Adam’s Birthday Cake Endeavor
I had been looking for a project that would challenge me, something that I could push myself to do and have it turn out great. I wanted to bake a cake, but not just any cake; I wanted it to be a big, beautiful, creative cake using fondant like on the show Cake Boss. So when I heard Adam’s (my awesome boss) birthday was coming up, I knew that was the perfect opportunity to discover what I really could do.
Adam is really into golf; he apparently is really good at it also. He was thinking about becoming pro he’s that good and into it. A golf cake was the perfect fit for him, I knew I had to do it. When I heard about Adam’s birthday the wheels started turning and I was planning out the whole cake in my head. I wanted it to have fondant, an unusual feature such as a hill or two, and great decorations as well as detail. I’ve noticed that those are the things that make a cake great (after watching Cake Boss and the cakes they created).
Let me tell you, it seemed a whole lot easier in my head than it ended up being in real life. Because in all honesty, it was a pain in my ass. Things kept going wrong during the process of making it and made me want to throw in the towel completely and never look at cake again. But I made it and I don’t regret doing it one bit.
The baking of the cakes was the hardest part. It’s not that I don’t like baking, but when you have to make several batches of cake batter, only have two pans, your kitchen is a mess, and your dad is yelling at you to clean it up.. it makes it more frustrating. Especially since I was already stressed from school. If things don’t come out right (cooked to long, didn’t cool long enough, cooled too long, broke when it came out of the pan) then it makes things worse. I’m not the most experienced baker by any means and so I was basically just hoping for the best.
The assembly of the cake was the fun part. It lets you put together what you envisioned in your mind and let your idea become reality. It gets you excited about your finished cake. After I assembled the cake and crumb coated it, I was proud of what I had accomplished and could see my cake taking the form I had hoped for. I took some pictures because like I said, I was proud and excited.
I figured at the very least if I messed up something after this step I would at least have picture proof that I did make this cake and that it was supposed to be awesome… A view to see the hill better:
At this point I ran into some troubles. The fondant (very hard work btw) I had wasn’t big enough to cover the cake. I tried to stretch it as far as I could and make it as thin as I could without breaking it.. but.. needless to say it did break and wasn’t even big enough to cover the cake. peeling it off the parchment paper I had under it while rolling it out was a hugely difficult task as I didn’t use enough powdered sugar underneath it. It caused more rips.. When I covered the cake the holes and patches I used to cover them made it look like crap since it wasn’t a single piece of fondant.
I also ran into the problem that when I made my sugar pond I didn’t know the proper sugar to water ratio and ended up using too much water and probably cooking it incorrectly causing it to have problems hardening. It never hardened so I made more and the same thing happened. I decided it was just my luck and to put the mold I used to shape the sugar into a pond shape into the fondant.
I put the trees (homemade modeling chocolate and food coloring) and added some details and this was how my cake turned out:
(Ignore the mess in the background. My kitchen was the messiest I have ever seen it).
Today I brought it to Adam. He was surprised, as was everyone else. When I told them I was making this cake they never expected it to be this big and detailed. I was glad I could impress them. But seeing everyone aw over my cake and tell me how awesome it was made me feel really good. It made it all worth it and makes me want to continue making cakes and improving my skills. 15 minutes later I already had an order for another to make in December. ;)
Here’s a picture of Adam with his cake:
