This year he was having a Halloween themed party and I volunteered to make the cake again. He informed me that he wanted a lemon cake, which I thought was a bit of an odd choice for a 10 year old, but I'm not going to ask anymore questions than I need to. I had just gotten the Baked cookbook when he mentioned that he wanted a lemon cake and I thought immediately of the Lemon Drop cake from the book. I then realized that making a three layer lemon cake with lemon curd filling and lemon drop boiled icing for a 10 year old's birthday party might be a bit much. So, I decided to make the cake from the recipe, but not do the rest. My nephew informed me that I could just decorate it with "a bat or something," which I thought was very kind of him.
But, I didn't do that.
Instead, I found this:
and I became obsessed.
Now, I am well aware of my limitations and the fact that I refuse to use fondant and gum paste because it tastes gross (and is confusing), but I decided to throw caution to the wind and use the cake from the website as my inspiration anyway.
I made the lemon cake from the recipe and it came out magnificently. I even used cake flour, because I found some in my cupboard. I am linking to the dessert girl blog because she got in touch with Matt Smith from Baked and got permission before posting the recipe, which I dig. Of course, I can't get Matt Smith to respond to anything I tweet at him, so it also makes me a little bitter.
I made a regular decorator's icing using half butter, half solid vegetable shortening, lemon juice, milk and vanilla. I discovered that if you follow a recipe, your consistency comes out a lot better. I filled the cake with the decorator's icing as well as frosted it with it. It's too sweet for me, but I figured it was going to be eaten by a bunch of kids who didn't belong to me, so I could get them as sugar-hopped-up as I wanted.
The cake was solid and took the frosting well. I have to say that I was really happy with how the cake came out. I worked my butt off and was on my feet for over two hours, but I've been doing so little real decorating recently that it made it worthwhile.
I put black cats and gravestones behind a creepy looking iron fence around the outside with some pumpkins and cobwebs, then on the top I put the lettering and a big cobweb and a little spider.
It was a lot of fun to make. I hear it tasted pretty good too!
Here are some pics:
meeeooowww |
I think this is my favorite part. |
Wow, whatta cake. I should've worn a Bryce costume this year.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha! I worked on Hello, Cupcake! And I production edited the sequel.
ReplyDeleteWe need to talk cupcake horror stories. My penguins came out brown, too. (And I knew Jack was a keeper when he helped me hand trim licorice and sort Froot Loops by color for another cupcake fiasco.)
Also, we just met someone who is baking her way through a pie book.
Wow, this is beautiful! Such nice work, and such a super aunt!
ReplyDelete(Love, Holly's college friend who stumbled on this on her fb wall)