I love making cakes. I do not consider myself a “crafty” type person - at least I do not label myself as such. However, I do enjoy photography and therefore scrapbooking, and I have dabbled in needlework. But I have found my passion. That passion is cakes.
My Aunt Glenda who lives in Nashville, Tennessee makes cakes as a very lucrative side venture. She is so good at it she could have her own show on The Food Network. She is as good if not better than the Ace of Cakes. With her joking, Southern accent, and lust for life, she would make for better television. When I visited her, I watched in wonder as she and my grandmother made elaborate, award winning gingerbread houses. They weren’t houses, they were architecture. They won trips to Vegas, California... all kinds of places. She then got into wedding cakes and custom groom cakes. Groom’s cakes are so awesome. It is largely a Southern tradition involving a secondary, informal, and usually chocolate, cake. It adds a bit of whimsy to what is often a too sophisticated, stuffy affair.
Glenda would use fondant, gum paste, and icing to create all kinds of edible works of art. She once made a groom’s cake that really looked like a stack of law books. I really wish she had a blog or website. But, alas, she has more or less hung up her parchment bag and retired to become a “woman of leisure” - which means she is busy all the time having fun.
I myself just started making cakes (literally) this summer. I won’t get into it right now, but I had a very rough spring. Basically, I was recovering from a bout of poor health and not working. I just started making cakes for friend’s birthdays and their kid’s birthday cakes. I am still in that stage. I am not at the skill level or capable of the emotional fortitude to deal with wedding cakes
yet. I am taking some Wilton cake decorating classes. I started with Level Two. That was dumb. I always felt behind. I am going to start Level One with my dear friend Julie soon in September.
This week will make the third time I will have made Lightning McQueen. I am very slow at it. It takes me a really long time to do this intricate but technically easy cake. It is just “starting” and outlining, but Lightning McQueen does have 11 different icing colors - and making deep red and black colors in icing is harder than might realize. I think more subtle colors like pastels are prettier, classier, and much less likely to stain your clothes, teeth, and face but not nearly as much fun. Some snobby people in my Wilton class think they are too good to do “kid cakes.” Whatever. I think they are fun.They make the kids and parents happy - and it is a good way to “cut your teeth” while working on the fundamentals.
This week I had the pleasure and honor to make a baptism cake for our friends Crystal and David. Their son Jonathan is just too precious. I came up with the design myself. I based it on baby blocks. It is a simple design, but I was quite pleased with the final product. But man, did I have a
lot of problems with it; problems I do not intend to have next time.
First of all, I should have listened to my aunt. A boxed cake mix says it makes two 9" round cakes, but it doesn't really. It does make two 8" round cakes. Square cakes seem to take even more batter. The first batch of two came out flat and crispy on the edges. I was mad. Since the first batch ended up more or less burned, I had to throw it out. When I figured out that I had to make four cakes instead of two and I was already in the hole for one, I did cry, but only a little. One can get emotional about cake. Some people may think, “Dude, it's just cake,” but they are really easy to mess up - and if you mess up, it’s hard to cover up your mistake - and who wants to eat a mistake?
The low volume of the square cakes I overcame by layering them, so I also had to make a boatload more frosting. I ended up having to make three batches instead of just one. My Italian butter cream frosting, which I hope will soon become my signature item, had some volume issues as well. In addition to making a silly mistake of using salted instead of unsalted butter, I have discovered that “room temperature” in a summer kitchen, even an air-conditioned one, gets a little too warm. Here’s a few science facts/tips courtesy of Alton Brown. Butter has a high water content so when it melts it changes its properties. You can’t always replace butter with shortening. Never use margarine for baking: it has completely different properties. Also, name brand shortening only. Quality matters. If you want a cheap cake with cheap ingredients, go to the supermarket - you're guaranteed to get substandard bulk materials, no matter how much they charge you. Hold yourself to a higher standard, and expect higher quality from a professional bakery - at a higher cost, of course. You really do get what you pay for.
In the end, I didn’t finish the four baptism cakes until 3 AM. I started baking around 3 PM. I got nervous, but never angry or resentful. I just know what to do differently next time. That is so refreshing. In my former profession, teaching, whenever I had a setback I emotionalized it, blamed myself, and felt defeated. In baking, I have been paid for a few cakes so far, but when I mess up or something goes wrong, I know I just might have to go to the store to get more supplies, stay up a little later and get it right. I have had to throw away more than one cake - By the way, confusing baking soda for baking powder makes for a really nasty cake.
So I have found my passion and it is sugar. The funny thing is, after all that work, I didn’t even have a piece of the final product. I had to have a bite of my husband’s piece just for quality control, but other than that, I was burnt out on sugar. Yeah, I’m a chubby girl who obviously loves food, but I am also a woman who cares about my work, my art (it will eventually be art, given time) and I love making people happy. Its cake! Cake makes everyone smile, especially when the cake is smiling back at you...
.jpg){kind=link}
