Father's Days from the Past

Father's Day is coming up, so I've reached back into my photo album to pull out these cake pictures from bygone years. This lovely star-shaped cake was probably from 2007 or so, and believe it or not, I actually whipped this one out pretty quickly. I don't really remember why, but I do remember thinking "Oh, a Father's Day cake? I need to make one of those... right now?!" Is it the most elaborate Father's Day cake ever? No. But was it sweet and well-received and delicious? Yes. And it was chocolate, so that's all my dad needs in a Father's Day cake. :)

I honestly have no idea what the date is on this cake, I just know I made it a really long time ago when my dad first started playing golf. I found this cake in a magazine (as I often did in my early decorating days, before I discovered Cake Central or even Wilton), and my grandma helped me put it together. There's coconut for the rough, brown sugar for the sand traps, blue piping gel for the water hazard, weird chewy mint leaves with pretzels for the tree, and tic tacs for the golf balls. How clever is that? And to think, I wasn't even serious about cake decorating back then. Oh, I've come a long way.

Now you're just going to have to check back in a few days to see my next chocolately masterpiece. I haven't exactly made it yet. You can't exactly blame me for waiting until the last minute, see, because my dad's a procrastinator too. And since he did give me half of my DNA, it's really his fault that I have such trouble with time management. So I can totally blame it on him...right? ;)

Duff Love

Bakerella, I love you.

Why? First of all, because you make adorable cake pops. Secondly, because you live in my favorite city (the ATL) and we shop at the same cake store, and third, because of this post.

Turns out Cake Boss is hosting a cake decorating competition. Yeah, I'm toying with the idea of entering. It would mess with my school schedule though, so that's the one draw back. But seriously, how freaking cool would that be?! I know I've got some skills, I'm told that I'm talented, and I've won competitions before... maybe not baking ones, but how 'bout that second place certificate for winning the Medical Terminology Spelling Bee in 11th grade, eh?

I know that doesn't count. But I still make cool cakes, right?

Anyway, I'm equally, if not more, excited about Duff's new line of products. And I say more excited because a) they're avaliable at Michael's, and b) I don't have to compete with anyone to buy them. (Instant gratification ftw!) Hopefully. Who knows how high the demand will be?

He makes his own fondant. I bet it's expensive. I also bet that it tastes better than the other fondant that Michael's sells.

Ohmygoodness. When is this avaliable in stores? I know I'm babysitting today, but I'm gonna have to drag my brothers out to the shopping center with me. Good thing I haven't spent all my hard-earned pay checks yet!

National Hot Dog Day

Hot dogs have nothing to do with cakes. Unless, of course, you make a hot dog cake. Which is an entirely plausible thing to do. I didn't make one though. Did you?

I wish I had something cool and amazing to blog about today. Last week I helped make a Trans Am cake at Bliss which was awesome. And I worked 2 days in a row there, so I was in cake heaven. But for now, I'm cakeless. I've got a vanilla sheet cake and a chocolate pound cake that I'm making later in the week, and you'll see pictures soon enough. I'm also working on my YouTube show (YouTube? What?! Doesn't everybody and their grandma have a YouTube show by now?? Probably. But I don't. Yet. ...Stay tuned!) but more about that another day.

Today I'm just going to babysit my brother, force them to watch all the cake shows we have on TiVo (Ace of Cakes, DC Cupcakes, and Bakery Bunch) and eat hot dogs.

But hey, looks like somebody else made a hot dog cake!

Lucky girl. I wish I could meet Duff!

I'm Gonna Need A Blowtorch

Today, two of my friends told me that they're working on a new project, involving their future career and/or favorite hobby.

And I thought, I need a project of my own.

So... if anyone could loan me an oven, a few pieces of wood, a jigsaw, an industrial-size mixer, and probably a blowtorch, I'll get to work on it.

Or maybe I've just been watching too many episodes of Ace of Cakes?

But in all seriousness, I did come up with a cool new cake design which may or may not defy the laws of gravity. It might have to be a summer project though, because it is seriously epic. More details later :D

Fondant Festivities

 

The title might be a little misleading.  The only fondant on this cake is the 4 candles and their "flames."  But I couldn't really come up with a better title since I used "Happy Liturgical New Year" for last year's Advent cake.

And, if you're a long-time blog reader, you might remember something else from that cake which I made one year ago:  I had some crazy cake ideas.

