Cakes I

I was asked to post some baking blogs.  Never one to turn down a follower’s request, I’m going to start with the extremes: the hardest and easiest cakes.  Here are two of my favorite cakes, that took about  8 hours each:

I’m not sure what was inside.  Usually, I make a yellow cake with fruit paste or custard filling.  Both were butter cream frosting with royal icing flowers made ahead of time.  TIP: You can’t see it so well in these photos , but tops of all the rose cakes, as well as the entire morning glory cake, is covered in finely drizzled icing.  You don’t strictly even need a decorator tip for this (although a #1 or #2 tip is recommended.)  Just cut the tinniest tip off the end of a disposable pastry bag (or even a sturdy baggie).  Also make sure your icing is of medium to loose consistency (the peaks should quickly fold over all the way when a spoon , etc is lifted out of the icing.  Decide whether you  want lots of little loops,  or no loops at all.  Personally, I like no loops (the lines of frosting weave around each other, but never cross), which gives a nice lacey pattern called Cornelli. With loops is called Sotas, similar to what you can more clearly see drizzled down the side of the rose cake, but in 2-D, not just lines.  Anyway, this can all be done with minimal equipment, and really gives a very professional look.  BUT it does take forever to do a really nice job, and even with a wrist bandage, expect numb or sore fingers and wrist for the next day or so. 

Surprisingly, the easiest dessert is the same cake, same butter cream frosting, but toned down design.  The easiest recipe is the one you know so well, you could make it in your sleep, and I really think this will just be different for everyone.   First of all, find a recipe that works well, that tastes good, and uses  ingredients that you always have on hand (If you always have Nepalese fermented yak’s whey in your cabinet, and you like that in your cake, then there is nothing wrong with that.  I like lekvar and cardamom in my cakes, as well as in other dishes, so  I always have them at home.) Make that recipe until you have it memorized, and really understand how it works.  It is then easy to modify and adapt it when you  want some variation.  As you get familiar with cakes this way, you will recognize your “standard cake” in other recipes.  Most cakes are dressed up pound cakes, chiffons, medieras, or sponge / angel food cakes.  I’m sure I’m missing some other general cakes, but you get the idea.  I would suggest a nice yellow cake, a good all-purpose  recipe, easy to make in larger or smaller batches.  I love the Lady Baltimore recipe in the Joy of Cooking (my copy is several additions back, I don’t know exactly what’s in the newest addition).  Very easy, very all-purpose, easy to modify.  And  then there is always Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines - whatever floats your boat, I’m not judging, but it still comes down to : is this always in your pantry, and do you like it?  If it becomes a pain to run out to the store for mix, or you just don’t like it to the point where you are always trying to dress it up, then it is not easiest. 

So you’ve got your cake, and you have icing (I will hopefully talk about icing in a future blog).  Slather on the icing, making a nice wavy pattern if you don’t want to go the extra of making it smooth (also a future blog).  Then using that pastry bag or sturdy baggie, you can make an easy drizzle or simple pattern with matching or contrasting colored icing.  And that really is what I do when I need something in a hurry. 

This Ledgend of ZeldaÓ birthday cake is somewhere in between.  The cake was my standard yellow cake, minus about 2/5 the sugar, swirled with a brownie mix to get an incredibly moist marble cake, that  can still handle the extra sweetness of the frosting.  The sweetness of the frosting was also cut slightly by using double the salt, and lemon juice  instead of vanilla or any other flavoring additive.  I added a reverse shell border along the top, and a star-puff border along the bottom , which requires a star tip (#16 in this case).  But otherwise, all decoration, besides the fondant and jelly bean treasure chest, was done with a #2 tip or no tip at all as described above.  Link was traced from a promotional brochure.  I unfortunately don't have a good photo of the fondant and jelly bean treasure chest added at the end.  Oh, and I painted the face on with food coloring.  The whole thing, including baking, but not cleanup, probably took about 3.0 hours.