Every Writing Deadline Needs a Snack

I’ve finally found something that would pay me less per hour than writing — something I’d thought an impossible feat. This cake occupied me for four solid days.

Let me give you a blow by blow of my adventure in creating the tier cake for my fondant class. First of all, long before I even baked the cake itself, I spent at least 9 hours creating the roses that would decorate it. And I don’t think this process would increase in speed with more practice. First of all, the fondant had to be colored and each rose bud center had to be created and allowed to dry.

And this is just the first batch. Then the three additional layers of petals were added. The fondant was rolled out, cut with cookie cutters, then each petal had to be separated from the other with a knife, the edges then tooled to be thing and ruffled — and then it was time to add it to the bud. Repeat this about a hundred and fifty times and you have enough roses to decorate this cake. Of course, they spent a day all over my kitchen drying before they could be moved.

Now it’s time for the cake itself. Two ten inch layers and two six inch layers. Surprisingly the ten inch were a breeze, but those darn six inch didn’t want to come out of the pan and were horrible to cover with fondant. Don’t think I’ll be making that size again.

Anyway, cakes baked. Then they had to be covered with a “crumb coat” of buttercream frosting. Believe me, I was tempted to stop there, you know, quit while I was ahead because it was looking pretty good.

Then came the fondant. Oh my gosh, this was an adventure. Kneading. Rolling. Draping it over the cakes. Working out the wrinkles and fitting it, then trimming. People who do this for a living have all of my admiration! But once the sweat was wiped from my brow (literally), I was surprised I hadn’t messed it up totally. Then the tiers were stacked — piece of cake. 😉 I added buttercream borders and then applied the flowers.

My Final Cake

My Final Cake

My daughter Allison's beautiful cake. She might actually have a future as a baker!

Cake class is over. I kinda miss those Tuesday night’s. My neighbors miss the Wednesday cake consumption. Although I’ll never be a professional cake creator, I am putting my newfound knowledge to good use. The heroine in my next book is a baker … but that’s not the part of her life that creates trouble. Trouble comes from a most unforseen source… but that’s a topic for another day.

As those of you who have been following my blog, I’m venturing into new and unknown territory this year, all in the name of not being the hermit everyone accuses me of being. Yoga. Cake decorating. And I have to say, I’m so very glad I have.

And, as promised, I’m posting photos of my “grand finale” cake. Now to truly appreciate this miracle, you must check my past blog featuring the “birthday blob.”

First, this cake uses Royal frosting for flowers — that’s the stuff that they make the stick on letters and candle holders that you find in the baking aisle in every grocery store. When set, it’s very hard. So the Sunday before our final class, my daughter (heretofore referred to as Skinny Me, you’ll see why when you see her photo) and I embarked upon flower making.

Flower Making

Flower Making

Dear lord in heaven, I never thought I’d get all of the mess cleaned up.

While we were creating our beautiful spring gardens, our cakes were in the oven. Let me say, I have never in all of my years of cooking (and I do like to cook, even though my cake expertise says otherwise), had a cake fall in the oven. Sunday was my first. One layer came out looking like a sagging mattress used by a hippo. I was ready to scrap the thing (ie. eat it) and bake a new one. But Skinny Me had faith that it could be salvaged. She got out her cake leveler (a wonderful tool that, had I know about it, just might have saved me years of embarrassment). My cake turned out kinda short, but who would have known it was initially a disaster. Ready?

Ta-da!

My Cake

Can you believe it??

Now here’s Skinny Me’s

Allison's Cake

Of course, no one will eat either of them because they don’t want to “ruin” them. We may still have these things sitting around when I’m 90.

Might be just as well, I’m not sure what mine will taste like, might be kinda rubbery since it collapsed!

We’ve committed to Class 3. Stay tuned for tier cakes and fondant!

Here it is, as promised. In order to appreciate this miracle, you must have read my previous post, From the Writers Cave.

In cake class this week we learned to do a shell border, the flowers on this cake, how to make clown bodies in which you stick a plastic clown head. (I don’t know if I’ve already shared my strange dislike of clowns in all forms, but let’s just say there was no way I was putting a clown on my cake. I did it on a piece of waxed paper and promptly tossed it as soon as it was finished and approved by my instructor.) We also learned how to make a decorating bag from parchment paper. Very cool skill, I might add — saves tons of clean up. Oh yeah, we also began our instruction on making roses. Now that was fun.

Any way, here’s my finished product, level and all in one piece. Drum roll, please.

It’s not great, and certainly not as good as my daughter’s, but it’s a huge improvement for me! My chocolate frosting was really too soft to do a proper shell border on the base. Live and learn.

Don’t want you to get the wrong idea, I’m actually a good cook, it’s just the pretty factor in which I struggle. (sigh)

I’m missing next week’s class. So it’ll be a while before I can (hopefully) share further progress.

Thank you for visiting Susan’s cake creations and have a great day.