shower cake, done
The baby shower was this Saturday just past. My objectives for this day:
1) Make a chocolate cake with cherry mint filling
2) Show up on time to the event
Mission accomplished, kinda.
I did shoot for a cherry-mint filling. It didn't quite work. The problem may have been that I changed gears mid-stream. Though my initial idea was to make a cherry-mint filling, my lasting brainstorm was to make a wine cake. So I didn't really commit to the cherry-mint idea, though I did make it. The final product was a chocolate wine [mayo] cake with a two-layer filling (minted cherry compote and dark chocolate frosting) and a topping of semisweet chocolate ganache.
The wine in question was a merlot jazzed up with lemon juice and honey. Because of recent freecycle exploits, I find myself in possession of a 12"x16" Wilton sheet pan, so I upsized the mayo cake recipe to fill it. (Actually, I upsized an upsized version of the recipe. The original version was for an 8" or 9" cake. I multiplied the ingredients by half to have enough batter for a 10" cake last summer. And it was the 10" recipe that I doubled to create enough batter for the 12"x16" pan.)
For the experiment cupcakes, I used half wine and half water for the liquid in the recipe. For the final cake, I went whole hog and used wine for all the liquid. This ended up being 3 cups of wine per cake. (I made two cakes to save myself the trouble of trying to cut one layer in half.) Please to note: when your batter contains a full bottle of wine, licking the bowl is a very different experience. That was a lesson learned between the first layer and the second and I made sure a lot more of the batter made it into the cake pan the second time around. Because hot oven and tipsy baker is not the smartest combination.
Because the mom-to-be is lactose intolerant, I used almond milk for the frosting and ganache. I'm not sure how the almond milk ganache would compare to the regular full cream stuff, but it came out well enough, I'd say.
I ran out of time to do any serious decorations, so bought some pre-fab items from Michael's: edible pink glitter, icing/candy daisies, a tube of pink decorator icing. So the cake didn't match the theoretical nursery theme, but it did match the shower theme. (The colors of the invite were pink and brown and it featured a creepy Anne Geddes' photo of a baby with daisies on her head.) I got a call from Cousin Aurora some days before the shower, asking for details of the cake I planned to make. She ended up making a cake too, vanilla with lemon filling and marshmallow fondant topping. So attendees had a non-chocolate option, too.
When I walked into the shower and saw her cake, I kind of wanted to crawl under a table, but instead I just stood, mortified, in a corner. Her little fondant experiment, as she described it, turned out to be this gorgeous crazy quilt. I did okay on flavor, judging from taster comments, but oy, the look of the thing (especially that exclamation point, which particularly sucks). I don't know if I'll ever have the patience (or the time management skills) to make a really pretty cake, but I'm sure I can do better.
I didn't show up to the shower on time. On the other hand, I wasn't late. The start time, as given on the invite, was 1:00pm. I left my house pretty close to 1:45pm. Or maybe 2:00pm. Just as I was leaving the house, I got a call from Cousin C who asked if I would do him the favor of giving his mom a ride to the shower. Sure, I said. I live 45 minutes south of the shower site. Cousin C's mom lives 20 minutes south of me. So, I was definitely later than I would have been otherwise. Still, the detour turned out to be a net benefit.
I was in such a hurry to leave the house that I forgot my wallet, a fact I didn't realize until I pulled into the gas station. Having my aunt along meant I had someone to hit up for gas money. Also, giving my aunt a ride gave me an alibi for my tardiness. And Cousin C called the mom-to-be and made sure she was aware of my alibi.
Ah, but here's the thing. I actually texted the mom-to-be before I left, to let her know that I was on my way, and to apologize. I got a text back from her later that night saying not to sweat it since she hadn't arrived until 2:00pm herself. Please to note: the shower was at her apartment. As someone else at the party said, a woman who had arrived at 1:30pm to find no guests, no food, and nothing going on, "I forgot [mom-to-be] was black." The invite said 1:00pm, the guests didn't really start arriving until 2:00pm, I got there around 3:30pm, and no one was exercised. I suddenly feel much better about soon becoming related to this woman.
And I'm actually glad I wasn't there for the whole thing. If I'd arrived earlier, and hadn't needed to worry about getting my aunt home, I might've left early. Outside of the cake-making business, there wasn't much about the baby shower that interested me. Though it was cool to be in a roomful of women celebrating this womanly experience, it was also kind of intimidating. (And a bit sad, to be honest, to realize that I'll probably never have this experience because I have so few girlfriends.) Why intimidating? Full Metal Shower, i.e. shower games. If that isn't adequate explanation, allow me to mention that one of the games involved placing mystery substances into diapers, heating the diapers up in the microwave, and then having people guess what the mystery substances were.
Anywhoodle, I survived. I survived making the largest cake I've ever made, transporting it to the event site, carrying it (heavy as hell) a block and a half, cradling it carefully while my aunt blocked the entrance to the apartment (having apparently forgotten that anyone was standing behind her once she made it past the threshold), and then not exploding into a million pieces while waiting to find out what people thought of it. (Seems strange to call this survival, all things considered, but I have yet to think of a better word.) The mom-to-be was quite effusive in her praise/thanks; cherry-chocolate is her favorite combination. So that made the effort worthwhile.
Bonus: the KitchenAid is no longer virgin. (And no longer whole, since I managed to misplace the pour shield.)
This entry was originally posted at http://stuberyl.dreamwidth.org/300491.html. Feel free to comment here or there (but not everywhere).
