"johnny read that folks like it when we tell you about our trials, tribulations & successes in the kitchen..."
this week we are fulfilling a birthday cake order for a local family where food allergies, notably an allergy to eggs, are a concern.
this posed a few challenges, but being an individual with food allergies myself, i was determined to make this happen. so, i searched for the best egg-less cake recipe, doctored it up to be hobson's homemade-tastic and forced our good friend maria to come have a few bites just to make sure it was a tasty as johnny and i thought it was. (it is by they way).
the cake is going to be decorated like a soccer field w/ rounded half soccer ball on top...
having lived 10 years in baltimore, md and thus been an avid viewer of "ace of cakes" there is no doubt in my mind that this sort of thing is not only incredibly possible but can be done with ease. johnny on the other hand, being the primary cake baker thus far (because he's just much better at it), and familiar with my general hatred of measuring and lack of patience with baking (ironic, right?) was slightly more apprehensive.
i often have this dream where i am swimming, perfect strokes, steady speed, graceful across this entire picturesque lake and it's brilliant...the past week or so i've been having a similarly magnificent dream about making this particular cake order...
(i should mention here that i am a horrible swimmer).
so this morning, to quell johnny's nerves, and also ensure that we deliver a product of the highest quality, i set out to make a practice cake...to my surprise they baked up in about 25 minutes, carved brilliantly, almost molded really... like playdo'h... into a perfect soccer ball shape...and then i tasted a piece: i had forgotten the sugar and in effect, created not a cake, but a lovely 5 pounds of warm, chocolate playD'OH!)
but, undeterred, i pushed forward and moved onto practice cake #2, remembering the sugar and once the (successful) cakes were happily out of the oven and cooling i moved onto the bigger challenge - the frosting.
see, because we're a home based bakery, we are permitted to operate as a "MA residential kitchen" and along with this comes a list of certain (PHF) ingredients that we cannot use, particularly fresh dairy ( butter, cream cheese, cream and eggs) which very quickly eliminates our existing repertoire of homemade frosting recipes...
prior to the farmer's market season we had already overcome this challenge with the icing for the mini sugar & spice cookies...i previously had used a royal icing, which uses pasteurized egg whites and was immediately out of the picture, so i ended up whipping up an egg-less frosting using cream of tartar that although it was not as glossy as royal icing, i had managed to whip up perfectly on the first try in about 3 minutes one night (i'm normally just 'good like that') so for this cake i was confident that i would have equal success with an organic shortening based icing (and i am fairly confident that i did).
so cakes cooled, frosting whipped, i stacked my 3 layers out, and wielded my brand new bread knife, just like in the aforementioned dream, expecting to easily carve my 3 layer cake into a rounded half ball...
now that i was no longer working with practice cake #1 (the warm, chocolate playD'OH!) and a real cake, things didn't go quite so smoothly...the bread knife, despite seeing it used on "ace of cakes" (perhaps a "do not try this at home" message should have scrolled across the bottom of the screen during those episodes) did not carve my cake into a soccer ball shape with ease...i ended up using a small cutco knife that i normally use to slice tomates aaaaaand despite making an enormous mess i did manage to carve the cake into a soccer ball shape...needless to say, the ease was only in my dreams!
now here's a question for you...is it true? do you enjoy reading about our trials, tribulations and successes in the kitchen?
personally, i'm skeptical, i like to think that the businesses i support are professional and perfect, despite this most certainly being an illusion, but we will let you be the judge...
-laura
p.s. the actual cake for the order, which is the important part, and which also brought me an incredible amount of joy to create, came together beautifully and without so much as any problem...guess practice does make perfect! here's a few photos, for enjoyment, or proof:
this week we are fulfilling a birthday cake order for a local family where food allergies, notably an allergy to eggs, are a concern.
this posed a few challenges, but being an individual with food allergies myself, i was determined to make this happen. so, i searched for the best egg-less cake recipe, doctored it up to be hobson's homemade-tastic and forced our good friend maria to come have a few bites just to make sure it was a tasty as johnny and i thought it was. (it is by they way).
the cake is going to be decorated like a soccer field w/ rounded half soccer ball on top...
having lived 10 years in baltimore, md and thus been an avid viewer of "ace of cakes" there is no doubt in my mind that this sort of thing is not only incredibly possible but can be done with ease. johnny on the other hand, being the primary cake baker thus far (because he's just much better at it), and familiar with my general hatred of measuring and lack of patience with baking (ironic, right?) was slightly more apprehensive.
i often have this dream where i am swimming, perfect strokes, steady speed, graceful across this entire picturesque lake and it's brilliant...the past week or so i've been having a similarly magnificent dream about making this particular cake order...
(i should mention here that i am a horrible swimmer).
so this morning, to quell johnny's nerves, and also ensure that we deliver a product of the highest quality, i set out to make a practice cake...to my surprise they baked up in about 25 minutes, carved brilliantly, almost molded really... like playdo'h... into a perfect soccer ball shape...and then i tasted a piece: i had forgotten the sugar and in effect, created not a cake, but a lovely 5 pounds of warm, chocolate playD'OH!)
but, undeterred, i pushed forward and moved onto practice cake #2, remembering the sugar and once the (successful) cakes were happily out of the oven and cooling i moved onto the bigger challenge - the frosting.
see, because we're a home based bakery, we are permitted to operate as a "MA residential kitchen" and along with this comes a list of certain (PHF) ingredients that we cannot use, particularly fresh dairy ( butter, cream cheese, cream and eggs) which very quickly eliminates our existing repertoire of homemade frosting recipes...
prior to the farmer's market season we had already overcome this challenge with the icing for the mini sugar & spice cookies...i previously had used a royal icing, which uses pasteurized egg whites and was immediately out of the picture, so i ended up whipping up an egg-less frosting using cream of tartar that although it was not as glossy as royal icing, i had managed to whip up perfectly on the first try in about 3 minutes one night (i'm normally just 'good like that') so for this cake i was confident that i would have equal success with an organic shortening based icing (and i am fairly confident that i did).
so cakes cooled, frosting whipped, i stacked my 3 layers out, and wielded my brand new bread knife, just like in the aforementioned dream, expecting to easily carve my 3 layer cake into a rounded half ball...
now that i was no longer working with practice cake #1 (the warm, chocolate playD'OH!) and a real cake, things didn't go quite so smoothly...the bread knife, despite seeing it used on "ace of cakes" (perhaps a "do not try this at home" message should have scrolled across the bottom of the screen during those episodes) did not carve my cake into a soccer ball shape with ease...i ended up using a small cutco knife that i normally use to slice tomates aaaaaand despite making an enormous mess i did manage to carve the cake into a soccer ball shape...needless to say, the ease was only in my dreams!
now here's a question for you...is it true? do you enjoy reading about our trials, tribulations and successes in the kitchen?
personally, i'm skeptical, i like to think that the businesses i support are professional and perfect, despite this most certainly being an illusion, but we will let you be the judge...
-laura
p.s. the actual cake for the order, which is the important part, and which also brought me an incredible amount of joy to create, came together beautifully and without so much as any problem...guess practice does make perfect! here's a few photos, for enjoyment, or proof:
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