Lime is the New Black

Or something like that.

This cake was made for my little sister's best friend. They've known each other since kindergarten and this fall they are starting high school together. Go ahead: aaawwwww.

On to the cake. Morgan's favorite colors are lime green and black. Well, if you've known her long enough, that's obvious. :-) So, lime green and black it is.

You remember the cornelli lace and roses cake, don't you? That was the cake's inspiration. Also inspiring Mogan's cake is a skirt that she owns. I don't know how much of that skirt actually influenced the cake since I never actually saw it but it was described to me, and it had black flowers on it. I think that counts. I am forever indebted to sandralita, however, over at CakeCentral because she created a gorgeous dummy wedding cake which inspired me, if not Morgan (although I think she liked the design, too). If you have a CakeCentral account, you can see the cake that I'm talking about here. If you don't have an account, a) get one, and b) I'll describe it to you: The cake had 3 tiers, all white, and was covered in gorgeous black fondant flowers with ribbons and bows along the bottom of each tier, also black. Her flowers make mine look wimpy, and it's not just because of size.

For some reason, this cake was a pain in the butt to work on. Not that that's Morgan's fault. Totally was my bad. For one thing, I couldn't remember if I put 2 cups or 3 in the cake batter and that really freaks me out. Hopefully it was two. Then the cake, for some strange reason (maybe I did put in too much sugar) cooked too much out the outer edge and not enough in the middle of cake, but not the very middle because I had a flower nail stuck in there. Does that make sense? What doesn't make sense is that the cake overbaked around the edges and I had to cut that part off. :(

Then, the icing. Sigh. I made the chocolate fondant, first, while watching Jon and Kate Plus 8 (Isn't it funny how you can remember stuff like that? Like, I remember watching Drake & Josh when I first made petit fours, and I was watching Holes when I finished knitting my first hat. Ok, anyway.) Marshmallow fondant is a big mess to make. I'll have to post the recipe later. My family thought I was crazy, though, for playing with melted marshmallows, baking chocolate, and sugar. Lots, and lots of sugar. The buttercream behaved. Surprisingly enough. (Also surprising, aside from the fondant, I made the entire cake, from baking, to decorating, on the same day.  And with a trip to JC Penney's Outlet and ValuCity in between!)  Although when I finished with the white icing, I turned all the leftovers green, which ended up being bad. More about that later.

There were relatively few crumbs, and that was without a crumb coat! What crumbs there were, were hidden behind the fondant ribbon. :) The fondant, once turned black with a large about of black icing paste (turning my hand and fingers black, but then they faded to purple after I washed them... it still there somewhat too), did not want to cooperate, and it was much too dry. Adding water made it too sticky, and shortening didn't help, and... maybe I was just having an off day... The flowers, made with gumpaste cutters, turned out really cool. I added the words next. It looks lime green, doesn't it? I was afraid that it wouldn't. When I asked my little brother (who was alas the only one around) what shade of green he thought it looked like, he just shrugged and said "like the grass on my Puerto Rico cake," which is totally not true because I added more yellow to this shade. Whatever.

The shell border around the words was done with Betty Crocker icing! Okay, okay, pick your jaw up off the floor. It's not that big of a shock... is it? But I vow right now, that no matter how tired and/or lazy I am in the future, I will NEVER use it again. In the middle of my border, this huge, messy, liquidly GLOB of black icing lands on my cake!!!

AAAAAHHHHH!!!! And Katie says that's her FAVORITE icing. Can you "antithesis"? (Is that even the right context...?) I tried to salvage the cake as best I could, but there's a dip in the cake where I removed the glob, and I had no more white icing to repair the damage. But I put the shells back in place (as in a piped a few more) and prayed that everyone else would not have my critical cake decorator's eye.

And I don't think they did. At least, when I delivered the cake today, I got lots of compliments. And, the cake matched the decor, so I think I did good. :)

Close-Ups of Some of the Flowers:

Tab Cake Recipe

I'm planning on make this later in the week...

10 oz. Tab (or other diet soda)
1 box cake mix (any flavor)
2 egg whites

Mix it all up and bake according to the box's instructions.
9" x 13", 9" round, cupcakes, whatever.
Let it cool before frosting.

