Monday, November 5, 2012

Why I may never bake again!

First I have to say sorry I've been MIA this past week! It's been crazy plus our laptop is still broken and blogging from my phone or ipad isn't as easy I would think!
So Saturday was the big birthday party for all 3 of my kids (can not believe that I have a 1 year old an almost 2 year old and an almost 3 year old! ha) Anyway I had this grand idea that I was going to make them a cake! Not just any easy cake but an extravagant cake! By the way I consider myself to be a good cook but I have never been a good baker! For this extravagant cake I also planned to make my own fondant!  The cake was going to be 3 beautiful layers of Disney perfection! The bottom red with 2 lil white buttons for Mickey the middle was going to be pink with white dots for Minnie and the top was going to be like a Mickey hat complete with ears! 
I made the red fondant and I really had no earthly idea what the final texture should be.  So it ended up being way to moist?! I think? It kept falling apart and I pretty much had to piece it together to cover the bottom layer! 

The bottom layer was a double layer choc cake which turned out perfect, the middle was strawberry double layer which turned out perfect till I had to cut some off because I wanted it to be smaller than the bottom layer.  It started falling apart but luckily once I put the fondant on it helped hold it together! 
For the pink I actually got premade fondant at the store.  It was much easier and I saw what the texture should be! I got a white sugar sheet for the dots and my hubs had the brilliant idea to trace the circles then cut them out.  Oh and did I mention trace with an ink pen?! Ha! Well the idea would have been ok if we cut the ink out but being midnight by this time a lot of the ink was still on the circles which I didn't really notice till I got the dots wet to stick to the cake and ink started smearing on my cake! You cant really see the smearing ink in the pics but believe me there was a nice little ink ring around every circle hahahah  
When I first put the pink fondant on it was awful but after working it got to be almost presentable... almost
Well I got the top layer made and it turned out better than I thought it would.  I made the black fondant and died my hands purple which was a little better than the red haha


The major problem began when I put the top layer on... It was very heavy and it started sinking... The choc frosting started oozing out of the red layer and it started tipping backwards.. I stuck a ton of long toothpicks in hoping to get it to stay together...  But as you can see it just kept squishing more and more and more and falling more and more and before long it was a total mess!

Good thing I decided to also make cute little mickey cupcakes because the cake was going to the trash!  Well guess what.. the cupcakes looked like crap too!  They tasted awesome! I actually crushed up oreos in the batter so they were super yummy but they looked oh so sad!
My mom felt bad and stopped and got a store bought cake.  Of course everyone at the cake and was scared of my scary little cupcakes!




Eesh anyways here is what I learned from my experience...

NEVER attempt to do something you have never done before for the party always have a practice run!
When dying fondant.. ALWAYS wear gloves 
If you dont wear gloves and accidentally dye your hands use something with exfoliating beads in it it helps... nail polish remover, alcohol, paint remover etc.. do not work!
If you have several layers you have to use supports and toothpicks dont work
Take a cake making class
Store bought fondant is much easier even though its more expensive its worth it
Pay someone else to do it lol




15 comments:

  1. poor thing - if you ever try again, you need dowel supports(stuck from top to bottom throughout the bottom and middle layers) and get the cake cold - this helps with stability. I've had enough disasters to learn ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aww, well you tried and it looked really good (until it fell apart)! I bet with a little practice you could be an expert cake decorator!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh no! But I think you really stuck through it and it still looks like it's supposed to be Mickey.

    ReplyDelete
  4. HAHAHA! That looks like what happened with my son's "cupcake cones" for his birthday party. What a disaster for me!! Soggy, squishy, collapsed cones that no one really wanted to eat anyway!

    Lindsey @ GrowingKidsministry.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. I learned that lesson a long time ago... especially when making something for a holiday.. I made a cake one Christmas and even though I had made it a million times before the icing was too thick and almost fondant like.. yucky!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh no :( I think the cupcakes look yummy, it doesn't matter to me what they look like as long as they taste good. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I feel bad but I giggled when I saw the final product...it's the thought that counts, right? Thank God for mums to save the day!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh no!! You're braver than I am because I never would've ever attempted it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bummer, it would have been really cute, had it turned out. Maybe next year!

    Thank you for linking up with Super Sunday Sync this week. Hope to see you next week!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Love it ... I think it's awesome that you even made it in the first place! :)

    Lanaya
    www.raising-reagan.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. You poor thing! I ran into a similar situation with my 1 year old's cupcakes- I mistakenly used cream cheese frosting and it totally fell off every cupcake! Now following you through the link up :)
    Bre @ Peacoats & Plaid

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh no! Hard lessons learned. Thank God for Plan B...bakeries. Although the cupcakes are adorable and yummy I'm sure!
    Stopping by from Wednesday Walkabout.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ohhh you had me giggling as I looked at those photos and read your words. I have a similar story from a grand idea I had for my son's first birthday. I had to make a last second trip to my mother in laws to have her save the day for us :)
    Looking forward to following you :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. That is soooo me! I am very thankful I have a BFF who is a professional cake decorator! I never have to back a birthday cake unless I want to. :) Which will most likely be never.
    Hailey @ Love, Laughter and Lipstick

    ReplyDelete
  15. oh this is hilarious!! and only because I've done the exact same thing and was in tears over my failed cake as my hubby ran to the store to pick up a cake just as the party was starting...

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by! I LOVE reading all your comments and I try my hardest to respond to each of them via email!