Going a Little Nutty...Coconutty That Is.

  Sometimes I like to surprise people.  Surprise them with nice surprises like a cake.  A friend of my mother's mentioned on Facebook that she likes anything involving coconut.  Specifically that day she was in need of a coconut cream cake.  Living 5 hours away it's not like I could make the cake that day and deliver it.  So I did the next best thing.
  A couple of weeks later I was visiting my mother, as part of a multi-cake/ multi-event weekend and thought I might try my hand at making a coconut cream cake.  Having never done this before it was going to be a new and exciting experiment.  Add to that, that I am now used to baking in a gas stove and my mother has an electric oven that does not get much use, and I knew that it would either be a recipe for greatness or disaster.  I started by baking a white coconut cake (two 9 inch layers).  After letting them cool I poked them full of holes then drizzled a mixture of sweetened condensed milk and coconut milk.  I placed the cakes in the fridge overnight (so it could absorb all the milky goodness that I had poured over it and into it) and then had the difficult task of getting them out of the cake pans.  My trick to this is to put the cakes into a warm oven for a few minutes (which will loosen up the edges) and it should fall right out.  Needless to say this is a heavy (weight wise) cake.  I made whipped cream (which a small amount of sugar in it) to ice the cake with (between the layers and on the outside).  Of course it is not truly a coconut cake without coconut which I placed on the top.  My biggest concern was that this 6 inch tall cake would be too sweet.  As it turned out, the recipient said it was not too sweet and she was kind enough to share it with neighbors and friends (I must admit that it was a really big cake).  I was hoping it ended up like my butter run cake that was so moist it dissolves in your mouth.  However I think the cream vs a rum mixture would make it a little heavier.  Overall I think I might try this one out again.

A Special Birthday Delivery

  According to my Daddy the perfect birthday cake was round, chocolate, two layers, with white icing and yellow roses.  To that end all traditional birthday cakes that I make tend to look like that, although I can't say I ever made one like that for my dad.  So when my cousin's bridal shower (see previous post) and my Daddy's Aunt Betta's birthday fell in the same week I could not help but bake an extra cake to celebrate.    This was her 97th birthday, so I made a butter cake (because not everyone loves chocolate, go figure).  When it came time to decorate all I knew was that I was to include flowers.  So in a moment of chanelling Daddy the cake had yellow roses.
  We presented the cake to Aunt Betta at the bridal shower (with the bride to be's blessing).  She seemed tickled with it and I promised something bigger and better for next year, thinking as we get close to 100 we need to get bigger and better.  Happy Birthday Aunt Betta.

Traditional Bridal Shower 2.0

  My cousin is getting married.  I guess technically she is a second cousin, but when it comes to picking relatives I will promote her because she is a pretty awesome person.  At Christmas word had leaked out that she was officially engaged, to a pretty terrific guy (I say this because he survived a family gathering at my mother's house around Thanksgiving and did not run out screaming-he even appeared to have a good time which in my book makes him a good guy).  So now that we know that my perspective is slightly squewed and that I most definitely have my fathers sense of humor, let me carry on with the story of the cake.
  So with news of the impending nuptials my mother offered to throw a bridal shower, complete with cake from me.  Now you know it takes nothing for me to make a cake.  I love baking and decorating and making people smile when they put something sweet in their mouths.  However this cake came with some challenges shall we say?  The shower was for female relatives and being held at the Commonwealth Club in Richmond, VA.  This is about an hour from where my mother lives in Virginia.  So that meant baking cakes in North Carolina, driving five hours to Virginia with the cakes.  Decorating them at my mother's house, then driving another hour, to put them together at the venue site.  No pressure or anything.  The cake needed to feed 25. A typical cake feeds 20.  So I was going bigger and better (kind of like Tim on Home Improvement, with more power).  Putting my I pad to good use and the Wilton cake app on it to better use I found a combination of cakes to use.  Now the original cake would feed 65.  I made it smaller so this cake would feed about 40.  I baked the butter cake layers at home and transported them everywhere.  The plan was to assemble and decorate on site before the party.  However one element did not happen.  I made two big Es (for Elizabeth) in color flow to place on top of the cake.  However when I got there the Es had melted due to the humidity so I had to plan B.  Fortunately I took a large amount of icing with me and all my cake tips.  I made a big E on top of the cake, not exactly the effect I was going for but not a shabby plan B.
  When it came time for the party I had done a little decorating, everyone arrived, had a good time.  Lunch was some kind of fabulous, and the bride to be walked out with lots of items to stock her new kitchen.  All and all I would say it was a successful day and I hope the happy couple much happiness together.

