Sucesses and Disappointment

Today I met Tirzah at Max and Jessie's house. Since Tirzah and Neil operate on SCA time I had time to get a copy of the cake recipe from Max before they got there. The Recipe is based on the "Le Cake" recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume 2 by Julia Child and Simone Beck (1979 published by Alfred Knopf). Max made some changes to the recipe and as of today he's still playing with it.


Ingredients

3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 teaspoon saffron (1 teaspoon not ground or packed)
2 cups flour
1/2 cup mead
1/2 cup honey

In saucepan heat and reduce mead and honey until mixture totals 1/2 cup. Cool. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and set rack in middle of onion. Prepare cake pan. Cream the butter to a smooth mayo like consistency. Beat eggs, egg yolks, and honey mixture at moderate speed to blend, then increase speed and beat 5 to 6 minutes more until mix is a thick, pale yellow, creamy and the consistency of light whipped cream.


Mix flour and baking powder. Turn flour out onto waxed paper. At slow mixing speed gradually sprinkle the flour into egg mixture, taking 15 to 20 seconds. Do not overmix as this will deflate the eggs. Still at low speed and using one spatula to remove the butter from bowl and another to disloge it from first rapidly incorporate the butter into the egg mixture taking no more than 15 to 20 seconds.


Bake about 1 hour at 350 degrees.


Tirzah showed up and we went with Max to price supplies. Then we split up and Tirzah and I went to ABC. I had hoped to be able to pick up different gold luster dusts to figure out which ones we want to order. Unfortuantly ABC was out of all of the golds except Super Gold and Gold Sparkle. So we had fun picking out dusts to see what we play with. The colors we ended up with: Golden Bronze, Emerald, Sapphire Blue, Royal Blue, Gold Sparkle, Violet, Blue Sparkle and Copper.


When we wre at ABC they were doing a rolled fondant course. That was cool to watch a little of and I would like to take it at some point. I asked about the embosser in Kerry Vincent's book and the teacher said he would email her to ask where to get it! Yay


Then we went to Borders trying to find a book that Tirzah is looking for to research the October Wedding. Unfortuantly we could not remember the name of the book and no matter what we could not find it. No such luck. Then off to Total Wine to see if we could find mead. They said they USED to carry mead but no longer did. So I'm still looking for a good source for that.

look at the pictures I put in my photo album - to lazy to put up the link again. Click on the "my album" and see what I did.

Research again

It's amazing what you come up with surfing the web. I'm still looking for was of putting the cats on the cake. I searched for +Feline +Enamel and got Cat Dentists. I searched for +Feline +Icon +Gold and got Cat Diabetes and Julie Newmar.

Ideas to look up (thanks Neil): Siamese, feline, cat, himalayan, kitten, cat graphics, clip art, cat people, werecat, Anthropomorphic

Practice, practice, practice

I've been invited to a tupperware party next Friday. I'm going to bake a cake figuring that the more practice I get the better. I might even try covering it in fondant. I already have an idea for the design. Mom got some of those design imprinters that Wilton has and I'm going to use them as a base for some flowers. Then Mom is going back to her old office in a couple of weeks so we are going to make some cakes for the office that she's been in. Might as well use the skill now that we have it. ;)

I've put some more pictures from the folk life festival online. Click here then select Folk Life Festival.

I still need to work on looking for pictures of cats. I was lazy last night and went back to Alan's to watch tv. Well, that's not exactly true--I spent over an hour visiting the downstairs cat. Since she won't come upstairs anymore I felt I needed to spend some quality time down there.

Hooray for the Container Store

Today I went to Titan's monthly pizza party. Since I was knew I was going this morning I did not put out the cake for the temps. I decided instead to bring it to the party. Everyone was very impressed and I got the name and email address of someone to send information about the SCA. Yes Alan is right, it doesn't matter where I go sooner or later someone is going to ask.


Since right across the street is the container store I decided to go and see if I could find a box that would work. A very nice clerk helped me figure out which box would work for the mucking huge cake. So now I have a box that with some minor alterations should work. Yay a relief off my mind.

That's all the work I'm going to do on the cake tonight. When I get to Alan's I might try to find some cat art or I might go looking for some more cake porn on the web. There are some pretty amazing websites out there. I will probably just take my Wilton book in to read instead.


Observation: It's amazing how much it tickles me to get on the last updated list on blogger.com. It doesn't mean anything, and probably no one is reading this but me. Just the same it's kind of cool.

Observation 2: I hate getting my nails done and then having them screwed up before half an hour goes by. Even though I spent 6 minutes under the quick dry light I still managed to muck them up getting my seat belt on. Right before I go to Pennsic I'm going to have the Storvik wavy pale put on and I'm actually going to have to sit and wait for the paint to dry all the way before I can leave. That's going to suck since it's not like I can read a book or sew or play on my palm pilot or anything.

