An overall success

The final result is gorgeous. I learned a lot from this cake... mostly what not to do. However, the end result was beautiful.

I had to redo the fondant, tearing it all off yesterday! I finished covering and decorating at about 9:45 this morning, and we had to leave at 10:00 to be at the church by 10:30. Once we arrived, after a scary, and somewhat slow 30 minute drive, we set up the cake and finished decorating it. We put baby's breath all around the bottom of each cake to "hide" the ugly spots that I missed at home.

My mother put all of the flowers together, and they looked absolutely stunning. My mom has some true talent with flowers.

The cake topper is the bride's and it was so adorable and unique, just like their cake. The Fleur de lis was a success, finally. It still looked like wrought iron, but it really fit with the topper.

Although I feel like I should never do a wedding cake again, I love the cake and think it's gorgeous.

 

Finalization

So, the template idea didn't work. Although it was a really good idea, and I ended up using the cut out Fleur de lis in another way, it didn't work as intended.

However, the 10" and 6" tiers are complete. I have to finish the 14" tier and then, chill... LOL

The Fleur de lis ended up being a bigger mess than I ever imagined. I made 2 different batches of black fondant, one was so dry I could have added a gallon of water and it wouldn't soften up. Th other was so greasy that when I squished it, grease oozed between my fingers. Blech. That was yet another flop.

I decided, enough was enough. I've wasted a lot of time and money this week trying to get the doggone Fleur de lis perfect. I should have done what I thought about from the beginning. Wilton's new Sugar Sheets! I bought a couple of them tonight and the Fleur de lis was cut out in a few minutes, and a nice little border shortly after that. I didn't get to be as extravagant and fancy as I wanted, but it isn't that bad.

I have decided. When I open my bakery, I am hiring someone to do wedding cakes. I never want to do this again. I'm a nervous wreck and I'm worried that the Bride and Groom won't like it. Stress... Not good.

Successes

Today has been a day of successes. First, I was able to successfully create black fondant. It is very black and it took a really long time. About half an hour of kneading to mix it all in. My hands are a lovely shade of red, and my fingernails are black.

I then created ivory in a very large quantity. It's a little darker than I wanted, but I do believe it will be fine.

I was also able to flip the "iffy" 14" cake onto the other 14" cake. That was a feat, but the cake went on almost exactly where it needed to be. It is lovely, level, and finished.

My next task today is to crumb coat both the 6" cake, which is finally completed, and the 14" cake. Then I will cover all three tiers in fondant.

Finally, if time allows, I will cut out the Fleur de lis from the black fondant. My wonderful boyfriend gave me an excellent idea. I used to scrapbook and although I still love it, I don't really have enough time anymore. Or room. So, I gave up everything, with a few remaining pieces. I bought some of those projector sheets to make see through cards and what not. He said I needed a template, and I realized I could cut one out of those sheets and I could then cut the Fleur de lis out with them instead of relying on paper that will move, bend, and curl.

I knew he was a smart one. I'll have to keep him.

Pictures will be posted soon of my first ever wedding cake.

Physical Setbacks

Today, I developed one of those headaches that saps all the strength out of a body. I left work and skipped my super fun French class because of it. I ate something, took some Tylenol, and I've been drinking water. But, none of it helped. The headache went away for a while, but it's now back and sapping more energy.

However, I have a cake to finish. Tonight, I baked my 6" cake. It is chilling. I am currently making fondant. I attempted making a chocolate fondant to make the black for the Fleur de lis, but it was so dry I couldn't add enough water back into it.

So, I decided I'd just dye it black and tell the Bride not to eat it. However, a little niggling thought crept in: try using just a spoonful of cocoa powder at a time. So, I did. The result is much better, although, the chocolate flavor is not there. That's fine. It's less food coloring.

It is still mixing, but I think it will turn out fine.

I have one more batch of pure white to make, then it's off to bed to rest my head. In the morning, I do not work. I will mix the ivory and hopefully cut out the black. I also have a very small cake pop order to fill. One dozen. I can handle that. The cake is already made and everything.

So, in the morning, I will begin assembling the layers and preparing them for fondant.

Surprises sometimes aren't so good.

I was very excited this evening. I finally got two of the cakes put together. The 10". They were lovely, the were level, they were - are perfect. I have now crumbcoated them and they await fondant. Very excited! I finally have a wonderful success. A very heavy, very thick, 2 layer 10" cake.

I also had the 6" topper ready for layer number 2. It is leveled and filled. However, the top layer was still chilling. Once it became fully chilled, I leveled it, only to find a not so wonderful surprise awaiting me. A very large air bubble had made a nest right smack in the middle of the adorable little cake. So, one more cake to make. Thankfully, it's a small one and it can be made in my little toaster oven. If I wake up early enough, I could even make it while I'm getting ready for work.

I will have to say that it's a good thing I know how to make cake pops. I wonder how many flavors I can create to use up the several pounds of white cake I have in the freezer now?

