Hip Hop HOORAY!

Call me crazy, but I'm rearin' to go again after this cake! I guess I'm truly getting better at this stuff after all, because things ARE getting easier. There is absolutely nothing that went wrong with this cake. Well, at least not the decorating portion of it. I didn't have any "oopsies" to cover up. The flowers are NOT placed strategically to cover up my screw ups. They are there because I thought they would look nice there.

The lady I was making this for only requested something lemony so it's a lemon pound cake. Now here comes the one and only screw up on this cake. Are you ready?

I found a recipe for doctored lemon pound cake that was highly rated on cakecentral.com. Knowing that most box cakes only make an 8" cake if you're lucky, I doubled the recipe. I was making a 9". When I poured the batter it didn't seem like it filled the pan enough but I figured it would rise.

Umm, no. I had one "decent" sized layer, and one incredibly puny layer. After levelling, it was not even an inch high. The other layer was puny too, but not as puny. I really love my scratch recipes, but I didn't really have the time; and they tend to rise better. So I decided I would make this more of a torte style cake with three layers instead of two and bring out my last box mix; which happened to be white cake instead of Lemon Supreme (Duncan Hines if you are curious, it's the only box mix I'll buy most of the time). No problem, I'll just add a boatload of lemon extract to it. Since the other two layers were yellow I decided it would be fun to make the white layer, pink. Hey, I was feeling springy.

That was it, that was THE ONLY THING THAT WENT WRONG! Can I get a WOOT WOOT?!

Since I had already done the pink and yellow thing with the cake, I decided to take it up a notch and really go crazy. I colored one of the layers filling blue, and one layer purple. Or was it green and purple? Or blue and green? Oh who knows, but you get the picture. I'm not sure how it will look once cut, but I hope it looks "springy" instead of like I ran out of one color of frosting and used another.

I thoroughly enjoy basketweave. Yes, it's tedious and can be hard on the hands, but I can do it. Yes, that's why I like it. Because I can do it. Yes, that's reason enough thank-you-very-much. It looks shiny in the pic, and globby, but it's really not. My cheap-o camera is notorious for taking things out of context. I don't think that made sense but I don't care.

This was my first try at "grass". I think it came out pretty good. It was very easy. There is a wonderful little tip, #233 to be exact that is an absolute necessity IMHO. I have some small holed tips and was actually going to attempt grass with one of those. Yeah, then I really would have been certifiable.

As good as this cake went, my apartment is an absolute mess. When you mix three layers of cake, fondant, gumpaste, buttercream, and a very bored 3 year-old, things are, umm, shall we say VERY MESSY? My poor kid, he really gets mesmerized when I'm doing these things and I'm sure he was disappointed to see it walk out the door. So I have decided I'm going to go to the store and get the fixin's for one small easter basket cake that I can surprise him with tomorrow. Let the sugar high begin!

HAPPY EASTER!

UPDATE:

Here is the cake I made for my lil man. He pretty much completely ignored what I was doing because I told him this was for someone else, so I think he'll be tickled pink when it sits next to his Easter basket tomorrow morning! This is a small cake, only 6", the right size for our family...I got a little too busy with all of the decorations and umm, grass, but it was fun. Yes, I know there are lot's o' white spots in the grassy section but you must understand that at that point my hand wanted to fall right off!

Happy Easter............Again!

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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!