Other cakes in January

Since I am taking a cake decorating class, I have been trying to improve my skills.

This cake was the VERY 1st one I made but I didn't take it to class. I wanted to test out my cake pans, etc. before I made the real one for class. I learned a lot from this trial run. This cake was a 9" chocolate, BOX cake mix with white buttercream icing. My husband and I ate one piece and gave it away. It had way to much icing.

I made this cake for a friend's birthday party. This cake was a 9" chocolate cake with white buttercream icing. She loved it and it didn't taste bad. I am still looking for a good chocolate cake recipe.

I made this cake for my husband's birthday. This cake was a 8" white cake with chocolate filling and white buttercream icing. He loved it and it tasted really good.

I made this cake for a family party. This cake was a 9" carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It was really yummy. How do you like the "spike" decoration? The frosting wasn't made in a way that allows for it to be smoothed out like the other frostings, so I had to think of something.

Decorating Class - Course 1 Cakes

I am taking a Cake decorating class at a local craft store and I really like it. Course 1 meets once a week 6-8pm and lasts four weeks. Below are the two cakes I made for class this month.

Cookie Bouquets

Over the summer I helped with a baby shower. With the help of a friend we were able to make a cookie bouquet similar to the kind that people purchase.

Here they are baking in the oven. We inserted the stick into the cookie prior to baking. There are other ways to attach the stick, if this way doesn't work for you.

We used royal icing to ice them after they cooled completely.

This was the final display. Aren't they so cute! We had a 1/2 moon shape of Styrofoam that we put flat side up in a clean flower pot. They were very secure and nothing fell over. :)

Bacon

This blog isn't just about cakes.

Cooking bacon used to be a big deal for me. I have tried many methods (in the oven, bacon press, etc) and I usually burn it. There is grease everywhere and eventually the smoke alarm goes off.

Last year, for my husbands birthday I asked my sister-in-law if she would cook the bacon for his birthday breakfast. I asked her to do it, because I always mess it up! She happily agreed. When the day came, I walked into the kitchen while she was cooking the bacon. What I saw changed my kitchen life! She had divided 3 pounds of bacon between 2 pans and was just watching it cook. She stirred it around now and then so it didn't stick and then took the bacon out when it was crisp enough. Nothing burned. There wasn't grease everywhere. There were no smoke alarms going off. Wow.

This past December, I spent 10 days in Tennessee cooking for about 60 people. We made 8 pounds of bacon every morning for breakfast (among other things). Below is the picture of the bacon in the pan, cooking. The pan is on 4 gas burners and it took about 45-60 minutes to cook completely. It needed to be drained on 2 full sheet pans remove some of the grease. We cooked a total of 40 pounds of bacon that week...and I was happy to cook every pound. No burning, I didn't get grease everywhere and there were no smoke alarms going off. :)

Funny bacon story-

Before I was married, I lived in apartment with my room mate. Her bedroom was right off the kitchen and mine was down the hall a bit. Anytime I was cooking something that was very fragrant (bacon, onions, fish), I would shut our bedroom doors and the bathroom door. I hated that the fragrance of the food would make the towels in the bathroom or or my pillows in the bedroom smell.

One day, about a month before my wedding, I was attempting to cook bacon. I was in a hurry, smoking up the apartment and I am sure the smoke alarm went off at some point. Unfortunatly, I neglected to shut the bedroom doors. MY WEDDING DRESS was hanging in my bedroom, in the bag. Later that day I realized that my dress would possibly smell like bacon!!! I was happy to discover it didn't smell like bacon. I know I could have had it cleaned, but I am glad I didn't have to . :)

Great Grandmother Recipe #1-Chocolate Angel Food Cake

My great-grandmother made the most wonderful cake...CHOCOLATE Angel Food Cake. It was the a constant staple at every birthday party and celebration. It was soft, moist and had a thin coating of chocolate icing covering the top and drizzling down the sides. It smelled chocolaty, it tasted chocolaty and it was chocolate heaven.

She was 75 years old when I was born and lived another 27-ish years, so there was plenty of time to learn the "secret to her success" of producing such yummy cake. Unfortunately, no one did. We have the recipe written down, but it really is more of a suggestion. My bother, sister, uncle and I have tried to execute her recipe a number of times when we were together. There were a lot of laughs and a lot of bad cake. Will we ever eat good cake again?

I have been "testing" recipes for a while and I have used dozens of eggs and read a lot about technique and best practices. My first baking success was this past summer. I have this experience chronicled in pictures and I will show you in a future post. Then shortly after that, I made the cake with my nephews and they helped me crack and separate 16 (18) eggs. In the fall, I made it for my nephews birthday and covered it in robin egg blue, super sweet frosting. Then this past weekend, I made it for my dad's 62nd birthday. He loved it.

Good cake is back on the menu. I'll post the recipe soon...