For the second year in a row, I was asked to make a donation into a silent auction that was being held within my company to support the United Way. Seeing as I love to bake, and typically look for excuses to bake, I complied. The first year I donated, the woman who won the auction said that she had 4 year old twins who were having a bowling themed party, so I made a layered cake with an awesome picture of a bowling ball crashing into 4 pins. I was pretty proud of myself.
2010 was my second year donating a cake. The woman who won originally was looking for a cake in December (about a week before Christmas), but then changed her mind. She mentioned that April would be good because her son's birthday is in April. So last week, she reminded me that it was April was here, and she was ready for the cake.
I feel like the process of making this cake has been ridiculous. Her original email said that he liked fishing, hockey, biking and video games and they wanted a Marble cake; Did I have any suggestions? So my original thought would be I could decorate the top to look like a Hockey Rink, and what ever his favorite team was, I could do a jersey, etc. I would put a fudge filling and then decorate. Awesome, right? So she agreed at first, except that she wanted strawberry filling instead of fudge, but she kept giving me mixed signals as to what team, and colors, etc. So she mentioned that he was having a pool party, so it would be nice if I did the cake in a pool theme, instead. I googled a picture, and found something that I thought would work perfectly.
Last night, I went to the market, bought everything I needed. I did the strawberry filling first, because I knew it was going to take a while to get it back to room temperature (or colder) since it needed to be boiled. I did the filling, then I baked the cakes. While the cakes were in the oven, I started on the frosting. All I can say, is DISASTER. The filling was too thin, and leaked all over the place. At 10pm, I had to re-bake the cakes!!! I put the filling back on the stove and added a ton more corn starch, got it nice and thick and then put it in the freezer/fridge to cool. Needless to say, round 2 was much more successful. The only problem was: I had now run out of Criso, which I needed to make more buttercream frosting!!! It was midnight at this point, so I used what frosting I had to put a crumb coat on the cake, covered it, and put it in the fridge.
When I got into work this morning, I already had an email from the woman who won the cake. She said that her son was sick, so she wasn't in today; Could I leave the cake on her desk and she would pick it up at some point during the day. I emailed her back, and said that I didn't have a chance to finish decorating (really to start decorating), so I was wondering if I could deliver it. Her response was, "Can you just throw it in the freezer." My reaction: ARE YOU SERIOUS????? I guess that since her son is sick, she's canceling the party and will be rescheduling it in a few weeks. So now I have to freeze the cake....A few days before she wants it, I'll defrost it, and then decorate it. What a disaster!!!
Here are a few pictures of the process steps: ENJOY!! :o) After I finally decorate it, I'll post the finished product!
The baked cakes, leveled out
The filling - YUMMY! This is a "before picture" .... I hadn't thickened it yet.
Buttercream Frosting. DELICIOUS!
The disaster cake. The filling just oozed out of all the sides. It was delicious, though!
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