Since we had company in town, I divvied up the extravaganza into two days: Friday or the baking of cakes and cupcakes and Saturday for the frosting and presentation.
And now, let the photo tour of my baking extravaganza begin!
Project One: Operation 4-layer Cake and Dexter-esque Cupcakes
Greasin' my $0.97 pans
Using Melania's tip to fold the parchment paper and make a circle via the "snowflake method"
Rookie Error #1: Misunderstood directions, so I put parchment paper ALL over the pan, not just the bottom
Batter. Since I'm unmarried and do not own a stand mixer, note the epic splatter on my microwave. This repeated with every new mixing session.
Chocolate Batter
Finished, unnecessarily curvy cake layers #1 and #2 (there were 4 total)
Irregularities that will make icing fun... and that could have been avoided. #CakeRookie
The cocoa/food coloring paste looked like blood.
And stained my fingers.
And then reminded me of the opening credits on Dexter.
Replacing buttermilk with regular milk + 1 tbsp of lemon juice. Who knew?
Finished cupcakes.
Operation Baking : Completed.
Project Two (the Next Day): Let's Frost that!
First time I have used my Tupperware manual food processor.
Tough at first with the whole cookies, but worked great.
Cookies and cream frosting... Would you like some cake with your frosting?
Amber helps prepare my new cake stand
And voilà!!!
Success!
Jon was impressed.
Overall, this bout with dessert making has taught me a few things:
1. The sheer amount of butter, sugar, and cream cheese that goes into baking
2. Don't bake the cake-y parts the day before (they'll dry out)
3. Put parchment paper down on your cake stand before icing
4. It's going to be awhile before I perfect desserts. TOO much sugar. My body isn't used to it and Jon and I could certainly feel our poor food choices the following day on our run!
Still, I'm proud of my pretty desserts and I'm really happy that Jon really appreciated them for his bday!
Do you guys make any fun desserts? When you bake, do you try to lighten the recipe, or do you indulge on the buttery/cream cheesey goodness from time to time?
May I suggest you find a deeper bowl for the next mixing blending extravaganza.
ReplyDeleteI am proud of you and know you will have lots of great baking ahead of you. Next you will have to try TT's Carrot cake- real crowd pleaser with
cream cheese frosting.
Mom
Wow, I can't believe your ingredients cost so much! Maybe baking will seem less expensive if you have most of that stuff around the house already.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of lining a cake pan with parchment paper, so thanks for sharing! The milk and lemon juice mixture comes in handy around here because we like to make pancakes but tend not to have buttermilk.
Everything looks great! Mmm, cake...