so these cakes are to bring you up to speed...in case you're too lazy to check my site. The first cake is one I just finished, a princess castle thing that I did by copying a kit that costs 12-20 dollars for about 5 bucks. Made the turrets out of craft foam and the princesses were printed on paper then laminated with packing tape. Whalla...
Next was the 48 cupcakes that were a last minute order on Thursday. The theme was "summer" for a little girl turning two. I'm really pleased with the way they came out, and for it being last minute, I think it was great!
Next was the butterfly garden frenzie. There were three cakes, and 4 dozen cookies to this order..all butterflies and such. The cake was decorated with whipped icing this time instead of buttercream, and I was really pleased with the turn out, since whipped doesn't want to hold color for shit. Yay.
Next was the Bon Voyage cake I did for a regular customer of mine. She was moving away to Hawaii. :-(
Lucky girl. So I did this sheet cake as a gift. Just for fun.
Next was obviously a Halloween cake, round mold for the eyeball, and gummy body parts to complete the creepy look.
Next was the dreaded Coach purse, that I worked really hard on, but didn't like the outcome. I also made the iPod and headphones myself out of fondant. And the tag with the birthday girls' names on it.
And last but not least, the Magic jersey I did for a lady to surprise her husband for his birthday. He turned 22, hence the number on the jersey, in case any of you are magic fans and know that there isn't a #22 on the team. Right, so..plus 12 cookies decorated like basketballs. Yay for cake, and all that. Have two more orders this weekend. Should be pretty cool.
R.
So, I haven't posted cake pics in a while, though last month was a doozey. Did 25 orders all together last month. A crazed amount. This month has been slow and mild in comparison, but the cakes I do have coming up are pretty awesome. I did get an impromptu order a couple days ago, from a lady in Colorado. Apparently, my little cake business is listed on a website called "The Gathering". I had no idea, until I asked her where she got my info from...so I checked it out, and it can be googled...I feel strangely out in the open now....
Anyway, she asked for a cake with a farm scene on it for her daughter's birthday. They own a farm in Colorado. So the animals were specific to the farm, and the colorings of the real animals. Everything else was up to me. She paid me $50 to do the cake, though I quoted her a price of $32. I am pretty darn happy with the outcome:
So, up next lots of tiered cakes. A wedding on the 20th, a baby shower on the 21st, an anniversary cake on the 24th, and a princess cake for twins on the 27th. All tiered cakes. I do have one Halloween order, a sheet cake with a cake eyeball on top and edible spiders. Then there's the alligator shaped, banana flavored cake at the end of the month...spooky, huh?
I had two orders due today. The first was the Baby Block cake for the shower. I was initially very excited about the order, because it gave me a good chance to try some decadent fillings, and try to challenge myself construction wise. Umm. so in MY opinion, it was a disaster. Block 1 was white cake with strawberry filling. The filling is awesome, and the cakes baked up pretty well, so I thought it was smooth sailing. I leveled everything off, added fillings and layers, all went well. But every time I tried to put the coat of buttercream on it, it would just fall right off, taking pieces of the cake with it.
:-O
I chilled it in the fridge, and came back to it, and it was still REALLY crumbley, but I did manage to get enough buttercream on it to overlay it with fondant. The batch of fondant that I made was awesome, it rolled out really well. I put the cake on the board, laid over the fondant, and it looked pretty good. But by the time I had the second block ready to put on the board, it had done a slide. Not a terrible slide, but a noticeable one considering the cake is supposed to be BLOCK shaped, not rhombus shape or whatever the fuck. I put the second block on, iced it fairly easily, and covered in fondant. I then inserted two support dowls into the cakes. These are pretty sturdy dowls, so I thought for sure that with a little kanoodling, Block 1 would shape up, and look like block 2. Block 2 was chocolate cake with an chocolate orange ganache filling. Block two ended up being the only block that stayed block shaped. I was up until 5 this morning trying to finish, and fix the cake. I took a two hour nap, and when I got back up at 7, the damage was done. The fondant was not completely adhering in Block 1, causing bubbling and cracking. Block 2 remained decent, but the top block was LEAKING vanilla cream, down the back of the cake. Through the fondant. I did a lot of paper towel dabbing, and soul searching, and a bit of crying before I called the lady. I told her over the phone that the cake had slid. She said she wanted to see it before she made her decision. She came, and absolutely LOVED the cake. She said it was a little droopy, but totally exceeded her expectations. The lady that came with her to get the cake also loved it and said it was "darling". I think it was quite possibly the WORST cake experience yet, and did not agree with either of them. She paid full price for the cake, and wisked it away. I DID NOT TAKE A PICTURE OF THAT HORRIBLE CAKE. I just wanted it gone away from me. But she said she would email me pics at some point...guh.
