I'd put a thin rod in just to make sure it doesn't fall over. A straw would probably work too 
LOVE the CAKE, btw
Just finished a flat brimmed ball cap for a friend's son's 17th birthday and am now frosting a 2-layer sheet cake (not torted...layered) for a baby shower on Sunday. It's a Hershey's chocolate cake with a really thick layer of the most delicious whipped chocolate ganache I've ever made and frosted with deep chocolate butter cream. It's the first time I've wanted to dive face forward into a cake before. The girl who ordered it is pregnant and the shower is for her pregnant sister...gee, wonder why they wanted chocolate?
I've got to make it jungle theme and while I have a design in mind, I am dreading mixing the fondant colors...there's a lot. 2-shades of Brown, 2-shades of blue, 2-3 colors of green, brown, orange, yellow. Yick. I knew I should have prepped this earlier but I didn't. Sigh.
Back to work!
Just tuning in-DH was off today, he dug trenches for the plumbing- the sweat equity helps with the final bill-Plumber said rough in is ready for inspection Monday! Concrete will be poured for floor on Tuesday. So, most of my day was spent back and forth. I have a groom's cake for an outdoor reception tomorrow evening. It is stacked and tomorrow I will apply ganache to the edges. I am holding my breath, I have never ganached before. Then the cake gets chocolate covered strawberries on the edges and around the base. Have to go early in the morning and get the strawberries and by the wholesale plumbing supply and get one more piece of pipe!
Taking a break from caking this week so we can finish installing our new paver patio, matching retainer wall, and set our new 2 story clubhouse/swingset up. I just came inside after hauling 30 20lb. Pavers, applying wood glue an filler to the clubhouse, and sanding and staining half of the swing portion. I think I'd rather have worked on my huband's birthday cake! Oh wait, I still have to do that. Eh, he doesn't need it until Tuesday. :-/
ahhh... well, 4 tiers have fondant now, which leaves just one more tier to fondant on this cake. One of the tiers is a round hat box with polka dots. Colors are pastel pink and tiffany blue. Base on this tier is the pink... and for the polka dots... I can't decide if I want to use tiffany blue or a darker rose pink or both. Any thioughts? And what color on the lid? The rope handles are going to either be silver or pearl antique white
I don't know how everyone who has a business does this all the time! I am finally putting together my purple hippo ballerina cake tomorrow. Just the thought of 2-3 wedding cakes on a weekend makes my feet hurt. Have to figure out how I'm going to do the cookies and cream filling still for the chocolate cake I made today. I have two recipes. One with cream cheese and one with whipped cream - well dream whip really. I just think the chocolate cake is too dang heavy for the dream whip version. I wonder if I use cream cheese, butter, ps, crushed oreos and then fold in some dream whip if that would be ok. I'll have to wing that tomorrow. My husband is going to help me deliver it. It's a free cake I made for a friend's 6 year old from my church. Just practicing.
I still haven't found a good scratch dark choco cake. I used the especially dark cake on the hershey can. I dont' care for all that oil. I found an old Gourmet mag recipe from 1996 for a dark choco cake that has a ton of butter in it. With a choco orange ganache. I'll give that a try after this. If it tastes any good I'll submit it. Happy baking to all.
I'm making my very first wedding cake for my cousin and it's kicking my a$$! I've never made anything bigger then a two tier cake for 50 people, so this is by far my biggest cake. It just dawned on me, I have no idea how the heck I'm going to carry this cake into the venue? I guess its not THAT heavy, but if it's longer then a 5 second walk, I'm dead! Lol
Cherie, how may layer are in the cake? Have you thought about alternating the fillings? say, do, cookie-n-cream cream cheese, then dream whip, then cookies again?
I've got a dark chocolate one somewhere that my cousin gave me. He fell in love with it when he was studying at Cordon Bleu (I like to tease him that's he's a food snob now lol). I'll track it down for ya
hey everyone! finishing up for the night. 3 done and 1 to put a border on in the morning. Just can't decide what to do! I figure some sleep will help. It's a fun funky wedding on a boat! How fun! Did a bright pink textured base, lime bottom tier with bright pink and orange rick rack stripes and a teal border. The top tier is teal with bright pink and orange gerbera daisies...I just don't know how I want to finish the bottom! I don't want any more lime...I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the brightness. I'm also adding a few pearled butterflies and curled wire balls. Just need that border! Any help is appreciated! But in the meantime I'm off to bed!
