My first fondant cake.

Cakes!

A couple cakes I made the other day. I've been looking into old school pipping techniques and am trying to integrate them into the cakes at work.

Also, I DREW ELMO!

No Touchie!

Many bakeries have fake cakes used as displays to show off various designs or styles of cakes they do. Well, at our place we have two. One of a Barbie doll with a full length skirt made of cake and then a two layered carved Dora and Diego cake. We use to have a Spongebob one as well, but a mishap with an order and us not being able to find the kit in time resulted in us harvesting the display for its toys. Which is a shame as it was one of the nicer displays.

In any case, these are made of styrofoam bases (called Cake Dummies) and iced as though it were a real cake, but with royal icing, which hardens and is able to withstand the test of time (and mold) far more effectively than the standard buttercream.

They, however, are very breakable and costly to replace. Some are more expensive then the actual cake!

We used to display them on the counter, but customers would pick them up, drop them, and allow their children to handle them only to have the kid rip off a toy. I've hot glued these things back together so many times now the darn thing is more glue than styrofoam.

Our solution was to put them on a high shelf above the cake book where we assumed it was obvious the displays were not meant to be handled. But NOOOOOOOOO. People STILL pulled them down.

So I made a sign. It reads (in bright red ink): "Please do not touch or remove displays. Very fragile! Thank you."

Its been up for about a month and we haven't had any issues. Until tonight. As I closed the bakery and was about to go home, I saw a Mother lift her child ONTO the table top so she could reach the displays to play with. Inside I was fuming.

THERE IS A SIGN NOT BUT A FEW INCHES AWAY FROM YOUR FACE SAYING NOT TO TOUCH THE DISPLAYS! DO YOU LACK THE CAPABILITY TO READ WOMAN!?

Sick of people breaking my displays, I put on my no nonsense face and approached the woman and said:

"Ma'am, we request that customers refrain from removing or touching the displays, they are very fragile and expensive to replace. Also, we do not permit anyone to climb onto the tables for liability reasons, please remove your daughter from the table or I will have to ask you to leave."

She looked miffed, but I just stood there. She finally left down the Dairy aisle after her Husband. I informed the front desk before leaving about the incident in case the lady complained about me being rude to her.

This is not Burger King...

I understand people have busy lives and they forget things, but really...

If your child/significant other/relative's birthday is THAT important to you and that you have a nice looking cake with the flavors and design YOU want, would it not stand to reason that you make the time to pre-order it? I work in a grocery store bakery and we do not have a large staff. So when you storm into our department wanting a custom cake made fresh in front of you, I will have to decline. I'm sorry we do not have the flavor and icing combo you want in the freezer case, but if you need it this moment, you're left with little choice. I cannot simply shove off another person's order to make yours. I have an obligation to them when they placed their order in ahead of time. Some people even order MONTHS in advance to ensure they get JUST the cake they want. And we are happy to oblige them!

This isn't Burger King. We are not a fast food joint. If you want a cake, we need prior notice to plan and organize. The three of us have a very large bakery to work and run, not just cakes. Please be considerate and give us a day notice. We will be glad to make you a cake.


Today's cake photos:

Bad Girl...

I've been a very bad girl lately. I've neglected to update for...a while. Let's just leave it at that. So prepare to be bombarded with stuff!

This is a very accurate, albeit exaggerated, depiction of a typical day at the bakery. The only real exaggeration is the last panel.

Long time no update!

Technical difficulties have prevented me from updating these past few weeks. I've also been a bit down in the dumps. Last night, a former coworker lost her fight with cancer and passed away. RIP Tina, we love you.


On the flip side to all that, I also have been very busy getting ready for Dragon*Con! Less than two days away! *dances*

I'm also wickedly excited because the peeps from Cake Wrecks will be there and are holding a contest to find them. If you do and tell them the secret speshul word, you get awesome cake wreck themed prizes!


Anyway, on to the daily -or weekly- dump!



Can you say explosion? This is the background design for the G-Force cake that we carry. We did not have the kit for it, but the customer wanted it anyway. Also, they never picked it up. -RAGES-




I forget what cake it was in the middle, but this is the whipped icing. It rarely comes out that smooth with this humidity raping it into submission. It's either a frothy flatulent mess or soupy gunk. And for the record, I did say flatulant. The whipped icing is aerated so when it warms up, the air collects into air pockets and 'farts' when you squeeze the bag. It's caused many an awkward moment here in the bakery.




This is essentially the same cake as above. whipped icing, farts, chocolate, can't recalls the flavor of cake inside.















This is an army cake. For the army. -salutes-









I love this cake but hate what they made me do with the writing. For the record, this is to their EXACT specifications. Can anyone say afterthought? lmao

Step by Step

This is the new Disney Princess Signature Castle Cake. It's $49.99 and expensive for a grocery store cake. As such, I try to spend some time on them making sure they're worth the customer's money.



First you need cake. And icing. Also if this is your first time making this cake (as it was mine) then the instruction card is a good thing to have. Also, you'll need some dowels to stabilize the cake once you've carved and stacked. This step will save you endless trouble during the dirty icing stage.




Carve the cake! Because of the weird shapes, I had to actually piece in some cake to fill a hole left by the carving. I'm convinced the 1/2 sheet cake the people used for the instruction card is NOT the same dimensions we have. Luckily I caught the inconsistency with the size and adjusted. Hence the pieced in square.




Dirty ice the sucker. 'Dirty icing' or 'crumb coating' is when you take a cake that has been (preferably) frozen and coat it in a thin layer of icing to trap all the crumbs. This prevents any cake bits showing up in the final coat of icing and will give your cake a nice finish. After the crumb coat is on, throw it back into the freezer to harden up again.





And if you're a looser like me, remember to put in the ramp as dictated by the instruction card. Then you can put it back in the freezer.




Now that our cake is nice and frozen, it's ready for the final coat of icing! I'm using buttercream here. Because of the horrible humidity, the Bakery will not do any of the signature cakes with the whipped icing. It just doesn't hold up. Once the final coat is applied and smoothed, you can go back and create the desired textures. Here I created a hedge along the bottom border of the cake and then a cobble stone texture down the ramp.





Now we air brush! The colors we have do not 100% match the colors used in the original design (they use olive green, but I only have spring green) so I had to improvise.





Pipe on the bushes, flowers, borders, and cobble stones before placing the kit on the cake.

For the most part, signature cakes do not allow room for a name or message, but if a message is desired by the client it is an option to actually write it on the cake bored (assuming there is room).