Snowman House of Horror: Completed

Calvin & Hobbes "Snowman House of Horror"

(+5 skill points -> 205/400)

Probably the most hilarious cake I've made.  This was just for fun and to practice using boiled icing (a.k.a. Italian Meringue).  The MMF snowmen were modeled off of the famous Calvin & Hobbes comic strip:

Stats:

• 8" round
• Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake box mix
• filled and iced with boiled icing
• bead border with boiled icing
  
• MMF accents

 This was a pretty good box mix.  It baked up well into a moist, dense cake that was also delicious.  It didn't really taste like dark chocolate, but it was very chocolatey.  I made 7" and 8" rounds at the same time.  The 8" baked after 1 hour and 25 minutes, but the 7" took another 15 minutes at least because it came out a little taller.

 

It occurred to me that I've never blogged about how I make my MMF.  I finally took pictures of the process and you can see them in another post (once I get around to it).  All my figures were made from this half batch of MMF.

The up-right snowmen were supported with either round toothpicks or cut wooden skewers.  I finally got to use my Styrofoam block!  The snowmen arms were made with brown MMF; some of them covered toothpicks and were inserted into the snowmen bodies.

 

The tree was made by covering a trimmed plastic bendy straw with brown MMF.  The branch was a toothpick covered with MMF and inserted into the trunk.

 

I was too lazy to make itty bitty orange carrot fondant pieces so I just trimmed some orange toothpicks (I have assorted colored "party" toothpicks) and stuck them on ... much easier ;)

 

This poor guy was sliced with a paring knife.

 

Again, this cake baked up well.  It was chilling in the fridge overnight.  Leveling and torting it was a cinch.

 

The boiled icing composed of:

• 1 1/4 cup sugar, boiled with
  
• 1/4 cup water, added to
  
• 3/4 cup pasteurized egg whites ("All Whites" brand), whipped up with
  
• pinch of Cream of Tarter

 

 

The icing was pretty light and fluffy.  After filling it, I saw lots of crumbs ... so I decided to crumb coat it.

 

 

The crumb coat didn't crust like I thought it would.  I went ahead and used tip #12 to pipe on an additional layer around the entire cake.

 

It was too light and fluffy to really get smooth, but that's ok since it's supposed to look like snow.  The bottom border was using the #12 tip again to make beads.

 

All the snowmen got inserted on the top of the cake.  I tried to drag the sharks and the sled a little into the icing, but the icing settled in such a way that it wasn't too noticeable.  When everything was in place, I asked my husband to come see.  As we looked it over, I saw a lump forming on the side of the cake.  "What is that?" I asked.  A golf-ball sized tumor was emerging from one side.  It was a huge air bubble forming that popped when I tried to smooth it.  I was shocked to see a gaping hole of exposed dark brown cake.  I piped some more icing into it and tried to smooth it out, but it just wasn't the same.  Oh well.  At least the snowmen looked good.  I used Wilton's Black Piping Gel for the snowmen's coals.  They looked awesome; I'll have to use that again whenever we make some Christmas sugar cookies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we ate some dinner, I noticed the icing on the bottom began to separate.  This is what happened last time I tried making boiled icing ... I should have just used straight up egg whites instead of pasteurized ones from the carton.

 

With all the fluffy, lumpy, leaky icing, I told my husband that this cake would not survive the drive to work.  We would just have to eat it ourselves.  The cake turned out to be really moist because of all the icing separating.  It was still yummy, but it just may disintegrate by morning!

 

FAILs:

• boiled icing couldn't be smoothed to a crisp finish
  
• boiled icing formed huge air bubble
• boiled icing separated
• boiled icing separation caused cake to be wet
• ok, ok, I might not ever used boiled icing again

FTWs:

• cake mix worked really well; I might have to use it again for future 3D / sculpted cakes
• got some more practice with sculpting fondant

What a fun cake!  I might have to re-create it using different techniques.  Thanks for viewing!

How to Carve and Ganache a 3D Cake

I found a great video on how to carve and cover a 3D cake with ganache from www.how2cakes.com:

http://www.how2cakes.com/converse.html

I've never used ganache before, but I thought it was supposed to be pourable.  In the video the consistency looked more like buttercream.  I submitted an inquiry to their site about their chocolate to cream ratio.  Meanwhile I'll comb the internet for a better answer.

www.baking911.com explains a lot:

http://www.baking911.com/chocolate/ganache_truffles.htm

Here's an easy ganache recipe from www.baking911.com ... I'm going to give this one a try:

http://www.baking911.com/recipes/chocolate/ganache_easy.htm

This site explains the chocolate to cream ratios well:

http://my.opera.com/Rhiga/blog/back-to-basics-chocolate-ganache

UPDATE (12/03/09):  Hurray!  I got a response back from how2cake:

Chris
For dark chocolate you use one part cream to two parts chocolate, if you use a really good quality chocolate like Callebaut, you'll need one part cream to 1.5 parts chocolate.
You need to let it cool so it becomes spreadable.

