Tidbits & Nuggets

Catching Up

OK, it's been a busy year and I have cooked and experimented the whole time, and even taken some fairly unsatisfactory photos of the recipes.

About this time last year I was determined to make a fancy cake for my neice's birthday, complete with fondant and at least one tier.

I started small with a stacked cake for a friend's birthday. The cake was supposed to look like two presents that featured a fondant bow on the top. I used Wilton colored fondant for the decorations. First I ran them through my pasta machine then cut them into strips. I formed a bow and curly ribbons. To keep the bow from collapsing I just used crumpled foil inside each of the loops. for the curly ribbons I wrapped small strips around the left over dowels (from the stacking.) It took more than a day to dry and I was lucky I allowed enough time.



I wanted to try a topsy turvey cake so I tried my hand when we had a casual family get together. Sad, very sad. Cracked fondant and strangely shaped cake layers. I'm afraid to post a picture for fear it would be featured on the Cake Wrecks site ! Here's a video tutorial from Janelle's Cakes and the post from egullet that shows what I used as a guide and goes into great detail. I didn't use the plastic pieces he refers to though.


I was getting so many wonderful ideas from Pink Cake Box and was sure that my neice would want something fancy - maybe with feathers. Finally my neice's party was planned. She had picked a the signature design from Pink Cake Box. I was slightly releived that she picked a simpler cake than I had envisioned and I managed a decent amateur version.




I made my own fondant from marshmallows. It tasted better than the Wilton stuff and was considerably cheaper. The dark brown got a bit sticky with all the food coloring I had to add.

A big new (Wilton) rolling pin and cutting board worked great for getting the sheets of fondant the right thickness. We all had fun making the ribbon roses.
There was plenty of cake left over and one of my neice's friends was having her family birthday the next day. We sent her off with the bottom teir decorated with extra ribbon roses. My attitude towards cake of this type is that they are craft projects. Once their function (edible party centerpiece) is fulfilled then it's OK to toss the cake out. It's preferable to applying it to my hips! Everyone was glad we didn't have to this time.

In July I cooked for my dog, and made some really cute cupcakes for people too. I got the idea from Family Circle and their website has a full tutorial. The hardest part of the procedure was finding the mini M&Ms. Finally I found them in the baking aisle. I had been looking in with the candy. The tongues are my favorite part. I was lucky to have left over fondant but the recipe calls for flattened out Starbursts.