I'm still into the cake business and loving it. I usually try to make a cake at least once a month, just to practice my skills and try new things. I'm currently taking another cake class, this time at Michaels. I'm retaking Course 2 so that I can gain experience from a different instructor who has MANY more years of experience compared to my first instructor. I had class last night and it was a VERY different experience from the last class. I learned how to make two new icings (royal and color flow) as well as created two new flowers and a leaf. I'm also planning on taking Course 3 and Course 4 (of Wilton Cake Decorating) in February and March, as long as there are enough people who sign up for the classes. I want to make sure before we move to Saudi I have as much knowledge as I can on cakes. I created a binder (look, I used my new cricut to make the title page) and included EVERYTHING I have on cake making, cake decorating, directions for coking cakes in each pan, pictures of cakes I've made, etc. I wanted to feel a little organized.
For Christmas, I got some really, really neat, cool tools for cake decorating. I got new pans (square shaped, brownie pans, mini cupcake pans, and even a pan that allows you to create numbers and letters using blocks inside the pan-- I can't wait to try that one!)
One of the tools I received was called Bake Even Strips. They are these silver cloth/aluminum type strips that you wrap around your cake pan and pin them together with special pins and it causes your cake to bake evenly (they are on the cake pans in the pictures). Have you ever baked a cake that has a dome like shape to it? I do every time. It's because cakes bake from the middle and then out, causing the center of your cake to bake faster, thus producing the bump. Sometimes when I cut the dome top off disaster strikes. I decided to try the bake even strips and they worked!!! Check out how flat and even this cake looked. (Don't let the center scare you, I was making a fudge marbled cake, that's chocolate!)
I literally only had to shave off a SMALL, SMALL piece of the top. The main thing I learned using these bake even strips is that you MUST cook the cake longer than what it calls for. Since the strips act as an insulator, the cake cooks much slower. I tested the cake with a toothpick and it was clean so I took it out of the oven. However, after letting it cool and taking it out of the pan, the outer edge was "sticky" almost seemed gooey, but not. This caused an issue when I went to ice the cake. So, I saw on Cake Boss the other day, that you can put a cake in a freezer for 20 minutes or put it in the refrigerator just to chill it so the outside gets firm, so when you ice it, all the crumbs are stuck to the cake. WOW!! That was THE best thing ever! I iced the cake in less than 5 minutes (including the middle layer, outside sides and top. It was amazing. I'm never going to ice a non chilled cake again! HALLELUJAH!! Try it sometime.
Another baking "tool" I was given as a gift was pre-made fondant. I really wanted to play with fondant and see how it "works". So, I made a cake for someone's birthday (I'll post those pics later) and decided to use the fondant. It was fun to use and REALLY, REALLY easy to shape and mold. Brooks did not like the taste of the fondant, I didn't think it was that bad, but you definitely use fondant to make the decorating part easier. I can't wait to make homemade fondant some day (I found a recipe online using marshmallows).
I'll let you know how cake class goes tonight!
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