Cake Challenges Part II

The saga continued after my last post. I continued to "adjust" the wings throughout the afternoon, pulling them back into place every hour or so. 15 minutes before the guests arrived, I was giving them a final adjustment and pulled off the ENTIRE WING!! There laying in my hand was what appeared to be a very sticky, crumpled bug wing... not pretty and definitely not salavagable. So onto....

Wings Version 4- I thought I could whip up another batch of the syrup quickly with no problem, but would also reduce the amount of liquid so it wouldn't take so long. I also turned up the heat to speed things up a bit. When you are running out of time and need things to work... DO NOT DEVIATE FROM THE RECIPE. I created a bubbling mass of crystallized sugar that burbled and oozed as if it was alive. And then it prompty fused itself to the pot and took the spoon with it. It was unusable. By this time all the guests had arrived, I was running out of sugar and patience. So onto....

Wings Version 5-
I got out my heavy Calphalon pot and followed the recipe using the correct proportions which used up all my sugar leaving me with no back up. By this time all the guests new I was making wings, so I had to produce something. Everything went well and the result was better than any previous attempt. The heavy pot was key as it prevented the sugar from caramelizing resulting in nearly clear wings. Since things were going to well, I made them extra big...



So what have we learned from this extensive experience...
1. Follow the recipe, NO EXCEPTIONS
2. Use a heavy pot
3. Use a candy thermometer
4. If you have to touch it and adjust it, you are doing it wrong

I am going to spend the rest of the day recovering and trying to remove the sugar from my floor and table.

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.

Are those crickets chirping?

Yes... this blog has been waaaay too quiet. I have tons of flea market scores to photograph and post and a knitting project that is finished. Time seems to get filled with other things. This week is Miss E's 5th birthday so Nana and Papa are here for a few days visiting. It's a VERY exciting time for her.
Now I have to figure out how to make a fairy princess cake with a barbie doll stuck in it with fairy wings. Has anybody done any work with melted sugar? I'm going to need to do some research.

Mister Judy

My sister and I have a childrens' wear business called Mister Judy. We have been burning the midnight oil getting our website built and running. We have turned it on as of this morning: Mister Judy. We are so pleased with the results. We designed and built everything ourselves.

More work in the basement

After a four week break, we are back trying to finish up the studio. We have installed various shelving that is still in the process of being filled. Today we are finishing the trim and trim painting. Our stairwell finally has all its coats of paint with lots (and I mean lots) of touching up.



You can see the spouse's collection of paint-by-numbers at the landing. So good to have one area finished.