Clever Cake Studio

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!

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 the last of this year’s Valentine’s Day mini-cakes.  It was very enjoyable to make, as I find pouring ganache to be rather fun as I’ve gotten the hang of the consistency and the pouring finesse.

This has pomegranate cake with lemon curd filling, and a dark chocolate ganache.  If you have not tried the combination of pomegranate and lemon, I highly recommend it!  To get the pomegranate flavor, I first tried just a flavor oil, but I didn’t like it very much.  I ended up using a mix of pomegranet juice, grenadine, and lemon juice to get the flavor that tasted right to me.  It ended up being a rather lovely neutral color.

After layering and filling the cake, I did a thin crumb-coat using the lemon curd.  This is to seal the crumbs and also to prevent the chocolate ganache from absorbing into the cake.  Much cleaner and smoother result this way.

There is generally two consistencies of ganache.  A 1:1 ratio of chocolate to heavy cream gives you a smoothly flowing chocolate that is great for fondue and pouring over cake.  When cooled, it forms a soft ’shell’. You can also whip this ganache into a spreadable chocolate frosting.

A 2:1 ratio of chocolate to cream gives you a chocolate that will harden when cooled, so it’s great for dipping strawberries or making candy.

The fondant and the little red beads along the bottom are made of fondant.  I liked the simplicity of this cake, it really felt romantic and sweet.

I had done the WoW cake and the Poker Chip cake on the same evening.  I was very proud of accomplishing both before midnight.

For my Valentine’s Special, I have so far completed 3 of the 4 cakes, two of which have just arrived this morning to their new (and last) home in New York.  Shipping cakes is a tricky ordeal.

I also was honored to do some treats for the Sweet Petula Trunk Show that’s happening today and tomorrow at her store in Pioneer Square.  Sweet Petula offers handmade bath, body and home products.  They are also pairing with Sweet Anthem, handmade perfumes by a friend of mine.  Now they also have homemade lavender cookies, almond-anise biscotti, and sweet petit fours (chocolate mint, chai, and strawberry) for customers to snack as they browse.  Go venture out and get some great deals on lovely products!

So…  In the making of these cakes and treats I learned some valuable lessons.  One in particular stood out.

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This tough cookie is a warlock gnome in World of Warcraft, capable of kicking your ass with a single glance.  Or so I’m told.  All the gears and pipes are inspired by gnome engineering.

This was commissioned by an awesome coworker of mine for his friend’s birthday (they are both geeky homosexuals).  I was given a marvelous instruction for this cake:  “Make it really gay.”

Now that’s a fun license.  Now, besides the shimmery pinks and purples and cursive writing, this cake holds a very special surprise.  The vanilla-almond cake within is marbled in Mardi Gras rainbow colors!  Each layer is filled with raspberry preserves.

I’ll do a tutorial some time on doing marbled cakes like this.  It’s really a pretty straightforward manual process, but a fun one.  I need to do more of these.  The other ones I have here is the Dead Cow Cake and the Aerialist Cake.

The drawing on top is hand-painted.  If you want to do something like that, draw what you want (correct scale) on a piece of paper (I just use regular lined school paper, since it’s lightweight and somewhat see-through.  Tracing paper would be excellent).  Lay it on the fondant, then use a pin to poke little dots along the lines of the drawing, so you have a guide to use to ice/paint over.

I mentioned this in the Steampunk cake post, but the metallic paint is made used Luster Dust, which comes is a wide array of colors.  It’s a powder, which gives a nice shimmery look when applied dry, or you can mix it with a tiny bit of clear grain alcohol to make an edible metallic paint.  It’s fun to play with, though a bit pricey and rummaging through the binfuls at my local supply store is a horribly addictive and expensive pleasure.  There are a lot of gorgeous colors out there!  Not only the shiny stuff, but edible glitters and even matte colors.  I am starting to really like the possibilities with the color dusts - you can get a lot of that subtlety and depth that a really good airbrush artist can manage, without the airbrushing equipment and experience.  In this particular cake, obviously I didn’t utilize all that, but I will for a cake someday!

Birthday cake for my boss (yes I have a day job).  Just something simple and delicious.  Vanilla cake with organic strawberry preserves, covered in almond buttercream.

One thing that comes to mind to talk about is the difference between scratch cakes and box mix cakes.  First of all, there’s really nothing wrong with using a box mix - it’s especially nicer if you can find a nice brand with a clean taste that doesn’t use any corn syrup.  It’s what most of us grew up on and are used to - something light and fluffy and generally very sweet.

