cake

14 inches may just be too big

My first failed cake happened this weekend. I won’t be doing a layer that big. It did eventually cook, but suffered as it tried to be set free. I put the whole thing in a king sized Tupperware container and the kids ate fistfulls of it all weekend. In their minds a resounding success. One more thing…what idiot decides to tear down a wall weeks before a wedding cake? Oh yeah, that’d be me.

What I learned today

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.

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

I dream of frosting

I have a suite of resources out there to help me in this cake discovery of mine.  I am so lucky to have a master pastry chef as a friend and advice from all over about the cakes.  So, I showed baker friend the cake I am going for.  I can’t share a photo here, because I’d have to remove my sister’s eyeballs to make sure she doesn’t see the cake.  I don’t want her to see the final ideas, though we did scroll through many a cake in the course of the past days.  In talking with my baker friend I had a lot of questions.  I showed her the photo of my cake idea and she believes I can do it with buttercream, no fondant.  So strange, but I am going to take her advice and for now NOT go with fondant.  Even though I have been getting some experience lately with it.She gave me an amazing buttercream recipe that looks divine.   It could bring down the cost and overall difficulty of the cake.  And as my girl says, fondant can really taste like sh*t. Here are some other questions I asked her….On the fondant note, she recommended PVC pipe as an alternative to rolling pins and store bought fondant. 

I have a few test cakes planned:

  1. Holiday Cake
  2. Neighbor’s birthday cake (winter theme)
  3. Wedding shower cake
  4. son’s birthday cake
  5. The real deal

Here is what I have purchased so far:

  • Wilton Rotating Cake Stand
  • Angled spatula
  • Wilton Cake Pan 3 inch
  • cake leveler
  • Bench Scraper
  • I am working on some gum paste additions to the cake (made by someone else)
  • snowflake sugar decorations
  • large bag and tip for putting huge hunks of icing on cake
  • gel food coloring
  • some pretty ribbon

This is fun…but not cheap.  I am sure I am buying things I don’t really need, but will keep all of my receipts.  First cake attempt this weekend….holiday cake.