Here's a frosting recipe I found:
1/2 cup butter
1 tablespoon cocoa
6 tablespoons Coca-Cola
1 box confectioner's sugar, (1pound)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
In a saucepan, bring butter, cocoa, and Coca-Cola to a boil. Stir in the sugar and mix well. Stir in nuts. Spread over the cake while both cake and frosting are still warm.

But I'm just going to use up some extra buttercream that I have, and color it pink. :)

So, results will be posted later in the week.

Blast from the Past

Okay, so I know these are horrible-quality pictures, but I wanted to share them anyway. I took pictures (with my digital camera) of pictures (you know, the regular kind that have negatives and everything) of cakes.

So, here they are... (again, I apologize for the quality, but that's what happens when you take pictures of pictures, I guess).

The original Father's Day cake... from 2006? (Maybe '05)

2007's Father's Day cake. The pictures are of my Dad and my mom's dad who lives in our neighborhood. See how all the Father's Day cakes are chocolate?

My 15th birthday cake. I <3 style="font-style: italic;">favorites!

Spongebob: Take 2. For his 2nd birthday, we were on vacation, and I had few supplies with me, so for the 1st Spongebob cake that I made, I used crushed up chocolate cereal for the pants, and tubes of Betty Crocker Icing for the rest of him, plus he didn't have any extremities and was in a throw-awayable cake pan. But this cake was great! (The arms and legs are sugar cookies)

This is that super difficult cake for my sister that I'm always alluding to. The leprechaun was my first attempt at fondant, and I think I did pretty nice (Kate did help with that). The pot o' gold and shamrocks were royal icing. The rainbow was homemade hard candy (and, let me tell you, it was hard!!). The icing looks cracked because when I smoothed it out, I waited too long and the buttercream had already begun to crust too much! (Not that you can tell with this picture anyway)

Superbowl 2007: Bears v. Colts. Everything but the colts was made with cookie cutters... I had to free hand the horses, although I later found out that Wilton made a "50 Animal Cookie Cutter Set" and I could've use the horse/zebra cutter from that set. The trophy, by the way, has gold cake sparkles on it. I have no idea which team one.

Last picture: Gingerbread house 2006. The gingerbread man, snowman, and tree are all cookies. The marshmallows are the fluffy white things in the front of the house (supposed to be fences). I liked the chocolate chips and the candy canes... they added nice touches. My little sister and I made this house, so unlike the 2007 house, it has some semblance of order. :) And, being homemade, it was very tasty!

Ganache is Great

(Recipe courtesy of cheftaz from CakeCentral.)
(I used this on Dad's cake)

Ingredients
8 oz (240ml) cream
1 tbls butter (optional but makes it stay really shiny even after refrigerating)
1 oz sugar (2 tablespoons)
12 oz (340 g)chocolate (the more % cocoa the better! :) I used 62%)

Directions
Break chocolate into 1/2 oz pieces and place in stainless steel bowl
Heat cream, butter and sugar to boiling. Pour over chocolate and let stand 5 minutes. Stir from center out until smooth. After refrigerating 1 hour then fill your piping bag
Or use to ice your cake by pouring or spreading (allow to cool to room temp first)

So this particular recipe has a thick consistency... I was able to pour the ganache over the cake and spread it around with an off-set spatula. I let the cake set in the fridge overnight, so the ganache was nice and "hard" (it wasn't hard like a candy bar... like a truffle I suppose).

Oh, and I put the ganache over a layer of buttercream, although since the recipe was thick, that's not really necessary, I don't think.

Also, if you want to whip up the leftover ganache that's been sitting in the fridge over night... I'm not sure what you'd do with it... except maybe eat it... which is really tasty if you decide to to that...

Kelsie's Chocolate Buttercream

...Is the exact same recipe as Wilton's Chocolate Buttercream. (I used this on Dad's Father's Day cake)

Feel free to double, or triple, or quadruple the recipe to your liking :)

Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
* 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
* three FOUR 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate squares, melted
* 1 teaspoon Almond Extract
* 1 pound sifted confectioners' sugar
* 3-4 tablespoons milk

Cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add cocoa and extract. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk (feel free to add more milk if you like a thinner consistency) and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

Recipe makes about 3 cups (but again, feel free to double or whatever to your liking!)

Make sure you know you have enough buttercream to frost/decorate the cake before you plow into it with your spoon ;-) (I know you were thinking it... I was too!)