The Hall of Justice Cake

For my husband's birthday, he asked for a cake that was DC themed.

Okaaaay...

It's never a good idea to be so vague with me. I decided to go retro and make a cake that looked like the Hall of Justice, from my childhood memories of the Super Friends. Why? Because the Watchtower looked too involved and it was hot. Really hot. And humid. It's not fun to bake in hot and humid weather.

I started with my buttermilk chocolate cake recipe and made one and a half recipes. The method of using chocolate ganache as glue worked so well in May, I figured I would do that again. FYI, it doesn't work when the temperature is in the 90s. I spent a lot of time waiting for parts to set in the freezer.

The front part of the Hall of Justice was decorated with buttercream frosting. The back section I used whipped cream frosting. FYI, whipped cream is also hard to work with in hot and humid weather. I think I fought this cake from beginning to end.

I used a Pirouette cookie for the columns on the front. Next time I will just pipe them in with frosting. Apparently, nothing sticks to these cookies. Or maybe only melted chocolate does, but I didn't buy white chocolate for this cake. 

 The sculpture in the reflecting pool was made from broken pieces of sugar cone. I was happy with how the sculpture came out.

Birthday season is now over for the year. I'm thinking I should try to make a cake or two in the fall, just to keep in practice. It would be fun to make some designs without the pressure of a birthday deadline.

The 2017 May Birthday Cakes

My father's birthday is usually the kickoff to our May celebrations. With Easter so late, and a second cake to bake at the end of the week, I pitched an idea for the kids to make for their abuelo. I present to you the Scone cake. It's one and a half batches of Buelo's favorite treat, drizzled with chocolate ganache. It actually made a very light tasting cake.

The second cake would be a challenge. My youngest requested a cake that depicted a scene from Steven Universe: The Strawberry Field which was the Gem Battlefield. I baked a chocolate buttermilk cake and used buttercream frosting for decorating. Marina baked chocolate sugar cookies to use for the background mountains and shrubs and the Warp Pad (their transporter). I also skewered strawberries with little plastic cocktail swords. It looks like a stage scene. You really can only look at it from the front.

 Marina's birthday was next. I think she knew I really wanted to try making Lion from Steven Universe. Lion is a velvet cake decorated with whipped cream frosting. Melted chocolate was my glue to hold the pieces together and to detail the eyes and nose. I think the face is a little too flat. I baked a smaller cake for it and I should have sliced it on more of an angle. I also almost forgot to give him ears. Good thing I had plenty of cake scraps to work with! The eyes are slivers of marshmallow decorated with melted chocolate.

The final cake would come five days later for my son's birthday. I used both a velvet cake and a chocolate buttermilk cake for this one. He planned to play D&D that night and go out for his first drink, so I made cupcakes for him to bring to his friends. The base cake is a layer of chocolate cake and a layer of velvet cake frosted with whipped cream. Then I made buttercream frosting to decorate Aku, the main villain from Samurai Jack. My son had actually requested Scaramouche's head, but I thought Aku would add some color. (Who wants a gray cake?) Scaramouche is a cyborg that was cut apart by Samurai Jack. He's made with one and a half cupcakes frosted with buttercream. His spine is made from a Pirouette cookie. (Yes, I bought a whole tin of Pirouettes so I could use a piece of one cookie. It was a very hot week and I didn't want to do any more baking than necessary.)

In all, it was an incredibly busy May, between birthdays and work and some meetings. I'm glad I have a month's break before my husband's birthday. And just a note, I have come to depend upon those two cake recipes. When you have to bake so many cakes in quick succession, you want to rely on a recipe that is tried and true. Save the experiments for low stress baking!

The Impossible Cake

For my birthday, I attempted an "Impossible Cake". 

I think it came out well.

 

 The Impossible Cake is a cake with flan that you bake together in one Bundt pan. Seriously, the hardest part about making it was opening the cans of evaporated milk and dulce de leche. My can opener cuts along the side of the can lid. For some reason, it couldn't do anything with these cans. I had to resort to using the can opener on my daughter's Swiss Army knife. Even then, I had to mangle the dulce de leche can to get the caramelized milk out.

