Clever Cake Studio

This cake was for the Grand Opening party of a local Play’N'Trade store.  They asked that I incoperate a Tetris theme with nods to many of the games and companies that have directly or indirectly supported them.  The little caricatures are the employees.

There are lots of references here to many games and game companies, especially local developers and retro games.  We’ve got a lot of close-up pictures of individual pieces if you’d like to see any in particular.  The list: 5th Cell, ArenaNet, Atari, Batman, Bungie, Donkey Kong, Half-Life, Halo, Mario Brothers, Microsoft Game Studios, Monolith, Mass Effect, Pacman, Penny-Arcade, Scribblenauts, Sony, Square-Enix, Wii, Xbox, and Zelda.

All pieces are made with fondant and hand-painted by myself and my roommate, Dee.  The cake itself is based on the classic Cosmopolitan drink.

Making this cake involved a bit of planning.  There were many sketches done to figure out just how the pieces would lay and their sizes, and which pieces would be what game/company.  Upon being made we laid them out in the cake pan to make adjustments to their fit before being stuck on the fondant-covered cake with a thin water-icing ‘glue’.

Sorry that it’s been awhile!  I’ve got several cakes lined up in the months ahead, so I’ll be posting more often.  To kick it off, this is a cake I made for my husband’s 28th birthday.  I was inspired by several steampunk and fantasy flying ships, including one of my favorites from the movie ‘The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen.’  This top photos is a little cheesy because it’s the cliched background-removed (by someone with meager photo editing skills), but I really wanted you to see the cake as a whole, and not all the party people and kitchen in the background.

This is two cakes stacked - the bottom is a chocolate cake layered with cherries, and the second is a lemon cake layered with lemon curd-buttercream, and fresh blueberries.  I used many supports and had some carboard between those layers, so that when it came time to cut, I was able to very easily slide a long, wide, flat spatula just under that cardboard, and then lift off the whole top cake and set it on it’s own tray for cutting.  I hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but the audience I ended up having while I was doing made a lot of appreciative noice.   There was also a lot of happy reactions to the taste of the cake itself, which, to me, is paramount - I will always see flaws in my artistic work because I’m constantly trying to improve… but I like the recipes I use, and work with really quality ingrediants, so it means more to me that people love to eat it than look at it.

All the fondant decorations are done by hand.  Every individual board, since I wanted to mix shades of brown for a more realistic look, was laid one by one.  There were advantages to doing it that way rather than finding a fondant-stamping sheet (you roll out your fontant onto the sheet, on press it on afterwards, and it can imprint its design), though a sheet would have been much faster.  Had I more time, I would have added even more - because it’s the details that matter.  Like adding crates and barrels, nets and ropes, anchors, bags, bottles, whatever.  Signs of life and activity aboard this fantasy ship.  I want to do a more elaborate and more technological airship as a display cake, and I’ll go all out on all those tiny details then.

I used lots of dust for this one, both matte and luster.  That’s really what made it look fun to me.  Making the dust into a paint would have been a much more dramatic metallic, but I was fine with this softer, fantasy look.  There’s even edible glitter in the clouds, which didn’t really photograph (I also, when I was all done, put some extra glitter on one of my black cats because she was being a butt).

Clouds, by the way, are a pain.  I had used a meringue buttercream because it would be light, since it was really just there for decoration and then would get sloughed off.  But it doesn’t hold shapes as well as a standard buttercream, and I didn’t realize how picky I’d be about the way they looked.  I finally forced myself to leave them be and move on.  Next time, there will be much prettier clouds!  It’s all in the details, right?

Here is the concept sketch.  I usually just doodle something out a few times depending on how comfortable I need to be with the design.  The fox cake, for example, I spent much longer drawing out from various angles until I felt comfortable enough with the shape to go at it in carved-cake form.

This final photo was taken by a friend of mine, after the balloons were removed for safety and some candles lit up.  If other people at the part submit some photos that are good, I’ll probably also post them as well.

I’m going to share my experience with a wreck today.  I may get around to adding some pictures later, so check back again in a week.

I think it’s important to know that the craft and art of caking is never a perfect journey.  I mean, really - you can even watch shows of professionals, like Ace of Cakes, Cake Divas, and all those Food Network Challenges.  They are constantly experiencing setbacks, mistakes, and outright failures.  Sometimes it’s poor planning, occasionally it’s a client, and some days it’s like the materials just don’t feel like working for ya.