1) Make a chocolate cake with cherry mint filling
2) Show up on time to the event
Mission accomplished, kinda.
I did shoot for a cherry-mint filling. It didn't quite work. The problem may have been that I changed gears mid-stream. Though my initial idea was to make a cherry-mint filling, my lasting brainstorm was to make a wine cake. So I didn't really commit to the cherry-mint idea, though I did make it. The final product was a chocolate wine [mayo] cake with a two-layer filling (minted cherry compote and dark chocolate frosting) and a topping of semisweet chocolate ganache.
The wine in question was a merlot jazzed up with lemon juice and honey. Because of recent freecycle exploits, I find myself in possession of a 12"x16" Wilton sheet pan, so I upsized the mayo cake recipe to fill it. (Actually, I upsized an upsized version of the recipe. The original version was for an 8" or 9" cake. I multiplied the ingredients by half to have enough batter for a 10" cake last summer. And it was the 10" recipe that I doubled to create enough batter for the 12"x16" pan.)
For the experiment cupcakes, I used half wine and half water for the liquid in the recipe. For the final cake, I went whole hog and used wine for all the liquid. This ended up being 3 cups of wine per cake. (I made two cakes to save myself the trouble of trying to cut one layer in half.) Please to note: when your batter contains a full bottle of wine, licking the bowl is a very different experience. That was a lesson learned between the first layer and the second and I made sure a lot more of the batter made it into the cake pan the second time around. Because hot oven and tipsy baker is not the smartest combination.
Because the mom-to-be is lactose intolerant, I used almond milk for the frosting and ganache. I'm not sure how the almond milk ganache would compare to the regular full cream stuff, but it came out well enough, I'd say.
I ran out of time to do any serious decorations, so bought some pre-fab items from Michael's: edible pink glitter, icing/candy daisies, a tube of pink decorator icing. So the cake didn't match the theoretical nursery theme, but it did match the shower theme. (The colors of the invite were pink and brown and it featured a creepy Anne Geddes' photo of a baby with daisies on her head.) I got a call from Cousin Aurora some days before the shower, asking for details of the cake I planned to make. She ended up making a cake too, vanilla with lemon filling and marshmallow fondant topping. So attendees had a non-chocolate option, too.
When I walked into the shower and saw her cake, I kind of wanted to crawl under a table, but instead I just stood, mortified, in a corner. Her little fondant experiment, as she described it, turned out to be this gorgeous crazy quilt. I did okay on flavor, judging from taster comments, but oy, the look of the thing (especially that exclamation point, which particularly sucks). I don't know if I'll ever have the patience (or the time management skills) to make a really pretty cake, but I'm sure I can do better.
I didn't show up to the shower on time. On the other hand, I wasn't late. The start time, as given on the invite, was 1:00pm. I left my house pretty close to 1:45pm. Or maybe 2:00pm. Just as I was leaving the house, I got a call from Cousin C who asked if I would do him the favor of giving his mom a ride to the shower. Sure, I said. I live 45 minutes south of the shower site. Cousin C's mom lives 20 minutes south of me. So, I was definitely later than I would have been otherwise. Still, the detour turned out to be a net benefit.
I was in such a hurry to leave the house that I forgot my wallet, a fact I didn't realize until I pulled into the gas station. Having my aunt along meant I had someone to hit up for gas money. Also, giving my aunt a ride gave me an alibi for my tardiness. And Cousin C called the mom-to-be and made sure she was aware of my alibi.
Ah, but here's the thing. I actually texted the mom-to-be before I left, to let her know that I was on my way, and to apologize. I got a text back from her later that night saying not to sweat it since she hadn't arrived until 2:00pm herself. Please to note: the shower was at her apartment. As someone else at the party said, a woman who had arrived at 1:30pm to find no guests, no food, and nothing going on, "I forgot [mom-to-be] was black." The invite said 1:00pm, the guests didn't really start arriving until 2:00pm, I got there around 3:30pm, and no one was exercised. I suddenly feel much better about soon becoming related to this woman.
And I'm actually glad I wasn't there for the whole thing. If I'd arrived earlier, and hadn't needed to worry about getting my aunt home, I might've left early. Outside of the cake-making business, there wasn't much about the baby shower that interested me. Though it was cool to be in a roomful of women celebrating this womanly experience, it was also kind of intimidating. (And a bit sad, to be honest, to realize that I'll probably never have this experience because I have so few girlfriends.) Why intimidating? Full Metal Shower, i.e. shower games. If that isn't adequate explanation, allow me to mention that one of the games involved placing mystery substances into diapers, heating the diapers up in the microwave, and then having people guess what the mystery substances were.
Anywhoodle, I survived. I survived making the largest cake I've ever made, transporting it to the event site, carrying it (heavy as hell) a block and a half, cradling it carefully while my aunt blocked the entrance to the apartment (having apparently forgotten that anyone was standing behind her once she made it past the threshold), and then not exploding into a million pieces while waiting to find out what people thought of it. (Seems strange to call this survival, all things considered, but I have yet to think of a better word.) The mom-to-be was quite effusive in her praise/thanks; cherry-chocolate is her favorite combination. So that made the effort worthwhile.
Bonus: the KitchenAid is no longer virgin. (And no longer whole, since I managed to misplace the pour shield.)
This entry was originally posted at http://stuberyl.dreamwidth.org/300491.html. Feel free to comment here or there (but not everywhere).