Slice of Heaven

Cake Decorating Week

It has been a week of making and decorating cakes! Our swim team had an end of season banquet on Thursday, and I decorated a cake for the team, as seen below. That was lots of fun to do with the lane lines and wave-like border. Everything on this cake was done with decorater's icing, which is just Crisco, powdered sugar and almond extract. Easy to work with, requires no refrigeration, and firms up nicely to keep the cake sealed and fresh.

I was also commissioned to make a cake for a wedding shower my mom is throwing for a friend's daughter. The theme of the shower and the engagement has been much like a fairytale, so I went with a fairytale theme, indirectly. This cake, unlike the top one, used fondant for all of the decorations and covering the cake. Usually fondant tastes awful, and while it makes a smooth and beautiful cake, everyone takes it off because it doesn't taste good. I found a recipe online to make your own fondant using marshmallows and powdered sugar, and it tastes just like marshmallows....much better. Anyways, before you cover the cake with fondant, you first ice it smooth with the decorater's icing, and then roll out the fondant and put it over the cake. All of the decorations were made from fondant or gum paste, which is similar, but hardens like a rock. This was probably the most involved cake I have ever made, but I think it turned out almost exactly as I had planned, so I was happy with it!

One thing that did happen after making both of these cakes, is that my kitchen was COVERED in sugar and grease, so it gave me an excuse to give the kitchen a good scrubbing tonight after it was all done!