So if you’re getting into cake decorating, don’t give up.  You will have failures.  Occasionally you will hand over a cake that you aren’t especially happy with, and you may even have to experience the awfulness of telling a friend, “Sorry, I know I was going to bring a cake for your party, but at the last minute, it fell apart, and I can’t fix it.”

That’s what happened to me this weekend.  I had great plans for this cake - it was for the first birthday of a friend’s son, who is our Godson, and we’ve known him since conception! :)  So I was looking forward to it.  I had waffled about the actual design until only days before, and was going to go with an under the ocean scene - as he’s lately been very interested in watch ‘Finding Nemo’ repeatedly.

I didn’t want to do an ordinary ocean cake - in which you basically have a base (either a sheet cake or some tiers) and a bunch of ocean stuff stuck to it.  I try to avoid that - even in my only other ocean cake, the Sea Monster one, I tried to make it all part of the scene in a logical way, rather than the cake just acting as a background.  You’ll find that cakes that are backgrounds to a bunch of stuff stuck onto it are viewed almost with the same feeling as advanced jewelry-makers look upon “bead-stringers.”  It just isn’t very interesting or exceptional;  anyone can do it.

Since ‘Finding Nemo’ was the inspiration, going with clown fish in their natural habitat made sense.  I looked up sea anemones, sketched several of them till I got the idea of their range of looks, and came up with a design.  The cake itself was the sea anemone and a bit of the rocky ground it sat on.  We (the whole household contributed) made lots of stuff in fondant for decorations - little tropical sea critters, shells, some rocks and a baby eel hiding in them, a sea star, coral, and a small sea anemone.

For the big anemone’s tentacles, I decided to use gummy worms.  I am pretty set against using candy on cakes, just because it feels cliche and sorta like cheating (like sticking plastic toys on there), but I liked the semi-transparent look they would give.  I went to a bulk candy shop and picked out the yellow-red ones only.  I had to cut off the heads (which had little happy faces, so that was a bit creepy to have a pile of smiling heads afterwards), and stick half a toothpick into them at that end so they could be attached to the anemone.

Here’s where I made my mistake.  I really should have gone with an anemone design where the base was as wide, if not wider than the top.  It may not have looked quite as realistic, but it would have been much more stable. I had three cakes - one for the rocky base, one for the ’stem’ which was pretty short and narrow, and one that was made into a wider ‘bowl’ for the top.  It was rested at an angle on it’s stem and the base so I thought it was well-supported.  I wrapped it up in fondant and decorated the base.

I didn’t realize just how heavy all the gummy tentacles would be.  I had added those things just about last - the cake was nearly done and was looking nice.

After almost all the tentacles were on, I noticed that the ‘bowl’ part of the anemone beneath the fondant was starting to come apart.  It was splitting because it could not handle the weight distributed along the top edge.  I use a pretty decently dense, fine-crumbed cake, so it can usually take some rough treatment well, but this was too much for it.  Sometimes you can still make it work with some messy effort - rearranging things, some cutting and trimming and re-applying buttercream and fondant.  Sometimes you’ve got the option to change your design and make it work.

It happened rather quickly, this transition from almost-done to beyond-repair.  And it was, as it always is, heartbreaking.  Its not just the time spent and the cost of materials - you really get into the story of the cake, especially when it has so many little details and you’re proud of coming up with an original design.  Whether it’s for a friend or a client, no one likes to disappoint others.

By the time I finally stopped trying to rescue my dying creation, it was in the wee hours of the morning.  I was exhausted, and my energy is not what it used to be.  I could have re-fired the oven and baked some more layers, and hopefully they would cool by morning and I could throw on some fondant and do the usual fondant-decorations-on-a-background-cake, since I still had most of those things we had made.    But my health wouldn’t permit it - I was already in pain and needed to crash, hard.  As it was, I crashed so badly I ended up not being able to even attend the birthday party - a double disappointment for me.

I’ve got plans to take out mommy and son later on to make up for it, but it was still an emotionally trying experience.

It’s surprising how much a little thing like cake can get you so worked up and frusterated - or how exhilerated you can be when it all works out and the client loves it.  It feels very outside of yourself  - I’m not sure I could ever be egotistical about my cake skills no matter how much they develop.  It feels like too much of the venture has to do with basic craft skills, the quality of the materials used, and a lot of luck.  I’m just the agent, the mechanism, that brings it all together.  And I certainly have a lot of hard work ahead of me to improve my mediation skills!

I have a couple other cakes in the next few months for my husband and my roommate (I also call her my sister, we’re all family), so these are chances to redeem myself in my ability to make cakes for people important to me.  Wish me luck, as I do better in my planning this time around!

