the cake that got me...

well it has been a really busy summer. i haven't done much caking at all, i miss it, but we have been so busy i haven't had time to really do anything. i am glad that fall is on the horizon, the beautiful crisp, clean air is coming back, school is starting and routine is coming back. i have enjoyed it, but i really miss having some structure in our lives.

our littlest man had his birthday near the end of august. while we were staying at my parents house, i decided that i was going to tackle at topsy turvy cake. they are big, and i couldn't justify making one for the heck of it, so i thought that it would be the perfect birthday cake. i had the idea all ready, the colors and where i was putting what. so i started to bake.... and bake.... and bake. 9 cakes in total. here they are.once i had them baked and cooled, they went into the freezer so that they would be easier to carve. so the next step was fill, stack and carve away. carving was really fun because it was a neat shape, and i am pretty nit-picky so i had a great time looking over the shape of the cake all too often.my next step was to cover them with a crumb coat, chill, and then cover with another coat of buttercream, then chill again. once that was done it was time for fondant. i was so excited it was going so well!!!! it was getting late and i was tired but i just thought that if i could get them all covered with fondant i would be laughing in the morning... well i tried to cover the biggest set of cakes 3 times and at 2:30am i finally decided to call it and go to bed. i was just getting more and more frustrated and i knew that wasn't helping me at all.

i finally got back to the cake around lunch time. i still had about 5 hours to finish the cake so i was in good standing. once the cakes were covered, all i had to do was decorate and that usually goes by a little quicker. so i figured i had LOTS of time. being as i was so frustrated with the biggest cake, i decided to try and cover the smallest one first. it went well and into the fridge it went. then i thought i would work on the middle tier so IF i ran out of time, i could at least use two tiers.

i guess i should have explained the process of actually covering the cakes with fondant the first time. once the buttercream was chilled, i sprayed my cake with a bit of water so that the fondant would stick to it. when the fondant tore, as it did the first three times, i had to remove the fondant, (which removed a lot of the buttercream) scrape the excess buttercream off the fondant, re-mix the fondant back together, wrap it, bag it, and then recover the cake; crumb coat again, chill, and then regular icing, and chill. i was sure that when i did it in the afternoon i would know what i was doing as i had already had a go with it 3 times before.

so onto the second tier. first attempt, RiPpEd fondant. so i repeated the entire process above again. by this time i was really annoyed. i calmed myself, telling myself that i can do anything my mind says i can. so i took a few deep breaths before i re-rolled the fondant and applied it to the cake. all i saw was more ripping and my mind was telling me to swear (under my breath of course!) and punch away................. ahhhhhhhh, relief. it felt so d.a.n.g. good! i was flying all over my kitchen, my cupboards, my floor. i didn't care. i was a total psycho for about 30 seconds.

i slouched down in the corner, totally defeated and called my hubby. "can you please come home and give me a hand for a minute." "what's going on?" he sweetly asked. "i am having trouble with the cake." "well babe, i am really busy and i can't get away right now. what is happening?" i responded, "it looks like someone punched the shart out of the second tier." he asked "well did you?" "ummm, ya." then he started to laugh and told me not to worry about it, we'd get a DQ cake. FINE WITH ME! then i called my mom. she came over and told me to scoop it into a bowl and we would eat it like that for supper and for our little man's birthday. so we did!

well of course i had the top tier left over and the bottom tier.... frozen in my freezer. so i attempted to make the cake again. i baked another middle tier, three chocolate cakes, froze, filled, stacked and carved... again.

crumb coated, chilled, frosted, chilled and then tried to cover with fondant again. this time i made my own fondant. i called an expert and asked why it kept ripping and she thought it might be because it was too dry. so like i said above, i made my own. i tried a recipe that i used for a tinker cake and didn't love, but figured it was my first try with new fondant so i need to try it again. well, it looked like elephant skin, but it didn't rip!!!

i prepped the bottom tier with dowels, and placed the top tier on it. i didn't really like how tall the second tier was looking but i was going to go with it. then i place the top tier on. it looked retarded. no, seriously. again, enough for one night. i left it and when we got home from church i decided i would take the top and middle tier off and cut the middle tier about 1-2 inches up and then replace. then it would look more proportioned.

well i forgot there was doweling all throughout the cake and the top layer just about fell apart in my hands, so i decided at this point to call it quits. i know, shocking. but i had tried enough, and i know what i will do next time (if there is ever a next time for this cake!!). i let the kids have at it and it was the highlight of this caking experience! blow out your candles little one!