The 2nd Job March 25,2014

After my last fail with fondant I decided to make a similar cake but focus on using frosting to decorate the cake instead. This time I did not have to spend time shopping for ingredients since I already had them in my baking area in the kitchen. This cake was another layered cake with the same strawberry banana and creme filling from the last cake. I baked yellow cake in two 9 inch pans to get nice even portions of the layers. The part I still have trouble on is cutting the top part of the cakes to make them flat since they puff up in the oven and become round. It might be easier to use a tool that is made to cut cakes nice and straight but for now a knife would have to do. Once I put the bottom layer, filling and top layer it was time to design the cake. I went with a simple decoration. I frosted the top of the cake with regular buttercream frosting then used food coloring to turn the rest of the frosting blue. I got my decorating tools to write a name on the cake in blue. Then I got some of the left over stawberries and cut them into even sizes and put them around the top edges of the cake and finished it off with blue frosting in between strawberries. I didnt frost the sides of the cake to show the layers and filling of the cake. Overall I was very satisfied with this simple but elegant cake. My next goal is to work with fondant again and hopefully succeed with getting it on the cake without ripping or tearing it.


Time logged for this session: 2 hrs

Total time logged: 7 hrs

The 1st Job March 23, 2014

Sunday was the perfect chance to begin experimenting with fondant and cake fillings since it was my brothers birthday. I decided to make a cake shaped as weights since working out was something my brother always did. I knew this cake wasn't going to be easy but it was a challenge I was willing to take on. Before I could begin anything I of course had to make a trip to the store to buy everything needed to complete this cake. First stop was the grocery store for the filling and cake mix. For this particular filling I had to buy strawberries, bananas and heavy whip. My next stop was my personal favorite crafts store, Michaels! Which was where I began to run into some trouble since it took me a while to find the fondant I needed and the perfect tools to use but fortunately the sales associate was kind enough to help me out. Now that I had all the ingredients to make this cake it was time to head on home. I began with baking the cake batter, chocolate for the bottom layer and yellow cake for the top. While I waited for the cakes to bake (about 40 minutes) I decided to start on the fondant. Rolling out fondant has to be one of the most tiring things ever! It starts as a block that feels like a brick to me and after rolling it over and over again it finally shaped into something that looks like pizza dough. By the time I finished the fondant the cakes were ready but I still needed to wait for them to cool down so I decided to work on the filling. First I had to cut the strawberries and bananas into small even pieces which took up more time than I thought. Then I made the whip that I would mix in with the fruit which came out so yummy! The Filling was done and the cakes were cooled off so it was time to put everything together. Chocolate down first, filling came next and yellow cake up top. Great! The hard part now was to shape the top layer into something that would look like a weight which was hard since I didnt have the right cutting tools for this but I was just going to have work with what I had. After very carefully cutting here and there I finally got the shape I wanted, it was a success! But I wasnt done yet, I still needed the fondant, it was make it or break it time. I picked up the fondant very carefully and placed it over the cake trying so hard not to tear it but then... disaster struck. The fondant was falling apart! I tried so hard to fix it but nothing seemed to work. I was devastated, I worked so hard ! Nothing would save this fondant now so I decided to just use frosting instead and only using fondant for the letters. Even though this didnt come out the way I wanted it to I did learn a lot about working with fondant. Overall the cake tasted amazing ! I was super proud of the filling and I plan on using it more often. Cant wait to show my mentor and see what she thinks! My next task will be to work on my decorating skills with frosting before I try fondant again.

Time logged for this session: 5 hours

Total time logged: 5 hours