@cheriej-I like the Chocolate cake from Williams Sonoma Comfort foods. Pretty tasty. I also like Martha Stewart's one bowl Chocolate cupcakce recipe. Converts well to cake. I also don't like the Hershey's.
Cakification, just walk into the venue, sweetly bat your eyelashes, and ask the nearest staff member if they'll help. Or... if they have a cart, you can just roll it in Good luck, can't wait to see pics!
Jennifer... post a pic real quick! let see what all there is. (like I said, I'm in a visual mode today)
had to add to my photos....
it's in there, in the fridge! hahahaaha! and it's sideways. I'm too tired to edit. so. yeah. rock on!
Well, my cake is at work, but still spent time on it tonight. filled and iced cake tonight (ran out of buttercream so had to make more, so that was fun). it's a 4 tier bavarian and berries cake (asst berries soaked in grand marnier layered with cream and vanilla sponge) easy decorating tomorrow, just need to cover in fondant, wrap with light sagey colored ribbon, then some piping detail. Then deliver downstairs to the ballroom and call it a night (my co-worker will cut it later that night).
Thing that bothers me.....we have told our "wedding" coordinators (catering managers) tons of time that the worst ribbon to wrap a square cake is the stuff with wire. it's such a pain in the butt. So what do we get?? a ribbon that is a lovey sagey green with a satin finish and wires thats been shoved into an envelope and squished. so now we have to get it ironed before it can go on the cake. Grrrrrrrrr
Carmijok..care to share your Chocolate Ganache recipe?? I'm starting my cake decorating classes and we will have to fill a cake so I really want to get some good recipes for fillings. Baseball cap cake looks amazing
Thanks! Here's the ganache recipe. Got it from Southern Living a few years ago and it's so easy.
1 1/2 cups of whipping cream (I used Land 'o Lakes)
12 ounce pkg of semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Nestle's Toll House)
3 TBL butter
Heat the whipping cream until almost scalded, take off the heat and then add in choc chips. Let the mixture sit a bit and then stir until chocolate melts. Whisk in the butter. Let it cool for 20 minutes before using. At this point you can use the ganache like you normally would.
For filling, just take the cooled ganache and with the whisk attachment on your mixer start whipping on high and leave it there until it forms soft peaks. This takes a while so don't get impatient. The result is a soft cloud of chocolate that is perfect to spread as a filling or even as a non-crusting frosting. You can refrigerate it and use it later...or even freeze it. Just let it come to room temp and it works great! you can also add extracts to it like peppermint, even Khaluah or other flavorings that go well with chocolate. Yum.
Cakification, just walk into the venue, sweetly bat your eyelashes, and ask the nearest staff member if they'll help.
Or... if they have a cart, you can just roll it in Good luck, can't wait to see pics!
I wish I could say that my cake even made it to the venue. Well that's a lie, it did make it, but it was in about a million pieces of cake crumbles in the back of my car. 
I have never been more devastated in my whole life. CLEARLY I was not ready to take on a cake so big, and OBVIOUSLY i need to do some serious research on cake supports. Leah, you may have another SPS convert.
The BEFORE pic is the most recent in my photos.
[quote="cakification"]
Cakification,
I wish I could say that my cake even made it to the venue. Well that's a lie, it did make it, but it was in about a million pieces of cake crumbles in the back of my car.
I have never been more devastated in my whole life. CLEARLY I was not ready to take on a cake so big, and OBVIOUSLY i need to do some serious research on cake supports. Leah, you may have another SPS convert.The BEFORE pic is the most recent in my photos.
I never transport a stacked cake that is not cold (cold cake is more dense) and I always have a dowel down the center of all the tiers. I ALWAYS put the cake in a box that has the sides split so you can slide it in and it's the same size as the board so the cake won't get beat up. I always use a 'grippy pad' (rubber mesh shelf liner) underneath the cake box to keep it from slipping and sliding and I always blast the air conditioner to keep it as cold as possible. I am so sorry for what happened...what did you do when you arrived?
