Thursday, August 7, 1997 at 9 PM ET in the Kitchen Conference Room -- "The basics of baking and decorating cakes" 

EARLENE'S PAGE - NEW! Pwd sugar just sent me several photos of some of her cute all-occasion cakes. With all these and the ones I already have, look for a NEW page just to show you her fabulous cakes NOW 

Pwd sugar and several more AOL members are away at the ICES convention this week having the time of their lives - of course! Aren't we jealous! You won't want to miss next week's chat. This will be the week, more than any other all year, when we will find out about new products, trends, tips, techniques...and (swoon) the latest cake decorating books.

TOPIC: "The basics of baking and decorating cakes"

RECIPES - I want to let you know that all the recipes are already available on my web site. Go there and choose 'RECIPES' Then choose ICING RECIPES...there are a lot of these. My web site: http://w3.one.net/~proicer/index.html

THE 'BASICS' - what are they really...having a love of baking and art work I suppose...THEN perfecting that to any degree you want. Probably, when you first start out, you intend to just do cakes for family and friends. You have no idea what fabulous things are possible in the world of Sugar-art. Anywhere from a small round birthday cake to a life-size sculpture in 3-D of Marilyn Monroe...and maybe buildings you can eat.

THERE IS NO END TO WHAT YOU CAN LEARN IN CAKE DECORATING. This is what makes it so interesting and fun. Maybe you think you aren't artistic - but that may be because you just haven't tried much art work. When you begin, it is super important to read any material you can get thoroughly. Your Wilton Year Book is a good basic book to start with. Learn to bake - THEN - learn to decorate. And the SECRET is -. The more times you make a rose, the better and easier it becomes. There is no other way. Also, understanding your icing and the consistency. Which icing will do what, etc. is also important.

START WITH A GOOD RECIPE - I have a very good cake recipe on my web site under RECIPES called LANE CAKE (with photo). This is a very good scratch cake to learn on. It teaches you the procedure of putting the cake together from mixing through baking in a very detailed way. It is a lesson in itself just making this cake. A very good recipe for a beginner. I've made this cake many times.

BAKING: You can't decorate a cake until you learn how to bake it! So - start out with a box-mix or a recipe you know works. (And continue to use the same brand of mix so you learn what to expect). Beat the cake exactly according to directions. Time the mixing carefully. Baking time varies... TEST by touching the cake lightly in the center of it. It the cake BARELY springs back up - it is done....DON'T EVER OVER-BAKE. Over-baking causes flavors to bake out and makes the cake dry and tasteless...NO MATTER HOW GOOD THE RECIPE WAS! Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes. Cooling in the pan longer is better for large cakes (like 12 to 16" ect.)

LEVELING: I always turn the cakes out upside-down with BOTTOMS-UP. But the cake MUST NOT have a hump on it! To make it perfectly flat, ...as soon as I remove the cake from the oven I lay a dish towel on it and press air out until the cake is flat. This WILL NOT work if you have over-baked it (even a little bit). The cake will just spring right back up. Then you must use a serrated-edged knife to shave the hump off. When cakes are VERY humped... your oven was too hot. Turn it down at least 20-25 degrees and see if this helps. Once you've shaved off the hump, use the cake pieces along the outer edge to build the cake more level still. Even if I don't need to shave off a hump and the cake is fairly flat, I STILL may shave off along the outer edge. You will want your top-work-surface to be nice and flat. It is also easier to ice a flat cake top. Using the Magic Cake Strips while baking will help greatly, to make your cakes level too.

DISASTERS: Not leveling cakes accounts for the majority of disasters and wedding cakes that fall over. (The other problem is not supporting them correctly).

MAKING ICING: Icing is next in importance after BAKING. Basically we use buttercream icing. It always contains shortening, conf. sugar, flavors and liquid. Amounts can vary and other additions are possible. (My buttercream icing is on my web page/RECIPES. So is Pwd sugar's and others besides. Pwd and I know ours works well for us. These are our favorites). You see, shortening (usually solid Crisco) is what makes our icing hold shape - or 'gel'. Without enough shortening, the icing would just slide right off the cake. The amount of shortening is also important. I have found that I need from 3/4 cup to 1 1/2 cup. 3/4 is enough to make it hold shape. But 1 1/2 cups adds enough shortening to take away some of the too-sweet taste. But more than this is just plain 'greasy.' Greasy icing IS good for practicing: 1 cup Crisco/2 lb conf. sugar/1 ts vanilla and 2-4 tb water.

FILLING: Spread icing or filling between the layers. Don't add the top layer until both are cold. You can turn the top layer out on a plastic wrap-covered cardboard to cool. I spread quite a bit of icing between the layers. It isn't too much icing between the cakes that make the bulge....its because there was a hump on the cake. After awhile the cake settles....gravity says it MUST! When it settles the icing you iced the cake with bulges out. This is why it is good to put the two layers together several hours before spreading icing on it. It will have a chance to settle first.

COLORS: Other than getting your icing the right consistency, the other problem many people have is trying to get the right colors. I have one tip that should help you - When coloring, add food coloring to just a small amount of icing. Mix it well. Then add as much of this icing to your batch as needed for the perfect shade.

RED - (Not just red, but black, brown and others) is hard for some people to make. The most important thing is that you have good food coloring with high concentration of color pigment. I use the brand Baker's Preferred and its a gel. (Yes, we do carry it in our shop). This coloring is really easy to mix and doesn't thin the icing. Pri95: man the flowers that can be made, they are so delicate

RED: The red is SO red that you will need to stop 2 shades lighter than you want so that it won't turn too red. (Icing darkens as it sits awhile after it is colored. It would be nice if you colored your icing a day or so before using it.) In mid-May we also talked a lot about colors. You might want to review that chat. BROWN: For making a lot of brown icing, you may want to simply make it chocolate. I make chocolate icing by adding Hershey's powdered cocoa to my white buttercream until it is dark chocolate. Then I thin it with milk or water.

ICE THE ENTIRE TOP: For icing the entire cake a deep color, I ice the cake white first. Then I add dabs of colored icing around on the top. Then I smooth it out. This way I don't use nearly as much food coloring to achieve the very same results and my customers won't have the blue mouth so bad either.

(Before our chat): MSBHildret: This is lovely... BROWN SUGAR CUSTARD...
NEXT WEEK: August 14 and 21 - ICES convention report - hear all about the cake decorators convention at Disney World. - NEW items...We will fill you in. I hope we can get several members to participate in this discussion. Especially the first timers that go to convention. 

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