Critter Crunch

Critter Crunch

A Critter Crunch birthday cake was requested of me from a friend of my hubby.  Critter Crunch is a puzzle game available on the PlayStation Network.  Hubby and I played the demo and really liked the adorable creatures and beautiful artwork in the game.  I was not thrilled to discover that I wasn't very good at the game, though!  

Stats:

• carved 8"x3" chocolate cake (I can't remember which cake mix box)
• iced with vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream 
• filled with vanilla whipped pudding
• covered in marshmallow fondant
• "Happy Birthday" in blue Royal Icing
• eye glossed with 50/50 corn syrup/Everclear

In the last cake class I volunteered at, the instructor mentioned that she no longer uses any cake release spray or mixture to prepare her pans.  Instead she lines the bottom with parchment paper and then, when done baking and cooling, she runs a knife down along the sides of the pan.  She believes letting the cake stick to the sides while baking will help prevent shrinking.  I lined the bottom of my pans with parchment paper and wrapped baking strips on the sides.

They baked up pretty well and came out of the pan nicely.  I think I'll do this from now on! 

Over time I've learned that having a base board (cardboard or foam core) in the final shape of the cake is extremely helpful.  Here is the rough shape, a slight teardrop cut out of a cake board.  I used a steak knife to carve the cake into shape.  The cake had been in the freezer overnight so it was easy to carve without mutilating it.

My cake wasn't originally as high as I wanted the final product to be.  That meant I needed to build up some with icing.  I also trimmed the sides to be within 1/4" of the cake board.  I wanted the icing to be flush with the board when I covered it with fondant. 

Luckily I've watched enough cake TV shows to know that I should carve first, then torte and fill.  Otherwise, there'd be a huge mess of filling squishing out the sides and cake tearing and crumbling.

As always, my dam made from cake spackle.

Crumb coat.

First layer.

My critter has some facial features and expressions.  This was achieved by putting fondant on top of the buttercream but under the final fondant coat.  I made some fondant snakes for the mouth and eyebrows.  With icing I built up one side of the mouth snake so it would have a gradual rise.  The other side was to be indented to give the illusion of his 2-tone body.

As suggested by Mike McCarey's Cakenology video (demonstrating how to carve a cake into the shape of a car), I used my hands and soft buttercream to smooth out the final layers of icing.  After giving my critter a good belly rub, he was the smoothest cake I've ever made!  I did about 3 passes, putting the cake in the freezer for a few minutes so the buttercream would firm up, then applying more room temperature buttercream on top.

Before belly rubs.

After!

Marshmallow fondant colored with Wilton Golden Yellow and Lemon Yellow gel.

I actually think this is the best fondant job I've done on a cake!  The fondant went on even and smooth; only 2 air bubbles to pop.  It stuck to the buttercream without me having to wet it.  Hurray!  His feet are 2 chunks of extra fondant roughly shaped into triangles.  I glued him down to the gold rectangular board with some piping gel.

This cake reminded me that I seriously need to purchase some clay tools.  Gumpaste tools are nice (I have Wilton's set), but really, a good set of cheap wooden clay tools can go a long way.  I only have a few clay tools left over from my high school days, but they were invaluable for bringing out the fondant ridges and lines. 

Free-hand cut out some white fondant as his belly with a craft knife.  Notice the shaggy cuts to emulate fur!

Do you know what's a complete waste of time and money?  The Wilton Alphabet Cutters!  I tried and tried to get a decent P.  After a few attempt, I settled for what I got.  Then came a B.  There is NO FREAKING WAY anyone can get fondant out of the B shape.  I don't even have a tool narrow enough to force the fondant out from the other end.  Perhaps a bamboo skewer would have worked, but at that point I practically threw the fondant across the room.

I piped "Happy Birthday" with Royal Icing instead.  Tip is Wilton #4.

I made some eyes with white and blue fondant, cut with a small round Christmas ornament cookie cutter.  The gloss was 50/50 corn syrup/Everclear brushed on to it.

I am very pleased with how this little guy came out.  I do wish I could have figured out how to give him little ears, but oh well.  Also couldn't get a decent photo of him.  Most of my caking is done at night with little ambient light.

Photo Gallery

Sunflower Cuppie: Completed

Sunflower Cuppie

with Oreo cookie

(+5 skill points => 305 / 400)

Usually cupcakes don't add to my skill points, but these were special.  A big shout out and "thank you"s to:

• KHalstead from cakecentral.com (Tina) for sharing her method for creating cupcake bouquets.
• The book Hello, Cupcake, which I don't own, but all the photos of the sunflower cupcakes on cakecentral say they got the design from.
• Martha Stewart for posting her own sunflower cuppie design.

