Custom Cake Making

 Things never seem to turn out as I want them to. Maybe it's because I've never made fondant before. Maybe it's because I wasn't careful enough. I wanted to make a a round pokeball cake. Perfectly spherical because I picked up a semi-spherical cake tin at the last flea market. Then I noticed that making a whole sphere is way to much cake, but that didn't change the fact that it needed over an hour to bake, and I was freaking out that it was burning. Then came the fondant: sticky, then too hard, then speckled with chocolate buttercream that  I had spread on the cake. I would love to say I fixed it, It turned out okay, or that no one will notice. All I can hope for is that it will taste good. One part of the cake did work out: The food coloring ( I just acquired black food coloring) which contrasts with the yellow of the cake to look a bit like pikachu. The recipe for the cake is from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook, and it really is an old-fashioned favorite recipe, when my mother tried it she said it tasted just like what her grandmother used to make. (and she never says that when I make something)

Traditional Vanilla Birthday Cake:

• 200g (1cup) butter,softend
• 380g (2 cups) sugar
• 4 eggs
• 210g (1&1/2) cups all-purpose flour
• 210g (1&1/4) cups self-rising flour
• 250ml milk (1cup)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 350F/180C

1. Cream together the butter and sugar, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until incorperated.

2. Add the milk, alternating with the flours. Then add the vanilla extract.

3. Bake for 1 hour and ten minutes (if you are baking it as a whole batch in a semi-sphere) If you bake it in 3 normal 9-inch baking pans, bake for 20-25 minutes.

Chocolate Buttercream:

• 400g powdered sugar
• 200g butter
• 150g chocolate, melted and cooled

Method:

1. Cream together the butter and powdered sugar.

2. Then add the cooled chocolate and mix until combined and no streaks remain.

Fondant:

• 450g powdered sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon glucose
• Food Coloring

Method:

Combine all the ingredients and use an electric mixer to combine until a ball forms.

Roll it out using cornstarch-This is important or else you'll end up with cracks and holes in the fondant like I did!

It looks quite awful as you can probably see from the picture. And it isn't just a cake with imperfections that only the cake maker sees because they made it. The dark chocolate butter cream blotches really show from far away. Not that it  matters too much because people are always glad when you bake something for them. No matter how ugly this turns out I'm sure my friend Olivia would have been glad to get a cake anyway. (No matter how bad you are at baking, people will appreciate it-don't forget) Next time I'll know what to do so it doesn't end up like this. 'Experience is the name people give their mistake'-Oscar Wilde