Cake Building

Well I waited for this day for quite some time.  I had been to the grocery store and had tons of things required to make a cake.  Not to mention a box full of fun tools to make my first homework assignment.  With it being Mother's day weekend, I decided that it would be Mom's choice....which meant chocolate cake!  (Not that I mind all that much!)  The entire kitchen was a disaster for the entire day on Sunday.

My number one lesson throughout this entire experience is that even for something as simple as a box cake, I need a KitchenAid.  Now I know what you are saying, "Carrie, you are just looking for an excuse to get a mixer."  Well you are right.  However, I was in the kitchen all afternoon, burning up my hand mixer.  I did end up buying the baking strips that I had mentioned in my last post.  And I can say that I am now a believer!  I didn't know that they would keep the edge of the pan cool enough to actually affect the way the cake bakes!  There is only one down side...you don't end up with a lot of cake to trim off.  Which means there isn't much snacking while decorating.  (However, if this caking thing pans out, I'm sure I'll need to stop tasting in order to fit in my jeans!)


While my cake was in the oven, I started the task of making my own buttercream icing.  And I was amazed at how wonderful it turned out.  Let me stress that I was beating it for about an hour.  So it just isn't possible for it to be lumpy.  Thankfully I ended up with a light and fluffy bowl of sweetness!  Which worked out well when I was coloring it as well!



Icing the cake went fairly well.  I think that I expected it to be a lot easier than it actually was. I started with the filling between my layers.  And the key to that was that I should have had more icing!  I ended up with crumbs in my icing.  But I made up for it with a crumb coating.  I know that I am a perfectionist...but it really came out when I was putting the final icing on the cake.  It wasn't perfect...but fairly close.


Class was alright.  My practice frosting was the wrong consistency.  (Which reminds me...my 'Madea' teacher calls it consistence.)  Because of this I was a few minutes behind the rest of the class for a majority of the whole night.  By the end of the class I had learned how to make the rainbow for my cake and had practiced handwriting.  The key is to have the right consistency icing and to relax!  All in all, I am very pleased with the way my cake turned out.  It looked wonderful and tasted just as great!  I need to read ahead and find out what we will be doing next week.  Until then, here is a few pics of my final project!