Cake

Most of you who know me, know that I love.love.love to bake.  All sorts of yummies and goodies and treats.

I thought it would be fun to have a weekly post, with the recipe and pictures of one of my latest baking adventure.

I'm starting this out out with a post about Rhianna's birthday cake.

Her birthday was almost three weeks ago, but there is a reason why it took me so long to do this post.

I had to get my nerve up to do it.  I am a perfectionist to the worst degree.  I expect perfection out of myself and nothing less.  It gets tiring 'cause I never can really ever obtain that.

Anyhow.

The cake didn't turn out that great.  In fact it was pretty ugly.  But it was my very first cake that was a shape. And that is something to be proud of. Right?

And why should I be nervous about posting it?

You see.  There is a blog called cakewrecks.  I follow it daily for my daily dose of the giggles. It has pictures of goofy cakes that are messed up or ugly and they blog about them. 

I was terrified someone would take the picture of the cake I am about to blog about and put it on that blog. 

Then I figured, who cares, Rhianna loved it and that is all that matters.

So here goes.

My first attempt at a shaped cake.

*Disclaimer*
 (Because I am a perfectionist I have to have an excuse when I do something that is not even remotely good)
I was very very tired when I did this cake.  I had only a hour to do this cake, using frosting that takes a half hour to make.  Did I mention I was very Very VERY tired when I made this cake? Because I was really Really REALLY tired when I made this cake.

Rhianna wanted a princess themed cake.  I decided it would be fun to do a crown cake.  Originally I was going to do sheet cakes and cut them in the shape of a crown and stack them. 

Then one day at work I saw an angel food cake and starting thinking....

Instead of a flat cake in the shape of a crown, I could do a 3-D look.  A round cake with the crown wrapped around it.

To start:

Next, I iced the cake with a fudge frosting for the fondant to have something to stick to. Rhianna couldn't decide between a white or a chocolate cake. So I made it both flavors (White cake~Chocolate frosting).

The best part about frosting a cake?  Licking the spoon!

Next step was to make the fondant.  (Sorry, recipe is a secret :o)

Then I kneaded the yellow into the fondant to color it the color of gold.  I rolled it out and cut it into the correct shape and size.  I carefully placed it around the cake, patching as I went.

Once the fondant was on the cake and I made a poor attempt of smoothing it, I colored the royal icing to make the gems. 

Rhianna, being the sweetie that she is, picked green for the color of the icing for her name. "'Cause green is Reagan's favorite color."

Rhianna was thrilled with her cake.  She said it was the most beautiful cake she had ever seen.  I realize that it is NOT the most beautiful cake that I have ever seen. But it is what it is.  It made my girlie smile and it doesn't get any better than that.

However, it does look like she is cringing here. Doesn't it? 



And there is my first attempt at a shaped cake.  I guess I can only get better from this point on!

At Rhianna's birthday party I had asked my four year old niece Molly to think of a shape she would like for her birthday cake 'cause I want to practice fun shaped cakes.  Her response?  "I'll take any shape but a rhombus".  I 'bout howled with laughter.

 *And please don't submit this to cakewrecks...I'd probably cry ;-)