Saturday, April 12, 2008

The Cake That Wasn't Meant to Be.

I was commissioned by my church to make a cake for the birthday party of our women's organization. I was really excited to try out a new technique I had never used before. It's called a frozen buttercream transfer. You print out in reverse whatever image you want on your cake, then you trace it and fill it in with frosting and freeze it. When frozen solid you flip it over onto the cake. Easy, right? Well you would think so.

I frost my cakes when they are frozen (it locks in the moisture and keeps the cake from crumbling) and that is what I did this time. However, I had been to lazy to level the cake. So while the cake seemed level while I was frosting it, it held a secret deep down inside. After placing the frozen buttercream transfer on the cake and being somewhat satisfied with the result, the cake decided to rebel. As it defrosted it settled. And as it settled it cracked. So did the transfer. Then to make matters worse, it was humid and the cold, frozen cake and transfer started to condensate. There was a lot of blue food coloring in the transfer and it began to run through the cracks. In the end it made for a not so pretty cake.

You can see the dots of water all over it too. Those eventually dried, but the green cracks running through it all stayed. Forever. I was able to patch up the cracks in the white part of the cake, but I just wasn't going to scrape off the transfer and start over. No way.

I did end up sticking stars and twirly confetti on the cake too (which I didn't get a icture of) so it kind of hid the ugly picture, but it was there for the world to see. Oh well. The cake tasted good and I wasn't getting paid so live and learn. Right?

6 comments:

Harmony said...

That is still such an awesome cake! Where are you in my Relief Society? I think we'll have a Costco cake! Nice work

Unknown said...

It still looks amazing to me! Way to go with the cake awesomeness!

Jill May said...

Still looks pretty awesome to me! How are you doing! We miss you guys!

Ariella said...

I like the cracks. Makes it look a little antiqued. :) You could have just sponged a little brown around the edges and voila...RS birthday cake from 1842. It's beautiful!

Lucy said...

I'm still holding a grudge that you kept this little secret from us in R.S. in fort meade, What talent!! :D

Andrea said...

I think it is amazing! It's a lot better than my plain sheet cakes. Oh we shall make a cake while you are here. Maybe a crawfish one for the crawfish boil!! Yeah yeah!! It looks awesome! Great job!!