And so it goes.
Some weeks ago, I made a cake for a Baby Shower that was being thrown for a co-worker. I had offered to do so and the organizers took me up on it. It was a lemon cake, so I threw in some dainty fairy cakes in case lemon desserts were not someone’s cuppa. They went over big which is part and parcel as to why they’re my favorite thing to make- they’re just enough of a finish for most things. The part that’s always interesting to me though is the reaction. It’s always a little surreal. I made the tasties from scratch, and used pre-made flowers for most of the decoration since it’s not a skillset I have honed just yet. The attendees were bowled over that I had gone to the trouble. And this is where the surreal part is, because it wasn’t trouble. Well, not completely because I was doing a number of new things. Which is part of the reason I enjoy making foodp0rn. I always learn something. Mainly it never dawned on me that ultimately it’s a simple thing, doing something for someone until I got a monster hug by the cake’s recipient. There’s a future sign in there somewhere.
This cake’s Requestor of Deliciousness, henceforth referred to as Ms. NC because my being a somewhat lazy typer is not news to veteran readers, asked me if I would make a cake for her daughter’s graduation. Spoiler Alert: I said yes, providing I wasn’t being shipped off somewhere. So a little over two weeks before the event, Ms. NC conferred with me to give me a snapshot of her daughter. I showed her pictures of previous deliciousness I had made in addition to the baby shower cake she saw. Initially we settled for something the same size. The baby shower cake, as you can see, was a sheet cake and it was big. It was my first layered sheet cake, but since it was a workplace gathering that was throwing the shower, I figured a sheet cake was the better way to go. I didn’t have any new fangled widgets to move and stack the layers on top of each other than plain old fashioned ingenuity, prior ‘thou shall not break the cake layer!’ experience and sheer will.
Honestly, making another large sheet cake and trying to make it awesome gave me initial indicators that it would not rock. This largely stemmed from having no ideas for a flat cake; inspiration needed to hit me. Hard. So I consulted the Great and Wise Internets [t’GAWI] for inspiration. I needed out of the box, something fun, something that declared ‘I am $Grad’s Cake. Behold my delicious Fantastic!’
I saw a lot of play with shapes, symmetry, nesting stacks and quickly sketched some ideas. Then I saw a stage cake and BAM. Inspired.
I saw this offering a number of places via image search and I have no idea where it ultimately is sourced, but this is the image that smashed open the Idea Things Keeper. This was evident with the sketch for a stage layer cake being more decked out when I showed Ms. NC the three ideas that jumped out at me. I had one that showed a square bottom with a star layer as the second tier. Another was a tiered square cake but with each layer turned slightly. The last was a stage cake popping with items that corresponded to what I was told about the Grad to be – a young lady that likes life, has a thing for many avenues rolled up in the Fine Arts category, and like many, is starting another chapter of her life. What is it they say, the World’s a Stage?
With the school colors also in tow, I started seeking out elements to bring together a fun cake that spoke of sass, life, and a touch of classic elegance. It was during this, that a large majority of the decorating plan came together. Based on what was available to use, I came up with this:
Now I had to make it reality, which required a good plan and contingencies for that plan. Trex didnae raise no fool. Between the Mecca that is Sugarcraft and my local Craft stores [which sadly, lack EXTREMELY for foodp0rn creation supplies], I gathered to me what I needed. I knew I wanted to make some edible decor elements, but was put off a bit on the idea of using fondant. Trex biased me when she commented she didn’t like the taste and I was flashing back to my childhood. We’re not huge into sweets to begin with and the grocer bakery cakes put me off on those over frosted creations a long time ago, as in wee-girl-at-birthday-parties ago. I always scraped the inch or more thick frosting layer to get to the cake, and it sometimes got me making Indie jokes in my head. But I’m not eating this, well not the finished product. There’s always Quality checks along the way. I took my cue that not everyone attending was a huge chocolate cake aficionado [insert Craig Ferguson al qaeda joke here], the reception of the fairy cakes and the knowledge that the Grad loves cream cheese frosting and I had my plan of attack, as outlined on the sketch.
Of what I already knew how to do, the Frontier I was heading into was marked by making the layers create a checkerboard effect when cut, making fondant decor, making fondant, ‘painting’ those decorations, building layered cakes to stack into tiers, and making chocolate and strawberry cakes. I’ve made a chocolate cake before, but it was flourless. That wasn’t going to pass muster for this creation. My excitement at being able to the do the above overtook any fear and anxiety. I was certain they’d be patiently waiting for me as I headed into D-Day [Delivery Day].
I make mention of fondant because in reading up on various methods to create edible decor I ran across the option to use Mashmallow Fondant (MMF). I stumbled upon this recipe when reading up on it. It turned out spectacular which means it’s already tucked away in my arsenal. I’m already thinking of making petit fours now, but I digress. I got some great tips from another cakep0rn maker on the tweety (thank you Steph and Steph’s Mom Unit) about using fondant items and frosting which called for experimentation. There would be a danger of my fondant creations melting into the frosting. Buttercream will do this, but I’m using a cream cheese frosting. However, the fat is still present in that frosting and the danger was still something to bear in mind. So, as advised, I put a piece of dried fondant on a dollop of the frosting and let it alone for a day to see what happens. FOR FOOD SCIENCE! There were no cries of ‘I’m melting..I’m melting!’ but it did soften. Since my design calls for stars, this was good to know. Most of them are to be on wire to create sprays, so that became mostly a non issue. I do have a mask and cap that are to be placed on the frosted cake. Now I had to find a means to have them almost touch the cake but not quite or line the areas they did touch.
Tackling the checkerboard style of cake was a little easier- I bought the pans that had the nifty tool to separate the cake batters. I wanted a ten inch round as a base, but I couldn’t locate ones that big, they stopped at nine inches in diameter and change. This then made the stage cake needing to be a seven inch round. That was no problem, I have two seven inch spring form pans that I love to functional bitty bits. Irony is that when looking for a picture to tack onto the design, I stumble across a ‘Well…duh’ method to achieve the same effect here without the nifty tool. This proved fortuitous, because despite the recipe reviews, I wasn’t wild about the strawberry cake I made. I’m getting ahead of myself…back to the whole best laid plans bit.
So, fondant plan? Check. Checkered Cake plan? Check. ‘Painting/coloring’ things red and black plan? Check. Centerpiece plan? In progress, but not a show stopper..yet. Frosting then decor plan? Check. Building the tiers plan…Chehwait. I need a plan for that?
It could be considered late in the game when it dawned on me I might want to ensure the four layer stage cake wouldn’t plunge into the three layer base. Fortunately my search fu is strong and it was light reading perusing advice given on when cakes called for doweled support. Now we are go for Tasty Delicious Construction.
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