Test: Hey Tirzah, if you're reading this do you want to go by ABC SugarArt on Saturday as well? I want to get some Aztec Gold and some Old Gold. It turns out that the gold I used on the cake I can't find anywhere but Frans. Maybe we could ask them to lay out all their containers of gold for us to look at.

One class down, two to go

Mom and I decided that if I was really going to be spending much time decorating cakes it was time for me to take the Wilton 1 class. It also was an opportunity for Mom and I to have a "girl's night out" bonding thing once a week. It actually became a bonding thing two nights a week since I had to spend the night before each class at Mom and Dad's house so I could bring all the cake junk to class. Mom rides the metro to work and then over to Ballston and I pick her up. I can just see her trying to get her frosting, equipment and cake on the Metro!


We finished course one last night and start class two on Monday. You can see the cakes I made for the class here. Some of the things that I need to work on for the Pennsic cake will be covered in class two. Depending on when the third class is going to be taught I might try to take it because it covers things for the October cake. If she starts it while I'm at Pennsic I won't do it though. Betty (the teacher) said that it was okay to miss one of the four classes but I'm not sure that's a good idea and I know that if I'm paying for 4 classes I want to go to them all. As it is Mom will be missing the last class in the 2nd course because she will be out of town. If she was starting the class a week later Mom would miss 2 classes and I would miss one for Pennsic.


From the Wilton website:


Course 1 - Cake Decorating
Stars, shells, roses and floral sprays give you the fundamentals to create so many cakes. Add messages and create fun, figured-piped shapes.


Course II - Flowers And More!
Build on the basics with beautiful blooms like daisies, pansies, violets and daffodils. Use these flowers and techniques like basketweave and color flow, to create a fabulous bouquet cake for a sweetheart, mom, sister or friend.


Course III - Fondant And Tiered Cakes
Ruffled borders, advanced flowers and stringwork expand your decorating horizons. Lessons in rolled fondant and tiered cake assembly culminate in an elegant cake suitable for a wedding, formal shower or fancy party.



Cake box Search: Pfeil & Holing have the cake boards that I want to get. They are 13X18 and 18X26. The reason I like this combination is I can actually have the cake boards be the same length which will add to the presentation. The problem will be finding cake boxes to hold them in. I'm having real problems finding boxes to transport these cakes in. The 13X18 shouldn't be too much of a problem but the 18X26 on the other hand... Part of the problem is I only need one or two of these. One for the actual transport to Pennsic. If I wanted to spend $100 and end up with 50 of them I have a source on the internet. Another thing for the punch list.


Box ideas: shipping boxes, container store, storage boxes

It can’t be all about the pretty all the time

So how big is the August cake going to be anyway? According to the Cakes Across America website, these are the typical dimensions of sheet cakes.

The Half:The Half Sheet cake is approximately 11 X 15 inches in size and are typically one layer, but some bakers may create two smaller layers so they can add a filling. The Half Sheet is a party size cake serving 30 to 40 people.

The Full:The Full Sheet cake is the choice for any grand event - approximately 18 X 24 inches in size and typically one layer. The Full Sheet can serve 70 to 80 people and is a wonderful centerpiece.

I’m planning on making 4 half sheet cakes and then putting two of them together to make the center section. Hrmmm…11X2 is 22. So I will have cake that’s 22X15 and two that are 11X15. As FL pointed out this cake is going to be too heavy to depend on cardboard cake boards and cake boxes so I need to investigate ways of making the cake cartable. I’m not really happy with this solution yet but it seems that cake decorators before me have had this problem and have gone to masonite. HALF SHEET MASONITE BOARD - 13 X 18 $4.25 X2 and FULL SHEET MASONITE BOARD - 18 X 26 $5.50. I’m still not happy with the solution because there will be too much room on the board between the cakes. So I’m thinking that if I use the cardboard boards for the actual cake I can cut them to size. Then put the cardboard on the masonite pieces for transport so when it comes time to display the cake I can slide the cardboard cake boards to the right display positions. Yep, I think that could work.

I’m trying to figure out ways to travel with this cake. It needs to go into my truck on Sunday morning and then drive to Pennsic (about 5 hours). I’ll get to Pennsic on Sunday evening and the wedding is Monday afternoon. I had already told Max and Jessie that once I got to Pennsic the cake would be their problem but I know myself too well to think I will just drop it in their laps. I was thinking if I could work out a way of keeping the cake cool enough we could keep it in my truck until Monday afternoon. So I thought about ways to make this work. The plan was to put the cakes in the back of my S10 pickup truck (with cap) and surround the cake boxes with green tubs filled with ice. Then I was thinking about putting some blankets over the whole shebang to keep the cool air in. Nina, one of my friends with an engineering mind, suggested using dry ice instead of water ice so that I wouldn’t have to worry about the cake getting wet. So it’s time for research.

