Birthday Celebrations

I first taught myself to decorate cakes from pouring over a 1974 Wilton yearbook that my mom kept on her recipe shelf.  I’m not really sure why she had it.  They got married in 1963 so it wasn’t from deciding on her wedding cake and cake decorating has never really been her “thing”.  Don’t get me wrong, she a fabulous baker and I would have her Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake with Raspberry Jam filling and Apple Icing any day of the week.  Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.  It’s still my only choice for my birthday cake!  Whatever reason caused it to be there, I’m so grateful.  I found that book intriguing.  Back before there were Wilton classes available at the local craft store or before you could purchase any combination of cake decorating supplies and icing in several places in town. I taught myself how to make royal icing and make color-flow pieces to use on cakes.  I even learned how to make fondant from scratch from that yearbook.  Cake decorating was a lot of fun and I even wondered about making it a business.

Then my brother got married and I gained a fabulous niece who was almost two.  Her second birthday party was all about 101 Dalmatians and her Mom decided that she would rent a puppy dog pan and decorate it to look like Lucky, Holly’s favourite puppy.  I volunteered to do the decorating and I remember my brother sneaking quietly into her room late at night to snitch her Lucky stuffie so that we could make sure the spots matched up perfectly.  I haven’t found a picture of that cake.  I’m sure one exists somewhere, but that cake deserves a mention here because Karen’s Cake Adventures wouldn’t exist without it.  The joy that cake brought made me fall in love with cake decorating and started a tradition of Aunt Karen decorating crazy birthday cakes for her two amazing nieces.

It’s hard to believe, but today, Holly turns 21.  I don’t get to see her that often and it’s been a lot of years since I’ve been able to make her birthday cake, but I am super proud of her.  She’s an amazing young woman and she’s worked hard to make her dream of becoming a chef come true. 

It seemed only fitting to dedicate this post to her.  I’ve sprinkled it with old photos of the birthday cakes that followed Lucky: a Carousel ice cream cake for a circus theme birthday party, a puppet theatre cake to match the puppet theatre her Dad and her Poppa made just for her, and a magic pink castle cake for a princess theme. 

By the way, I don’t recommend asking a 6 year old what a castle cake should look like.  I made that “mistake” and was told “It should be pink and sparkly.  There should be a dragon and the queen should be in her garden picking flowers.”  YIKES!  Guess when I learned how to make fondant? 
Looking back at the pictures now, I’ll admit I cringed a bit.  I had so much fun making them, but I was completely self-taught.  I’ve taken 4 Wilton classes since then and decorated a lot more cakes.  My skill level has changed and when I first looked at the pictures I didn’t want to share them.  I could see all the flaws and knew all the things I would now do differently or with more skill. 

But then I looked at my niece’s face she saw the cakes and I remembered the joy of those moments.  That’s the part that matters.  When her eyes would go wide with surprise and I’d get a great big hug because she loved her cake … that’s what makes the time you invest in decorating a cake worth it … that’s why it’s okay to watch it get devoured and to see all the hard work eaten in a matter of moments. 

Those are memories that last a lifetime … and just maybe, they helped her find her path to being a chef.  I’m proud to say that for her seventh birthday I bought Holly her very first decorating set and we used it to make a bear cake together!
Happy Birthday Bear!  I love you forever =)

Personalizing makes all the difference

After the scrabble cake, I’ll admit that I was feeling a little “decorated out” and I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to pull things together for the second cake I needed to make this past week.  I knew when I volunteered to make it that the two were going to be back to back, but there was no way I was going to miss out on making a cake to celebrate another of my work colleagues and friends moving on to a new job. 

I knew that I didn’t have a lot of time to spend on prep work and we’d already decided on a castle theme since Pam’s new job is working in the ivory tower of policy.  Thankfully, about three years ago, I bought Wilton’s Romantic Castle Cake Set when it was on sale cheap at Walmart.  I browsed the ideas on the Wilton website and found their Friendly Fortress Castle Cake idea.  It wasn’t quite what I was looking for but it gave me some great ideas, especially using sugar cubes for the battlements around the top.   The biggest source of inspiration it gave though was how simple the basic design could be as long as I personalized a couple of critical items. 

A little “grass” around the bottom to finish the fondant that I had hand scored to give the effect of stone walls, the Policy banner flying high, and, a princess in her tower, wearing a purple princess dress with matching detailing on the turret peaks. 

I picked the colour and style of the princess dress based on the Halloween costume that made an appearance from Pam’s closet a few weeks ago.  I’ve only made fondant people a couple of times before … oddly one of those was for another castle cake for one of my nieces … and they looked more like the wooden Fisher Price Little People from my childhood.  I wanted to make sure that this figure was a closer reflection of my colleague.  A toothpick in the centre provided some structural stability to allow a narrower shape and I made the hair in several pieces that I scored using the backside of a shell fondant tool to give a texture that looked a lot like hair. One of the back pieces of hair even got a haircut after she was on the cake and I realized that it was much longer then the other sections.

The end result was a cake I could be proud of and one that drew lots of laughter when we presented it at the office to celebrate the our policy princess.