Best Shot at Dead Squirrel Cake

Last week a friend asked me,  "Can you decorate a cake with a dead squirrel?" 
"Well, I can give it my best shot," I replied. 

With every cake there is an opportunity to try a new technique.  Since I'm a bit shaky on my freehand drawing skills, I decided to try the technique that my former Baskin Robins cake decorating roommate taught me.  It's officially called the BCT, Butter Cream Transfer.

So I found a graphic from online of a dead squirrel that I could trace.  You wouldn't believe it, but Googling a dead squirrel results in an abundance of image results.  Here's what I chose:

Then I placed wax paper over the image and traced it's outline with black frosting.  I filled in the outlines with brown frosting to make it look more squirrel-like, froze it in the freezer for 2 1/2 hours and then peeled back the wax paper to apply the image to the cake.  Of course it comes out as the inverse of the original image.

Why a dead squirrel cake you ask?  Well my friend's office was shutting down their outdated version of squirrel email and they wanted to celebrate the arrival of a much better system.  I can hear them shouting now, "Death to the squirrel!"

Recent Event Cakes

As with all things in life, practice makes perfect.  While I've decided to slow down on the cake making endeavors, I'm glad that two friends have asked me to make a few cakes over the last few months for their events.

The first was a end of season bowling party for the team called, The Broken Taco Shells.  With a unique request, I attempted to make a unique flavored cake, Mojito Pound cake, to be in step with their Mexican bowling team name.  I attempted to make a few broken taco shells as well.  That was a first!

And of course I like to thank my friends Rob and Allie for their photography services in exchange for cake.  

The next cake was my first ever attempt at a gluten free cake.  My friend Amanda was celebrating her big 30th birthday!  Her sister eats gluten free so I thought it would be a great reason to try this kind of cake.  I made a vanilla and anise flavored cake.

I was happy when Amanda came over one afternoon and asked if we could make the cake all over again because she was having such strong memories and cravings for the taste of it.

The last cake was for a simple birthday celebration of my friend's father.  The father came to visit when my friend was about to deliver her baby and as it turned out this cake became a birthday cake for the father and their brand new son!

It's very fun to practice for different requests.  With each cake there is something new to learn.  While I'm slowing down on cake making, if you have an event coming up I would be glad to make your cake!

Unique Holiday Cakes

Over the last half year I've had the opportunity to make a variety of specialty event cakes.  The Fourth of July presents a fun challenge with its confinement to three colors with stars and stripes.  Here's a few of the banana flavored cake and peanut butter flavored icing cupcakes I brought to share with friends at the fireworks show.

 I had fun using a combination of butter cream frosting and fondant to make the star shapes.











So patriotic, and reportedly yummy too!

Then in middle of August's heat I was inspired to make an Easter themed set of cakes or cakes for a child's birthday celebration for someone who likes bunnies! The carrot cakes are a standard carrot cake with cream cheese icing.  The pink butter cream frosting bunny slices straight through into a blood red color with of course, red velvet cake.

 

Although they take more time, people love to have their own cake (and eat it too).  If you know someone looking for a unique cake for their next event or holiday, I'd love to help out!

Cakes for a Cause

My friend Carrie asked me this summer if I would be willing to practice up on my cake making skills by making a cake for Scarlet Cord's fund raising event. I was happy to be able to help out in this way, and to take on the challenge of creating a cake that fit the style and theme of their organization.

Scarlet Cord is a non-profit organization serving women on Portland's Eastside streets that find themselves homeless, in poverty, alone, sex trafficked, drug addicted, or just in need of a friend and warm meal on a Friday night. Their first ever fundraiser included a partnership with a budding fashion designer to create an evening of fashion, silent auctioning, music, and guest speakers. They called this event The White Event and I brainstormed as to how I could create a cake that would embody this theme of "whiteness".

The theme of "white" was intentionally chosen to represent the sense of purity the organization intends to bestow by their actions on these women who at times have been used, abused and feel emotionally damaged. So in thinking about making a cake, my mind turned of course to the symbolism of a wedding dress; clean, white, pure, beautiful and representative of starting fresh in a new relationship.

As I brainstormed about how to design this cake, I knew I didn't want this cake to look like an obvious wedding cake, with the bride and groom cake toppers and all. Instead I thought about making the entire cake look like a wedding dress, with pearls and tool and satin ribbons and all. Then of course I would add a scarlet cord to finish off the "dress". Here are some pictures of the cake building process and the final product.

If you or someone you know has an upcoming event with a need for a specialty cake, they can contact me on my blog profile to discuss cake design and pricing . I'd be glad to help!

Intro to Wedding Cakes

Last summer my friend was planning a wedding on a tight budget. She needed a cake and I thought, I like to make cakes, why not give it a try. So I watched Ace of Cakes and I watched youtube videos on applying fondant icing and I spent a few hours at the cake supply store picking the saleswoman's brain.

I knew I would need to do a few practice rounds of cake making and throughout the early summer I arrived at various potlucks with different varieties of vanilla cake in one hand or lemon in the other. I found very willing tastetesters available to give helpful feedback. Here are a few of my first trial cakes:














Several things went wrong with my first cakes; runny icing, cracking fondant, nearly burnt edges, but with each cake I learned more about what to or not to do.

I knew I'd need to make larger cakes for the final wedding cake and be able to support them into a three tier formation. This had me a bit nervous. I studied how to insert dowel rods so that the cakes were able to support the weight of the fondant iced cakes. I was making a three-tiered square cake with each layer measuring, 12", 9" and 6". I learned that cake making calls for a bit of structural engineering skill as well as culinary artistry.



My kitchen and dining room were transformed into a cake building stage during the last week of July 2009 before the August 1st wedding. This also happened to be the week of 100+ temperatures, which helped to keep the fondant pliable and me running outside to run my hair under a hose to cool down every half hour.



Nonetheless, I built the cakes at the wedding site and with the addition of several purple orchids,


they had a lovely wedding cake.

And how did the cake taste? Well, I know many came back for seconds.



If you know of someone who needs an inexpensive cake this summer or fall, I am available to make cakes at rates cheaper than your average bakery because I'm still working to improve my cake baking skills. To discuss pricing on your particular wedding cake, please email at the contact info. on this site. I am able to do fondant or butter cream frosted cakes. We can discuss the possibility of decorations including fondant sculpture designs, icing designs, flowers, ribbon or cake toppers.