Parents time to shine

Wow, where has the past two weeks gone?! I took my last class almost two weeks ago and even though my last class cake flubbed, I was still determined to make some nice cakes for my mom and dad. My roses for the Hawaiian inspired cake turned out more like carnations than roses due to the wrinkly edges, but I figured out the problem. My icing was way to stiff, which makes it much harder to squeeze evenly out of the bag and thus leading to wrinkling. On Wednesday after my last class (over 1 1/2 weeks ago), I baked two 2-layer cakes and made three batches of frosting. The strawberry cake is for my early Mother's Day cake and the dark chocolate cake is for my Dad's birthday. *smiles* It was much easier coming up with a design for Mom's cake than Dad's.

The Mother's Day cake design consisted of light pink frosted cake with pink shell borders and dark-pink roses. The roses were piped the same night I baked the cakes to allow then time to dry slightly, which leads to easier placement on the cake without ruining the flower petals. I thinned the icing more this time, but still maintained a "stiff" consistency to be sure the petals will not droop. Success!
The Father's Cake design was tough! I know my dad likes Off Track Betting (horse racing on a track) and I really wanted to somehow put a race horse design on it. The ideal way to do a realistic design was to use color-flow, but I didn't learn this technique yet. Color-flow is a special type of icing additive that results in a real smooth patterned area and reflects light. Here is an example of color-flow:
It took some thinking but I decided to frost the cake a "grass" green and somehow pipe a brown horse design. Here's the result:
And my Mom's cake:
I am pretty happy with the results.

Ode to the floor...

As a follow-up to my last post, here are the pink swirled flowers and yellow roses being used in my last class cake. BUT... before showing you the pictures, I owe you an explanation. Please bear with me on this rather long story.

This past weekend, I made a visit to NYC for the weekend to see family and go to a housewarming. We didn't make our way home until late Sunday afternoon, and didn't actually arrive until just before 9pm. Even before unpacking, or even sitting after a five hour drive, I went right to baking my cake for class. I wanted to make a special cake to commemorate the completion of my first cake decorating class. After digging around a bit to see what I had, I whipped up a batch of batter for french vanilla white cake (made extra moist with a package of pudding mix). The cake baked for about 55 minutes at 350 degrees, then cooled on the counter for 10 minutes. The next step was to wrap the cake in saran wrap to retain moisture and allow the cake to cool slowly. As I picked up the cake in one hand to get ready to flip, it happened... in slow motion. The cake slipped a bit to the right, I corrected quickly and it slipped to the left... right... left... BAM! Yes... the cake, fresh out of the oven, exploded as it hit the floor. *cries* I am not exaggerating... I had such a bad day (longer story) that I started crying. Pathetic? Yes... but under the circumstances, understandable! It was 11pm by now, so I gave up and went to bed.

Flash forward to my cake for class. I went to the grocery store and bought an angel food cake. With only one hour to frost the cake and get to class on time, I think it was too hasty of a job. =\ I wish I spent more time smoothing out the icing for a neater look. The cake ended up looking "Hawaiian" and not half bad. What do you think?



The roses did not come out as well as I wanted. The rose petals are kind of squiggly and resemble a carnation more than a rose. I think the reason is: (a) the buttercream icing is too thick, (b) uneven pressure on bag while piping, and (c) not twirling the flower nail properly. I need to correct these mistakes.

Prepping for the last class

We will be practicing the last of the fundamentals in cake decorating on Monday. One of the techniques that will conclude the class is learning to pipe the Wilton Rose. I gave it a shot as part of my "homework" cake for Monday... please pardon the shotty job. =\ Some of the pink swirled flowers will be used on my surprise Mother's Day cake next weekend. My mom isn't expecting anything since it is a week early, and she thinks we are only celebrating Dad's birthday. I hope she likes it! Expect pictures of my "homework" cake, Mother's Day cake and a cake for my Dad's b-day. I know it seems crazy, but my Mom and Dad's cakes will be small 4" or 6" cakes... I don't want either to be jealous.

