Further baking endeavors

Well, I'm still keeping on track with my goals, including the one about baking a new cake every month.

Every month the women's group has an activity. This month was a collective birthday party for all the women. The theme was so fun, and was based on a sort of play-on words about "Purse-onal" effects the women have had on each other. I was asked to make a cake, so I decided to go all out and make one in keeping with the theme.

The cake I made, and the picture it was sort of modeled off of:

It was an...interesting experience. It was a 2-layer cake. I free-handed the shape, and I wish I hadn't cut the angle so steep. Between the layers was chocolate frosting, chocolate ganache, and mini chocolate chips. I also added an "extra" ribbon on the bottom because the frosting cracked and broke when I transferred it to the cake.

Everything I read said to use fondant, but I really don't like fondant because it just doesn't taste good. So I discovered something similar to fondant, called "rolled buttercream". It's buttercream frosting, but it's made differently so it's more like a dough. The difficulty was that it wasn't as sturdy as fondant is. It took me FOUR TRIES to get the stupid frosting on the cake. After the third try, I was so frustrated that I balled the frosting up and threw it down on the counter. Poor Brett had to talk me down so I would finish it!

But, eventually I did. It turned out pretty well. The frosting was a little...gritty, almost. It wasn't as smooth as I expected it to be. I think if I were to do something like this again, I would just use fondant and flavor it with something. But it was well-liked, and enough people took some home that I didn't have any left! (Which was what I wanted since we're leaving town tomorrow.)

I'm looking forward to my next cake!