Have fun
Nati

Cheat Sheet

The following are recipes, charts, or methods I find myself using frequently.

Acronyms:

• MMF: Marshmallow Fondant
• IMBC: Italian Meringue Buttercream
• SMBC: Swiss Meringue Buttercream
• NFSC: No Fail Sugar Cookies
• FTW: For the WIN!
• LFMF: Learn from my Fail
  

Recipes:

• Warren Brown's Italian Meringue Buttercream (IMBC) from Cake Love (video here)
• for fun, substitute 5 egg yolks for the 5 egg whites
• for fun, substitute 1 cup of brown sugar for the 1 cup of granulated sugar
• for fun, substitute 2 whole eggs for the 5 egg whites
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC) from Martha Stewart
• Indydebi's Shortening-based Crusting Buttercream from cakecentral.com 
• Marshmallow Fondant (MMF) from www.easy-cake-ideas.com
• Michele Foster's Fondant from cakecentral.com
• Toba Garrett's Fondant from cakecentral.com
• Pound Cake by Paula Deen
• White Almond Sour Cream (WASC) cake from cakecentral.com
• No Fail Sugar Cookies (NFSC) from cakecentral.com
• Costco Mousse from cakecentral.com
  

Charts:

• Cake Calculator
• Earlene's Cake Serving Chart: some people prefer this over Wilton

Methods:

• Smoothing with Parchment Paper from www.monkeysee.com
• Cake Balls by the Pioneer Woman
• Several Tutorials with Fondant by Satin Ice

Informative Websites:

• http://cakecentral.com
• I get answers and inspiration from this site on a daily basis.  It's an excellent free source of cake decorating information.  They also have a magazine.
• http://www.baking911.com/
• Extremely informative site on particular food topics, recipes, and styles.  This also has a paid-subscription portion that I haven't experienced yet. 
• http://capitalconfectioners.com/
• Capital Confectioners, the greater Austin, TX area cake club
• KitchenAid Stand Mixer Adjustments
• Adjusting tilt-head models
• Adjusting bowl-lift models
• "Dime Test": determining the correct beater-to-bowl clearance

My Tutorials:

• "Plug" or "Plastic Wrap" Method
• easy and clean way to fill a decorator's bag
• MMF
• make your own marshmallow fondant with a KitchenAid
• Ganache
• spreadable ganache with semi-sweet morsels
• Modeling Chocolate
• just 2 ingredients!
• Homemade Gummy Candy

"Uh ... I do cakes?"

As I was leaving work today I stopped to ask my buddy co-worker how his Thanksgiving was.  I haven't had a chance to catch up with him in a while.  He starts telling me that his mother-in-law has gallstones and is scheduled for surgery today.  Luckily it's not too major; they can just do laparoscopic surgery.  His wife will probably go stay with her and help out even though she's swamped with school work for her master's degree.  He just found out his dad has had a mild stroke (he's ok now), and also that he has had multiple strokes in the past but hasn't realized it.  After a few more moments of slightly depressing updates, he asks how I've been and what I've been doing in my spare time.  I could only respond with, "Uh ... I do cakes?"

:b

Thanksgiving Cuppies: Completed

Happy Thanksgiving!

(+5 skill points -> 200/400)

These are the first cuppies (a.k.a. cupcakes) I've made since I started my cake decorating hobby!  Pretty cute, I think.

Stats:

• standard size cupcakes
• Wilton white cupcake cups
  
• Betty Crocker's Butter Pecan box cake mix
• white chocolate IMBC
• swirl with 1M tip
• topped with candy and cinnamon
• boxed in Wilton's "Cupcake Heaven Cupcake Box"

I made these at my parents' house, so I wasn't very prepared for taking photos of the process.  I only got the end results recorded :(

My family was celebrating Thanksgiving at my parents' house.  I wanted to make some yummy treats for the people celebrating with us and also for some of my girl friends that I would see afterward.  I brought my muffin pans, white chocolate, plastic piping bags, and 1M decorating tip from home.  This was the first time for me to make cupcakes since I caught the cake decorating bug.  The Wilton page taught me how to do the cupcake swirl here.  There were also some good youtube videos that demonstrated this.

