Cake Review 2014

Cake Review 2014.  There were a few more cakes than I usually make this year.  Two friends asked me to make a cake for them, one for a wedding and one for a 1 year birthday.  Both of the friend cakes confirmed to me that I will only ever make cakes for family (if I can ever master the ability to say no).  My anxiety shot through the roof with the thought of making it perfect for other people.  I can handle making cake for boys.  But, I took the opportunity to make something other than Lego/Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings cakes, and learned a lot in the process.

All cake making begins a few days before with making, coloring and shaping fondant, a late night before the birthday and relieving help from my sweetheart husband who must think I'm utterly crazy.  I think I'm utterly crazy.  But it's worth the surprise and pleasure the boys have upon seeing their cakes in the morning. I say this every year. It must be true.

D.J. had just finished reading The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien and so his wish for a cake was the two towers.  This is the first cake I used PVC pipe wrapped in Rice Krispies to form both towers and a hot glue gun.  It worked out alright I think.  I've used food coloring more and more as water colors to paint on the cake and with this one, the ALL-SEEING EYE OF SAURON!

Mark spent most of his helper time figuring out how to get the eye to stick in between the two thing-a-ma-bobs at the top.  Whatever he did with toothpicks and glue worked because it lasted for a week! 

Not to be outdone, Spencer requested a scene from the Two Towers as well: Helm's Deep.  Only instead of lego mini figures or fondant people (which I refuse to do) he wanted gummy bears to represent the armies. The blue bears are the Orcs, the Red are the men, the yellow one is Legolas (elf) and the green one is Gimli (dwarf).  All bears are equipped with a toothpick spear and came with bow ties.

My friend Wendy, married her high school sweetheart (30 years after high school).  It was a very happy occasion! She used burlap to decorate and purple and orange.  It turned out better that I thought it would (sweating bullets) and I even covered up the spot where my elbow plowed through the side.  I am now addicted to buttercream frosting.

Speaking of butter cream frosting, I thought this was a funny juxtaposition.  After completing a cake, my insulin pump informed me I needed to refill (not because I ate all the frosting, my three day reservoir was empty), when I set the bottle down I realized it was in front of frosting laden cupcakes.  I giggled a bit.

The second friend cake was for a 1 year old girl.  It was to be a "smash cake" where the baby is allowed to smash, or dig in however she pleases.  It became just a regular cake though because I informed the mom that it took a large bottle of red food coloring to get the flowers red and she probably doesn't want the pretty white dress to get stained.  More fun with butter cream frosting and decorating tips.

James asked for a Lego cake last year with lots of mini figures on top, but for some reason, I didn't go for it.  He renewed the request this year and since he wanted Legos for just about everything else, I caved.  Thanks to ebay, I got a good deal on figures, though some were weirdly matched.  The figures are standing on three stacked blue lego blocks, the circles are fondant covered mega stuffed vanilla oreos.  I forgot to tell Mark that the oreos were for the cake, but thankfully I had enough and one left over to complete the cake! Two of the favorite figures are a white Batman and a Utah Football player.

In addition to the mini figures, James requested a purple cow because his class decided it was their mascot for the year.  I didn't quite know how to do this, until Mark suggested covering a Lego horse - so even the cow is Lego - sort of. Brilliant Mark!

And so goes another year of fondant and merriment!