, when in a hurry, things will go wrong; so try to never be in a hurry if you can help it. Second of all, even my minimal experience has taught me that I need a full weekend to do cakes because I can’t devote every single second to them.

I discovered very quickly that I did not have enough corn syrup to complete the two batches of fondant that I’m supposed to let sit for 24 hours so I did one batch and went to the store for the corn syrup. On a side note: Corn products are supposed to be pricey right now, but at least corn syrup was on sale for 1.99! Hmmm, wasn’t there some hulaballoo about corn ethanol for fuel or something? Wowsa, that could get pricey!

I have duplicates of all of my round pans, but none of my squares. So, each layer had to be baked separately. I realize that a 10” square cake is child’s play to those more experienced than I; but a 10” square cake is a monstrosity to me. Each layer took an entire recipe of Toba Garrett’s oh so yummy Chocolate Fudge Cake.

First layer came out of the oven looking nice enough. After about five minutes out of the oven the middle started sinking. What the? I dropped my pans on the counter to combat the air bubbles before baking, what happened? The normal “problem” is that the middle rises too much. But nothing about this cake was typical. I don’t mind rising, In fact, I like having the extra top that I have to cut off to make level as a sample of my fantastic baking. Instead, I had a flat middle section that made the cake about half as tall as it should be. Ok, well, I can deal with that, I’m not a professional and I don’t guarantee cake height. Now let’s flip it out of the pan before it’s ready because you are in a hurry. Now let’s watch as said cake becomes about 50 little cakes. Oops.

Oh well, I sort of have the ingredients to make an extra layer, finished second layer and decided to work on the top portion of the cake which was White Almond Sour Cream cake. Time constraints be darned! But really, can you make a Chocolate Fudge Cake without eggs? Yes, that’s right, the remaining 8 eggs all went to the big monstrosity on top of the cake. AH HA! Hatch plan to get two things done at once. I haven’t got my exercise in for the day, so to save time I will run to the store with a backpack. No worries. I have it all planned out. I will ensure the eggs get a nice comfy little spot where they will jostle minimally. I came out of the grocery store with a few more items than intended, but that’s ok, they’ll help keep the eggs in place.

I began my jaunt back cautiously. I decided to jog very slowly at first and then check the eggs. Ummm…within a quarter mile there were six eggs cracked in my son’s Car’s backpack. Rut Roh Raggie! Oh but it gets better folks. What do you think was also carelessly placed in the same compartment of the backpack and promptly forgotten about until the egg incident? What is the WORST thing that you typically carry with you that could be in the bottom of that backpack?

That’s right. I egged my cell phone. CRAP! It wasn’t just a little eggy, it was submersed in a sea of yellow yolk and goopy gunk. OK, deep breaths. Egg does not seep like water, right? Right, but it also doesn’t dry like water and just go away. Nope. I HATE THIS CAKE!!!!!

Really, all I could do was giggle. This is so typically Natalie when I’m having a rough go of things. I cleaned off the cell phone as best I could with the parchment paper I had just bought and wrapped it up. Finished the job when I got home but am discovering today that egg is very crumby when it dries. I wonder if salmonella dries with the egg?

So I finally finished all of the cakes. At 8pm. Hmmm, cutting it rather close aren’t we? I went to work on the top part first, as I was anxious to try the Satin Ice fondant I had purchased. Not being a fan of the texture of fondant, I had heard this was fabulous and would change my mind. Not so, but it’s not bad. It’s not the taste, it’s the texture. Sort of like I’m not fat, I’m fluffy.

OF COURSE the stuff cracked where it shouldn’t. It’s really my fault, I was feeling very rushed at this point. No biggie, will cover up with the white circles and the worst will be placed in the back of the cake.

Boy did I have a fun time stacking the two layers for the bottom portion of the cake. My top bottom layer was not fully cooled because it was the last one I made, so getting it on the cake (mostly) in one piece deserves a gold medal.

I quickly rolled out the homemade white fondant, crossed my fingers and toes and flipped it onto the cake. Mmm hmmm. Of course I came up short on one side. OK, that side will also go in back. I do want to point out that while I had problems with the fondant, this time I added glycerin, and it made a world of difference as far as handling!
Let’s see, it was about 9:30 at that point. My original plan was to have a black and white diamond pattern on the sides, with the card cut outs (club, heart, diamond, spade) in the white portions of the diamonds. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I threw those puppies on there in no apparent order, stuck the top of the cake on and called it good. Nope, didn’t even work on smoothing out the awful bottom edges. Dispersed poker chips and dice (the only thing I am pleased with on this cake!); and stuck it in the fridge.

The good news is, the cake is delicious. Quite a chunk of the bottom portion is gone and I told the birthday girl to take the top part home to her family. The bad news is I’ve had three pieces. Hey, I think I’ve already worked it off!

Oh, and here is my newest dragon who has unfortunately already met an untimely demise, due to my very own clumsiness. Go figure.

I think I’ll go make a fruitcake now.

