Calling all bakers...
So as many of you are aware, ishaa is turning 30 soon (and I am having so much fun torturing him). More to the point, we are having a birthday party for him a week from this friday. (7pm, our place, be there. Contact me privately for location details if you don't know them.) It's a Battlestar-playoffs-grilled meat party, per ishaa's request--he actually squealed when he found out that BSG was premiering on his birthday.
I need help.
As those of you who know ishaa are aware, he does not particularly like cake--or chocolate, or dessert in general. I figured I would find a local bakery that sold decent fruit tarts and pick him up one...until I saw this. Now, obviously, I do not know the first thing about fondant, nor do I intend to actually make a wedding cake for ishaa's birthday. Nothing I make will come close to the professionalism and beauty of this cake. But I still can't pass up the opportunity to make ishaa a 1-up cake.
I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to do it--do I actually attempt to make a 3-D mushroom cake, similar to the top of the wedding cake, or do I simply slice a round cake into the 2-D shape of a mushroom and frost accordingly? But in all honestly, the "how" is not my biggest problem. My biggest problem is taste.
I've spoken to ishaa at length about what he does and doesn't like about cake, and I think one of his problems is that he has had too much experience with dry, bland, store-bought cakes frosted with sugary, dried out frosting. I don't blame him either--most grocery store cakes are pretty boring. I tossed ideas and adjectives at him, and eventually he became very excited about a moist, dense, strawberry cake with fresh strawberries baked in, and a creamy, buttery frosting.
Ok, cool. The frosting is easy, and Google will know a cake recipe, right? Except, Google does not know a moist, dense, strawberry cake recipe. Google does not even know an acceptable strawberry cake recipe. No matter what I type in, Google wants to give me an annoying recipe that involves gelatin and white cake mix. This is problematic on two levels; one, gelatin is not vegetarian and we have guests coming who cannot eat it; and two, I am making this cake for an anti-cake person and do not want to trust any sort of mix.
Google has failed me.
So, um, help. Does anyone know of moist, dense, strawberry cake recipes? Or, better yet, does anyone know why I cannot just add fresh or frozen strawberries (and perhaps strawberry flavoring) to any old super moist yellow cake recipe? I would do a practice run but I am afraid I have neither the time nor the audience to properly audition recipes.
I need help.
As those of you who know ishaa are aware, he does not particularly like cake--or chocolate, or dessert in general. I figured I would find a local bakery that sold decent fruit tarts and pick him up one...until I saw this. Now, obviously, I do not know the first thing about fondant, nor do I intend to actually make a wedding cake for ishaa's birthday. Nothing I make will come close to the professionalism and beauty of this cake. But I still can't pass up the opportunity to make ishaa a 1-up cake.
I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to do it--do I actually attempt to make a 3-D mushroom cake, similar to the top of the wedding cake, or do I simply slice a round cake into the 2-D shape of a mushroom and frost accordingly? But in all honestly, the "how" is not my biggest problem. My biggest problem is taste.
I've spoken to ishaa at length about what he does and doesn't like about cake, and I think one of his problems is that he has had too much experience with dry, bland, store-bought cakes frosted with sugary, dried out frosting. I don't blame him either--most grocery store cakes are pretty boring. I tossed ideas and adjectives at him, and eventually he became very excited about a moist, dense, strawberry cake with fresh strawberries baked in, and a creamy, buttery frosting.
Ok, cool. The frosting is easy, and Google will know a cake recipe, right? Except, Google does not know a moist, dense, strawberry cake recipe. Google does not even know an acceptable strawberry cake recipe. No matter what I type in, Google wants to give me an annoying recipe that involves gelatin and white cake mix. This is problematic on two levels; one, gelatin is not vegetarian and we have guests coming who cannot eat it; and two, I am making this cake for an anti-cake person and do not want to trust any sort of mix.
Google has failed me.
So, um, help. Does anyone know of moist, dense, strawberry cake recipes? Or, better yet, does anyone know why I cannot just add fresh or frozen strawberries (and perhaps strawberry flavoring) to any old super moist yellow cake recipe? I would do a practice run but I am afraid I have neither the time nor the audience to properly audition recipes.