Blue Cake, White Cake, King Cake

I have a lot of techniques to practice prior to my first wedding cake construction due March 5. Obviously, I'm going to make at least one full scale cake before the big day (Burton-Perkins Wedding) so that I know that I am, in fact, capable of making this 3 tiered cake. I don't have doubts about my ability, but I am a big fan of organized practice and I think that this process is super fun, also.

Never before have I made buttercream decorations, so I obtained the necessary supplies at Michael's craft store and watched countless youtube videos on buttercream decorations. The result -

This was a white wedding cake split into 3 layers, filled with blueberry filling and iced with buttercream. The cake was dense and mild in flavor and the blueberry filling paired nicely without adding much sweetness. Making the buttercream roses was the hardest part, and it took me 5 or 6 tries before it actually looked like a rose, but I had fun in the process! The icing came out very smooth, which I was more than happy with. I wanted to work on my cake icing skills because I am using buttercream on the wedding cake - but I like the look of fondant. Hence, smoothed out buttercream. To do this, I crumb coated the cake the night before and let the cake chill in the refrigerator. I then made a fresh batch of smooth buttercream and iced the cake; then, I allowed the iced cake to chill for an additional 30 minutes. I was constantly dipping my spatula into steaming hot water and wiping it off to help the initial icing process return a somewhat smoothy iced cake. But here is the big trick! Once the iced cake was chilled, I took a viva paper towel with no print on it and placed it directly onto the iced cake. Using a fondant smoother, I smoothed over the paper towel in circular motions both on top and on the sides of the cake - making a very smooth finished product. Yay!

Well, is enough cake enough? No! January 5 marks the beginning of Mardi Gras!!!!!!! And, because I was staying with my friend Meg that evening before my PA School interview, I decided to make a king cake to bring to her as a thank you for letting me stay with her. I had some leftover blueberry filling from the white cake and I thought that it would go perfectly with the traditional cinnamon cream cheese filling.

For those of you who live in North Louisiana and who can't get a good King Cake, I am making these Carnival Treats for close friends and family. I'm not rich, so you'll have to cough up a little cash for the ingredients and love put into them, but not too much... The large (shown above) is a 15" x 19" cake for $30 and the small is a 12" round cake for $15. The fillings are all made to order from scratch and include a choice of cinnamon cream cheese, blueberry, raspberry, a combination of any 2 of those, lemon, or pecan praline. All king cakes are filled lightly (as in... it's not going to gush out at you like a nasty doughnut.) unless requested otherwise. Also, I can make a low fat whole wheat version of this that tastes just as moist and delicious - you'll never know it's good for you!!!

Laissez les bon temps rouler!!!