The great cake making exercise

The fruits of my week-long labors were finally harvested last night at my friend Katina’s wedding where, after a beautiful and moving ceremony, we rocked out at the Space Gallery in Denver and feasted on my first attempt at a wedding cake—a wobbly, 4-tiered flavor sensation that was 18 months on the drawing board before last night. A few thoughts about the experience: the learning curve was steep. If I ever do this again (it’s too early to say either way, but I’m definitely over licking the beaters for awhile), I will enlist an assistant, will experiment with cake recipes until I find one that is a little sturdier without compromising its moist deliciousness, will buy ready-made fondant instead of making it myself, and will have the air-conditioning in my car fixed. Beyond some of the challenges and the sheer amount of time that this project took (most of which was happy and meditative, and only a few hours of which were stressful and worrisome), it’s bordering on one of the most surreal undertakings of my life: there’s just something so hilariously Dada about cracking 30 eggs into a bowl, or melting 10 cubes of butter in a pan, or manipulating a cake that’s 16 inches in diameter.

Here’s a brief walk-through of how the week unfolded.

First we need some supplies: cake boards to put the tiers on and dowels to support their weight.

 

Oh, just one more acquisition to make: Kitchen Aid Pro! I’ve been wanting a proper mixer forever, especially since I burned out the motor on my hand mixer trying to make 6 batches of cookies at once, and a wedding cake on the horizon seemed to be just the excuse to finally get one. Serendipitously, it arrived on Tuesday, the day I started baking.

In addition to the cakes, the filling needed to be made. Here’s part one of the raspberry filling. In my prototype cake that I made for Katina ages ago the raspberry was more of an ooze than a filling, so this time I stabilized it with some gelatin. Otherwise it’s nothing but raspberries, sugar and a little lemon juice.

The other filling was lemon curd (I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with lemon curd). Here’s the pile (5lbs) of lemons that I reamed to make this curdy dream come true:

And here are the rest of the curd fixins in the pan: lemon juice, sugar, 10 CUBES OF BUTTER, and eventually 30 eggs.

Here’s a 12-in tier cooled, trimmed, and waiting on its cake board for further instructions. I have SO many cake scraps in my freezer from the trimming process—two HUGE freezer bags. Last time I made the luscious Lemon Coconut Cake Top Bread Pudding—what will these bits become?

Here are the ingredients for one 16-in layer—practically bursting out of the bowl.

And here is the 16-in layer about to go in the oven—my hand in front is showing you just how absurdly large it is. I laughed every time I even saw this pan.

Time to whip up some butter cream frosting—for this cake we decided to go with rosewater butter cream.

 

Time to start filling and frosting the cakes. Each layer is split horizontally for a filling—raspberry came first.

In between the two layers is butter cream, then the second layer is split in order to accommodate a smear of lemon curd. This is the 4-in tier, which the couple planned to freeze for their one-year anniversary.

Using my dough scraper to spread the raspberry filling on the 16-in layer.

This one was a huge challenge, and what made me realize that I needed sturdier cake next time if I was going to be making such a large tier. It all turned out fine in the end, but there were some scary moments of oozing, cracking and general auto-destruction of the 16-in tier.

And now to make enough frosting to cover this beast. I think this is five batches of butter cream. Hah! At this stage the frosting is kind of like glue—whatever is falling apart can hopefully be cemented back together by a sturdy butter cream prison.

All done! Get this thing in the fridge asap!

Here are all four tiers, frosted and chilling in the refrigerator. Last step is the fondant, and then the on-site assembly with the final decorations.

We had decided to do gum paste calla lilies decorations on the top of the cake and on the vegan cupcakes that Katina had requested for some of the guests. I watched a few tutorials in preparation for this and I think calla lilies are about the easiest flowers to make out of gum paste. All you need is a heart-shaped cookie cutter, some cones to dry them on, and a little patience. I tinted the gum paste a peach color, then used red Luster Dust in the centers for contrast and to match the red/pink of the bridesmaid dresses.

Chocolate cupcakes with almond custard and chocolate butter cream frosting, all vegan.

  

Here are the frosting decorations—little tiered swirls—calla lilies will follow.