Dragon's Lair part deux

My latest beast. I am really starting to enjoy working with fondant and gumpaste for modeling. I am not good at it yet, but it is so fun to see a blob of what is basically clay turn into something that could pass as a dragon. I wanted to experiment with different colors and make this dragon a bit more "cartoonish"; and play around with paint (food color) and glitter (edible). The verdict is that I'm still not happy with the wings, I need them to appear to be thinner (more like bat wings), and I want an irridescent sheen to parts of the dragon. I also want to be able to put the dragon in positions other than laying down. Unless I have something to prop him up with, I will definately need to use gumpaste, as that dries much harder than fondant. I think for the castle theme I am more fond of the orange and red, as it stands out quite a bit more than this little guy will. I have decided I will do another "dragon and castle" cake this weekend. I am determined to have a fantastic cake to show! It's funny, even though these are considered "edible", when my son asks if he can taste part of it my reaction is "EEEEW!" Edible does not equal palatable. So folks, when you see a work of art cake and it says 100 percent edible that does not mean you want to necessarily eat 100 percent of it!

Dragon's Lair

This was a REALLY fun cake to do, up to the point where a pillow was launched at it by a three year old who wishes to remain anonymous. :P It happened right as I was completing the painstaking brickwork that "used" to be pretty even and solid looking. The original intention was not for this to be an old decrepit castle, but it took that turn after the pillow incident. There is also supposed to be another level (smaller cake) on top, but such is life. I really learned about using fondant/gumpaste for modeling purposes and covering a cake in fondant a little bit differently. Instead of using a solid circle of fondant, I applied buttercream and then cut "bricks" to cover the buttercream with. I had originally used plain white buttercream, but it seeped through the bricks and looked awful so I applied another layer of grey which didn't really show until "the incident".

Because the idea for this cake was inspired by Debbie Brown, and was originally supposed to contain some carved cake elements to it, I originally made the recipe for Madeira cake contained in her book (here). I suppose if you are inclined to eat dog biscuits that recipe might taste ok to you, but I am not so I threw the whole cooked batch out and used Duncan Hines Yellow cake mix modified to be a pound cake. Normally I'd do it from scratch, but I'm experimenting with mixes now because there are some awsome "doctored" mixes out there. I will still do mostly scratch, but mixes are great for when time is of essence or the supplies are low (like butter, eggs, buttermilk, etc...) I just used regular old buttercream because it can sit out and because of the fondant this cake should be left out of the fridge.

One thing I don't understand. I don't dispute that Debbie Brown is an incredibly talented cake decorator, but to me, a cake must taste just as wonderful as it looks. I can't imagine spending oodles of money on a cake only to find out that it was not very palatable.

P.S. Yes, the end of the dragon's tail didn't quite make it onto him. I was so fed up when I was done I just didn't care!

Good neighbor

Since I was only making 6" cakes with a huge recipe, I ended up with three two tier cakes. This one went to our downstairs neighbor in appreciation of them being MUCH better than our last ones! I was trying to get a little better at buttercream and tried my hands at scroll work. It's all fine when it's on top, but the sides are what I need to work on. It's not perfectly even but it's not meant to be because it was really done on the fly. I am really into mixing colors with brown, it's really fun. The third cake shall never be posted. It was a sad little cake meant only for my families eyes. I was trying to do a basket with roses on top; the basketweave was great, the roses...well, they were lacking. I am going to get myself in a class as soon as I can find one so that I can get hands on instruction with those wiley little buggers (buttercream roses and flowers in general). It's funny, the first time I tried my hand at them I did pretty well, but ever since then I end up with these blobs of jagged edges! Excuse the lame wording tonight, I knocked the crap out of my head trying to take this picture and I think I'm still a little dizzy. Don't ask! :P

Too many ideas, too little time

This is what happens when my brain goes into overload. I had way too many cakes I had planned on making, and as a result, only came out with three (and one that is NOT shown it was sooo bad - really); and they aren't even good. I am really embarrassed to post these, but this blog is about my progress so I am going ahead with it. I think I've regressed. From now on I won't plan on making four heart cakes and some mini cakes for work to look like conversation hearts (the pink hearts letters are purposely blurred in case you are wondering). I will post more about this adventure tomorrow or the next day. I am exhausted and need to go to bed right now.

Today's cake brought to you by....

SPRINGTIME!

Yes, I realize for most it is still the middle of winter, and while we had 20 degree lows a few days ago, most of our winter feels like spring. Neener neener neener. Don't worry, you'll have your sweet revenge as soon as May hits when I'm complaining about the heat!

I really *threw* this cake together. My favorite part of it is the weaving because this is the first time I tried it. It was not as hard as I thought it would be until I started running out of yellow buttercream and didn't have any white left to make more yellow. I am completely unimpressed with the flowers (hey, all but the small purple ones were made within an hour), but I will be getting better tools and practicing more this weekend. Practice makes perfect and I am a looong way off! I really didn't have a design in mind when I created this so that's why you see the flubs on the "handle", and that wierd little flower thing I have going on on the side of the cake. It was fun though, and my coworkers have no complaints. It's the same flavor as my first cake, chocolate fudge with plain buttercream icing (has a faint lemony taste to it due to the lemon extract the recipe calls for).