Thursday, August 30, 2007

Cake Challenges

The wings were harder than I thought... but I persevered.
The cake baking part went well and I had much assistance from the birthday girl herself.





Since this cake is the skirt of the doll, I baked it in two mixing bowls...



Then the wing project began...

Wings Version 1: melting straight sugar in the pot... which took almost an hour of me standing at the stove stirring and waiting...



and resulted in these strange blobs that sort of look like phelgm...


not very winglike. So onto...
Wings Version 2 which was a different recipe using corn syrup and water along with the sugar. Unfortunately I over did it, and it turned this nasty brown...



Note to self- the hardcrack stage is not necessary. It did make beautiful fiberous glossy strands, so Mom and I spent an hour making hair-like bits all over the kitchen. They tasted terrible!!! Really burnt, and where it dripped on the table it took the paint off! I was going to make do with these and left them on the counter overnight only to find CAT HAIR stuck to them this morning!!!!... so mad!... so onto...
Wings Version 3...
This time I used less corn syrup...



However, I ran out of parchment paper and tried to use wax paper which the wings stuck to and wouldn't come off...



I was just about ready to freak out completely at this point. I tried everything to get them off the paper and no luck. I even tried again buttering the wax paper and they still stuck. So the spouse was dispatched to the store for more parchment paper... and it worked!



The wings are a little soft, so I have to reset them every hour or so.



I even made little things that attach to the skirt to tie in the wing design. If I did this again, I would use less corn syrup... just barely enough to make the long ribbons.
Miss E is thrilled to pieces... so it's a success.... and I'm exhausted.

1 comment:

3anklebiters said...

what an attractive cake! thanks for the tips on the wings as there are two little girls here who want one now that they've seen it. :) tell Miss E Happy Birthday and tell your parents hello from me.