Saturday, May 16, 2009

This one I like

I did this cake for a wedding (Jodi's wedding). She had a picture of what she wanted and I just replicated it so I can't really take any design credit. However, I think I am getting better at the decorating thing. One thing I have learned from watching a lot of cake challenges on the food network recently is that the really good decorators are never satisfied with mediocrity. If the fondant doesn't look quite right they don't just say "oh well"- they tear it off and start again. I am not naturally a perfectionist so I have to force myself to not just say "oh well." But it pays off because in the end I have no regrets.
I also got better this time with time management. Instead of trying to do things durring the day I just didn't touch it until the kids were in bed (with a few exceptions here and there). That definitely helped me to be a better mom and be less frustrated with the whole process. It did keep me up later at night but I seem to be fine :) That is a good lesson for me to learn.
Another thing I did differently which worked to my benefit is that I altered my fondant recipe to use some corn syrup, lemon juice, salt and vanilla. I also found that making it only the night before is better because it has less chance to dry out. The trick is to make it on the softer side then crisco it and wrap it then the next day knead in excess shortening and then use cornstarch and icing sugar on the table and rolling pin. So these top pics are how she wanted it. I know it would have been better if the roses were real and more to scale but she provided them at the site so what could I do?

I actually liked it with only the flowers on top- so I took a couple pics of it that way too. I think sometimes less is more.