Cake 3: Caketastrophe

This week I wanted to revisit a simple vanilla cake so I looked to Martha Stewart's Versatile Vanilla Cake. Everything was going great, it was looking light and fluffy, had an incredible aroma, the color was terrific and then the bakers worst nightmare came true... when I checked the cake at 32 minutes my oven flipped out! It wasn't quite done so I set the timer for four more minutes... 20 minutes later the oven was cooling off, I was smelling gas, and the cake still wasn't done. Needless to say, we aren't using the oven until the gas company can come out to take a look.

While the cake was still edible, there was some definite sink-age:

I figured I should just go ahead and finish the thing to get some more practice and since I had a ton of caramel left over from the last cake, and because it was so freaking fantastic, I decided to use it again this week. Yum, look at all that caramely goodness!

Sadly, there was some leakage. Still, it's delicious looking leakage.

Anyone who knows me knows I HATE spiders, despise them. Yes, I know, they are an essential part of our ecosystem... but why oh why do they have to be so horribly creepy! They freak me out to no end! My sweet little brother got me a shirt that reads "Lets take a moment to be thankful that spiders don't fly" for my birthday. The thing has a picture of a flying spider. I put it on immediately so I wouldn't have to look at it. Anyway, back to cake. Even though I hate the little buggers I love Halloween. And if there is a place in this universe for spiders it's along side the other creepy, crawly, terrifyingly terrific apparitions that make Halloween so damn awesome. So, I made a spider cake.

And look how lovely it still looked inside despite being under done:

Tasted pretty great too.

Thanks for reading, I'm off to put more spiderwebs in the bushes. 

Cake 2: Piping Practice

This cake was all about piping. I wanted to get a feel for the piping bag, frosting consistency, and temperature. I decided to go with a star tip and went to town over the entire surface. I found a great recipe for a classic butter cream at Savory Sweet Life.

Vanilla Butter Cream

And thanks once again to the internet, I found an incredible chocolate cake recipe at I Am Baker that calls for buttermilk and coffee. The result is a seriously moist cake.

Fresh from the oven

To push this cake over the edge I found an equally fantastic recipe for caramel filling at Cake Central. I've got at least three cups left over and have been dreaming of dipping apple slices since I took the first bite!

Caramel filling

I learned three things this time around:
1. Don't overfill the piping bag (yes I read all the warnings, but I just couldn't resist) unless you want frosting all over your hands and inevitably all over your face.
2. Piping is WAY easier if the frosting is fresh and at room temperature.
3. Cake photography has a definite learning curve!

All Finished

I topped this cake off with the number 6 to celebrate the 6th anniversary of the Etsy Metal Team (of which I am a proud member)! You can learn more on the Etsy Metal blog, see my cake featured in the anniversary post, and find out which of our shops are having sales to celebrate the occasion! 

A slice of delicious

I have a feeling this cake is going to be difficult to top taste-wise. The caramel sauce soaked into the rich cake creating, quite possibly, the most decadent cake experience I've had to date.

Happy Birthday Etsy Metal! 

Thanks for reading! I'm off to find some apples!

The Journey Begins

Hello! Welcome to an experiment in cake decorating!

A quick bit of background:
I'm a metalsmith! I graduated with a studio art degree from Humboldt State University in 2007 and have been nurturing my jewelry business ever since. I still have very high hopes that one day designing and creating jewelry will be a full time job, but in the mean time, I have a day job at a pizza place. Now don't get me wrong, pizza is GREAT. I mean, I really love pizza! But, I would love to have a more creative "day job". Knowing this, my sweet husband suggested that I give cake decorating a try. So, I've decided to attempt baking, decorating, and blogging a cake a week for the next year to see what I think. I am notorious for jumping in without really thinking, so this will be a good way to test the waters, and really, who doesn't want more cake in their lives!? I know some people who work at a certain pizza place who are going to be very happy little taste testers!

I've come up with a few goals for this project:
1. Perfect a vanilla and a chocolate cake recipe to use as my "standards"
2. Master (haha) butter cream and ganache
3. Make some pretty cakes!

The best part about this project is that I am starting right after my birthday, so, if all goes well, I should have one rockin' birthday cake next year. 

For my first cake for this project (I've made maybe two cakes from scratch in the past and about a zillion box cakes) I chose a food network white cake recipe and topped it off with a Wilton's butter cream frosting mix that I purchased at Michael's (cheating a bit I know, but I found my vanilla on it's side and nearly empty in the cabinet, so really I had no choice!). Then I whipped up some royal icing (flavored with almond extract) for the piping.

Lesson 1:
Taking the time to fill the pans evenly IS important.

Just out of the oven!

Lesson 2:
My super awesome kitchen aid mixer does NOT mix well. I go through this every holiday season when I make cookies and it always drives me NUTS! The well around the dimple at the bottom of the bowl is always full of flour or butter or whatever at the end. No matter how well I think I've scraped it, I am always a little perturbed!

This is the result of the butter not getting incorporated correctly:

A giant flaw in the bottom of my Cake!

Oh well, that will be an extra buttery piece!

I was a little worried that the cakes would stick, since I didn't have any parchment paper, but I greased and floured the pans (they were my grandmother's) and they came out great.

 

Lesson 3:
More frosting is better! The Wilton mix from Micheal's barely did the job.  Also, it's more difficult than one would think to get frosting absolutely smooth.

Frosted!

Lesson 4:
Cakes are messy business! Since I only have two bags and I wanted three colors for piping, I had to clean one out midway through the process. Frosting is sticky!

All Finished!

For the most part I am pretty happy with this first cake! It was fun to make and even though my piping skills are lacking, I think I would be comfortable giving this to someone as a gift. The cake itself had good flavor, but was a bit dense. The Wilton's frosting was delicious! The almond flavored Royal Icing... not so much, but then I don't really like anything flavored with almond extract...

Thanks for reading! I'm off to cut another slice :)