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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30, Love

My sister-in-law plays and coaches tennis. It's a large part of her life. So as her 30th birthday approached and I discussed plans for her cake with my brother, we both thought a tennis ball cake would be very fitting. I decided to reprise Dad's basketball cake, just with a different color scheme. This time, it was even easier, because there was no fondant.

I baked a standard yellow cake. This time I knew it would take about an hour in the oven, so I didn't worry. I mixed up a pretty light yellow buttercream, left a little white, and make just a bit of green. After the cake was cooled and leveled, I made the white lines of the tennis ball and then used the 3 star tip to fill in the body of the ball. Tennis balls usually have the name of the manufacturer written down the middle. (I googled lots of pictures of tennis balls to make sure I got it just right.) But I was nervous about trying to write an entire name in cursive - I stopped writing cursive after elementary school. So I decided just to write Leslie's first initial, a large capital L, ala Laverne and Shirley. I debated the border around the bottom of the cake and thought that grass would be fitting. My brother thought Leslie would appreciate the Wimbledon reference. And the cake was done.

I thought the color scheme was really pretty and very appropriate for a spring birthday. This cake was one of my proudest accomplishments yet.

(Maybe it was a little too good, because I didn't bake much for several months after this. Hmm...)

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Today's Special Value

When I started thinking about making my mom's birthday cake, I had trouble coming up with a design theme. I was discussing the cake with my brother and jokingly suggested making her a QVC (the TV shopping channel) cake. He liked the idea and thought I should go with it. When I mentioned it to my dad, he had a good chuckle about it. And so it was decided - QVC it was!

The cake was a funfetti mix that I thought would be festive with the red logo. Icing the cake was trickier than normal because I didn't realize I was missing a few important tools. My large cake icing spatula had broken in the dishwasher, and I forgot that I hadn't replaced it. I also didn't realize that I was out of 16" bags until I was elbow deep in icing. Because I was already so far into the cake-making process, and because I was a little short on time, I decided to forge ahead. I iced the cake with my smaller cupcake sized spatula and used the cake icing tip with a 12" bag. It was tricky, but I was able to get the job done. The result, however, wasn't as smooth as I would have liked. I then cut the QVC logo out of red fondant. Moving it to the cake was made more difficult by the open portion of the Q, but overall I didn't think it looked too bad. I didn't want to bother with trying to tint red icing, so I used store bought red for the borders. I did a shell border around the bottom, and considering that I hadn't practiced in a while, I thought it turned out pretty good. I didn't have quite enough, however, and had to space out some stars along the top. I was hoping that I'd be able to cover up the messy icing a little bit better, but again, being short on time, I went with what I had.

Mom was surprised, and everyone had a good laugh about the design. Apparently, it was so tasty that the leftovers never made it to her co-workers. :)  Aside from the icing being a little messier than normal, it was a good cake.

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Busy Birthday Baking

I know it's been a long time since I posted anything, and except for a delicious batch of brownies I made from scratch, I went quite a while without baking. But with my dad's surprise 60th birthday party in the works, I knew my no-baking streak would come to an end. And I did enough baking in two days to make up for the couple of months I spent out of the kitchen!

I knew I had to make my dad a great cake, and I don't feel that I let myself down with this one. In fact, I think it's my best effort to date. I was a bit afraid of trying to make a stacked cake large enough to feed all the guests, so I decided to stick with a comfortable sized cake and add a batch of cupcakes to make sure there was enough to go around.

The cupcakes were pretty standard, except I cooked them on a rack that was too low down in my oven, and the bottoms got a little too done. Luckily, I didn't have that same problem with the cake.

Since my dad is a huge UK fan (and that was the theme of the party) I decided to make him a UK-themed basketball cake. I had never done a shaped pan before, and it scared me at first because the cake took way longer to bake than the instructions said. I used my bake even strips around the outside of the pan to make sure the edges didn't get too done, and after a little online reassurance, I baked the cake for around and hour, and it turned out fantastic. Thanks to the cake release, it came right out of the pan with no problems.