The impossible of the cake is that you layer in the ingredients starting with the dulce de leche, then the cake batter, and finally the custard mixture. As it bakes, the cake switches places with the flan and ends up as the top layer. When you turn it out onto the platter, the cake is the base with the flan on top. I squeezed more dulce de leche on top and drizzled some chocolate ganache over it as well.

Luckily, I read the comments for the cake before starting. Many people said that it needed to bake for 90 minutes instead of 60. I timed it for 80 minutes and still ended up giving it another 5 before the wooden skewer came out clean. I also made sure I put my foil nice and tight over the cake pan. I didn't put boiling water in the roasting pan (the cake pan sets in this while baking) and I didn't have any problems with the flan thickening. I did leave it to set on the counter for an hour or so and then refrigerated it overnight before unmolding it. That might have made a difference. I did set it in boiling water for five minutes to soften the caramel before turning it onto the plate. It popped out without much trouble.

This was a pretty simple cake with good results. I would definitely make it again. But I'll need a better can opener next time.

Baby Dragons Cake

 It was cool enough before my husband's birthday to bake this. He's really into Game of Thrones (and trying to convince me to read them). All I know about the book is that there is a character who raises dragons. That sounded cool (or hot?) so I figured I would do the baby dragons on a cake.

 It's hard to tell them apart on the cake. They are all wings, necks, and tails crowded together. I used mini cake pans and cut the shapes of heads, necks, bodies, and tails out of the small cakes. The cake is a velvet cake recipe that I turned into a chocolate velvet cake. It had a nice dense crumb that really held together. I used melted chocolate to cover the bodies and hold the pieces together. My daughter made the different colored wings with a basic sugar cookie recipe. They all sit on a single layer base cake. I had two extra mini cakes, so I spread them out a little more and added the "Cake is coming" sign. Frosted and decorated with whipped cream frosting.

It's easier to see the dragons once we moved them to separate plates. They are like weirdly shaped, inside-out Ring Dings®.

The yellow winged dragon is grooming. I liked the positioning of it.

Poor red dragon broke a wing in process. I fixed it as best I could using chocolate for glue. After two days working on it, I really didn't want to do anything else to it.

They were quickly gobbled up.

May Ends with Two Cakes

May is done. Unless you have all your children's birthdays in one month, you don't know what a relief that is. Add to that the fact that most big events usually happen in May and you will have an idea of what my month was. We finished out the month with a graduation/Confirmation party sponsored by my mother (thanks, Mom). We had the event at a restaurant, but I agreed to bake a cake for it. Why? Because I didn't account for two things. First, I didn't realize how many people would come, so I didn't know that "a" cake would become two cakes. Second, the weather became hot and humid exactly when I needed to begin baking. Thanks weather.

The first cake I baked was for the Confirmation. My vision was a simple dove made of a large and small cupcake. I used a velvet cake, baked and chocolate dipped shortbread for the tail, and opted for buttercream frosting because it's usually my go-to for decorating. I will tell you now that it doesn't work as well when it's hot and humid. On the plus side, spending four hours baking and decorating in a sauna-like kitchen did help me sweat out five pounds. Always look on the bright side.

 I am not happy with how the dove came out. I think it looks like a cockatoo. I suppose I was getting delirious in that final hour in the kitchen and everything was softening as fast as I could decorate, even with giving the cake and frosting refrigerator breaks.

I made the second cake the night before the big event. My plan was to go as simple as possible. I had already made the top of the graduation cap when I made the tail feathers, so all I needed to do was bake a chocolate buttermilk cake and cover it with chocolate ganache and a small bit of buttercream for the trimmings. The cap is a cupcake. The hardest part here was keeping track of the math--I did one and a half recipes to get a full cake plus six cupcakes (the other five cupcakes became tributes). I did all this after working a full day at the library. The sacrifices we make for our children!

My one disappointment is that my photos at the actual party did not come out well. Have I mentioned I miss my camera? I really miss my camera. I just can't figure out my daughters' cameras and they are too shy to take pictures of people. Maybe because people move too much and end up blurring in every shot. Anyway, this ends the May Baking Marathon.

