Friday Favorites

A while back I mentioned working on a post of my favorite things but between being a mom, a wife, a Master’s student and everything else, I just haven’t had the time. With my second Master’s class winding down and "spring break" in sight, I’ve finally found the time to compile a list. I’m sure it won’t be a complete list because I’ll probably think of a million other things as soon as I hit submit, but here's Take I of my list:

• Fat Daddio's Cake Pans - According to their website, they are 16 gauge hard 3003 aluminum
  and anondized...don't ask me what that means, I have no idea!!  What I do know is that they are durable and help my cakes cook up beautifully.  These pans come in a variety of shapes and sizes.  Another great thing about these pans is that they have straight sides.  Straight sides might not seem like a big deal, but when it comes to stacking cakes it makes a big difference; if your pans do not have straight sides the sides of the cake will flare out slightly from top to bottom.  If your cake sides flare out it is much more difficult to get your sides to look nice and straight.  One quick way to check if your pans have straight sides is to try stacking them inside each other (i.e., an 8in round inside another 8in round); if one fits inside the other your pans do not have straight sides.
• Satin Ice Rolled Fondant - This is not the fondant that everyone thinks of when they think of nasty tasting fondant, it's actually pretty tasty.  It's great to work with and makes even basic cakes look fabulous.  It comes in a variety of colors and you can even buy a dark chocolate flavor! I also like their gumpaste.
• Fondarific Fondant - This stuff tastes GREAT!  It comes in a huge variety of flavors including grape, strawberry, orange and my husband's favorite, Coffee Mocha!  I haven't worked with it much, but I would recommend it based on taste alone.
• Bakery Craft's Single Plate Separator System - This is THE way to stack tiered cakes.  The system consists of plastic plates and legs that lock into the plates.  As you stack your cake, you push the plates (with legs attached) into the lower tiers, the legs support the weight and since they lock in place, they don't allow the plate to move.  I use this system in all my tiered cakes and feel completely comfortable carrying and transporting cakes stacked with this system.
• Wilton Bake Even Strips - These nifty little strips help to keep the sides of your cake from becoming the "crust" of your cake.  After you soak them in cold water, you wrap them around the pan while your cake cooks.  They help keep the sides of the cake from cooking too fast and becoming dry.
• Wilton Disposable Decorating Bags - Getting all the grease and color out of regular decorating bags is a pain; I have yet to figure out a good way to do this. Any ideas?  In the meantime, I really like these disposable bags, when I'm done I just cut off the end so I can get my tip and coupler off and throw the rest away....super easy!!
• Wilton Decorating Tips - There may be better tips out there, but these have worked great for my needs; I have yet to have any problems with them.  Another plus is that they are available at your nearest Wal-Mart or craft store, with most other brands you have to buy them at a cake supply store.

This list pretty much covers the basic supplies.  As I continue my cake decorating journey, I'm sure I'll be posting on some more of my favorite things.  I'm always up for trying new tools, so if any of you cake decorating suppliers out there are reading this, I'd be more than happy to sample and review some of your products!  ;) 

***Most, if not all, of the products on this page can also be purchased at http://www.globalsugarart.com/. And no, they aren't paying me to put their name out there.....as a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure they don't even know I exist!***

German Chocolate: Take II

So, this week's adventure was to try the German chocolate stuff again.  By the way, does anyone know what you'd call that stuff??  Is it frosting?  Is it filling?  What is it?

In the true sense, I didn't actually make GERMAN chocolate cake.  I just used my standard recipe for chocolate cake and then picked a fairly standard, simple recipe for the frosting.  If, like me, you were wondering if Germany had some secret crop of coconuts, check out this site for the story behind the cake.

Anyway, this time around, I made sure that I followed the directions closely....haha!

The egg yolks, sugar, butter and evaporated milk went into the pan first.

Just like last time, I cooked them until the butter was all melted and everything was smooth.

Unlike last time, I let the mixture come to a boil and thicken.  The thickening step was what I missed last time, and let me tell you, it made a HUGE difference!

These guys were waiting to hop in the pot, too.

Once I mixed it all together it looked like this, which already looks much more spreadable than my last attempt.

I let it set for a while longer to make sure it wasn't going to run and then I set out to frost some mini cupcakes for an Air Force vs. Coast Guard softball game and BBQ we're going to today. Go Air Force, Beat Coast Guard!!!!  Doesn't quite had the same ring as Go Army, Beat Navy does it?

I had a little stuff left over so I made a mini cake for a BBQ we're having with friends this weekend.

It looks much better this time, let's hope they taste good, too!

And in case you were wondering, here's the recipe I used for the frosting....as for the cake recipe, well a girl's gotta have some secrets!  :)

German Chocolate Icing:

1 cup white sugar

1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
3 egg yolks, beaten
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 - Combine sugar, evaporated milk, butter and egg yolks in saucepan. 
 - Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to boil and thicken. 
 - Remove from heat. 
 - Stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla.
 - Let cool until spreadable.
 - Frost and enjoy.

Happy Friday!  Hope you have a GREAT weekend!

Read TWICE, cook once....

Do you ever have one of those days where you have trouble focusing?  You have great plans to get stuff done; nothing seems to go as you planned.  I had one of those days yesterday!

I'm making the cake for my brother-in-law's wedding in April and they've requested some things I've never made before, one of them being German chocolate filling.  My plan was to make a batch of German chocolate filling....you know, the stuff with the pecans and coconut....and put it on some chocolate cupcakes for my husband to take into work. That didn't quite work out.

I went online to Cake Central, printed up a recipe, read through it and got to work.  I got out all the ingredients, mixed the butter, sugar, evaporated milk and egg yolks on the stove until the butter had all melted, then I dumped in the coconut, pecans and vanilla.

Then I mixed it all together.

It looked a little gross, but I don't see how that mixture wouldn't look gross!  :)

The recipe said to let it cool until it was spreadable, so I let it set on the counter for a couple hours.  I kept checking it and it wasn't getting any thicker, so I transferred it to a bowl and stuck it in the fridge.  It sat there for a few more hours and still wasn't much thicker.  It was sort of like a sugary coconut-pecan soup!

I'm pretty sure that's not considered "spreadable", nor would it be a good filling for a tiered cake!  I thought I might be able to get away with getting rid of some of the liquid and putting the thicker part on top of the cupcakes. 

It didn't exactly work; they turned into ooey, gooey, sticky messes!  I still couldn't figure out what went wrong, so while I sent my husband to the trash can with these beauties, I looked over the recipe again.  It was then I realized that I'd done wrong.....

The recipe said to heat the butter, sugar, evaporated milk, and egg yolks over a low heat until THICKENED....somehow I missed that very important part.  In my head, I'd read to heat it until thin, so right after the butter melted I took it off the heat and mixed in the other ingredients.  This stuff never stood a chance of becoming spreadable!!!!  On the bright side, I came to the conclusion that I did, indeed, have the right ingredients and a good recipe, it was just bad execution.

The moral of this story:  ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS read the recipe thoroughly BEFORE starting the cooking process!

Stay tuned for my next post: German Chocolate Take II