In February 2005, I started taking a cake decorating class from Lori Parrett
at Cake Walk Chicago. What a ton
of fun. Lori is a great instructor, very talented but also very easy-going.
I can't recommend her classes and store enough. In fact, it was the best educational experience of my life, and I've had a lot of experience. Heck, I may give up being a
computer nerd and make cakes all day. Here's a selection of my first cakes.
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My first fondant cake (pre-Lori's class). A wedding
cake in the shape of a Buddhist Stupa for my friends Kasia and Brad Glick.
There are "prayer flags" spelling their names twisting down
from the spire. The bride and groom figures are courtesy of Drew.
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My first foray into buttercream roses, first class where we got to do anything. I'm pretty darn
impressed, myself. Lessons learned: "1. Cakes look great with a pile of roses and 2. Don't make drop flowers on the sides of cakes where they, indeed, drop."
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My second fondant cake, made at a Saturday workshop
at Cakewalk Chicago.
If I had known it was going to look so good, I would have put it onto
a nicer board. Themed as a Rainbow Fish for PJ Karafiol's birthday. Lessons learned: "1. Choose the right size cake board and 2. If you glue everything together with vanilla extract, the cake smells heavenly." |
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| A birthday cake I made for Ru's birthday. She was turning one of those ages, her father-in-law the other. A stabilized whipped cream frosting. Lessons learned: "1. Step AWAY from the cake before you make ridiculous dots and frills all over the lettering and 2. If Wilton recommends a method, it might not taste great but it will work." |
A birthday cake I made for one of our favorite babysitters, Anya. You can just about squeeze 18 roses on a 7" cake. Thank goodness I got rid of that "Friends and Family Plate." Lessons learned: "1. When you do lettering in melted chocolate, do the mirror image! Fortunately 18 is symmetric and 2. Classical buttercream roses taste like, well, butter. Plus they're a pain in the butt. As Anya said 'The red ones taste like icing!' and 3. Cake mixes taste just fine if you ladle strawberry buttercream between the layers."
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| A birthday cake I made for our other favorite babysitter, Ruthie. Her requested design; a traditional (in our family) carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Lesson learned: "Be bold, or you'll get anaemic vegetables." |
A birthday cake for Jonah's first. Cake made by PJ. As Andrew said: "What are those seagulls doing on the bottom?" Lesson learned: "Don't fart around with new tips on somebody else's cake." Nonetheless, so admired by a partygoer that I have a whale request for another birthday party. |
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| Sigmund Freud in white and dark chocolate, done for my neighbor Jim the Psychologist. The cake is a chocolate buttermilk, the icing an Italian Meringue flavored with Drambuie and orange marmalade. Lesson learned: "Use candy chocolates to avoid bloom unless you're eating it immediately. Also, colors of chocolates have to be at the same temperature to avoid separation." |
Meredith's birthday, a big number (for her). Chocolate ruffle top on a chocolate cake, strawberry mousse piping and filling. Lessons learned: "Stop using that overblown Cake Bible. Also, if you're going to make a dense cake, put two layers of light filling in the middle." Ruffle was surprisingly easy, given the recipe in The Perfect Cake. |
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| 30 mini cupcakes for Alec's 4th birthday school class . They are vanilla with a dipped chocolate glaze and sugar crystal sprinkles. On top are chocolate wafer "bugs." Lesson learned: "Fill mini muffin cups with a pastry bag -- one air bubble in a cupcake and it's totally unstable." |
The repeat of the whale cake for Alec's 4th birthday. He likes pink. Devil's food cake with butter/shortening icing. Compare to the one above -- I'm getting more agressive with the decorating. Lesson learned: "Small children always want a piece with whale icing on it -- so make the main decoration big. " |
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| A buttermilk chocolate cake with orange mousse filling and orange buttercream frosting. Recipes from The Perfect Cake, buttercream mixing from The Whimsical Bakehouse. The final installment in Alec's birthday. Lesson learned: "1. Do not turn the oven dial to Broil instead of Bake. 2. NEVER add gel coloring to chocolate ganache because it will curdle/seize and look disgusting." |
My sister's traditional carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Made for a big birthday of Andrew's. Now all gussied up with basketweave. Can't say it's significantly more beautiful than the one show above with really simple and fast dots. |
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| A monster-size cake, chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling and chocolate glaze. More chocolate than you can shake a stick at, created by Marty for her dad's 80th birthday. I made the roses as my modest contribution to the abundance. |
As you can see, we're on a roll with the monster size cakes. Personally, I think the red roses look better interspersed with the white ones. A cake for Sara Fagan's birthday and Bradley Reunion. Lesson learned: "1. When you shatter a cake while trying to layer it, just flip it upside down! and 2. A cake this big needs at least four layers of cardboard under it (hence the duct tape)." |
