Monday, March 31, 2008

What Not To Do

Rule #1: Don't attempt to try something new for an important occasion when you haven't had the chance to practice or do a dry run. It won't turn out well.
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My good friend and former co-worker Jen was visiting Arizona for a birthday celebration with her best friend Heather. Since they were going to be staying with us Sunday night before heading to the airport Monday morning, she asked if I would make a cake for her. "Of course, " I replied.

There would just be a few of us enjoying this cake so it was going to be pretty small. And with this small cake, I wanted to see if I could make a single tier of a topsy turvy (or mad hatter) cake. I've never made a topsy turvy cake before, but I wantd to be daring enough to try one and figured I couldn't royally screw it up on such a small cake. Guess again.

I used this link as my instruction guide. It seemed simple enough. But when I got to stacking and carving my 5-6-7-8 inch layers, it had a pretty heavy lean to it. After icing and covering with mmf, I was so disappointed.

It's been a while since I've struggled with covering a cake with fondant, but I sure did with this one. It had a lot of folds, then add the fact that it wasn't smooth, I was heartbroken, thinking, I can not give this cake to someone. What am I going to do?

But then my cake-hobby supporting husband said, "stick with it, you've already invested time and resources in this cake, and it doesn't look that bad." I forged ahead. Thanks baby!

I think I was able to save it. I thought it still had an awkward lean and my fondant application wasn't the greatest, but it was pretty cute and very well received. I don't know if I'm ready for tt cakes yet, but I think it's worth another try.



Strawberry cake with vanilla buttercream icing. Covered/decorated with mmf and pink dragees.

NOTE: Strategically placed fondant accents can hide a lot of ugly boo-boos.



3 comments:

hreeder said...

She forgot to mention that this cake was as delicious as it is funky and fun! Thank you so much for making my "birthday MONTH" so special!

Sheltie Girl said...

This is simply lovely!

Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go

Megan said...

I think it looks great. Looks like you meant for it to look exactly like it does. Great job! I wanted to try a tt cake but had no clue how. Thanks for the link!