Fondant, Tiered Cake, and Petunias!

In the second cake decorating course, we made two cakes. Luckily for me, my sister's birthday coincided with the first cake! Once again, I made a gluten free chocolate cake. This cake was made in a 13x9 pan, cut in half width-wise to make a smaller 2-layer rectangular cake. Filled with chocolate and dirty iced, I brought it to class ready to learn how to cover it in fondant. Except, I already knew how to cover a cake in fondant! I learned some good tips on how to work the fondant so it doesn't tear--such as cutting off the excess immediately so that it doesn't pull downward and using piping gel as a glue around the bottom edge. The cake was decorated with fondant ribbons and bows to look like a pink and white birthday present. (Oddly, I have no picture of this cake!)

Perhaps my favorite part of the second cake course was learning how to make flowers on the lily nails. A lily nail is a little cup that gets covered in foil, punched with little holes for drying, and royal icing is piped on to form a lily, petunia, morning glory, or poinsettia. After the flowers are dry, the foil is pulled away from the icing, leaving a hard sugar flower. To add more glitz to the flowers, I sprinkled a few with edible cake glitter before they dried.

For my final project in the class, I made a two tiered cake covered in peach and orange petunias. One thing that I learned about baking tiered cakes is that when it comes time to level the cakes, be sure that all the layers are the same height or at least add up to the same height. I found that I didn't trim enough off the top tier, and it was taller than the bottom tier. This created a visually confusing scene. After dirty icing and covering the cakes in fondant, I placed four small dowels in the cake to support the top tier. Once the top tier was in place, a long dowel with a pointed tip is driven down into all the layers to hold it together. Technically, what I made was a "stacked" cake, which is much more stable than a traditional tiered pillar cake. Most of my decorating time was spent piping a bead border in a diagonal pattern all over the sides of the cake. Then I piped a ruffle border around the base of the top and bottom tiers. Finally I began adding the flowers. Unfortunately, I ran out of time during class and had to take my cake home incomplete. I finished adding the flowers in my own kitchen and served the cake to my astonished co-workers the next day.

This was one of my favorite cakes--I love the peach, orange, and yellow petunias paired with the diamond pattern, bead border on the sides. It was just gorgeous!

Drop Strings, Ruffles, and a Gluten-Free Birthday Cake

Upon request of a co-worker, I ventured into the world of gluten-free cake baking. It was high time I learned how to make a gluten-free cake, especially since my sister had recently found out that she was sensitive to gluten. Thankfully, Bob's Redmill is within driving distance. There I can buy gluten free baking flour in bulk for a bargain price rather than paying the high prices for a little bag at the grocery store. Honestly, all I did was to substitute the gluten free flour for the regular flour in my favorite chocolate cake recipe. What recipe is that? The one on the back of the Hershey's cocoa can. It's the best recipe for chocolate cake that I have ever made. If done right, the cake turns out moist (as long as you do not over bake it). I read a lot of posts on the web that say to use xanthum gum...well, I skipped it and really didn't miss it. As far as the best tasting chocolate frosting goes, it's the one on the back of the Hershey's cocoa can again. However, it does not make a good decorator icing. So, I mix up some buttercream for little decorations as well as the chocolate for taste.

In my second cake decorating course, we were learning how to make ruffles and drop strings. So, I practiced my technique on my co-worker's cake. Here's how it turned out:

Unfortunately, most of the drop strings broke while I was driving the cake to work. In class we had learned a trick of tacking the string down by placing our finger in cornstarch, then lightly pressing the string to the cake. I must have not done that enough since I had so much breakage. My co-workers still loved the cake anyways. My only complaint about the gluten free flour is that it has a slight bitter "off" taste to it, at least to me. I'm not sure what flour in the mix is creating the off taste (rice, soy, potato?). If anyone knows, leave me a comment.

Spring Buttercream and Royal Icing Flowers

In March 2010, my friend convinced me to take a cake decorating course at our local craft store. She had just finished the first class in the series and had really enjoyed it. I was eager to learn how to make a more polished looking cake and the fancy flowers, so I signed up with her. Only problem was that this was course two in a series of three. I had missed the first course! I figured that I was way past basic decorating anyways, and jumped into the second course. That was a mistake. I struggled the first few classes with my icing consistency because I did not know the definitions of thin, medium, and stiff consistency icing. My flowers melted because my icing was wrong! After some extra coaching by the instructor and my friend, I did catch up eventually. What a shock to me--I had mostly straight A's through college and graduate school, only to be failing an non-credit cake decorating class!

In the class, we learned so many great techniques. Like the half rose-bud that I practiced making on crackers until I got tired of eating crackers with frosting!

