It all started over 2 months ago when I made a cake for a coworker. I have a book called "The Well-Decorated Cake" that details how to do all the fancy schmancy cake decorating. Of course, it's difficult to pull these skills purely from a book, because there is so much in the handling technique that has to be learned by doing and can't be relayed in a book, no matter how well-illustrated like this one. But still, I managed all right!
The cake itself was DELISH. I alternated chocolate and strawberry layers, and it was divine. My frosting was, uh, not very pretty, as you can see lol. Nobody seemed to mind, but it definitely bothered me personally, and was part of what prompted me to sign up for the cake decorating class I ended up taking in July.
This is the Danish Lagkage med Romcreme or Rum Torte test run I did for the Danish Desserts category. You can definitely taste the rum, but nobody was complaining ;)
This is my Mai Tai Cheesecake. I accidentally let the batter sit at room temperature for too long so it ended up being a bit soft, but overall it turned out pretty well. I made candied orange peel and placed it in a flower pattern on top as my decor (well *I* thought it was clever lol). Not quite good enough to use for competition, but good nonetheless. Still haven't quite figured out kind of cheesecake I want to try, but German Chocolate Cheesecake is definitely on my radar.
These are from my very first cake decorating class. Started out simple, just working on frosting stars. They're basic, but look good in so many different patterns!
Here we have Key Lime Cupcake with White Chocolate frosting. I got lots of compliments on them, and on the frosting in particular, so they're definitely a keeper!
This was from my second cake decorating class. I tried doctoring up my buttercream by adding a strawberry paste, since I made a strawberry chiffon cake, but it ended up messing up the consistency and I couldn't do much with it in class. It's still kinda cute though :)
I sat down one day spread out ALL my cookbooks in front of me and pored over them - found some great recipes I hadn't run across before.
Buttermilk Spice Cake with Seafoam Frosting. It was such a weird frosting - I didn't really care for it, but the cast of Romeo & Juliet seemed to like it. To each his own!
Below are some pics I took in my cake class:
Frosting flowers
Rosettes
Shell border (surprisingly difficult!)
3D Frosting flower
Leaves (ridiculously easy!)
Professional cupcake frosting ;)
Prepping the cupcake to become a "flower" by adding leaves
The finished product - a shaggy mum cupcake!
From the final class - a buttercream rose
Aaaaaaand...*drumroll please*...THE FINAL CAKE!
I decided to commemorate it to the State Fair, because what else could be more appropriate?
It's a "Snickerdoodle" cake, aka cinnamon cake with brown sugar cinnamon frosting. Mmmm...
And now, more trial runs
Granny Cake - it turned out so good I decided to go ahead and freeze, so it will go straight to the Fair!
Golden Peach Pie. Turned out pretty well, but definitely going to buy less soft peaches next time (they were pretty difficult to cut into solid slices)
Chocolate Mint Crinkles, a copycat recipe of Panera's seasonal crinkles, which are my ABSOLUTE FAVE. They turned out really well, so I froze most of them and they will make their debut at the Fair
And my latest endeavor, Lamb Kebabs with Spicy Mint Yogurt Sauce. The flavor was good, but the lamb was a tad undercooked. Grilling is definitely not my forte, but I tried! And I'll try again for the Fair!
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