In the Kitchen | Testing for a Daisy Wedding Cake

In a few short weeks my brother will be getting married.  I made my own wedding cake, and have made some fun cakes for the kid's birthdays since then so I offered to make my brother's cake as well.  They have picked daisies as their flower, so I figured a daisy cake was in order.

Being the procrastinator that I am, I've only just recently started working on the practice cake.  Piping flowers is new to me, so this has been an adventure so far.  I need to make the flowers in advance so I can put the cake together really quickly the day before the wedding.  So, I went to my Wilton cake decorating book (inherited from my mother-in-law) to get a recipe for Royal Icing.

Royal Icing
3 egg whites (at room temperature)
1 pound (about 4 cups) confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Combine ingredients and beat at high speed for 7 to 10 minutes.

Yield: 4 cups




Pretty simple recipe!  The catch is that this icing dries very quickly so you need to keep your bowl covered with a damp cloth.  Also, you need to use this icing right away since you cannot rebeat it.

I piped my daisies on a flower nail, gave them yellow centers, then laid them to dry on my flower molds.  These are curved to give flowers a nice curve, rather than being flat.  My daisies were dry in about a day and ready to put on a cake.

The bride (who is actually a friend of mine) does not like anything too sweet so she requested something other than a buttercream frosting for the cake.  Specifically, she wondered if a Whipped Cream frosting would work.  Since I've never made a whipped cream frosting it was back to the Wilton book.

Well...I tried their recipe but was not really happy with the results.  I'm sure part of the reason was my inexperience with this type of frosting.  But it was edible, though a little hard to work with, so I frosted my test cake anyway.

Now to decide on a look for the daisy cake.  I'm thinking of two different approaches.

1. Wrap a ribbon around the base (represented by a piece of yellow paper in my picture) of the cake that matches the ribbon used in the flowers.  Place daisies around the upper edge of the cake and a little pile of daisies on top.

Same option, close-up:

2. Begin with a pile of daisies on top of the cake, then arrange them so they cascade around and down the cake.  This one was a little tricky to show because my test cake was a little small.

What do you think is the better option?  More orderly daisies in a row with ribbon, or a casual cascading pile of daisies?

Disclaimer:  You'll have to excuse the messy frosting job, the recipe I used was very difficult to smooth.  The recipe also had gelatin in to stabilize, which turned into little chunks when added to the cream. I need to experiment a little more with the frosting.  Chunky and hard to spread and smooth just won't do :)

This post will be linked at:

• Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts
• Wow Me Wednesday at Polka Dots on Parade

Giraffe First Birthday

First birthday cakes are so much fun to plan and create.  Jaden got a snazzy train cake so I had to make something cool for Hannah also.  I'm not really a fan of the pink super girly cakes so I wanted to create something more gender neutral.  I settled on a giraffe cake inspired by a giraffe toy that I found for Hannah.

This cake was also my first experiment with using fondant to cover a cake.  One thing I learned is to roll out the fondant really thin.  Mine was pretty thick and kind of a sweet overload.  Overall I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

Hannah enjoyed her cake, though she was not interested in touching it.  If I held the cake for her she dove in face first.  On her tray, she just poked at it.  What a funny girl!

Love those big blue eyes!

Thomas the Train Cake

Jaden LOVES Thomas the Train so a natural choice for his birthday was Thomas.

I made a large sheet cake and cut it to make three layers.  The face is made from fondant formed in a flat circle around a lollipop stick.  One thing I learned is that the cake was quite heavy and Thomas to lean dangerously to one side.  He also looks like he has flat tires.  But Thomas held up long enough to make one little 2 year old very happy.

Jaden loved all the attention and having everyone sing for him.  The next day, he enjoyed nibbling on Thomas' face.  I did not let him eat all of the face though, that would have been way too much sugar!

Butterfly and Train Birthdays

One afternoon when I was reading Parents magazine I came across an article about birthdays. The article listed a website that had simple ideas for decorating cakes. Jaden's 1st birthday was coming up in a few months so I took a look at the site and found a cute idea for a train cake. Jaden's train cake came out larger than I expected, but it was reasonably easy to put together. Kit Kat bars for the traintracks, Oreos for the wheels, M&Ms for the cargo, and lots of food coloring for the frosting.

The cake was enjoyed by all, especially the birthday boy.

After some initial hesitation he dove right in and thoroughly enjoyed his cake, as evidenced by the mess on his face, and what was left on the floor. Jaden enjoyed his cake so much that he needed a bath afterwards.

When Asia's birthday came that year, I went to the same site to find a cute cake idea. Her birthday was not just any birthday, she was entering double digits! I thought her 10th birthday warranted a special cake so I looked through the site for a simple but cute cake. The butterfly cake was simply a round cake cut in half, and notched to make the wings. Then you just put the two pieces on a plate and decorate with candy to give the butterfly wings their pattern. Since cake mixes make two round cakes, Asia had two butterfly cakes for her birthday with five candles on each.