More Events, Finishing with a Labyrinth Cake

We had such a crazy busy week I thought I missed a couple of weeks of posting. It always seems we pack as many life events as possible into May. The week that began with a birthday/graduation had a Confirmation in the middle and a 20th birthday celebration at the end. 

The Confirmation was very nice. Marina sponsored her little sister, which is good, because she is a calming presence and my youngest was completely panicked. I'm not quite sure why this got scheduled on a weekday night at the height of rush hour. Maybe it was a way to control the crowd. At any rate, it was a nice ceremony, and we capped off the night by ordering Chinese food and relaxing among Marina's boxes and bags in the living room. Did I mention I have a dorm room in my living room again?

My girls with our parish priests and the grandparents

By the end of the week I was really beat, but my son was turning 20. I always try to make his day special because it is hard to be a middle child and the last birthday in a month of birthdays. He gave me an interesting challenge, as he usually does. I had done some prep work the week before and was really happy with how the cake turned out. He wanted a tribute to David Bowie and we are all fans of Labyrinth, so....

Click to enlarge, it's worth it.

I want everyone to enjoy the view from the back. I worked hard on that hair.

 He asked for Jareth on his throne. If that wasn't too hard. And he would totally understand if I couldn't do it. As usual, I took that as a challenge. And after the Mad Tea Party cake, the wheels already began turning on how I could create armature out of shortbread cookies. The cake base and the throne seat and turrets are my basic buttermilk chocolate cake. The top of the throne, the stones around the edge and Jareth's body are made from Scotch shortbread. The throne supports are chocolate covered pretzels. I used a buttercream frosting, chocolate buttercream, and plain old melted chocolate to decorate the cake. I had trouble with the maze design at first, so I'm not too happy with the floor. It took half the cake before I got the hang of how to make it maze-like. 

I baked Jareth's limbs, head, and torso separately and built him up with frosting and chocolate. His head is actually flat except for the nose, the rest is hair frosting, which I think came out fabulous. If I did this again I would probably make his crystal a ball instead of a flat cookie. It was so small it probably would have baked fine, and it would have had a better effect.

We all wore masks for the celebration to complete the theme!

My son made his own mask. All others are Marina's creations.

The cake looked good lit up.

In the end, Jareth lost his head. Just like a goblin king.

The First Cakes and Other Events

There was a mini comic convention near us, so we went to it. Who turns down a comic con a mile away from home? My oldest came home for the weekend to go to it and to celebrate her sister's birthday a little early.

  Like my son's costume? He had to do a bit of sewing to put it together. He is a character from Undertale.

After the Convention, we went home for cake. There were two to start birthday month, as we celebrated my father's and my daughter's at the same time. My father's cake is a vanilla cake made with coconut flour and sweetened with honey. The honey flavor was a bit overpowering to me, I may have to tweak the recipe if I use it again. The frosting is a basic melted chocolate with a pat of butter to keep it spreadable.

My daughter chose a Mad Tea Party theme for her cake. I used various containers to bake a velvet cake in the shape of a chessboard, a teapot and teacups. They are decorated with buttercream frosting, whipped cream, melted chocolate and strawberry slices. The handles, the tea spout, and the characters are Scotch shortbread. Shortbread worked fairly well, but I did break a couple of handles before I managed to get one to stick on the teapot with chocolate. As usual, my cakes are made for taste, so they are a bit rougher than what might be accomplished with fondant. No one here likes fondant, so I don't use it.

Two down, two to go.

The Griffin Cake

I make a lot of birthday cakes. Always in the spring and summer. Always someone else's. I never baked a cake for myself. Which is ridiculous, because I enjoy making them, so why shouldn't I bake my own cake?

I've had plenty of years when I didn't even want to bother celebrating my birthday. This time of year is always so busy. My day is a speed bump between Thanksgiving and Christmas. By the time it comes around, I am in the midst of writing cards or baking cookies  I usually spend any birthday money on Christmas presents. I don't really feel like dealing with one more thing, and now it marks how fast time is passing, how old I'm getting. I also feel it is the most pathetic act to beg my kids to bake a cake for me. I know they would if I asked, but I'm not the type of person that wants to ask.

