Let the weekend end
I now know my limits, I think.
This weekend, I had the task of creating 3 cakes, plus catering a soup & sandwich type of event for 40 people. Keep in mind I do this out of my own kitchen, not a restaurant. I have but one oven. One refrigerator. It’s tough! Add to that I had two of our friends in for the weekend for an impromptu “Bachelor’s Weekend” – meaning, I had to clean and such – you see now why I found my threshold.
The first cake was for a wedding. I had serious concerns about this cake when I first took the order. It was to look like a tree stump. As realistic as possible, and yet, pretty enough to be a wedding cake. The bride and groom both hunt (I know!) and she had a topper made that showed the two of them in their camo. What emerged in cake form I am very pleased with! It was a very pretty wedding set-up – outdoors by a creek, lots of pumpkins and gourds and hay bales and such, and yet elegant at the same time.
The cake served around 90. Two of the layers were milk chocolate with a light chocolate buttercream, and two of the layers were Buttermilk with the same chocolate buttercream. The outside frosting was a darker chocolate buttercream with a bit of shortening mixed in. To get the look of a real tree, I used two colors of cocoa powder and just flicked it on to various parts of the tree. For moss, I dyed some confectioners sugar pale green and also used my “flicking technique” to apply it. I created cuts and bark using an offset spatula, and made roots using crumpled up aluminum foil, which worked really well. I tinted some fondant to “carve” their initials into the tree, and also used rolled fondant to make the top of the stump. I handpainted all of the tree rings and the cracks in the top, and that worked out really well. Not bad for a tree stump!
The other two cakes I made were not quite as scary. One was a small round for our friends, who were celebrating their 6 year anniversary. This cake was a sort of replica of the top tier of their wedding cake. I made it out of pumpkin and frosted it with a cream cheese icing. Various words like Happy Anniversary, Love, Baby – things that happened in the past 6 years – were written around the sides of the cake. So, if you are reading this…Happy Anniversary Friends! We love you!
The final cake of the weekend was for our Couples Golf Tournament season ending. It was to feed about 50. The bottom layers were Milk Chocolate with Nutella Mousse and cut up candy bars, the top level was a yellow cake with caramel and crushed Dulce de Leche sugar cookies. (It was fab, by the way!) I decorated the bottom tier with light green buttercream and piped grass onto it, the top level i made fondant “argyle” to go around the sides. The tops of each layer were covered with fondant “greens” as well as graham cracker crumb sand traps. it got a lot of compliments, but I wish I had been able to do a little more with it. maybe there will be a next time! Until then – I’m taking a break!
Have a great week everyone!