I do plan on making this sea anemone cake someday in the future, because I love the idea of it and would enjoy making it work.  I’ll just have to find some excuse to try it again!

The Punk Rock Flea Market was, in short, a lot of fun.  It was a lot of work and stress and hard labor, but it was also very rewarding.

Getting instant feedback from so many people was awesome.  We had some really amusing and flattering comments (our favorite was from a woman regarding the strawberry-balsamic chocolate fudge, who said it gave her a hard-on) and the few criticisms I felt were justified (I’m still tinkering with the Gold Hearts to bring out the distinct Goldschlager and make them less like regular snickerdoodles).  Overall, it helped solidify for me that there definitely was a strong market for unusual flavors.  People called our menu progressive, innovative, even inspiring!  That was really amazing.

It was really, really wonderful to watch people’s expressions as they tried the samples.  The fudge was the first thing that sold out, and it was very well-received. The Spicy Hot Chocolate cookies were a blast - the heat doesn’t hit you right away, it’s rather this unexpected boot to the rear end on the way out.  So people would take a sample, chew it, nodding and starting to move on, then suddenly stop and look surprised.  Those also sold out, as people kept returning to buy some more and finally one lady bought all we had left in one fell swoop.

Let’s see… The lavender oatmeal was awesome.  It didn’t matter that it was vegan, people were snapping them up and we ran out.  The rose baklava went over well, but it is harder to eat while wandering a market.  My Cranky Lemon Muffins, freshly baked that morning, unfortunately suffered on the ride over and I only had a small number that weren’t squished.  However, we enjoyed them and shared them with our fellow crafters sharing the big tent with us.

The other items all did fine as well, but the lavender oatmeal, strawberry-balsamic fudge, and spicy chocolate cookies were the really big hits.  I need to play around with more fudge ideas.

Also, I need to do more vegan items next time, and get some gluten-free products.  I had four people ask about GF stuff and I hated having to say I didn’t have any - I wanted to, but ran out of time.

For those of you who eat GF, what sort of things would you like to see?  I want to develop some non-chocolate items, because it seems like flourless chocolate cake and other chocolate baked goods are the most common GF products I’m finding, and I know I’d get bored of that pretty quickly myself.  Just about any of my standard items I will be converting to Vegan, GF, and Vegan-GF versions.

Any other special diets I should also take into account?

Whew!  It’s hot here.  Not Arizona hot, where I grew up, or even California hot.  No, it’s just Seattle hot.  I remember when I was young my family visited Seattle during the summer.  There was a heat wave, which was really only in the 90’s, and we all found this funny, having come from the low 110’s.  Granted, there is more humidity here and air conditioning does not come quite so standard as it does with the homes back in Phoenix.

Now after living in Seattle for 6 years, I’m quite used to my nice 60 degree temperate weather and am finding 75 degrees at night a very uncomfortable temperature to sleep in, much less bake in.

Oh yes, you thought this wouldn’t have anything to do with baking?  Not here.  It’s unescapable.

Imagine a house with no air conditioning, and more than half the windows don’t have screens so we can’t easily leave them open because of our indoor cats.  We run all the fans we’ve got, but they’re fighting a losing battle against a 350 degree oven running for hours on end in a tiny little kitchen.

With the teasing scent of browning sugar, melting chocolate, and baking cake, it becomes both a wonderful and torturous place to be.

Right now, we’re doing all the final stuff for the Punk Rock Flea Market.  I’ve got 7 products about done, mostly wrapped.  I’m waiting on the rose baklava in the oven right now while some lavender blondes are cooling.  I’ve got a big pile of Sugar Rats, painstakingly decorated by the whole household (by the way, as a tip, those cheap three-pack empty condiment bottles you can buy work well for icing cookies) as well as some Gold Hearts (Goldschlagger Snickerdoodles), Absinthe-Almond-Fig Biscotti, Cherry-Gingersnaps, and Spicy Hot Chocolate cookies.  Tomorrow I’ll be making Strawberry-Balsamic Fudge and finish up the remaining packaging and labels.  Sometime on Friday or ungodly-early on Saturday I will be making some Cranky-Lemon Muffins.

I’m pretty exhausted, but it’s nice to see things slowly getting finished in this final hour.  I am always too ambitious and usually plan for more than I manage, especially as of late.  Since mid to late last year (this is not really when things started, but when it all seemed to kick off and get exponentially worse), I’ve been dealing with a lot of health problems.  I was just recently diagnosed with what seems to be Lupus.  Lupus is not really officially diagnosed until there’s organ damage, which thankfully there isn’t at this point.  But as my family and medical history point very strongly towards it, it’s a pretty damn safe bet.  I’m still figuring myself out in it, finding out where my new limits are and trying not to be trapped by them.  Sadly, my energy supply is definitely far less predictable than it used to be.

