Saturday, April 6, 2013

Time And Relative Dimension in Cake

My best friend Alyssa is an amazing chef and can bake like a dream. I was pleased as punch when she texted me "So...I get a birthday cake, right?"  Her only request was Funfetti, and I'm not one to buy a box when I can make it from scratch, so...


Andrew says "It looks like a fire hydrant."
Behold, the Wilton answer to Funfetti. Just one colorburst packet was about $3, so doing several colors would end up being a little pricey. I like the idea of using them for a sports team theme, though. No one expects color inside the cake!

Ganache to meet you. 
I highly prefer ganache to frosting, because it's fast and easy and tastes unbelievable. I had some issues with the white chocolate ganache. It probably wasn't the best idea to use shelf stable cream. Even if that was ok, regular old Nestle baking chips do not have the right properties for ganache. A failed batch and a little internet research taught me that baking chips are formulated to stay fairly chip-shaped throughout the baking process, meaning they don't really melt right. A trip to Byerly's for some Ghirardelli chips resulted in a much thicker (and actually useable) ganache.  

Blue box and some Black Box
A great deal of kneading and blue food coloring later, I had some fantastic TARDiS blue fondant. I worked some muscles I didn't even know I had getting it rolled out big and thin enough to cover the cake. I'm very proud of how smooth the fondant went on  - no cracks or bubbles! It's the first time I've done anything other than a round cake with fondant, too, so I'm very proud of all the corners and angles.

It's bigger on the inside.
The finished product, an adorable personalized Dr. Who cake, one day start to finish. Unless you count the dishes. They are not finished.