Under the Sea Carrot Cake

When I was little my favorite movie beyond any doubt was The Little Mermaid. The only Disney Princess with red hair who spent most of her time swimming and dreaming. Even now, if I stumble upon The Little Mermaid on TV it's very likely that I will sit and watch it to the end no matter which part I came in at.

That all being said, Ariel was not my inspiration behind this cake. It was a bouquet of flowers with some fuzzy sea-foam green fronds that I tried to mold out of gumpaste that ended up looking nothing like fronds and everything like wavy coral. That combined with daisies that looked like lotus flowers and these bizarre "fantasy flowers" that look like they belong on Finding Nemo made me change the whole direction of this cake from "bright and elegant" to "under the sea flowery-coral-reef-thing". I think it works for me though.


Interesting fact about the marbled blue fondant: I MADE IT FROM SCRATCH!

I think that fondant is one of those things where you go into it a naive little girl and come out a man. Or maybe not a man... just less of a naive little girl. After an hour strait of kneading and twisting and manipulating that impossibly solid dough, my arms were screaming for mercy and I had beads of sweat rolling down my back (gross, I know, but you asked!), BUT the fondant was delicious. There was no trace of that weird chemical taste that lurks around store bought fondant, just a (very) sweet vanilla with a hint of almond.

Underneath the gumpaste flowers and fronds/coral, the fondant coating, the pink ribbon (that, I will admit, needs a bit of work), and the sparkling shimmer dust that I sprinkled liberally over the whole cake because what’s a cake without sparkles, was the best carrot cake I have ever had layered with the strangest whipped buttercream I have ever made. The cake came from a new book all about organic baking, and while not all the ingredients I used were organic, I will say that this cake exceeded all expectations and made me want to try more organic ingredients in the future. But I think that in itself will be a post for the future. In the meantime I will leave you with this: Making fondant is labour intensive, but definitely worth it; everything in life comes right back to Disney (or at least that’s what I tell myself); and organic carrot cake is seriously ballin’.

A Third Swedish Princess Torte for Easter

A huge log of fresh marzipan was waiting for me on the kitchen table early Easter morning. Its purpose: to cover six layers of genoisie cake filled with pastry cream and strawberry jam, topped with an enormous heap of stabilized whipping cream. My mission was to have this potentially elegant Swedish delicacy baked, filled, covered, wrapped in a pretty bow, and cooling in the garage before noon.

Shockingly, I did just that.

Making the cake itself was very simple. Beating whole eggs with sugar until the mixture had quadrupled in size and then gently folding in sifted flour (the key was to sift the flour over the egg mixture while folding at the same time so that I didn't end up with lumps of flour) were really the only two steps that needed to be taken to successfully (more or less) pull off the genoisie. The purpose of using a genoisie instead of a standard white cake is because this particular french confection is known to be really dry and somewhat tasteless until it is filled and sauced. Because the Swedish Princess Torte is so creamy, a more moist cake (like the Martha Cake I used for my last SPT) makes the final product dense and almost mushy. From all that I've learned, Swedes are anything but mushy.

The most difficult part about making the pastry cream and the strawberry jam was fending off the family that couldn't wait until it was in the torte before they got a taste.

Pastry cream has become one of absolute favorite things to make. This was after many pitched attempts that turned out looking just like scrambled eggs in water and tasting not too much better. When done right, pastry cream or custard takes on a smoothe texture and a rich taste that envelopes you like a warm hug and makes you smile against your will. Mixed with a fresh strawberry puree and you have simple bliss.

Once the cake was put together and topped with a generous (very generous) heap of stabilized whipping cream, I went about the task of colouring and laying on the marzipan. It's almond sugar paste and it's finicky. But I perservered and came away triumphant. Sure, it looked a bit like Shrek's head on a platter, but it was delicious nonetheless. Creamy and almondy with six (SIX!!) layers of cake that melted in your mouth. All done by noon.

Sometimes I am awed by my own awesomeness when under pressure.