Is It Really Just a Cake Walk? Cake week continues...finally!

   

I know I promised some more cakes this week and I am here to make true on that promise!  I do enjoy baking and sometimes I like to create a bit more of a challenge for myself.  Generally when I like to think about the cake and the design first.  I will draw up some plans or designs so I have somewhat of a template to follow like I did here for a friend's wedding.  I make tracers if I am cutting shapes or letters out of fondant so I can keep things looking similar.


These plans for a sunflower cake. I made the tracers so my petals would be the same size.

I have made some drastic mistakes in my cake trials.  For instance, fondant and ganache just don't seem to mix and you may wind up re-covering a cake when in melts and slides off the cake!

 This one didn't take too long to fix. It was my first major cake attempt.  The end result looked much neater and prettier than the original but let me tell you, I was soooo glad I brought everything from extra icing to all the fondant I had in the colours I though I might need!

Here is the original cake, before the disaster!

And here is the cake re done with white fondant. I think I recovered very well from this one!

 This cake was actually a surprise cake for our friend's wedding in August 2009.  I was asked to make the cupcakes and wanted to have a go at a cake.  The cupcakes were fun to design and to make.  I tested recipes and designs until I found one that we liked (by we I mean the bride!)


In keeping with the bride's love of sunflowers, we went with a sunflower theme for the cupcakes.  I used the pumpkin spice cupcake recipe for these cupcakes.

I do have a confession to make here...I did not make the adorable gumpaste sunflowers...*gasp*!!!  I ordered them from the lovely people at Jeff the chef!  They were well done, well shipped, and well worth it!



The other cupcakes I made for this occasion were devils food cake chocolate.  (Drool)  These ones were dipped in ganache, then had yellow petals piped around the edge.

This really was my first major cupcake/cake attempt and I really did enjoy it!!  I know my co workers and friends greatly enjoyed the tasting that went along with my many trials!  Stay tuned for my next cake post!