Let Us Eat Cake

I've always loved to bake, and decorating cakes was a natural follow-up to that. I started when I was about 12, I think, and I used to do really intricate things with many different colors of icing, piped characters out of royal icing, the works. It would usually take me hours and hours...and hours. Back when I had hours to spend on things like that! Now I'm getting more practical out of necessity, and have opted for many time-saving tricks (like printing words out all pretty on the computer, then installing the paper onto the cake at the last minute. Sprinkling colored sugar instead of mixing a million colors of icing is another time saver, as is using pre-colored fondant.)

My favorite icing for decorating cakes isn't icing at all: I mix a little cup of yogurt into a tub of Cool Whip (this stabilizes the Cool Whip so it doesn't ooze everywhere) and quickly spread it onto a cool or frozen cake. You have to work quickly or the icing stabilizes too fast and you won't get a smooth finish.

Another, more elegant option is chocolate glaze. If I'm short on time I just microwave a store-bought tub of chocolate frosting (just until it's warm and drippy), stir, and drizzle it over the cake layer(s). For really special cakes I make a chocolate glaze that's absolutely irresistible. Not low-cal, but really, really good! I'll include the recipe by the photo of the chocolate glazed cake.

This is a cake that I made for Eliza's 4th birthday. The party was in the morning, with lots of activities planned, and I knew I wouldn't have much time to decorate her cake. It was too big to fit in our fridge (we have a side by side refrigerator, which I learned is not a practical appliance when I want to store large things in either the fridge or the freezer!) and she had requested the CoolWhip icing, so it was something I had to do the morning of. I am NOT a morning person, and there was no way I was going to drag myself out of bed at 4 am to do some fancy shmancy cake decorating.

The solution? I made the cakes, froze the layers, bought paper umbrellas and made the little striped banners and put them on bamboo skewers during the week prior to the party. That morning I quickly spread the icing, stuffed some Cool Whip in a disposable piping bag to frost the cupcakes and pipe the edges (that is when I learned my lesson about stabilized vs unstabilized Cool Whip....I didn't mix yogurt in with the piped CoolWhip and, due to the warmth of my hands, it really oozed and drooped like crazy. By the time I got to the cupcakes -- which were not frozen -- it was practically dripping off the edges. Argh!) Fortunately, since the cake layers were frozen, it kept most of the CoolWhip reasonably set until cake eating time. A cake that was previously frozen can be left out for 4 or 5 hours before the CoolWhip icing starts to droop noticeably. A nice thing for parties, when the fridge is likely full of other yummies. (Note: do not leave a cake decorated with CoolWhip or buttercream icing in the direct sun, for obvious reasons... )

You also want to take care not to put colored sprinkles on too early, as the high moisture content of the CoolWhip will cause some types of sprinkles to "bleed". Especially the little tiny multi-colored balls. An hour or so beforehand is usually fine. All this might sound like a pain, but most of my friends love it when I use CoolWhip instead of traditional buttercream (too sweet) or, even worse, wedding cake-type frosting (you know, the kind where the icing sticks to the top of your mouth because it's pure shortening? Blech). I know some people LOVE that kind of frosting, and I don't want to offend any of you who do, but I'm one of those people who scrapes it off the top of any store-bought cake that comes my way. The CoolWhip version is light, not too sweet, and if you add a little carton of fruit-flavored yogurt it imparts a wonderful, subtle tang to your icing. Of course, using real whipped cream is also a delicious option, but hey - it makes more work, more mess, and more cellulite on one's thighs, so I usually stick to the CoolWhip version.

Eliza, like most little girls, went through a big princess phase. This is what I made for her 3rd birthday. The turrets were just little powdered donuts, the body was cake, the whatchamacalits were big and little marshmallows, and the door was a graham cracker that I very carefully shaped by squeezing off little bits with my fingernails so it wouldn't shatter. I left it out overnight so it was a little soggy, so that helped too. The grass is just colored Cool Whip with colored coconut and candy flower sprinkles on top.

I got the idea for this cake from a magazine, and like most projects it took about 3 times as long as I expected. The monkeys were made by melting chocolate chips in a ziploc bag, cutting a little hole in the corner of the bag and piping the shapes onto waxed paper. The faces were made of white chocolate. It looked simple enough, but by the time I got through baking and frosting the cake, making the monkeys, and rolling out many many gumdrop candies for the palm leaves, it was something like 1 in the morning. I've learned to simplify things a little bit since then (most of the time, anyway).

These little bugs were made for a friend's baby shower who was expecting twin boys. I just used two cake rounds (I prefer the 8 inch to the 9 inch pans, the resulting layers are thicker and look more substantial, and it helps prevent overbaking), froze the layers and then trimmed the circles down to make it look like a head and body. The spots were made with mint flavored Oreos with m&m's on top. It's important to freeze any cake before trimming - it makes your life SO much easier! Don't thaw the cakes before cutting them, just use a good bread knife and you're set.

Here is another example of a cake that has been trimmed to create its shape. I used two, frozen 9x13 cake layers, butted them together along the long side, trimmed it to the shape of a onesie and frosted it with CoolWhip icing. The caterpillar was made from large gumballs, if I remember right, and I used a permanent pen to draw a smiley face on the head. The legs and antanae were just chocolate sprinkles carefully placed onto the icing.

I have also made a girl version of this cake, cutting out the shape of a sweet little dress with scallops on the bottom and a sash made of colored fondant.

