Playing the Fool for New Years!

I had a good time making the New Year's cake this week.  It was pretty straightforward as far as design goes.  I got the idea from Ace of Cakes Chef Duff-

Then I just kind of thought, how do I make this into a New Year's cake?  Well, diamonds are much more flashy and fun than squares set on their points.  So I'll do diamonds.
Figuring out the colors was strange for me, since the red has fizzled in my video card and I haven't gotten it replaced yet.  I asked my hubster what he thought, and of course he said blue (you'd have to know him).  Then he said blue and yellow.  Between the two of us, we got to yellow background, blue diamonds, and white dots.  I was at a loss as to what to do with the top, so I just let it ride for a while.  The cake is this luscious mocha chocolate cake...YUM!  Another recipe from Zaar.  And the filling is CARAMEL!  Let me say this again, so you don't miss it, CARAMEL!  I am so excited at this point!  Actually, this is the same cake and filling that I have at the top of my blog, the cake with "Alice" written on it.  That's some good eats!  Speaking of Good Eats, I totally heart Alton Brown.  So anyway.  Made two 10" rounds, and two 8" rounds, made the caramel filling, made the buttercream, made and dyed the fondant.  So far so good.  I knew I had some gumpaste left over for the numbers or letters, so no worries there.  Time to decorate!
I put the 10" layers together with the caramel, then crumb coated with buttercream.  Rolled out the yellow fondant (I used golden yellow instead of lemon yellow) to less than 1/4" and laid it on.  Smoothed out the top, pressed the sides, and trimmed.  One layer covered.  I like to get my cakes covered with buttercream and fondant to keep them fresh as soon as possible.  Then I had a command decision to make, and I made it.  Blue fondant covering the top tier.  Then I set the top tier gently on top of the bottom tier.  It's really important to note here that the first time I did a layer fondant cake, I covered the bottom tier, put on the top tier cakes uncoverd, THEN tried covering that with fondant.  Big mistake, and not something I'm apt to ever do again!
The motley was a pain at first, since I started out by cutting a strip of fondant 3/4" wide, then cutting on a diagonal EACH PIECE separately.  Soon I noted the folly of my ways and went into mass production.  I cut a bunch of strips 3/4" wide, squared it, then took a measurement from the bottom right corner to the left side of one strip that measured 1", so that one diamond had a 1" side, and cut it.  Then I measured 1" intervals all the way up.  Then I put the ruler down on the correct angle and marked where the line would be at the left side of the sheet of fondant, and the rest is ruler history.  I don't know if that made sense, but it felt good to write down!
I attached the diamonds with a small brushing of water on the backs.  After I did the bottom tier, I felt it looked so nice, I should just keep going with it.  So I rolled out the blue fondant and repeated.
Let me stop here to talk about something I learned about Crisco.  It steals red.

I couldn't figure out why the heck my black kept turning green when I did the Lego cake, and now I know.  When I rolled out the gumpaste for the numbers, I rolled them on a slightly greased surface.  I wanted the colors to be swirly purple, so I made that happen.  Rolled out the gumpaste and cut the numbers, and let it dry for a bit.  When I lifted it, I saw the underside had gone completely blue, and not even swirly.  So now I know, and you do too, that if you want your sugar art to keep its color, keep it away from Crisco!  I don't know the science of it, and to be honest, I'm not sure I want to.  It's weird.

I got in touch with the client after I started, and she informed me she wanted purple in the cake if at all possible (her decorations were all purple).  No biggie, since I hadn't done the white, I just did what would have been done in white in purple.  Then did the 2010 in purple too.  I stuck them in the cake, outlined them in yellow, and here's the finale!   ...Remember, I can't see red, so I'm hoping this picture is a good 'un!

