The cake frosting experience wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  I learned a lot in a very short time.  This recipe for buttercream frosting is maybe the best tasting thing I have ever eaten.  The cake itself really tastes good too.  Here are some things I learned and didn’t learn.

• I need to pay attention to the sides of the cake.  I used two nearly-the-same size cake pans, bu the small difference in their sizes made for quite uneven sides to contend with.  I finally gave up trying to make them perfect, but I can now see that with enough patience and practice, I’ll be able to pull this off (I hope)
• I need someone else’s math skills to half, double or quarter my recipes.  I struggled to convert 17.5 oz of sugar into cups assuming 4 lbs. of sugar is 9 1/2 cups and then I need it multiplied by .4 .  Seriously, I had to call my mom.  Still not sure we got the right amount of sugar, but it tastes amazing.
• I thought my cake leveler would be awesome and it really just seems to be a pain in the butt.
• Factor in the crumb coat.  I was an idiot and didn’t do a crumb coat because it didn’t look like I had enough frosting.  So, I went straight into application. I think the entire cake would have looked better with a solid base layer.
• Too little frosting is a BIG error.  I think next time, I’ll make extra just to be sure.
• Mix mix mix mix.  My overall colors didn’t turn out as solid nor as bright as I wanted.  One factor was clear, I didn’t mix thoroughly enough.  I also might need to get a different kind of gel coloring.  The Wilton blue just doesn’t seem bright enough for me.  Maybe what I am looking for isn’t possible in a buttercream.  The color I want for the wedding case is much more subtle though.
• Amazon boxes make for great cake boards, at least for these practice cakes.  I’ll go with Rachel’s suggestion for the real deal and buy wooden cake boards.

  

  Sides pretty uneven

  

  
  

  

  

  beating the frosting (I should have used whisk attachment, but it is on backorder)

  
  

  

  forget the crumb coat, just slap it on there

  

  clearly uneven sides…grrrrr

  
  

  

  getting better

  

  final product…happy haunukkah

  
  

That’s a lot for my brain to take in in one day.  Hope you like it.