I usually end up with a store bought cake. Which is OK, but it isn't the same as homemade.

I really, really wanted to bake my own cake this year.

In the grand scheme of things, a cake isn't very important, but it does make me happy. To create something unique lifts my spirit. To bake something that everyone devours because it tastes so good is...um...icing on the cake. Sometimes you have to do what makes you feel good. Mothers spend a lot of time putting their own needs last, and this is not a good example. Yes, you want to show your kids that you are there for them and others, but you also want them to see you are there for yourself. It goes back to the old airplane emergency: you want to put your own oxygen mask on first so that you are able to help others. If you honor yourself, your children see you consider yourself important too. And they learn to honor their needs.

This is me honoring my creative need.

Griffin cake. Velvet cake with mocha chocolate buttercream frosting on the lion body and beak, chocolate whipped cream frosting on the eagle head, wings, and chest, as well as the tip of the tail. Talons are chocolate dipped pretzels.  I made the eagle portion from one cut of about half a cake, which worked out well as I didn't need to worry about parts falling. I freeze the cake before cutting, and then used melted chocolate as glue. It held together well.

Cake Season 2015

My annual cake baking marathon was a real challenge this year. The pulls from a work schedule, my youngest's volunteer schedule, and my son's intern schedule meant that if I wasn't baking or decorating, I was in the car trying to get somewhere. May was a monster, and I think that reflects in some of the month's cakes.


We start a few days before May with my dad's birthday. He had a milestone 75th birthday, so I wanted to celebrate with a special cake for him. It's my faithful chocolate buttermilk cake recipe with a buttercream frosting. I couldn't find the frosting recipe I usually work with, so I used one from the Fannie Farmer cookbook. I thought it was ridiculously sweet, so I don't think I'll use it again, but it worked with the lightly sweet chocolate cake.

Guitar cake

It's supposed to be a Spanish cuatro, but it ended up as a regular guitar. I need to get a better set of decorating tips for my pastry bag. And yes, I know the hole is too low. The first cake of the season tends to have these issues with detail. You can't tell from this photo, but the adjustment knobs are chocolate chips.

The second cake was for my anime/manga loving youngest. She wanted Kyubey. Kyubey is from Madoka Magica Puella Magi, the Magical Girls series. SPOILERS: Kyubey is a bad guy...cat...fluffy creature. The cake was buttermilk chocolate, but this time I opted for a whipped cream frosting. I sawed off pieces of ice cream cones to form the neck and ears, used chocolate covered pretzels for the rings and strawberry slices for the eyes. The mouth is just melted chocolate drawn on with a pastry bag. The separate cupcake was to give a place for the candles. Thirteen this year.

Kyubey cake back

Kyubey cake front

The third cake was an octopus for my oldest daughter. It nearly destroyed me. The velvet cake recipe I used usually is reliable. This time the cake came out fluffier and ended up breaking when I took it out of the pan. I originally tried to make a creamy chocolate frosting, but it never set. It looked like an octopus that got caught in an oil slick and died a horrible death. There were tears the night before her birthday. I went to bed exhausted and got up early for work the next morning. Home from work, I set out to fix my mess.

Octopus cake

Several applications of chocolate whipped cream frosting later and it looked much better. The tentacles are all spiral slices of cake and the anemones were cake donuts filled with whipped cream. The eyes are chocolate chips. The original frosting never solidified completely, but instead formed a fudgy layer that made this one of the best tasting cakes I will never make again.

The last cake of the season was for my son. He wanted a Cthulu carrot cake. I did the head and shoulders. Cthulu is a monster from H.P. Lovecraft. My theory about the monster cakes is that my kids feel less guilty about cutting into them. When my son was younger, he would leave the room when an adorable innocent cake needed to be sliced. The carrot cake recipe was from a kids' baking set. I quadrupled it to allow for the fact that I wasn't using mini cake pans. I used my own eyeball-the-ingredients cream cheese frosting, first spreading a white layer and then tinting it green. The eyes are strawberry slices, the wings are sugar cones, and the tentacles are carrot peelings and frosting.

