Seems like I've been baking a lot of cakes lately. First there was the oval-shaped cake with the big Toyota-intersecting-rings-that-look-like-a-T emblem (red sprinkles on a stencil, turned out ok). Made the cake from a box because I was short on time and hadn't ever tried a good chocolate cake recipe. I wasn't impressed by the taste of the box cake.
Then the three cakes shaped like baby blocks for Steve's coworker's baby shower. THAT was a mess--way too much work and way too much cake! It didn't look as good as I anticipated in my head. Glad we didn't try to stack those puppies as originally intended! Tried the "Starlight Yellow Cake" from the Betty Crocker cookbook. I wasn't too crazy about the taste of this cake, either; loaded with shortening and tasted like it.
Then a couple of birthday cakes, including this one for Steve's boss (a little better than the others--the practice is helping!). The chocolate cake recipe is a keeper; found it on the wrapper of the baking chocolate bar--ha! This cake had cream cheese frosting for the crumb coat, and the fondant was flavored with cocoa to get the brown color. That was a tasty combination, but the cream cheese frosting didn't want to hold its shape. I've been using wet strips of terrycloth pinned around the sides of the baking pans as ghetto "bake-even strips" to help the cake bake more evenly (flatter on top with less prominent crown). It actually works. Only downside is less crown to cut off and eat while I work. D'oh!
Cake-baking is turning into a little ministry; I get to make the monthly birthday cakes for Steve's office now. Just a little way to love on his coworkers and show how thankful we are for the job he has. And just a little way to gain about ten pounds in the process....
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