Chapter 4: Chocolate, Strawberries and Books, Oh My!!!

Hey Guys!!!

This post comes a little late for good reasons. I was stuck in the kitchen for the better part of the week, baking away my orders. 

Three layers "wrapped" in silky
chocolate buttercream...YUM!

I woke up last Saturday, feeling rested and fresh. With no immediate plans of any kind, I headed to the city alongside my sister who had scheduled herself gym time. In retrospect, I should have joined her. I felt a little guilty, but not enough to change into gym clothes and sweat my troubles away. Instead, I pampered myself a bit by going to the hairdresser. I went back home for a quick lunch and in the afternoon, I had coffee with a couple of friends. I helped my mother with grocery shopping a while later and before I knew it, I has heading out again for dinner. By midnight I was in my cozy bed, fast asleep. Perhaps some consider it a boring Saturday, but meh to you who do. I woke up early on Sunday, despite my reservations. I had a birthday cake to bake and deliver by the early afternoon and no time to dawdle. I baked three lovely, different flavoured layers: moist chocolate, decadent caramel and always pleasing vanilla. All stacked and filled with dulce de leche AND chocolate buttercream and covered in the latter. Plus a lil banner I made and some pastel sprinkles!!! It was beautiful & delicious!!!

A wonky picture to appreciate the layers!

I also had decided to bake some strawberry cake layers from the same recipe as last time, increasing the food coloring to make the red pop and arranging them in a different manner for a newer, more elegant finish. What I achieved was a real looker, however, the cake did not gain any points. My grandmother even said: just don't make it again...hahahahahahaha.

I looked so pretty...it was almost a shame to cut it...almost

Truly, it's a very dense cake and in reality, the flavour gets lost in the texture. But I will not give up on it. Strawberry isn't the easiest ingredient to work with. They mold and ripen quickly and the taste of the fresh berry is basically impossible to replicate in a cooked or baked creation. I will try the damn recipe again, but I will modify it to my taste and we'll see if it works then. After all, third time's the charm, right?

Too bad it didn't taste as well as it looked...
better luck next time...

Sunday ended with full bellies after an afternoon of BBQ food, coffee and cake. Monday morning came and left and by the end of the afternoon, I had baked vanilla cupcakes and a lovely sponge cake to make Victoria Sponge Cake. The cupcakes were well received and so was the cake, despite the disaster that happened: I had run out of cream to fill the cake and I asked my mom to get me a tub of Cool Whip whipped topping. However, she misunderstood and instead, brought home a can of whipped cream. What's the difference you may ask...well. I'll tell you. Heavy whipping cream is just what the name says it is: heavy cream. When whipped, the cream holds stiff peaks and its dense enough to fill a cake, a pastry puff and will hold for a couple of days. Whipping cream, as in the canned type, looks dense, but give it a couple of minutes and the dang thing begins to break down. So you can guess what my cake looked like...The raspberry jam was amazing and because I had no choice, I topped it with the canned cream and applied the second sponge to finish the cake *face palm*! The cream began to ooze out and liquefied. It looked like melting ice cream. My cousin, for whom the cake was for, laughed, but ate it anyway. To be honest, it was yummy. So prepare to see it sometime soon, because I need to redeem myself.

Tuesday was chocolatey. I had a German Chocolate Cake to make, followed by a Chocolate Carrot Cake. A Ferrero Rocher Cake that was also for Wednesday was changed for this week, so I took my time assembling the other two. I also baked a Blackberry Swirled Cheesecake for my niece's birthday the following day. By Wednesday afternoon, my cakes were all delivered and I baked a traditional Carrot Cake for the following day. I assembled it late in the night, after returning from eating some cheesecake from my niece's birthday reunion. 

Friday the 13th was my father's birthday. He always complains I don't bake him what he wants for his birthday, so I decided to honor his will and baked him a traditional Apple Pie. It came out just in time for dinner, so it was still warm for dessert time. I spent most of my Friday afternoon baking layers after layers after layers of Orange Cake for my weekend's masterpiece. I was commissioned in January to make a fondant "book lovers" birthday cake for 80 people. Now, it must seem ironic after my last post, that I'd be making yet another fondant cake. Well, to be fair, I did say I need to practice making them. I still don't find it appetizing, but the end result of this one might restore my faith in my skills and push me to new challenges. I woke up early on Saturday to being the assembling process. The layers had been baked the afternoon before and I was ready to tackle it all. So I began. I whipped up some Orange buttercream frosting, leveled the cakes, filled them and crumb coated them. Because it was for 80 people, I had several tiers. The largest was supposed to be a 12" x 3" which was what I had when I baked the layer. However, I did not anticipate the leveling and halving would reduce my cake to a shorter (so much shorter...) tier. 