In spite of a challenging, extra busy month, I think the cakes turned out well. And every one of them was delicious. For me, that is the most important part of baking homemade cakes.

The Van Gogh Tardis Cake

June has been a month of learning new things for me, as I settle into my new position as a library clerk. Suddenly I was days away from my husband's birthday and half of the house was coughing from an icky cold. I almost let the day pass. I was too tired to come up with a theme for the cake.

I sat down in front of the computer Googling cakes based on various sci-fi shows he enjoyed. We are currently watching the fourth season of Babylon 5, and he loves shows like Star Trek, Supernatural, Grimm, and Dr. Who. Dr. Who finally gave me the inspiration I needed. I love that Van Gogh was featured on Dr. Who, not only because of my artistic background, but also because nothing is as forgiving in cake decorating as Post-Impressionism (edited for accuracy by art history minor daughter).

I admit, I was going for quick and somewhat easy. I made the square buttermilk chocolate cake from the Fannie Farmer cookbook the night before. One layer became the base, the other was cut into square sections, smeared with melted chocolate and stacked. Some slanted cuts created the roof of the police box. Whipped cream frosting in different colors painted the cake and box. In hindsight, I should have made the orange and yellow blast bigger. It looks like it landed on an octopus. Cocoa in the blue frosting might have helped to get a darker blue. It was a little too bright for universe and Tardis blue. Notice how close it matches the tablecloth. I used some sugar wafer cookies to create windows and to square off the edge of the roof. Then I put the whole thing in the freezer to let the frosting stiffen a bit.

At some point, the Tardis became wibbly wobbly. I had no patience for another issue like the cupcake goblets, so I speared the entire police box with a wooden skewer and clipped off the excess. That succeeded in keeping it in place. Next came the finishing touch, the light on the top of the box:

Half of a blue candlestick, lit just before singing, gave it that old timey-wimey feel. Again, looks do not mean as much to me as taste, and this was tasty. The Tardis was like a Ring Ding with the cream filling on the outside, if Ring Dings were made with fresh ingredients.

And thankfully, everyone was healthy enough to eat cake on the big day.

The League of Legends Poro Cake

Hard to believe my son turned 18 last week. I was relieved when his cake request wasn't too complicated after trying to make cake goblets. Heck, this whole month has been complicated enough. He wanted a "Poro" cake, a character from League of Legends' Howling Abyss map. They are cute, fluffy creatures that look like a cross between Tribbles and Hyperbole and a Half's Alot.

Using my chocolate buttermilk cake recipe, I made a square cake and six cupcakes. Marina helped out by making the features--tongues, horns, feet and mustaches--out of almond cookies. I was tired of making buttercream frosting, so I did a simple whipped cream frosting for the cake and Poros. This was probably an error on my part. Buttercream would have held the pieces in place better. I had hoped to stack the six cupcakes in a pyramid, but I quickly realized there was no way they would hold their position. Without stacking them, only three cupcakes fit on the cake. The Poro on the right kept sliding off the side. I finally stuck a toothpick through it to hold it in place. That was my biggest problem with the cake, so I think I did alright. My final touch was a sprinkle of silver sugar over the Poros.

Here it is all lit up. The candles were extremely drippy.

The sad Poros that didn't make the (ahem) cut.

I dipped the mustache cookies in melted chocolate to color them. The eyes are just large chocolate chips.










I think it was a good end to cake baking season. If I don't get too busy in June, I hope to make a nice cake for my husband at the end of the month. I will see how things go. I'm awaiting official word on a part-time postiion. I should know that today or tomorrow.

I'm thankful I was able to give my kids nice birthdays in such a difficult month of changes.

The Battle of Wits Cake

My oldest child turned 21. This is a momentous occasion. I wanted an equally splendid cake to mark it. It's funny all the things you are allowed to do at 21 that she is not interested in doing, like drinking. I happen to be a teetotaler as well. I never liked the taste of alcohol because most alcohol smells icky to me.

