Spring Cakes

March is the time for new beginnings - the first day of spring and cakes that look like fun, springy days!

I tried to incorporate all of these ideas into the office birthday cake this month. I had purchased a Lindy Smith book a few months ago which featured this cake in it. It looked simple enough to do, so I figured why not! Since it looked fairly straight forward I thought I would finally start attempting cakes with fillings..... This cake ended up being a huge challenge!

The top layer - carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. The problem I had with the frosting is that is isn't a good one to use underneath fondant. It was too soft and caused my fondant to crack and rip very easily. I also had issues with it absorbing every little bump, poke, etc whenever I would try to smooth the fondant. The cake was good - nice and moist, the frosting was very yummy as well! Just not a good experiment to put under a fondant layer.

The middle layer - chocolate cake with a raspberry mousse filling. The filling was incredible! I dammed the layers before putting in the filling - ended up with four layers total. I used the tile method to settle the cakes and only ended up with a slight bulge where the buttercream "oozed". Once it was covered with fondant I stippled it with yellow food coloring and a artist's stipple brush. Yes - that is actually yellow - "Golden Yellow" to be exact. I think I used too much of the gel food coloring and not enough vodka to dilute the color. Either way - the color ended up being orange, versus yellow, but still pretty. I really like the stipple effect on the fondant - it has a nice finish to it.

The bottom layer started out as a french vanilla layer, however when I took the cakes out of the pans, one of them cracked into four separate pieces! Plan B was to make a yellow cake layer instead and I used french vanilla buttercream. This had the effect of making the fondant taste like marshmallow - at least to my co-workers! :-)

I premade the flowers a week in advance, so they had time to dry. Doing it this way though - I discovered that I didn't like the royal icing that shows when you "glue" the wires into the flowers. Next time - I will make the flowers, put a fondant blob on the back and stick the wires into that. The orange strips were the worst part of doing this cake. They are very easy to do - just time consuming! All the strips are cut by hand and then applied one by one with a paint brush and vanilla extract around the edges.

I really learned a lot doing this cake - things NOT to do i.e. soft frosting under fondant! As well as things that I did enjoy. One of the great things about this cake is that it is/will be easy to change the look of it, just by changing the colors. I look forward to trying this cake again.

February's Birthday Cake

Once a month, I make the office birthday cake. It is a job I love - I get to pick my own designs and practice a cake! This month (being Valentine's and all) I went with a traditional box of chocolates. This cake was inspired by another blog I follow as her Valentine cake for 2009.

The whole thing is cake! The box, the chocolates - all of it! I made a red velvet cake (recipe courtesy of a co-worker) and covered it in red fondant. I have discovered Satin Ice fondant - which has a very good flavor and rolls out very nice! I purchased it online in red and black (and a chocolate one too!) since coloring fondant these colors can be very difficult. Mostly, I would end up with pink or grey!

The chocolates themselves are actually cake balls - made from scraps of cake that I have left over from other cakes I made. Once I level or sculpt a cake, I throw the scraps into a ziploc freezer bag until I have enough to make cake balls. The cake balls pictured here are chocolate and red velvet covered in melted chocolate. I piped melted chocolate on some of them, topped some with nuts and others with sugar. To make it look realistic I purchased some candy foil wrappers and placed them on the box.

I figured I had done a great job when a co-worker went to the break room, thinking someone had brought a box of chocolates to work to share, helped herself. She confessed to me - Oh my gosh! I just ate the birthday cake! I thought i was candy until I ate it! And - those cake balls are the best! :-)

I sent leftover cake balls to work with Jim - evidently they were a hit there as well.

Forrest is right - "Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get" - you might even get cake balls!

Done with physical therapy!

Finally, finally, finally! Hoping that my back issues stay away and that I really don't/won't have to go back for surgery or PT! That being said - my PT (really manual therapist) is THE BEST! I have been going to them for over a year now - first with a shoulder issue and then my back. It will be very strange not to see them every Tuesday and Thursday.

Because they are the best - at least in my "book" - I wanted to do a special thank you for them. So what do I do? I make cakes, ergo a book cake. Because it is a fairy tale come true to be doing so much better.... by the way - in case you were wondering - the "Princess" is me! :-)