 

All ready to go. Thankfully my friend Liz agreed to transport these in her air conditioned car so I didn’t end up with cupcakes swimming in a pool of butter cream.

 

Here’s the fondant going on the 12-in layer. So I’ve made this marshmallow fondant recipe scores of times with no problems whatsoever, but of course, the only time I would have any trouble would be the one time that I’m doing a cake that actually matters to someone, only on, like, the most important day of her life. (!!) For some mysterious reason, even though I sifted the powdered sugar, I ended up with all these little lumps in the fondant, and then it was all pockmarked and holey when I rolled it out. Whatcha gonna do? You just gotta roll with it. I warned the bride not to look to closely, and that was that. And once they dimmed the lights a little in the gallery you couldn’t see a thing.

And here she is, after a series of minor mishaps (like the gallery being locked when we arrived, the linens not arriving, and the cake stand totally not working at all). You can see that the bottom tier is burbling a little, but it’s standing and doesn’t look totally misshapen, so I was happy. And the bride and groom were thrilled, the guests thought it was delicious…over all a great success.

With the cupcakes nearby.

A few shots from the top.

Final thoughts: After last night, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to make a career of this. Standing around watching the catering crew freak out when the gallery was locked and then their linens didn’t arrive was the stuff reality shows are made of, and so stressful to observe—never mind the fact that I couldn’t set the cake up either until the linens arrived. The baking can be blissful, but delivery and set up was a recipe for multiple ulcers. If anyone needs a favor, I’d be happy to oblige with a cake, but I don’t think I’ll be applying for a business license anytime soon.

Making a Star Wars birthday cake

A friend of mine recently agreed to let me have a go at making a birthday cake for her son who has a food allergies, and who loves Star Wars. So I used my trusty egg/dairy/nut free chocolate cake recipe to get started. If you want to try my allergy-friendly recipe, you can find it on my food blog, Pregnant Lady Cooks.

Here’s the triple layer baby all frosted and ready to go:

 

Next I covered it with blue fondant:

It was Chris’ idea to put tiny Vader helmets on the sides—genius in action. An exacto knife made quick work of these tiny galactic overlords:

Hmm, sort of a Vader-Skeletor effect, but I think everyone will know who it is:

On the black fondant ribbon at the base of the cake I used my trusty letter cutters to write the immortal Star Wars message:

Personalized for the birthday boy:

Then added stars:

And more stars, and light sabers:

 

And then Meredith’s wicked cake topper:

 

And the birthday boy himself, the Force flowing through his veins.

The park is open, b*tches!

Our totally awesome city park, mere blocks from our house and right across the street from the rec center and library, opened last week. We attended the ribbon cutting ceremony and opening festivities in outrageously blustery weather, and are only this week getting a chance to really enjoy the amenities. Come check it out, Erie is becoming so COOL!

In addition to the four beautiful baseball fields (with concessions and everything!), the soccer fields and the picnic shelter and the huge, open expanses of grass, there are two fabulous playgrounds. Sawyer’s favorite is the one with the trains:

Ok, I might have to eat him in this picture.

 

 

Running out that toddler energy with Stella and her vizsla energy.

 

Artisan-helper

Sawyer is helping me get the garden ready by decorating the blocks with some of his priceless doodles.

Proudly displaying his technique.

 

I’m hoping for one hell of a successful garden this year, despite the challenges of living at 5600ft. Keep your fingers crossed.

It’s a..It’s a…It’s a…

Well, there’s no denying this little triangle-shaped genital protrusion.

That’s right, between the Gray boys and the Bates boys we pretty much have a whole little league team.

Here’s his skeletal profile. I don’t think he has a Michael Jackson nose in real life, but that’s kind of how it looks.

 

And one adorable little foot.

 

I wasn’t wrong about this guy being a kung-fu master—he was squirming around so much that the technician had a hard time getting all the requisite measurements. But he’s healthy and everything appears to be in the right place. Hurrah! Now just to think of a name, hmm…

Living the Legend…in Cheyenne.

Happy spring break everyone! And no one knows how to kick off spring break like the Grays! That’s right, what started as a weekend in Santa Fe or near Mount Rushmore turned into a weekend in and around Cheyenne, which then became an afternoon in the ghost town that is downtown Cheyenne. But never fear: we’ve saved loads of money and set ourselves up for an extremely productive week!

