Let the Judging Begin!

Who knew judging edible works of art could be so much work? Our ex cake decorating instructor (though she continues to guide with her plethera of knowledge), invited us to be "guest judges" for her two advanced cake classes.

Yesterday was the first round of judging and there were some really great cakes. It wasn't too difficult to pick 1st and 2nd place, but choosing that final 3rd place was difficult. Who do you exclude? Who's cake is better than the next? Did they use all the required elements? Did they really get the concepts? Who attempted something outside their realm? And for crying out loud, will soemone please explain to the kid in the corner that "painting" on a cake means using EDIBLE substances such as food coloring, not real paint!!!!! At this point I'm experiencing just a fraction of the pressure the instructor must feel during grading! Since I have such few followers and readers of this blog, I think it's ok to say we gave 1st place to an x-rated cake. Who knew testicles made of cake could be so life like?

Today was the 2nd class and I was glad to see a much smaller group of students, it made it much easier to pick 1st through 3rd place, but none of the cakes really jumped out at me and said "pick me! pick me!" The first class had such bright colors and carved cakes, but the 2nd class stayed more traditional in their designs.

What did I learn? I really do love all things cake! I could totally judge all the time, talk about cake club, talk about competitions, it really doesn't matter - I love doing it!

Oreos vs. Snickers

The Two Cake Ladies tried our very first deep fried snickers and deep fried oreo today. I must have been living in a cave because I've heard of these fried pieces of joy, but I've never eaten them. While I, Cake Lady #1, enjoyed the molten chocolate of the deep fried snickers, Cake Lady #2 preferred the oreo.

How to describe them? The snickers was on a stick and resembled a corn dog. The chocolate had turned in to a pool of chocolate that mingled perfectly with the caramel and the nuts added much needed texture. The crunchy fried outside is one of the best parts of any deep fried delicacy. This was gooey, sweet, covered in powdered sugar and on a stick!

The oreos were covered in a melted chocolate sauce and powdered sugar. They kept their shape and I think deep frying them cut the sweetness factor in half. I expected the filling inside the cookie to turn into a liquefied sweet sticky goo, but it also maintained its structure which was disappointing.

Cake Lady #1: Snickers: A, Oreos: C-
Cake Lady #2: Snickers: C+, Oreos: A+

Chocolate

Welcome to the official start of my FOOD related blog! I've blogged before, but I recently decided on regularly updating this site. It came to me after I downed three huge squares of Red Hot Chili Pepper dark chocolate! I said to myself; "Cake Lady #1, you should really start blogging about your experiences with food" and thus the start of a regular food blog from One of the Two Cake Ladies.

The other day I stopped by Target and found myself in the gourmet chocolate aisle, which is a place I often find myself. I always say I don't really care for chocolate, but the next thing I know I have a chocolate bar in hand! This particular day I picked up a White Chocolate Lemon Lime bar made by Frey. Who knew that chocolate infused with specs of zesty citrus pieces could be so savory? Frey is also the maker of the Red Hot Chili Pepper bar I spoke of earlier. It got me thinking; how wonderful would it be to take some chili infused chocolate and make a spicy chocolate mousse? It would make a great filling for cupcakes....just a little dollop in the middle and POW!

Adventures in Cake Competitions

These two cake ladies had one great adventure in Austin, TX. I wish I could report that it went off without a hitch, but there was an almost 9-1-1 worthy accident. The air conditioner was broken and we were trying to move to a new room, which meant going down a flight of stairs with all of our decorating supplies, entries, luggage, etc. We were on the last trip down with all of our entries in our hands and then it happened, "T" stepped off the sidewalk into a 4 inch hole and fell right on her face. She dropped all of her entries and I immediately go to the entries instead of checking on her. Only one flower was broken but it turns out "T" was injured pretty bad. Her leg had two huge goose eggs on it, it was swollen and red and she had sidewalk burn from ankle to knee. We decided not to take her to the hospital, but we did get some emergency supplies and doctored and wrapped the wound. When we got back to Arizona she seen the doctor who said there wasn't anything to worry about, but it was infected and he started her on a course of antibiotics. By this time her leg was swollen from ankle to mid thigh. Looking back on it we should have went to the energency room. With that being said; we can now tell you that the experience was unbelievable! On Saturday we took a class by Mark Seaman on henna decorating. What an amazing decorator! His first henna cake was outstanding and he made it really easy to learn henna decorating, with practice I should be good at it in no time. Later that day we had our first encounter with a clebrity in the cake world, Nicholas Lodge! He was a little on the quiet side, but we got our pictures taken with him. Later that night we attended the dinner gala where Nicholas Lodge, Bronwen Weber and Jacquy Pfeiffer were working on cake elements for a mystery cake while we ate. They were so funny and they gave the most amazing decorating tips. Afterwards I got to meet Bronwen Weber and of course, we got our picture with her too! It turns out that Bronwen is every bit as fun loving, chipper and nice as she is on the Food Network Challeneges. Sunday we attended a demo given by Bronwen Weber, got more pictures, more tips, more over the top Bronwen style and we loved every minute of it! Next we attended a demo by Elisa Strauss. I was beside myself with "celebrity awe". Talk about the nicest, funniest, down to earth decorator! She was our favorite person to watch, she talked about her job, her family and her life. She genuinly loves her fans and she gave me a hug, let me take 3 or 4 pictures with her and signed a copy of Confetti Cakes for us. Our adventure in Austin was amazing and we decided we're doing it all again next year. Oh, and I should mention that we won in the advanced techniques division! I won 1st place with my cocoa painting, "T" won 2nd place with her flower spray and I won 3rd place with my daffodil flower plaque. Two Cake Ladies from Arizona really do have what it takes!