Smoothing Frosting with Paper Towels

My cousin told me there was a friend of hers asking how to use Viva brand paper towels to smooth frosting, so I'm going to try to explain without photos, then post photos with the next post.
The type of buttercream is pretty important. I use this recipe from SeriousCakes on YouTube:
22T unsalted butter, room temp
2/3c Crisco
2t vanilla extract
5T heavy whipping cream
2lbs (or thereabout) of sifted powdered sugar
1-2T light corn syrup
Use a KitchenAid or hand mixer to cream the butter and Crisco really really well. I mean, cream it like crazy. I don't think I'd ever really try using a hand mixer, but not everyone can have the blessing that is a KitchenAid.
On low speed, add the vanilla, 1t at a time, then the cream, 1T at a time, till well blended.
Beat it some more. Leave it on low speed though, you don't want too many air bubbles.
Sift in the powdered sugar, 1/2c or so at a time, until very stiff and well mixed, scraping the sides often.
Add corn syrup and maybe a little more cream until you like the consistency. Remember to keep it on low, and don't overbeat it muchly.
Okay, so you have your frosting. Color it if you want with Wilton gels or powders, but don't use the liquid stuff you find in the grocery store because it could totally mess up your frosting. You can use Wilton tip #789 with a big old bag to pipe it on the cake, or you can splat a bunch on top and cover the whole cake with a mass of frosting. Basically, it's easier to take off frosting than put it back on, so you want to make sure you put a ton on. Then you go around, smoothing the cake as best you can like you normally would. When you get it nice and smooth, let it sit for 20 minutes or so, until it crusts (this just means you can touch it lightly with your finger and not get any on your finger). Take the paper towel, lay it gently against the surface you want to smooth, and use a flat scraper (I use my cake spatula, the blade from my broken thin chopping knife, and my hand) and run it lightly over the paper towel a few times. Lift off the towel, reposition, and repeat as many times as necessary.
So that's about it. I love SeriousCakes. There's a link in my previous post to her channel on YouTube, but here's a link to the video where she shows how to do this technique. She is flipping awesome.

Cake Boards and Lacing and Cartoons, OH MY!

This past week has felt so hectic!  I feel like I've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  My Mother In Law's birthday was on Monday, and we all went over there on Tuesday to celebrate.  She had asked for a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, so I had a chance to make this amazing carrot cake from RecipeZaar.  I wanted to do a dark cake with white lace-type decor, so I made chocolate cream cheese frosting to coat the cake, and regular cream cheese frosting to decorate.  It was a very heavy cake.  The one thing I don't like about carrot cake is that there's strings of things in it - the carrots themselves, coconut, pineapple, all in all just a stringy sort of cake.  This makes leveling with a Wilton leveler next to impossible without tearing the cake up, so I just used a serrated knife for the bottom layer and left the top with a small dome.  I put the vanilla icing in the middle, lined up the layers, and frosted the whole thing with the chocolate.  Then I let that set for a while and used Viva brand paper towels to smooth the frosting.  I filled up a pastry bag too full with the vanilla frosting and started to freehand, then realized I needed more control.  That is a mistake I don't plan on making again!  I emptied half the frosting, then went about with the design.  I had piped some royal icing made from an egg white and powdered sugar onto wax paper two days earlier in an attempt to do real lace, but I wasn't careful enough removing the dried pieces so I came out with just the hearts and the letter "S".  Also, I should have listened to the directions on the website I found and used Wilton tip #2 (or even better, #1), instead of trying to be cool and using #3.  I worked the stuff I could save in, piped the decor on the top, piped the shell border, and called it a cake!

The next two cakes I made for a party at Cartwheels and Coffee, a great little coffee shop/kids play area in Carytown.  The manager was kind enough to give me a chance at making some Dora and Diego cakes for a party this weekend.  Let me tell you, there are like 25 different colors of icing on these two cakes combined!  I just bit the bullet and bought a pack of 50 bags and an extra 8 couplers.  It was SO worth it.  Three, THREE different colors of gray on the Diego cake.  I made the colors up the night before, and I made the "skin tone" color too light, but the next day I just started the cakes anyway and they came out fine, I think.  I wanted to make sure I got these done as close as possible to the date they were needed so they would be super fresh.  I used the Wilton shaped cake pans to minimize any margin of error.  The Dora cake was a basic yellow cake.  I got the recipe from SeriousCakes on YouTube.  I love her buttercream frosting recipe, too, so I decided to try out her Chocolate Cake.  YUM!  I also used a caramel sauce as the filling.  That recipe was from KittenCal on Zaar, and I had to modify it a bit so it would get hard enough to work as a filling.  I boiled it for an extra 20 minutes or so so get a medium-soft ball (when dropped boiling into cold water).  It was SOOO good!  I've found the hardest part of making cakes is not sampling!  I have to wash my hands so much that I'm starting to get chapped.  I think I'm going to have to get some Bath and Body works soap.  Mmmmm.  So without further ado, here they are!

