Pre School Cake

Once I posted the many evocations Lion Cake I realized that I hadn’t posted a cake that I made reference to—the preschool cake. I did this one not long after Fielding was born, to thank Sawyer’s preschool teacher for being completely awesome, and to celebrate her first successful year of business. It was my first attempt at cake painting, which I loved, but which comes with, of course, a new set of challenges. It was also the maiden voyage of my fondant ribbon cutter, which was way harder to use than I thought. Here’s to more practice!

Many Evocations Lion Cake

Even though I recently (like four weeks ago) declared that I was not ready to return to cake making after Fielding’s birth (this after making a cake with my foot on the bouncy chair the whole time, which was tricky business indeed), I inexplicably volunteered to do a birthday cake for my friend’s son. I guess it’s kind of like heroin. Well maybe not that bad. It’s like nitrous. I think I’m done for awhile, and then I want just a little more. And each time I do a cake I feel like I’ve been kicked in the face by the learning curve, especially when I forget something that I learned before and make the same mistake again…like I did this time with letting my fondant get too dry. But hopefully, little by little, my cakes are getting better. I’m really toying with the idea of moving to commercial fondant, because the marshmallow stuff I make is simple and tasty, but kind of unpredictable, and very difficult, ie: too soft, to decorate with beyond covering the tiers. Anyway, this is the lion cake. I call it many evocations lion cake because when I look at the trees I think of Vietnam and Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings (not exactly a cheery remembrance for a one year-old birthday party), and when I look at the lion I think of Sid Vicious, or Robert Smith. The little paw prints around the first tier are the part I’m most proud of…I think those will be repeated on future animal cakes. The cake, btw, was dark chocolate with chocolate butter cream, by request of the birthday boy’s family, and it turned out to be genuinely LUSCIOUS.

Cake Balls from Cake Scraps

Servings depend on your leftovers

No, I didn’t make these for myself, but that didn’t stop me from eating loads of them along the way. No, a moment of celebration is due, not just for my friend Kristen, who is expecting a little boy a few weeks after me, and at whose baby shower these will (hopefully) be devoured, but also because with this project I have FINALLY finished using up all the wedding cake leftovers. These babies are a combination of the cake tops from the wedding cake layers and the chocolate frosting leftover from the vegan cupcakes. I think maybe Paula Dean (oh no, HER again!) first came up with the ideas for cake balls, but the person who has taken them to extraordinary heights is no doubt Bakerella; just click on ‘cake pops’ on her home page and prepare to be flabbergasted by her patience, longsuffering, and genius for miniature treats on a stick.

Chris and our brother-in-law were milling around the kitchen while I was in the initial stages of making these—“hmm, yum, what’s that?” "Those are cake balls." There was some not very stifled laughter, and the only thing that could have ensued with two dudes hearing “cake balls” did: lots of jokes about chocolate salty balls. If you missed out on this particular pop culture gem, now’s your chance to hear it. Discretion is advised; it is South Park after all.

Ok, enough tomfoolery; back to the cake balls. If you glance at Bakerella’s or Paula Dean’s recipe, you’ll see that they recommend a boxed cake mix and a tub of frosting, but to me the only reason to make these is when you have leftovers like I did, in which case you have to guess a little on the proportions. I just mushed in all together in a bowl and, in retrospect, should have added the frosting little by little, as they ended up being wet enough to make them difficult to work with. Bref, here’s how to precede when you don’t have exact measurements:

Pulse cake scraps in your food processor until they become cake crumbs. Combine them in a bowl with your leftover frosting:

Here’s mine all mixed up—pretty heavy on the frosting.

Roll the mixture into balls and place on a cookie sheet with waxed paper; freeze. I used my tiny scooper, then went back after they’d been in the freezer for 20 minutes and rounded them out by hand, cause the stuff was just too sticky to mess with at room temperature. But if you look at the pics on Bakerella’s site, you’ll see that hers are much more cakey and workable. It’s a question of taste, I imagine, because having to freeze them wasn’t a big deal, and now they’re SUPER moist, like rum balls, mmmm!

