I have recently begun nominating myself to make people birthday cakes.
Why?
Because I like to. And because I don't like DQ ice cream cakes, which seem to be the default in our family. And because I can always use the practice. And because I know they will be tasty and ::insert the I-bake-from-scratch-snooty-face:: not box-mix-pre-fab hullabaloo. [Aside: I spelled "hullabaloo" correctly on the first try, even though that might be the first time I've used that word in my life.]
Here's the first cake I ever put any effort into decorating, including learning to basket-weave the sides because that is what my mom wanted on the cake. (Chocolate with chocolate cream cheese frosting.)
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| Lisa - Chocolate Basket-Weaving (06.21.10) |
The outside of this next cake was plain on purpose, to disguise the fact that insides were meant to look tie-dyed. Jenni loves tie-dying things, so I thought it was a clever idea. (Almond cake with cream cheese frosting.)
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| Jenni - Tie-dyed Layers (11.21.10) |
This is the smoothest I've ever gotten butter cream to look, and the only time I've liked the look of text I've piped. Amie likes Celtic things, so I looked up some Celtic fonts and sketched it out first. And I free-handed the design just out of my head. I was pretty proud of it. (Chocolate cake with probably cream cheese frosting but I don't remember.)
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| Amie - Smoothed Frosting (04.24.11) |
I put these together in one post, because they were more about experimenting with techniques. The people they were made for seemed to enjoy them, which is always the best part. Well, that and eating them later.
And don't judge me: cream cheese makes the best frosting. FACT.
You did a great job on getting your buttercream smooth!
ReplyDeleteI thought I would share my tip for that ... you need Viva brand paper towels and something perfectly flat and smooth (I use a Wilton Brand cake smoother thing I got at Michaels cuz I like gadgets).
Once you've gotten your icing as smooth as you can get it, lay a paper towel on top of the cake and smooth over it with your flat object. Lift the paper towel and move to another section. Continue until you've smoothed the entire cake in this manner. This is how I get knife edge corners and a perfectly smooth crust. I never do fondant because I can get the same smoothness with buttercream.
Oh - and ONLY Viva paper towels will work for this because they are perfectly smooth with no pattern and they don't stick to the icing.
Hope this helps!
- From another Epbot fan ... Amy
Thanks! That actually is what I did after seeing that trick online somewhere. :)
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