Thursday, September 13, 2007

Practice Cake #1

So in an attempt to see if cake decorating could be a possible viable business for me I thought it wise to dust off my cake decorating skills and give it a whirl. I made a yellow cake from scratch and also buttercream and royal icings. After much powdered sugar mess and many hours later this was the result:

It didn't turn out like I'd initially planned, but I like it nonetheless. The flowers are made of royal icing, so they are harder, but the rest is buttercream, a really yummy buttercream if I do say so myself. I really need to buy some new cake pans. The ones I have are 9 inch and have sloped sides. Not conducive to straight cake baking. I got some other shots of the cake too:

and...

Now since I really don't want to gain 25 pounds in my venture to practice cake decorating we needed a plan to get rid of the cake. So we called in reinforcements. A few of our friends (more the the usuals, amazingly enough) came over to help us out. Anton made sure to snap a picture of me with the cake before the demolition began:

(Horrid fluorescent lighting!!)

I couldn't bring myself to cut into it after all the time I'd put into it so I passed the knife to our friend Andre and he did the deed for me:

Bella couldn't wait to have a piece:

Once the initial cut was made it didn't take long for the cake to go from this:

To this:

To this:

And finally to this:

We ate the last piece for lunch today. I ate one piece and it was so rich I almost couldn't finish it, but Anton bravely swallowed down 3 pieces, all for my weigh loss' sake. What a brave, selfless man. Andre managed 2 and Ella 1. The rest of us adults stuck with one. Even Alex partook and quite enjoyed.

The final consensus was that the cake was good, but a bit dry. I'm just not good at cakes from scratch. I'll have to go back to my secret method that always works perfectly!!

Today I started on practice cake #2 and it will be my first foray into the world of fondant. All the pieces have been prepped and tomorrow it will hopefully be assembled. Wish me luck!

4 comments:

Mira Designs said...

Wow, love that cake! It looks like a meadow of flowers or a flower bed! And it's easy to believe it was yummy..! ;)

Stephanie said...

Oh my gosh, you are amazing. Not only are you the world's best digital scrapbooker, but now you are the world's best cake maker. That cake was BEAUTIFUL. If I still lived there, I would hire you to make me one. Seriously, it was so good. My other friend Amanda from Florida (Amanda Thompson, lives on base, not a member) also was learning to decorate cakes, and she started a little business there. She made a little money what with wingings and parties and little things like that. But Milton is a good place to do it because the only other competition is a little bakery in town. So you could get rich! Anyway, just thought I would tell you all that nonsense. Good job. :)

Andrea said...

Wow that cake really went fast!! LOL!! It looked really yummy!!

Linds said...

Hey Amanda, So I've come across your blog via the Fillmores I think, Steve added your page to our friends list and I had to check it out! Anyway, it's great! It's great to see what you are up to and I am so amazed at your talent! Incredible scrapbooking, and now amazing cakes! My biggest question is how do you find the time?! I am really impressed and inspired to find something I love to do! Thanks for sharing! Lindsay Bay