The next step is to dip/roll the frozen balls in melted chocolate—I used dark here, but you could of course use milk or while, or even poured fondant; whatever rings your bell. I melted about a package and a half of dark chocolate chips over a bain marie with 2 tablespoons of shortening (this thins the chocolate a little and makes it easier to coat the balls). Fish ‘em out with a fork, wipe the tines on the edge of the bowl a few times, and place them back on the waxed paper to harden.

 

The last step is to decorate them, if you wish. In my mind I pictured little squiggles made with melted white chocolate, but once I got into my cupboard I realized that I’d used all my white chocolate in a fudge recipe awhile ago. Oh well. So I made a quick milk/powdered sugar frosting, tinted it blue (for baby boy, of course), put it in a zip lock, cut the tip, and piped a few inept little designs on the balls.

The great cake making exercise

The fruits of my week-long labors were finally harvested last night at my friend Katina’s wedding where, after a beautiful and moving ceremony, we rocked out at the Space Gallery in Denver and feasted on my first attempt at a wedding cake—a wobbly, 4-tiered flavor sensation that was 18 months on the drawing board before last night. A few thoughts about the experience: the learning curve was steep. If I ever do this again (it’s too early to say either way, but I’m definitely over licking the beaters for awhile), I will enlist an assistant, will experiment with cake recipes until I find one that is a little sturdier without compromising its moist deliciousness, will buy ready-made fondant instead of making it myself, and will have the air-conditioning in my car fixed. Beyond some of the challenges and the sheer amount of time that this project took (most of which was happy and meditative, and only a few hours of which were stressful and worrisome), it’s bordering on one of the most surreal undertakings of my life: there’s just something so hilariously Dada about cracking 30 eggs into a bowl, or melting 10 cubes of butter in a pan, or manipulating a cake that’s 16 inches in diameter.

Here’s a brief walk-through of how the week unfolded.

First we need some supplies: cake boards to put the tiers on and dowels to support their weight.

 

Oh, just one more acquisition to make: Kitchen Aid Pro! I’ve been wanting a proper mixer forever, especially since I burned out the motor on my hand mixer trying to make 6 batches of cookies at once, and a wedding cake on the horizon seemed to be just the excuse to finally get one. Serendipitously, it arrived on Tuesday, the day I started baking.

In addition to the cakes, the filling needed to be made. Here’s part one of the raspberry filling. In my prototype cake that I made for Katina ages ago the raspberry was more of an ooze than a filling, so this time I stabilized it with some gelatin. Otherwise it’s nothing but raspberries, sugar and a little lemon juice.

The other filling was lemon curd (I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with lemon curd). Here’s the pile (5lbs) of lemons that I reamed to make this curdy dream come true:

And here are the rest of the curd fixins in the pan: lemon juice, sugar, 10 CUBES OF BUTTER, and eventually 30 eggs.

Here’s a 12-in tier cooled, trimmed, and waiting on its cake board for further instructions. I have SO many cake scraps in my freezer from the trimming process—two HUGE freezer bags. Last time I made the luscious Lemon Coconut Cake Top Bread Pudding—what will these bits become?

Here are the ingredients for one 16-in layer—practically bursting out of the bowl.

And here is the 16-in layer about to go in the oven—my hand in front is showing you just how absurdly large it is. I laughed every time I even saw this pan.

Time to whip up some butter cream frosting—for this cake we decided to go with rosewater butter cream.

 

Time to start filling and frosting the cakes. Each layer is split horizontally for a filling—raspberry came first.

In between the two layers is butter cream, then the second layer is split in order to accommodate a smear of lemon curd. This is the 4-in tier, which the couple planned to freeze for their one-year anniversary.

Using my dough scraper to spread the raspberry filling on the 16-in layer.

This one was a huge challenge, and what made me realize that I needed sturdier cake next time if I was going to be making such a large tier. It all turned out fine in the end, but there were some scary moments of oozing, cracking and general auto-destruction of the 16-in tier.

And now to make enough frosting to cover this beast. I think this is five batches of butter cream. Hah! At this stage the frosting is kind of like glue—whatever is falling apart can hopefully be cemented back together by a sturdy butter cream prison.

All done! Get this thing in the fridge asap!

Here are all four tiers, frosted and chilling in the refrigerator. Last step is the fondant, and then the on-site assembly with the final decorations.

