Coconut and Butterflies

It has been over 2 years since I stared working at the WWU Foundation. And in those 2 years, only a handful of people actually know my name, most people know me as the cake girl (it's better than 'Hey you'). I have even over heard people who I see regularly from other 4th floor offices refer to me as the girl from Old Main 430 who always brings in cake (doesn't roll off the tongue quite as smoothly as 'the cake girl' but I guess it works?) All I know is that when people see me walk up with my white cake carrier, their faces instantly light up and I feel kind of like a cross between Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

And now that I've become famous (hopefully not infamous) on the 4th floor of Old Main for my cake creations, I was asked by a coworker to donate a cake to the dessert dash for the Whatcom Museum Fundraiser in July. Of course I agreed, not only did it give me an opportunity to help out a good cause but it also might (fingers crossed) get my name out there. I'm not sure who is familiar with the concept of a "dessert dash" but the basic concept is the table that donates the most money gets to choose their dessert first and then so on and so forth.

With task in hand and no real limitations other than my own imagination (cheesy, I know), I set out to make a fanciful cake that encompased what I believed to be along the lines of the theme: "Downtown Aglow."

For the base of this masterful creation, I made a dark chocolate cake with a dark chocolate ganache and a Kahlua buttercream frosting. (Delicious, I know.) Now for the fun part, fondant butterflies.

I started out with yellow, red, and orange rolled fondant (you can easily purchase some from your local crafts store) and a butterfly cookie cutter.

Sprinkle some cornstarch on a cleaned work surface and roll fondant out to a 1/8 inch thickness. Using your cookie cutter, cut out as many butterflies as you need/want. Transfer cut outs to a sheet of wax paper.

In order to form the shape of the butterflies, take a piece of cardboard and bend it to a 70-80 degree angle and place the butterflies on the cardboard and allow to dry. This should take at least 24 hours.

Once the butterflies have dried, use royal icing to pipe the bodies and wing decorations. Allow those to dry for a few hours and then adorn your cake with beautiful butterflies.

Following the fundraisier, the coworker who asked me to donate the cake said that by the time her table got up to go collect their dessert, my cake had already been taken. Her table put in $300. My cake went for more than $300 dollars. Holy cow :)

Summer Sun

The other day I was sitting out in the quad and I was inspired by the grass and warm weather, it finally felt like summer. So I decided to make a summery cake (like you do).

First, taking a note from Rose Levy Beranbaum, I used a base of an all-occasion downy yellow butter cake:

Ingredients:

• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 c. milk
• 2 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 3 c. cake flour, sifted
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 12 Tbsp. butter (1 1/2 sticks)

Mixins

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour two 9-inch cake rounds. In a small bowl, separate the egg yolks from the egg whites, then add 1/4 c. milk and the vanilla, stir to combine.

Sadly one broke or else this would have been a cool shot.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all the dry ingredients, stirring a few times until well combined. Add the butter and remaining milk, mix on a medium speed for about a minute and a half to develop the cake's structure.

Mixy mix.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Now add the egg mixture in three additions, mixing well after each addition.

Mmm....cake batter!

Now divide the cake batter between the two prepared pans. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Before...

After!

Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Who needs air fresheners when your house can smell like fresh cake?

Now what would a cake be without delicious frosting?

For your frosting fixins:

• 2 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 6 c. sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• pinch of salt
• green food coloring

So much sugar but so good.

Beat the butter until it is nice and creamy, about 2 minutes, then slowly add the sugar, 1/2 c. at a time, scraping down the sides when needed. Beat in the vanilla, salt, and food coloring.

Hulk frosting!

What would a summer cake be without flowers? (Just a warning, this is my first attempt at fondant flowers, so if they look crappy, blame it on my inexperience.)

You can make you're own fondant if you're super talented (I made it once and it was too much of a hassle to do again so I just bought pre-rolled ready to use fondant, no shame in that). I bought a package of plain white fondant and then a colored package. You can always use food coloring to dye the white fondant any color you want, but just remember to wear gloves! (Unless you're into the tie-dyed hand look.) You'll also want a flower shaped cookie cutter or have some serious skills with an exacto knife. You'll also need some cornstarch and a rolling pin.

Mmm...sugar and corn syrup!

Sprinkle a light dusting of cornstarch on a clean work surface. Kneading the fondant with your hands, bring the fondant to room temperature. Then roll out to a 1/8 inch thickness with a rolling pin.

Flat as a pancake.

Using a cookie cutter (or exacto knife) cut out the flowers, re-rolling the fondant if necessary.

Cute!

Now to assemble the cake!

Place one of the cakes on a cardboard cake round and level the cake top with a serrated knife. Dollop some frosting on top, spreading to the edges and then top with the second cake:

It's like a delicious construction project.

Now frost the entire outside of the cake with the green frosting. Then using an icing bag with a #12 icing tip, pipe the grass stems on the top of the cake.

Super tedious, but super cute.

Now adorn the cake with the fondant flowers! Admire and enjoy!

Precious.