Baking 911

As I was anticipating a (somewhat) relaxing weekend working around my house, I received a frantic message Thursday night that my good friend Myra was in need of baking help. She was attempting to make a groom's cake for her stepson, who was getting married THAT Saturday! Her stepson is a firefighter and wanted a burning building groom's cake. So my Saturday evolved into driving over to her house early that morning and working frantically to complete the cake before they needed to be at the wedding for pictures.

Poor Myra worked on the cake all night Friday and into the wee hours of the morning. By the time I arrived, she had baked 2 tiers of chocolate cake and had coated them with a base of brick-colored peanut butter flavored icing.

We attempted to smooth the icing using my tried and true trick of waxed paper, but this icing was much softer than normal, and stuck to the waxed paper... So we re-iced the two tiers and tried to get it as smooth as possible with the spatula.

Next, we needed a brick pattern for the sides of the building. Myra had bought a brick imprint mat, but again because the icing was super soft, it didn't work as planned. Plan B involved her husband Ken carving a brick pattern into the icing by hand using the icing spatula and a knife.

Myra created the windows for the building out of sugar paper and edible markers. She drew the window grids and cut them out of the sugar paper. (Her dogs also discovered that sugar paper is very tasty during this process!)

While Myra and Ken worked on the bricks and windows, I set out to cut fire from fondant. Using a paring knife and red and yellow fondant, I made as many flames as I could in the time we had.

Then it came time to stack the cake tiers... which I had never done before. Myra was feeling a bit rusty on this step too, so we consulted a book that she had. Ken trimmed 5 cake dowels to length, and we inserted them into the bottom tier in an X pattern. Then Ken used an exacto knife to trim the cake board of the top tier so that it didn't stick out beyond the cake. They very carefully set the top tier on the bottom tier. There was still some space between the 2 tiers, so I piped 2 rows of icing using Wilton tip 12. (This building had some interesting architecture.)

We then completed the details around the building. We used silver, black, and gray sprinkles to create gravel on the roofs of both levels. I mixed some green icing and used Wilton tip 233 to make grass around the bottom of the building. Myra added her sugar paper windows, and I put on the fondant flames.

We then used some black Wilton spray color to create a charred appearance on the outside of the building. We had to be careful with this - not only the strong smell - but we couldn't get any on the windows. We made that mistake with one, and the ink ran. We had to do that one over again.

For the final touches, we added some decorations Myra had bought - firefighters, ladders, and trucks to complete the burning building scene.

We were very pleased with our finished product. If you look closely, I know you could spot some flaws. But considering the short timeline we had - I was only at her house for a little over 4 (frantic) hours to decorate - we finished well beyond my expectations. And those who were at the reception reported that the groom was very pleased - which was our biggest goal.

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Bake Sale Bonanza

The small church we've been attending recently announced it would be holding a fish fry / bake sale fundraiser... on the same day I'd already purchases Braves tickets for... Since I wasn't able to be there in person, I felt obligated to help out by baking. And bake, I did!

I figured that if I spread my baking out throughout the week, I should be able to tackle several recipes to contribute to the sale.

I skipped baking Monday and Tuesday nights, figuring that was just too early for a Saturday sale.

On Wednesday night, Jason helped me make not one, but two batches of Seven Layer Cookie Bars. I learned how to make this recipe way back in high school, and they are one of Jason's favorites, so he insisted on lots of them for the bake sale. In the past, I've always had trouble with this recipe sticking (although my mom makes them effortlessly). I've tried Pam, Cake Release, cutting them while hot, letting them cool, glass dishes, metal pans, everything... This time I finally figured out why! In the interest of time and all the baking I was doing, I bought a box of graham cracker crumbs. I usually make my own crumbs with graham crackers, a potato masher, and all my pent up frustrations. This is the first time I bought the pre-crumbled crumbs, and they made all the difference! I also switched up the recipe and used walnuts instead of the pecans I typically use. Walnuts were significantly cheaper, plus I thought they'd be better for some of the other recipes I was making. The switch didn't seem to make any difference in the yummy-ness of the cookie bars. With both batches, we were able to make 30 total bars.

I also mixed up a batch of my friend Meredith's grandmother's pineapple banana nut bread Wednesday night. The recipe is for 2 loaves of bread, but I only have 1 loaf pan, so I decided to do one loaf and muffins. After I put half of the batter in the loaf pan, the remaining half made 18 muffins. I used 12 silicone liners for the first pan of muffins, and poured the remaining 6 muffins directly in a pan sprayed with Pam. This was only my second time making this recipe, and when the ingredients list calls for 2 cups of mashed bananas, I wasn't sure just how mashed those bananas should be. I decided to attack them with a fork and mush them up really good. I think this resulted in a bit too much banana, so next time, I won't be as diligent with the mashing. The bread and muffins didn't rise as much as I thought they would (likely from all the banana) but they were very tasty. Because they didn't rise much, the muffins ended up being kind of small, so I bagged them 2 per bag for the sale. I also noticed that the muffins in the silicone liners didn't brown as well as the rest, but they tasted the same, and popping them out of the muffin tin was SO easy!

Thursday I was battling a migrane all day, so I kept the baking kind of light. I made Meredith's grandmother's chocolate pound cake recipe in my bundt pan. I was tired and not feeling well, so I MAY have slept through the timer going off for a few minutes when the cake was finished. It looked a bit well-done when I took it out of the oven, but the inside was still moist, and it still tasted good. I was surpised at just how many slices I was able to get out of one cake for the bake sale.

Friday night was my last night of baking, and I decided to round off my selections with some oatmeal chocolate chip walnut cookies. I think these might possibly be my favorite cookie! I made the first batch on my thick, professional grade cookie sheet and the rest on my airbake cookie pans. The first batch from the "better" pan turned out much thinner and stuck more to the pan than the others, so I abandoned that pan and continued with the airbake pans for the remaining batches. Jason was helping again and made sure to use one of the stuck cookies for a "quality control" taste testing. The recipe says that it makes 3.5 dozen cookies, and that's pretty close to how many I ended up with. The cookies weren't that large though, so I decided to bag them up 2 per bag for the sale. 

Jason worked the fundraiser for most of the day Saturday (while I was cleaning my kitchen !!!, getting my hair done, and at the Braves game...) and he took them 4 grocery bags full of baked goods. He said the cookie bars were a definite hit. The only thing that didn't sell very fast was the chocolate pound cake, which is what I figured. I didn't put any icing or glaze on it, but I thought some people might like something a little less sweet (plus I was tired from baking).

I've included Meredith's grandmother's recipes below. (Remember that sugar is considered a wet ingredient.)

PINEAPPLE BANANA BREAD

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 cups mashed bananas
8 oz can crused pineapples (drained)
1 cup nuts (chopped)
2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs (beaten

Combine dry ingredients, stir in nuts, set aside. Combine remaining ingredients. Add to dry ingredients. Stir just until batter is moistened. Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until done. Cool 10 minutes in pan.

This also makes 32 muffins. Bake muffins at 350 degrees until done 15 or 20 minutes. These freeze well.

CHOCOLATE POUND CAKE

2 1/2 cups sifted flour
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup milk
4 eggs
2 1/2 - 3 squares of melted unsweet chocolate (I used 3)
1 tsp vanilla

Add eggs, shortening, and sugar first, then add dry ingredients. Add remaining liquid ingredients. Beat 2 minutes on medium speed. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

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