"#$?+*#!!!" is what went through my mind.

I had no choice but to make and bake another layer. 2 hours and 30 minutes. That what it took to bake and chill. I took advantage of the time in between to cover in fondant the smaller tiers. Which surprised me immensely. What I usually dread is the actual covering of the cake, not the details. It took me less than 15 minutes to do both. I had to mix in swiftness with delicateness. Not usually a good combo, but it worked. I didn't want them to begin drying just yet, so I loosely covered them in plastic film. Once the large tier was ready to be covered, I began to do so. My fear overall is the fondant stretching to far to rip at the edges of the cake, but luck was on my side and they didn't tear or rip. I got a slight one at the bottom, but no worries there. It would be covered by "books". I wrapped it in plastic film as well and did a quick kitchen cleanup. The next step was layering the tiers. With the help of some bubble tea straws and some extra frosting, I carefully "glued" the tiers together. 

Trying out the "look"

And then began the longest hours of the day. Accompanied by my friends Facetiming from merry ol' London, I managed to work nicely and carefully, rolling out and cutting my books, glueing them to the tiers. It was well into the night (10:40ish) when the cake was fully covered in the books. All that was left was to pipe away the details. It took me around 30 minutes to finish them. But I was done. The cake was DONE!!! Except for the beautiful coffee cup that would adorn the top. 

11:29 P.M. ...DONE! Finally DONE!!!

During the week, I had researched how to make a sugar/gum paste coffee cup. I found a neat tutorial on how to make a gum paste teacup, which essentially, is the same thing. So Friday afternoon, I molded out the sugar paste coffee cup, platter, handle and bottom. I left them out to dry out. If you are ever attempting to mold something similar, be sure to allow two or more days for the paste to dry. By midnight, I was glueing the handle, bottom and cup together and palcing it on the platter. Before I placed it on top of the cake, I took a wooden rod (dowel) and CAREFULLY, forced it through the three tiers. Why? Like the bubble tea straws, the rod is used to reinforce the cake. The straws prevent the layers to cave into the layers underneath. They help the cake keep its form. The rod, in turn, helps the tiers stay in place and prevents shifting. I had a friend tell me she had no idea the work that goes into making such a cake, to which I laughed. Before making such cakes, I had no idea either. It comes with research and practice. My first ever fondant cake, I made in 2011, way before I got my Diploma in Pastry Arts. I actually made the fondant and it was a two tiered cake. The upper tier sunk into the bottom one. It wasn't a disaster, but you learn eventually. It's great to know I've come a LONG way from then. 

A quick picture before the delivery...
just to make sure I made it

Going back, I used the same icing as the piped details to glue in place the platter and cup. I then painted on the "coffee" and mug and plate details with a luster. I almost cried when I saw the finished piece, complete with wire "steaming" from the cup.

I carefully placed it in the empty oven, on the lowest rack possible and it fit like a glove. I cleaned the entire kitchen and dining table, which served as my work space for the day and dropped dead. I woke up with an alarm on Sunday. I had a hot cup of coffee, checked to see if my cake was still alive (sighed in relief when I saw it was), showered and got ready to deliver the cake and drop my mom at the airport (she's away on a trip). Finally fully awake, I realized how heavy the cake was. I decided to weigh it out just to feed my curiosity. I placed it on my scale and all I know is it weighed over 11 pounds, because the scale read ERR. Thankfully it was a car to car cake delivery and when I handed it over, I finally relaxed!

My pièce de résistance!

A trip to the airport, late lunch, short nap, tacos for dinner and a beer later, I was ready to fall asleep, before remembering I had laundry to do. An hour later, clothes safely in the dryer I passed out like a light. 

I've had hard weeks, I've had long weeks, but this week I have no idea what happened. I think I ran on autopilot for most of it. All I know is that my cakes were well received and I can relax for a bit now. I have some cake orders to tackle later on, but for the time being, coffee and my bed will keep me happy.

Until next time!!!

xx