Greetings, one and all! Katherine, here! It's time for another "Cake Castles" post......(claps hands excitedly).......
Well, its been awhile, hasn't it? I have a bad habit of baking and decorating cakes, and forgetting to post about them!
(Looks carefully around to see if the Librarian is anywhere nearby listening)
So first up is my cake that I made for a New Year's party we attend each year. I was looking over my Pinterest pins at the cakes I'd saved, thinking I wanted to go "winter-y wonderland" in my design. But then.....I saw them....!!! Watercolor/Impressionistic Buttercream Cakes! Why, they looked like works of art with their buttercream "brush strokes"! I decided I just had to try one! So I scoured this great thing called the Internet for tutorials and pictures to use as a guide in my new venture! And here is what the fun result was....
It was slow going at first. People making these in the tutorials had these tapered butter knives that they were using to swipe strokes of buttercream onto their cakes, creating the petals of their flowers etc. I looked around our kitchen for something that was small and pointy enough to do the same thing and ended up with the end of a spoon. What can I say??
(Necessity is the mother of invention....or desperation is
the mother of improvisation....I get those two mixed up!)
I tried making my swipes that were supposed to create these gorgeous flowers, but somehow they were just looking like swipes. I started to wonder if this was going to work, but kept going and soon it amazingly started looking like something! Then it was like, "Yeah, I can get into this."
I forgot to take a picture of my finished product before, ahem, well, slicing into it, so that's why you are only seeing it from the side! But yes, this was my first "Watercolor Buttercream Cake"! I'm happy with how it turned out!
This cake was for a friend's birthday at our congregation! Her birthday was going to be the next Shabbat, so I decided to surprise her with a cake! I'd made this kind of cake with the rosettes before, but not ever with any writing on them. I looked online and saw how people were leaving a ring in the middle of their rosette cakes "unrosetted" so as to be able to write their messages, so that's what I tried.
I must say that the writing part of decorating cakes is not my strong suit! Oh, and no one is allowed to measure my ring to see it is an even oval, either! :)
Alright, I know this next picture is not of a cake, but it is a decorated dessert, and I just decided to include it! I mean.....aren't my little flowers and leaves so cute???? I'd seen all those lovely decorative crusts with the lattices, and designs, and had to do something to break the mold of our usual double - crust pie! So, that's what I did!
Last, but not least, this cake was for my dear friend's baby shower! She is pregnant with Identical Twin Girls!!!! I'm so excited for her and her husband and have already assured her that I'm so up for babysitting and helping out after they come! My friend's Mom, who asked me to make the cake, wanted a pink buttercream rosette cake with pink cake layers! I was only to happy to comply! :) She said I was free to do any embellishments I wanted to, so I added some lovely white pearls to contrast the pink! I think it turned out nice! And you know what the best part of the whole thing was? The PINK!!
(Now I'm thinking of that song from Funny Face....'Think Pink')
Well, my fellow cake bakers, buttercream beaters, crumb snarfers, and spatula lickers....(well, this is going downhill fast), we are at the end! You are all caught up with my cake (and pie) adventures over the last few months!
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So, have any of you had any encounters with confectioners sugar and cake pans recently?? Please share pictures of what you've been baking in the kitchen recently down in the comment section! We'd love to see them!
Till next time, everyone!
Get in your kitchens and start baking!
Love,
Katherine
