Cake fail. What to do and what not to do.

Okay, so the other day my husband saw a cake on Facebook that he wanted to try. I, being the loving wife that I am, said, share the post so I can see it and I will bake that cake. So I copied the recipe, it was for a pound cake. I had never made a pound cake before. Cool, I thought, I get to make this cake and it will be awesome. Don't even have to ice it or decorate it, all I have to do is cover it in powdered sugar. Well I mix the ingredients as per the instructions and the batter looks terrific. I pour it into my pan and there is a bit left over. Leftover is good as I have a small pan that worked perfectly! Well my oven is preheated so I put the cake(s) in. Knowing that the small cake takes way less time I kept an eye on it and took it out when I considered it done. It was great. Now the other cake still had a ways to go according to the recipe so I debated walking to the stored to let it finish. It still had about another 20-25 minutes. I checked on the cake just to make sure it would be okay while I was gone and not only was the cake already done but was well on the way to being burned! I took the cake out but it was too late. The burned taste ran throughout most of the cake. A cake fail :( Now usually my cakes will fail during decorating (operator error) but to burn one was very embarrassing. All the powdered sugar in the world would not have saved it. So for the to do and not to do when baking a cake or any recipe for the first time:

To Do:

1. Always copy the recipe exactly (I did)
2. Make sure you have what you need before starting (Check)
3. Follow the directions as given (again, I did this.)
4. If all went according to plan you should enjoy whatever it was you prepared :)

Not To Do:

1. Don't try any substitutions or additions during the recipes first run. If you do and it doesn't turn out then you won't know if it was the recipe or something you did or didn't do.
2. Don't assume that all ovens cook the same. Some ovens are hotter than others and some bake unevenly. It's all well and good to use an oven thermometer but if you are getting someones homemade recipe then their oven might be off.
3. Don't go off and leave it assuming it will be okay. If I had left and come back when it said it would be done that cake would have been charcoal. 

• Don't give up if it didn't work. Try it again or find another recipe for it. Cooking can be fun and enjoyable. We learn from our mistakes and sometimes we learn from the mistakes of others.  
  

Daughter's Snowball birthday cake

For my youngest daughters 20th birthday she requested a snowball cake. You know the kind I'm talking about. Hostess is famous for them. It seems she had seen  picture of one on one of the crafting sites she frequents and figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. Well she asked and I made it. My girls know that if there is a way to do it and it is important to them then I will certainly try my best, so the cake was made. It wasn't easy and sometimes it wasn't pretty but I managed to pull it together. She is a fan, at 20 years old!, of My Little Pony. So a trip to Walmart completed the cake.

Items needed for this cake:

1. Cake mix
2. A medium size metal or glass bowl for baking
3. A round 8 inch cake pan
4. Fluffy White frosting- This is made by Betty Crocker and works much better than marshmallow fluff
5. Twinkie type filling- Recipe included in this blog
6. Coconut- I use Bakers angel flake coconut/sweetened
7. Food Color
8. Decorations-These are optional
9. Air Brush-Also optional as coconut can be colored before putting on cake by simply putting it in a ziploc bag with a few drops of pink food color and shaken until all flakes are colored.

Bake the cakes and be forewarned that the cake in a bowl will take forever to bake. You just have to  watch it and test it occasionally to know when it is done. It will take over an hour! After cakes are baked let cool. Once cooled the cake can be assembled. First you must take the bottom layer which is the 8-in round and make a 1/2 inch recess/well in it at about 1 inch from the edge. This recess will then be filled with the twinkie-type filling. Then take the  bowl cake and place on top of that and trim as necessary. At this point you simply frost the cake with Betty Crockers Homestyle Fluffy White frosting. I did find that this frosting worked better and was more like the true snowball cake in taste and texture. After frosting the cake you need to apply the coconut. Now if you colored your coconut in the ziploc bag you just take handfuls of it and press into the cake until the cake is coated. If you are using the airbrush then apply the uncolored coconut the same way and then add your color to the sprayer and have fun! I know I did. Once cake is completed to this point you just need to add the decorations whatever they may be! Or none!

WARNING: This cake should NOT be made the day before and the frosting and gravity do not have a nice relationship :) This cake should be assembled as close to time to eating it as is feasible.

Twinkie type filling recipe:
5 Tablespoons of flour
1 Cup milk
1 Cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup shortening-Please don't let this discourage you from trying it!
1/2 Cup butter
1 Teaspoon vanilla

Mix these together until the consistency looks right. Mix on high speed and be prepared for it to take several minutes to come together. At first you will think you did something wrong but just stick with it and keep mixing. Eventually the curdled looking stuff turns into creamy looking stuff and voila! you're done.

I hope you all have enjoyed this and will be baking this cake yourself. It was a lot of fun and while it was at times a bit frustrating it was also rewarding to complete it. By all accounts, and there were many! It tasted pretty close to the real thing. So go ahead-try it and until I see you again...Eat Sweet!

Kitchen essentials

Welcome back!
Today I would like to talk about some of the things that you will need to begin successfully baking. These items are good to have whether you are baking from scratch or using a mix.

1. Cake pans of various sizes. 8in, 9in.,etc... These can be metal, glass, or the disposable aluminum kind.
2. Pie plates
3. Measuring cups: both for solid and liquids. For those who may not know the difference the liquid measuring cups are usually glass and comes just as one item. The dry measuring cups are usually plastic but can be other materials and are almost always nested coming in various sizes ranging from 1/4 cup to 1cup.
4. Measuring spoons
5. Mixing spoons
6. Mixer: either hand or stand
7. Pastry blender. This is used for 'cuttin-in' shortening for items that need to be flaky such as biscuits and pie dough
8. Cutting board
9. Off-set spatula. This is used for icing cakes. It gives you better control and keeps your arms out of the mess.
10. Recipes! Usually if any special items are required a thorough read of the recipe will let you know. *Remember to always read the recipe through before starting! This will help prevent much frustration and last minute trips to the store.

As you can see it doesn't take much to being baking and most of these items are probably already in your kitchen waiting to be used. There are many other cool items that you may want to include as you delve further and further into the world of baking and some of these items will be included in the next blog. I look forward to your return. Until then...Eat Sweet!

Let's Get to Know Each Other

Welcome Fellow Bakers and Those who are simply curious.
Let me start by telling you just a few things about me:

1. I am a wife
2. I am a mother
3. I am a grandmother
4. I love to bake

Baking is something I love to do. I find it relaxing, although if you heard some of the comments I make while doing it you probably wouldn't think so.
Since my girls were small I always tried to make them personalized cakes for their birthdays. Some of these included a Sonic the Hedgehog cake and a Wizard of Oz cake. You could tell that they were obviously created by a novice but I tried and my girls loved them. Children, especially small ones, are so easy to please.
I enjoyed making their birthday cakes but it wasn't until recently that I really became interested in baking. I'm thinking it might have something to do with having an empty nest and the proliferation of ALL these cooking shows. It also helps that the internet is available for quick reference. For all of us who are not professional bakers the internet is a fountain of information but user beware! Not all of it is useful and sometimes you just need to trust your own judgement.
It doesn't take a lot to get started baking cakes or anything else. Just a few simple tools which are readily available at Walmart, Target, and Michaels. This is by no means a complete list of places to buy bakeware and cake decorating supplies. I have even bought from Amazon.
This blog will talk about my successes and failures with baked goods and there WILL be pictures of both. Hopefully more of the former than latter but that remains to be seen.
The next post will talk about some of the tools to get started (there aren't many) and others that are just cool to have. I look forward to my next post and hope you do as well. Until then...Eat Sweet!