I looked up Dry Ice and apparently there is only one place that sells it in the area: Air Gas East, 2200 Jefferson Davis Highway, Alexandria, VA, (703)548-5070. I called and they are only open Monday-Friday 8-5. Since I’m leaving on Sunday that means I would have to leave work at 4, go buy the ice and then leave it in my truck. Say I pack up to leave on Sunday at 7 am. That means the dry ice would be in the truck for 40 hours BEFORE the cake went into the truck. To make it to noon on Monday I would need the dry ice to last 68 hours. I described the plan to the guy at Air Gas and he said that it wouldn’t work, I would need about 200 lbs of dry ice and then it would probably be all gone within 24 hours. So back to the drawing board on that topic. I’m tempted to ask Tirzah to take over the planning on keeping the cake the right temperature.

I posted pictures of the cake testing the gold luster dust here Cake pictures

Anyone got any good Cat art?

Hrmmm…in a quandary. We decided that the cake enamels should all be cats. The problem is, since I suck at art, how to get the cats onto the cake. I know how to do it if I have the right pictures but that requires me having artwork. I would prefer line drawings but at this point I would settle for just about anything. I’m afraid that the enamels won’t look right because I just can’t find the right cat pictures. I need 13 pictures and I can’t even find one that looks Byzantine. The closest I have found are some Egyptian pictures and at least one of those is going on the cake if I can work it.

Max and Jessie have 3 cats: Snack, Goblin and Moonifer. I’m sure they have other names but that seems to be what they are called the most. Snack and Moon are black (and I think siblings) and Goblin is grey. The center icon is supposed to be Snack.

More future research terms:Bastet, Cait Sith, Kellas Cat, feline, Byzantine, cat, Byzantine convent of St. Nicholas of the Cats, Lion Triclinium

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Sunday morning I went over to a friend’s house to bake my cake for my Wednesday night cake class, make my frostings and make marzipan. Everything went well until I decided that I really didn’t need to run out to the truck to get a second cake board to flip the half sheet cake I had made because I could do it in my hands. Big mistake as I soon remembered when the cake fell apart in my hands. So now on Tuesday night I need to remake my cake. Grrrrr
After I cleaned up I went over to Max and Jessie’s house. Max was planning on making a cake that I could try out some of my ideas on. Tirzah was making ravioli with Max while Neil was pounding on Tirzah’s helm in the shop. I took over for Max helping Tirzah and ran away for a little bit to show Jessie Cakewalk. I was seriously beginning to doubt my ability to get the book away from her when it was time to leave! Somehow I get the feeling that she’ll be acquiring a copy for herself soon.

Tirzah and I finished making the ravioli (using Max’s spiff pasta machine) and hung out while we waited for the cake to finish cooling. Then it was time to have fun. Since marzipan needs something besides cake to cling to, we decided to make an almond frosting. So I took 3 sticks of butter, half a pound of Almond paste and a splash of almond syrup and mixed it in Max’s Ultra spiff mixer (I want one!). Then we added enough powdered sugar to bring it up to the right consistency. We frosted the cake and then Tirzah rolled out the marzipan to cover the cake. We managed to get it on the cake with only a few rips and then smoothed out the surface with my handy dandy fondant smoothers. There was no vodka or everclear in the house but we found some Brandy so that’s what we used to mix the luster dusts. I had brought Imperial Gold which looked very good when layered over the marzipan. While I started painting the base coat Tirzah started molding gems with the chocolate mold I had brought. The facets did not work with the marzipan which was just as good for me since I had not wanted facets in the first place. (Trivia, faceting of jewels, as we think of it, did not happen until the 16th century.) We put a rope of marzipan around the base of the cake which I had originally intended painting with the super pearl. I had not mentioned that to Tirzah though so she started painting it gold. Oh well, it looked pretty good even so. We then started painting the jewels. I had brought Ruby and Super Green with me to see how they worked. It turns out that the dusts look better with at least 2 if not 3 coats of dust on them. We also discovered that if we painted them on another surface then let them dry it would work better because we would not have to worry about marring the surface of the cake. Of course we figured this out after we had already decorated the cake, but that’s why it was a test cake. The jewels were placed strategically to mask any place that the marzipan had to be patched from putting it on the cake.