And the chrysanthemum flower, which is made on a flower nail, dried, then peeled off the wax paper backing, and placed upon a cake or cupcakes like the ones I made for my co-workers.

One of my favorite techniques is the rosette. It can be used as a flower, a border, or to cover the top of cupcakes and cake! I've filled the spaces between the rosettes with a star tip on the cupcake below.

Then we learned how to make royal icing. This was very difficult for me--my royal icing just would not turn out right. First it was too thick, then it was flat and watery. So, I had to borrow icing from my friend and the instructor...oops! (It wasn't until the after the next course that I figured out how to make royal icing correctly.) With the royal icing, I learned how to pipe apple blossoms, violet leaves, violets, victorian rose, daisy, daffodil, pansy, and primrose. Oddly, I don't like primroses in real life, however in royal icing, I love them!

I was disappointed to find out that for our final project I did not get to be creative and design my own cake. Rather the whole class was making the same cake design. It would only vary in color and arrangement of flowers. Feeling my creativity stifled, I begrudgingly followed direction and baked an oval cake, dirty iced it, and brought it to class. In class, we learned the basket weave technique, which was very time consuming and strenuous but with a beautiful result. The cake was completed with the royal icing flowers, rope border, and color flow bird.

 

Basket cake designed by Wilton Method of Cake Decorating, and made unique by my piping skills, flower arranging, and placement of birds.

It's a Kitty? It's a Puppy? It's a Bunny Cake!

The "Bunny" Cake was for my friend's baby shower. I knew exactly what I wanted to make--a grassy knoll with a bunny sitting atop the knoll with butterflies around it. Almost like a scene out of a storybook. The big question was how in the world was I going to make a bunny? I could not carve a bunny--for sure the head would fall off! I needed a specially made 3D cake pan to do this cake. I went on a shopping trip to the local craft stores and cake supply shop. I could not find a bunny anywhere because it was October! I did find this cute little lamb pan. I looked at it and decided that I could use the basic shape and carve a bunny out of it. Next, I went on the internet to look at bunnies. I decided that a lop ear bunny was closest to the shape of the pan.

This was going to be a large party, so I baked a two-layer half sheet for the base. I began abstractly rounding the edges and carving the cake into a rolling hill. I thoroughly enjoyed carving the grassy knoll. I dirty iced it and covered it with green fondant. It was a beautiful shape! This was one of my favorite base layers.

For the bunny, I baked the lamb pan. Then I began carving. A lamb is longer than a bunny, so I cut a good quarter of the body off and rounded it into the rear of the bunny. The bunny's face was different as well, so I began carving away at the face. I cut off the ears, accentuated the cheeks, softened the nose, and changed the shape of the head. Then, I dirty iced the bunny and covered it in a light brown fondant. I shaped a round tail, paws, legs, and ears from the fondant. I added a bow around the bunny's neck made from fondant. The eyes, nose, and mouth were made out of fondant. A few Chinese noodles for whiskers, and the bunny was done.

Finally, I mixed up decorator icing for the details. I piped with the grass tip, green grass on the sides of the knoll. I added a variety of flower arrangements on the sides. I piped the baby's name, weight, and date of birth on the top. And to finish, I placed silk butterflies and plastic baby shower picks on the cake.

To me, the cake looked beautiful. However, to the guests, it looked beautiful, but people could not figure out what kind of animal it was! One person said it was a cat because of the whiskers. Another said it was a dog because of the ears. Oh dear... Only a few people got it right and said it was a bunny! Well, lesson learned....Never try to make a lamb into a bunny!

(For privacy, I have used software to smear the full name, birthdate, and weight.)

Another Lesson in Structure: Football Stadium Cake

I actually got the idea for this cake from an Ace of Cakes episode in which they make a stadium. My brother-in-law happened to be having a Seattle Seahawks themed birthday party, so it was the perfect opportunity to try it. The only problem was that the guest list was small, so I had to scale down the size of the cake in order to reduce waste. What I forgot was that smaller means narrower and more unstable! Originally, I had planned to make an entire football field with half of the stadium. Well, plans can and do change...

For the football field, I baked a 13x9 cake. For the stadium walls, I baked another 13x9 cake, sliced it lengthwise into strips to build the seats, stacking 3 layers high with a wider base at the bottom and moving in narrower. The top was only about 2 inches or less. As I was stacking, the walls kept tilting outwards, which I tried to correct by shoving multiple dowels into the cake. The walls were still tilted out, but they were somewhat more stable. Fortunately, there was not much carving to do, except for rounding the corners and bleacher levels. A quick dirty icing later, and I put it into the refrigerator with hopes that the hardened icing would help it to stay together.

