Let’s talk about CAKE!
It’s been WAY too long since we’ve talked about food, hasn’t it? So today we’re going to talk about one of my favorite subjects: cake!
Several years ago, I was asked to make the wedding cake for a family member. While I was working as a culinary instructor, I was NOT a pastry chef, so I signed up for cake decorating classes at Michael’s, the craft store chain.
Every Michael’s store has a classroom in it, and the cost of the classes is quite reasonable. Where they make their money is the GEAR that you must buy to use for the classes. It’s not sneaky, but it is clever.
I took all 4 levels of cake decorating, using Wilton products and “method”. I soon realized I would never do this for money. It is very time-consuming, especially before you have a lot of practice, and I would kill myself if I had to make Spider Man cakes for kids’ birthdays. I enjoy making and decorating cakes that please ME aesthetically, AND are delicious to eat.
As valuable as all the decorating techniques (most of which I’ll never use again) were the tips for baking the cake itself. I’ll share a few:
Don’t waste your energy on making the cake from scratch. You can’t get hydrogenated shortening which is what makes box cakes so moist. Use Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker. For the ingredients, use milk instead of water and melted butter instead of oil. Do not let cakes cool on the countertop. Take out of their pans and put them in the freezer for an hour, then wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Freeze completely if you don’t need to decorate for a few days.
Making a depression in the center of the batter before you put the cake pan in the oven means it won’t rise so high in the center. Level your baked cake with a serrated knife before beginning to frost. If you’re going to use Crisco in a buttercream frosting, we can never be friends.
For the actual wedding cake, I baked 3 separate cakes (the largest was 14″) and froze them. I made 50 gumpaste roses in 3 colors to go around each tier. When I started them 2 weeks before the wedding, each one took me 5 minutes. The last ones took me less than 2 minutes each.
I frosted the cake at my house, then assembled it at the reception site (my sister’s house). I was so nervous, I wouldn’t let anyone else in the room until I was finished!
I went through a swirls phase. That’s a yellow cake on the left with chocolate and vanilla frosting and on the right is a dark chocolate cake with with dark chocolate buttercream, and dark chocolate ganache on top.
I also went through a complicated phase, heavily influenced by Pinterest. Pinterest fails? I’ll leave it for you to decide…
Then there were the “sugarwork” and “marble phases”, which I’ve just emerged from.
Two other cakes are too funny to pass up, and need explanation. The first was to welcome friends of the family who are half-Kentuckian, half-French. The second is for the New Year’s Eve party we go to every year (or did, in The Before Time) where we all dress up, eat, drink & make merry starting at 7 pm. At 9 pm, someone climbs a step ladder with a beachball, we all count down from 10, they drop the ball, we open champagne and kiss each other, yelling Happy New Year! At 9:30 we all get in our cars and drive home, and are in bed, happily asleep by 11.
The finale, if you’re still reading, is a cake I saw how to do on a YouTube video. You spread melted chocolate on a sheet of (washed) bubble wrap, then let it cool enough to be solid, but still pliable. You then wrap it around the cake, put it in the fridge for a few minutes, and carefully remove the bubble wrap. Then I filled the top of mine with fresh fruit. It went to that same NYE party, and was a show-stopper, if I say so myself.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip down my culinary memory lane, with the added bonus of no calories! Please share any memorable cakes or cake stories in the comments – I’d love to hear them!
9 Comments
Nancy
Oh my word what a amazing cakes! They look so incredible beautiful and delicious! I want to ready them all!!
mkmiller
Thanks so much, Nancy If I baked as much as I wanted, I’d be too big to get out the door!
Connie Wright Stanley
M.K.,
WOW. I knew you had shared some killer cakes but did not know that you had made some many. All beautiful. I would not survive even thinking about that huge wedding cake. Whew! The roses were stunning. All of them made me want a slice. Now darn ya I want cake! If I had to choose only one or two to eat…probably the spice cake with carmel is that the same as brown sugar icing. My Mom used to make me a yellow layer cake with brown sugar icing that was the best thing ever. That chocolate with the chocolate angle pieces might be my other pick with a big girl glass of CAB. Thanks for sharing. Just when I thought I knew you. You have another layer that is new to me. Layer get it…pun intended.
Connie
mkmiller
I always feel this way watching the Great British Baking show – must have some kind of cake or cookie! I’ll bet the brown sugar icing is very similar to caramel buttercream, and yes, cabernet and chocolate is heaven!
jodie filogomo
OMG…when I saw these photos on Instagram, I thought you were going to be talking about a pastry shop that you’d visited. Imagine that you made these yourself??? How is it I didn’t know this??
If we weren’t on our nutrient dense journey, this would make me want to get baking. Although that “cake” of fresh fruit would totally work. Okay, I’ll put in an order for that one when we come visit, LOL!!!
And I see no fails here. Did I miss something. You want to see failure….just tune in on my blog on Friday!!
That carrot cake for Easter wouldn’t happen to be gluten free??? I love how Rob feels on our new diet, but it’s killing me, haha!!!
And right now I’m blaming you!!
OOXO
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
mkmiller
What sweet comments (pun intended), friend! I probably did a cake a month in the year before the wedding, but now I only do 2 or 3 a year. I’m learning what gluten-free flours work for various things,although an all-purpose GF wheat flour is what I use for most things now. Haven’t tried anything fancy and also GF. But I sure do better going GF as well.
mireille
I took a beginner’s class at Michaels years ago and it was fun. I enjoyed playing around with decorating cakes for a couple of years. These are so fun and look really tasty!
http://www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com
Joanne
These are fabulous! I too enjoy playing around with cake and even cupcake decorating. My middle son recently started studying culinary arts while in high school and often pushes me to try new techniques and things. We have so much fun in the kitchen and you have given me a couple of great ideas of things we still need to try. Pinned.
mkmiller
Sounds like fun, Joanne. I don’t mind disasters so much if they at least taste delicious, so go for it!