Scratch mixes are generally more dense, heavier, with more flavor.  Our grandparents baked cakes that were a bit on the dry side (the buttercream was the moisture), but nowadays, the trend is towards very moist cakes that can last longer. Being scratch doesn’t mean it’s more high-end, as you can find mixes that use high quality, organic ingredients without any odd chemicals.  Also, many people, being brought up on box mix cake, don’t actually like a real scratch cake when they try it, because it’s not as fluffy and sweet.  It can sometimes even verge on breadlike, but with a finer crumb.

Here’s a trade secret - most bakeries use mixes, and have their own special recipe for doctoring them to improve the flavor and create a denser cake while retaining all the moisture and consistency that mixes offer.  It is, however, a faux pas to not make their own buttercream, which can make or break a cake no matter how good the inside is.  They also usually have scratch recipes that they will use on request.  Of course, some bakeries specialize in scratch cakes - as a customer, you need to try out both and decide what you want.

I have a few recipes I like to use now, but am still experimenting.  The recipe with the most consistant results with the highest approval rating by tasters is a doctored cake mix.  As one professional baker told me, “If someone else wants to mix some of the dry ingrediants for me, I have no problem with that.  I put in everything else and make it what it needs to be.”

This is the first wedding cake I’ve done.  These are obviously daunting because of how important everything is - there are around 150 guests and a tight deadline.  This cake had to travel to another city an hour or so away, so it needed to be structurally sound.  Like with any cake I’ve ever done, there were many lessons in it for me and things I now know to do differently.

The bottom tier is lemon cake with a creamy lemon curd filling.  The second is german chocolate cake with coconut pecan filling, which from the bride’s post-wedding review sounded like it was the crowd favorite.  The top two tiers are vanilla cake with banana creme filling.

This was also my very first attempt at sugarpaste flowers, which are time-consuming but rather wonderful to do. I have a lot of respect for the artists who can make amazingly intricate and realistic sugar flowers.

I have a few progress photos to show how to smooth buttercream.  Basically, after the crumb coat, then the final, thicker base layer, stick it in the fridge to cool for a half hour.  Then, you go and fill a mug with hot water.  Take a spatula knife, dip it in, then tap off excess.  With a very light touch, brush the flat of the knife upwards, just skimming the buttercream.  You’ll feel the buttercream go slick and you can smooth a small area this way, dipping the knife regularly.  You may get a lot of moisture, so make sure to tap off excess water from the knife and make sure you have enough time to let it sit to dry off if there’s too much.

I built up some frosting at the top to support the flowers.

Then, once it’s ready, I wrapped real deep blue ribbon around the base of each tier - no tape is needed, as the frosting clings to the ribbon just fine.  This gave it a nice look, though fondant is a better choice if you can roll and cut it precisely.  It just makes the cake cutting easier.  Once the ribbon is on, I started one the pearl border, and the dots.  Then, arrange the flowers on top.

Some lessons:  If the cake is going to be traveling, then opt for fondant-covered instead of buttercream.  I like to do just buttercream whenever possible - not that it’s the slightest bit easier, but most people don’t like eating fondant.  However, fondant would have been sturdier and held up better to the vibrations of a road trip.  There was a bit of settling, so the buttercream walls weren’t as smooth and flat.

I also would pick a larger base board.  This one was two inches bigger in diameter than the bottom tier, but I’d like to have more space to grip so it would be easier to pick up.  Little details like that - lesson learned.

Still, I was told that it was tasty and the bride was satisfied, so it’s a success.  Next time I’ll know even better.

I’m still around and this site is still active.  This past month has been pretty quiet, not many cake needs among my friends, but things are kicking off again this weekend.  I’ll be playing with chocolate!

This experiement has definitely taught me a lot about cake making and decorating.  I did everything quite backwards, learning to play with fondant and scultped cake before even taking a basic piping class.  I do plan on taking those standard Wilton Cake Decorating courses they offer at Michaels’ or JoAnn’s stores, which should broaden my skillset.  I’ve figured out much of it on my own, but I expect the classes to be useful.

I’ve gotten contacted by several people new to ‘doing cakes’ and have one particularly useful thing to tell them: The internet is awesome.  There are so many great websites with tutorials, not only in writing but also in videos.  A search on Youtube brings up some good ones on learning to roll fondant and some piping techniques.  Books and magazines are very nice, but just flip through them at the store for some inspiration.  If they don’t have any really detailed, specific techniques being illustrated, then skip it, it’s an expensive art book.  Save your money wherever possible - you’ll need it!

