So I had baked 6- 8in rounds and 2 10 in rounds over the course of a few days to complete not one, not two, but technically 4 cakes (2 per party). Not to mention that the previous week was a huge bake off with all the awesome treats going for an Honor Society Bake sale. Now I am not sure who contributed the most of the stuff but I did a large bulk of it. I had specific instructions to not go crazy and over board so as not to over do the others work of art. So I kept it as simple as I could, all products went out the door very tastefully done and I was quite proud.
So my cakes were all chocolate (I was kinda tired of chocolate after doing so many in a short time span lol). I had big ambitions for both parties and although they both ended up good, neither meet what I was going for in the beginning. The first to leave the kitchen was a 60th surprise party cake. My knife skills were defiantly put to the test as I choose to cut out a big 60 from the 10 in rounds and make cake pops out of the scraps of cake. I have to say the cake pops turned out awesome after I figured out the trick to making them. The filling was a Bavarian creme with smashed up oreos frosted with my chocolate fudge frosting. I then put the cake pops all around the cake and outline the numbers with them. I had also made a batch of white cupcakes with dipped chocolate frosting that spelled out happy birthday Tom as a border for the numbers. Now my first lesson for the weekend was not to put the cake pops (or any heavy decoration) on the cake until it had arrived at its destination. Not sure how it arrived to the location as I had to make a last minute decision to not attend and instead have it delivered with a fellow party goer. I was told it was very yummy and looked great so I gave myself a pat on the back and got started on the second party's cake (to be delivered in two days).
So once I got started on the second set of cakes, disaster hit almost immediately. First, several elements were new tasks that I wanted to try that were just a bit too ambitious for a 1.5 day task. I made 4-5 batches of chocolate candy molds in the shapes of sea critters (sea star, sea horse, and sea turtles). Having never worked in with melting chocolates before or a mold, I finally got the hang of it about the end of the 3rd batch. Then I choose to work with LorAnn oils to flavor the frosting's with. Now the directions said 3-4 drops would be sufficient, but upon tasting they seamed not enough. Well I was not aware that they longer they sit, the more intense the flavors so the flavors were a bit over pouring once it was time to cut the cakes. Lesson 2 or 3 if you count the chocolate molds.
These cakes I had free reign with flavors, but chocolate was the favorite and highly encouraged. So I made 2 8in Chocolate Peanut Butter with chocolate peanut butter fudge filling and peanut butter icing. Ok so I got a little carried away lol... The second set was chocolate chunk with chocolate fudge filling and was supposed to be cheesecake icing but ended up being a bit of both the peanut butter and the cheesecake frosting's. Lesson 4 if your going to try and make a cake with peanut butter or to avoid it clearly label your containers of frosting in between stages. Especially when trying to be considerate of possible peanut allergies.
So the cakes were baked no big deal, they turned out really even and didn't have to trim that much off. Except when i turned the peanut butter cake outta the pan it took the edge all the way around off the cake. Yeah yeah lesson 5 let your cake cool completely and when using new silicone pans make sure and spray the corners the first time or two (or after a very through washing) with cooking spray to prevent sticking. I was thinking oh no big deal a little stuck to the inside of the pan, re shaped the edges so they were level and round and moved on.
After dirty icing the peanut butter cake, I went to transfer it to a cake board. Now honestly I have no clue why I choose that moment to transfer it and why it just wasn'ton the board to begin with. Lesson 6. Well the cake managed to slide out of the sandwich type hold I had it in and fell top down onto the table. Now I am glad that this cake didn't end up on the floor since it could be salvaged. But yet again, it needed to be re shaped and re carved. Now i could not erase the big dent on one side of the cake so I quickly tossed a 3rd set of 8in rounds in the oven and was going to make a molded octopus and figured I could pipe the legs on to help hide the blemishes from hitting the table without loosing too much cake.
Having to take the time to bake the extra cakes for the mold I was set back 2 hours from finishing my cakes. Not to mention I had yet to drive to Tacoma where the party was being held, I had yet to pack and wanted to leave before it got dark. Once the now octopus head was molded I quickly wrapped it in wax paper set it on a cookie sheet and quickly dirty iced the second cake set and just put everything in my car. All my cake stuff and just about anything I could think of that I might need to finish the cakes and hit the road.
Once I arrived in Tacoma, I got lost in a sewing frenzy trying to accomplish a diaper bag for my brother and his Julie who are expecting their first; little Troy the Turtle. The cakes were for his baby shower. It wasn't until 1:30 in the morning that we stopped (so thankful for his grandma's, great aunt's and great grandma's help on it). At 6:30 am I was wide awake and ready to get things finished. So my photographer (Melina) and I started to finish icing the peanut butter cake. I had had so many issues and things just not go right that it became a troublesome cake.
But I am thankful for my sisters creative mind that convinced me to make the cake into a sea turtle with the octopus head now a turtle shell. I carved the leg holes out and the head out then went to town frosting it. Due to the damage from transport and falling a lot of frosting was used to hide the imperfections and to create the legs and head/neck since I didn't have time to mold them out of cake. We had managed to make it look super cool and very turtle like. I put it in my car just in case I didn't have time to get back to the house before the party as I rushed to finish the diaper bag.
At about 1:30pm (1.5 hours until the shower) the melt down was on the brink. I looked at the cake and it had started to slide apart and had smashed against the side of the cake carrier. Fixable at this point but devastating that it didn't look as good anymore. After hitting (unintentionally) just about every pot hole the size of a tire or bigger possible, I got back to my moms with less then 30 mins to have the car loaded, shower and drive the 20 mins to the shower. I looked at the cake that once would have taken 10 mins to fix to find a melted, soupy mess... My turtle that I was so proud of was a blob of green, blue and yellow.
I refused to go buy a store bought cake and left the cake as it was and went to shower. Once I had showered, we arrived at the party about 20 minutes late and I set out to finishing the second cake. IF your following along it had still only been dirtied iced. I quickly iced it up nice and placed all the chocolates on the edge wrote a message to Troy's family and friends and then begin to think about salvaging the turtle yet again.
My brother joked about it being a part of the recent weather events in Hawaii and I joked about it being turtle soup. His oldest sister joked about it being an animated turtle and slowly I had the will power to make the best of the mess in front of me. It wasn't perfect, but I got a lot of positive feedback and that lifted my spirits about presenting a deformed cake.
So the final lessons are transport properly, decorate on site if at all possible, and no matter the disaster never give up; You never know what kind of miracles will prevail.
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