The Cake-tastrophe Part 2: What Went Wrong?

One of the hazards of being a mostly self-taught cake artist: the "errors" in the "trial and error" process.

This one was a doozy.

Rapunzel's Tower cake in the morning

I introduced you to this project in my last post, The Cake-tastrophe Part 1: "Just Like on Those Cake Shows", but here's the set-up in a nutshell.

What my boss said: "Hey Gitu, can you make a Tangled cake Charlotte's birthday? Nothing crazy, just for 4 people. Any time this weekend, or even next weekend. It would make for a nice surprise. Feel free to say no if you can't take it on."

What I heard: "Hey Gitu, don't you want to try making a Tangled cake with a 3D RKT tower, covered with marbled rocks? Oh and maybe you can hand-sculpt a Rapunzel and give her lots of delicate blond hair that will be impossibly hard to handle. By this Sunday please."

What could go wrong? Where do I begin.

Rapunzel's Tower cake when I left it the night before

Let's start with the obvious flaws:

1. Engineering: An 8 inch round cake that's 5-ish inches tall will not support a 15-inch RKT tower covered in layers of heavy fondant. Even with double dowels. 
2. Deliciousness vs. Design: Said cake will be even less able to support said tower if it is torted thinly and filled with ganache. This was five layers of chocolate WASC cake. Would I have fared better if I had used two thick layers of pound cake and crusting butterceam instead?
3. Aesthetic vs. Assembly: Ideally, this project would have been finished in two separate pieces, and the tower would be placed on the cake right before presentation. But I wanted Rapunzel's hair to fall all the way from the tower and down the cake and the only way to do that was to apply the hair after  the cake and tower were attached. Wrong decision.
4. Equipment and Storage: The cake was too tall to fit in my refrigerator. It was pretty hare-brained of me to think that I could leave it out on the counter overnight and expect it to maintain its structural integrity. Remember, we're talking about thinly torted WASC cake and ganache here. Unrefrigerated. When I close my eyes I can see the layers settling, and softening, and sliding about in slow motion, as I slept. 
5. This is where you come in. What's your experience with 3D cakes that challenge gravity? Do you have any horror stories of your own and what can I learn from them? Please share.

In the meantime, here's a look at the 15 hours of labor that went into this cake, before going down the drain.

Home-made fondant to cover the cake board. This batch was so difficult to work with, but I persevered. It ended up in the garbage.

5 layers of chocolate WASC cake, filled and frosted with a rich dark chocolate ganache. I'd say this was the most delicious cake I had made up to this point.

I know because I ate most of it with my hands, while sobbing, before throwing the rest out.

In the garbage.

(JK about the sobbing, but wasn't it fun to picture it?)

First time using RKT to create a 3D cake. I used a PVC pipe to shape the bottom part (wrapped in plastic for protection) and sculpted the top by hand.

Only for it to be dumped in the garbage.

Fondant colored and marbled by hand to resemble rocks and applied piece by individual piece to the tower.

Before ending up in the garbage.

Rapunzel face and torso, sculpted by hand.
Check out that cleavage.

It's now in the garbage.

Wood embellishment painstakingly painted and etched onto top of tower.

And then later thrown in the garbage.

Purple fondant shingles cut by hand and applied individually to the roof of the tower.

Not the best job, but certainly not bad enough to throw in the garbage?

Blond hair made of yellow fondant and disco dust, delicately extruded into skeins of fragile filaments.

And then dumped, along with everything else, in the garbage.

Not seen here: me using a pair of tweezers to make sure every last intricate strand fell perfectly in place down Rapunzel's tower.

Buttercream grass, fondant bushes and flowers, candy rocks and even a stream made of blue piping gel.

Now that I think about it, the stream was probably also part of the reason that this cake ended up...

in the garbage.

The Cake-tastrophe Part 1: "Just Like on Those Cake Shows."

Remember that one time you spent 15 hours carefully crafting a Rapunzel's Tower cake the likes of which you had never made before?

And then remember when it was time to deliver it and you found it collapsed in a pile of cake rubble beyond repair?

I do.

I had woken up early that Sunday morning in July when I made the discovery. My heart fell to the floor and I stood frozen for what felt like an hour. When I finally was able to move, I thought maybe I'd get back in bed and close my eyes, and when I got up again I would have imagined it all.

No such luck.

Always one to look on the bright side, I thought, "at least this will make for a good story one day," and got out my camera to document the disaster for posterity. In fact, it was this project that firmly planted the seed of this blog.  But it did take me four months to write this post without still getting a lump in my throat.

One thing someone said to try and comfort me was "It's just like on those cake shows! Even the pros have disasters, no?"

