Today was the last day of my Wilton Fondant and Gum Paste class. It's my usual M.O. to bake a chocolate cake for my Wilton class cakes, although it's not necessarily my preference. I wouldn't mind a white cake with raspberry filling or something different every now and again, but I've been told by the guys (well, one 11-year-old guy actually) that it has to be chocolate or else they (he) won't eat it. And I don't want to be the only one eating all this cake!However, we've had a fair amount of cake in recent weeks, and will continue to, between all the birthdays and my next class, so I decided to be daring and veer off the chocolate path. I baked the Carrot Layer Cake from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book and iced it with Philadelphia Cream Cheese Frosting from the Kraft Foods site. America's Test Kitchen's carrot cake is very basic -- just carrots. Some of the other recipes I looked at contained nuts, raisins, coconut and/or pineapple. I couldn't settle on which of those other ingredients I'd want in my cake so I just decided to go basic. (It's a good thing too, because P. later told me he wouldn't have liked any of those other ingredients.) I've made the Philly Cream Cheese Frosting many times in the past. It's a cinch -- just 4 ingredients (cream cheese, butter, vanilla and confectioners' sugar) -- and goes great with all sorts of cakes. Try it and you'll never use canned again.
After icing, I covered the cake and cake board with fondant and added the final touches during the class. I like how it turned out although I do wish I had done something a bit more creative (the ideas were straight from the book) -- I tried to come up with something different, but ran out of time. Also, I would've liked to use a different color combo (I used these colors in an earlier class) but I was trying to use up the supplies I had.
C. -- I know I owe you a purple cake -- we'll see what Course 3 brings.
And lastly, as always, I'd like to thank my instructor, Evelyn, for her unwavering support and endless patience.
Favor box atop the cake.
Looks great! IMO, creativity comes AFTER you've mastered the basics. Apprentice carpenters build saw horses. That gives them the skills they need to design bigger, fancier dwellings.
ReplyDeleteThat is a truly beautiful cake! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThanks to both of you! :-)
ReplyDeletePJ, I understand what you're saying and you make a good point. Maybe my expectations are too high? I will contemplate this over another piece.