When someone asks if I can make them a cake, I assume they aren't expecting the long list of questions that I immediately line up in my head. Questions about size, colour, flavour, theme, etc, that help give me direction of what they want.
It sometimes feels weird to ask so many questions, but I assure you... If it feels like I am interrogating you about cake, it's because I want to make sure I make it exactly the way you want. There's the occasional crazy person who has no expectations and allows creative freedom to make whatever I want, but generally, the more specific the information I can get is, then the closer I can be to making it right.
So far, I haven't yet had a cake make it to the hall of fame on "cake fails", but this one I'm about to show you would probably be the closest (in regards to appropriateness, I suppose). Because, for a boy's first birthday... I accidentally made... a shag mobile.
Basically, the lady who wanted a cake [my friend's neighbour - my friend being the back and forth messenger of the equation] said that she wanted a car cake, but when I asked the 'colour' question... I was told "Oh... Colourful"... Which isn't really specific enough!
Along with the car cake, I was asked to make a few cupcakes, too. Perhaps I'll start with those. I'd made car toppers which were simple white flowers, cut in half and trimmed to resemble (I hoped) a VW bug, as that's what the shape of the big car was going to be like. Since the toppers were white, I made the buttercream "colourful" to match that theme.
Which brings me to the cake part.
Basically, I wanted to try a new technique that I'd seen online somewhere, of polka dot fondant, as I figured that polka dot would be the easiest way to get a lot of colours into one piece of fondant (and because the cupcakes were round - and I'm weird like that).
However, the polka dots didn't blend with the fondant (like, at all), so when I picked it up to put onto the cake, the circle colours fell right out! A bit upset that it failed so badly, I squished it all up and moulded it all into a giant ball, wondering how else I would make the car colourful.
In walks Husband and sees me crankily kneading this mound of failed fondant and said "Hey, that's a cool effect"
So I went along with this new plan, rolled out some more 'colourful' and 'marbled' fondant, trimmed it, and put it onto the cake. I didn't have time to try and make the polka dot idea again, anyway...
I was unsure of it's potential to actually look like a car, until I added a windscreen and headlights. There were some parts that I needed to cover up, which I did with more marbled fondant - one of which accidentally looked like a slice of watermelon... You'll see.
Sadly, despite my attempts to make it look like a normal car, it was already resembling a prop taken straight out of an Austin Powers movie. Perhaps it will make a "Pimp my ride" hall of fame instead.
I put the birthday boy's name on the number plate, not "0-BHVE" or "SHG-U-L8R", because that would be purposely going beyond what's appropriate for a first birthday party!
And, since the cupcakes all had "1" on them, I added the same thing to the sides of the car cake, too. The final pieces were wagon wheels for the wheels :)
I hope that your parents either didn't recognise/connect what I thought the cake looked like; or, don't bring this up in 20 years on your 21st that someone accidentally made you a shag mobile for your very first birthday cake.
Because it would be really awkward explaining what that is, and who Austin Powers is, to someone who doesn't know who he is!
And who throws a cupcake? ... Honestly.
It sometimes feels weird to ask so many questions, but I assure you... If it feels like I am interrogating you about cake, it's because I want to make sure I make it exactly the way you want. There's the occasional crazy person who has no expectations and allows creative freedom to make whatever I want, but generally, the more specific the information I can get is, then the closer I can be to making it right.
So far, I haven't yet had a cake make it to the hall of fame on "cake fails", but this one I'm about to show you would probably be the closest (in regards to appropriateness, I suppose). Because, for a boy's first birthday... I accidentally made... a shag mobile.
Basically, the lady who wanted a cake [my friend's neighbour - my friend being the back and forth messenger of the equation] said that she wanted a car cake, but when I asked the 'colour' question... I was told "Oh... Colourful"... Which isn't really specific enough!
Along with the car cake, I was asked to make a few cupcakes, too. Perhaps I'll start with those. I'd made car toppers which were simple white flowers, cut in half and trimmed to resemble (I hoped) a VW bug, as that's what the shape of the big car was going to be like. Since the toppers were white, I made the buttercream "colourful" to match that theme.
Which brings me to the cake part.
Basically, I wanted to try a new technique that I'd seen online somewhere, of polka dot fondant, as I figured that polka dot would be the easiest way to get a lot of colours into one piece of fondant (and because the cupcakes were round - and I'm weird like that).
However, the polka dots didn't blend with the fondant (like, at all), so when I picked it up to put onto the cake, the circle colours fell right out! A bit upset that it failed so badly, I squished it all up and moulded it all into a giant ball, wondering how else I would make the car colourful.
In walks Husband and sees me crankily kneading this mound of failed fondant and said "Hey, that's a cool effect"
Wait, what... Really?
I was unsure of it's potential to actually look like a car, until I added a windscreen and headlights. There were some parts that I needed to cover up, which I did with more marbled fondant - one of which accidentally looked like a slice of watermelon... You'll see.
Sadly, despite my attempts to make it look like a normal car, it was already resembling a prop taken straight out of an Austin Powers movie. Perhaps it will make a "Pimp my ride" hall of fame instead.
I put the birthday boy's name on the number plate, not "0-BHVE" or "SHG-U-L8R", because that would be purposely going beyond what's appropriate for a first birthday party!
And, since the cupcakes all had "1" on them, I added the same thing to the sides of the car cake, too. The final pieces were wagon wheels for the wheels :)
Happy birthday Riley!
And who throws a cupcake? ... Honestly.
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