Caking

I was caking yesterday and this morning. Caking is a good description (whether or not it truly is a word) since it's so much more than just decorating. Baking. Cleaning. Cutting. Cleaning. Concocting. Cleaning. Cooling. Cleaning. Decorating. And a lot more cleaning. Especially when a certain little person is involved (and believe me, I need no help in the mess-making arena).

Charis always has to help me when I bake. I was supposed to have three paid cakes this weekend, but ended up with only one. But then I was asked to make dessert for our Friday night Bible study.

I was trying out a new recipe that, because of ingredients (spice, not alcohol), would not be appropriate for the children, so we made two cakes for Bible study. Charis added her ingredients, cracked her own eggs and decorated her cake. All I did was measure the ingredients, stack and frost the cakes.

She did everything else.

All in a tutu.


My camera battery was completely dead, so I took these first shots with my phone.

Charis and her finished product. It is a two-layer chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. She added frosting apples and mini M&Ms.

Below is the spicy chocolate cake, which I am calling "Chocolate Afterburn," because that's exactly what it is. You get this nice sweet chocolate taste, then a few seconds later, the spice kicks in. It's really yummy. The vanilla buttercream tones down the spice, so I torted the cake (cut each layer in half) so that there was more frosting (but the reviews are mixed on whether or not that tamed it too much). The guinea pigs at Bible study Charis' teacher loved it. It's a keeper.

I was trying some techniques I learned a long time ago and haven't used (what better practice than on a free cake). I was doing a ruffle on the bottom border, but couldn't find the right tip (which later turned up in the same place I was looking -- don't you hate that?!?!?). And I was trying to do string work (that dark brown mess on the side). My icing was NOT the right consistency. More work to do. But it tasted good!

Below is a birthday cake I did. It's a three-layer chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. The animals are FBT (frozen buttercream transfer). I haven't done FBT in a while and again, I am not pleased with how they turned out. I may go back to using candy melts.

There was a zebra, too, that I somehow managed to not get a picture of. Oh well, I REALLY didn't like how it turned out anyway. :)