But drinking is the theme I went for in the cake this year. I wanted to make cupcake goblets. The idea was in my brain, and it wouldn't leave unless I tried this out.

She originally gave me the idea because she was working on her own copy of The Robber Bridegroom for her Book Arts class. If you don't know it, this is one of the gorier of the Grimm fairy tales. There is a scene with poisoned wine and a heart exploding. But I didn't want gory, at least, not that much. My solution was to use The Princess Bride. We've always loved the battle of wits between Westley and Vizzini. And bonus, I get to make a vial for the iocane powder. Here is the cake:

I decided to make a cake book as the base. I used the Lady Baltimore cake from my Fannie Farmer cookbook and buttercream frosting again, since it is the most dependable for decorating. Unfortunately, after portioning out the batter in my square pans, I only had enough left for two cupcakes.Had it not been 11:30PM the night before her birthday, I might have mixed up extra batter, but I was tired from a long day and she had just gotten back from college so the living room was full of dorm room.

Anyway, all went well until the second cupcake. I used Pepperidge Farms Pirouette cookies for the wine stems and the iocane vial. The vial was simple. I spread chocolate and silver sugar over most of the cookie so that it looked like there was a cork in the bottle. I cut the tops off the cupcakes and used them as the bottoms of the wine goblets. Then I slit the bottoms of the cupcake liners to stick the cookie through and into the cupcakes. It worked fine for one, but the other crumbled. If I did this again, I would not have cut of the tops, since the frosting would have been enough to depict the base. It's such a simple design for a cake, but it took about two hours to decorate because of the issues I had.

I think I could have made this work if I had glued cookies to the Pirouettes with chocolate. That would have given the cupcakes a solid base to sit on. I try to always learn from these experiences. Here is a close up of the iocane powder vial and my happy family:

Still no luck for my husband in the job hunt. Thank you to all who have sent us their thoughts and prayers. I may have some part time work soon (fingers crossed). Every little bit helps!

Two cakes down, one to go.

The Minecraft Cake

I admit, I have wanted to do a Minecraft cake since last year, so as soon as Sierra made this request for her birthday, my mind was turning about how to make it happen. After our bad news on Monday, I wanted to make it as special as I could. She had requested ocelots. Every time she builds anything on Minecraft, there a lot of cats.

This was probably one of the simpler cakes I've done. I used my dependable Buttermilk Chocolate Cake from the Fannie Farmer cookbook and froze it for an hour after baking to make cutting easier. If I did this again, I would level the tops. Even though the cakes are relatively flat, once you start stacking that third and fourth layer it starts looking tilted from even the smallest rounding. I asked Marina to make a brownie layer for the bottom to raise the cake up a little more. I think that gave more of a Minecraft feel. For frosting, I made chocolate whipped cream to use between the brownie and cake, then buttercream for the rest, since it has a flatter look and takes color easier.

I figured the best way to make the animals and tree would be to use sugar wafers. What I didn't know was that it is hard to find sugar wafers. Are customers that scared of sugar in our area? I finally found some in the international foods aisle after having no luck in the cookie aisle. These were Bauducco chocolate wafer cookies and Manner milk-vanilla sugar wafers. I used a sharp serrated steak knife to gently saw cookies to size and glued the pieces together with melted chocolate to form the cats. I applied eyes and noses using a toothpick dipped in the melted chocolate. For the ear, muzzle, and tail details, I split off layers of wafer so they wouldn't be as thick. I had limited success with the tails. I broke a lot of tails trying to cut out an angle, so some cats had shorter tails than others.

The tree was hard because it was top-heavy. I used buttercream frosting to glue it together and make the leaves green. Chocolate would have worked better. The buttercream would only stay solid for so long and then the tree started falling apart. I ended up keeping it in the refrigerator until I needed it and I used a toothpick to anchor it to the cake. A wooden skewer might have worked better.

In all, I think it was a success. Tricky figuring out how to cut it, but tasty.

After cake, Sierra and her friends played Twister. Dusty joined in for one round, but got bored.

It was nice to end the week on a happy note.