I decided to do the main body of the cake in buttercream stars, like the illustration on the pan shows. I couldn't find the terra-cotta icing color that it suggests, so I went with just plain orange and used the color sparingly. I liked the way it turned out. Piping all the stars wasn't too bad, but the icing does tend to get soft holding it in my hand for so long. I bought a large tip with 3 stars in it to make filling in the icing go faster. It worked well, except for trying to do detail work around the edges, so I ended up having to use a single star tip as well.

After piping the body of the cake, I cut the UK logo out of blue and white fondant. This was a little harder than I imagined, because the fondant wanted to move with the knife instead of holding its shape. But after a couple of tries, I got a result that I was pretty pleased with. I used my new alphabet cutter set to make matching UK's for the cupcakes. And my 8-9 hour baking spree was complete.

The birthday boy seemed to enjoy the cake, and it apparently it tasted so good that there was none left at the end of the party! I was nervous about taking all this on but very pleased with the results.

(PS: Stay tuned - my next post is in my kitchen drying right now!)

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Birthday Cake

I'm a bit late in posting this, but last weekend and this week have been pretty busy! Last Saturday, my old department from John Wieland got together, and I was asked to make a birthday cake for a former coworker's wife, whose actual birthday was that day. This was the first cake I've made for anyone outside the family, so I was pretty nervous.

Last week's practice cake turned out so well, that I decided to stick with that basic design. I only made a few changes - yellow cake and buttercream icing instead of chocolate. (I wasn't sure what flavors the birthday girl preferred, so I played it safe.) I used up a lot of my pink and purple fondant on the practice cake, so I had to throw some yellow in too. And lastly, I had to write "happy birthday" on the cake.

Overall, I was pleased with the results again. My handwriting needs a little practice, but I didn't think it was too bad for freehanding it. (I didn't want to pay the extra $10 for the lettering kit at Michael's.) And I still need some work on getting the icing smooth, but I suppose that will come in time. I was in a hurry on this cake, so I didn't get to spend quite as much time on smoothing things out as I wanted. Time was running a little short on me, so I was glad I'd practiced the week before. I knew exactly what I needed to do and cranked it out pretty quickly.

The cake was well received. I was nervous that the birthday girl might not like the design and colors that I had chosen, but they fit with the overall party decor, and everyone seemed okay with them. It tasted great! :) By the time I left, the cake was almost gone.

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Fun with Fondant

It's been a while since I baked, and I've been wanting to get back in the kitchen lately. I have a request in for a birthday cake next week, and I've been nervous about making the cake, so I wanted to practice. I also really love the look of fondant and even though I haven't made it to the fondant class yet, I've been wanting to play with it. All those reasons coupled with the box of cake mix in my pantry calling out for attention meant one thing - I was going to bake today.

I decided to make a cake just for practice, so I could play around with a few things I've been wanting to try. First of all, I made chocolate buttercream for the first time. Boy is it ever rich!! I didn't even put as much cocoa powder as the recipe called for, but it ended up very sweet and chocolatey. I might use a little less next time. It probably could have used a dab more water too, but I was afraid to make the icing too thin and have it fall off the sides of the cake again!

I also wanted more practice icing the cake. I have to say that I was actually pleased with my progress this time. It still could have been a little smoother, but it was leaps and bounds above my last 2 attempts. I'm not sure if it was easier because the cocoa made the icing a little more firm, or if I'm truly getting better at this...

Next came the fondant, which I can only describe as a cross somewhere between cookie dough and playdough for cakes. I really enjoyed the fondant! Although it took longer to roll out and cut the fondant, I felt like I had more control over the design and the results than with piping. I really like the look of fondant too, so I'm starting to think I'm more of a fondant type of girl. I even pinched off a little bit to taste, since some people aren't crazy about the flavor, but I didn't mind it. Especially in this application, on top of buttercream, I think it will be fine. I've really got to sign up for the fondant class!!

