Friday Night Cake Club For 9/19/14
Decorating By catlharper Updated 23 Sep 2014 , 11:43pm by TheItalianBaker
Opening up another session of the FNCC! Everyone is welcome to share their week, photos of their work, ask for help or provide help if they can!
Cat
Hi everyone!
Last week's cake delivery was quite strange. I actually ended up delivering the cakes to the clients home instead of at the party because of the heat but the client wasn't there, her sister was there with the kids who mobbed the cakes. I had to pretty much police them while telling the sister how to cut them. I didn't hear a single word from the client but had a friend (the person who had recommended me to this client) tell me that other than the legos being a big "wonky" on the cake they were wonderful. So, yes, quite strange. Something tells me I won't miss dealing with clients after the new year!
No cakes for me this week but I do have two new ones before the new year. I have to do a tombstone cake for a Halloween party and a karate cake for my son. He's due to get his black belt in mid December so we'll have a party! Not sure what I'm going to do for either. So 8 cakes till the end of the year. I feel like I'm counting down to summer! LOL!
I'm also planning a 1 year old's b'day party which is in December as well as trying to figure out what to do for my own birthday. So all of that is still up in the air.
This week has been a hard one tho and I've gotten almost nothing done that didn't HAVE to be done. We have had 3 deaths in our family/friends circle and our oldest daughter moved out of her boyfriends house so we are trying to figure that one out too. It been a crappy week. I'm hoping to hear some very HAPPY stories and see lots of wonderful photos of your beautiful cakes tonight!
Cat
AAwww cat, my sincere condolences. I hope you have better times ahead :) wow, your son is getting a black belt?! Awesome!!!
I have another thread started but thought I would pop on over and say "hi!"
Are you guys somewhere where you deal with heat and humidity? I'm in AZ and while I can handle the heat I don't know how to work with humidity (and really - its not THAT humid, 40%). Everything stays sticky and soft. Blah.
Last week I had this super cute baptism cake - and I of course forgot to take a picture. I was hoping the client would be kind enough to send one over but they were kind of curt through the entire process so I wasn't expecting them to. (They didn't.) It seems, whenever a client picks up their cake, I forget to take a picture!
I am really pleased with a baby shower cake I made this week:
The theme was whales and rainclouds, and the colors were peach and mint green. I had some really cool marbled gumpaste rainclouds I wanted to have on sticks behind the name, but they were just too heavy. I used 22 floral wire. I'm thinking in the future to use something more rigid, like maybe bamboo sticks? Any suggestions?
Also, this cake was my first time making a SMBC. Oh my lord, that is the most amazing frosting I have ever had. I can't get over how delicious it is. It came together perfectly, even though I had to use a (sterilized) meat thermometer instead of a candy thermometer. Hopefully it will be as easy the next time I make it.
I also entered a cake decorating competition at work (I work as a decorator in a grocery store). I am hoping to get to the regional comp but I have to be picked over 20 other decorators from all the stores in our district. I don't think I have much of a chance but I am eagerly awaiting to hear. Since I am dealing with a corporation I fear they will take forever to tell us who is moving on.
MattyEatsCakes, Oh no! Making my own cake it quite the treat! My younger daughter is a caker so she usually makes it...it's the rare year that I actually get to make it myself. I love being able to make whatever I want and eat whatever I want and not have to cater to any one else's needs. I can only think of one other time I have gotten to do this in the past 15 years! So I'm excited..have no idea what I'm doing but...LOL!
I am SO sorry to hear about your baby! I do hope it's not that nasty virus that has hit the States...so awful! Is she better now? So sad it happened at your son's birthday. The cake is wonderful! I congratulate you in being able to hold it together!! I bet Matty just loved it. Hope someone took party photos for you!
DukesWalker: I'm in Northern California. Humidity is just something you get used to working with. I simply make my fondant a bit more stiff and things take longer to dry so I add a bit more tylose. Oh, and a wonderful A/C unit set to about 70 degrees helps too! But humidity SUCKS!!! It makes everything that much harder to work on. I imagine you could get a dehumidifier and set it up close to where you work?