Then it was on to the next cake, which I had originally wanted to at least bake off last night, but the block cake took over the evening. Long story short, it wasn't done at 6 this evening when they came to pick it up, and the girl stood and watched me finish the cake. Did I mention Elora was screaming the whole time because she wanted to eat the cupcakes that went with the order? Nerve wracking enough without a total stranger standing in your dining room watching your every move. Holy shit what a day. So glad that the next thing I have to do isn't cake.
I will sleep well tonight. Cause I don't have to make a cake tomorrow. I need a break.
Another day, another cake. This time it's just a safe old birthday cake. Sheet cake, to be precise, chocolate with buttercream. The only interesting bit about this cake is the new strawberry puree recipe I came up with. 1 pint fresh strawberries, cut into chunks, put 1/4 of them in a saucepan with half cup of sugar. Start it at low heat until enough liquid is produced, then turn up the heat and bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, mix up a thickening agent, consisting of 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch, and 1-2 Tablespoons of Chambord. In case you don't know what it is, it a black raspberry liquor with little honey undertones, it's fabulous. And even more fabulous with the strawberries. You mix the thickening agent with the strawberry mix just after boiling, return to boil and stir constantly for 2 minutes. After that, take it off the heat, and add the rest of the strawberries. It is knock-your-socks-off fabulous, and the best part is...the alcohol burns off, so it's good for everyone..even the kiddies. Try it sometime...put it over cheesecake...I dare you!
But other than that...run of the mill cake.
It was good to get back to the regular stuff. The next cake is ABC blocks for a baby shower, for Saturday. Wish me luck!
Dropped off the Barbie cake today. The lady had a happy but scared look on her face. I think because it's the equivalent of a half sheet of cake, in dress form, and apparently it's just for one little girl. No party, like I had originally thought. So, I hope they have some hungry family members.
I got home, and checked my email, to find another cake order. And I figured I would eventually get an order like this...but not necessarily these circumstances... An X-rated cake. For a lady's birthday. No problem. It's not unheard of...the lady who emailed me said it's for her boss's birthday on the 3rd of August. She goes on to tell me that the cake should be real kinky...whips, chains, what have you, because this special lady is a professional mistress in her spare time. She says the lady has a website, if I'd like some inspiration for the cake. I email back, and say sure! I figured I'd get a call for one of these eventually..no problem. Send me the link if you like. I tell her, the idea I had was to do a transvestite torso, with the phrase "Surprise! Happy Birthday" on it. I send the email off, and think to myself...how bad could it be? She lives in hick town Jacksonville, that's the size of a quarter.
The email back states that she is extra happy that I'm able to do it, and the idea sounds great! She says it's hard to find someone to take her seriously about this stuff, and leave the email with the link to the website.
www.mistressdiabolical.com
okay, I'm no stranger in the night here...I've seen my share of stuff. But I think the disturbing part is....A.) this stuff is happening here, in this little tiny town, and B.) there is an organized group you can join. Most of the contraptions were just hilarious...and the checklist was very thorough... I guess now, I just feel a little overwhelmed. I hope I don't let them down! I mean, you can only make cake so pornographic after all.
So, yeah....my first fondant penis and boobs...wish me luck.
I did a cake in a SUPER rush this morning for Matt's units goodbye party. I really could have used double the time I had to do it in...but in the end, though the filling was threatening to spew out of the cake, the logo did good, and it tasted fantastic. I did a yellow butter cake, made with butter and buttermilk, filled with a strawberry puree, and iced with homemade chocolate buttercream. Ringed by chocolate covered strawberries....not the prettiest one I've ever made...but a winning taste combination for sure.
Okay, so my previous entry, I posted the pic of the Tweety cake. For Kebra...(ethiopian for glory of kings, hehe. brandon :-D) and I put it in the fridge. All snuggled in it's box awaiting delivery. Then, later yesterday, I decided to sneak a peak and see how it was doing. The black of the outline and text bled ALL over the cake. I tried several cruddy patch jobs, before realizing I had to scrap the whole cake.
When you do a buttercream transfer, like I used to make Tweety, you have to put the transfer in the freezer to harden. Thus making it easier to apply to your cake. What wasn't included in the directions for making said transfers was a little tip about the condensation that undoubtedly forms on the transfer as it descends in temp. This condensation destroyed my cake. Plus, North Carolina is humid as hell right now....I wanted to fricken cry. Matt gave me some reassuring hugs and said "get thee to walmart" to get supplies to redo the cake. After I got home, and re-iced the cake and re-traced the transfer, I got on the net and did some digging. I'm not the only one who's run into this problem!!! Thank god, cause I felt like a loser. The best way to fight condensation is a regiment of paper towels. Draping the towels over the image, and changing out paper every 5 minutes as the cake comes to normal temp. It worked. I delivered the cake thirty minutes ago, to a happy customer.
I also decided to steer clear of the black for the writing, and also, wasn't fond of the original layout...so I added a banner in Tweety's hands and did her name larger at the bottom. I actually think it turned out better than the first go! Hooray, it's over!!!