I'll put in a word here about the cake boards.  NO WAY am I going to pay 2 bucks for a piece of cardboard.  I just went to the produce area and asked for a box, then measured and cut to size, then covered those with glue and glued tin foil to them.  I placed the cakes, cut them into layers, put in the caramel, then set the top layer back on.  Then I used a razor knife to cut out a desirable shape.  It was quite a bit of extra work, but I'm not askeert of some work!  I did splurge for cake boxes, though.  Pretty sure I don't have the skills needed to make those out of scratch!
So I hope the party people are pleased with these cakes and I hope they enjoy the yummy cakes!  I didn't get to sample the yellow cake, but I did have enough chocolate batter left over for a cupcake.  I smothered some caramel sauce on that bad boy and WOW it was amazing.
The next cake I have due is a Margaritaville, beach themed cake.  Wish me luck!

Ribbon Cake

Stinkie is napping, and I am rejoicing!  I have four cakes due tomorrow morning, and I was starting to stress, but I finished ALL of them!  Granted, one was done already, and two were little 6" smashcakes, but the ribbon cake looked like it was going to be REALLY hard.  I had made all the ribbon pieces out of gumpaste last night and the night before, so they had time to dry really well.  I draped them over a cardboard tin foil roll (cut in half) to keep their shape.  When I wanted the smaller loops of ribbon, I used string to tie the cardboard roll very tightly.  I made sure to leave a little wiggle room to get the ribbons off.  The spirals were 1/4" strips of gumpaste wrapped around wooden dowels.  So without further ado, here are a few pictures!

I also thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of the cake before I added the name.

I learned that making ruffles is something I need to work harder on!  I just went for folds.  Also, I should have placed the ruffle before putting the fondant on...or something.  I just know it was hard as heck to put the ruffle under without flubbing the fondant!
I also made two little smashcakes to go with the two cakes.

The little cake is a toddler friendly carrot cake (I got the recipe from RecipeZaar) with just whipped cream cheese frosting.  I neglected to remember that cream cheese hardens by itself...OOPS!  So I covered it with plastic wrap, and hopefully it will last in the fridge until they have the party!  I don't have a picture of the ribbon smashcake, but it just looks like a little pink package tied up with dark pink ribbon, with a little bow on top.
I need to get along with making my Mother-In-Law's cake.  It's going to be a carrot cake with a glaze AND frosting.  Yum.  I still have no idea what I'm going to do with it.  Hubby said he'd come up with an idea but he's been working so hard and going to school nights, so he hasn't had the time lately.  I suppose I can just google stuff she's into and find something fitting!
Another thing I've learned using fondant is that the buttercream layer needs to be thin, or it will flow underneath your fondant and make your surfaces bunchy looking.  I tried using more frosting under the fondant on these cakes so that people can just scrape off the nasty tasting stuff and have frosting underneath, but I think I'm going to start sticking with a minimal amount from now on, like 1/4" or something like that.
I do hope to learn more about decorating with buttercream.  There's this fabulous woman on YouTube named SeriousCakes (okay, probably not her name, but it's her channel name!) who can do ANYTHING with buttercream.  Watching her is amazing!
Peace out, and have long days and pleasant nights!

Cakes, Past and Present!

To get to where we are, we all must have been somewhere else first!  Here's a few pictures of cakes I've made in the past, along with a few tips and tricks I picked up.
Since I have been trying to expand my portfolio and communicating with clients via email, I've been making good use of Google Images to find ideas for cakes.  Then I send a few pictures out, the client picks one or two, and I recreate it.  Thank you thank you to all the wonderful cake decorating people out there who make this possible!
I just finished this cake last night, and it was easy and quick.  I used the fondant about 2 hours after making it, instead of waiting overnight, and I think that caused a bubble issue.  Needless to say, I covered it up and it looks decent now, but I sure as heck made fondant yesterday for the cake I'm going to cover today.

