February 27, 2011

A few weeks ago, a friend asked if I could make a spice cake for a birthday.  I had never made a spice cake before, but, always up for challenges, accepted, on the terms that I could make a sample one for her to taste.  Here is what the sample looked like (two weeks ago)...

She (and I!) thought it was a keeper, in terms of taste!  So yesterday I assembled the actual birthday cake.  It was my first triple-layer spice cake with cream cheese frosting.  It looked like this...

She had only asked for a two-layer cake, but I had seen how pretty three layers could be from my friend, Valerie, of Silver Sprinkle Bakehouse.    So when one of the layers wasn't as high as the other, I decided then and there I would go with three.  After that decision had been made, I agonized over the colors.  I love a classic white frosting, but didn't want it to look too wedding-ish.  I chose teal, burgandy, and golden yellow, thinking those were "manly" colors without being primary.  Next step - how to frost...  I like swirls on frosting, but wanted something a little more "formal".   I remembered the technique of running a spatula up the sides to create pillars from i am baker (Cake Decorating Ideas {Valentines Day Edition}) and thought that would be perfect, complimented with large stars.  I loved the balloons from Silver Sprinkle Bakehouse's (www.silversprinklebakehouse.blogspot.com) birthday cake, so incorporated some of my own.  Finally, what to do about the writing...  I wanted it to be a little fancier than the normal cursive, so googled "happy birthday cakes" images, found a font I liked, and copied. :)  Voila!  For all the decisions I had to make (and I'm NOT good with decisions!), I am very pleased with how it all came together.


It would have been great to open a bottle of wine last night and congratulate myself on a cake well done, but such was not my fate.  I had two other orders to fill - one for a sweet girl's basketball team for today and the other for my first shipping order (special shipping - it's for a relative!).


Here is the order for the Basketball team...

It seemed to be the theme of the week, as I had just made these up the other day for my son's indoor soccer team...

I really wish I could show you the other two dozen cookies I worked on last night until 1:30am this morning, but I promised the "client" that I wouldn't post until after he had given them as a gift (just in case someone was reading the blog that wasn't supposed to see them yet).   Darn!   Believe me... they will be posted with wild abandonment after they reach their destination!!  :)


Well, that's all for now - tonight is another long night -- I'm looking at 2:00am, is my guess.   But it's going to be SO worth it!  And I get in "the zone" after 10:00pm anyway, so time will fly and I won't even realize it.  I might need extra Starbucks Columbian coffee tomorrow, though!