As for the photos...I never let a cake leave here without taking at least a cell phone photo of it first. Unfortunately clients suck and they don't usually send photos and you rarely get to actually see it totally set up (except for weddings) on the party table so most of my photos are on plain backgrounds. My reasoning isn't so grounded in reason however...I always take the photo because I'm convinced something horrid is going to happen on the way to the clients table and the cake will be destroyed so I want a photo first! LOL! (Actually this DID happen one unseasonably hot Christmas and I had to re-ice the cake at my daughters before delivering it to the client!).
Cat
A[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3286978/width/200/height/400[/IMG]Cat, wishing you better days ahead. After my horrible week last week I was wise and only took one cake. It's for a baby shower, here's in progress as I was stacking. First time using bubble tea straws! Love them!
Morgan,
I can't wait to see the whole thing! I've never used bubble tea straws before...always wooden skewers instead...too antsy! LOL!
Cat
Quote:
@mattyeatscakes This is simply wonderful, the kids must have been thrilled!
Quote:
@Naivohw you gave me a laugh as I remember how I was hit by lightening with my first SMBC.
cute little animal I love the floating letters.
Quote:
@morganchampagne I thought those were tall candles when I first looked at the photo. lol
Glad you've given yourself a little rest & recouperation time.
Thank you @dukeswalker and @MBalaska I had so much fun with my little whale cake, and it actually went together really fast. Although its been frozen for the last 3 days because the shower isn't until tomorrow. I really hope the SMBC keeps its light, amazing texture. I'm a little worried about it.
ACat, ya i've heard about the respiratory virus going around in the states and apparently it's making it's way up to Canada! Waaahh :( Sophia's all better now, praise God! I was losing so much sleep and shedding so much tears. It broke my heart to see her so sick, and she lost weight too.
MBAlaska, thank you. As always, you're just so sweet :) lol.. We didn't have a party. Just dinner with the fam, no kids but my own! Hahaha so we had so much cake! Lol but ya, he loved it!!
Morgan, ya, i love using bubba straws as well! So convenient! :)
Naivohw, i only use SMBC and it's DA BOMB right??? So yummy! Try adding flavours! :) you'd love cookies and cream!
ADukeswalker, i make my own MMF. If it gets too sticky i add more powdered sugar. If i need to make figures or decorations, i mix it my fondant with gumpaste. So glad it's fall here, summer was brutal!
Cat, forgot to add.. You like baking your own cake? Lol. Good for you! For my bday, i asked my hubby to buy me one of those gourmet italian cakes! Yum! I can honestly say that i am more of a cake decorator, not a baker. I don't love baking! Lol.. But my cakes are yummy! Or so i've heard ;)
AMattyeatscake, that is beautiful. I am glad to hear your daughter is better. To go through that and still pull off a Bucky replica is amazing! My son turned 6 today, and he asked for an Olaf cake. I've never done any figures, so I was nervous. Then I forgot to make my modeling chocolate [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3286988/width/200/height/400[/IMG]until this morning, so it never really set up. Everything felt really last minute. The crumb coat never crusted, so the fresh icing just started pulling the crumb coat off. Thank goodness it was sand and surf covered.
AAwww thanks Mermaidcakery! Lol when you have kids you know the names of all treehouse and disney jr characters hey? Hahaha
Never made modelling chocolate, gotta try it sometime. Your cake is too cute!! Very unique! Because the Frozen cakes out there look pretty much the same - blue, teal, snowflakes, elsa, anna, olaf.. I like this part of the movie, hahaha Your son must have loved it!
AAh sprout and disney. All we ever watch, unless it's a disney movie. Thanks so much for the compliments. The snowflakes were there on the side, and he insisted on having the other characters. I used plastic for those. I love modeling chocolate, but you really need to plan ahead to use it. This time it didn't rest long enough so it was super oily. I needed a quick fix, and sprinkled on some corn starch. Then it started ripping and cracking when I got it on the cake, so I couldn't smooth it, and the bottom was all puckered. It's amazing how many caking sins you can hide with bad lighting.
