Monday, August 23, 2010 @ 7:13 PM

cake or death?

A few nights ago, I watched Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill for the first time since college. As I watched it with friends, I remembered just how funny it was, particularly the skit about the Church of England and the punishment of cake or death. Naturally, I was still laughing about it a few days later when I went to make a wedding cake for my friends Jenny and Chris. I had quite the travel ordeal (thanks NJ drivers) and so by the time I got to CT, I had to pull a baking all-nighter to get the cake frosted, filled and assembled. I was running on a few hours of sleep from the night before so I felt very much like death and in my sugar-induced sleep-deprived state, watched the clip again and posted "cake or death?" as my facebook status, not realizing that I was perhaps jinxing my future self.


The massive first layer of the 14" round about to be baked...



Beautiful, brown and just out of the oven.


Filled with raspberry goodness...



 Playing with my new icing tip and my turn table (I had Beck's "Where It's At?" in my head, only my lyrics were "two turntables and a piping bag")

After the cakes were beautiful and smooth, I put them in the fridge to set. By the time I had everything ready to go, it was time to head to the reception place so that I could decorate the cake. I wisely thought to do two things: 1.) to put a blanket down under the cakes in my trunk in the event of an accident 2.) pack the top tier in its own box and attach it when I got to the venue.

After driving through beautiful, scenic northwest Connecticut, I drove up a few hills and was at the estate where the reception was to be held. I opened my trunk to start bringing the cake upstairs when I was confronted with disaster: cake death.




Cake or death, you ask? I give you both. The cake was overfilled with raspberry, the frosting didn't like the hills or the humidity et voila--every baker's nightmare. Luckily, it was the spare cake (in case the main cake didn't feed everyone).


Though the two large tiers of the main cake were fine, I was not in the clear just yet. As I opened the lid to the top tier's box, I was confronted with a mess. The top layer of cake had slid off into the side of the box, wrecking the frosting and mixing with the raspberry filling. What was once beautiful, pristine, smooth white frosting was now a mangled mixture of pinkish white frosting with crumbs throughout.



Though the bride was incredibly laid back and said she only cared about taste (bless her!), I wanted to fix the problem and make the cake look as best as I possibly could. I had made a ton of gum paste leaves ahead of time, brushed them with green luster dust and then sprayed them with a hint of kelly green coloring to give them some pizazz.




I cleaned up the top layer, added more frosting from my trusty 5 gallon bucket o frosting (you should have seen the cashier's face at Home Depot when I told him I was buying the bucket to fill with frosting) and tried to smooth things over (literally).


I added some "branches" and affixed the leaves to the cake and roughed up the smoothed frosting on the other layers to match the rustic look of the top layers. When it was time to display the cake, the gut-wrenching anxiety that suddenly appeared at the sight of the destroyed layers of lemon and raspberry disappeared. I was happy to save the cake and happy that the bride and groom were happy with the result... and that the guests were none the wiser.





A very happy ending :)

Labels: baking disasters, CT food, wedding cake, weddings

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Monday, August 2, 2010 @ 7:59 PM

Cupcake Craziness & Wedding Wonderfulness

25 hours. 175 cupcakes. 16 lbs of fondant. 8 lbs of buttercream. 2 lbs of gumpaste. 1 six inch layer cake. 1 crazy baker. 1 happy newly wedded couple. 1 labor of love.

Let me explain something. I'm an emotional baker. When my friend Beth got engaged, she asked me to bake her wedding cupcakes. I was delighted. I was honored. I was elated. I was googling wedding cupcakes until I was seeing double. I was bombarding her with cupcake liner designs and wedding pictures. For a week straight, I would fall asleep thinking about the pros and cons of buttercream and fondant. The thing is, when I bake for someone I care about, it's more than mixing ingredients and putting them in a greased and floured pan for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. I bake my feelings along with the butter, sugar, flour and eggs. Baking is my non-verbal way of saying "I couldn't be more excited for you!" or "I appreciate your friendship" or "I love you!" When I get worked up with emotion, I stumble over my words and they sound trite and inadequate, so I rely on cake and frosting to do all the talking. I pour my feelings into each wave of my spatula and every squeeze of my piping bag. And these cupcakes were no exception.

They started off simple enough...



...but as the cupcake pans kept coming out of the oven, I began to realize just what a big undertaking it was going to be. I mean, these were more than a few thank you cookies. These were more than a birthday cake. I couldn't just slap trick candles on top and have a waiter at TGIFriday's bring them out singing and hope the lighting was dark enough to cover any flaws. These cupcakes were for someone's wedding. One of the most memorable days of a person's life. This was serious business. I had originally intended on making poured fondant, but after giving it some thought, I decided to give rolled fondant a try.

some of the many, many cupcakes.

I had a lot of work ahead of me, but I had good company :)

well, for most of the time anyway...


Once the cupcakes were baked, it was time to make the fondant from scratch. [Get the recipe here from cakescanada.com. I played with the recipe a little bit. I found that it was much quicker to stir by hand than to try to use the dough hook. Plus, I was using my sister's Kitchenaid and didn't want to have to buy her another if I broke the motor on it.]

Melting the bloomed gelatin, corn syrup, vanilla extract and glycerin over a double boiler.


Incorporating the mixture with sugar.


Formed and ready to roll!


Then the cutting began. (I used an Ateco biscuit cutter which was the perfect size to cover a cupcake. If your cupcakes are a little big, the beauty of this fondant is that it can be gently stretched with your hands over the uncovered cupcake area).

 
One of several stacks of circles.



Fondant? I've got this covered.


Decorated! (I used the tiniest cutter from a Wilton circle cutter set to get the uniform circles. The smaller circles were cut from the same cutter, broken into two and then rolled and flattened to form smaller circles).


I used an Ateco tip #126 and two different shades of icing for these flowers (lavendar & white).


Boxed up and ready to go!


The final display!








Cutting the cake!

...and so, with every whirl of my Kitchenaid, every swirl of frosting, every tiny fondant circle and every crumb of cupcake, I say...
Congratulations, Mike & Beth!!

Labels: CT food, cupcakes, eating with friends, emotional baking, poured fondant, wedding cake, weddings

6 Comments:

wow kelly, i'm speechless by your all your hard work. love shreya

By  Shreya, at August 3, 2010 at 12:57 AM  

You're a genius and I love you. For all your cakes and all your heart, my beautiful friend!!! I, however, as the roommate of the bride, am left with an apartment full of delicious leftover cupcakes. I have you to blame. For as much as you're an emotional baker, I'm an emotional eater :)

By  Anonymous, at August 3, 2010 at 2:27 AM  

I gasped out loud multiple times over the beauty of your cupcakes. In the event that I'm not a spinster, can you make me a stunning array of wedding cupcakes too?! :D

By  Jess, at August 3, 2010 at 3:13 PM  

dearest kelly. your cupcakes were so SO incredibly amazing. i had 12 that night. i love seeing how you made them!! you are so ridiculously talented! i just love you.

annie

By  Unknown, at August 3, 2010 at 5:01 PM  

Annie really did have 12, by the way. She really did. :)

By  Anonymous, at August 4, 2010 at 5:35 AM  

aww thanks, gals!

Jess - You will not end up a spinster and I will make you cupcakes any day of the week (including your big day).

Annie - I am so proud of you. You are a champ, both for your cupcake eating skills and just generally. Love you.

Em - I can always count on you to verify such claims. For this I thank you. I hope you take the rest of the cupcakes and make yourself some friends!

By  kelly, at August 4, 2010 at 10:14 AM  

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