This is our penultimate cake and I figured it was high time you heard about some super important people in my world of cooking- I alphabetized them... so enjoy.
Char:
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| St. Patty's party- which one of us has been out since 9am? |
I met Char in our Masters' program and we became fast friends for one big reason: It was summer and there was only one thing to do after sitting through 4 excruciating hours of bull class... head downtown and pop a brewski outside. She knows everyone... and I laugh at the number of times I've heard people order rounds for "Char and her friend". She's one of the first phone calls when the poo hits the fan (see not swearing during lent can work) and besides crises can be trusted with make up colors, home decor issues and soup recipes. She also gives amazing presents- remember the nesting doll measuring cups and sweet ruffled apron--all her.
Lisa:
No photos, but you should definitely check out her family's blog for her mom: http://rbriggs51.blogspot.com
We've worked together for years now, but started bonding over blogging and baking, since she's usually my expert advice after I've messed things up. Lisa is one of the few people I know who can rock pig tails and clarks. She's got this hippie-yoga vibe and if she ever decides to give up teaching and baking, she's got a solid career as a country singer.
Seema:
Seems is my doctoral bff. We share two loves: good food and wanting to be done with grad school. We have all the same tastes in food: sushi, Mexican, sweets and lots and lots of coffee. Our only culinary difference, she doesn't like fruit in things... I love it. If you recall the almond joy cake-- that was for her. She and her husband are super accommodating when I need to stay near school. Their daughter is one of my favorite people on the planet. Her facial expressions are priceless, hairstyles are fabulous and reading taste is impeccable. I'm pretty sure that she and Emers are going to be bffs at my par-tay.
I'll get to the last one when we get to the fondant.
This week: Marble cake with bavarian cream filling and marshmallow fondant.
Cake and frosting recipe from butter+cream.blogspot.com
Marshmellows from joyofbaking.com
Bavarian cream from http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Bavarian-Cream-with-Raspberry-Coulis-235956#ixzz1GPJ8nupr
I'll be the first to admit that this was wayyyy too much to take on for one weekend. It was a two day process that filled most of the two days. The results were hilarious, but you'll see that for yourself...
I started on Saturday with the marshmallows (does anyone else think it should be marshmellow?), the cake and then the cream and did the assembling, decorating, etc on Sunday.
Homemade marshmallows are probably a nice endeavor and I will revisit them once the cakes are over, but for a weekend crammed with papers, party planning, parties and grading, it was a poor choice.... c'est la vie...
The marshmallows start off with boiling some sugar and water... and you all know how friendly I am with boiling sugar ;)
It requires a significant amount of softened gelatin and when you marry them, you need to beat like the dickens.
They get super gross and super sticky and if you aren't especially fluent in flavoring extracts, you can easily add too much. Case and point:
Mom said that it tasted like perfume. The whole point of doing lemon marshmallow fondant was for deliciousness... oops.
It was also a pain to make into fondant, but you see below that it actually looked decent when worked and spread.
The cake was next.
The marble cake recipe came from Martha Stewart weddings. It wasn't perfection, but it was one of the better marble cakes I've had. It was pretty straightforward with the only funky part being chocolating up two cups of white batter to make the marble.
I figured out that I'm not so fancy when it comes to trying to swirl to marble, but it wasn't a bad first attempt.
On to the custard:
I could write a whole post just about custards, but I have a paper due and this weekend's been pretty tight, so I won't.
Custards are pretty spectacular for so many reasons. The texture is luxurious. Their flavor is subtle. And the mixture of the way they feel in your mouth and that creamy, light flavor is at the same time comforting and stimulating. People bad mouth pudding, but stove top pudding is absolutely a treat. I don't have much experience with baked custards (creme brulee is on the list for our last week of baking), but cooked custards are a beautiful thing.
Lisa and I were talking about how gorgeous bubbles are. The caramel bubbles were absolutely beautiful and we both love the way milk looks and smells when it's getting to the point of scalding. And custards, like caramel require bubbling, tending and a nice dose of vanilla.
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| lots of egg yolks in this guy! |
Onto the frosting and decorating:
Lisa instructed me that pre-fondant, you need a sweet butter cream base.
You also need some of this to play with the fondant:
So with my toys all set up, I made a couple of pizzas and bribed my sister with them to help me decorate the cakes.
Laura (aka, Louise, Lupe, Lulu), my little sister has been one of my guinea pigs nearly the whole of the cake expedition. She's the one who will fake gag on your latest creation as she chokes out sarcastically, "it's good." Whether or not it is. She tells it like it is. She's got a dry sense of humor and comes out with these one liners that leave you laughing hysterically. Between the pizza, the sugar and the hours of playing with fondant, we were beyond punchy by the time we brought the cake over to Nan's and then my parents'.
We used two types of fondant, the homemade marshmallow and the store bought. I did the main sheet and she did most of the decor.
There are a few things I love about fondant: 1 is the way it dyes your hands along with everything else. 2, is how it stretches and molds. It's like clay... and the store bought version tastes almost as gross... not that mine was much better.
We decided (or I decided, I don't remember) on an under the sea theme for the faculty cake and a garden theme for the other cake.
It was on, but not quite even, but we decided to make the gaps work for us...
Is that purple coral? Absolutely-- I piped purple frosting on to cover the worst of it.
And I made a pink octupus-- we didn't name him or her (we respect its privacy)... but I was thinking of that naughty Kevin the whole time and how Emers and co will be here in just over a week!
The second cake was our garden scene. By then, we were spent and sugared up, so we just did some frosting piping, Lau made a whale that she named Billy. She said he was the watering device for the garden, I complained that he got into the rhodedendrum (not even going to attempt spell check for that one).
It was a good time. Followed up by a messy clean up:
And then a dance party at mom and dad's, checking out Lau's party playlist and speakers. Festive.
Last cake next week (well actually, by the time this posts, probably in a couple days!): Black Forest!
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