Successes... so Far

As of right now, all of my cakes are finished and ready to be leveled and stacked... Except two, they are still baking. One is nearly done, the other is going slow. It's the big one. The first big one is in the freezer firming up. It was starting to break down the middle, so I transferred it to a board and into the freezer it went so it would be firm for leveling and stacking.

The remainder of my cakes are lovely and nice. I am finally getting there.

I have been attempting the gorgeous and intricate fleur de lis design that was requested. However I tried, it would not work. It looked as if a child had tried to draw it in crayon. So, I contacted the Bride, and she OK'd a more simple fleur de lis design. I am very grateful. The design is the classic Fleur de lis and it can be cut out of fondant. I will also put a 3/4" and 1" black border around the bottom edge of the lower two cakes to make them a little more classy.

Now, the real work begins.

Finally

I now have one 10" cake complete. It is beautiful. It is level, and it's the right size. No more wasted cakes.

Thank you Jesus!

I now have the second 10" cake in the oven. Since it is now nearly 11 PM, I will wait until morning to make the other 4 cakes and the decorations.

Yet again

I have now made another 6" cake and it also was not up to par.

The cakes I made last night were too thin, but when cut, they were much less dense than the first cake and tasted better. Unfortunately, they were still too dense and they didn't fully raise in the middle, which means I cannot use them because they are too short, and I want only 2 layers per tier not 4.

Tonight, I chose to bake my small cakes in my small convection toaster oven. What a difference! The cake raised nicely, and the top was domed instead of sunken. I am currently baking the first 10" in my main oven, but I think I will bake the 6" cakes in the convection. The 10" is raised nicely, almost level. I am baking it at 300° and it is baking very slowly, but very evenly. It should be nearly done, although the top is not yet browned.

Unfortunately, this 6" cake is too thin. I cannot use it because it is less than 2" deep and I need it to be at least 3" so I can level it and make a 4" layer. Back to the grindstone. Thankfully, I can make cake pops from the screw ups... Before I found that ingenious idea, I would have just tossed the cakes and called them wasted.

Another semi-failure

The newest edition to my failed 6" cakes has appeared. This cake is small, about 1 1/2" deep, and the center did not fully raise either. I tried using 7up, but that failed. I will make fresh tomorrow. Arg.

Second attempt

I am now making my third 6" cake. I made a second one, it is lovely, but it didn't completely raise in the middle. I baked it at 300° and it took about an hour. However, it is a lovely shade of brown. It is cooked clear through, but I will not know until I cut into it if it was a success. I am hoping that this issue is simply because the cake is so small and the pan is so deep. It's a 6x3" pan.

The third cake is now in the oven at 325° and is wrapped in tin foil. We shall see how that works out.

Taste Test

The taste of that practice cake was not good. The cake was so dense that it didn't even taste like cake. It had the appearance of pound cake. The filling was overpowering. One taster thought it was lemon; another taster thought it taste like red ropes (Hmmm, really?). I thought it was just gross.

We have a restaurant supply store here, so I decided to forgo making the filling, I am buying it.

I am working on the second attempt of my cake. I used a lot less batter for the pan, and I attempted 7up in the batter in place of the water (a wise baker's tip). I am also baking it at 300° for a longer period of time. We will see. If this is successful, then I am ready for the week. I will then prepare the next layer of the little one, and move on to the middle tier.

Final product

I am very glad this is a practice cake. I was hoping it would turn out well enough that I could actually use it, but alas, no. I tried carving the Fleur de lis into the side, then painting it in... YUCK... I tried painting the template and transferring to the cake, no... Only portions transferred, and it smeared. SO, I decided to use royal icing, and it looks about like a 3 year old did it.

I will attempt a few other little tricks over the next few days and see how things work out. Luckily, the Fleur de lis is not the first thing I have to do with the cake, so, I have time to work on it. The cakes and fondant went fairly smooth, although I need to work on leveling and torting.

Enjoy the image of the final product. It took nearly all day, so I will start on the actual wedding cake tomorrow.

Wedding Cake Failures, continued

I am very glad that I decided to try a cake before actually working on the wedding cake.
Mistake #2 - The custard is extremely yellow. I used farm fresh eggs, and they are very thick and rich, and orange. Going back to store bought white for the real cake.

Mistake #3 - The buttercream frosting was a double fail. I added too much milk to thin it down, so it's more runny than spreadable. I also added too much brown food color gel to get the lovely ivory color I need.

Mistake #4 - I attempted to crumb coat the cake as soon as I assembled it. The custard is gooey and the top layer moves as I frost. The cake is now in the refrigerator in an attempt to firm up the custard.

So, I am now waiting for the custard to firm up so I can crumb coat then chill. At the current rate, I may need to finish the cake tomorrow.

I did learn one major thing... Definitely prepare all of my cakes well ahead of time, and chill them completely.

I also learned that white cake, when made properly is dense and extremely tasty. Oh, yum.