Trying Something New for Retirement

  Most people who retire are ready to sit back and enjoy all the things they haven't had time to do.  Rarely does that list include house cleaning, laundry or mowing the yard.  Usually it is things like traveling, taking up a hobby, devoting time to church or other organizations.  For this lady, I have no doubt retirement means just devoting time to other areas of her life that bring her so much happiness.
  Not long before this post I had a retirement celebration cake post for this person.  So when her sister asked me to make a cake for her for another retirement celebration that her family was throwing for her I was a little befuddled because I put my all into that last cake.  When this sister called me and asked me to do the cake just like the last one but not tiered and no clovers, I was once again befuddled.  So I went with the old standby, what colors are you decorating in?  She said orange and green.  So I had to ask, dark, bright, pastel?  "I don't know it's orange and green.  Not 4-H green not evergreen just green."  With time being of the essence I said OK and starting trying to figure out how to do this cake.
  I did three cakes again of different sizes but did not tier them.  Knowing my pallet was green and orange I threw in a little white to balance things out and went to work.  The first cake I decorated with a white base and orange and green polka dots.  The next cake had an green base with orange polka dots, and the last cake had a orange base with green polka dots.  Mind you I still had two issues.  The first was that I still didn't think these cakes said, "Aggie." The second problem was that I did not know exactly what shades of green and orange I needed to match the decorations, so it either matched or clashed.  I had no idea and no way to fix it at this point.  Since there was no way to address the second problem I went straight to the first.  To make this cake more Aggie like I worked with a new medium, color flow.  Essentially it is an egg white powder that you mix with water and confectioners sugar to make a writable and edible objects to put on cakes.  I decided for my first time out to make an A and a R, the retirees initials.  Now please don't think that I am so talented to do this on my own, I printed out the letters and placed wax paper on top of them so that I could trace them with the color flow.  It take 24-48 hours for this to dry and then you peel it off the wax paper and place on top of the cake.  So I waited until the next day and packaged up the letters in a Ziploc with instructions to place on the cake.
  Believe it or not this was a particularly busy weekend for cakes, so this one I delivered to my office for the family to pick up since the party would be on Saturday and I had to travel to Virginia for the rest of the weekends cakes.  Now here is the other kicker.  I was told the party was a surprise.  So when I got a call at 5 pm on the Friday before the party saying the cake had not been picked up, I was slightly panicked.  We could not call the honoree because she did not know about the cake or the party (I found out later that she knew about the party, but not the cake) so who would we call?  the sister who contacted me did not answer at the number I had.  Fortunately, our receptionist at the office, thought to call another sister to come get the cake.  Unfortunately the letters got left behind when the cake got picked up so the final Aggie touches were never put on the cake.
  After the event, I was told that Aggie was tickled with the cake.  As a matter of fact her daughter apparently walked in after the celebration program and took the small cake and put it away for herself and left the two larger cakes for the rest of the crowd.  As it turned out the colors on the cake matched the decorations to a T.  Aggie had no idea about the cakes until she walked back and saw them, and I was happy to add to her special day, again.        

