Cake Disaster

I have had a dream since I was little that one day I would be able to make beautiful cakes. People would see my cakes and want to taste their deliciousness because my cakes were so beautiful. So far, that dream has not come true. Last summer, I spent the 3rd of July cooking a total of 14 cakes to try and create a "beautiful" topsy turvy cake. I thought that this would be a snap since the youtube video make it look perfectly simple. My masterpiece was a disaster. It looked nothing like the cakes I have seen at weddings and on Ace of Cakes. To make matters worse, we drove the Jetta up to my parent's house for dinner. The Jetta's air conditioner = crap-tastic. Needless to say, the cake started melting big time. My dad saw it and couldn't recognize it for all of the artistic goodness that it was. I did get a few compliments that at least it tasted good.

So, it was with a bit of trepidation that I asked my friend Mindy what she thought about cakes. Lo and behold, the girl shares my dream! Could this be any better? How have we been friends for 12+ years and not known that each harbors a secret dream to become the next Ace of Cakes???? To make a long story short, we have enrolled in a couple of cake classes to make our dreams into reality. Our first class was last Friday, we didn't do any decorating of cakes, but we had 2 hours of great instruction. The instructor let us know that we're to go home, practice and come back next week with a frosted cake ready to decorate...meanwhile we're starting a fondant class this week...fondant here we come!1!

I decided that I would attempt yet another masterpiece. This one would be much better because I had sat in on a 2 hour demonstration, AND I have purchased all of the Wilton supplies I could possibly get my little hands on AND I was only going to make a traditional cake. I could do this right? What better day than to celebrate Easter with my family with a wonderful, beautifully decorated cake?

The project started off innocently enough...although I should never ever use the pan that is pictured below. For some crazy reason I had a wild hair when I was getting married that these were better pans than the regular ones and I registered for probably 4 or 5, since that's what I received. They're horrible. I have never had a cake come cleanly out of one...no matter how much crisco or pam I put in there.



I popped that bad boy in the oven, then went on to the buttermilk frosting recipe. That really wasn't too bad. The taste? Divine. Fat content? Probably a hundred grams of fat in a tablespoon.



Then, my first cake came out of the oven. Things were going pretty good at first. Until I got some crumbs in my frosting.



It didn't help that then I got greedy. I should never have attempted to do a two layer cake with delicious snack pack pudding in between. It was my downfall.



Notice that the small cake, which was frosted nicely in the previous picture is now hacked apart. I couldn't get those dang crumbs out. I tried and tried and ended up massacring the whole thing. The tall guy, well, he didn't want to come out of the pan. So, when part of the cake split in half I tried to do some surgery with the frosting. Buttermilk frosting is not the same as glue. I repeat, do not try to glue your cake back together with frosting, it won't work. Especially if you have put snack pack pudding in the middle, its extra slippery.

At that point I gave up. I didn't make an extra packet of frosting to decorate the cakes with cute little chicks and flowers. Nope. Instead the cakes had a date with the garbage can, after I ate a few slices, of course.

We have two more classes this week, I'm sure the masterpiece is still there!