All Sorts of Cakery

Somehow in the last few weeks I have been commissioned to bake. No not the baking that gives you the munchies, cake baking of course! I love baking cakes. In fact, I needed to find a way to use some fresh vanilla beans I had bought from Arizona Vanilla Company and vanilla bean cake was the obvious answer. But when I was asked to make a cake for a coworker that resembled a woman's torso...well I hesitated. I mean sure, I can make round and square cakes all day long. I can create a mean cupcake too! But a cake with boobs? That seemed way to far out of my reach and borderline offensive. But the cooking daredevil inside forced me to accept the challenge. So I pretended I had just entered Kitchen Arena and my secret ingredient was "FONDANT". Errr....wait I have never made, worked with, or even eaten fondant! Sheesh, to me fondant is a bad word, give me some buttercream! But I wanted this as life like as possible and my reputation as the workplace foodie was on the line. So I decided that I was going to go with it but I was going to make my own marshmallow fondant, no offense to Wilton. After two days of swearing, crying and a lot of hysterical laughing I finished my cake. And to my surprise Bertha (I had to give her a name) was beautiful. The awesome part is that another coworker asked me to do a cake for her the following week. And of course I chose a design that was far beyond my abilities. This time my creating was foiled by running out of eggs while making my six inch top cake. I tried to alter my recipe but what came out was a delicious but crumbly cake. I had to redo my cake....sadness. Some of the things I learned as I ventured into the world of cake baking is that you must use dowels for a stacked cake, that fondant is ridiculous and I hate it sometimes, and lastly drinking the vodka that you paint fondant flames with is always a good idea.

Vanilla Bean Cake

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher sea salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cups vanilla sugar
2 vanilla bean split, seeds scraped
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, baking powder and sea salt together and set aside. Mix together butter and sugar until well combined. Add vanilla bean seeds and blend well. Add eggs one at a time, continuing to mix until ingredients are combined. In a separate mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Add in three batches to butter mixture, gently stirring. Add milk and mix until all ingredients are combined. Be careful not to over mix; it will cause the cake to become tough. Butter your pan and dust with flour. Pour batter into pans and bake 45 to 55 minutes. Allow to cool in pan before removing and slicing or frosting. Frost and Enjoy!!

Meet Bertha

Bertha is sorta creepy

Harley Cake

Listening To:

Kings of Leon-Molly Chambers
Kings of Leon-Taper Jean Girl
Kings of Leon-Need Somebody
Chromeo-Needy Girl

Note-I had to listen to KOL!! Going to thier concert in Cincinnati on Saturday!