New cake pans - purchased. Trip to Hobby Lobby and Michael's for supplies - done. Creative juices - flowing. Contact sugar high - pending...
I have done "simple" two tier cakes with pretty good outcomes; however, I have never tried a three tier. The thought of the Cake Disaster website are dancig in my head. Three tiers requires cake boards, dowels, lots of buttercream frosting and lots and lots of paitence and time behind the Kitchenaid mixer.
So the fun began Friday night with the baking of the middle tier (who wants to start at the top?? and I certainly NEVER start at the bottom!) which is slated (for this project) to be cherry chip with strawberry filling. Baked, filled and frosted all before bedtime Friday night and tucked away and covered in the frige for safe keeping. It may be a little while before I see this 9" yellow beauty again.
Saturday comes and after a trip to the gym, a few hours at the office, a quick bike ride, and some laundry I could no longer ignore the call of the kitchen and the powdered sugar. First up on the schedule is the top tier. A round two layer, 6" devil's food cake with black cherry filling. YUMMY!! Baked, cooled, filled, and frosted with a moderate amount of success and no disasters! So far so good.
Next up is the monster 12" round, two layer butter pecan with carmel filling. For those of you who are familiar with the typical 8" kitchen cake, let me just say it takes about 7 1/2 cups of batter to create a 12" cake; 15 cups of batter for a two layer. That's a WHOLE LOTTA batter. Thank God for the Kenny the Kitchenaid! I am in love with him (yeah, my mixer is a guy - please, like you are surprised!) Alright - all the batter mixed and poured into the prepared pans and into the oven we go. Of course that would be one cake at a time at a baking time of approximately 48 minutes each. Two hours later I have two mostly intact round feet of cake cooling on my counter and it is somewhere around midnight. Note to self, an earlier start might be in line for the actual wedding date... just sayin'. Thankful for a little tequila, salt, lime, and Kenny Chesney to keep me motivated.
Sunday morning comes and time for the gym and another four hour stint at the office (uh, yeah I do work for the government - don't believe all that Monday - Friday 9 - 5 stuff you hear about all of us!). Time to get this project rolling! Flipping 12" of cake around takes some forethought and some strategic planning, but it can be done; although it does help to keep your eyes open an not squinched up in fear. Whew, filled, frosted and no calls to the Cake Disaster police yet.
Time to assemble. Cut dowels, put in place, stack, repeat. That was easier than I anticipated - but I DO have an awesome set of tools! Cake stacked, flowers put in place, pictures taken, sigh of relief...
While far from "perfect" it wasn't bad for a practice run. Touch up needed here and there and time management skills need a little work, but overall, I have to say that I am at least pleased I didn't show up on the front page of the Cake Disaster website.
Now the only problem I have is what the heck do I do with a 3-tier cake for 100 people when I am the only one living in my house??