This next cake is the one I'm most proud of.  10 hours of life (at least) went into this sucker.  I learned that it's darn near impossible to color homemade gumpaste black with black food gel.  You think you get it, then the red somehow evaporates into thin air and you're left with a very pretty, though decidedly not black, dark green.  So I made Darth Vader out of that dark green, let him dry, and painted him black.  This painting method also was a lifesaver for the details of my little Lego men!

 

Here's how, though it took a LOT of internet searching!  I put a few drops of alcohol in a small bowl, then smeared a little black gel on the inside lip of the bowl.  Then I wet a paintbrush with the alcohol slightly, spread it around with the black gel to make a THIN paint, and painted it on.  It took about 8 hours to dry after that.  I used royal icing to hold everything together, and everything is edible except for the toothpicks and dowels inside the cake.  This was SO MUCH FUN!  I learned a lot about forming gumpaste.

The previous two cakes were SO irritating!  I learned that I like working with fondant much more than buttercream!  The Turkey cake completely melted overnight because I used almond extract in the frosting.  It was even the good stuff from Wilton, but it was HORRIBLE to wake up to that!  The body was cake, the head and tail had gumpaste forms under the buttercream.  The tail got heavy and fell over on the cake, but thankfully I was right there to catch it.  The head sunk forward and I had to put a ton of toothpicks in to support the whole stinking structure.  NIGHTMARE!  The corn does look good, though.

The Tinkerbell cake.  Ah, making wings to be strategically put on right before serving.  I was supposed to get a special Tinkerbell doll for this cake, but the client never brought one, so I went to the dollar store and got an off brand Barbie.  I made these beautiful wings, delicate and glittery, out of gumpaste...of course they broke a mere 12 hours before the cake was due.  So I made some wings fast and they were ugly but hey, they were wings.  This cake used whipped topping, which is SOOO good!  Harder to work with, since it melts fast, but GOOD!

The Harvest Cake was fun fun to make!  This was my first shaping of gumpaste.  I made the figures too big, and realized the need for scaling an idea before making it.  Verrrry useful with the Star Wars cake.  I think it turned out pretty good, and the client's family loved it!  This was also my first cake made for a stranger.

The cake before that was for my niece Mpie.  I got a Wilton Dora cake pan.  It took me nearly 3 hours because I didn't have enough bags for the icing colors!  Seriously, there's like 15 colors on this dang cake!  The smash cake was to be Backpack and Map, and I didn't have a picture of the stinking character ANYWHERE.  My computer was down.  I found a little sticker (seriously, like half an inch in diameter) and I used that to draw out the character outline on a 6" piece of paper.  Then I went over that with dark red frosting, then turned it over and pressed it to the top of my coated 6" cake.  Outlined that again, then filled it in.  It was FUN, and Mpie and Dollbaby loved it!  My mother in law thought it was the BEST, and that made me feel SO good!

The cake before that was Stinkie's birthday cake.  This was my first time using fondant, and it was SO much fun to make it!  I use marshmallow fondant.  It's hard to make since I don't use a microwave (I abhor microwaves for some reason) and I have to use a double broiler to melt the marshmallows.  But it's wonderful to knead warm sugar dough.  The picture of George was a mistake!  I was just going to lay it on and find out if the image would work, and it stuck to the fondant.  When I tried to remove it, it TORE my fondant!  So I decided it could stay!  The banana is the smash cake!

So that's where I've been, and I'm really excited about where I can go from here!

Happy Ano To Me!

This is a pretty exciting moment for me. All my life I've bought cute little notebooks and written in them for a few days, then lost them and found them again three years later. It's always interesting to see what kinds of things I was doing, how I was feeling, and where I was going. I feel like there's about to be a new chapter in my life, so I guess now's the time to start documenting it!
We moved to Richmond, Virginia about a year and a half ago.  This area is very different from my native homeland of Southern Oregon, and I do miss home terribly.  After my parents moved to Southeast Asia, there wasn't really any point in staying over there, when my Hubby's family all lives over here.  I'm still waiting to feel like I'm a Virginian!
I've been making cakes for years. I've always loved cooking and baking, and the past year or so I've really felt like I should be doing more with myself. I am a stay a home mom to my beautiful 2 year old boy, and while that is very important, I really needed another aspect of myself to come out to play! This blog is going to be all about what I'm learning about cakes, and myself, as time goes on. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you learn a little too!