Time to recount my latest greatest journey through cakedom. I began my last two cakes last Sunday. My first was for the lovely Kim who gave me a chance to show my stuff to all of her Bunco chicas. I made her the dark chocolate Cabernet sauvignon because, well, I'm a huge fan and she gave me free reign. I baked it in a rectangular cake pan, cut it into six squares, and made 3 dice. I had no idea what bunco was before making these cakes (note to self: you got lucky this time with dice...next time make sure you are certain what the background of the theme is...who knows what I could have gotten into!) I used black fondant and white gum paste to turn the three squares into some pretty awesome dice. I got a text that night letting me know it was a hit...phew!
My second task to tackle was a Jungle Book themed baby shower cake. My first task was to tackle making a red velvet cake which I do not typically prefer to eat and, in turn, do not make many of them. I debated on using boxed. After all, that is the great question is it not? To box or not to box, that my friends is a debate all in itself. After some serious contemplation...(mainly because the box was a sure bet and my recipe well...who knew!) I tested out making it from scratch because, as Don reminded me of my mantra...go BIG or go home! It turned out amazing...for red velvet haha. It was very moist and the cream cheese frosting I used on it was so good I may or may not have saved a little in the bottom of the bag for nail polish. Nail Polish: when my parents owned a bakery way back when my father used to "paint" my fingernails with the frosting using the pastry bag.
I baked 9" and 6" rounds for the cake. My plan was to make the characters and place them around the bottom cake which would be green fondant (think the jungle floor) the top layer would be blue (partly cloudy with a chance of vultures) for the sky. I started out thinking that I would make the characters by molding them, but It wasn't giving me the realistic neat look that I wanted. Instead I ended up rolling out bits of gum paste and cutting with an exacto knife. I used different icing colors to color the gum paste/fondant to exactly the right shades, and then free handed a bit where I needed some extra detail. As I said before I had baked this cake on Sunday. I frosted it on Tuesday and started on these characters last night right after work at 6. I was up until apx. 1:30am finishing those stinkers but I couldn't stop...partly because I was on a roll and, well, partly because I have to deliver it tonight (Thursday)! Soooo I was able to finish them all and get them on the cakes before my spine popped through my flesh from being bent over for so long. At some point Chinese food magically appeared in front of me (thank you honey) and I must have eaten some because there's left overs in the fridge but it's really all a blur. Tonight after getting home from work I did the finishing touches by adding some trees, waterfall, clouds, etc. Don is going to help me to deliver it shortly and I can't wait to see it put together! I'm not butting the second tier on until we get it to the house because I'm paranoid so that's the last step!
The baby shower isn't until Sunday but we're leaving for Detroit tomorrow directly after work and will be gone until Monday so I had to have it delivered and ready to be devoured before that. Once this is done I will be able to heave a nice sigh of relief!
P.S. for some reason I'm not able to upload photos at this time but you can check them out on my Facebook under my album Cakes!