Well, I work in television, so I'm on to those producers who use suspenseful music and careful edits to create the illusion of dramatically precarious situations and the potential for a cake-tastrophe. But everything always works out in the end, doesn't it? A broken piece gets remade. An all-nighter salvages a project on the brink. And the client is always none the wiser. It makes for good TV.

This cake, there was no salvaging.

To mitigate the horror, I should be up front in saying that I knew full well the risk I was taking with this project. I  knew nothing about engineering a design like this, but wanted to try it anyway. There was no big event riding on this cake (I wouldn't have experimented had there been one.) The 4-year-old birthday girl who this cake was meant for knew nothing about it. Her aunt (who is also my boss), had simply commissioned a "Tangled" cake as a surprise, and insisted that I not be put out by her request. I, meanwhile, insisted that I was thrilled to oblige, that it was my pleasure. I'd never been more excited about a cake project in my life.

Yes, she had glitter in her hair (and two arms, despite what's depicted in the picture.)

What I'm most thankful for though, was that my boss had a good sense of humor about it when I called her to let her know Rapunzel's tower wasn't going to happen. Despite her protests, I assured her I had a backup plan, as any good TV news producer does.

I had 2 extra 6-inch round cakes squirreled away in the freezer, plus enough leftover ganache and colored fondant to cover them. I set about formulating my plan B (no tower involved this time, of course.) The wheels were in motion.

Four hours later:

Not bad, if I do say so myself.

But more importantly, look at this:

I guess this episode did have a happy ending after all, just like on those cake shows.

Candy Mold Cupcake Toppers

When is a cupcake not just a cupcake? When it's got a candy bonus on top!


I recently got pictures from my homeboy AJ's 3rd birthday party last month. I made the cupcake centerpiece for the celebration, and it looks like AJ's enjoying the topper more than he is the chocolate bavarian cream-filled cupcake. KIDS.

AJ is my favorite neighbor - he's the only one in the building who I can 

count on to give me zerbtts (click here if you don't know what a zerbtt is.)

AJ's got a candy baseball in his hand, but there were also football, soccerball and basketball cupcakes. 

Recognize the sports cake pops in the background? Those were
the cake pops I featured in my post about cake pop disasters.

The cupcake toppers were a breeze to make, with the help of a $1.99 cookie candy mold from Michael's. The regular candy molds are smaller, but the cookie sized ones were perfect for cupcake toppers. I made these a few days before I even started on the cupcakes and they stored perfectly in a tupperware in the fridge.

There was some intricate detail work involved - such as piping the stitches on the baseballs and the football, and filling in the black hexagons on the soccerballs. 

You can nuke your candy melts right in the piping bag or freezer bag for the detail work. 

When it's time to fill the rest of the mold with melted candy, you may find it easier to just use a bowl and a small spoon to spread it out. Just be sure to tap the mold on the table a few times to release any bubbles so you get a smooth finish. (You may recall I used candy molds to make the seashells for my Nemo cake project. That time, I just smushed the candy into the molds sloppily, resulting in holey, raggedy shells.)

Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes and they'll pop right out like ice cubes. Repeat. 

You may see some unsightly uneven edges like the one around the basketball above. You can use an X-acto knife to trim them right off. 

Unlike the others, the basketballs needed to be embellished after making the ball. 

If you have extra melted candy, it doesn't hurt to make more, to keep for a future project or serve as an impromptu treat for the kids. Once you have enough, they're ready to place on top of your cupcakes, like so.

Try standing the candy cupcake toppers up on their edges, instead of flat, for more dimension. It also hides any rough edges.

Game Changer - Filling Piping Bags

You will never fill a piping bag the same way again after reading this post.

I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I actually came across it on a blog some months back (can't remember which one, or else I'd link back to it.) I finally put it to the test this past weekend, and I'm not looking back. All you need, besides your prepared piping bag and frosting, is plastic wrap (aka cling film, Saran Wrap, or in my case, "Kirkland Stretch-tite".)

Start by laying down a length of plastic wrap. Plop down some of that frosting on it, closer to one edge (i.e. not right in the middle.) 

If you need a lot of frosting, this technique will allow you to fill the bag with more than you would ordinarily. As you will soon see, the excess will not squirt out the top. More frosting in the bag = fewer stops to refill.

Step 2: Wrap the frosting in your plastic wrap, into a roll that will fit comfortably inside your piping bag.

Next, twist the end of the plastic wrap that's longer, nice and tight, like so:

Now simply feed your roll of frosting into your piping bag with the open end going in first. You see where I'm going with this.

Squeeze the back end of your frosting roll so the frosting breaks out into the piping bag.