Fondant isn’t cheap, especially when you’re just starting out.  The easiest fondant to find is usually Wilton brand, but it tastes like old bland gum.  Mix in a bit of vanilla or almond extract to help it out, and use it for all your practicing until you either find a better supplier or learn to make your own (no need ot rush on this, some professionals never bother).

Don’t worry about using box cake mixes, provided that it’s a cake that doesn’t need to hold an unusual shape or more than a few layers.  I usually substitute some of the water for milk, maybe add some more extracts for flavoring, or if it’s chocolate I add some dark cocoa powder.   I also don’t use very thick layers of frosting, to help balance the over-sweetness of the mix.  But mixes are cheap and easy and consistant, and it’s hard enough learning to decorate a cake - you don’t need to also spend more time trying to perfect a recipe.

When you need a recipe that can withstand sculpting or stacking, then you need something more like pound cake.  If you already have a recipe for an amazing, moist and fine pound cake, try it!  Otherwise, just do a search for “sculpted cake recipe” and you’ll find some forums and websites with lots of advice and recipes.  See which you like best, and experiment till you have your own. Lots of professionals doctor a cake mix to get the right density, because it saves a lot of money.  Making anything from scratch will generally cost more and take more persistent effort, but it feels good to know that when they compliment a cake, it’s ALL you.

Generally I find that the tasty cakes that still feel soft (fine crumb) and moist in the mouth often brown easily on the outside, so I have to plan to trim all the outside off when I’m figuring out how much and of what size to bake.  I’m still trying to find the ‘right’ recipe for me.  It can take awhile.  I’m also insanely picky.

I can’t say not to worry about your mistakes, because I sure have cried a lot over my own.  This is art, and cooking, and it’s on a deadline.  You’re hoping to please other people by how it looks and how it tastes. It’s stressful.  Go ahead and cry.  But then get back to work.  Don’t give up.  Cakes are not for inflexible people, or for those unable to handle new situations and emergencies.  Be creative, be clever.  You can cry while you do it, but as Tim Gunn says, “Make it work!”

I would recommend not talking too much about details before the cake is done, if you can avoid it.  As a beginner, you need flexibility.  I’ve been lucky enough to have friends who have been pretty broad in their comissions - “something to do with chemistry and science,” “something from Katamari” or “a dragon.”  Those are nice.  You need to be willing and able to shift your plans based on how things are working out.  The dead cow cake was originally supposed to be quite well and alive, but the head refused to stay on the body.  I didn’t have a good enough support structure, so it fell over, taking a good chuck on body with it.  I went comatose for about a half hour with my husband trying (very valiiantly) to cheer me up and inspire me to try something else.  Fortunately, the friend it was for has a very big sense of humor and liked the idea of a dead cow trussed up for dinner.

Almost every cake is different from how I originally pictured it in my mind.  Most of the time, I like the outcome even better.  But this is why I generally avoid making very detailed sketches, and try to feel out how flexible the person is.  It’s very difficult to make a cake that’s exactly what the perosn wanted and pictured, particularly if they really had an exact outcome in mind.  So we must bow our heads in respect to the pros who has been able to consistently manage this.

I’ve never claimed to be professional, which is useful.  It keeps my cakes off Cake Wrecks (for now) and my mistakes aren’t as big a deal (to everyone else anyhow).  Speaking of that blog, it’s one of those things that you will be told about ten times a month once the news that you’re doing cakes is out.  You’ll also hear about the show Ace of Cakes on Food Network, as well as any number of their Cake Challenges.  Don’t get annoyed, it’s just the way it goes.  All those shows and the blog are awesome, they really do help inspire you.  Once you learn to watch closely enough, you’ll learn some good techniques too.  Cake Wrecks is great for reminding you that, not matter how bad you may sometimes think you are, there are people out there doing far, far worse and getting paid for it.  So buck up.

I’m not sure I ever want to go pro.  I’m happy taking my small commissions here and there.  Ace of Cakes talks about that often - if it’s your job to do cakes, well then, it’s going to feel like a job.  You may love it enough to overcome that, but a lot of professionals don’t even like eating cake anymore, they get sick of it.  I still think about it.  I think about opening a little restaurant or a catering/event business too.  But these are, while interesting and doable for me, very exhausting and stressful.  It’s one thing to stress over a cake/party/food for a loved one, but something else entirely to feel the same priority for a cranky, picky stranger who doesn’t understand the work involved.

Enjoy making cakes, enjoy eating them (till you get tired of sweet things) and keep reminding yourself that it’s supposed to be fun.  It takes time to develop skills, so make sure you’re amused by the journey.