Friday, November 19, 2010

Baa Moo Cockadoodle Doo

Occasion:
County Fair Theme Cake 2010

Theme:
Baa, Moo, Cockadoodle Doo

Flavor:
Orange buttermilk cake with green butter cream frosting

Cake details:
This cake won a blue ribbon, and a Best Of Class rosette at our county fair in 2010 in the Fair Theme Cake category. (I am super proud of this- it was my first Best in Class prize, and this is the first time I have competed in anything as far as decorating!) This year's theme was Baa, Moo, Cockadoodle Doo. I struggles a little with what to do for the sheep. I would have preferred to do a pig initially, but I think the sheep turned out well. Right away I knew I wanted to do a barn yard with the animals in it. I made pastillage pickets a couple days ahead so that they would have time to harden fully before constructing the cake. Unfortunately it was very hot that week, and out AC was constantly running. And of course it blows in right above my kitchen island. This caused the pastillage to dry out very quickly while I was still rolling it. I got some cracking on the surface, but was impressed with how easy it was to work with (I had never made pastiallage before). It was a good thing I made a TON of these though because after drying out so quickly... they somehow got soft, and kept just bending and breaking when I went to apply them to the cake. I did an airbrush green over the white butter cream, and then hand made the animals and hay bale out of fondant. A few piped flowers completed the cake!

Pictures:


Completed barnyard cake.


View from above.


Back side of cake.


Individual animals.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Dale Earnhardt Race Car Cake

Occasion:
Rob's Birthday 2009

Theme:
Dale Earnhardt's race car

Flavor:
Chocolate fudge cake with plain white icing (colored black of course)

Cake details:
We bought the kit for this cake several years ago when we were visiting Dale Earnhardt Inc. in North Carolina. I came with the pan, and everything needed to make the cake including the edible images. This is the first time that I've worked with edible images, and was very happy with how well they applied to the cake. Because of the length of time we've been storing this I decided to discard the cake mix, and the original frosting pack that came with the set. It went together very well but requires a double batch of cake mix, and of course doing black icing always requires adding a lot of color. The balance would have been better if there had been a thicker layer of icing, or if I had torted the cake.

Pictures:
The first is from when I had just completed the cake, but I later realize I had forgotten the spoiler. The second is from the day of the party and includes the spoiler, but there is some bubbling in the edible images from drying out after completion... got to love the aridity of the desert.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Pooh Cakes

Occasion:
Adam's (my son's) 1st Birthday- Family Party/ Thanksgiving

Theme:
Winnie the Pooh

Flavor:
Apple spice cake with browned butter frosting

Cake details:
I didn't plan ahead to make this cake with any particular theme, so decorating on this wasn't the best, but it sure was delicious. I chose the cake and icing flavors for a couple of reasons. The frosting was chosen to complement the cake selection, but the cake itself was chose because I wanted something the kids would eat. My kids are sort of atypical in that they're not the biggest fans of cake. lol But I also wanted something with a nice fall flavor since my son's birthday was on Thanksgiving this year. The cake was a success and everyone enjoyed eating it. The browned butter frosting was delicious, but a little difficult to spread. This was my first time making this type of frosting, but I think it turned out reasonably well. Working quickly with it seemed to be the key, as once it started to set it was almost impossible to manipulate. The decoration wasn't the greatest, but was cute, and everyone liked the sparkle frosting. It's a little pricier than regular tube frosting, but the kids certainly do love it! I also planned and made a mini cake just for the birthday boy. Some people call these types of cakes "smash cakes" but I personally don't care for the term. I just don't want baby germs on the cake I'm serving to everyone. lol

Pictures:

The two cakes together.

Close ups of each individual cake.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Cookie Monster 1st Birthday Cake

Occasion:
Adam's (my son's) 1st Birthday

Theme:
Sesame Street- Cookie Monster

Flavor:
White cake with vanilla and decorator frosting

Cake details:
I had a lot of fun doing this one for Adam's birthday. Since I was in somewhat of a hurry making it the night before his party I decided to leave the sides unfrosted, and use tube decorator icing for the blue fur, and black detail work. Unfortunately there was no brown frosting available anywhere while I was preparing for this project, so I opted for the white cookie accented with mini chocolate chips.

Pictures:

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Lemon Logs

Occasion:
New Years 2002

Theme:
Lemon

Flavor:
Lemon sponge cake

Cake details:
Two full size rolled lemon sponge cakes decorated with yellow sugar, and hand carved lemon peel. All designs on these were hand cut contiguous pieces of Meyer lemon peel. I personally prefer Meyer lemons for sweet applications. They have that wonderful tartness you want form a lemon, but are mild and have a nice natural sweetness to them. Rolling sponge cake by hand can be quite challenging. We used flour sack towels and managed to be very successful, only having one break out of the 4 cakes we rolled in the 2002 holiday season.

Photos:
Photos show the front and back of each cake.

Mocha Birthday Cakes

Occasion:
Christmas/ Grandmother's Birthday (Late 90s, or early 2000s)

Theme:
Mocha

Flavor:
Chocolate mocha cake, mocha filling, mocha frosting, chocolate accents

Cake details:
Two, 2 layer, 8 or 9 inch rounds. The mocha cake was made with a blend of cocoa powder and instant coffee granules. I prefer to use Taster's Choice in my cakes, especially because you can get it in the individual packets. If instant coffee is not a product that you often use I would highly recommend something packaged this way. That way you can reserve the unused portion for later without the flavor changing from it having been opened. These cakes were made following Finnish tradition where an item (usually a bean) is baked into the cake. The person who find it gets a second slice! In this case a coffee bean was used.

Pictures:

Rose Chocolate Scroll Cake

Another I don't remember the occasion on. Decorated with solid chocolate scrolls, and a dried rose.