My Aunt's Wedding Party - Part 2

When I woke up the Saturday morning (at the crack of dawn because the kids were running around), I discovered my aunt had left the window open in the kitchen, and the freezing cold night/morning air had dried out the cupcakes a bit (initially I thought they might be frozen). This was a little disappointing, but they weren't too bad. I mixed some cream cheese frosting, covered the cake in it, and then rolled out white fondant to cover the cake with. The fondant amused my cousins to no end; I gave them each a small piece to play with. I think I may have inspired some future bakers. I really need practice when it comes to covering cakes in fondant. There was a pretty large crease in the back of the cake. Given that this was only my 3rd attempt at a fondant-covered cake though, I'd say it wasn't too bad.

After the cake was covered, I set it aside and piped the frosting onto the cupcakes. On each cupcake, I placed one of the flowers I had made the night before. Then, I painted the cake with sparkly white luster dust and "glued" on the flowers and S with royal icing. Overall, the cake did not come out looking too bad. As long as you were looking at it from the right angle (the back was sort of a mess).

One thing I would do over would be to pipe a ring of buttercream around the edge of the cake layers before filling it with the mousse, which was way too soft and got squeezed out of the cake with each additional layer that was put on top. I should have thought to do this in the first place. I also can't wait to take a class to improve my fondant capabilities. I'd love to do more cakes in addition to cupcakes.

A Cake on a Cupcake Blog? Oh Noooo!

Before I was so obsessed with cupcakes, it was cakes. My mom and I took a Wilton class my junior year of high school, and we had to each bake a cake every week for class. That was a lot of cakes, but it didn't stop us from stopping at Friendly's most nights after class for ice cream. I've strayed from cakes to cupcakes in the past couple years because I just love cupcakes. They're so cute and happy and portable. Plus the frosting to cake ratio is so much better. So it's been a while since I've made an actual cake. In the past couple weeks, I've gotten a couple cake orders to go along with cupcakes. I knew I hadn't forgotten how to make a cake, but figured it would be wise to practice before those orders, especially because I had never covered a cake with fondant before.

While home for Easter, I tackled the cake along with all the cupcakes I posted on Sunday night. Like I've said before, I find fondant pretty easy to work with, so I was not anticipating a problem. For the most part, it went well. I made some mistakes that I would definitely fix in my next attempt, but it wasn't too bad. The hardest part is to get the fondant smooth over the cake with no creases. There was just one tiny crease in the cake, and I covered it with the decorations anyway. I have since watched many YouTube videos about fondant covering (yes, they do exist). So while I discovered that I am perfectly capable of making cakes, I really prefer cupcakes still.