1.18.2014

~69~ Making My Cake and Eating It Too


Not too shabby, if I say so myself. ;)

Ok, but honestly, decorating cakes is way hard.  And I am no where near becoming a pro as suggested in last week's post. 

I was super excited for this class.  I was actually counting down the days/hours until I got to work on my cake.  I baked a white cake with almond flavoring on Tuesday night.  I also got my batches of buttercream ready to go in black, orange, yellow, and teal.  I had originally wanted the penguin scarf to be teal and grey, but I ran out of black dye.  

On Wednesday, I showed up to class with my baked, unfrosted cake.  It was so helpful having someone show me some of the nuances in technique to really perfect the pristine look of a beautifully decorated cake.  It was by no means perfect, but it was the best looking cake I've ever done.  The trick is really in the paper towel.  When I went to buy the Viva brand (this is important) paper towels, they only had packs of 6 that cost $15.  Sorry, but no.  I figured I'd be okay without it, and decided to leave them behind.  However, when I was looking for tupperware containers, I spotted the Viva logo in the napkin section.  Turns out they also make boxes of napkins that are the same material as the paper towels, so I snatched up a box of those for only $2.99!

Here's what my cake looked like before I used the paper towel:  



Here's what it looked like after:
*Note, I forgot to take a picture after, but you can see in the final product how smooth I was able to get the frosting.


Once my cake was filled and frosted, it was time to let the decorating begin.  The night before, I found this adorable little penguin, which I thought was fitting for a winter cake.


The gel transfer trick is pretty darn nifty.  In the past, I have used a toothpick to lightly etch out the pictures I want, but this is so much easier.  All I had to do was trace the penguin onto parchment paper. Then I traced over the design with piping gel.  Flip that onto the cake, gently pat down with your hand or a paint brush, and voila! your image is on your cake, ready to outline with buttercream.  The image I used was a little small/detailed, and I think that it would have turned out nicer or cleaner had I used an image with less lines.  

I was only able to get the penguin outlined in class (2 hours FLEW by), so I finished up adding color, border, and the polka dots when I got home.  I'm not that happy with how the snowflakes turned out-they're not as uniform as I would have liked.  I also wanted them to be more blue, but didn't want to make a whole batch of frosting again.

 

I haven't cut into the cake yet.  Jake and I just finished an Advocare cleanse on Wednesday, so we're waiting until Sunday when we can share it with his family. 

Next week, I'll be learning how to decorate cupcakes with beautiful flowers.
Until then, 







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