Tori's Birthday Cake
I've been working on my daughter's Birthday cake all day today. I started baking early (8:30am) because I want to be sure to give it time to rest and cool. I'm really beginning to understand now why so many bakeries do their cakes ahead of time and freeze them. Baking an decorating really takes a LONG time when you do it "right".
I've been really frustrated with the cake mix for this one. I decided to use Archer Farms' Chocolate Indulgence and as soon as I got it all mixed together I knew that I was going to have issues. The batter turned out to be super light and fluffy, when it baked up the top 1/2 inch or so was almost souffle' like which began to collapse shortly after I pulled it from the oven. Turning it over onto the cooling rack was an adventure. The top continued to collapse and gave me grid marks in the cake. This is just so delicate and slicing through it to torte caused a crack in one layer. That layer is now on the bottom because the only way that I was going to be able to move it was holding it against the baseboard and flipping it. I hope that it holds up to the layering.
I made a bunch of buttercream frosting, but once again, not quite as much as I needed to cover the cake and fill the layers with. *Grrrrr* this is getting frustrating. Luckily the plan all along was to crumb coat the sides of this with chocolate shortbread. The decorations were supposed to be chocolate, but when I opened the can of Wilton Frosting I bought the other day it was disgusting.
I will be the first person to admit that I'm a snob. I like things the way I like them and when I go outside of my comfort zone I get catty, snarky, and uppity. It's just the person I am. I HAVE tried to not be so judgemental, and over the past five years I've gotten much better, but still the fact remains that deep down, I'm a snob.
Anyhow, last week my instructor suggested that I make a trip to the other side of town to go shopping at a store called Sweet Pans. He thought that their prices were much better than Michaels and that they had a larger selection of things for sale. Okay, I'll give them that. The women were nice too. There was a HUGE selection of things and the prices were better than Michaels but walking in that store was like walking into the house of you're old great aunt who NEVER threw anything away... ever. Even my daughter Tori thought that the store reminded (and smelled) like a crap store in rural southern Indiana. It was frightening, it was dimly lit, dusty, the walk ways were no more than three feet across, the displays were a hodge podge of so much "stuff" that I had a difficult time processing it all. In general it looked a bit like the room my husband uses for his office. Yes (for those of you who've seen the office) it was that bad. I bought a can of chocolate frosting and some cardboard rounds to set my cakes on. In the car I realized that I hadn't checked the frosting for any kind of expiration date. I really should have because when I opened the can all of the shortening in the frosting had congealed together in these blotchy ribbons. It was gross. I don't think that I'll be going back there.
I had some pink frosting still in a bag with a tip in the fridge from the Cherry Chip Cake so I decided just to use that. It didn't turn out looking like I wanted it to, hopefully it will taste much better. Pictures will go up later. Some body told me when I was a baby scribe in the SCA that I should take pictures of EVERYTHING so that when I was really good I could look back and see how far I had come. I'm trying to take that approach to cakes as well.
I've discovered that this cake decorating thing is actually REALLY hard. I understand why so many people go right for the fondant covering. Getting buttercream all slick and smooth with a sharp edge on the corners takes some serious skill. I'm not sure yet if that's a skill I'm going to be able to master. Right now, it looks doubtful and I'm okay with that because ultimately I'm in this to learn how to work with fondant and make beautiful gum paste flowers.
Happy Birthday Tori!
I've been really frustrated with the cake mix for this one. I decided to use Archer Farms' Chocolate Indulgence and as soon as I got it all mixed together I knew that I was going to have issues. The batter turned out to be super light and fluffy, when it baked up the top 1/2 inch or so was almost souffle' like which began to collapse shortly after I pulled it from the oven. Turning it over onto the cooling rack was an adventure. The top continued to collapse and gave me grid marks in the cake. This is just so delicate and slicing through it to torte caused a crack in one layer. That layer is now on the bottom because the only way that I was going to be able to move it was holding it against the baseboard and flipping it. I hope that it holds up to the layering.
I made a bunch of buttercream frosting, but once again, not quite as much as I needed to cover the cake and fill the layers with. *Grrrrr* this is getting frustrating. Luckily the plan all along was to crumb coat the sides of this with chocolate shortbread. The decorations were supposed to be chocolate, but when I opened the can of Wilton Frosting I bought the other day it was disgusting.
I will be the first person to admit that I'm a snob. I like things the way I like them and when I go outside of my comfort zone I get catty, snarky, and uppity. It's just the person I am. I HAVE tried to not be so judgemental, and over the past five years I've gotten much better, but still the fact remains that deep down, I'm a snob.
Anyhow, last week my instructor suggested that I make a trip to the other side of town to go shopping at a store called Sweet Pans. He thought that their prices were much better than Michaels and that they had a larger selection of things for sale. Okay, I'll give them that. The women were nice too. There was a HUGE selection of things and the prices were better than Michaels but walking in that store was like walking into the house of you're old great aunt who NEVER threw anything away... ever. Even my daughter Tori thought that the store reminded (and smelled) like a crap store in rural southern Indiana. It was frightening, it was dimly lit, dusty, the walk ways were no more than three feet across, the displays were a hodge podge of so much "stuff" that I had a difficult time processing it all. In general it looked a bit like the room my husband uses for his office. Yes (for those of you who've seen the office) it was that bad. I bought a can of chocolate frosting and some cardboard rounds to set my cakes on. In the car I realized that I hadn't checked the frosting for any kind of expiration date. I really should have because when I opened the can all of the shortening in the frosting had congealed together in these blotchy ribbons. It was gross. I don't think that I'll be going back there.
I had some pink frosting still in a bag with a tip in the fridge from the Cherry Chip Cake so I decided just to use that. It didn't turn out looking like I wanted it to, hopefully it will taste much better. Pictures will go up later. Some body told me when I was a baby scribe in the SCA that I should take pictures of EVERYTHING so that when I was really good I could look back and see how far I had come. I'm trying to take that approach to cakes as well.
I've discovered that this cake decorating thing is actually REALLY hard. I understand why so many people go right for the fondant covering. Getting buttercream all slick and smooth with a sharp edge on the corners takes some serious skill. I'm not sure yet if that's a skill I'm going to be able to master. Right now, it looks doubtful and I'm okay with that because ultimately I'm in this to learn how to work with fondant and make beautiful gum paste flowers.
Happy Birthday Tori!