Quote:
Your cake is sweet, and your six year old probably loved the dickens out of that cake. I certainly would.
http://www.wickedgoodies.net/modeling-chocolate-recipe/
love love love LOVE modeling chocolate
MB! I think I'm going to try your modeling chocolate recipe for my birthday cake! I looks easy to do once you figure out the right formula...may be coming to you for help if it doesn't work out. But I like to try out new stuff on our own cakes and this is new for me! 3 years from now we'll be celebrating our 30th and I want to do a tiered cake...I was going to make chocolate fondant but this looks really good too and might actually be easier to work with...I'll let you know how it works out!
Cat
Wicked Goodies book on modeling chocolate is gold plate goodness. When you consider that learning how to take a Hershey's chocolate bar, a bottle of corn syrup and in 5 minutes it becomes candy clay.............it can't be beat.
Number one rule. Don't overheat.
Number two rule. Do Not overheat.
MB, I read your tips and think I will try the "heat half of the chocolate till melted then add in the rest off of the heat to melt". That sure sounds like the safest way to go about it! If I run into trouble I'll make sure to yell for help! LOL! Your page said you can combine the chocolate clay with fondant? Is there a particular percentage of clay to fondant??? I'm thinking, for my birthday cake, of chocolate clay "pieces" but for future reference in actually covering a cake, like traditional fondant, it may be a good idea to know the ratio of clay to fondant.
Thank you SO much...I've seen a bit of this here but never have actually DONE it. Now that I'm "retiring" from cakes professionally I will have more time to play with the medium instead!
Cat
PS...for those of you who are JUST joining cake club...THIS is why I love it....everyone here is SO ready to help, to teach, to share the work of caking with everyone else. It's not like anyone here is stingy with their time or knowledge. No "secret" recipes, no "hidden" techniques. Just ask and everyone is willing to help or lead you to someone who can!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Cat
Oh dear, I'm such a fan of Wicked Goodies, The only things that I know, I learned from her !!
Her name is Kristen Coniaris and she's a highly talented decorator. Cheers to Kristen.
@WickedGoodies is here on CC, and has a blog http://www.wickedgoodies.net/
here's her fantastic book:
Here are my two birthday cakes for the weekend :) I also designed these myself.
Spiderman:
That spider was a pain to do lol
Princess themed birthday cake:
I've been obsessed with plaques lately, I find them beautiful and you can do so much with them!
Quote:
Again just to make sure that there is All credit where credit is due. Kristen Coniaris is the decorator,
not me, I'm just passing along information and posting the link to her website. I'm the customer that is happily praising the business. I've mixed half chocolate clay with half fondant and it works well, as per her directions.
Quote:
I've been obsessed with plaques lately, I find them beautiful and you can do so much with them!
@SweetShop5 you're plaques look really nice, both of these cakes are adorable. I think that the plaques give a special look to cakes like these. Well Done.
Quote:
@SweetShop5 you're plaques look really nice, both of these cakes are adorable. I think that the plaques give a special look to cakes like these. Well Done.
Thank you so much :)
These are my cakes for this weekend. A welcome back home cake and a hamburger cake for a 7 year old girl's birthday. I am most proud of how smooth I got the SMBC on the top bun! Had to search and search the internet for a technique to smooth a rounded surface.
@Pastrybaglady you did a good job of smoothing that top bun, and your goodies inside are pretty real. The 'welcome home' cake must have been met with great joy, it is charming.
Quote:
Oh dear, I'm such a fan of Wicked Goodies, The only things that I know, I learned from her !!
Her name is Kristen Coniaris and she's a highly talented decorator. Cheers to Kristen.
@WickedGoodies is here on CC, and has a blog http://www.wickedgoodies.net/
here's her fantastic book:
Thank you again! I'll let you know how the first attempt goes next month. If it goes well then I very well may add this book to my Christmas list! LOL!
Cat
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%