Thanks for the tips carmijok, I really appreciate it. Definitely have learned a lot of lessons.
When i arrived i was 2 hours early, so I spent about half an hour trying to fix the disaster, but as I was tryin to fix it, it just kept getting worse and worse. I had a repair kit, but there was literally no saving it. So then after promptly loosing it and crying my eyes out in the parking lot, i called the groom, he was so nice, he said he didn't care, ( this was both the bride and grooms third wedding) the groom said "as long as the wedding doesn't collapse like the cake did, were ok.." so then I went to the nearest grocery store and bought 3 sheet cakes, luckily they were plainly iced in ivory, and they were fine. They were eggless cakes, so i have no idea how they tasted, but that was all i could do.
The good news is that the groom was my cousin ( second cousin ), and his wife was very relaxed, so neither of them were terribly upset. Nowherer near as devastated as I was.
Today is SUNDAY....the day of REST!!! Yay for me because this week was a tough one.
Remember ladies I am in Germany in a location that prevents military spouses from opening a home cake business...so EVERY cake I make is literally on a tip/donation basis. The military has sent people home from cake busting them. Who knew I would be making black market cakes. HAHA.
So, a couple of weeks ago I received two cake orders and as always I tell them that I make cakes for free. If they want to tip me fine. If not, no problem. I'm just building my portfolio and cake skills. I then received two more orders this past week...all were due this past week.
First order was for a small 6" ballerina cake and 24 cupcakes with neon frosting. Easy.
Second order was for a 3 tier baby shower cake (why they wanted a tiered cake to serve 40 people, I don't know. But I made it!)
Third order: 1 FULL sheet cake to serve 100 high school graduates. This was for our on base high school students. The commissary wouldn't make it on such a short notice (24 hours), so they came to me.
Fourth order: I took a break from work and walked over to the base arts and craft store. While looking at cake supplies, a couple was standing next to me looking at icing tips as if they were looking at signs written in chinese. They had no idea, but I heard them frantically ranting about not having a cake for their daughters birthday. It was like 4pm and the commissary requires at least a 2 day notice. The husband ask me about buttercream and then next thing you know I'm leaving the store with a puppy paw print cake order due the next morning (Saturday) at 9am.
So that's 4 orders and I DO HAVE A DAY JOB! LOL!
Needless to say, missions totally accomplished. A few folks in my office who know I bake cakes call me the one to call when there is a "cakmergency".
Oh now for the funny part...let's talk about $$$$. Here are the tips/donations I received:
Order 1: $20 (small cake and cupcakes)
Order 2: $20 (3 tier baby shower cake)
Order 3: $100 (full sheet cake)
Order 4: $40 (puppy paw cake)
LOL!!! Being here and making cakes for the price of an 11 piece chicken meal has taught me that when I do open my business once we get to the states (1 month and counting), I will not think twice about my cake prices I have already set. If you don't set your price and stick with it, they will short change you and not think twice. No fault to them because the average customer doesn't know how much work and supplies go into a cake.
Standing by for comments....or buttercream e-thrown at me for giving cake away! LOL
Standing by for comments....or buttercream e-thrown at me for giving cake away! LOL
I don't work full time and I did two cakes this week and I am totally exhausted. I have no idea how you do it. And hey, charge what you want! Doesn't sound like you can do much at the moment...and if you're happy doing free cakes for the experience, who am I to say anything. I just wish I had your energy!
cakification,
So sorry to hear of your problems, and YES! do look at SPS. There are a lot of converts here. You can ABSOLUTELY deliver a pre-stacked cake with no problems - it's why SPS was created. And if doesn't have to be cold. I have NEVER refrigerated a cake in 50 years. For a four tier cake (before adding on shipping) SPS supplies will cost about $11. Cheap. Sturdy. Easy. What more could you ask for?
Thanks so much Leah, I guess i have been so affraid of the cost of the system, since I'm just a Hobbyist, I never gave it much thought, plus I keep hearing different numbers being thrown out I never knew what it really cost.
I appreciate the feedback.
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