Jessie pointed out that the cake was looking unfinished and that the jewels needed bezels. So Tirzah started putting marzipan bezels on and I whipped out my tips and the frosting I had left over from Wednesday night. We decided that a size 3 tip is probably the best, and after some experimenting Tirzah discovered that she could mix the gold dust with the frosting so we could pipe gold straight onto the jewels. We also decided that we want to have a darker gold for the bezels than for the cake.

It turned out the cake, while good, was drier than Max wanted it to be so I think we are going to make a wash of honey and water for the August cake. I also mentioned the fact that they REALLY need to serve liquid with the cake as all the almond paste and sugar we ended up with on the cake made everyone thirsty.

I still want to make some hard candy jewels for the cake so I have to find out when Fran is getting her shipment in of candy molds. Then I need to make a trip out there one day.

I found the book with the triptych that we all loved on it. It was in Enamels of Limoges 1100-1350 which is the catalog for an exhibit that was at the Metropolitan Museum of Arty from 3/5-6/16/96.
Future search terms Metropolitan Museum of Art, Coffret Museo Leone, Vercelli, Cardinal Bicchieri, St. Louis coffret, Bicchieri coffret, chasse of saint viance, Alexis Berg 1954 (restorer) Limoges, enamel
Looks like I need to order some more luster dusts
Sapphire Blue - what good are rubies, emeralds, and pearls without sapphires?
Old Gold - might be good for the bezels or this one
Aztec Gold
Argh!!! I just realized that Country Kitchens doesn’t carry Imperial Gold which is the color we used on the cake this weekend! That means I’m probably going to be switching colors since I cannot afford to buy all of it from Fran’s Cake and Candy at $4.95 per 2 grams.

Busy Weekend

This weekend Alan, Mom and I went to the Folk Life Festival. I would tell everyone to go see it but it ended on Sunday. I wish I could have spent more time there. Unfortunately I could only get there one day. Alan and I got there about 10:30 and started walking around while waiting for Mom to show up. We saw the yurts and the archways that they had put up for atmosphere. They definitely went to “Flats R Us”. I loved the artwork and found myself dreaming of ways to put it on the August cake. Even though I know how I would do it I also know that I don’t have the strength or time to do it well. Therefore I will have to save up the ideas for needlework design I have running around in my head.

We went to the Jewel garden area and watched a cooking demonstration for Scallion Cakes, which basically seemed to be pancakes made with Scallions. The cook, who was from China, took 3 parts flour to one part water and made a paste. She added salt to taste, rolled out the dough then drizzled some oil on it and put some scallions on it. Then she folded and twisted the dough several times to create layers. Then she rolled it out again and fried it on the oven until it was done. We didn’t get to taste any of it, mores the pity, but it smelled good. I’m planning on making it for Alan at some point. She said that she made 3 cakes out of 5 scallions, not a bad deal I figure.

When that was over we went to pick up Mom at the Metro stop, and since she had not yet eaten we decided to get lunch. Mom and I had originally planned on eating at the Smithsonian since she does not like to eat “weird” food but Alan and I decided we could not pass up the smells of Indian food that were wafting from the food tents. So we found the Italian stall for Mom and she had Ravioli and Alan and I had Lamb. I also got some Kheer which I shared with Mom. It was basically a fruit salad in Mango juice mixed with condensed milk. Lunch was excellent if a little too spicy for me. I’m still working on my sense of spicing, but I was able to eat most of it with the yogurt sauce.

Afterward we went back to the Jewel Garden and saw the different artisans. They had a jeweler, someone making the really cool hand embossed metal pieces, a lapis bead maker, a lampworker and someone blowing glass. The next area over was the “Family Oasis” and Mom managed to get a picture of Yo-Yo Ma! They had these big wooden platforms that looked for all the world like giant playpens so Alan sat on one while Mom and I walked around and saw the weaving that was going on. Everyone was pretty much at lunch so the only one I got to see being done was the Persian Rug. That was pretty cool. I found out that the rug they were working on was hand spun with the exception of the warp threads. Americans like their rugs to lie flat so they end up using machine spun threads for that part to prevent lumps. Otherwise the entire thing was hand carded, hand spun and hand dyed. I went back and woke Alan up from his nap and we went to the “Silk Market”. There they had silk painters, sari weavers, a silk spinner (I never really understood what she was doing), a couple of people doing embroidery and a jacquard loom. The loom was set up next to a woman who was painting velvet that had come off a similar loom. It was almost like voided velvet but it was woven that way. Very cool. The last area we visited was the paper area. We were tired at that point so didn’t stay long. Mom went home and we went over to the bazaar area for a while. It was far too crowded and we didn’t see anything that said “take me home.” I have lots of pictures and someday I'll even manage to get them on the web.

Afterwards I took Alan to see Men in Black 2. It was okay, nice and light, but not up to the original. Then we went back to Alan's place and I crashed.