Wedding Cake Failure number one

I have just pulled the first 6" layer out of the oven... And didn't check for doneness. It wasn't quite there, but it only fell a little. It's done now. Lesson learned... Make sure to bake the cake at a much lower temperature and for a lot longer.

Wedding Cake Success Number One:

The champagne filling is nice and thick, and tastes pretty darn good without the champagne flavoring. We'll see how it does once that is added. Pretty tasty though.

Keep you posted!

Wedding Cake Attempt

Today, I will attempt covering a cake in Ivory colored Fondant, then placing a Fleur de Lis design along the side. I say attempt because I have never done this before and I have a wedding cake order for next Saturday. So, tomorrow, I will make a 6" two layer cake, fill it with homemade champagne filling, cover it in fondant, and try the decorations.

Then, Monday, the real work will begin. If my cake tomorrow is a success, I will be ready to go. If it is a failure, I will try again.

Thankfully, I live next to three young men who enjoy my cakes. And cookies, and pies, and cake pops, and any other sweet I may choose to make.

Wish me luck and photos will be posted as the successes (or failures) ensue.

Beaucoup Orders

A couple days ago, I volunteered to donate 100 cake pops to a group of 4H kids who were having a bake sale at our local street fair. I didn't think it would be that big a deal because I've made 100 in just a couple hours before, no problem.

What I failed to realize was that I was also making some for school. I take the pops to school (college) and sell them so I can buy supplies for the bigger events coming up, one of which will finish paying my boyfriend's son's way to Australia for two weeks with People to People.

Thankfully, I had already baked and prepared most of the cake pop dough. I had to bake two cakes in different flavors, but that was minor compared to the actual rolling, sticking, dipping, and wrapping event to follow.

I began a Conversational French class about 2 weeks ago, just because I wanted to refresh what I took in high school. That class is on Wednesday nights. Because of that class, I didn't get home until nearly 9PM because I had to stop and pick up a few supplies. Needless to say, I didn't get very much done last night.  I had about 40 cake pops remaining from my school trips, so I was able to sort those into the 4H box and was partway complete. That helped a lot. Then, the work began. I was able to roll out the batch of Butter Pecan, and get the Mocha completed.

I recently discovered that if I lightly coat the pops with a granulated sugar based topping, the chocolate will harden almost like a candy coating. The chocolate then stays nice and thick instead of thinning out to a paper thin coating. I like it thicker. However, coating each pop is time consuming, and in one hour, I had completed 19 cake pops.

That's about 81 cake pops short from my previous attempt. So, I went to bed. 1 AM

I woke up at about 7:30 this morning. I always take about half an hour to an hour to wake up, but I tried to keep it to half an hour this morning. I got to work about 8AM. By nine, I had completed a batch of German chocolate. About 40 pops. I sat down and ate breakfast because I was now frustrated. About fifteen minutes later, I got back to it. I doubled my speed, as best I could, and was able to finish another batch by 11. Then I ran out of wrappers.
I rolled the rest of my previously prepared dough and about 11:30, realized I had a cheesecake order due today that I hadn't even started. Thankfully, it's for an instructor, and she will be able to get it in the morning, when she really needs it. I put together the cheesecake and ran to the store for more wrappers and sticks.

Cake pops, although they are a great success, tend to distract me from everything else. At about 1, I realized there was no way I was going to finish by 2, when I needed to leave for work. So, I stayed home and worked on them until about 4:30. I still had about 30 that I needed to wrap, 20 to the 4H kids, the remainder for the school box.

I set them aside, hopped in the shower to wash away the day's grime, and tossed the unwrapped pops into a bag and took off for the street fair. I finished wrapping the 20 pops when I got to the fair, and the silly little things were selling as they were being set out.

I learned a couple things from today.

1. Never donate 100 cake pops unless they are already made
2. Never donate 100 cake pops and plan to make another 100 cake pops when you have a time limit.
3. ALWAYS prepare the cake pop dough beforehand. It saves a ton of time.

All in all, I made over 200 cake pops today.

** Pictures will be posted soon.** Especially the mocha pops.

Long Awaited Updates

Dad's cake turned out really cool. The Pizza Hut people kept coming over to look at it. The taste was fabulous. Everyone loved my trees. :D
The fondant didn't work for the tree, but I was able to use something else.
I am attempting my first wedding cake. It is covered in fondant, so it should be an experience.

The Dieter's Cake - Cake Pops with a lovely red rose on top.

For a dear friend, Pink Buttercream on Chocolate with Strawberry Filling. She loved it.

Easter Basket. Little bunnies, edible grass.

Everything on this cake is edible except the handle. The frosting is buttercream.

This cake was super fun to design.

Dad's Birthday Cake. The logs and cabin are made with Pretzels. everyone loved this cake.

Gluten free Chocolate cake with Buttercream frosting.

I'm working on the cake pop fad. I'm doing really well. Making roughly $30 a day on them. I'm exhausted, but I love coming up with new flavors and toppings.
I'll try and be more regular with my posting. One day, I will have more than one follower... Although I truly appreciate the one follower I have.
Thanks!