~J~

Buttercream Cake Gallery

Buttercream 3" high with basic shell border and star decoration



Buttercream 2" high with stripe side piping and star decoration



Buttercream 2" high with zigzag side piping and star spiral decoration



Buttercream 3" high Clown Cake with balloons, star side piping and round border



Buttercream 3" high Clown Cake with confetti border



Buttercream 3" high oval cake with roses and leaves



Buttercream 3" high oval Flower Pot cake



Buttercream 3" high oval Garden cake



Buttercream 3" high oval cake with roses and rosette border



Buttercream 6" high Basket Weave cake with royal icing flowers



Buttercream 6" high Basket Weave cake with royal icing flowers



Buttercream 2" high hexagon cake with cherries



Buttercream 3" high Cake with dot piping

Austin Cake Competition

In exactly 52 days the duo of Buttercream Dreams will be in Austin participating in our very first Cake Competition! We're starting off light and avoiding all the mishaps that come with entering a cake, besides, how would we get the cake to Austin? I, for one, am extremely paranoid that my beautiful cake will arrive smashed to pieces. I'm sweating just thinking about what a nightmare that would be! Instead, the two of us are entering the Special Techniques division. Yes, we are competing against each other. We use totally different techniques and our style's are different so we're relatively confidant that although we'll be competing against each other, we won't be doing the same thing. The Special Techniques category consists of entries from gumpaste, to molding, to pastillage.

Jessica's Entries: 2 entries total: one cocoa painting and one gumpaste

Terry's Entries: 2 entries total: one gumpaste and one yet to be determined

We both figure that even if we place dead last, we'll learn a little bit and grow from the experience. Then watch out in 2010 because we'll be ready! While we're there we'll have the opportunity to watch some masters demonstrate special techniques. Bronwen Weber, Nicholas Lodge and Elisa Strauss will be demonstrating their techniques and if you know cake then you know who these three are. I would be happy just being in the same building with them, but to watch a demonstration is going to be awesome!

~Jessica~

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One Buttercream for Everyone?

Things would be boring in the cake world if there were one cake flavor, one cake shape.....one type of buttercream.......

There are five variations of buttercream frosting; Swiss, Italian, French, Classic and American. The difference between the five are the use and preparation of eggs.

Lets start with American vs. Classic Buttercream. American Buttercream doesn't contain eggs and is usually made with water, powdered sugar, shortening, butter and flavoring. It forms a soft crust if left uncovered and it's probably the most common form of buttercream used. Classic Buttercream is made with egg yolks, sugar, corn syrup, butter and flavoring. The up side to this buttercream is that it spreads easy, but the downside is it tastes like a sweetened stick of butter and if it's not prepared properly it turns to a soupy liquid.

Italian vs. Swiss vs. French. Both Italian and Swiss are made with nearly the same ingredients, the key difference is in the preparation, heating and combination. Italian Buttercream is made with egg whites, butter, sugar and water. It's a light and fluffy buttercream that spreads easy and isn't heavy on the sweetness. Swiss Buttercream is made with egg whites, butter, sugar and flavoring. It's a light glossy buttercream thats often described as silky and sinful. French Buttercream is made with sugar, water, egg yolks and vanilla. The yolks give this buttercream a yellow color and it's shelf life is shorter than Swiss or Italian, but it has the same smooth meringue like look and texture.

Whichever buttercream you choose to use, now you'll know you have a choice!