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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To: Me, From: Me

Okay, so I don't have any baking to share with you this time. But I just had to post the really cool present I bought for myself! It's impossible for me to bake without making a complete mess, and there are so many cute apron designs out there, I decided I needed one for myself. I was browsing etsy.com one morning and ran across an apron I HAD to have, so I bought it! It just arrived this week, and while the fabric is a little greener and not as blue as I expected from the online picture, I totally love it. (I'm not sure the ruffles do anything for my hip region, but it's so cute that I really don't care...) The best part is that because it's so gosh darn adorable, I can leave it on display in my kitchen when it's not in use.

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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 3 - Cupcakes (And More Cupcakes!)

This Tuesday, I had my third session in the Wilton Decorating Basics class. We were concentrating on cupcakes, so I felt much more in my comfort zone this time. I had baked and frozen a dozen cupcakes the week before out of the same Duncan Hines cake mix that I wasn't so crazy about. Freezing made them a little on the dry side, but the class was mostly about decorating, so they were fine for the purpose they were serving.

We packed a lot of techniques into this one class! We learned drop flowers, which I really like, swirl flowers, which I wasn't as good at, shells, which I need some practice in, leaves, which are super easy, and a few other flowers. The new Wilton class supplies include a cupcake nail, which is supposed to make it easier to swirl icing on top of the cupcake, but I didn't like it! I think it's quicker and easier to freehand the swirl, maybe because that's how I've been doing it for a while now - not sure, but the cupcake nail wasn't my favorite. I do see how it could come in handy for making flowers directly onto the cupcake, though.

cupcake decorated with drop flowers and leaves

The two other flowers we learned were the shaggy mum and the pom-pom flower. I really like the shaggy mum! It looks kind of like Cookie Monster from the back. I need to think of a fun way to use it. I had a little more trouble with the pom-pom flower, but I think I could get it with more practice. I'm not sure what I would use it for though.

cupcake with shaggy mum on top

(I kind of went crazy with the leaves.)

pom-pom flowers

(my instructor's on the left and my more crooked version on the right)

As if I hadn't had enough cupcakes already, Ginger's birthday was on Thursday, and I'd promised that I'd bake her something. She requested strawberry cupcakes with buttercream icing, so I whipped up yet another batch of icing. (This week, I did NOT use the awful butter, and the results were SO much better!) I'd never tasted, much less made strawberry cake before, so I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. Ginger had said the strawberry boxed cake mixes were good, but I really didn't want to overwhelm her with 2 dozen cupcakes, so I found a homemade recipe for 12 in my cupcake cookbook. It used fresh strawberries and buttermilk, so it sounded like it would be good. I decided to color the icing in a light, pretty pink in honor of the name of the recipe (Pretty in Pink Cupcakes) and picked up some white sprinkles and store-bought daisies to complete the look. (I haven't learned how to make daisies yet, so I figured I deserved a break!)

I was definitely pleased with the look of the cupcakes! But I was a little unsure how they would taste. It's always nerve wracking to try a new recipe, and this one didn't yield any extra to taste ahead of time! Everyone said the cupcakes were good. My only complaint was that the cake seemed a little dense - since I only used egg whites instead of the whole egg, I thought they'd be a little fluffier.

Ginger's birthday cupcakes

While I do enjoy baking, I'm glad this marathon week is over. It was a success, but 3 nights of baking in 1 week is something I won't try again for a LOOONG time! :)

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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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