Cake Order: Track & Field Birthday Cake

A co-worker asked me to make a cake for her daughter who was turning 15 on the 3rd. After I finished my brother's cake I began the work on this one.

She asked for a chocolate cake with a track on it. Knowing that it was only her family that would be with her, I did an 8 inch cake. Her daughter goes to U-32 so I incorporated their school colors blue and white into the decorations.

I hadn't heard about Spackle for a cake, but apparently all you need to do is mix extra cake with buttercream and it'll work just like Spackle. It fills in any gaps that result from putting two layers together. Once it's set, regular butter cream can be put over it to give a white finish.

I tried a different technique to write on the banner but next time I'll go with the melted chocolate in a bag. The girl thought the cake was really cool. It's hearing that type of feedback that keeps me going!

Mustang Cake

I was quite busy last weekend with two cake orders. One for myself, and the other for a co-worker.

My brother turned 21 on Monday. Happy Birthday to Mike! I've known for months what type of cake I was going to make for him. He's worked on 3 Mustangs over the last few years and I knew that his current one would make an awesome cake. It was my first attempt at making a 3D cake and it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared it would be.

His "real" mustang - not the cake version

I decided to use a new yellow cake recipe. Lesson 1: If the cake smells ready, it probably is. No matter how far you are into cooking, it's always good to take a peek at the inside of that oven. I slightly burned the top but was able to scrape most of it off. Sadly, because of the hint of burnt-ness, I wasn't able to fully judge the recipe. 

I let the cakes sit overnight before I started to shape and frost them. Thanks to Facebook and Google I was able to get a general idea of the Mustang's shape. 

Next step was fondant. Lesson #2: lather your hands up extremely well with Crisco before dyeing fondant. Hands without Crisco look like hands that just murdered someone. Luckily I didn't have any hands to shake for a few days.

The details came next. So did lesson #3: Always wash your hands before handling a different colored fondant. Never go directly to white after handling red. Also - make sure to center your cake and anything on it. 

The car came together quickly. My last step was the wheels. They were made out of rice crispy treats covered in black fondant.

Mike enjoyed the cake. After having a delicious dinner at Texas Roadhouse we enjoyed the cake in their parking lot. It's always great to spend time with family.

Goodbyes Over Frog Legs

One of my really great friends is going off to law school tomorrow. Tom and I got the chance to see him one last time on Friday. We went putt-putting at Essex Mini Golf and I lost. My score was almost double the winning score. What can I say?

After our grueling game, we headed across the way to Tiny Thai in the Essex Outlets. Their appetizer special was 3 fried frog legs. For some reason I was very excited to try them! When I was younger my mom would surprise my dad by bringing frog legs home for dinner. She worked in the Seafood department at Hannaford and every once in a while would order frog legs for my dad. He'd hang out of his mouth and we'd laugh at him, but we were too grossed out to try them ourselves.

I have to say, they weren't bad. They had their own distinct flavor. The sauce served with the dish was absolutely delicious, especially when combined with the crispiness of the batter. Once the legs were gone, it doubled as a salad dressing! Our waitress, who was around 17, basically told us that she thought we were crazy for trying the legs. She had never tried them, and had no plans to do so.

The rest of the meal was amazing as usual. I ordered the Pong Garee, which was chicken stir-friend with yellow Indian curry powder, egg, onion, mushroom, bell peppers, and scallion. There were too many peppers for my liking, only because I'm not a huge fan of peppers to begin with. I thought that the chicken was cooked very well, and it went amazing with the curry, egg, and rice. I've eaten at Tiny Thai three times and have ordered this dish twice. It easily surpasses anything that I've had at Montpelier's Thai restaurant, The Royal Orchid.