ace(s) of cakes

my dear friend lilcee's birthday was last week.  and to celebrate, she wanted to head over to duff's cake mix on melrose to do a little cake decorating.

cake?  you don't have to ask me twice.

the bean and i both rocked some super fun 'dos for the day - for her, french braids done by rock-ell.  and for me, a new obsession called a "sock bun."  yes, there's really a sock in my hair.  i'm quite proud of being able to master it.

so, this joint is owned by duff goldman of "ace of cakes" fame.  it's right next door to the west coast outlet of his charm city cakes bakery, where the show first started.  being a sunday, it was closed - but i peeked in through the windows anyway.

the cake mix shop was super cute.  nice and roomy, with a bright orange theme and some really awesome whisk lamps hanging from the ceiling.

since i still had leftover mini cupcakes at home from the fundraiser, i opted for a cupcake kit instead of a full layer cake to play with.  it included four cupcakes, two colors of frosting, two "goodies," and a little glob of plain white fondant.

we also got to sample the different cake flavors available that day.  here, a piece of lemon poppyseed (which was really yummy) and red velvet.

the bean liked the lazy susans placed on the worktable.

i was far more interested in looking around at all of the cake decorating paraphernalia organized neatly on shelves just behind our table.

i didn't get to see this machine in action, but winnie and lilcee did.  they'd chosen to decorate layer cakes, so their package included enough fondant to cover it completely.  this doohickey created beautifully smooth, even sheets out of the ball that came with the cake kit.

so they started with this:

and with a little effort, had this lovely blank canvas to work with.

meanwhile, the bean was quite enchanted with the protective gear she'd been given.

she got a big ol' kick out of getting to squeeze her frosting out onto her cupcake and smooth it out with an offset spatula, just like mommy does at home.

while i thought this was great fun and a really cool outing for us, i found myself watching everyone else work on their cakes and stalling when it came to decorating my own.  as i contemplated this, i came to the conclusion that my lack of interest stemmed from the fact that i pretty much have all this stuff at home.  like, it wasn't a novelty for me because i can do this whenever i darn well please.  i mentioned this to lilcee and within seconds, we were discussing under our breath how awesome it would be to open our own version of this closer to home.  and in case any of duff's people are reading this, the chances of that actually happening are about as slim as the chances that any of duff's people are actually reading this.  haha, did you get that?

but this didn't keep us from having fun.  not at all.  here, the bean's and mini cee's creations:

oh, and i finally sucked it up and did something with my cupcake.

the bean's didn't even make it out the door.  she grubbed down on that puppy like she hadn't seen a cupcake in years.

and then she decided to make something with the leftover fondant.  for her, it was just a fun handful of edible play-doh.

meanwhile, lilcee and winnie worked happily on their creations.

since we needed something to wash down our snacks, i picked this to share:

and when that kicked in, we encountered this on our way to the potty.

i liked the framed cake recipes that came out of some vintage women's magazines.

of course, it wasn't complete without a group photo.

it was a great way to spend an afternoon with the girls, and while it wasn't cheap, it sure was fun.  but really - next time, we're totally doing this at my house.  i'll bust out all my supplies and it'll be just as fun.

well, minus the orange walls and whisk lamps.

fun with fondant

wow, the response on the first day of the veronabean blog sale was pretty stinking fabulous!  pretty exciting, considering i'm trying to raise cash to spend on the bean's next birthday bash...just over a month away.  with the new house, my goal is to spend as little as possible, but if i can earn some extra dinero in unexpected ways (yay!), then i can splurge a little on some stuff.  there's still some stuff to be had - go go go!  oh, and on that note, i grossly overestimated the size of the small flat rate-box - it's really only big enough for a DVD or something similar.  most items are being shipped in the medium sized flat-rate box.  sorry for the misunderstanding!

btw, i made an executive decision to change the theme from toy story to monsters, inc.  the bean loves that movie so much, and wouldn't it be super cute to dress her up as boo for the party?  not too tough - a simple purple dress with hot pink leggings and pigtails.  not to mention, those potatohead cake pops were such a pain in the ass.  i think i may have tried to bite off more than i could chew with those.  but you know what would be SUPER easy?  making mike wazowski cake pops!  i haven't tried it yet, but come on - the guy's a big green ball with an eye.

i also want to make a regular cake for the party, too.  i've seen all sorts of great-looking cakes done with rolled fondant, and although i hadn't touched the stuff before, how hard could it be?  i mean, it's like play-doh, only better 'cuz you can eat it, right?

so i hit up the awesome cake & candy supply which is now literally just around the corner from home (dangerous) and bought this tub:

i'd been watching the ladies at work when they tackled the task of creating the colorful fondant pieces that top the cupcakes we sell, and decided that i could totally do that.  heh.  so first, i sat the bean in her high chair and set all of her play-doh tools up so she could play along:

then i totally cheated by taking a shortcut and baking a cake from a mix:

next, i took balls of that fondant and started kneading gel coloring into it.

getting that turquoise-y color for sully isn't gonna be easy.  i think i need more yellow, or something.  i'm really bad at mixing colors.

and when the cake was completely cool, i slathered the layers in store-bought frosting and rolled out the fondant.  i was a little apprehensive, as tasks that look too easy to be true usually are.  but it wasn't too bad at all.  next time, though, i'll make sure to smooth out the top of the icing really nicely so there aren't too many lumps and bumps (that's the little measuring ring off of my fondant roller, because the camera couldn't find something to focus on):

not too bad, right?  at least, not for my first time.  i popped my fondant cherry, y'all.  ew.

i repeated the process for the smaller layer and carefully picked it up and set it on top:

definitely not perfect, but it'll be easier next time.  at least, i hope.  and my tiers aren't squatty enough.  i think i'm going to need to buy taller pans, or bake double layers for each tier.  but this was just a test run, so it's all good.

the next step was rolling out pieces of the colored fondant and cutting them into circles.

i'd read about using "fondant adhesive."  at work, i learned that no such thing is needed.  a little water does the trick just fine.  now, keep in mind that cake decorating is definitely NOT my forté.  good lord.  i'm going to have to stick to rows of polka dots in alternating colors and leave it at that.  but okay, here's the finished product:

i tried to disguise the gap between the layers with a little roll of fondant.  did it work?  the bottom layer could probably use one, too, but i was kind of over working with the stuff by then.  ha!