Monday, May 16, 2011

Fun With Fondant

I have recently begun experimenting with fondant,
for various reasons, and with varying degrees of success.
Here are some of my best.

Victor~
I decided against dying the fondant black/dark grey prior to decorating this one, and decided to spray o the color afterward. As you can see,  I had some success, but the attempt was not a complete success.

I used the picture of the actual jet to come up with the basic outline for the cake,
but the rest was freehand. My cake carving skills aren't half bad. :)

Jack~
This was completely freehand, but I started out with several different cake shapes.
I have taken to baking cakes in different sized and shaped glass oven-safe
bowls to reduce the amount of cake that is wasted (or eaten by me) as
a result of the carving process. So far, it has worked quite well.


Daniel~
Again with the random shaped bakeware. this time, I dyed the fondant prior
to decorating but used spray dye to create the polka-dots. It worked quite well.


Jayli~
This was a baby shower cake, and turned out much better than anticipated.
I was a bit nervous about the feet, but they turned out nicely.

Amanda (AKA Zazu)~
This one is a patchwork of different fondant colors, and turned out really good.
Cutting out all of the pieces of fondant and fitting them together was a chore and a half, though.

Kristopher~
The extraordinary thing about fondant is that you can cover good frosting with it,
and decorate the cake however you want to without the concern of
 horrific flavor experiences.  Also, it makes the cake more moist- probably
because it locks all of the moisture in from the frosting, and it
(the moisture) has nowhere to go aside from the cake.

Cakes for Co-Workers

Kimber~
Mini Frosted Orange Bundt Cakes, Stacked and Decorated with Fresh Fruit. 

Alex~
Cherry Chip Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

AJ~
Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing,
White Chocolate Dipped Raspberries,
and Milk Chocolate Dipped Strawberries.

Karli~
White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake with Graham Cracker Crust,
Garnished with White Chocolate Curls, Fresh Raspberries, and Mint Leaves.

Danielle~
White Cake with Raspberry Filling and Almond Buttercream Icing
Decorated with Royal Icing Drop Flowers.

Talysa~
Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling,
Raspberry Cream Cheese Icing,
and Hershey's Kiss Polka-Dots.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Shawnie

This happens to be the first cake I did in marzipan. It is White cake with Raspberry filling. Marzipan behaves a lot like fondant, but is a bit less durable. Also, marzipan tastes fantastic. Its main ingredient is Almond paste, and it pairs well with both white and chocolate cakes.
This cake was inspired by my brother-in-law. He loves fishing, and I like to tease, hence the paddle floating away from the raft and the dog catching a fish while his back is turned. :)



Chocolate rock border


Inspiration

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Introduction

I am not much of a writer, but I have decided that starting a blog about my obsession with cakes is not an entirely bad idea. I think it’s best to start out with a little background on yours truly before I rush headlong into my world of cake. I’m not quite sure when my preoccupation with food first manifested, but I do remember that I was an incredibly stubborn child who adored the color yellow. In fact, I was so enamored with said color that I flat out refused to eat anything that was not yellow for a significant portion of my childhood. Fortunately, I outgrew that ridiculous requirement, but I have retained my love of cheese (cheese was yellow, so I pretty much ate it on everything). How I got where I am education-wise: I remember the required cooking course in Junior High, and that I had a much better idea of what was going on than most of my classmates. I did manage to retain one bit of information. If you don’t rinse the blueberries, the chances of your blueberry muffins ending up green rise exponentially. I somehow managed to sign up for a cooking class my first year of High School, and I thought it was absolutely ridiculous. I knew how to bake cinnamon rolls and cookies long before high school. The next year, I signed up for Food Service/ProStart- the more advanced class. That class was fantastic. We had a commercial kitchen complete with stainless steel workstations, and an exemplary instructor. The next year Food Service and ProStart were separated into two classes, so I signed up for both. As a class, we ran a ‘restaurant’ for faculty members. I was also in charge of the planning and production of the refreshments for Sweethearts and for Jr. Prom that year. I wore a chef coat to prom, and nothing in the world could have made me happier. My instructor convinced me to enter a commercial baking competition, and I won the gold medal. That was the very first time I remember making icing flowers for a cake. The one comment made by a judge at that competition that I can still recall came from the ridiculously attractive younger-man judge, who told me that I had good decorating technique, and that my rolls were the best he’d had in years. Since that time, I’ve worked at three different bakeries and as a cook at a nursing home, none of which gave me the experience I desired. Most of what I know I learned through observation, written materials, and the trial-and-error method. I realize that I tend to jump from topic to topic when I’m writing, and as a result, you might not understand everything that you read. Feel free to ask questions. I reserve the right to withhold answers to some questions, but I don’t anticipate needing to invoke that right. Anyway, now that I’ve thoroughly bored you, I think I’ll end with the story of the very first cake I decorated. It was my birthday cake- I can’t remember how old I was. I was still mildly obsessed with the color yellow, and the cake was round. Round yellow object = smiley face. That cake was the most ridiculous looking thing I have ever seen, but practice makes perfect. Perhaps if I had a few hundred years, I could achieve perfection…