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.

Butterfly Cake

I can't remember what we made this for. I seem to recall it was one of my birthdays.. but not sure which one. lol Butterfly done with gel frosting and edible glitter on a half sheet cake.

Driver's Ed Cake

I made this one to celebrate my friend Beverly learning to drive. Obvious chocolate frosting on this one. Other decoration with yellow sugar, orange cone candles, and die cast car. Not the fanciest cake, but a quick small one for a small group in a relative hurry. And still lots of fun. :-)

Millennium Cake

I will be adding more cakes that I have done through the years as I get photos scanned in, and organized, or as I find more! A lot of the more specific information on older ones won't be included because I simply can't remember all that! lol But I would still like to share the photos.

This cake was made by me with my fried Janet for the millennium, new years 2000. She had never made a cake before. I was shocked, so of course we had to make one for our celebration! I designed the mirror ball out of sequined fabric.

First Cake

Just wanted to share my first cake. My mommy baked it, but I helped! And I did the decoration. Completed for my daddy's birthday in February 1989. So I was about 4 1/2.

My First Topsy Turvy & First Fondant

After seeing some very nice pictures of a friend's topsy turvy cakes, I got brave enough to try my first one!

Occasion:
Just for fun!

Theme:
Verizon- I didn't want to have to eat all that cake, so sent it to work with my husband!

Flavor:
White cake, strawberry filling, fondant icing

Cake details:
(For those interested in all the specs on this one and my experience comments.)
I did a 6 layer white cake with strawberry filling and fondant. My layers are 6, 8, and 10 inches, and I was quite happy with the way they graduated. They cake also traveled well, even without any dowel support. I used a technique which I will definitely use for future topsy turvy cakes, when I cut into each layer so that the next layer could sit flat in there without making the stack lean more than it's supposed to in any one direction. I did of course make some mistakes though! I completely forgot to do my angled cut on the top layer until after the fondant was on, so it's angled on the top instead of parallel to the counter. I also had a little trouble with the fondant. I used a purchased kind for this first attempt, and though I was happy with the product, I probably should have rolled it a little thinner, had some trouble with it bunching on the cakes where i should have done my trimming and fitting differently, and had a slight issue with it drying out too quickly while I was working with it. The joys of living in the desert! I colored the red fondant myself, and thankfully had the forethought to wear gloves while doing so. I recommend it! I also used a tube decorator frosting to do the lettering on top, and know that could have been far smoother. It would probably have been better with fresh decorator icing.. isn't everything? But I was a little rushed by that time. Tube icing is tough to have at exactly the right temp and consistency to go on smoothly and the same all the time from my experience. It still has so many great applications.. but can be affected my normal heating and cooling in your home even.. which completely changes it for the next time you use it. Either way.. I need to practice my lettering some more!

Pictures:
(The best part for readers.. second to eating it!)




Welcome

Welcome to G Whiz Cakes.. my newest blog. I know I have been a little behind on some of my other blogging... but hopefully I'm getting caught up on all of that.

A little background on me. One of my absolute favorite things to do is to bake. I hope that some day I can go through the Le Cordon Bleu baking program, and have a career in the field. I have been baking as long as I can remember, and decorated my first cake at the age of 5. When I was in middle school I attended summer cooking camps, and got a taste of Le Cordon Bleu, visiting their culinary academy in San Francisco.

I'm needing a place to record, and share my endevors, and hope that this blog will be a great outlet for sharing photos of my cakes past and present. I will probably include some other food creations in here as I enjoy regular cooking as well. :-) So check back often.. and hoepfully you'll get inspired, or at least a little bit hungry. :-)