Thursday, October 27, 2011

Cake week part two

Well, Tuesday was pretty busy, so I just baked the last layer of the groom's cake. Then, last night I got started on building and icing the bride's cake. I started out by making the filling - strawberry cream cheese filling. Yum!



Then, I set that in the fridge and made a batch of buttercream icing. The cake is supposed to be a tan color, so I tinted the icing.



I always start by putting a smear of icing on the cake board, to keep it from slipping.



Then I take the layers out of the fridge, and one by one put them on the cake board, pipe an icing border...



and fill in with the filling...



and repeat...



until you have a filled and stacked cake!



Then I do what's called the "crumb coat," where I put a thin layer of icing on the cake to trap in loose crumbs. It makes it so much easier to go back a put a smooth, pretty coat on later! I learned my lesson with this, though: make your crumb coat the same color as the final coat, because you don't want a different color peeking out!



Two more tiers the same way, and you have one refrigerator full of cake!


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Wedding cake week!

On Saturday, my friends David and Margaret are getting married, and I am very excited to do their wedding cakes. I was going to start the baking on Sunday, but a snafu with the ingredients (picked up the wrong kind of vanilla) pushed it back to yesterday. I'm making a three tier round cake for the bride, and a sheet cake for the groom in the shape of his guitar.

Last night, I baked four batches of cake and refrigerated them. It came out to nine round layers for the round cake, and one (of two) for the groom's cake.

This is really the grunt work, mainly because the mixer does half but the second half must be mixed by hand. Also, I am constantly washing dishes and preparing pans for the next round.

I have to admit, it's still scary to me every time I flip over the pan to get a large cake out! I have cracked and broken several cakes doing this (though none this time, whew!).

By the time I was done with the fourth round of baking, I was beyond ready for bed. One last round tonight and then I can get to the building and decorating! The layers stay wrapped in plastic in the fridge so they stay fresh while I'm working with them.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

New poll!

I'm working on a new batch of posts, but while I get my pictures going and my words flowing, check out the new poll! I know a lot of people have Halloween as their favorite holiday. Is it yours? What are y'all doing for Halloween this year? I haven't even thought about a costume - I'll be baking all week for David and Margaret's wedding! I might work on a series of posts about that. Maybe to atone for the cake series I never finished a couple of years ago.

Enjoy the fall weather! Don't get too cold!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Brain dump

Oh my gosh! Where does the time go. It has been really rare for me to have a free night anymore. I have really gotten lax on the blogging. I really want to keep a good record of these years, though, so I ought to get to it!

- Cory and I are still on the kickball team. We have a game this Wednesday, but the low that night is going to be in the 30s. Yikes!

- Speaking of kickball, I have been super accident prone lately. Injured my finger at practice, have a huge bruise on my leg (have no idea where that came from), and cut myself with a safety pumpkin carving knife! I need to be more careful, for real.

- I haven't posted Penny's seven month blog yet, but I'm working on it. She is growing so fast!

- Cory and I upgraded to the iPhone 4S last week, and I love it. It's a real breath of fresh air from the slow 3G phone I used to have. I find myself checking Facebook on it and then wondering what I can do with my spare time when I'm done, because it's so much faster!

- I'm working my way through reading the Song of Ice and Fire books. I just started the latest one today. I can't wait to finally talk about them with people! Although I find that they're long enough I have forgotten a few details from the earlier books already.

I'm not ready for it to get cold yet. I find myself looking out the window at work, being sad I'm missing the last few warm days outside. Enjoy them while you can!