Ok, that Butter Pecan box cake mix is good.  It made the whole house smell fantastic.  It tasted excellent as well.  I made some more white chocolate IMBC to pair with it.  My only regret is not purchasing a bismark tip.  I didn't the ratio of cake to icing when taking a bite.  If the cuppy was injected with IMBC ... oh man, look out ... they would never make it to the dinner table.

I was able to make a nice, even 24 cuppies.  They baked up well and consistent.  The only problem was that I could only fit enough IMBC into my piping bag to pipe 1M swirls on 8 cupcakes at a time.  I had to fill up the bag 3 times.  But they do look perty, don't they?

From home I also brought a bag of Brach's Autumn Mix (basically candy corn and little pumpkins) to use as toppers.  My mom showed me the loads of un-used Halloween candy she had, so I busted out some peanut M&Ms.  Some got showered in a little cinnamon.

8 were boxed up in 2 groups of 4 inside Wilton cupcake boxes so they wouldn't get eaten.  Those went to my girl friends' families on Friday when we met up with them for dinner.  It wasn't until I got home that I saw that I didn't use the cupcake holder insert for the boxes ... oh well ... they fit fine and didn't really slide around in the box anyway.

FAILs:

• didn't have big enough piping bag
• didn't use cupcake box properly

FTWs:

• earned 1M swirl badge
• successful 1st cuppies!

To my disappointment, not all the cupcakes were eaten at Thanksgiving dinner.  There are still 5 sitting on my parents' kitchen counter that I know they won't eat.  I should've taken them home!

Happy Anniversary: Completed

Happy Anniversary, Mark & Erin!

(+5 skill points -> 195/400)

Sigh ... I really had good intentions for this cake.  I couldn't seem to get it together enough to pull something special off.  Perhaps it was ok in the end ... my brother and his wife were too sick and congested to really taste anything anyways.  Oh well.  Happy Anniversary to Mark & Erin!

Stats:

• 8" round
• Betty Crocker's Milk Chocolate box cake mix
• white chocolate IMBC
• dark chocolate MMF
• reverse shell border on top; regular shell border on bottom
  

This is the first time I've used the Milk Chocolate box cake mix ... and probably my last.  It was too dry and not very chocolate-y tasting.  It also baked up real weird ... so tall in the center.  Here it is after using baking strips ... I've never had a cake do this:

 

 

That would be the least of my troubles.  The cake got torted fine, with still almost 3" in height.

I made IMBC with white chocolate again.  This is my fav from now on.  The chocolate just makes it so much more stable.

I had some left over dark chocolate MMF that I mixed with some other brown fondant.  Luckily it kneaded smoothly and I didn't need to add much moisture back in.  Here is my clear vinyl with my Wilton Cake Dividing Wheel underneath.  I dust it with cornstarch before rolling out my fondant.

My fondant was rolled to 14" (8" round x 3" high).  It went on pretty smooth; I was pleased.

I had several designs in mind, but decided to go with swirls on the sides.  The top would say "Happy Anniversary Mark & Erin".  To try the piping gel transfer method again, I printed the message out in reverse.

This was covered with parchment paper and piped over with a little piping gel.  This was then placed on the top of the cake and brushed (the back of the paper) lightly.

 

I thought I could make Royal Icing with a little Bailey's Irish Cream in it ... to give it some color and flavor ... that was my undoing.  It just didn't come together.  After piping it seemed melty ... my script was awful looking chicken-scratch.

I was so unhappy with it, I scrapped all the decorations and started over with more fondant.

 

I was going to use my left over IMBC to pipe.  It had been sitting in the fridge for over an hour and had begun to separate ... my Kitchenaid was still dirty from the Royal Icing, so I just went ahead and piped it without re-whipping it.  Another big mistake.  Now my icing seemed drippy and not smooth.  Oh well.  No script this time either ... didn't feel like rolling the dice on that either.

FAILs:

• runny Royal Icing (I must not deviate from recipe just yet!)
  
• runny IMBC (no matter what, make sure IMBC is stable)
  
• Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate box mix isn't good

FTWs:

• chocolate fondant was good to work with; it even tasted good!
• learned how to do reverse scrolls (thanks to everyone who answered my plea for help on cakecentral here)