Okay, this was NOT a quick and easy cake! Hyrum loves trains and I wanted to make a special one, reminiscent of a cake my mom made for my brother, I think, when we were little. I didn't want pastel colors for the icing (I used buttercream on this project because I knew it was a do-it-the-night-before deal) so I thought I'd try using the handy dandy new spray color that comes in aerosol cans from Wilton. Oops. By the time I was done (I think at about 2 in the morning) the air was so full of aerosol propellant and vaporized colorant that I felt like I was in a big, coal-burning city of Industrial Revolution days. The colored dust lay everywhere, on every horizontal surface. Nightmare. I also discovered that the colorant made the frosting dry to the touch, and I had a heck of a time trying to get those m&m's to stick to the sides of the train cars, plus any time I accidently bumped a completed car with my knuckle, the color would come off and I was constantly patching up places while trying not to let the spray color what I didn't want it to. Ah, the memories!

The list of mishaps goes on, but I'll spare you the details. All my hard work and lung trauma paid off the next morning when Hyrum came downstairs and saw his special train. In case you couldn't tell from the photo above, he was pretty jazzed about it.

This chocolate mint fudge "mountain" was something that I made for a group baby shower. Three ladies in the Coast Guard unit (my husband is a CG helicopter pilot) were all expecting at the same time. The lady that was hosting the shower decided on chocolate brown and red as the colors, and she wanted a sophisticated, non-cutesy cake for the event. We had no idea how many people were going to show up, so I decided to err on the side of caution and made a huge, HEAVY mound of decadent calories. It turns out I way overestimated the appropriate size, but at least there were lots of leftovers to send home with the future moms. It's good to get babies used to chocolate at an early age, right?

I honestly can't remember what I stamped onto the red circles (the only way I could think of incorporating red into the design) but I think they all just said "baby" or something really original like that.

Anyway, down to the details: I used to be a cake purist, meaning I never made a cake from a box. Well, three children later I've slipped a bit; if it's a chocolate or white cake, I use a box mix (I prefer Betty Crocker) but I add stuff to it to make it more exciting and I ALWAYS set the timer for 10 minutes sooner than the recommended baking time. As soon as the top of that cake bounces back when lightly touched, it's out of the oven, cooling on a rack for 10 minutes and then inverted onto the rack to remove it from the pan. This rule isn't always The Law with fruit or vegetable cakes (such as apple pecan or carrot cake), as those homemade kinds may need more time to bake all the way through. With store-bought cakes, however, I ALWAYS bake it for significantly less time than recommended (should I repeat that one more time?) Overbaking a cake is the number one way to guarantee that it will be dry and tough, regardless of the recipe.

Another tip about baking before I get to ingredients: instead of greasing and flouring a cake pan, grease and SUGAR it. Use white granulated sugar in place of the flour and your cake will come out beautifully, with a fun crystallized edge instead of the rubbery, tough skin that flour produces.

Okay, now for the additives: for a chocolate mint cake, simply add 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon PEPPERMINT, not spearmint extract (otherwise it will taste like toothpaste, especially if you add too much) to the batter before baking. Add the same amount to the icing if you want extra mintyness (is that a word?)

For a fun twist on plain vanilla cake, add a small package of DRY pudding mix (like pistachio or lemon) to the batter while mixing. The texture will be slightly different, but very moist and tasty.

RECIPE FOR DECADENT CHOCOLATE GLAZE

4 oz semisweet chocolate (I just use choc chips)

1/2 cup whipping cream (unwhipped, in case you were wondering)

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon corn syrup

In double boiler (I actually just use a good, thick saucepan and keep the heat low) melt all above ingredients, stirring occasionally until completely smooth and melted. Drizzle over cake, eclairs, donuts, cookies, spoons/fingers that need to be licked clean, etc.

It's that simple, and oh, so good. You can also add a bit of flavored extract (like mint, almond, coconut, etc) for extra excitement.

Some more of Hyrum's birthday cakes. The one on the left was relatively easy, as I was 9 month's pregnant at the time and in no condition to be standing in the kitchen for hours! I just rolled out balls of pre-colored fondant (a wonderful invention, by the way) the day before, made "grass" from green fondant, stuck a train on top and called it good. Hyrum was happy, I was happy, and baby Hazel was born the day after his birthday (although in anticipation of said event I had his party a few weeks prior).

The surfboards (yes, that's what they are...not ironing boards, bicycle seats, anvils or anything else!) were interesting because I decided to save some time by buying gel icing in those little tubes. Well, it was a good concept but I discovered that I DESPISE gel icing! It's runny, transparent, gooey, and generally a big pain. I have come to realize the hard way that there is a big difference between gel icing and regular icing sold in tubes.

Here we are at Eliza's 5th birthday (have you noticed that the cakes get less involved the older the kids get?). For this one I just stacked two 9x13 frozen cake layers together, cut the curved rainbow shape, sprinkled colored sugar (large-grain white sugar colored with food coloring by shaking it in little ziplock baggies) in the appropriate places (I had scored the icing with a toothpick to help me keep the colors where they needed to be), piled big marshmallows secured with icing on the end for the cloud, and presto. The unicorn was the front of one of her invitations that I cut out and taped a toothpick to the back so it could stand upright.

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I love using the cakemix doctor cookbook to dress up a box mix.
I have been a big cheater with cake decorating lately. I have been printing off small pictures of their favorite characters then laminating them and taping them to a toothpick.

Posted by: Heffalump | July 21, 2008 at 09:15 PM