Overall, though, I’m pretty happy with the selection we’re accomplishing.  Since this is my first time at this market, it’ll be a learning experience anyhow.  I know that there is usually just over 1000 people in foot traffic throughout the day, so it’s quite possible that if my products appeal to people we’ll sell out early since we’ve only got less than 100 of each type. We’ll see!

If you happen to make it out there, drop by and let me know you heard about it from my blog. I may be able to sneak you a good deal

This was a cake done for the farewell party of one of my bosses. He had been an absolutely great guy to work for, and was a bigger influence on me than he probably thinks. I’m sad to see him go.

I had asked him what his favorite drink was, pretty out of the blue, with no explanation.  I used it for this creation, which is based on the recipes of a few other food bloggers with only minimal changes.  If you want to try it for yourself, check out this recipe at Erin Cooks to start from, who got it from the book CakeLove.

As I have not drunk Mojitos before, I had to rely on the feedback from him and my coworkers. It got really rave reviews, and I personally really loved it.  This is definitely a keeper.  The cake was moist and rich with flavor, and the Italian buttercream was very light and fluffy and flavorful, not too sweet.  Balanced beautifully.

I also learned that I can make a decent cake even when I’m dead sick from a horrendous cold.  This seems to be making the rounds - starts with a sore throat, followed by days of congestion and yuck and zombified brains and utter exhaustion.  It’s been a week now and I thought I was over it, but its dragging on a bit longer.  Which really is inconvienent, as I’m doing tons of baking this month in preparation for the Punk Rock Flea Market. I’m a bit behind schedule, but will hopefully catch up once my brain starts functioning again.

This is a catch-up post.  I had gotten the photos from her awhile back, but only now finally uploaded them.  See, this is what happens when you forget to take photos yourself in the first place!  Throws everything for a loop.

This was for a friend of mine, the creative genius behind Sweet Anthem, making handmade vegan perfumes and other scented delights, for her Valentine’s Trunk Show at Sweet Petuna in Seattle.  I mentioned this when it happened back on this post.

I made heart-shaped lavender cookies, almond-anise biscotti, and sweet petit fours (the gold one is bittersweet-chocolate mint, the white one with spice dusted on top is chai, and the one with the red dot and edible pearl is strawberry).

Petit fours are really fun to make, and it’s such a lovely, ethereal treat - the poured fondant coating is thin and light, with a soft vanilla buttercream beneath, and then the not-too-sweet cake and filling within.  I think in this case, the strawberry one was a tad too sweet - next time I’ll use preserves that are a bit more tart and less sweetened.

The only times I’ve sold my stuff at an event were the two Fancy Rat shows, where people go more to look at rats, have their rats looked at, buy rat stuff, and, occasionally, buy a rat.  When you have non-rat-related items, the reaction is often surprise.  Cupcakes and cookies sell well normally, but when the first question a potential customer asks is “oh, are those for rats?” (despite heavy signage announce their edibility for carnivores and vegans alike), then you clearly are not in the best element for profits.

I did work around that a bit with the Sugar Rats, which were popular.  I really like doing those, and may have to commission some custom cutters for more unique shapes.  Maybe I should make them the mascot for Sugar Revolution?

Anyhow, on June 6, I’ll be at my first actual here-to-buy-stuff show.  It’s the Seattle Punk Rock Flea Market, an eclectic and eccentric mix of just about everything you can imagine, from vintage clothes and collectables to live reptiles and on-site tattooing.  I link to their Craigslist posting, as the MySpace page is rather wild and harder to read.

I will be sharing space with a crafty friend of mine, who makes chainmaile art and jewelry (check her out at Knitted Steel).  We’re having some fun figuring out booth and display design.  Another friend of mine will also be there with her delightful collection of handmade, vegan perfumes (go visit her at Sweet Anthem).

I’m also going to try and make an interesting display cake for it as well, just to show off a bit and catch people’s eyes.  Display cakes are, of course, fake, filled with foam instead of delicious cake.  Generally all the coverings are still the same sugary products, but this lasts a long, long time and makes for a good, portable example of your work.  I think doing something elaborate and steampunky would be good.

So if you’re going to be in the Belltown Seattle area on Saturday, June 6, please stop by!  It’s only $1 to get into the Market, and you’re sure to enjoy yourself.