Ok-this one didn't quite work out to be the cake I imagined before I started it. But there's a story with this one, as there is with all my cakes. Where to begin? This is a Lemon cake, with straight buttercream frosting. Unfortunately I hadn't learned my lesson yet about the stiffer frosting (See story on pink/pink cake) So I work wtih a girl Tammy (T2 for short) T2 does graphic design on the side much like I do cakes on the side. Well, I wanted business cards for my cake side business, so she agreed to make my business cards if I made her a cake. Deal! I can do that. What's that Tammy? You want this cake for Thanksgiving nite??? OMG, so busy, I don't know if I can do that. Well, I did it. I brought in the cake just in time for thanksgiving. &&& she loved it!
But, the decoration wasn't what I had in mind. See, I actually had 2 cakes to deliver for Thanksgiving eve. One was actually a paying job. Both of them including this one, I intended on doing a tracing of a turkey and making it all festive like and purrdy. Well, I didn't figure out the frosting stiffness thing until after these cakes were done. So the tracing didn't work, because the frosting was still too wet. I even let both cakes sit overnite and all day while I was at work. When you do a tracing, you use a piece of parchment paper, and trace the picture on the paper. Then with piping gel, you trace the picture on the paper, and place it down on the top of the cake. when you peel up the paper, the piping gel is left on the cake in the design you traced. BUT, when the frosting is still too wet, the frosting will come up with the paper. It's soooo frustrating when that happens! But what I don't understand, is when I started decorating cakes, I did quite a few cakes with this tracing technique. (see my autumn leaves cake) Well, when the turkey idea didn't work, I turned to plan B-which is just pretty fall colored flowers. That worked good enough. But it's not what I wanted to do. She did end up doing my business cards, but they aren't completely finished yet. Maybe she needs another cake to motivate her along?
This is the other Lemon cake I had to do for Thanksgiving. It was ordered by my very good friend & practically my brother, Mike. This was supposed to be a Turkey and all festive like as well, but the frosting did no allow me to do that. Oh well, it's kinda pretty I suppose, huh? He loved it, which is all that matters. I delivered this to Mike in Brockton, while he was playin poker at the big t-gvg eve game. Fun times. Bringing a cake into a house filled with approx 25 hungry men! woohoo! Bring-it-on!
LOVE MY ROSES! This Pinkness cake was an order for my favorite customer, Eddie. It was for his mom's bday, but she's got many kids and grandkids. So, this was "Happy Birthday from All 13 of us!" This was a very frustrating cake to do. Although it turned out very lovely, I had one hell of a time decorating it. I must have tried to do the writing at least 4, 5 or 6 times! The cake itself is half chocolate, half yellow. What is supposed to happen so I can write on it, is the frosted portion is supposed to crust over a little bit, so it's not so soft. That makes it easier to "carve" the words into it. Well, for some strange reason, that was not happening. Now I've been making the same recipe of frosting since I started doing cakes, which was August, about 3 months. Why, NOW this is not hardening for me, is completely beyond me!? So I asked my instructor, she really had no answers except to cut back theamount of water, and increase the merengue powder. So I talked to my dad. He's like Alton Brown, he is a scientist thru and thru, and truely understands the chemistry of cooking as well as loves to cook himself! So when dad said "cut back on the fat you use" whether that's butter, or shortening, cut the amount down to cut out the moisture in the frosting. Low and behold,...that's what I did, and it worked! THANX DAD! So from now on, instead of using a whole container of crisco, i use 3/4 of a container. So when I finally got this frosting to hold the lettering, I got it done. OH I forgot to mention my favorite part! The bright pink flowers are Royal Icing flowers! They are like candy butttons. When you make them, you put them on a piece of parchment, and let them dry for a day or 2. Then you can peel them off and store them forever! use them when you need them. These were scattered thru-out this decor and made this pink on pink cake a littel brighter. Once I made it thru the craziness with the writing and lettering, I really enjoyed doing this one. It was, of course, a hit with Eddie and his family.
LOVE
This was just actually just a practice cake. I had just started my 2nd course of cake decorating classes @ Michaels, and wanted to practice my new techniques. The big blob of flower at the top is supposed to be a Mum. C'mon, can't you tell? ya, it needs practice! The others surrounding it are rose buds. They are fun. The funny thing about them is that they really look like blobs of frosting until you put a stem on them! It's amazing. The we did the little rosettes that are around the top perimeter of the cake. I made this one for Brian to have all to his self, so it's a carrot cake, his favorite :)
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