A New Look

It never hurts to update things and make them a little more attractive.  Today is the day for this blog.  I had the opportunity to change the look a little and hopefully make it a little more attractive and easier to read and find things that you might be looking for.  The other thing I have done is added a new photo page.  Often I have calls from people asking to see photos and I refer them to the blog.  However I realize an electronic photo catalog is also a good thing so voila; direct from Shutterfly is a cake link.  Please feel free to give me feedback if you think I should separate the cakes out by subject area to make it easier to view. 
I hope you like the new look and the slide show of photos.  Stay tuned because more great cakes are expected by the end of the week.

Inspiration

  Having a little direction is a good thing for me because sometimes I can just leave the confines of the box (that I am supposed to be thinking inside of) of kind of go a little nutty.  So when an incredible co-worker came to me and asked me to do a cake for her niece's first birthday I was tickled.  She brought me a plate for the party and said they needed enough to feed thirty and a smash cake for the princess who would be turning 1.  Needless to say the first thing that came to mind was doing two cakes, a butterfly and flower then a colorful smash cake.
  Both cakes were made with my traditional butter cake.  The first was a butterfly cake which I decorated using purple, pink, orange and yellow.  All the colors found in the plate that would be used for the party.  The second cake was a peace flower which I used green, pink and yellow to decorate.  I wanted to make sure the cakes were similar but not exactly alike and not to matchy match with the plate. 
The smash cake I made with angel food cake so it would not be quite as messy as the butter cake.  Using a combination of colors found in the plate and on the other two cakes I was able to make something purely for smashing birthday fun.

Nothing Wrong with a Little Rum

  I have talked about this group of ladies that I eat lunch with.  We have a habit of celebrating just about every one's birthday (everyone who likes to celebrate that is).  We have done it in a variety of ways.  Of course I always volunteer to make a cake and try to design the cake specifically for that person's likes or dislikes.  This is one of those cakes.  I had thought about making a shaped cake, perhaps a monkey unlike one that I had ever made before but for some reason that idea did not work for me.  I wanted to do something really special and different and that's when I remembered this cake.
  I have not made this cake for years and it seemed especially fitting for this group of ladies.  I decided to make a butter rum cake with chocolate rum frosting.  The cake is actually made in a bunt pan and when it comes out I pierce the top and pour a simple rum syrup (yes actual rum not extract) over the top and let it soak in for about a half hour.  The cake is very moist so when flipping it out I recommend going directly to the serving dish not trying to move it again because there is just not a good way to move this cake without it coming apart.  The chocolate frosting is made with semisweet chocolate, rum, Karo syrup, and heavy cream.  After heating it in a double boiler and letting it cool until it is slightly thickened I pour it over the cake.  In case you are wondering I did not run out or have so much to drink while baking that I missed a spot.  One member of our lunch group does not like chocolate so I wanted to make sure she could eat the cake as well.
  The biggest complement had to be when one person's eyes got big and big, "ohhh" came out of her mouth.  I was concerned something was wrong but she said I put it in my mouth, my teeth did not touch it and the cake melted in my mouth."  The birthday girl seemed pleased with her cake and we had a good time consuming as much as we could before we all had to leave.  I think I will make one of these in the near future.

Leading the Way a New Way"

I often mention how much I enjoy where I work especially the people. As part of a leadership program that was being offered by our Extension Director a graduation ceremony takes place. Of course no graduation would be complete without a cake and that is where this cake's story begins. This is the second year of this particular program and by working at the Robeson County Cooperative Extension office I have had the privilege of providing the cakes for both classes. Now the requirements for the cake was enough cake to feed 100 people and it had to have the program logo. Since the cake has to feed a large group of people I knew we needed to go with the basic butter cake. The last cake I did was two sheet cakes with an edible image and red border. Thinking that each class is unique, I figure their cakes should be unique.
This time I decided on a 14 inch diameter 3 inch tall cake with a 10 inch diameter, 3 inch tall cake on top. I hand cut the image to fit the circular shape of the cake and then decorated with the blue icing border. As part of the event I cut the cake and feel like I cut cake forever. When I got done there was a very small part of the bottom cake left and that's it. Sounds like they enjoyed the cake to me. Congratulations to all the graduates.