Do Over - CAKE FAIL

Have you ever called do-over? I do, all the time. I try one recipe and if it's a fail, I have to try to fix it. Sometimes it's not a recipe but a design. Like my turkey cake. I made one cute cupcake but then had to super-size my idea.
But BIG isn't always better. As you can see, It didn't work so well.

First, my kids don't like fondant. And covering an entire cake with fondant, well, let's just say it doesn't taste as good as whipped cream and fruit (which is what everyone around here prefers) or frosting (second runner up.)

So, for Thanksgiving I made another cake and a few pies (yeah, we're pigs) and I redesigned my turkey. The fondant feathers in the first cake didn't hold up so well. They were droopy and looked seriously sad so this time I used construction paper to create the feathers and food quality shish kabob skewers. It worked much better.

And the cake still needs some work but this one turned out much better so I guess it's true, practice makes perfect  better.

 

How 'bout you, did you make anything special for the holiday feast? 

Mario Party - and Care Bear Stare

We had a family birthday party over the weekend to celebrate Jake's and Kara's birthday. So I made a Mario cake for Jake and a Kar(a)e Bear Stare cake for Kara.


Here's how I did it. First I cut out pieces of fondant to try to create Mario.

I need to work on the body-building to get better at this cake decorating thing. And, I did have one MAJOR cake fail along the way. My little Care Bear Imploded because I added pumpkin to the recipe. I can never leave good-enough alone. I'm always tweaking recipes--well this one didn't turn out. Major FAIL!

 So I was running out of time and had to bake another cake. I felt like I was a contestant on Chopped. Under the gun and time running out. I whipped up another bear in a hurry.

 Then my frosting, which was a cream cheese frosting, was a little runny - but no time to fix it. People were showing up. . .

 I put all three cakes out - so people could see things don't always turn out :( oh well...

I

 Jake's favorite cake was the flop.

So it was a happy day for Kara, Jake and Trevon!

FAIL - Cake

I am no CAKE-BOSS but anyone who knows me, knows I love my cake, cookies, and candies. It's no wonder I've become a member of Weight Watchers.

With baking as one of my favorite past time hobbies, unfortunately my scale shows the results of my cooking efforts... But, that doesn't mean my cakes always turn out perfectly.

Quite the opposite. Some times I envision the most wonderful tasty temptations and they turn out...terribly.

Like my recent endeavor: trying to sculpt rice crispy treats into a little-sized replica of my brother-in-law: Bo. It didn't turn out the way I pictured it in my head and it looked nothing like Bo.

Oh well...it's the thought that counts...right?

I certainly hope so because this cake was not my best baking attempt. It was an absolute FAIL.

A flop, but I had to take it to the party anyway. I figured it was good for a laugh--or at least a smile.

Here are some of the pictures from my attempt to bake a themed bee-day surprise for my brother-in-law Bo.


You see, Bo has become a recent beekeeping enthusiast and, since it was his birthday, I made him a couple of cakes. One was a bee, the other was the hive, and the third was supposed to be a mini-me Bo.

F A I L

But, it was still fun putting the pieces together. It might not have turned out the way I'd hoped but I think Bo had a happy Bee-Day anyway :)

Here's how I made the cakes.

First I baked a regular cake and a couple cupcakes.

Of course, when I got up the next morning, only one cupcake was left. I'd been hoping to use two for the eyes of the bee, b...ut I cut the only one I had left in two and used half-moon eyes for my bee.

I frosted the cake with coconut - yellow - frosting and cut black fondant strips for his little stripes.

I covered his eyes in white fondant and cut out round pupils from black fondant.

Next, I shaped his stinger out of rice crispy treats and covered it with the left-over black fondant. Then, I cut out a couple of white fondant wings and put the pieces together.

I had to add antenna and transfer him to a prettier plate with pretty paper. It's easy to lift the cake, if you have wax paper beneath the cake while you decorate.

I made the hive out of my barbie doll cake pan, frosted in brown icing and wrapped it with black licorice.


I obviously need a crispy carving class. I had no idea how to do it. But I rolled the rice crispy treats in wax paper to shape the body parts.


Then I put them together and put Bo on a stick.


And I tried to shape the pieces to look like Bo but there must "bee" a few tricks I'm missing because it didn't turn out the way I'd hoped. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I used frosting as the glue for my fondant to stick to the little-sized Bo but it didn't turn out so well. . . as you can see above.

The good thing about having a CAKE FAIL or a CAKE WRECK is it's not so bad eating my mistakes ;)