Stats:

• Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix
• IMBC from Cake Love (chocolate and vanilla flavored)
• I used Wilton's Meringue Powder instead of raw egg whites since I'd be giving these cuppies to kids.
• Oreo cookie

Lonnie and I have been trying hard to make a chocolate icing that tastes better than store-bought tub icing.  Consider this another failed attempt.  I first made a 2:1 ganache with Baker's semi-sweet chocolate and heavy whipping cream.  This was added to my IMBC.  It tasted ok ... but it's not great.  I'm not used to semi-sweet chocolate except in chocolate chip cookies.  Perhaps I should have tried milk chocolate.  I was expecting a darker color too, but that didn't happen.  Oh well.  It was easy to work with, and I have plenty left over.

I piped a generous base on to the cuppie before smooshing down the cookie on top.

The vanilla IMBC got a hefty dose of Wilton's different yellow coloring gels.  "Golden Yellow" was too orange, but after I added a bunch of "Lemon Yellow", I got a nice, bright color that was perfect for my sunflowers.

Martha Stewart's design called for 3 rows of "petals" using a leaf tip.  I used Wilton #68 and made 2 rows, alternating the petal placement so they could be offset.

For the second row, I started the tip inside the Oreo so the IMBC could really fill in the space and look attached.

I've never had any training for using the leaf tip ... my petals kept breaking off.  I tried twisting, I tried yanking, I tried coasting ... I couldn't figure it out.

Afterward I researched cakecentral.com's forums for using leaf tips.  There were several suggestions specifically for tips like #68 to pry them open slightly.  Tips that look like "baby birds' mouths" are more likely to yield pointed leaf ends.  Mine was the "fish mouth" kind that tend to be too narrow to get much success unless you modify it.  Oh well.  Next time I'll try a different tip.

I wanted to try making an individual cupcake "bouquet".  There are many cupcake bouquet tutorials available online, but I wanted to try to highlight just one serving.  I bought several 4" flower pots from Walmart at $0.75 each.  KHalstead from cakecentral.com shared that some of her bouquets have the cuppies sitting in a 5 oz. plastic cup.  My 5 oz. cups were a little too short for the flower pot, so I used some extra 1 oz. cups to give them a boost.  Use your favorite glue to keep things steady.

Ages ago my roommate thought it bright to serve Jello shots at one of our parties.  Once we all moved out, I inherited the plethora of 1 oz. cups that we had over-zealously bought.  Nowadays I jump at any excuse to use them.  They are great holders for paint, glue, confectioner's glaze, you name it.  Here I attached one upside down to the bottom of the 5 oz. cup.

The rim of the 1 oz. cup is covered in adhesive and placed in to the pot.

The cuppie sits comfortably in the 5 oz. cup like so:

Once everything is in, add some grass to hide the cups and provide more stability.

Afterward I decorated the pot with cardstock and curled ribbon, personalizing it for my nephew as a fun Easter present.

Cute, huh?  I think these would be fantastic Mother's Day presents or maybe for a house warming.  I took several of these over to a couple different neighbors with kids, and they seemed really impressed.  Give 'em a shot!  They'll brighten someone's day!

Happy 1st Birthday, Malaya!: Completed

Happy 1st Birthday, Malaya!

(+15 skill points => 270 / 400)

 

 

(03/01/2010)  I totally forgot this post was sitting in my edit queue!   Well, this was supposed to be posted a week ago, but my life got completely taken over by the cake competition.  Better late than never!

(originally written 02/20/2010)

This past weekend was my cousin's daughter's first birthday party!  I had the honor of making the cake for the party and Malaya's smash cake.  The cake and I had to resort to plan B many times, but in the end, I think it was a job well done.

Stats:

 3 tier party cake:

• top tier: 6" round Duncan Hines Red Velvet with Cheesecake Mousse
• middle tier: 8" round Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge with Oreo Mousse
• bottom tier: 10" round Duncan Hines Red Velvet with Cheesecake Mousse
• iced with "Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream" (new recipe for me)
• Royal Icing ball border
• Michele Foster's Fondant accents

Smash cake:

• single layer 6" round Duncan Hines Red Velvet
• iced with IndyDebi's buttercream
• reverse scroll border
• Michele Foster's fondant accents
• Wilton sprinkles on the side

It was bound to happen.  This cake was my first all-nighter.  That's what I get for procrastinating.  I've been pretty busy at home and at work, so I never really got a head start on this cake except for the baking.  On Friday night, all I had was thawed cake.  I started everything else at 11 pm and stopped Saturday morning at 8 am for a brief 2 hour nap, then back to finish the cake before the party.   It was actually nice to not have any interruptions like a crying baby or going to work.  Also I got a clear picture of how long it takes to make a 3 tiered cake from start to finish.

My previous post described how I decorated the cake drum.

Next up was making fondant.  I tried Michele Foster's fondant recipe from cakecentral.com, and believe me, it's worth all the hassle.  There are pros and cons to this recipe, but it was a great learning experience.

Cons:  The fondant will be off-white because of the butter.  Also, plain gelatin smells like dirty socks.  It doesn't taste as good as MMF, but it's better than Satin Ice and Wilton brands.

