Plus, there was a birthday in the house yesterday. My youngest stepson Joshua turned 13.
Whew!
Monday night, I sat up until 0-dark-thirty (I think I got to bed sometime around 3 AM Tuesday morning) making a birthday cake.
You know me, if there's a way to do it myself, I'm gonna do it. Actually, I really enjoy baking and decorating cakes. Granted, I'm not a professional. I've never taken any kind of class or gone to any culinary schools. But I have picked up a thing or two here and there.
Here's a picture of a Valentine's Day cake I did this year:
I've done some cakes for friends - birthdays, baby showers, bridal showers... that sort of thing. I have a lot of fun with it. (The kids and my husband don't mind it either, because they get to eat all the leftover icing as well as any cakes that I happen to make mistakes on.)
I guess the reason I started really trying to make my own cakes is twofold.
1. I don't like the way grocery store bakery cakes taste. The icing is just awful - sickeningly sweet and too greasy. Plus the cake is usually too dry.
2. I really don't like the idea of buying something that I could do just as well myself. Call me a tightwad.
So, I sat up Monday night baking and decorating. I guess the late hour and the lack of sleep got to me, because here's the end result:
Happy BIRTDAY?
Ha, ha! Joshua and the others got a real kick out of it. We all spent the rest of the evening singing "Happy BIRTDAY to you" and wishing each other Happy Birtday, or Happy UnBirtday, however the situation applied.
At least the mistake tasted good!
Despite the minor cake wreck, the celebration was a success and everyone enjoyed themselves. Especially the Birtday Dude.
Yep, that's Joshua, totally ecstatic and surprised after unwrapping his main gift - a Nintendo DS lite. He's been drooling over one of those things forever and had no idea that we were getting him one. We got him the complete accessory pack to go with it, plus a cool game, so his game system is all tricked out now.
Happy 13th, Joshua! Welcome to teenagerhood!
Are we sure we weren't separated at birth? I do a little cake decorating too (learned from my aunt) and can't stand store bought cakes now. Of course, with 2 pre-schoolers, I've been limited to cheesy wilton character cakes for a little while at their, "but it's MY birthday..." whiny request ;-)
ReplyDeleteGood job on the cakes!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous cakes, even if there was a (slight) spelling problem at 3 am. That is too funny! :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm going to attempt (with help) to make my cake for our wedding this October. You free? :-)
Congratulations on your upcoming wedding, Lena! I love DIY weddings (my sis-in-law made my wedding cake).
ReplyDeleteYou are BRAVE, girl - after seeing what I did. I might end up writing something like "Congartulations" on your wedding cake! Ha ha!
My best advice is to make several practice cakes ahead of time, and now is not too early to get a head start. Seriously. Visit the Wilton website and any other cake decorating website. Watch videos. (There are a lot of them on YouTube.) Get those decorating tips, whip up some icing (don't even think about trying it with storebought) and practice, practice, practice.
One of the easiest and most forgiving things to do is basketweave on the sides of your cake. Basketweave hides a lot of mistakes and it gives a gorgeous look with not a lot of hard work. Plus, basketweave just looks really elegant.
And stay away from fondant, please. It tastes awful. Nobody I know who has eaten it has enjoyed it. I made a cake once that the person wanted draped in fondant. It looked beautiful. The guests took one bite and promptly peeled it off. That kind of killed the whole effect.