For this cake I used the homemade fondant recipe again. It isn't as nice as the pre-mixed fondant because this recipe tends to be greasy yet cracks. It was a lot cheaper though. I decided to color the fondant gray for the walls, green for the field, and make little people for the bleachers. Finally, it was time to cover the cake in fondant. The sheer weight of the fondant about made the walls of the stadium collapse. I smoothed the fondant backwards--backside, upwards, over and down. If I had not had done it that way, the walls would have fallen over! As it was, I still had to add a few more dowels for support and say a prayer that the cake would not break until after my brother-in-law cut it. I laid a green field and later piped white decorator icing on for the yard lines and numbers. For the goal posts, I covered straws with fondant after taping them together into the shape of a goal post. I piped and rolled fondant details for the stadium--arches, windows, and stairs. I used fondant to shape little people to fill the stadium. My favorite part was placing the candles on the top--"Oh, No the big 30" candles were placed across the top of the stadium.

I learned a few things about scale with this cake. My goal posts and foot ball were too big because I had made them in advance. My field was too small because I had changed plans and shrunk the cake from a half sheet down to a quarter sheet. And my people were way too big because it was really difficult to make them small. This cake was certainly a learning experience! In the end it still looked cute but a bit more cartoon-like than I had intended.

An Amputated Foot

By August of 2009, word had gotten out to my co-workers that I make cakes. It was requested by my boss that I make a cake for the August birthdays, which happened to be two male physical therapists. What better than to make a part of the body essential for walking! I wanted to make it gross though...blood, guts, tissue. So, I made an amputated foot cake.

I chose a spice cake since it is a light fleshy color and baked it in my favorite 13x9 pan. I cut the cake into thirds, trimmed a little off the length of the second layer, and cut the third layer in half to stack it into four layers high. I filled, stacked, and started carving. This was the fun and difficult part for me. I used my own foot as a reference (no, my feet are not as ugly as the cake was!). I carved the big toe, heel, arches, ankle.

Next, I mixed up a homemade recipe of fondant--used shortening, karo syrup, powder sugar, and salt. It actually worked well and didn't taste too bad. However, my poor mixer was not built for mixing fondant and started smoking a little...I should have bought the commercial grade mixer! I colored some red, green, and blue fondant for veins, arteries, and tendons. Now, I have never studied the anatomy of feet, so I just looked at my own foot and guessed at where things should be. Then, I colored fondant for the flesh, rolled it out and covered the foot. I took a knife and made indents on the toes for cracked skin. I put black pieces of fondant for bruised toenails. I made little worm-like threads of red and blue fondant for blood vessels and had them hanging out of the top of the foot. Finally, I mixed up a very thin icing in red, poured it on the top of the foot, and let it drip around the foot like a pool of blood. ICK!!!

This was one of the most fun cakes that I have ever made. It would make a great Halloween cake. The two physical therapists loved the cake and even got into a discussion about what kind of toe amputation they should do while serving the cake!

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me!

After making the Winnie the Pooh cake in May 2009, I was eager for the next birthday to try more daring designs for my 3D cakes. My father's birthday happened to be next. He loves boats, so I decided to make him a pirate ship cake! This was a structural challenge since ships are vertical. I started by baking two 13x9 cakes. I cut them length wise, filled, and stacked. Then I put several dowels through the cake to hold it together. I carved the bow and stern of the ship, and began the daring task of angling down to bottom of the ship. Fortunately, ships are in water, so I only had to angle it at the front, back, and a slight amount at the sides. It was precariously balanced and was probably the most unstable cake I have ever made! I put a coat of chocolate buttercream on the ship to help hold it together and placed it in the refrigerator to set.

Unfortunately, I was running low on funds and fondant. Fondant is quite expensive when bought pre-made by the 5lb bucket. I had paid around $35 retail for the bucket of fondant for the Winnie the Pooh cake. My only choice was to use the leftovers on important areas and use buttercream icing on the rest. I piped the wooden boards on the ship's side and deck using the basket tip. I used life savors for portholes in the side and malt balls for cannon balls. The masts were made from plastic supports and straws that I covered in the only remaining fondant that I had. It was very difficult to cover the plastic, and the fondant was either lumpy or didn't stick. The sails were made from a thin sheet of fondant that I had rolled and let dry on a wine bottle. Sadly, most of the sails broke as I was putting them on and only four survived. The ropes were made from Twizzlers candy. I made some very thin blue icing and poured it around the ship, placed Swedish fish in the water, and quickly wrote a sloppy "Happy Birthday" on the base. The cake was finished off with candles in the bow, which we lit and proclaimed the ship was afire!

The concept with this cake was good, however structural difficulties and messy finishing because of lack of proper materials and time constraints led to a cake that didn't fulfill my vision. Despite this, my father was quite surprised and really liked it. And best of all, the cake tasted great!