The Great Cake Adventure

"Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes ACTION, PERSEVERANCE, and FACING YOUR FEARS."        -  Gillian Anderson

I truly believe in full disclosure when it comes to creating edibles in the kitchen. So, here goes. I will admit to not really enjoying or being very talented at baking. So you probably won't find many baking projects posted here, unless of course I'm super successful! There are a few things that I've made throughout the years that have turned out great but I usually don't venture out on new ideas very much when it comes to measuring precisely or using the toothpick test. I just don't do it.

I have had to take two big steps forward in the past two months when it has come to birthday cakes. The Boy requested an ice cream cake which you've already read about. I didn't have to bake anything with that project but it was still a little bit outside of my wheelhouse. And, just this week, I made The Hubs birthday cake. I wanted to buy this amazing cake that looked like a big bag of Doritos but the cake-bakery place said they would charge me close to 300 smackers to do it. I simply said "no thanks." Then I asked the birthday boy what kind of cake he wanted. Without hesitation, his response was for me to make vanilla cake with blackberry filling topped with 7-minute frosting. WHAT.....EEK!!?? 

Okay, so I didn't freak out too much. I'm always up for a challenge. I took his challenge and went with it. Now listen, usually I would make everything from scratch but that just wasn't in the cards this time. So I used a box cake and I bought some pre-made icing as a back up. But I promised myself that if this worked out, I would make cake from scratch the next time. I'm kind of excited and scared at the same time. 

Here's what I accomplished this week.  

I baked three 8" round cakes and then turned them upside down to cool completely. I let them stand for about 24 hours before starting on the next step. 

  

Next step was to cut off the tops so that I would have even layers. I'm not sure this is what I was supposed to do but it worked out well. I probably should have found a you-tube instructional video before doing this. But what was done was done. 

Next step was adding the blackberry filling. I also didn't take a leap here. I used JB's favorite store-bought jelly. I just emptied the jar into a bowl and mashed it up with a fork to make it easier to spread without killing the soft cake. 

Here is the naked cake before I covered it up with the 7-minute icing. I am pretty darn proud of myself at this point. But I've never iced a cake like this before. So I was getting nervous again. 

I then made the icing just like I did a few days ago in a test-drive. Feel free to review that journal entry to be reminded of how I accomplished this.

I started the icing process by adding a couple heaping spoonfuls of icing to the top of the cake and working my way down to the plate. I'm sure I saw this done somewhere. I worked my way down hoping to not make too much of a mess of the plate. Then I used the extra icing and piped it through a small hole I cut in a zip-lock baggy to clean up the bottom. It's still not as clean as what the professionals do but it worked out just fine!

Best part, it was not tilting at all. No Leaning Tower of Pisa syndrome happening here! It was perfectly straight on the top.

Next challenge was getting it from my kitchen to Nana's dining room safely! 

It was a total success!!! The Boy was able to handle my driving and protected the cake the entire journey. The cake stayed standing until we cut into it a few hours later! The inside was soft and moist and incredibly yummy. AND it looked beautiful when we cut into it. The layers were perfectly even and the jelly didn't bleed into the spongy goodness.  We brought what was not eaten home to continue to enjoy it. I'm sure it won't last long once everyone wakes up from their peaceful slumbers!