A year ago, I didn't really think what I would be doing in 2008.  I was a bit too preoccupied with 2007, although the promise of my last year in high school did excite me.  But I'm talking about cake.  Last year, when I said that I wanted poinsettias and fondant candles, I didn't think that a year later, I would make the perfect cake.  I just thought, oh well, this cake is nice.  And if you're not a long time blog reader, then I'll show you what I mean:

Yeah, I know.  It's a far cry from what I made this year.  Wow, when you look back like that, you discover how much of an amazing difference a year really makes.  Okay, I'm done reminicing.  It's time to talk about the Cake of the Moment...

 

This cake has got to be the best one I've made.  (I say that a lot don't I?  About the purple cake, and the Patrick cake, and the penguin castle cake...  But I mean it this time!)  First of all, the cake mix was great.  Such a deliciously moist chocolate cake!  And then, the oven cooperated.  It had some help, of course.  Halfway through the baking process, I turned the cake pans around so that it would cook evenly on both sides.  And it helps that I have the nifty new cake pans, too.

The icing was very nice to me.  I actually posted a recipe over here, if you want it.  The green wasn't quite as friendly as the white, but much less of a grouch than the red.  I need to get some dark green icing paste (kelly green? moss green?).  The red, I have to admit, came from a Betty Crocker tube.  I was lazy, and I had a coupon, so I bought some red icing.  That came back to bite me, though.  The red icing bled some because of the cake's high moisture content.  I suppose I should have let the icing crust over a bit before putting the cover over it.

The bleeding cake really would have been a problem, because I didn't take the final pictures until the day after I made the cake, when I finally added the candles.  Thankfully, the bleeding was only on that side of the cake, so I just turned the cake around for the photo shoot. :-)

Speaking of fondant, I have a word or two to say about that.  I don't know how Duff does it.  When I watch Ace of Cakes (I kind of had a tivo maraton of the show on Sunday, before eating the cake), I watch with amazement as the artists deftly put smooth fondant all over the cake.  My fondant is never that smooth, which I just can't understand.  Maybe it's because (this time at least) I used some old gumpaste mixed with the fondant in order for the candles to dry and stand up straight.  (I made the cake and the candles on Saturday and served the cake on Sunday.)  I'm really not sure what the problem is, but it's frusterating.

Finally, the cupcakes:

 Yes!  I finally got to make my poinsettias!  They were a little droopy, and before I added the leaves and center dots, my mom thought they were octopi, but for my first time, I think I did really well.  Some of the cupcakes are also holly leaves, because I was running out of red.  Actually, they aren't really holly, because they don't look like the traditional holly leaves.  I just took the leaf tip (I can't remember what it's called, but it looks like a bird's beak) and squeezed out a bunch.  That's basically how I did all the leaves on the cake/cupcakes.

Wow.  I was really talkative today.  Sorry about that, but I guess I was just excited about finally making this dream cake. :-)  I'll stop raving and tooting my own horn about how wonderful this cake was.  I'm looking forward to whatever is next in my baking future, though!

“All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.”

So, today...

• Changed my blog layout
• Changed it again (I'm still looking for the perfect background...)
• Watched Ace of Cakes
• And did all of the normal school stuff (whoo-hoo! 92 on the math test!)

I don't know why I changed my blog layout. I really did like the yellow. I think I'll have to make some cupcakes or something so that I can make my *own* background. That sounds yummy...

Ace of Cakes was about a Corvette cake, a manatee cake, and a roller derby cake. I am amazed at the level of talent and skills that the decorators at Charm City Cakes have! And it also made me feel a little better about my own skills to know that we all make mistakes: Duff's roller derby cake didn't turn out as perfectly as he expected, but everyone still loved it.

I'm off to find a good recipe for a Mother's Day cheesecake...

I forgot to add that I checked The Cake Bible out from my local library, and

I hate my oven. (I truly believe it hates me too.)

(^^Quoted from George Harrison)

Ace of Cakes is my SHOW!

I love Ace of Cakes. That is totally my dream job!! Totally is not normally in my vernacular, but in this case, I think the word is appropriate.

Case in point: Duff got to go to LA for the Harry Potter premier (insert girlish squeal), met Dan Radcliff AND Rupert Grint, and (bigger girlish squeal) make the Hogwarts cake!! (Well, he didn't actually do all of that architecture stuff, but he was still there making napalm sugar candy and whatnot).

I would have to say that this is, by far, my favorite Ace of Cakes to date!