Now you can start piping as usual, without having to wash your  greasy hands from filling your bag the old way! Also, as I mentioned earlier, there's less risk of frosting squishing out the top of the bag because you twisted the plastic roll shut. Good, right?

But wait! There's more!

Check out how easy it is to clean up when you're done:

Just pull out your plastic roll and discard. And if that wasn't enough, my piping bag was in much better shape to reuse, which means less waste, which means happy Gitu.

I bet this technique would make "striping" a breeze (I may have just made that term up, but I'm referring to the technique where you fill your bag with 2 colors of frosting.) Ooh I might try doing 3 or 4 now that I have this handy trick up my sleeve.

Oh, final step: Get a manicure already.

6 Tips for Better Cake Pops (That I Learned the Hard Way)

Is it just me, or are cake pops a heck of a lot harder to make than they appear? I'd say I'm pretty confident and dexterous when it comes to crafting confections (see title of my blog) yet making cake pops have proved to be... well, a giant pain in the tush. 

One of many cake pop fails

From getting the cake balls to taste good, to getting the candy coating smooth, to getting the darn things to stay on their sticks - there seem to be so many things that can go wrong with these otherwise adorable treats...

Unless, you have a little insider information from someone who's made all the mistakes multiple times, so you don't have to.

Cake Pop Success!

Here are 7 common problems I've encountered when making cake pops, and how I eventually overcame them:


Problem #1: My cake pops are disgustingly sweet and mushy.
Solution: Don't feel like you have to use frosting.


There are recipes out there call for up to one whole can of frosting per box of cake mix.

One whole can.

When I first tried making cake pops, I didn't even use half a can of frosting and still found them too dense and unpalatable. Eventually I found that if I started with a good, moist cake, I didn't need frosting at all, to form them into balls. If your cake isn't moist enough, add frosting one tablespoon at a time and stop when it starts to come together. Your tastebuds will thank you.

Untested tip: one of my friends uses coconut oil to moisten her cake, which could be a better option than frosting if you're looking to control sweetness. My question is, will that add some coconut oil flavor? Because I'm not sure how I feel about that.


Problem #2: My cake balls keep falling off their sticks.
Solution: Make smaller cake balls.

When you start rolling your cake crumbs into balls, you'll be tempted to make them the size you want your final cake pop to be. But remember, your candy coat will add to the size and, more importantly, the weight, of your cake ball. Try making your cake balls a little smaller (2" max) and see if that helps.


Problem #3: My cake balls are misshapen and not uniform. 
Solution: Try using a meatballer.


This is a good investment if you plan on making a lot of cake pops. I've been hard pressed to find a meatballer at a "bricks and mortar" kitchen supply store, but you should have no problem finding one on the good ol' interwebs. I made the mistake of ordering a 2.5" meatballer off Amazon - it was too big (see problem #2.) Finally, I stumbled upon my trusty 2" meatballer when I wasn't even looking, at Eataly in NYC. 

Perfect.

Besides keeping your cake balls the same size, using a meatballer can also make sure they're nice and compact, and therefore keep them from falling apart (yes, again, even without frosting.) Use your hands to stuff as much cake as you can between the domes of your meatballer, and use your hands again to squeeze the domes together. Open, release the cake ball, rotate, and squeeze again, peeling off the excess cake that squishes out the middle.

If you need another reason to buy a meatballer, they make quick work of making cake balls. I made cake pops this past weekend and I banged out these 13 cake balls in 2 minutes flat. 

Once you've formed your cake balls, you'll still want to give them a final roll with your hands to smooth out any lumps which might show through your candy coat (not pretty.) Compare the cake balls above (before hand rolling) to the ones below (after hand rolling.)

Problem #4: My candy coating is not easy to work with (not smooth, too thin, too lumpy)
Solution 1: Don't overheat / overmelt your candy

Most recipes will tell you to nuke your candy melts in 30 second increments until they've melted. What they don't all tell you is that you should actually stop while there are still a lot of solid chunks remaining, and then work out the lumps with the help of any residual heat and a lot of elbow grease.

- I've found that the more I heat my candy, the more prone it is to seizing. UPDATE: The Cakeb0t blog confirms that overheating is an issue. Binky of Cakeb0t says she uses a candy thermometer to monitor the melting process and makes sure the candy doesn't heat up over 100°F.

- I've also found that dipping cake balls in candy that's too hot, makes them more likely to disintegrate.

- You can add a little (a little!) vegetable oil or shortening (or some paramount crystals if you are willing and able to get them) to the candy before melting, if needed, to make it more fluid. UPDATE: Cakeb0t shares her tried and tested proportions of candy to shortening in a recent e-mail newsletter:

"I've found that a tablespoon of shortening to 6 or 7 ounces added to melted candy melts makes for a nice dipping consistency."