Pros: The fondant is super stretchy.  It has the consistency of bubble gum.  I could take a lump and pull it apart with both hands and it will stretch like melted mozzarella with no cracks or breaks.  Here are my loops for the intended bow topper.  I tried to color it to match the cake drum.

Those were set aside to dry.  Next cake leveling, torting, damming, filling, and spackling.  Not many pictures because I was too busy making the darn thing.

 

I made a batch of IndyDebi's buttercream to be used for the spackle and damming.

  

  

All of the cakes were spackled.  I wanted to make sure everything was straight, even, and sturdy.  Nothing was gonna happen to this cake ... not on my watch!

  

My co-worker convinced me to try this IMBC recipe.  He said his kids love it; they like it better than the recipe I've always used.  I had to fight for a long time to get this IMBC stable.  After adding the melted sugar to meringue, I have a bad habit to not let it alone long enough to cool.  I started adding butter and it completely destabilized.  It was so liquidy, it was flinging gunk everywhere.  My shirt and back kitchen wall was covered.  I made a make-shift plastic wrap tent, but eventually stopped trying to add butter.  I stuck it in the fridge for a while.  After a few minutes I tried again, but no luck.  I stuck it in the freezer for a while.  That made it a little better, so I added the rest of the butter.  It was still too cold (it gets looking like cottage cheese at that point), so I set it over a pot of boiling water to warm it up.  Jeez, this stuff is high maintenance!  I eventually got it stabilized.  Unfortunately the color was too yellow for my liking.  Luckily this is for a baby girl, so light yellow is always good.

The tiers were supported with bubble tea straws.  When it came time to place a tier on top of another, I only partially inserted the straws.  Once the tier was placed over them, I let gravity take the rest of it down gradually so I could slip my fingers out from under it.  I left my spatula underneath so I could coast it down and shimmy it in to place.

For the smash cake, I only had a little bit of IndyDebi buttercream.  I thinned it down with some milk.  Unfortunately that made it too unwieldy to smooth well.  In desperation I grabbed a bottle of huge Wilton confetti sprinkles and lined them up all along the side.  Good save, if I may say!

 

I didn't even attempt to pipe "Happy Birthday, Malaya".  I knew my piping still sucks and was not willing to mess anything up.  The smash cake got topped with some pretty ribbon roses and a cut-out 1.  The leaves were free-hand cut because I couldn't find my leaf cutters (which I later discovered were practically right in front of me).

Reverse shells make everything look better!

Unfortunately the mousse requires refrigeration, which called for some creative organization between our main and mini fridge.

The bead borders around the main tiers were royal icing with a dollop of corn syrup.  This made it look shinier and kept it soft.

I had to ditch the bow topper idea.  I didn't make nearly enough loops, the ones I had weren't dry enough, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to arrange them in a non-stupid manner.  Ribbon roses to the rescue!!!  This was my first try at ribbon roses ... they are so simple and cute! 

I had a wonderful time making this cake and was so proud to share it with my family.  The birthday girl was a little too tired to smash the smash cake, but everyone else enjoyed.  I received several compliments on the look and taste of the cake.  The top 2 tiers were devoured quickly!

Happy Birthday, Malaya!

 

I've had a couple weeks break to think about my past cakes.  Here are my conclusions:

FAILs:

• I don't prefer this IMBC recipe.
• My end result was too yellow; not the color I was shooting for but still ok, I guess.  This probably wouldn't be acceptable if it were an adult's birthday cake.
• Waaay too much butter.  It didn't taste bad at all, but I'm just not comfortable putting so many sticks of butter into one thing.  I'm not big on butter in cooking or eating either.
• IMBC was too finicky.  First it was too hot, then it was too cold.  Jeez!  I don't need this in my life!
• Not enough time.  
• It's been an unbelievably busy month for me.  I didn't have any time to prepare much in advance except for the baked cake.  The all-nighter was unavoidable.  
• I would really have liked to have more time to get the buttercream flawless.  No one really notices all the flaws, but I know I could have gotten it smoother.  Boy, your "icing" arm can really get tired after doing 3 tiers in one shot!
• I don't know how to make a bow!
• I really need to follow directions and/or practice making a loopy bow.

FTWs:

• covered cake drum badge earned!
• ribbon rose badge earned!
• smash cake badge earned!
• Sprinkles saved the smash cake.  I originally bought those huge confetti sprinkles for another cake, but decided to go in a different direction.  It was pure luck that they happened to be the same colors I was using and in a great size and shape.
• Tasted fantastic! 
• Costco Mousse is the way to go for great tasting filling.  It was nice and stable.  It didn't effect the cake that was in direct contact with it.
• I received several compliments on how "the cake was so good!"
• It's really nice to have a cake that looks and tastes good.  Either way is such a treat, but to have both ... that's what awesome is made of.