Golf Cake....

This was a fun cake! Not difficult and I was REALLY proud of my fondant! I still have alot of work to do on perfecting my work, but given the fact that the cake had curves, I did well. Usually curves and corners are more difficult to manipulate, but not this time! Woo hoo! It's a bit like trying to fit a pie crust over a cake; that would be about the consistency of rolled fondant.

The animal was supposed to be an homage to Caddyshack....a gopher. Wellll - I thought it was a mole, so I made a mole. OOPS - LOL. Have you ever seen a picture of a mole??!!! UGLY little suckers! And I have those things underground in my backyard??!! YUCK!!!!


Anyway, back to the cake. I came up with a new flavor name....the Obama flavored cake. 1/2 choc., 1/2 vanilla :-) - pretty cool, huh? Instead of just 'marble' why not Obama? LOL.

The mound that the mole came out of was made from the cake scraps when I carved it. That was pretty easy; I just mixed it with a little icing so it would hold it's shape and wala! A dirt mound was born! I tried to be as true-to-life as possible.

The sand trap was made from sugar in the raw that I ground into a fine powder, pretty neat, huh? Looks pretty real! People asked me if it was real sand, lol. The 39th hole represented the persons age. (it was for a surprise B-day)

I used just a classic buttercream to ice it (under the fondant) and it was received really well.

One of the many things I would like to improve is my speed. I take WAAAAY to long to finish a cake. They're always on-time, but I need to be able to move faster.

I also need a higher powered mixer (Hobart) so I can dye fondant without killing my wrists and shoulders. My fondant colors thankfully come out just as I want, but getting them there - WHEW! That's TRUE labor!

Although there were some things I would've done differently, I'm not beating myself up about this one, I'm really happy with the results :-). I took my time and REALLY paid attention to each step. I would also say that having the support of a WONDERFUL man was really great! I was up until the VERY wee hours of the morning finishing this and so was he. Just the fact that he was up while I was, made me feel really, really, really special! (Of course the fact that he got to taste the pieces that were carved helped - lol.)

Onto the next!

Finally blogging on the Topsy-Turvy project

Well - here it is! VERY late though I know in blogging about it. I contemplated what I write; Would I say....'Oh this was the best experience I've had' or 'I was scared, but I made it through'. After MONTHS of contemplating and procrastinating, I will (as I should anyway), be honest. VERY honest.

I will preface this by saying what some already know about me; I am a perfectionist. For good or bad, this is me; I accept and deal with it accordingly. Having said that, I quite honestly.....hated the results! I didn't do ALL of the work required to make this a success. Not that I conciously neglected it, but just plain forgot and wanted to kick myself in the end. What I forgot to do - MEASURE! That was the BIGGEST mistake. I didn't measure the layers to make sure they were in proportion to the other. The second layer (silver) was TOO big to go into the bottom. I should've done a 10 in. insted of 12 in. there were multiple problems with the fondant. The color was ok, but it cracked in several places. The stars and number 16 were HUGE and much too big for the cake. Again, measuring would've been my friend on this project. Lesson learned. It's over...done with....gone!


Now that I've gotten that off my chest - LOL. What I LOVED was the challenge. So yes, I him and haw and moan and groan, but in the end, you can't REALLY grow if you don't make mistakes and learn from them, right? I wanna do it again. The perfectionist in me has to get it right :-)

The texture of the cake and flavors were great! The buttercream was ooooooo so creamy and delicious!!! There were other things I saw that I could've improved, like you know when you get a slice of cake and on the edge where cake meets icing you see the very thin brown? That's the outside of the cake. Technically speaking it's where the sugars rise and brown (I know maybe TMI). Asthetically, a cake done properly won't have that layer and THAT my friends separates a good cake from a great cake :-)

Tiered cakes are already a beast, but the Topsy-Turvy can be like a beast mocking your attempts - LOL. Not only do the layers have to be measured and doweled correctly, but you have the added challenge of torting (cutting) them to a grade and cutting a circle inside that grade just big enough for the other layer to fit. I didn't do this so well - lol.

Many times during this project I said to myself 'Am I TRULY crazy', 'Why is it that you HAVE to bake cakes'? This truly does require alot of patience in the beginning. Just like mastering anything else; It requires, commitment, focus and extreme focus on detail. As much as I've complained about this and many other projects, in the end, the recipients were happy. Very pleased in fact and proud that I attempted the feat. It is very difficult to be proud and satisfied when you know you could've done better. But it does give me what I need to do better. The answer to my question...I REALLY do dream about cake design, flavor, color. I really DO love conquering difficult tasks, no matter how much I whine and cry. I really do love seeing the looks on others faces when I do something great or unexpected. Sometimes when I see or taste a cake, I honestly, honestly do think in the back of my mind 'I can do better' or ooooooo 'How'd they do THAT?!' And, when I hear of someone paying someone else for a cake I think, 'I wish they'd asked ME to do it'

Perfection is a goal. Sometimes a very high and lofty goal, I admit, but a goal none-the-less. My challenge, my big challenge however is to truly, truly do my best. Accept that things will not always be perfect and to move with the mistakes and anticipate them rather than be surprised by them. Mitigate the angst and disappointment and learn better how to adjust through the tasks.

So now what? Onto the next challenge! Better prepared and more relaxed! Ommmmmm...Ommmmmm....Ommmmm (chanting while in a yoga position - lol)