if at first you don't succeed, try, try again... and again... and again...

So I decided to test out a cake from my new cake book!!! (I got it last Friday!) It's a carmel cake and you have to make a batch of carmel to mix into the batter... Well I've had a bad habit of not reading directions completely and assuming I know what I'm doing. Baking has almost cured me of this habit, but it still happens from time to time. And it happened when I made the carmel.
I read the ingredients and added all of the carmel ingredients into the pan (brown sugar, milk and butter). I had finished dissolving the sugar and was starting to let it carmelize when I re-read the directions to get ready for the next step and realized that I should have reserved some of the milk for the next step. First batch of carmel goes down the drain :::sigh:::
I was starting to get impatient with the second batch. I got the ingredients mixed in correctly, but I really didn't want to wait forever for the carmel to get to the "soft ball" stage. I decided that I'd crank up the heat a bit... just help it along... and I burned the second batch. So the second batch of carmel joined the first batch :::sigh:::
I was ready at this point to just settle for burnt carmel. But my husband knew it was going to bug me and he got me motivated to give it one more shot. I just had him keep reminding me to be patient so I wouldn't sneak in and crank up the heat :) You'd really think that just leaving the sugar to boil (you can't stir it or it'll be ruined) would be the easiest part of the baking process, but it's easily the hardest part for me, to just wait! But finally my patience paid off! The 3rd (and final!) batch of carmel came out perfect!!!

dissolving the sugar and melting the butterit starts to curdle up as it begins to boil

waiting... forever!

finally carmelized and the reserved milk has been wisked in

the batter all mixed and ready for cooking!yay! the cake is out of the oven!

it was good plain, but I felt like it needed more

so I decided to carmelize some apples to top it off

butter, milk, brown sugar and apple slices

here is the pretty plated cake I presented to my hubby!

and here's my piece! LoL but I think all mashed up is the best way to eat any cake!

I really like it. I think next time I make it I won't cook the apples as long. They were a little mushy and I think having them still crunchy would even better!

I'm thinking I might try out a coconut cake this weekend. I saw it in my book and I'm dying to try it. I'm not a huge fan of coconut, but the cake looked so pretty! We'll see :)

~tinu

Birthday Cakes!

Thank you for the pictures Steph!!!

I made these cakes for my niece and nephew's birthdays.

The cake began to sink! But now I've discovered a way to keep the columns from sinking into the cake. I guess I'll attempt a columned cake again soon, see if the straws to help support the columns work out better!

These cakes were easily the most fun I've had with cake decorating!

I did a carmel cake tonight... more on THAT project later!
~tinu

a few more photos

So I have a few more pictures!
These are some final shots of my latest cake project. My Relief Society asked me to make the desserts for a Visiting Teaching Social. I wanted the cakes to look really sophisticated, so I decided to make two chocolate tortes, decorated with fruit. I did that once before, for a family party and it looked really great.
I didn't think that two tortes would be enough, plus I wanted to be able to eat some dessert (I've given up chocolate for this year) So I choose to do a two tiered white cake with orange moussiline buttercream too. I was stumped on how to decorate it though.
Then my husband wanted to taste test the scraps for me. I took some of the cake that was left over from leveling the tiers and frosted it with a bit of buttercream. My husband topped it off with some of the strawberries I'd originally planned on using for one of the tortes. I tasted my husband's addition to the buttercream, and since I was doing fresh fruit on the torte, I decided I should carry the fresh fruit decoration theme onto the buttercream.
I altered my original plan for one strawberry torte and one raspberry torte to two raspberry tortes and then I decorated the buttercream with strawberries and mandarin orange segments. I'm really pleased with how they turned out!

cakes set out for the social

white cake with orange moussiline buttercream
w/strawberries and mandarin oranges
dark chocolate torte with fresh raspberries and raspberry sauce

I was nervous about transporting the cake, so I took a picture before I left home,
just in case something happened while transporting it to the church!

I'm still gathering pictures from other events, and I'm hoping to maybe have some step by step photos for a project this weekend. But that may depend on if I actually get some time to work on a project this weekend...

If anyone has any pictures from cakes I've made, could you email them to me?? Thank you!

~tinu

my first cake

Well I figured I'd start with a few pictures of the first cake I ever designed, my wedding cake!







I'll get some more pictures up from other projects, as soon as I track them down!!
~tinu

The Beginning

I am starting this blog at my friend Sheena's house. It is late and I don't really have anything to report thus far. I'll post some pics later of previous events. For now, I just really want to play with the fonts and stuff!