I can't believe that the baby that inspired this blog is a year old already! Even though she's been out of the "oven" for a year now, I haven't come up with a better title yet. She was the inspiration, I can't let go of that! Anyway, I decided that she needed a spectacular cake for her first birthday, so I rolled up my sleeves and dove into the land of fondant! Being a Food Network junkie, I'd always wanted to try it, so I figured this was my chance!
I found an amazing-sounding chocolate cake recipe on allrecipes.com, so I decided that would be my base. Then since her room is chocolate brown and light pink, I decided I'd go with strawberry buttercream frosting. Let me tell you, the combination was just perfect! The cake was super easy to make (I made 4 of them. Yes. FOUR). The buttercream is easy enough, but I ended up makig 4 batches of that as well. Let's just say that trying to make my life easier by making it ahead of time and freezing it did not work out. Note: you CAN NOT freeze this kind of frosting and then use it later. It separates and gets all gloppy and runny at the same time, and is absolutely disgusting. If you're like me, you'll try it and then end up scrambling to make 2 more batches of it when you're supposed to be fondant-ing and put yourself into a frenzy because you're running out of time before the party and the baby just woke up so now you have to do it all with both kids awake and you'll never get it done and what are you going to do??? Thankfully, my mom and sister rode to the rescue and helped me finish assembling the cake so I avoided total mental breakdown. Moms and sisters rock, don't they?
So I got the cake layered, crumb-coated, and all set to go in the fridge, only to discover that it wouldn't FIT! I'd made the base too big and it just wouldn't go in! Thankfully my sister and I managed to squeeze it into my parents' extra fridge. Phew! I also threw together 2 smaller cakes- one for Rebecca to demolish, and one for my brother-in-law who is allergic to strawberries. I got the smaller ones covered and decorated and finished them up rather quickly. Rolling out the fondant to cover the massive cake was more difficult. It took me 3 times to get it to not stick to the counter, and then the dang rolling pin poked through when I finally got it on the cake. I patched it up as best I could since there was no way I was getting it back off, and I think it still turned out ok. I worked on the cake until about 9:30 the night before her party, and then got to work assembling her toy kitchen. Now THAT was a project, but that's not exactly related to the cake, so I digress. :)
The cake was really fun to make, all things considered, and I hope to have an occasion to play with fondant again sometime soon! I've already warned my husband that this could become an addiction, and I've actually already had someone tell me they'd pay me for a cake! How cool is that?!
Awesome job, Lindsey!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks! :)
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