What does a superhero do on vacation?

Maybe they would be hanging at the beach?  Lounging in the sun?  Trading stories about world calamity and comparing notes on their respective arch villains?  Do you need sunscreen when wearing one of those super-suits?  Questions one can only ponder when executing the latest in a series of superhero cake dioramas as ordered by a clever little stepson like Bryce.  The kid has very specific ideas about his birthday cake and I'm only too happy to oblige.

This dude is, according to Bryce, "Invisible Man."  He's lounging on a marshmallow fondant beach towel and wearing a flotation gummy ring.  I imagine he does not need any sunscreen.

I think it particularly ironic that The Flash is the only guy laying down in this scene.  He's clearly in need of some serious r&r.

Superman looks really mad about something.  Maybe Captain Yellow Tights splashed him.  You can tell Batman just really wants him to chill.

Notice there are no ladies.  I warned Bryce about this.  He wouldn't let me put Hawkgirl or Supergirl on, so now he has a beach scene that calls his superheroes appreciation of women into question.  He seemed completely unconcerned when I pointed this out and downright jubilant when I relented on the issue of female attendance.  Go figure.

This cake is two 9x13 sheetcake layers, deconstructed to form a rectangular pool off to one side.  (I actually used a ruler to get the proportions right.)  I lined the pool with white marshmallow fondant and then covered the rest of the cake with a huge sheet of fondant.  I used a combination of chocolate liqueur, powdered sugar, yellow food coloring, and water to make a "watercolor" paint which I painted over the whole sheet.  I sprinkled granulated sugar over the still wet paint for a sand effect.  The pool is filled with blueberry jello and the beach ball is actually a gumball that Michael and Louis got from a gumball machine.  The cake is one layer of chocolate and one layer of vanilla.  It was delish.  When the cake is all about appearance and fun, I always use a mix.  Duncan Hines is the best.  And yes, I did wash the action figures thoroughly before applying to the cake!

All in all, Mr. Bryce seemed happy with the results and I had a fun time making it. (Right after my nervous breakdown when both cakes fell apart upon being removed from the pans.)

Hunny

I was asked to do another baby shower cake for someone at work.  Well, the first time, I volunteered.  This time was a paid gig.  Below are the results of my labor.

The hunny pot is basically a four layer cake with chocolate on the bottom and vanilla on top.  Everything is coated in a butter cream frosting which I flavored with vanilla and butterscotch schnapps.  The hunny pot itself has the additional layer of brown marshmallow fondant, flavored with cocoa powder (reminds me of a hot chocolate!).  The bees are also marshmallow fondant and the simulated honey is a caramel sauce which I bulked up with frosting and colored with yellow food coloring.

Seems like the folks liked the cakes.  I'm glad, too, because I stressed over them for days.

October's Over

And I think we all truly enjoyed this month.  It was a very busy one.  We had two family birthdays, a lot of Hallowe'en preparation, and finally Hallowe'en itself.  In our neighborhood, there are only really any trick-or-treaters up on Main St., so the kids ran off with dad and left me alone with an entire plate of pumpkin rice krispie treats staring me in the face.  My mission was to pass out candy to any possible trick-or-treaters, but we didn't have a single one while they were gone.

 If you don't know me very well, you may be wondering how one makes pumpkin rice krispie treats.  Well, I'm not entirely sure either, but somehow or another, I played with my marshmallow recipe in such a way that I ended up making marshmallows from actual pumpkin pulp.  I used all the traditional pumpkin pie spices, so it really was like a pumpkin pie with the texture of a fresh marshmallow.  After a weenie roast and a few pumpkin marshmallow chai lattes, I had just enough marshmallows remaining for a batch of rice krispies.  Seemed appropriate for the occasion.

Like I said before, October is a busy month.  Below, my mother's birthday cake this year...

I did this one much like a cake from a year ago.  It's a basic yellow cake with a crumb coating of buttercream and a poured coating of dark chocolate ganache.  I studded the top with gold, orange, and red roses.  This was my first effort at roses in such a long time.  I get out of practice, unfortunately.  Mom seemed very pleased with her cake, though.  I had long wanted to do this for her.  After all my life, every year a wonderful birthday cake made by mom, now this.  Me returning the favor.

Continuing along that same line, I made a lovely, though much simpler birthday cake the following week for my mother-in-law.  The main artistry in this cake lies in the extraordinarily lemony pound cake, made from scratch and filled with a layer of lemon curd.  I then sprinkled the top with powdered sugar and a handful of raspberries.  I think all the motherly figures in my life were pleased by their birthday cakes this year.  October is full of challenges, but I rose to them this year.  Including the insanity of carving four pumpkins.  What was I thinking?  Well, Michael and Bryce did help on some of this...

Louis' Totoro Cake

Ugh.  I am like 5 lbs heavier today.  I spent all day Saturday making this cake and *sampling* the frosting at various critical junctures.  Yeah, I was just eating the heck out of the stuff.  I couldn't stop.  It was sooo good.  And now I feel sick.  If I'd just known when to quit, I would have been fine, but there was all this delicious chocolate ganache and marshmallow fondant and...oh, God it was good.

Look.  Totoro can hardly bear to look at me...I'm that miserable.

You might be able to see from this photo just a hint of the deeeluscious ganache frosting that I poured all over this guy.  You might even be able to see where I repositioned the nose.  You have to get the nose position just right or it won't look exactly like Totoro.  I based the cake loosely on the below image.

Isn't he cute?  He's cute and the movie is cute, but watch the hell out for chocolate Totoro, he's deadly.  Deceptively sweet.  Rich and chocolatey.  Spell check says chocolatey is not a word, but I beg to differ.  Oh, Totoro, how you have destroyed my digestive peace!  How you churn away in my stomach for an eternity!  Why?!  Why did I have to eat so much of your delectable outer coating?  UUUURGH!  UUUUNG!  The pleasure!  The pain!

Oh well, happy birthday, Louis.  13 may be your lucky number, but it hasn't been mine so far.  Still, I think I may have captured the essence of the Totoro character here.  I at least can say that.  Even if I have no common sense and ate too much of the frosting while decorating, at least I have photos to prove that I'm a mean (though not so lean) cake-making Mamma.

Bryce's Dagobah Cake

Bryce always has very specific ideas about what he wants on his birthday cake.  I love this about Bryce.  I'm all too keen to accommodate his every bizarre whim.  So, when he said, "I want Dagobah," I was psyched.

He supplied the Star Wars action figures and I supplied the crazy swamp goo.  I whipped out my entire candy making arsenal on this one.  From the caramel sauce pool Yoda is standing in to the chocolate plastic gnarl trees that sprout from the swamp cake, this cake was treated with every skill I'd developed over the last year or so.

The white gooey stuff is marshmallow sauce and the frosting is my mom's traditional buttercream.  I also embellished with a few color-coordinated gummi worms.

Check out the lime Jello swamp goo on the X-Wing fighter!  Luke looks a little out of scale, but Bryce didn't care.  He was totally into the chocolate plastic gnarl trees.  Snarfed one down right after we sang the birthday song.