Audrey II

The Audrey II is one of my all-time favorite cakes, made for one of my all-time favorite people. If you’ll bear with me, I’ll start with a brief history of the theater cakes tradition.

The play was a comedy with a reversed lighting
theme (when the characters were in the dark,
the stage was lit), so I stuck with black and
white for the colors.

My best friend and her husband met during their high school musical. Their kids, not surprisingly, are incredibly talented actors and singers (musicians, dancers, writers, artists). I wanted to do something special for my “nephew” to celebrate his performance in the play “Black Comedy.” I was just starting Wilton cake decorating classes, so my mind immediately went to baked goods. While I was initially stumped for a decorating idea, I eventually decided on a simple design with a comedy and drama mask. The cake was a hit.

About five months later I had several cakes for friends and family under my belt and was ready for a new project. When I learned the upcoming spring musical was “Little Shop of Horrors,” a vision of Audrey II, the plant that feeds on human blood, popped into my head. (Yes, I think in cake. It’s a little scary sometimes.)

Pieces of Audrey II

A week before the show, I started making the plant leaves. I mixed together several shades of green and light brown fondant for a slightly marbled look and cut out leaf shapes. I let them dry on flower formers to give them some wave and curl. Before I knew about using fondant-covered marshmallow treats for cake elements that need to be lightweight, I cut a mouth into a (gasp!) Styrofoam egg and covered it with fondant to create the plant’s head. The flower pot was carved from three layers of pound cake.

Because I wasn’t sure how the plant part of the cake would make the trip to Lancaster, PA, I assembled Audrey II when I arrived at my friend’s house. I added the plant’s head to the top of the cake, arranged the leaves and tendrils, and sprinkled some dirt (crushed chocolate cookies) into the flower pot. 

The theater cake tradition was now established. And I've loved brainstorming design ideas for each new show - almost as much as I've loved watching my "nephew" and "niece" shine on stage every year.

Audrey II, before she busts out of her pot.

a Wedding in Nashville

Every one of my friends told me I was crazy.  “Well, that’s a given,” I replied.  And I have to admit, I did have a few cases of nerves throughout the process.  Backing down from a challenge, however, is something I’m usually too stubborn to do.

What was making my friends question my sanity?  As you most likely surmised from the title, I was doing my cousin’s wedding cake – in Nashville, TN.  Yup, that’s over 700 miles from Baltimore.

Carton Plantation, the site of the wedding

“How are you going to manage driving all that way with the cake?  Aren’t you afraid it’ll fall apart?  What are you going to, ship the cake while you fly there?” my bewildered friends asked. 

I had actually put some thought into that.  My plan was to prepare the decorations, frosting, and cake at home and drive everything to Nashville, where I’d take over a kitchen and assemble the cake. My cousin’s finance (the bride) and I had exchanged email messages, photos, and sketches and settled on a simple, elegant design.  I arranged to take a total of eight day off work to give me a couple days to bake, a couple days to travel, a couple days to assemble the cake, and a couple days to decompress after returning home (and to make it up to my dog for leaving her for the first time).

The wedding colors were yellow and gray,
so the bride picked a white fondant-covered
cake with yellow flowers and gray piping.

One week before the wedding, the yellow fondant flowers were assembled, dried, and carefully packed.  A few days later, I was ready to bake my little heart out.  A friend of the bride was making the groom’s cake – chocolate and coconut (yum)!  For a good contrast, the bride selected vanilla bean pound cake with vanilla buttercream. 

Two days later, smelling strongly of sugar and vanilla, I was packed and ready to go.  The next evening I was in Nashville and the morning after that I was up to my elbows in wedding cake.  By the end of the day, all three tiers were frosted and covered in fondant. With an artistic consultation from my grandfather, I had also stacked and decorated the bottom two tiers.

almost finished!

After a nerve-wracking quarter of a mile traveled on the gravel road leading to the plantation where the wedding was to be held, the cake arrived safe and relatively sound.  A couple of my cousin’s friends carried the 50+ pounds of cake into the kitchen and I set to work repairing the slightly squished area that was the result of me misjudging how very heavy the cake was and trying to move it myself. Before long, I had finished the top tier and added the final touch, the bird salt and pepper shakers the bride and groom picked as the cake topper.

Right before the wedding that afternoon, when I saw that the staff had moved the cake to the reception area without incident, I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. The wedding was beautiful and my mission was accomplished.

Pet Recue of Maryland Cakes

When I’m not playing with sugar or hanging out with my dog, in my spare time you can often find me volunteering with Pet Rescue of Maryland (check them out!).  I just love spending time with all those great puppies and dogs (I’m even working on my discomfort with cats) and fantastic volunteers.  The fact that these wonderful people are also willing and enthusiastic guinea pigs for my culinary experiments is just, well, icing on the cake.
   

Our main dog foster mom extraordinaire makes the world’s best chocolate chip cookies. I could never hope to improve her recipe.  I do, however, enjoy testing new cake recipes when we celebrate volunteers’ birthdays.

 

Our leader frequently treats us with chocolate-covered strawberries during the Saturday adoption events. What could be better than a chocolate cake filled with sliced strawberries?  To keep the strawberries from making the cake too soggy, I put a thin layer of vanilla buttercream under and over the layer of fruit.

My friend loves all things chocolate and recently introduced me to the sinfully decadent and oh-so scrumptious gourmet truffles from Parfections.  For her, I made my chocolate truffle cake.

I thought a nice, giant slice of cake-shaped cake would be fun.

A nice, summery citrus cake inspired the colors for this design.

We hate to see a good volunteer go away, even if it is to college, but a graduation is definitely worth celebrating.

Hello Kitty

I love turning the building blocks - or cakes - from this. . .

There’s nothing quite like playing with sugar. I love that moment when you can smell that the cake is done. Waiting for the baked goods to cool so you can begin decorating seems to take forever, but it’s an importance part of the process (see up and running), so you just inhale deeply and know the fun will start soon. 

This weekend was the 8th grade graduation of a coworker’s daughter. She selected a pink and purple Hello Kitty theme. I baked chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and a coffee cake with chocolate chips and mocha filling. The night before baking, I started the cupcake decorations – Hello Kitty heads and tiny diplomas. While waiting for the cakes to cool, I added pink fondant bows and graduation caps to the kitties and pink ribbons to the diplomas.

Once the cakes cooled, it was time to carve, fill, and crumb coat Hello Kitty. After a few hours in the fridge, I applied and smoothed the final layer of buttercream, added the rest of the decorations, and voila!

. . .to this!

cupcake close up

up and running

Why don’t I start with my very first cake?  Since there isn’t a picture of it, I’ll have to create one with words.  Imagine a large turquoise rock. We’ll call it a free form design.

My mom went away for the weekend and I wanted to welcome her back with a lemon cake.  I carefully followed the recipe and my first solo baking effort came out of the oven looking and smelling heavenly.  I moved the cake layers to the cooling rack and started making the frosting.  Then I played with food coloring to get just the right shade of turquoise — my mom’s favorite color.  Eager to finish, I started frosting the layers.

Lesson 1: Cakes should be frosted after they have cooled.

Lesson 2: Remove cakes from cooling racks before frosting them.

With my beautiful lemon cakes crumbling away, I quickly transferred the pieces to a plate, thinned the frosting to make a turquoise glaze, and drizzled it over my creation to help the pieces stay together.  It may have looked like a small blue boulder, but my family declared the “rock” cake a success.  Not bad for a 10-year-old's first attempt.