No More Mixing by Hands

I am happy to say that I got myself a bargain today.
I bought a used KitchenAid stand mixer for only $75 that normally would retail close to $300.

I talked to my mother. My brother delivered the cake to her in one piece. She loved her mother's day cake. She thought it looked pretty and it tasted great but the structure of the cake was questionable.....I told her I've been baking with a toaster oven that's why. :p

Mother's Day Cake

I baked a Mother's Day cake last night in addition to my brother's birthday cake. This is what happens when you baked in a toaster oven. You get to divide up the batter to multiple cakes.
For some reason the tiny 5" round cake turned out better than my brother's birthday cake....smaller surface, easier to handle. I didn't have too much crumb problem. The cake looked really pristine and I didn't have to overdecorated to cover up imperfection of the baking problems. I am actually satisfy with this cake.

P.S. It was orange flavored.

Second Cake

My brother's birthday is today. I baked another cake last night and decorated this morning. Beside learning all sorts of thing on baking, it make things tougher to bake things on a toaster oven (and I need to get a stand mixer, too). It takes longer to bake and it doesn't bake evenly. My cakes don't hold up very well for decorating. They kind of fall apart.

I mixed different materials for icing....bad idea. For example, the royal icing slips off the mousse.

Overall....my brother's birthday cake turned out uneven, barely holding it together with lots of mousse, crumbs, crumbs, crumbs (but I am getting better at creating less crumbs).

P.S. It was orange flavor cake.

First Birthday Cake

After last night's baking fiasco, I managed to get up early in the morning to decorate my two successful batch of cakes. I layered it on top of each other. It didn't go as smoothly as I expected. I made a big mess on frosting the cake....crumbs everywhere! I really need practice in making pristine cake.

I tried food coloring for the first time. I can say at least I had color under control. Flying by the seat of my pants, I didn't have time to practice the decorative techniques I learned. I just start eyeballing the cake and blob things on...luckily the design of the cake turned out okay. I ran out of space to write "Happy Birthday" The roses got squished in the transport and I need practice, practice, practice.....coz the cake was rather sloppy looking.


P.S. It was plain vanilla yellow cake.

Baking with Toaster Oven

A friend's birthday was coming up and I thought I can put my new found skills to use. I tried to make my first birthday cake. It actually would help if I have a working oven but I don't so I am restricted to baking on my toaster oven. I doesn't help when I have no baking experience either. It's truly a big experiment for me.

Luckily I found pans that were small enough to fit into the toaster oven and I have to divide up the cake batter into small portions to bake. I figure I am going to take baby step and tried baking with a cake mix first. The first cake overflowed and was burned on top and totally uncooked in the middle.

Thank gaaaaad the last two and third tried turned out okay. Btw, the picture is the disaster....notice the volcano in the middle. :p

Making Icing with Blender

For the month of May I signed up Wilton cake decorating courses at Michael. They have 40% off the classes. I thought it was a good deal and signed up for class every Sat afternoon. Since my previous class from Carol I thought I can skip Wilton Course 1 and sign up with Wilton Course 2 and 3 instead. It's a little bit loopy I am taking two courses but they are taught one after another and I can save time this way.....so I thought.

I am beginning to find out cake decorating is going to be an expensive hobby. Supplies and materials adds up. We had to buy a lot of stuff.

For the first class we had to bring in our icing. I am beginning to appreciate Carol a little more now that I realize how much work it is to make the icing. It was a total disaster for me. I didn't have a mixer. I tried mixing with blender. Let me tell you folks, blender doesn't make icing. It only crushes ice. :p

I had to run out and buy a mixer after I made a big mess in my kitchen. I drove back home and managed to get my icing made in time for the first class. However, when I showed up for the class our instructor Sandy was concerned I didn't take course 1 and signed up for course 2 or 3. I told her I took another class that's similar to Wilton course 1 and I'm rather enthusiastic on tackling course 2 and 3 at the same time.

Then Sandy informed me that course 3 had been changed to next month. As I looked around the class, I notice other students were grinning at me. I wonder if they were grinning because I was trying to be tackle 2 and 3 at the same time (I know....over kill) or I had frosting stuck to my hair and powder sugar down my shirt. Geesh.... I had a messy morning!