- If your candy is too runny, your coating will be too thin and your cake, lumps and all, will show though. My cake pops come out better when my melted candy is a little on the  thicker side.

- Make the effort to mix properly (who couldn't use the extra upper body workout?) Small lumps in your melted candy will result in small lumps on your cake pop. Big lumps in your melted candy could mess up the smooth finish when the lumps slide off your cake pop as it dries.

Top right: Too thin.
Bottom right: Too lumpy

Solution 2: Try a different brand of candy
All candy melts are not created equal. I generally use Wilton brand and have had the best results with their brown and white varieties. I've had the most trouble with their orange and blue versions. I also had a hard time with Make N' Mold's blue candy melts, although I only tried it once, and may have overmelted them. Wilton and Make N' Mold are among the more affordable brands. I'd be surprised if more professional-grade brands aren't easier to use. 

Solution 3: Keep away from water! 
You should know by now that candy melts and water DO NOT MIX. But if you didn't know that, take note: candy melts and water DO NOT MIX.  

Use completely dry containers, spoons, hands, etc. when melting candy, and don't even think of adding food color that's water-based. Melted chocolate / candy that comes into contact with water will "seize" and you'll have to throw it out (and you know how I feel about waste.)

The pictures below show what melted chocolate / candy looks like when it has seized. It will form a lump as you're stirring it and slide right off your spoon.

Blech.

Problem #5: My cake pops keep cracking / splitting
Solution: Let the cake balls come back to room temperature a little before dipping

Most, if not all, cake pop recipes will call on you to refrigerate your cake balls after inserting your sticks, dipped in a small amount of candy. This is so the candy will harden and the sticks will take hold. This should only take a few minutes. But if you have to leave your pops in the fridge for a while and come back to them later, as I often do, let them come back to room temperature-ish before you dip them in your melted candy.

Just chillin'

When troubleshooting my own cracking issues, it dawned on me that it could all be a simple matter of physics -- matter shrinks when it's cooled, and expands when it's heated. I figured my cold cake balls were simply expanding as they warmed back up, and then, appropriately, busting out of their candy shells. Waiting until the cake balls were back at room temperature before dipping solved that for me.

Crack is Whack

Problem #6: Decorating cake pops can be, for lack of a better word, a b*$%h. 
Solution: Use parchment triangles, not pastry bags, for piping designs.

If you know me, you know I like to take short cuts whenever possible. But trust me, melting your candy right in a plastic decorating bag is not worth the time you think you'll save. The candy will be likely to melt unevenly, and be difficult to pipe smoothly, and you will have to start all over.

Unless you're going the "drizzle and swirl" route and don't care if it's messy, take the extra trouble to melt your candy separately, and spoon just a little bit into a small parchment triangle. Again, gently heating your candy in a bowl and mixing vigorously as it melts the rest of the way, will ensure it's smooth. Using a small parchment triangle will mean more control when drawing. 


Take a look at the sports cake pops I made and painstakingly decorated this weekend, for my 3-year-old neighbor and birthday boy, A.J. I did not use a parchment triangle for the footballs, but I did for the baseballs. Notice the difference?

 

And that's all I got! 

Here's a link to the quintessential site on making cake pops, Bakerella.com. It's full of ideas and pictures from readers. And here's a link to  more cake pop tips from Cakeb0t.com, one of my favorite cake websites. 

Good luck!

Back to (Cake) School

After much anticipation, I finally got to take my first Baking Arts class a couple weekends ago, and I can't say enough good things about it.

The space was to die for - a bright and modern kitchen, with hardwood floors, set up in an airy loft apartment building in San Francisco's Soma neighborhood. Class size was small - only 5 people - so we didn't have to compete for space or attention. 

Owner/instructor Richard Festen was such a joy to learn from. Richard put us at ease with what he referred to as his "yoga voice," then after breaking the ice, revealed his naughty side. He had us all tittering as he described how to use your hands to smooth BC onto a carved cake (use your imagination.)

Like budduh

I learned a lot at Richard's "Pumpkin Cake" class... from how to make a round cake, carving tips, and airbrushing, which I was most excited about. But the most valuable part of the class was actually when he taught us how to properly handle fondant - I still struggle with that.

Here are a few more pictures from class:

Using a spoon as a carving tool

Crumb coating

  

Cake draped with fondant

Puckered bottom... nothing a few pumpkin leaves can't hide

Up close and personal with an airbrush

Stove top rigged to protect surfaces from airbrushing

 

Pumpkin, post airbrush, not looking so anemic any more

 

Hand-molded mice heads

FIN.