Overall, this is the most pleased I've ever been with a cake, and especially one where I was trying so many things for the first time. It turned out pretty much how I wanted. Now I can't wait to take it to work tomorrow and dig in! :)

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Wilton Final Class

This week, I took the final class in the Decorating Basics course. For class, I had to bring in an assembled and iced cake. This time, I went back to my tried and true Pilsbury box mix and was pleased with the results. Baking and filling the cake went well. For the filling, I used a lemon pudding mixed with icing to thicken it up. Then cake time to ice the cake. After my last disaster, I made sure to buy the Wilton cake icer tip and some 16" disposable bags. It made things a lot easier! I was able to get the top perfectly smooth with no crumbs! I still need practice on the sides though - I tried and tried, but could not make it so that the cake did not show through. Before taking the cake to class, I decided to pipe a pink shell border - pink because I made too much icing for Ginger's cupcakes - around the top and bottom, and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. (Except that some of my shells wanted to fall off the next day - guess I need to work on getting them more on the top than the side.)

In class, we practiced writing, which seems easy enough, and then came time for the ribbon rose. I am not too good at roses!! I think I'm making the base okay, but I just can't figure out the angles for the petal tip. Mine all came out looking more like buds than open flowers... It also didn't help that the room was incredibly hot, and the icing started to soften up. But at the end of class, between me and the instructor, I ended up with some flowers that were good enough to stack on my cake, and then I filled in with some leaves. Overall, not too bad...

My instructor is teaching this class again in July, and she said that we were welcome to audit any of the sessions that we needed more practice on for free. I'm not sure yet if I will do that, but I do need more practice.

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Wilton Class 2 - Icing Fiasco

I had my second Wilton class on Tuesday. We were supposed to bake a one layer (one cake pan) cake to take to class. I bought a Duncan Hines cake mix because they were on sale (I don't have time to bake from scratch AND make icing on a work night!). I have to say, I don't think I'll be using that again! I'll probably stick to Pilsbury from now on. The box instructions said to mix the batter for 4 minutes. I thought that sounded unusually long, but I did as I was told. The batter ended up thick, more like a bread dough than cake batter. It also rose a lot more in the middle, giving me a big dome shape. Luckily, I bought a cake leveler tool to deal with that. (But the cake did at least taste good.)

After baking the cake, I moved on to making the 2 batches of icing for class - 1 thin and 1 medium. I started with the thin. The class icing recipe is a little different than I'm used to, but I've made icing quite a few times, so I figured I wouldn't have any problems with it. I was WRONG!! The class recipe calls for 1 cup of Crisco. I usually use 1/2 cup of Crisco and 1/2 cup of butter. My instructor said that this would be fine and would give the icing a better taste. She said to just be sure and use real butter instead of margarine (which is what I have been using.) So I thought I'd give the butter a try and used a stick of Publix brand real cream butter. The thin icing came out very oily. I'm still not sure why. At first I thought it was becuase I'd forgotten the meringue powder, so I mixed that in, but it didn't help. Maybe it was the butter that I've never used before, maybe it was because I softened the butter 10 seconds in the microwave, who knows... Not being very experienced with thin icing, I figured maybe that's how it was supposed to be. I moved on to make the medium with no problems. I didn't have any more real butter, so I used the 1 cup of Crisco for the medium, and it seemed to turn out just fine.

In class, we began by leveling and torting our cakes. Even though I had never done it before, I found this process to be relatively easy. So glad I bought the cake leveler! I made a dam with my thin icing and used 2 chocolate pudding cups for the filling. My instructor had recommended pudding as a filling, and I thought I'd try the chocolate to be a little different. It did give the cake a good taste, but next time I think I'd thicken it with a bit of icing to have a better consistency when eating the cake.

