Adventures in Cake
As the story goes, Emily wanted a topsy turvy cake for her birthday party. If you haven't seen one, please google topsy turvy cakes and there are even cool video's that make it look oh so easy to do. I had called the bakery and they wanted $230.00 for one to feed 20 people. Not this year! So the Wilton pans come out and this is the result. Now I know it is not a $230. quality cake, 1. because I used frosting and fondant only on the decorations (it taste like crap) and 2. it was a less than perfect job. The front I left flat for writing purposes, but the sides and back are very curvy. If you have ever worked with fondant, it has the exact same texture as Play Dough, so I let Emily and Quaid have a good time and cut out and apply all the dots.
Note to myself: Put the next extremely heavy cake I make on a solid board, NOT a cardboard cake board (they bend and will break the cake) this almost happened
These are not that hard and I think that after making just 3 or 4 that anyone could make one with professional results. I did use dowels and corrugated cardboard to seperate when the layers changed sizes to help support the weight. And I can't think of anything I would have done differently. If you do one, follow the video, be sure to use a crumb coat and let it dry well. You should be able to smooth any rough spots because this layer gets sort of hard. Then you can frost away and not have to worry about any crumbs sneaking in. If its for kids, let them in on the fun. They will enjoy the cake more if they get to participate, and don't sweat it. It's just cake, if it flops, feed it to the chickens and run to the super market for a replacement and swear you just didn't have time to bake!
Comments
What a pretty cake, Audra, and those are some great pictures too. I love your choice of colors. The kids are also cute.
--Pamela
me who did the careful cropping out of all the clutter, frosting bowls, fondant scraps and the like! But I just couldn't do fancy photo editing on Quaid still having on his jammies for the shot! It was a blast, and if you do google click on that one at the top that shows several images. It opens up to hundreds of cool cakes. So much cake, so little time....
Audra
Yours is the best & the brightest of the bunch!
http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=topsy+turvy+cake&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=4sBkSo_3Lo2osgPa1vRm&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1
--Pamela
I love it! I've been wanting to do this for a while. My twins girls turn 7 in September... was it worth the work?
So cute to see the kids at work too,
Marni
I know it was not that big, but it was supported. Nope, it really was no harder than the video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHY_F53ClJ8 shows. Try it Marni, and let us know how it turns out!
I love your honesty. :D I have heard that home-made fondant is quite decent although I've never attempted to make ther stuff myself.
I don't see why you say it's less than perfect. I love the looks of it. You could turn pro, I tell you. Yes, I agree, those are nice colors!
I actually read something about doing the crumb crust so the icing sticks and won't turn messy. Did you have a painless session with the crumb crust?
they always look ragged, but they are supposed to. The first time I did a crumb crust my blood pressure went sky high. I thought it should look perfect. Later when it dried, and it dries hard, take your hand and press down any rough spots and they stay like that. Cool huh? Later come back and frost and you have a smooth surface to work on and no crumbs. After that first time your ok. You know that its all going to be ok in the end and you just don't worry about it. At the very worst, its just frosting. If you don't like it, scrape it off and try again. See, no problems!
Audra
Audra,
I love your honest creativity. What a great Mom you are to undertake such a project. I take my hat off to you on this effort. Bravo!
Eric
You did a fantastic job! excellent job frosting the cake! I agree, too, that fondant is yucky! but makes great decorations.
Happy Birthday Emily!!
Betty
What a cute cake...this is the first I've seen of these kind of cakes..how neat Wilton has the pans..Wonderful decorating job you and kids have done!
The kids are adorable! Makes me miss when mine were small...I'm sending my son a card for his birthday tomorrow..he is turning 45 the 24th! I still dream of him when he was about 3 years old!
Sylvia
Emily's birthday is actually the 22nd, but we had the party on the weekend. Mine is the 26th. I always say she was my best birthday present ever.
Oh, and the pans are just regular cake pans. I used Wilton 6, 8, and 10 inch pans and just carved it to be the way it is. I know it waste some cake, but not as much as you think. I had about a paper plate full. And me and the kids snacked on it while I worked! This cake carving thing could be very cool. If you think it would be carved to death, semi-freeze it. Then you could say, make Lauren a shopping bag cake for her birthday, or whatever she's into. Most beautiful girls like to shop. It would be fun, and I know with your skills you could pull it off with one arm tied behind your back.
Audra
I know its far from perfect, but I wanted you let you all know how easy this project was, and with very little practice how everybody could be a pro. Everyone post beautiful bread photos, so I know you all are good with your hands. Cakes not much different, and you got all that flour everybody hoards up. Throw a little sugar and eggs in there. Oh yea, and milk and cream cheese for us women- we have to think about our bones you know, osteoperosis and all ;-) !
Audra,,, Happy birthday to Emily,, the cake looks amaaaazing, you all did a great job. You are encouraging me to make a topsy turvy cake next time.
Emily and Quaid look so great, they really enjoyed it, may God bless them.
Happy birthday Emily, it is late but I was in "Hurghada" on the red sea for 4 days of vacation so very far from my computer.
You did a great job Audra and you encouraged me to put some of my cakes pics!!
Thanks Audra for sharing with us these lovely photos.
Cakes are important when you are 7, Emily still talks about Malika's strawberry shortcake cake you did for her. She also said tell Malika the carrots she planted and sent her the pictures are coming right along. They are the neat kind that are purple, red, and yellow. Neat huh? Did you have fun on vacation? We went to the beach. I will message you a pic. Glad your home, we've missed you.
Audra
I'm going to try this for one of my friends' birthday! It is in October so I'll have time to practice on a smaller scale before hand. Thank you so much for posting such good tips as well as beautiful pics!
Summer
If you decide to go the frosting route instead of fondant, here's a tip. Ice as usual then get a glass of VERY hot water. Dip your knife and smooth around the cake. The heat melts the fat in the icing and the surface will be slick as glass.
Thanks - I've never tried that and I like the taste of frosting (most kinds) better than fondant. Another great tip!
Summer