Here are my practice flowers, piped on a parchment sheet to allow them to dry for proper storage. This allows me to pick only the best flowers to place on the cake. The icing used for this cake is buttercream icing, which will take at least 24 hours to dry thoroughly. Professional cake decorators use this technique to make the 100+ flowers necessary for special occasion cakes (i.e. wedding).

Piping flowers and shells

Last night was our third class, which means there is only one class left before I am left to practice by myself. We learned and practiced to pipe shells, dots, figures (people), and drop flowers! Let's just say that I never realized that shells were so hard to make in a consistent size and shape. I think I got the hang of it by the end of our practice sessions, but I need to put it to the test on an actual cake (to pipe the border along the bottom of the cake). Tip #2D, drop flowers, can be used to pipe a regular drop flower as well as a swirled drop flower. The latter requires rotating the wrist while piping to create cute little petals. Here are my cupcakes for the week. Next week will be a full 8" cake with lots of adornments!

Practice makes perfect...

That is what the instructor said, so that's what I followed. I got home Wednesday evening after work and it was just too nice to bum on the couch. My bf suggested going to the driving range, but we had gone the night before and I didn't want to hurt/strain my wrists before my golf league starts (in only less than 3 weeks, YAY!). Baking doesn't really constitute enjoying the nice weather out, but it was better than sitting in front of the tube. I baked two dozen white cup cakes just to practice piping designs. By the way, I don't use muffin pans to bake cupcakes/muffins anymore ever since I discovered the Reynolds Foil Baking Cups that double as a liner! I know I shouldn't use disposable items to be green, but I would normally line my pans anyhow for easy removal and consumption later on. The cupcakes are frosted with a plain-o vanilla buttercream icing (made from scratch!), then piped with my leftover pastel citrus frosting.

First Class Project

I have been baking goodies for about ten years now and most of the time, they turn out good. There was the occasional "whoops" in timing, an un-calibrated oven dial (think 100 degrees difference), and just plain wrong recipes. Baking, to me, is addicting in a control-freak Martha Stewart way that I love! My boyfriend will agree on the control-freak portion. One thing I have never been able to "get down" is decorating! Whether it be cakes, cupcakes, or mini desserts, a little decoration can really jazz it up. The solution? I signed up for the Wilton Basic Cake Decorating class at a nearby craft store to learn how to make icing, different consistencies for various decorations, and how-to make those nifty little flowers and such. The class is four sessions long at two hours per session, and they go through all the how-to basics. I am halfway through the course and have learned how to: make frosting in various consistencies (thick, medium, and thin), properly color frosting, leveling/torting/frosting a cake, fillings, star tip decorations (fill-ins and borders), and writing.

My first assignment for this past week was to bring to class a cake, leveled/torted/filled, then frosted and ready for embellishing. We were allowed to bring a printout of a design of our choice, so I found a printout of a piggy bank with a dollar sign to represent taxes due on 4/15! I forgot to take pictures while I was working through each step since I was concentrating so hard on my "homework". Here is a close-up of the finished product, which was devoured as soon as I walked into work on Tuesday. There is a reason I nicknamed my co-workers "the vultures". *smiles* This was a Dark Chocolate Coconut Cake with Rum Cherry Filling and Citrus Frosting.

Welcome...

I believe that baking comes from the heart. From prepping your hardware to gathering your ingredients, a lot of thought is placed into the final product. Baking for loved ones is something I enjoy... of course, with the assumption that I am not pulling my hair out from stress at work or busy with cleaning the house. It's odd, but I usually have an urge to cook an extravegant meal or bake some yummy treats when I come home from a looong day at work (vs. leaving work at 5 and bumming on the couch). That being said, this blog will be dedicated to my edible creations. The blog name was my bf's idea, and I love it.

Enjoy the posts. Please feel free to comment, make suggestions, or ask questions. Heck, even answer my questions!