Got Bacon?

Okay, I admit I have had some strange requests for cakes in the past. There was the toilet, the topless hula girl, and well this one. The call for the cake from my friend, lets call her Missy, was not unusual. The request however, was, well......let's say thought provoking. She wanted a cake for her older sister's birthday and wanted the cake to fit the theme. So you think theme party and start thinking things like super heroes, garden party, murder mystery, but oh no we were not going to be that humdrum. The theme of this party was bacon. That's right, you read it right, bacon. As in the ever popular breakfast food that is greasy, salty and ever so yummy. I had to ask clarification as to if it was a normal cake with bacon or a cake that looked like bacon. Although we thought about adding bacon to the batter we decided not to go quite that funky and just make it look like bacon. I can not say that I have every created a bacon cake. It was a challenge that I was willing to undertake.

I had time to think about how to execute this cake. My first thought was I should cook some bacon just to get a real model. However I knew that was pointless because I like to eat bacon too and the model would not last long, especially with the smell of freshly cooked bacon in the air. A suggestion was made that I make a pre-bacon cake. Of course I, like a fool fell for that and asked, "What is a pre-bacon cake?" The response, a pig. Duh! I have made a pig cake before so that did not thrill me as much as the bacon challenge.

My first two challenges, the wrinkles and bumps in a strip of bacon, next challenge coloring. I baked a yellow butter sheet cake. From that I cut three strips which was just over half of an 11x13x2 cake. With a melon baller I started scooping out sections from the sides of the strip and cutting them down to put on top to help with the bumps. Then I mixed the two colors (yes, one for meat and one for fat) and actually put them in the decorating bag together with a big tip on the end. As the icing came out of the bag it marbled to look like strips of bacon. I made two full strips and then one that appears that someone took a bite out of it which usually happens when you leave bacon just sitting around.

Missy seemed happy with the cake and her sister was thrilled as well. However the sister, let's call her Angie, had one suggestion to make it even better. You guessed it add bacon bits to the batter and make it truly a bacon cake. Hmmmmmm, maybe next time.