So what the heck is there to see and do in Cheyenne? ‘Round about nothing. Apologies to Cheyenne natives. I thought it was a result of the economic recession, but some of you assured me that “Cheyenne has always sucked.” But it’s not a total loss: it’s obviously a summer city, due to the nasty winterly winds that make for frigid temperatures during spring break. What’s more, it’s got loads of beautiful architecture, history, and monuments of the West, all of which would be very enjoyable to visit on a nice day. In short, it wasn’t the Caribbean, but we managed to spend a fun afternoon with our northerly neighbor, Cheyenne, WY.

  

First stop: one of the many artisan boots that are scattered throughout the city. Hand-painted by local artists, they depict scenes from Wyoming’s history and culture.

And right across from this one in the main square is the Wrangler store, for all your western clothing needs.

 

Just opposite these two monuments is a true monument: The Depot. Originally built in the mid-19th century, it was the great hub for all trains moving through the west. It burnt down a few times, and the modern incarnation was built in the late 19th century. Here are a few of the plaques on the walls of the depot.

  

 

And here is a grand horse statue, with the depot in the background.

Another giant boot just outside the entrance. Here’s what’s great: when we went inside we discovered that some kind of wedding show was being held there. “Chris, take off your ring!” We hid all signs of our matrimony (we do live in a modern, permissive world now, but it was probably good that my pregnant belly doesn’t really show through my coat). Yes, yes, we’re totally unprincipled, we got samples of barbeque and wedding cake and talked to caterers and everything. “When’s your wedding?” they asked. “July,” Chris answered vaguely.

The horsey and rider on the Wrangler store front.

  

There were  a lot of alleys that looked like this (like you might get mugged or electrocuted in them):

After a fair amount of wandering downtown, which included, actually, a very fruitful visit to a flea market (whose birthday is coming up??!!), it was time for lunch. Finding a restaurant was tough, but we eventually located “Sanford’s,” a kind of Hard Rock-TGIFriday’s-sports bar-y burger joint. But it was much more than just that. It was the temple, the epicenter, of everything that the health conscious media has been citing as responsible for the American obesity epidemic. Just take a look at the SIZE of this menu! And I feel like the angle of the picture doesn’t even do it justice. It was so big that Chris and I, sitting across from each other at an already very large table, couldn’t both sit straight forward and look at our menus at the same time.

And then there’s the cacophony of decor and TV screens that allow your focus on just about anything but your food, hence a lot of zoned-out, overweight people working their way unknowingly through several courses.

And the size of everything! Seriously, look at this fork! The tines are practically as long as my fingers! And I haven’t said a word yet about the food. Well, I’ll just say that a body would be hard-pressed to find something on the menu that wasn’t deep fried. Even the sandwiches were battered and fried. And the burgers were topped with fried pickles and onion rings. Don’t get me wrong, anyone who’s seen my food blog knows that I believe in indulgence, but it must needs be occasional and in a setting that contextualizes it as such. I have the feeling that people walk out of this restaurant and a few hours later can’t quite remember what they ate.

But we survived the deadly lunch and made it out to see Big Boy, one of only eight mega-sized locomotives on display in the US. Union Pacific had a number of them made in the early part of the 20th century, particularly to cover the rugged terrain between Ogden, UT and Cheyenne.

This here Big Boy, #4004, was retired in 1958, I believe, and now sits in a lovely park on the east side of town.

 

  

It’s hard to tell the scale from the pictures, but here at least you can get an idea: the wheels are about as tall as I am.

After Big Boy we trekked up to the Botanic Gardens, which are supposed to be lovely….but we missed them closing by just a few minutes. Right next door, however, is a completely charming garden and botanical education center for kids that we were able to wander through.

Why walk on the path when you can walk on stepping stones?

  

I’m really in the heart of America now, n’est-ce pas?

This is Chris’ great strength in photography: isolating interesting surfaces and shapes with unexpected contrasts in the background. This is part of a giant spinny-wind thing in the kids garden.

 

And one more train to end the day, the good ‘ole 1242, also now in a park on the West side of town.

  

Thanks for your faithful service, UP hero!

And that, my friends, was Cheyenne.