Maggi's Birthday

I've signed up for Level 3 of the Wilton classes, but I highly doubt it will actually happen. I'm operating under the assumption that it will be cancelled yet again, so I'm going to teach myself how to use fondant in the mean time.

My dear friend Maggi turned 25 this past week, and I decided to make her a birthday cake in an effort to get some decorating practice in. I was thinking about wedding cakes and white on white decorations and wanted to play around with that a bit. First, the cake: Lightning Cake from Joy of Cooking. I know that I am not the best at baking, but this was one seriously weird recipe. The batter was very thin, and the butter was the last thing added - you can see in the top picture it didn't get fully mixed in. The result was a flat, dense, and EXTREMELY buttery tasting cake. It's not bad, it's just weird. Experiences like this are going to drive me back to box mix! I filled the layers with strawberry pie filling. I would have loved to do fresh strawberries, but I didn't think I'd get decent quality in the middle of winter.

 Because the cake was so dense, I was able to do my best crumb coat yet. You can't get crumbs in your frosting if the cake isn't crumbly! I flavored the frosting with 3/4 t vanilla and 1/4 t almond, which came out to a very nice, mild almond flavor. I think it will go perfectly with the buttery buttery cake.





My hands were a little sticky during the decorating process, so I only have finished product photos. I rolled fondant to cover the cake and then made the fondant pearls along the bottom. My piped swags are hilariously crooked and uneven, so one of these days I'm going to have to sit at my practice board making a million swags. I had a little trouble with the roses - I couldn't get the frosting consistency right, and then I had the hardest time getting them to stick to the fondant. I ended up making a little frosting base to stick them to.
I'm proud of the monogram, piped by looking at a picture from the internet. I bet if I used ganache I could get a smoother end result for that, but it looks good for a beginner. I finished off the details with white pearl dust because I freaking love glitter.

I like how it turned out - the pearl dust gave some nice definition to the white-on-white. I'd like to practice some more with working with fondant - I can see the possibilities of having what is essentially play-doh to decorate cakes.