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Showing posts with label apple shaped cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apple shaped cake. Show all posts

Thursday, May 10, 2012

“Thank You Teachers!” by The Cake Artist



Teachers Appreciation Day
Teacher's Appreciation "Apple Cake"
My sweet niece, Katherine, the other day asked if I could provide a cake for her school’s Teachers Appreciation Day Luncheon. I was delighted because I thought it would be a very good idea to do an apple cake. I told Katie to let her teacher know that I would be doing an apple shaped cake.

To the left is the cake I made, a vanilla cake filled with vanilla buttercream, covered with a paste made of carved cake and buttercream. I love to use this under my fondant especially for carved cakes. Toba Garrett calls it “spackle” and I believe it’s a wonderful idea. I got the recipe from her book (Oct 1, 2004).I colored the fondant light red then airbrushed it red and leaf green for depth. The ‘bookworm’ I created using fondant. The apple stem is actually the dowel that goes through the cake to the cake board and I cover it with chocolate fondant.

The Process

Carving the cake was a task. I set the cake up in three stacked tiers with the middle tier being the tallest. I baked 2x12x2-inch round; 1x10x2-inch round and 1x9x2-inch round cakes. Each cake is splitted horizontally into two layers. I filled the ten-inch round and placed on cake board, insert dowels; then placed another ten-inch board on top where I began stacking the 12-inch cakes. Dowels are inserted for support, then a ten-inch cake board is placed on top where the nine-inch cakes are stacked. With buttercream sticking out I placed the stacked tiers in my freezer to firm up for about one hour. After taking the cake out I carved from the top to form the shape I was looking for, then carefully flipped it over to carve the bottom…this is when I said a quiet prayer. Things can happen and if it does you will have a very entertaining ‘cake story’ to tell your friends. So be very careful when you are doing the turn. I stick the cake in my freezer  while I used the carved pieces with buttercream to make the spackle paste. I add a little little coffee creamer to soften the cake to form a nice paste. I remove cake from freezer and apply paste filling in all the open pockets and try to get it completely covered. I apply a real heavy coat because it does taste delicious under the fondant. Place cake in refrigerator this time for about 20 minutes to firm up. Remove and apply a coat of buttercream, I apply a light coat or enough to give a smooth finish. The buttercream helps the fondant to stick and I get no air pockets. The size of the fondant to cover the cake I calculate using an un-scientific method…do you want to hear it? Well, I use a product which I purchased from called , I love this product. I can roll out my fondant between the mats and move it around without getting stuff on the fondant before covering my cake. So this is how I carved and covered the cake.

I Am a Cake Artist!

Well, Katherine’s teacher was beside herself when she saw the cake. She actually was expecting a sheet cake with an apple on it. So, this is what you get when you ask Auntie Jeannie to bake you a cake, I try very had to do ‘ordinary’ or simple,  believe me I really try. But every time I get the chance to push the envelope, I some times put it a little to far. Nevertheless, that’s the example I was to teach Katie that you can do whatsoever you set your mind to do. Katie said her teacher said, “Your aunt is an artist.” I  smiled when she told me because I am more and more seeing myself in that fashion: I am a Cake Artist!
Hope this information was helpful to someone. Drop me an email if you have any question or leave a comment on this post.
Walk good and happy caking…
Jeannie