Cake

This is my salute to cake. Also appearing this blog, my pal Law - welcome to the big show buddy!

















This was the week that I've been waiting for all my life. Cake week in Bake Shop. We started with an old standby:

Chiffon Cake with Swiss Buttercream













I was not in class on Friday - I was in Florida for Chase's wedding - Congrats Chase! - so my buddies Matt and Greg hooked it up by making an extra chiffon cake. That enabled me to decorate a cake for a grade. The Swiss Buttercream is fantastic. We heat up some sugar and eggwhites over a double boiler, whipped that in the KitchenAid, and added a ton of butter and a little vanilla. We got to use those cool spinning cake decorator platforms. We piped on a lovely border and wrote on it. This cake was great and I can't wait to use it outside of class. Who has the next birthday?

Sacher Cake













Next up was the Sacher cake. It's named after some famous German baker. We made the cake on Monday and put it in the fridge to set up for Tuesday. The cake was pretty dense, but still great. It has apricot preserves between each layer. Then it's coated with ganache and then coated again with a shiny ganache. Then we made little piping bags out of parchment and did that fancy double pass that probably made you say "ooooo" when you first saw it and the "Sacher" on there as well. Another winner that I will be able to use when someone asks for a "really chocolaty cake".

Cheesecake













My pal Law and I teamed up yesterday and today to knock out these next two awesome cakes. This isn't a NY Style cheesecake or an Italian cheesecake or anything like that. It's just a plan old cheesecake. And it's great. It baked for 2 hours yesterday and set up over night. It's got some vanilla extract, lemon zest, and lemon juice, so it's got that nice twang that comes with citrus and cream cheese. We hit it with some apricot glaze - not for flavor, just for sheen. We were then allowed to decorate the cake with fruit as we saw fit. Of course, we went with the American flag. What else is there? Does anyone else here Lee Greenwood in the background?

Carrot Cake













What's up Doc? This cake was also baked off yesterday. It's got a TON of carrots in it, so it was super moist. We cut it into three layers and slathered each with cream cheese frosting. There's chopped walnuts on the outside. Cream cheese roses on top and Law's killer marzipan carrots - nice job buddy! This cake was great and is yet another addition for my cake-etoire.

I'm sad that cake week is over, but cookies, pies, and fancy confections are on the horizon. Stay tuned for Friday's blog, because tonight, I'm smokin' a whole pig for our Thanksgiving tailgate party tomorrow. You won't want to miss that!!!!!