e_phemerart's place

Not my most inspired baking project (personally, I'm not "rah-rah" for a football theme) but the Auburn birthday cake was a success! Delivered it this morning, and the client was really happy with it. I didn't know it before, but turns out her son has a tattoo of the Auburn tiger eyes; so its cool that I used that design. Wanda showed off the cake to everyone else at work and I got lots of compliments. I even kept my mouth shut and didn't "but, but" about all the flaws I see in the cake.

I also have the derriere cake well in progress, but not completed. Sculpted and crumb coated, ready for final frosting and fondant work this evening. Actually rather pleased with how the basic sculpt turned out; looks like a cute round red velvet butt.

Have to go to Hobby Lobby for the third day in a row...got the wrong sized cake box!

Note to self: do not ever bother to buy premade colored fondant again; nasty stuff. The Wilton white is almost edible, but not the colors; really doesnt take THAT much longer to make better quality marshmallow fondant.

Think I may have messed up my good mixer. :( Inadvertantly got a wooden spoon stuck between the blades while making frosting last night; jammed it up. Now it still works,but is making odd ratchety noises as the blades turn.

Just a link to my updated Cake Portfolio:

http://usera.imagecave.com/ephemeral/mysugar/

With a couple earlier exceptions, most of these have been baked in the last year or so. (while I might add, I've been losing and maintaining a significant weight loss.) I've also baked a few other desserts that I did not get photos of.

NSFW Note: there are a few silly adult boob cakes (and a few adult boobs) pictured there.

Oh, and Sasha SQUEEE-LOVED her anime portrait cake! :)

I'm baking a carrot cake tonight (happy birthday to me) and am hoping I guessed ok on tweaking the recipe a bit. The batter seemed a bit thin when I poured it into the pans, and I'm also pouty now that I didn't think to add any of my favorite chopped dates along with the carrots and raisins, but it seems to be baking all right.* Think I'll go for a white chocolate-cream cheese frosting.

*Later edit: No frosting yet. I'll do that on Monday; once it finishes cooling, the cake is going in the freezer til then. But I did have a dessert sample of the cake while it was still warm from the oven, where I had to remove a portion of the top layer to level it. It's not quite rich enough to be oh-my-gods gourmet carrot cake, but it is tasty. :)

Yes, of course, I have a funky idea for how to decorate it! I'll post pics if it turns out.

Here's my inspiration sources: http://www.godecookery.com/cookies/mocohist.html

The second pic is from the cool Devout Dolls site I cited a couple of posts back, but I guess maybe for the cake the dollies should be carrot-tops?

A different kind of Sugar Skull!
Commissioned for the 7th annual Rocket City Fur Meet, a fandom convention held Memorial Day Weekend in Huntsville, AL. This year's convention western theme was "Magnificent 7"; the steer skull cake was a 7-Up flavored pound cake, carved and then covered in marshmallow fondant; the dessert/desert background was made with chocolate buttercream and graham cracker crumbs.

Chocolate batter for my next cake project (JigglyPuff pokemon theme) is in the oven.

I'm frosting the cakes and I had to do a "quality control" taste test.  Took a bite sized scrap of the green tea flavored cake and put a bit of the lemon-ginger frosting on it to sample.

Damn, this combination of flavors/recipes definitely goes in the save and make again file! (If I do say so myself, and hope others agree with me.)



Lemon-Ginger Frosting recipe (my own)

2 sticks butter
1 cup vegetable shortening

cream together

add 1/2 ts powdered ginger

gradually add 1.5 lbs powdered sugar

add 4 TB lemon juice

makes enough to frost two  (9 inch round) (three layer) cakes

First batch of green tea cake is baking in the oven tonight. It smells very gooooooood.....

Later edit: second batch of cakes are baking.

Later still: dammit, I may have to rebake one last batch tomorrow-- heat must have gotten a little high and the edges of the sheet cake got a little crispy. It's always something....:(

GREEN TEA LAYER CAKE

INGREDIENTS
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 cup cake flour (OR just 2 cups all-purpose flour)
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 4 teaspoons-3 tablespoons powdered green tea/matcha
* 1.25 cups white sugar
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 3 eggs
* 1 cup plain yogurt
* 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract

FROSTING
* 2.5 cups confectioners' sugar
* 4 teaspoons-1 tablespoons powdered green tea/matcha
* 4 tablespoons butter, softened
* 6 ounce cream cheese, softened
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 teaspoons milk

DIRECTIONS
1. preheat oven to 350 F. grease and flour 2 - 9" round pans. sift together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking soda, and green tea powder; set aside. (i used 2 - 8" pans instead.)

2. in a large bowl, beat together sugar, oil, and eggs until smooth. stir in vanilla. beat in the flour mixture alternately with the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated. (optional: add green food coloring to make the cake more green - i didn't in this case. reminder that the batter color will not be the baked result.) pour batter into prepared pans.

3. bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. cool on wire rack for 30 minutes before turning out of the pans.

recipe by babyjami as posted in this community: http://community.livejournal.com/save_your_fork/profile