We had decided to do gum paste calla lilies decorations on the top of the cake and on the vegan cupcakes that Katina had requested for some of the guests. I watched a few tutorials in preparation for this and I think calla lilies are about the easiest flowers to make out of gum paste. All you need is a heart-shaped cookie cutter, some cones to dry them on, and a little patience. I tinted the gum paste a peach color, then used red Luster Dust in the centers for contrast and to match the red/pink of the bridesmaid dresses.

Chocolate cupcakes with almond custard and chocolate butter cream frosting, all vegan.

  

Here are the frosting decorations—little tiered swirls—calla lilies will follow.

 

All ready to go. Thankfully my friend Liz agreed to transport these in her air conditioned car so I didn’t end up with cupcakes swimming in a pool of butter cream.

 

Here’s the fondant going on the 12-in layer. So I’ve made this marshmallow fondant recipe scores of times with no problems whatsoever, but of course, the only time I would have any trouble would be the one time that I’m doing a cake that actually matters to someone, only on, like, the most important day of her life. (!!) For some mysterious reason, even though I sifted the powdered sugar, I ended up with all these little lumps in the fondant, and then it was all pockmarked and holey when I rolled it out. Whatcha gonna do? You just gotta roll with it. I warned the bride not to look to closely, and that was that. And once they dimmed the lights a little in the gallery you couldn’t see a thing.

And here she is, after a series of minor mishaps (like the gallery being locked when we arrived, the linens not arriving, and the cake stand totally not working at all). You can see that the bottom tier is burbling a little, but it’s standing and doesn’t look totally misshapen, so I was happy. And the bride and groom were thrilled, the guests thought it was delicious…over all a great success.

With the cupcakes nearby.

A few shots from the top.

Final thoughts: After last night, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to make a career of this. Standing around watching the catering crew freak out when the gallery was locked and then their linens didn’t arrive was the stuff reality shows are made of, and so stressful to observe—never mind the fact that I couldn’t set the cake up either until the linens arrived. The baking can be blissful, but delivery and set up was a recipe for multiple ulcers. If anyone needs a favor, I’d be happy to oblige with a cake, but I don’t think I’ll be applying for a business license anytime soon.

Making a Star Wars birthday cake

 

A friend of mine recently agreed to let me have a go at making a birthday cake for her son who has a food allergies, and who loves Star Wars. So I used my trusty egg/dairy/nut free chocolate cake recipe to get started.

In this recipe soy milk, olive oil and margarine replace the butter, while silken tofu and cornstarch replace the eggs.

3/4 C olive oil

2 C sugar

4 oz. (about 1/2 C) silken tofu

1 1/2 C + 2 Tbs soy milk

2 tsp vanilla

2 C all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

2 Tbs cornstarch

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 C cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place olive oil, sugar and tofu in your blender or food processor and blend for 2-3 minutes. In the meantime mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add milk and vanilla to the oil-tofu mixture and blend until combined.

Pour liquid into large mixing bowl, add dry ingredients and beat until well mixed. Pour into two greased 9-in. round pans, or one greased 9x13 in. pan. Bake 25-30 minutes for round pans, and 30-35 for 9x13. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.

Dark chocolate frosting

1 C dairy-free, non-hydrogenated margarine, such as Earth Balance

4 C powdered sugar

4-6 Tbs soy milk

2 tsp vanilla

2-3 oz unsweetened dark chocolate, melted

2 Tbs corn syrup

Blend margarine and powdered sugar in food processor until ingredients begin to come together. While processing, add vanilla and corn syrup, then soy milk in a steady stream until the desired consistency is reached. Transfer frosting to bowl and beat in melted dark chocolate.

Here’s the triple layer baby all frosted and ready to go:

 

Next I covered it with blue fondant:

It was Chris’ idea to put tiny Vader helmets on the sides—genius in action. An exacto knife made quick work of these tiny galactic overlords:

Hmm, sort of a Vader-Skeletor effect, but I think everyone will know who it is:

On the black fondant ribbon at the base of the cake I used my trusty letter cutters to write the immortal Star Wars message:

Personalized for the birthday boy:

Then added stars:

And more stars, and light sabers:

 

And then Meredith’s wicked cake topper:

 

And the birthday boy himself, the Force flowing through his veins.