Saturday, January 8, 2011

Cake Decorating Amnesia

                                             


So, I lied, but it was a white lie, because I was trained as a cake decorator for Ralphs and Vons respectively, but that was many moons ago and I don't really consider it formal training because the cakes came to us  premade along  with most of their baked goods. Anyways, this was my first attempt in  a long while to reintegrate into cake decorating (my daughter asked  me to make my grandson a cake and I couldn't refuse him)  and I don't know that I can say it's just like riding a bike, because I have forgotten a lot, for starters, I'm lacking the proper tools. I own a cake turntable and a few assorted icing tips, but if I'm going to continue doing cakes I will need to purchase some more tools of the trade, like a cake  comb and  cake cutter.
 In addition, this was my first time working with fondant and I must say my daughter did most of the work (she's an ace of Cakes junkie), who says you can't get an educated from the boob tube. Anyways, it was easier to work with than I thought. I bought a fondant roller, but I could have used a fondant mat and paint brush to smooth the fondant, but parchment and our fingers sufficed this time. 
The cake icing is chocolate buttercream and we used chocolate fudge for the piping. The bed is made from rice crispy treats covered with pre-colored fondant. w/e also used the fondant to make the stars(hand-cut) and the ball, blocks and etcha- sketch on the side of the bed (you could see the rice crispy treat, so we had to improvise. I got the cake toppers from Ebay as a set. I got the original idea form here:
http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/toy-story.html
For the alien cupcakes I got neon green food coloring, mentos for the eyes, black gel for the pupils and mouth, green sour twists for the antenae, and sour rips and a fondant leaf cutter for the ears and I got the original idea from here  http://family.go.com/disney/pkg-disney-recipes/recipe-857832-green-alien-cupcakes-t/.

 I will post the recipes and my comments for the cake and icings at  a later time.
In addition to the cake we made some alien cupcakes since there will be approximately 30 guests at my grandson's Birthday partry and a quarter sheet will only feed 15-20.

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