I recently had the opportunity to make a baby-shower cake for a co-worker to bring to a family party. And by recently I mean back in March since I've been truly terrible at publishing updates in a timely manner (in my defense my husband and I have been busy house-hunting and preparing for our baby!). I'm finding more and more that I do actually like decorating cakes. I used to think that if I ever owned a bakery, it would be the one thing I had someone else do exclusively, but I may be changing my mind on that.
The theme for this cake was supposed to be "Jungle" for a baby-boy.
There were a couple of things that I really enjoyed about this cake and somethings I will never do again.
First, I loved using fondant and cookie cutters! All of the animals are fondant cut-outs with details added with more fondant and/or edible markers. It was super easy to do and all by animals turned out super cute.
Next, I really enjoyed making the waterfall/pond with icing gel. It had a really cool effect that stood out from the rest of the cake. I'm sure those few slices were pretty goopy with frosting though.
Another thing I enjoyed were the tropical trees and vines. For me, it was a way to add fun things to what would usually be considered the "back" of the cake. Nothing extravagant- the trees were very quick and easy- but it kept with the theme of the cake. I also liked the off-center stacking. I felt like it gave me a platform to build a scene on.
There are two things I've learned from this that I will avoid in the future. First, I will never again try to make my own black fondant. It was a mess. No matter how much black gel I added, the fondant remained a pearly purplish-gray. My hands were black and remained filthy looking for a few days. I ended up using Wilton's pre-colored fondant and it worked great.
The second thing I will be avoiding in the future is a little marvel called a "sugar sheet". I have heard tons of people just rave about them, but I had a horrible experience. I bought a zebra print sheet (they are literally sheets about the weight of paper made out of sugar) to cut out the "Congratulations" on top of the cake. Despite trying several different methods, the letter cut-outs I had would not cleanly cut through the sheet. I ended up going around each stamp with a paring knife and I still ended up with jagged edges on some letters. I'll admit it was a pretty cool effect, but not worth the time and frustration involved.
-Beth
The theme for this cake was supposed to be "Jungle" for a baby-boy.
First, I loved using fondant and cookie cutters! All of the animals are fondant cut-outs with details added with more fondant and/or edible markers. It was super easy to do and all by animals turned out super cute.
Next, I really enjoyed making the waterfall/pond with icing gel. It had a really cool effect that stood out from the rest of the cake. I'm sure those few slices were pretty goopy with frosting though.
There are two things I've learned from this that I will avoid in the future. First, I will never again try to make my own black fondant. It was a mess. No matter how much black gel I added, the fondant remained a pearly purplish-gray. My hands were black and remained filthy looking for a few days. I ended up using Wilton's pre-colored fondant and it worked great.
The second thing I will be avoiding in the future is a little marvel called a "sugar sheet". I have heard tons of people just rave about them, but I had a horrible experience. I bought a zebra print sheet (they are literally sheets about the weight of paper made out of sugar) to cut out the "Congratulations" on top of the cake. Despite trying several different methods, the letter cut-outs I had would not cleanly cut through the sheet. I ended up going around each stamp with a paring knife and I still ended up with jagged edges on some letters. I'll admit it was a pretty cool effect, but not worth the time and frustration involved.
-Beth
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