Then it was time to ice the cakes. My instructor had recommended that we buy Wilton's cake icer tip, but my budget had to cave somewhere, and I figured I would try this class without it. The next time I ice a cake, I will have it though!! I was able to spread my icing very nicely on the top with no crumbs, and my instructor even said that it looked really pretty. The cheap turntable I bought really helped. Then it came to icing the sides, and disaster set in. My oily icing wouldn't stick to the sides of my cake - it kept falling off! No matter how much extra powdered sugar I tried mixing in, I couldn't get it to thicken up. I played with it for about 10 minutes and was getting very frustrated. My instructor could tell I was having trouble at this point. She removed all the icing from my cake, mixed it with my medium icing (which she said looked correct), and re-iced the cake for me. Plus, I'd played with the icing so much by this point that there were crumbs all in it. I felt completely defeated.

Despite losing the icing battle, I moved on to decorate my cake. We learned how to transfer a pattern using piping gel and fill it in with icing. I think it's a bit ironic that the design we used in class was a cupcake, since I enjoy baking cupcakes so much. My cupcake design turned out beautiful, and I hastily added a few sloppy borders around the edge of my poor cake before class was over.

The icing decorations got a little beat up in the car, but everyone at work the next day thought the cake was cute and tasted really good. But I'm hoping for a better experience next time.

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A Baking Weekend!

I knew this weekend would be busy - a long-awaited BFF baking day plus a birthday. But baking is fun, right? And I'm all about the fun!

Bryan's mom's birthday is tomorrow, but we decided to celebrate a little early and get together on Sunday. I knew I needed to bake something fun for her birthday, and when I saw this design on Betty Crocker's website, I was hooked. I was really scared, though, because I've never made a cake before. I have assisted and/or observed cake-making a handful of times, but I've never been in charge completing a cake from start to finish. (That's why I usually stick to cupcakes - cakes scare me!) Bryan and I both knew what a perfect design this would be for his mom, and he talked me into tackling the project with his help.

Baking the cake was pretty easy - no surprises there. I used the Wilton cake release on the pan, and I have to say, I was pretty impressed with how cleanly it came out of the pan. (I listened to Ginger and shook well before I squirted it in.) The cake release is so much less messier than flouring that I think I'll use it from now on. All you have to do is squirt a little bit in the middle of the pan and use a basting brush to spread it around evenly - no mess whatsoever!

Next, I printed a template from the internet and cut the flip flop shapes from the cooled cake. That part wasn't too difficult either. I put the cake in the freezer to let it firm up before icing. We were a little rushed for time, and I probably should have left it in the freezer longer than I did. It did firm up some, but it still was a little crumbly on the sides. We did get some crumbs in the icing, but luckily the icing color and the decorations helped to hide that.

If anyone has any good tips for icing a cake, I'm all ears! I didn't have too much trouble with the top, but getting the sides neat and making a clean line between the sides and the top were hard! I don't know if it's because the sides were only a little over an inch tall or what, but I had a lot of trouble getting the icing to stick to the side of the cake and to look neat. Even though I followed the recipe for thin icing, it was a bit thinner than I would have preferred - I won't add quite as much milk next time. I don't think it made too much of a difference on the cake itself, but the lines I piped (which I thought were supposed to be done with thin) didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.

I wish I would have had the time (and courage!) to make the flip flop straps out of fondant. I used fruit roll-ups, like the directions said, but expected from experience that they wouldn't hold up too well. They lived up to their reputation - by the time we delivered the cake, the straps had fallen flat, but you could still tell what they were supposed to be.

Overall, the cake was cute but definitely had a homemade look to it. I definitely have some room to improve, but I'm pretty happy with my first attempt. The birthday girl seemed to enjoy it, so that made me happy!

In other news, I got to use a culinary torch for the first time! I mentioned that Ginger and I got together for a BFF baking day also. It was long overdue - I think our last one might have been right before Christmas, 2008! Ginger found a rocky road brownie cupcake recipe on the Paula Deen website, and it was super delicious. She covered most of the details on her facebook page, but they were fun, tasty, and something I'd definitely try again. Even better, we got to play with fire!

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